New York City taxpayers could pay just over $1.1 billion annually for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “free” buses, per a new New York City Independent Budget Office estimate. It’s the latest major socialist campaign promise revealed to be more expensive than originally advertised. Go figure. The new figure is a roughly $450 million annual markup from […]
For years conservatives warned that multiculturalism and free speech are on a collision course. If a society starts treating every culture as equal and beyond criticism, then eventually you have to police speech — and apparently, Europe has decided to do just that. French influencer Thaïs d’Escufon was allegedly assaulted in 2021 by a North […]
A bipartisan prescription-drug mandate would raise costs for millions of New Yorkers.
US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran may finally be reaching a close. But consumers and businesses around the world will continue to pay the price in the months ahead as still-elevated energy costs funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to fossil fuel giants.That’s according to a report from the environmental group 350.org released Thursday, following Trump’s signing of a memorandum of understanding with Iran this week to begin the process of formally ending a war that has sent global oil prices skyrocketing and saddled ordinary people with record fuel prices.The group estimated that just 110 days of war resulted in the transfer of an additional $374 billion from consumers and businesses into the coffers of oil and gas companies beyond what would have been expected had the war never been launched.And while Trump claims his agreement to end the war this week will avert an “economic catastrophe,” there will likely still be tremendous pain even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens promptly.Using oil and gas pricing scenarios from the International Monetary Fund’s April 2026 World Economic Outlook and data on global consumption, 350.org predicted that by the end of the year, consumers and businesses will spend an additional $199.8 billion on oil and $128.1 billion on gas above a non-war scenario, making for a grand total of more than $700 billion as a result of the war.This, the group said, is a conservative estimate, as it does not even take into account knock-on effects. The war will ultimately end up costing much more when factoring in inflation across the rest of the economy, resulting from higher fuel costs or fertilizer shortages caused by the strait’s closure, which has affected food prices.It also does not take into account the resulting effects on economic output or employment as rising costs and lower consumer spending force companies to tighten their belts.“The oil and gas industry is draining billions from people and businesses on the back of a war that has killed thousands and pushed millions toward poverty and hunger,” said Andreas Sieber, head of political Strategy at 350.org.“Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens tomorrow, we should expect prices to remain above pre-crisis levels,” he said. “We witness not only a massive fossil fuel crisis but a vast upward transfer of wealth built on instability of fossil fuel markets and pain.”While the war has brought it into starker relief, previous reports from 350.org have shown that even if the US had never attacked Iran, the continued global dependence on fossil fuels was resulting in trillions of dollars of avoidable costs each year, including $9.3 trillion to mitigate climate-related damages and air pollution-related deaths each year, costs that disproportionately fall on the world’s poorest.In order to alleviate economic strain from the war, Sieber said, “governments should tax these excess profits now and use the revenues to protect people, cut bills, and rapidly deploy renewables that make households and small businesses less vulnerable to the next fossil fuel shock.”Estimates of inflation also do not account for how the war has heightened global instability and poverty, which will require additional resources for humanitarian relief efforts. In late April, the United Nations Development Program estimated that even if the conflict had ended then, more than 32 million people worldwide would be pushed into economic precarity.This is not to mention the resources that will need to be expended to address the harms caused by the war itself.In exchange for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, a portion of the memorandum of understanding requires the US to work with “regional partners,” presumably other Persian Gulf allies, to scrounge up at least $300 billion to help Iran pay for reconstruction and economic development after the country was devastated by American and Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure and millions were displaced.As a report from the International Rescue Committee detailed last week, the Iran war has also had cascading effects on other conflicts and catastrophes.“Six months ago, the IRC warned that a New World Disorder was emerging,” said David Miliband, the humanitarian group’s president and CEO. “Since then, disorder has not only grown but accelerated. A war with Iran. A million people have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon. A brewing global food security catastrophe that risks plunging millions more people into acute hunger. An expanding Ebola outbreak. Defanged diplomacy and collapsing aid budgets.”“The Iran war couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” Miliband said in a New Yorker article published Thursday. “It set off a chain of events that’s very damaging.”
Philadelphia’s pro-criminal district attorney has so abused his position that he has been reprimanded by the Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has appointed the state’s Republican attorney general as his new personal babysitter. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) attempted to grant a new trial to convicted murderer Lavar Brown, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the […]
The Supreme Court issued an important criminal justice ruling on Thursday about the appropriate bounds of plea bargains.
Mamdani was the first mayor in several decades to skip the annual Israel Day Parade.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani trolled Knicks owner James Dolan during the team's championship celebration.The Knicks won their first title Saturday since 1973, and the city held a parade for a team that has already been hailed as the greatest in New York's long and storied sports history, and Mamdani lauded past players and fans who suffered through the championship drought together.For 53 long years, we have watched the Nixon, we have waited," the mayor said. "We waited as the memory of Willis Reed winning the championship on one leg grew fainter and fainter. We waited as 'Clyde' [Walt Frazier] came up clutch again and again. As John Starks dunked on [Michael] Jordan and Patrick Ewing dunked on the Pacers. As Bernard King scored 60."Mamdani then named a Knicks legend who's been embroiled in a years-long feud with Dolan, who angered fans by inviting President Donald Trump to Game 3 – the only game they lost in the playoffs – and forced thousands to wait in hours-long security lines and disrupted traffic around Madison Square Garden."As Charles Oakley pulled every rebound within reach," Mamdani said, as Dolan looks on, "and Spike [Lee] got in Reggie Miller's face. As Aaron Houston put up a shot against Miami that hung in the air for an eternity. As Larry Johnson gave us the four-point play heard around New York. As 'Starbury' [Stephon Marbury] traded threes with Kobe [Bryant] and then sold sneakers every kid could afford. As Nate Robinson stuffed Yao Ming. As the city came alive, watching Linsanity [Jeremy Lin]? And Carmelo [Anthon] lived every Brooklyn kid's dreams when he came home and made MSG feel like the center of the universe once again.""We waited without ever knowing if this day would come, and we waited because we knew deep down in our sick, suffering hearts that it would," Mamdani added. "New York City, this team has done it. The New York Knicks are NBA champions."
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker says Iran deal negotiates away U.S. victories, warning the $300 billion fund dwarfs Obama's 2015 agreement.