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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Billionaires shouldn't exist: Zohran Mamdani vows to tax New York's top 1%
Zohran Mamdani vs billionaires: President Donald Trump threatens to cut federal funding to New York City if Mamdani is elected New Delhi Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, has made headlines after declaring in a nationally televised interview that he does not believe billionaires should exist, citing soaring income inequality as a key issue. Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday evening, Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist, was asked directly whether billionaires have a right to exist. 'I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality,' he replied. 'Ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.' However, Mamdani mentioned that he is not opposed to dialogue and cooperation. 'I look forward to working with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fair for all of them.' Mamdani pledges more tax for top NY earners Central to Mamdani's campaign has been his pledge to increase taxes on the top 1 per cent of earners in New York City. He explained that he aims to use the revenue to improve the overall quality of life, including for those who would be subject to the higher taxes. The proposal set forth by Mamdani adds an additional 2 per cent tax on individuals whose annual income surpasses $1 million. This proposal, he said, has resonated strongly with voters and was a driving force behind his primary victory. Meanwhile, Forbes has estimated Mamdani's own net worth to be around $200,000. Raising minimum wage, better regulations In addition to tax reforms, Mamdani has campaigned to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030 and regulate food delivery platforms, which he argues have subjected workers to increasingly unsafe conditions. Billionaires vs Zohran Mamdani Mamdani described delivery workers as holding 'the most dangerous job in NYC', pledging stronger protections and oversight. His position triggered pushback from Doordash, a food delivery platform in the US, which reportedly spent $1 million supporting former Governor Andrew Cuomo in an unsuccessful attempt to block Mamdani's rise. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also criticised Mamdani's stance, who also pledged to finance a rival candidate in the general election. Ackman, a vocal Trump supporter, said, 'Mamdani's policies would be disastrous for NYC. Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country.' I awoke this morning gravely concerned about New York City. I thought 'What has NYC become that an avowed socialist who has supported defunding the police, whose solution to lowering food prices is city-owned supermarkets, who doesn't understand that freezing rents will only… — Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) June 26, 2025 Rapper and entrepreneur 50 Cent, reportedly close to billionaire status himself, also took aim at Mamdani after being mentioned by name in a recent radio interview. The entertainer offered to pay over $250,000 for a 'first-class, one-way ticket' to send Mamdani out of the city in a post that is no longer available on his Instagram. Trump threatens to cut NY funds if Mamdani is elected US President Donald Trump, during a Fox News interview last week warned that federal funding to New York City could be withheld if Mamdani assumes office and does not 'do the right thing.' Trump said, 'If he does get in, I'm going to be president, and he's going to have to do the right thing or they're not getting any money.' Following Mamdani's primary win, the US president had gone on his social media platform to call the candidate a 'communist' and 'lunatic'. Responding to the president's comments and accusations that he is a 'communist', Mamdani stated plainly, 'I am not.' He added that has already begun preparing himself to face scrutiny from Trump based on his appearance and background. 'What we've seen is that this is a city that needs to be affordable for the people who build it every day,' Mamdani said.
The Independent
25-06-2025
- Climate
- The Independent
Doordash executive Josh Pickles among eight killed in tragic Lake Tahoe boat disaster
Josh Pickles, an executive for the delivery service Doordash, was among the eight passengers killed in a tragic Lake Tahoe boat disaster. Ten people were on board the 27-foot boat when it capsized on the southwestern shore on Saturday in a thunderstorm. Eight passengers died, including Pickles. Pickles, 37, was out on a birthday trip for his mom Paula Bozinovich, 71, of Redwood City, California. Paula and her husband, Terry Pickles, 73, along with another family member, Peter Bayes, 72, of Lincoln, California, all died in the wreck. Also among those killed were friends Timothy O'Leary, 71, from Auburn, California; Theresa Giullari, 66, and James Guck, 69, both from Honeoye, New York; and Stephen Lindsay, 63, from Springwater, New York. Pickles' wife, Jordan Sugar-Carlsgaard, said in a statement reported by multiple news outlets: 'We are devastated by this tragedy. No words can express the pain and anguish we feel knowing their lives were lost during what was meant to be a joyful time on the lake.' Jordan had stayed home from the trip to care for the couple's baby daughter. 'Our hearts go out to those who tragically lost their lives and the two survivors of this unexpected and deadly storm on Lake Tahoe,' she said. The thunderstorm's intensity even shocked forecasters who had predicted rain, National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Chyba told The Associated Press. There were winds up to 35 mph and waves more than 8 feet tall. Pickles and Jordan got married in 2023. They both worked in San Francisco, and the couple would live between homes in the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe, the AP reported. Jordan is the senior executive assistant to the CEO at Airbnb, according to her LinkedIn profile. Doordash said in a statement to Fox News Digital: 'We are heartbroken by the tragic accident that took the life of our beloved colleague.' "Josh loved his team and was an inspiration to everyone who had the privilege of knowing him. During his nearly seven years at DoorDash, he brought a contagious spirit that lifted those around him,' the company said. 'The loss of Josh is immeasurable. We miss him deeply and will carry his memory with us always."
