Who is Zohran Mamdani? State lawmaker seeks to become NYC’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor

Who is Zohran Mamdani? State lawmaker seeks to become NYC’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating college. (AP)
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Updated 26 June 2025
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Who is Zohran Mamdani? State lawmaker seeks to become NYC’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor

Who is Zohran Mamdani? State lawmaker seeks to become NYC’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor

NEW YORK: When he announced his run for mayor back in October, Zohran Mamdani was a state lawmaker unknown to most New York City residents.

On Tuesday evening, the 33-year-old marked his stunning political ascension when he declared victory in the Democratic primary from a Queens rooftop bar after former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded.

While the race’s ultimate outcome has yet to be confirmed by a ranked choice count scheduled for July 1, here’s a look at the one-time rapper seeking to become the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor, and its youngest mayor in generations.

Mamdani’s mother is a famous filmmaker

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating college.

He lived with his family briefly in Cape Town, South Africa, before moving to New York City when he was 7.

Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, is an award-winning filmmaker whose credits include “Monsoon Wedding,” “The Namesake” and “Mississippi Masala.” His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is an anthropology professor at Columbia University.

Mamdani married Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist, earlier this year. The couple, who met on the dating app Hinge, live in the Astoria section of Queens.

Mamdani was once a fledgling rapper

Mamdani attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he cofounded the public school’s first cricket team, according to his legislative bio.

He graduated in 2014 from Bowdoin College in Maine, where he earned a degree in Africana studies and cofounded his college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

After college, he worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor in Queens helping residents avoid eviction, the job he says inspired him to run for public office.

Mamdani also had a notable side hustle in the local hip hop scene, rapping under the moniker Young Cardamom and later Mr. Cardamom. During his first run for state lawmaker, Mamdani gave a nod to his brief foray into music, describing himself as a “B-list rapper.”

“Nani,” a song he made in 2019 to honor his grandmother, even found new life — and a vastly wider audience — as his mayoral campaign gained momentum. His critics, meanwhile, have seized on lyrics from “Salaam,” his 2017 ode to being Muslim in New York, to argue his views are too extreme for New Yorkers.

Early political career

Mamdani cut his teeth in local politics working on campaigns for Democratic candidates in Queens and Brooklyn.

He was first elected to the New York Assembly in 2020, knocking off a longtime Democratic incumbent for a Queens district covering Astoria and surrounding neighborhoods. He has handily won reelection twice.

The Democratic Socialist’s most notable legislative accomplishment has been pushing through a pilot program that made a handful of city buses free for a year. He’s also proposed legislation banning nonprofits from “engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.”

Mamdani’s opponents, particularly Cuomo, have dismissed him as woefully unprepared for managing the complexities of running America’s largest city.

But Mamdani has framed his relative inexperience as a potential asset, saying in a mayoral debate he’s “proud” he doesn’t have Cuomo’s “experience of corruption, scandal and disgrace.”

Viral campaign videos

Mamdani has used buzzy campaign videos — many with winking references to Bollywood and his Indian heritage — to help make inroads with voters outside his slice of Queens.

On New York’s Day, he took part in the annual polar plunge into the chilly waters off Coney Island in a full dress suit to break down his plan to “freeze” rents.

As the race was entering the final stretch, Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan, documenting the roughly 13-mile  trip by posting photos and videos of his interactions along the way.

In TikTok videos, he’s even appealed to voters of color by speaking in Spanish, Bangla and other languages.

Progressive promises

Mamdani has offered a more optimistic vision, in contrast to candidates like Cuomo, who have largely focused on crime and law and order issues.

His campaign has been packed with big promises aimed at lowering the cost of living for everyday New Yorkers, from free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for people living in rent-regulated apartments and new affordable housing — much of it by raising taxes on the wealthy.

The big promises have, unsurprisingly, endeared him to the Democratic Party’s liberal wing.

Mamdani secured endorsements from two of the country’s foremost progressives, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Pro-Palestinian views

Mamdani’s outspoken support for Palestinian causes was a point of tension in the mayor’s race as Cuomo and other opponents sought to label his defiant criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

The Shia Muslim has called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide” and said the country should exist as “a state with equal rights,” rather than a “Jewish state.” That message has resonated among pro-Palestinian residents, including the city’s roughly 800,000 adherents of Islam — the largest Muslim community in the country.

