What do you think?

'just five more votes to invoke cloture and end the debate'

"Explicitly committed to being a mayor'

'Recipes are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars'

'We are sorry to learn about the reported incident'

'I can only tell you what I see on my phone'

This is pretty damn cool

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday endorsed Democrat nominee Zohran Mamdani to be New York City’s next mayor, in so doing becoming the most senior-ranking national Democrat figure to support the self-described socialist’s bid for Gracie Mansion. “Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries said in a statement provided to The New York Times announcing his endorsement. “In that spirit, I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election.” Nevertheless, Jeffries is not without reservations about him, telling The New York Times that the two have “areas of principled disagreement.” Despite these reservations, Jeffries is endorsing Mamdani because the Queens Assemblyman won “a free and fair election” in the Democrat primary and Democrats need to stand united against the “existential” threat of President Donald Trump. The endorsement comes at a pivotal time in the race as Mamdani’s opposition is organizing behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s bid and early voting will begin in a matter of days. Jeffries, D-N.Y., who represents part of Brooklyn, had refused to weigh in on the mayoral race for months. As late as Friday morning, Jeffries shirked the opportunity to endorse a candidate. “I have not refused to endorse,” he told reporters. “I have refused to articulate my position, and I will, momentarily, at some point, in advance of early voting.” New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary on June 24, and early voting begins on Saturday ahead of the Nov. 4 election. Question on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani: "Why are you refusing to endorse?"@RepJeffries: "I have not refused to endorse. I have refused to articulate my position and I will momentarily at some point in advance of early voting." pic.twitter.com/OrQWb5rzfh— CSPAN (@cspan) October 24, 2025 Early on, Mamdani picked up support from fellow democratic socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Mamdani has also received endorsements from other prominent Democrats, among them New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and former Vice President Kamala Harris. However, the lack of an endorsement from Jeffries or from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggests many national Democrat leaders have been hesitant to support him. Van Hollen has accused New York Democrats of “spineless politics” for not backing Mamdani. Mamdani has passed on opportunities to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” has defended Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, and has called for city-run grocery stores and a freeze on rents as ways to address the city’s affordability crisis.  ? @ZohranKMamdani: ?‘If You Want a Candidate for Mayor Who Tells You Everything That He Cannot Do, Then Andrew Cuomo Should Be Your Choice’https://t.co/X6mooWOHmv pic.twitter.com/s7GlQ7kyvU— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) October 22, 2025 He has also released a policy proposal to budget $65 million for “gender-affirming care” for “both transgender youth and adults.” Jeffries is endorsing Mamdani at a time when he is also attempting to deliver a message on the ongoing government shutdown. Mamdani will face off against Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and former Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, was elected as a Democrat in 2021, but chose to run as an independent in 2025 before ultimately dropping out. Adams has endorsed Cuomo, while President Donald Trump has told The Daily Signal that Mamdani “should be able to win,” given his lead in the polls. The president has, however, indicated his preference for Cuomo over Mamdani, telling The Daily Signal, “I would rather have a Democrat than a communist.” A RealClearPolitics aggregation of October polls shows Mamdani leading Cuomo 47% to 29.8%, with Sliwa at a distant third place with 16% support. Sliwa has vowed not to drop out of the race. "I would rather have a Democrat than a communist."I asked @POTUS if he will ask Curtis Sliwa (R) to drop out of the NYC mayoral race to help Andrew Cuomo catch up with Mamdani. ?"If he dropped out, maybe Cuomo would've a little bit of a chance, but not much because it looks… pic.twitter.com/mhFf2Eu1q8— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) October 21, 2025 Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell contributed to this report. The post House Democrat Leader Jeffries Relents, Endorses Mamdani for NYC Mayor appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. If you live in Greater London, chances are you’re being watched right now. Not by MI5. Not by your nosy neighbor. No, it’s far more mundane than that. You’re being monitored by Mayor Sadiq Khan’s army of always-watching number plate cameras, installed under the noble banner of cleaning the air. And here’s the twist: the air hasn’t changed. But the surveillance? That’s permanent. When the Ultra Low Emission Zone was expanded in 2023 to cover the entire city, 579 square miles of roads, driveways, and backstreets, the stated goal was to reduce pollution.  