The Guardian
18-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
New York City might elect a truly progressive mayor – thanks to ranked-choice voting
With a week left until New York's Democratic mayoral primary, one might have thought that the former governor Andrew Cuomo would be measuring the drapes at Gracie Mansion. Real estate developers, corporations like Doordash, a smattering of billionaires and even Billy Joel have shoveled cash into his campaign, with his Super Pac spending more money than any other outside force in the city's political history. This is on top of his entering the race with major name recognition advantage, amounting to a 20- or 30-point lead as recently as May. But according to a new poll, Zohran Mamdani – the insurgent state assemblyman and democratic socialist whom the Nation recently co-endorsed along with fellow mayoral candidate and New York City comptroller Brad Lander – has pulled ahead of Cuomo for the first time. And while Mamdani's campaign deserves credit for offering a clear, inspiring, progressive message, the fact that he is competitive can also be partly credited to New York City's ranked-choice voting (RCV) system. It's a winning system for candidates who would otherwise be sidelined or would cannibalize each other's support – and for voters who can finally cast their ballots based on policy rather than pragmatism. America's politics have long been dominated (or diluted) by first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting. In it, citizens cast their ballot for one candidate, and whoever receives the most votes wins. Straightforward as it seems, this method forces an either/or choice, often resulting in voters deciding between the lesser of two evils. Not only does this reinforce a two-party duopoly in general elections, but it also incentivizes a binary choice between the two leading candidates in primaries. For the candidates themselves, the system encourages scorched-earth campaigns that divide parties and inflame the narcissism of small differences. The progressive senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren came into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary as allies with much more in common ideologically than their centrist opponents. But there was no electoral incentive for either of them to form an alliance with the other. Instead, they fought to consolidate a minority faction within the party, and got mired in a grisly and public feud. The mudslinging did leave one person standing – Joe Biden. In contrast, RCV makes it possible for dark horse candidates to work together. After Mamdani's campaign reached the fundraising limit, he urged his supporters to donate to a fellow anti-Cuomo candidate, Adrienne Adams. Adams, in turn, has maintained a focus on criticizing Cuomo, even deleting a tweet that was perceived as a swipe at Mamdani. These contenders are making it clear they truly believe – as the Nation's editorial board wrote in our endorsement – New Yorkers deserve better than Andrew Cuomo. Critics of ranked-choice voting argue it's too confusing, but successful implementations of the system in other jurisdictions suggest otherwise. In Alaska's 2022 congressional special election, the first statewide RCV election there, 85% of people who cast their ballots said they found the method to be simple. It also enabled the Democrat Mary Peltola to fend off an extremist challenge from Sarah Palin. Maine has also seen promising results from RCV, with 60% of its voters favoring the system. Cities like Minneapolis and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have enjoyed higher turnout after the implementation of RCV. But RCV is only as effective as its participants make it. Ahead of New York City's mayoral primary in 2021, I wrote a column expressing high hopes for how the debut of RCV could reshape the city's politics. But that race became chaotic for other reasons. Scott Stringer and Dianne Morales's campaigns collapsed. Advocacy groups had to un-endorse and re-endorse – in some cases, multiple times. There was a progressive effort to coalesce around Maya Wiley, including a belated endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Meanwhile, pragmatists who felt Eric Adams and Andrew Yang lacked substance turned to the sanitation commissioner, Kathryn Garcia. If Wiley and Garcia had cross-endorsed, one of them might have defeated Adams. Instead, Adams won the primary in the final round by just over 7,000 votes. This time, the mayoral candidates seem to have learned. On Friday, Mamdani and Lander cross-endorsed each other, encouraging their supporters to rank the other second. Mamdani explained the decision with a refreshing mix of idealism and realism: 'This is the necessary step to ensure that we're not just serving our own campaigns – we're serving the city at large.' This was followed by another