During an interview on CBS’s “The Late Show” on the eve of the election, host Stephen Colbert asked Mamdani if he believed the state of Israel had the right to exist. He responded: “Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist — and a responsibility also to uphold international law.”

Mamdani’s refusal to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” on a podcast — a common chant at pro-Palestinian protests — drew recriminations from Jewish groups and fellow candidates in the days leading up to the election.

In his victory speech Tuesday, he pledged to work closely with those who don’t share his views on controversial issues.

“While I will not abandon my beliefs or my commitments, grounded in a demand for equality, for humanity, for all those who walk this earth, you have my word to reach further, to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree, and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements,” Mamdani said.


Foreign medical residents fill critical positions at US hospitals, but are running into visa issues

Foreign medical residents fill critical positions at US hospitals, but are running into visa issues
Updated 28 sec ago
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Foreign medical residents fill critical positions at US hospitals, but are running into visa issues

Foreign medical residents fill critical positions at US hospitals, but are running into visa issues
  • US projected to face a physician shortage in the next 11 years, and foreign medical residents fill critical gaps in the health care system
  • More than 6,600 foreign-born international medical residents matched into US programs in 2025 — the highest on record

Some hospitals in the US are without essential staff because international doctors who were set to start their medical training this week were delayed by the Trump administration’s travel and visa restrictions.

It’s unclear exactly how many foreign medical residents were unable to start their assignments, but six medical residents interviewed by The Associated Press say they’ve undergone years of training and work only to be stopped at the finish line by what is usually a procedural step.

“I don’t want to give up,” said a permanent Canadian resident who matched to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Harrisburg but had her visa denied because she is a citizen of Afghanistan. She requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. “But the situation also seems so helpless.”

Initially, the medical community was worried that hundreds of positions — many in hospitals in low-income or rural areas of the US — could be affected. The pause on interviews for J-1 visas for approved work or study-related programs was lifted in mid-June.

Medical staff walk through a hallway at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center on  July 1, 2025, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

The national nonprofit that facilitates the residency match process said the visa situation is resolving, but it will take weeks to know with confidence how many medical residents have had the start of their careers derailed because they got their visa too late or were blocked by President Donald Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries, according to people who coordinate the residents’ training.

Four foreign medical residents told the AP that US embassies have been slow to open up interview slots — and some have not opened any.

“You lose out on the time you could have used to treat patients,” said one resident from Pakistan, who matched to an internal medicine program in Massachusetts and requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.

Thousands of foreign medical residents fill gaps in US hospitals

The US is projected to face a physician shortage in the next 11 years, per the Association of American Medical Colleges, and foreign medical residents fill critical gaps in the health care system. More than 6,600 foreign-born international medical residents matched into US programs in 2025 — the highest on record — and another 300 filled positions that were vacant after the match process was complete.

Not all of those residents were affected by visa issues or the travel ban on foreign nationals from countries including Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan.

International medical graduates often take jobs in places where US medical trainees tend not to go, said Donna Lamb, president of the National Resident Matching Program.

“It’s not just that they’re coming in and they want to work in big, flashy centers on the coast,” Lamb said. “They’re truly providing health care for all of America.”

Foreign medical residents work in specialties that US applicants aren’t as eager to apply to. For example, international candidates make up almost 40 percent of residents in internal medicine, which specializes in the prevention and treatment of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

“The residents are the backbone of the entire hospital,” said Dr. Zaid Alrashid from Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in New York, which has medical residents from almost every continent. Most received their visas prior to the pause but a few were caught up in delays.

Ambulances are parked outside Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center on  July 1, 2025, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Two residents from India who spoke on condition of anonymity have not been able to get an appointment at any US embassies there despite the J-1 visa pause being lifted.

Another resident from Egypt just secured a visa appointment for mid-August but is worried her program may not be willing to wait for her. She’s already paid her security deposit for an apartment in Texas to live during her residency.

“I don’t know when this situation will be resolved,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding she hasn’t been eating or sleeping well.