What it actually achieved was the creation of one of the most comprehensive, always-on vehicle tracking systems in the country. Possibly the continent. Thousands of cameras now scan and record every single vehicle, every single day, across every borough. And according to new research from the University of Birmingham, all of this has achieved virtually nothing significant in terms of environmental impact. The emissions stayed. The cameras stayed. And the idea that this was ever about clean air is beginning to look like a fig leaf for something else entirely. ULEZ cameras were sold to the public as environmental guardians. But what they actually do is log your number plate, check it against a central database, and charge you if your vehicle doesn’t meet emissions standards.  It doesn’t matter if your car is powered by sunshine and tofu. You’re still being recorded, timestamped, location-mapped, and uploaded into Transport for London’s data system. And the longer it runs, the harder it becomes to believe this is just about exhaust fumes. Let’s be blunt: if this were a police surveillance network, the civil liberties brigade would be chaining themselves to lampposts. But because it’s got a green sticker on it, few blinked. It’s surveillance by stealth, a policing movement dressed up as progressive policy. And the worst part? The public is paying for it. The expansion cost Londoners £155 million ($206M). Not for scrubbing the air. Not for planting trees. For cameras. Lots of them. The kind of city-wide, high-resolution, automatic number plate recognition system that intelligence agencies dream about. Within a week of going live, it was generating £5.3 million in revenue. And unlike actual policing or healthcare, this system runs itself.  London’s government insists it’s working. They point to drivers upgrading vehicles before the expansion. Which is a bit like saying the fire alarm is a success because someone already put the fire out before it rang. Even the study’s co-author, Dr Suzanne Bartington, admitted the current ULEZ setup fails to tackle the core public health risks like PM2.5 pollution, the stuff that actually gets into your lungs and bloodstream. “The current ULEZ approach does not fully address significant traffic-related public health issues,” she said. So if it doesn’t result in cleaner air, what does it do? It tracks people. Relentlessly. Quietly. In real time. Let’s not kid ourselves. A surveillance grid this large, this well-funded, and this politically untouchable isn’t going to stay limited to emissions fines forever. Privacy groups have already warned that the ULEZ system could be repurposed for just about anything.  From catching speeding drivers to enforcing low-traffic neighborhoods. From congestion pricing to vehicle bans. Or, if the mood strikes City Hall, tracking “suspicious patterns of movement.” After all, the tech’s already in place. It would be a shame not to use it. And let’s not forget: this all happened without a real public debate. There was no referendum. No opt-out. No serious oversight. Just a green slogan and a lot of money. “This is just further evidence that the ULEZ expansion was about raising money rather than improving air quality,” said Thomas Turrell, of the City Hall Conservatives. “Yet again, Sadiq Khan is ignoring the evidence when it doesn’t suit his agenda.” Even Bromley Council leader Colin Smith weighed in with a dose of brutal clarity: “Had it been about air quality, Mayor Khan would have started where the air in London is dirtiest – in his own tube network. But no, there were no motorists to fleece there.” So here we are. The air is still dirty. The cameras are still on. And millions of journeys are now quietly logged by a system that was never designed to turn off. We were told this was about health and climate. It’s really about control. A system that tracks your car is a system that tracks you. And once it’s normal to be watched everywhere you go, it’s very hard to roll that back. ULEZ may have been introduced as an environmental policy. But its real legacy will be this: the normalisation of mass surveillance, hidden behind a green curtain. Because in the end, the emissions weren’t the target. The people were. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post The Cameras Were the Goal Not the Solution appeared first on Reclaim The Net.