cross-endorsement, between Mamdani and former assemblyman Michael Blake, on Monday. And the national progressive movement is much more united than it was in 2021, with both Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders endorsing Mamdani in the home stretch this time. By treating each other like allies rather than adversaries, the anti-Cuomo coalition might just prevail. If anything, it is the establishment wing of the New York Democratic party that is struggling to coalesce – as evinced by the New York Times' non-endorsement endorsement that, if you squint, could be perceived as encouraging New Yorkers to support Cuomo, Lander, hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, or flee the city. The Nation has a long history of covering New York's mayoral races. Although no New York mayor has been elected to higher office since 1869 – just four years after the magazine was founded – the office has long held fascinating implications for American progressivism. Fiorello La Guardia, whom Mamdani and Lander have both named as the greatest mayor in the city's history, took office at the height of the Great Depression and led the city through the second world war. Over 12 years of cascading crises, he transformed the city with a bold vision characterized by expanding public housing and public spaces, curbing corruption, and unflinchingly supporting the reforms of the New Deal. Now, nearly a century later, New Yorkers have an opportunity to bring the city into a new era once again. And ordinarily, making that kind of change possible would require making a tough choice. But if it happens this time, it will be because of a ranked choice. Katrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of the Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times
New York Post
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
From booty call to ‘foodie call' — free dinner scammers flood dating apps as wallets tighten
Love might be off the menu — but the lobster sure isn't. With wallets tightening and a looming recession on the rise, some singles are turning first dates into free dinner scams. Countless TikTokkers are proudly documenting their foodie finesse, using Hinge and Bumble like Doordash — to score meals on someone else's dime. This is referred to as a 'foodie call' — where someone nabs a free meal with no plans to ever call, text or date the poor sap who picked up the check. 3 A 'foodie call' is when someone scores a free meal with zero intention of calling, texting or dating the poor sap who footed the bill. Nejron Photo – South Carolina graphic designer Katheryne Slack told MarketWatch in a recent interview that she realized she was out of coffee one Sunday and used a thirsty Hinge match to score a caffeine fix. Outta beans and full of schemes, Slack hit up her suitor for a free cup o' joe. The pair had exchanged flirty messages days earlier, but plans fizzled — until she pounced when the timing finally lined up. An hour later, they were sipping lattes at his expense at a café. 'As soon as I met him, I knew I wasn't into him. But I was already there and needed my coffee,' she told the outlet. 3 With wallets squeezed and recession fears bubbling up, some shameless singles are using first dates to dine and dash — minus the romance. motortion – @jocelynaleenaa no matter what state or country this is how it's starting to feel😂😂😂 ♬ original sound – 90dayfiance And she's far from the only one who sees things this way, TikTok is filled with cheeky clips of users bragging about 'dating for dinner' — a budgeting 'hack.' In one recent video, user @jocelynaleenaa can be seen at a restaurant table. In white text over the clip, she wrote, 'when you keep going on dates for the free food & drinks.' Another user commented beneath the TikTok, 'I did this for 2 weeks straight once I was never hungry.' One other added, 'Girl I feel you.' Some are joking that back-to-back dates are their version of meal prepping. User @alanarixonn filmed herself dancing last month with the caption, 'off on my 2nd date this week cos I cba to meal prep x.' One viewer wrote under the video, 'the fact that this isn't a joke.' Someone else replied, 'It's like a meal voucher because you are putting in the work. You deserve it queen.' An additional supporter chimed in, 'This is low key genius' as one other noted, 'Love doing this #thinksmarternotharder.' Dating with the intention of nabbing a free bite to eat isn't new. A 2019 study published in the 'Society for Personality and Social Psychology' journal dove deeper into 'foodie calls.' The study found up to 1 in 3 women admitted to going on dates for free grub. As per the researchers, anyone who thinks it's cool to dine and dash emotionally are more likely to show signs of narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism — aka the 'dark triad.' 