Hospitals waiting for residents to arrive

In California, leaders at two graduate medical education programs said they have a small number of residents caught up in J-1 visa delays. Both spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns for the doctors who are still trying to get visas.

A residency leader at one large health care system said two doctors in its 150-resident program are delayed, adding they could start late or defer to next year. A 135-person program at a California public health system told the AP that one resident has yet to arrive, though he was finally scheduled for a visa interview.

“We are not going to breathe easy until he’s here in our hospital,” the second leader said.

As of Wednesday, Lamb’s matching program had received fewer than 20 requests to defer or cancel residency contracts.

Worried about losing their spots if they defer, many foreign medical residents may keep trying to get to the US and start their residencies late, said Dr. Sabesan Karuppiah, a past member of the American Medical Association’s International Medical Graduates Governing Council and former director of a large residency program.

Some hospitals may struggle at this point to replace the residents who don’t make it, leaving fewer people to care for the same number of patients, said Kimberly Pierce Burke, executive director of the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers.

Foreign medical trainees who’ve made it into the US remain on edge about their situations, Karuppiah said.

“I can tell you the word on the street is: ‘Do not leave the country,’” he said, adding that people are missing out on important events, seeing sick parents or even getting married. “Everybody’s scared to just leave, not knowing what’s going to happen.”

 


Trump says he didn’t know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic

Trump says he didn’t know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic
Updated 19 min 20 sec ago
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Trump says he didn’t know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic

Trump says he didn’t know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic
  • The Anti-Defamation League said Trump’s use of the word “underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says he didn’t know the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders.

Trump told reporters early Friday after returning from an event in Iowa that he had “never heard it that way” and “never heard that” the term was considered an offensive stereotype about Jews.

Shylock refers to the villainous Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor.

The Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat antisemitism, said in a statement that the term “evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous. President Trump’s use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible.”

Democrat Joe Biden, while vice president, said in 2014 that he had made a “poor choice” of words a day after he used the term in remarks to a legal aid group.

Trump’s administration has made cracking down on antisemitism a priority. His administration said it is screening for antisemitic activity when granting immigration benefits and its fight with Harvard University has centered on allegations from the White House that the school has tolerated antisemitism.

But the Republican president has also had a history of playing on stereotypes about Jewish people.

He told the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015 that “you want to control your politicians” and suggested the audience used money to exert control.

Before he kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump drew widespread criticism for dining at his Florida club with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist.

Last year, Trump made repeated comments accusing Jewish Americans who identify as Democrats of disloyalty because of the Democratic leaders’ criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Critics said it perpetuated an antisemitic trope about Jews having divided loyalties and there being only one right way to be Jewish.

On Thursday night in his speech in Iowa, Trump used the term while talking about his signature legislation that was passed by Congress earlier in the day.

“No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing some from, in some cases, a fine banker and in some cases shylocks and bad people,” he said.

When a reporter later asked about the word’s antisemitic association and his intent, Trump said; “No, I’ve never heard it that way. To me, a shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates. I’ve never heard it that way. You view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that.”

The Anti-Defamation League said Trump’s use of the word “underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country. Words from our leaders matter and we expect more from the President of the United States.”


US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling

US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling
Updated 47 min 1 sec ago
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US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling

US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling
  • “This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement Saturday

WASHINGTON: Eight men deported from the United States in May and held under guard for weeks at an American military base in the African nation of Djibouti while their legal challenges played out in court have now reached the Trump administration’s intended destination, war-torn South Sudan, a country the State Department advises against travel to due to “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”

The immigrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan arrived in South Sudan on Friday after a federal judge cleared the way for the Trump administration to relocate them in a case that had gone to the Supreme Court, which had permitted their removal from the US Administration officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the US

“This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement Saturday announcing the men’s arrival in South Sudan, a chaotic country in danger once more of collapsing into civil war.

The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the transfer of the men who had been put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan. That meant that the South Sudan transfer could be completed after the flight was detoured to a base in Djibouti, where they men were held in a converted shipping container. The flight was detoured after a federal judge found the administration had violated his order by failing to allow the men a chance to challenge the removal.

The court’s conservative majority had ruled in June that immigration officials could quickly deport people to third countries. The majority halted an order that had allowed immigrants to challenge any removals to countries outside their homeland where they could be in danger.

