Politics
‘Police would rather screw up a murder inquiry than be accused of racism’
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Andy Burnham has slammed Vladimir Putin’s “repulsive and insidious” attempts to sow division in the UK through the spread of misinformation online.
The prime minister has ordered security chiefs to set up a new unit to tackle the problem, which he said included trying to influence the 2019 general election.
A new National Centre for Information Defence will tackle online lies and deepfakes damaging British interests, the PM told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Burnham said the UK and its allies had been subjected to an “industrial-scale assault” by hostile states, including Russia.
“Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fear,” he said.
“They’ve used bots and fake websites. Falsified newspaper articles. Forged the branding of 28 British organisations – including universities and the BBC. They’ve amplified far-right narratives.
“And we have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 general election.
“We also know that they have tried to stoke tensions and unrest in the wake of horrific events. The idea that anyone would try to use such things to their advantage is just repulsive – but it is what they do.”
The PM said the Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion a year on “manipulating information”.
And he said the rise of artificial intelligence means the problem is only set to get worse unless it is tackled urgently.
“We’re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community – creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair,” he said.
“On top of that, we have seen cyber-attacks on our companies and institutions. And we know that AI will multiply the threat.”
Young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) are “much more vulnerable” to Russia’s campaign of online misinformation and it was now time to fight back, Burnham said.
He said: “We have tiptoed around this for too long.
“Over the last decade we have given too much ground to those who want to run a negative, corrosive narrative about life in Britain, which bears no resemblance to reality. Well, no more.
“We are going to face the new decade in a different way – with our eyes wide open.
“We are going to be much prouder in standing up for our values and the rule of law.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
We’ve been relatively spoiled for sunshine in the UK this year – perhaps a little too spoiled, given the ongoing drought covering most of England and Wales.
But if you’re looking to keep the sunny vibes going well into autumn (particularly the half-term break), there’s one Mediterranean island in particular that’s been named the best for October sun.
Travel experts at Solmar Villas ranked 105 holiday destinations on how reliably they deliver great weather between September and November, alongside affordability of flight prices.
They then compiled a list of the best autumn sun destinations in Europe for Brits hoping to head abroad.
ÐлекÑей Ðблов via Getty Images
The best destinations for October sun in Europe
Cyprus was the overwhelming winner, with Ayia Napa, a lively coastal resort town known for its beach-side nightlife, ranking as the overall best destination for Autumn sun, followed by Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos (all cities in Cyprus).
Coming in at number five was Athens Rivera in Greece, followed by Lanzarote (Spain), Fuerteventura (Spain), Rhodes and Kos (both in Greece) and Malta.
Each destination was scored on four measures: average daily sunshine hours, average rainy days per month, average daytime high temperature, and flight cost for September to November.
Cyprus tends to experience consistent temperatures sitting between 24C and 29C in October, with little rainfall. According to Skyscanner, flights can be as little as £31 one-way.
Travel experts highlighted Limassol as the perfect spot for those who love a combination of city and coast, while Larnaca is a peaceful port-city, and Paphos is great for history buffs, with plenty of World Heritage sites to visit.
Sharon Bradbury, travel expert and managing director at Solmar Villas, said: “Whilst we can’t predict the weather, this data is as close as we can get to determining the best spots for the perfect autumn sun holiday.
“Whilst Cyprus seems to be a clear winner, other locations on the list are also fantastic choices based on your personal preferences.”
She added that if the prospect of rain is a dealbreaker for your family, the Canary Islands should be your top choice, “with the least rainy days predicted this autumn season”.
If a bargain break is important to you, Spain has some of the cheapest flights available from September to November, she added. Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol have one-way flight tickets from as little as £16 and £17 respectively.
I’ve had a few feuds in my time – like any fascinating woman – but one of the funniest was when I fell out with my comrade, Julie Bindel. We were both women of working-class origin propelled to the giddy heights of media notoriety, and I had always felt that we vied to see who could remain truest to our proletarian roots. Then, with one stroke, conclusively, I had won – because I backed Diana after the ‘Three of us in this marriage’ interview with Martin Bashir, while Bindel backed Camilla. We laugh about it now, but at the time, at my instigation, we didn’t talk for five years.
Now, nearly 30 years after Diana’s death, her brother, Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, has revived hostilities with the royal family and King Charles for their treatment of her in his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. And the urge for side-taking is as strong as ever.
Alongside several other shocking claims, Spencer says that soon after Diana’s death, he received a call from Charles, in which he sounded ‘giddily elated – like a lottery winner’. And later, during a row ahead of Diana’s funeral, Spencer says that Charles told him, ‘Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough’.
‘So he could marry that woman!’, spat a splendid Welsh lady recently on a radio call-in – and just like that, the carefully rehabilitated image of Queen Camilla, from a woman who never worked a day in her life to defender of battered women and promoter of reading, disintegrated.
My own enmity towards the woman Charles had so enthusiastically been doing for decades had never quite left. And so with the current brouhaha, I’m right back there, wishing I could have been one of that bold brigade allegedly pelting Mrs Parker Bowles with bread rolls in the car park of Chippenham Sainsbury’s back in the 1990s.
I know this is childish. I know that my own private life barely bears inspection. I know there are some schools of thought that might advise that only she who is without sin should cast the first bap. But emotions can often be stronger than logic – and if, like me, you’re a republican, any ammunition that makes the ruling house look bad is going to be agreeable. So I very much believe Charles Spencer – for soppy reasons, because I was sweet on Diana, but for solid ones, too.