3 Mooching meals in the name of love ain't exactly breaking news — a 2019 study in the Society for 'Personality and Social Psychology' journal dug into so-called 'foodie calls.' Prostock-studio – With sky-high rents and an endless lineup of buzzy eateries, NYC could be seen as a foodie call free-for-all. East Village local Olivia Balsinger once scored a five-course feast at swanky seafood hotspot Catch in the Meatpacking District — all on someone else's dime. 'If I had been forced to pay,' she told The Post, 'I probably wouldn't have been able to eat for weeks afterward.' Overall, while 'dating for dinner' isn't entirely novel, it's hitting harder now as tariffs bite into wallets, recession jitters grow, and job security feels shakier than ever.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alta raises $11M to bring ‘Clueless' fashion tech to life with all-star investors
Throughout her years working in technology, Jenny Wang, 28, always found herself stumbling back to one idea — a personal styling agent to help users decide what to wear and buy based on their budget, lifestyle, weather and calendar. She has tried to build such a product numerous times in the past, 'but the AI technology was not yet mature enough,' she told TechCrunch. That's changed so a few months ago she announced the launch of her dream company, Alta, followed by the announcement today of an $11 million seed round led by Menlo Ventures. The product, which feels straight out of the movie 'Clueless,' is indeed an AI stylist and personal shopper that makes outfit recommendations and lets users try on those looks with their personalized virtual avatar. For example, a person can ask Alta what the best outfit might be for, say, TechCrunch Disrupt, and the AI will offer suggestions and present a lookbook of outfits. Users upload their closet by either taking photos, forwarding purchase receipts, or searching what is already in the Alta database. People can also dress themselves in clothes they are looking to buy, mixing and matching with clothes already in their closet. There are others playing around in the AI styling space, such as Whering and Cladwell, all trying to recreate the magic of that iconic scene in 'Clueless,' where Cher plans an outfit from her closet using computer technology. Want considers herself to be part of the new wave of consumer technology, looking to make styling and shopping more effective. 'There are existing players like Google Shopping and Pinterest who are also experimenting with AI,' she continued. 'But the experiences that consumers will crave and use in the future will need to be built with new technical architectures and new user interfaces.' The product is backed by some heavy names, including Michelle Obama's stylist Meredith Koop, who Wang said helped train Alta's AI. Other investors in the company include Benchstrength; Algaé Ventures, the investment firm backed by fashion's prestigious Arnault family of LVMH; Phenomenal Ventures, the firm founded by Kamala Harris' niece Meena; Anthroptic's VC arm Anthrology fund, and a slew of angel investors including Doordash CEO and co-founder Tony Xu, super models Jasmine Tooks and Karlie Kloss, Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss, and Poshmark CEO and co-founder Manish Chandra. Wang used the word 'aligned' to describe her fundraising process and leaned heavily on the network she amassed while working in various tech roles throughout her career. She's a Harvard engineer by training and has invested in numerous companies, served as a technical advisor to brands, and also held roles at investment firms. Years ago, for example, she was an intern at Doordash and previously volunteered on Karlie Kloss' podcast 'Kode with Klossy.' 'I am still actively coding every day and learning from our team and technical advisors,' she said. Wang said the fresh capital will be used to grow the team and fund more research and development. 'Our team is continuously updating our in-house models and improving the experience based on community feedback,' she said. Alta has already struck a partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) to offer Alta to its membership base. Wang used to live in San Francisco but relocated to New York to help build out the technology. 'NYC is also a closer flight to Paris than SF,' she said, adding that LVMH and one of her angel investors, tech influencer Zita d'Hautville, is helping the company expand throughout Europe. Alta is also working with Marie Kondo as the company also expands throughout parts of Oceania and the Pacific. The plan is to next look at partnering with retailers worldwide. 'Many of the most exciting consumer AI companies are being started in NYC,' Wang continued, adding that she's assembled a highly technical but also fashion-obsessed team. This startup is her dream come true. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