A flurry of court hearings on Independence Day resulted a temporary hold on the deportations while a judge evaluated a last-ditch appeal by the men’s before the judge decided he was powerless to halt their removals and that the person best positioned to rule on the request was a Boston judge whose rulings led to the initial halt of the administration’s effort to begin deportations to South Sudan.

By Friday evening, that judge had issued a brief ruling concluding the Supreme Court had tied his hands.

The men had final orders of removal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said. Authorities have reached agreements with other countries to house immigrants if authorities cannot quickly send them back to their homelands.


10 Niger soldiers killed in jihadist attacks: govt

10 Niger soldiers killed in jihadist attacks: govt
Updated 06 July 2025
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10 Niger soldiers killed in jihadist attacks: govt

10 Niger soldiers killed in jihadist attacks: govt
  • The west African country, now run by a military junta, has been battling violence by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad for the past decade

NIAMEY, Niger: A double attack Friday by suspected jihadists near Niger’s western border with Burkina Faso left 10 troops dead, authorities said whilst stating that 41 attackers were also killed.

The west African country, now run by a military junta, has been battling violence by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad for the past decade.

Defense Minister General Salifou Modi said in a statement the simultaneous attacks by “several hundred mercenaries” took place in Bouloundjounga and Samira in Gotheye department.

The statement, read on national television, said 10 soldiers were killed and 15 wounded.

“On the enemy side, 41 mercenaries were neutralized,” it added.

Gotheye department is near the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso and has long been a zone known for jihadist attacks.

The village of Samira has Niger’s only industrial scale gold mining company. Eight of the company’s workers were killed in May when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb.


Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party

Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party
Updated 06 July 2025
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Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party

Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party
  • America Party to challenge the country’s “one-party system,” he announced on X
  • Musk had a bitter falling out with Trump over the president's massive spending plan

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk, an ex-ally of US President Donald Trump, said Saturday he had launched a new political party in the United States to challenge what the tech billionaire described as the country’s “one-party system.”

The world’s richest person — and Trump’s biggest political donor in the 2024 election — had a bitter falling out with the president after leading the Republican’s effort to slash spending and cut federal jobs as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk has clashed with Trump over the president’s massive domestic spending plan, saying it would explode the US debt, and vowed to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it.

Now he has created the so-called America Party, his own political framework, through which to try and achieve that.

“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” the Space X and Tesla boss posted on X, the social media platform that he owns.

“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

 

Musk cited a poll — uploaded on Friday, US Independence Day — in which he asked whether respondents “want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system” that has dominated US politics for some two centuries.

The yes-or-no survey earned more than 1.2 million responses.

“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he posted on Saturday.

Musk also shared a meme depicting a two-headed snake and the caption “End the Uniparty.”

It is not clear how much impact the new party would have on the 2026 mid-term elections, or on the presidential vote two years after that.

The Trump-Musk feud reignited in dramatic fashion late last month as Trump pushed Republicans in Congress to ram through his massive domestic agenda in the form of the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Musk expressed fierce opposition to the legislation, and ruthlessly attacked its Republican backers for supporting “debt slavery.”

He vowed to launch a new political party to challenge lawmakers who campaigned on reduced federal spending only to vote for the bill, which experts say will pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the US deficit.

“They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk said earlier this week.

After Musk heavily criticized the flagship spending bill — which eventually passed Congress and was signed into law — Trump threatened to deport the tech tycoon and strip federal funds from his businesses.

“We’ll have to take a look,” the president told reporters when asked if he would consider deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa and has held US citizenship since 2002.

On Friday after posting the poll, Musk laid out a possible political battle plan to pick off vulnerable House and Senate seats and become “the deciding vote” on key legislation.

“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” Musk posted on X.

All 435 US House seats are up for grabs every two years, while about one third of the Senate’s 100 members, who serve six-year terms, are elected every two years.

Some observers were quick to point out how third-party campaigns have historically split the vote — as businessman Ross Perot’s independent presidential run in 1992 did when it helped doom George H.W. Bush’s re-election bid resulting in Democrat Bill Clinton’s victory.

“You are pulling a Ross Perot, and I don’t like it,” one X user wrote to Musk.