The solidest is my absolute and objective loathing of King Charles, who I believe to be a selfish, self-pitying narcissist; the opposite of his mother, who had her own misgivings about him becoming king. I recall many years ago reading the story of him allegedly saying to Spencer at the funeral of the latter’s father how ‘lucky’ he was to ‘inherit young’ (and being perplexed that it had mysteriously gone missing whenever I attempted to Google it, until the new book put it back in the news). I was also struck by how easy it was to imagine him saying it, so keen was he to get his hands on the sceptre and orb.
Charles has quietened down now, but as Heir Apparent, he really was a gob on a stick, with his constant speechifying about the wonders of everything from homeopathy to Islam and the notorious ‘black spider memos’ he bombarded politicians with. From badger culls (in favour) to supermarkets (against), there was nothing this none-too-bright man did not consider himself an expert on – how unlike the hands-off impartiality of our own late queen. Labour MP Paul Flynn called him ‘the lobbyist supreme in the land’, forever ‘putting forward a whole variety of views – including many bad science views and others that should have no more weight than the man down the pub’.
Despite his image of himself as a firebrand intellectual, his love of luxury was remarked on even by other members of a family not known for humble living. He had at one point four valets. The queen reportedly believed that ‘the amount of kit and servants he takes around is grotesque’. In 2002, his 85-strong court prompted several MPs to ask how he could justify such a large number of people waiting on him.
Since he became king, his ego has been mollified somewhat. He doubtless appears ‘nicer’ than the man who would sneer ‘Diana the Martyr’ at his young wife when she visited hospital patients. But that’s because he finally got to where he wanted – the top of the Ruritanian heap, with all the subjects who used to bow and scrape to his mother now giving fealty to him. Beneath it, he’s still the same ignorant big-head who wrote of Israel in a 1986 letter to Laurens van der Post after a tour of his beloved Gulf, that while there is ‘Much admire [in] some aspects of Islam… the influx of foreign Jews, especially from Poland, has helped to cause great problems… Surely some US president has to have the courage to stand up and take on the Jewish lobby?’
‘Oh, but Charles Spencer’s been married four times!’, squeal the seat-sniffing prudes. So? He probably didn’t marry any of them without loving them because the one he loved had been around the block a few times – let’s not forget that the king’s weakness in not marrying Camilla when they were young started the whole tragic mess. Whatever Spencer got up to with a gaggle of international glamour girls, I doubt that he wooed a dreamy teenage virgin into marriage while keeping his mistress on speed-dial. In the light of what Windsor inflicted on a trusting girl barely out of school, four marriages seem small beer.
Do I like the fact that there seems to be an alliance of kinds between Earl Spencer and the ghastly Sussexes? Not particularly – but I don’t have to like everything about a person to believe that they’re telling the truth, as I am not six years old. Recollections may vary, but a man who can become unhinged about a faulty pen, or who can complain in the manner of Adrian Mole (‘We can never be on time… there’s always something… this is boring’) about a minor delay while sitting in his coronation coach outside Westminster Abbey, is definitely capable of saying very strange things when only one person is listening.
The truth remains that he was wildly envious of his young wife’s popularity, and his flunkies played up to his sense of injustice. So much so that his friend, the Tory MP Nicholas Soames, announced after the 1995 Bashir interview, in which Diana talked about her husband’s adultery, that she was ‘in the advanced stages of paranoia’ and suffering from ‘mental illness’. One of the things that endears Prince William to people is his obvious pride in his wife’s popularity. But no one would be surprised if the king were envious of his Diana-faced elder son and the higher ratings he consistently gets in public polls.
To sum up, in this ruck of the Chucks, my money’s on Charles Spencer, because I am a grown-up who doesn’t believe that multiple marriages make your memory unreliable. And if anyone wants to disagree with me, and suck up to the preposterous pretender on the throne, that’s them off the Christmas card list for the next five years.
Zia Yusuf has been mocked online after launching another thinly-veiled swipe at some of his own Reform UK colleagues.
The party’s home affairs spokesman hit out at “former Tory ministers”, despite the fact that most of Reform’s senior figures served in the last Conservative government.
In a late-night rant on X, Yusuf said they were “the most nefarious people outside of those in prison”.
That seemed to be a direct attack on the likes of Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman, Nadine Dorries, David Jones and Nadhim Zahawi, who all served in Conservative cabinets before switching to Reform.
His attack came just a day after he hit out at “deadbeat Tory ministers” in another social media post.
Yusuf’s latest tirade seems to have been triggered by the fact that Rishi Sunak and Jacob Rees-Mogg are back in the news.
Former PM Sunak won praise for hitting back at claims non-white people cannot be English, while Rees-Mogg warned about the threat of war with Russia.
Yusuf said “people are furious” at what the two senior Tories were saying.
He said: “They’re former Tory Ministers. The most nefarious people outside of those in prison. They betrayed our country and caused incalculable harm. Ignore them. Vote Reform. Then we will hold them to account.”
X users were quick to point out to Yusuf that many of those “former Tory ministers” are actually his Reform frontbench colleagues.
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Cate Blanchett has made a plea for theatre audiences to keep their phones away while they’re watching people performing.
The two-time Oscar winner is currently starring at the National Theatre’s Electra/Persona, and during her curtain call on Friday, she took a moment to get something off her chest.
She began: “There are few places on this planet where we can simply be together, and be present.
“I understand you like filming the curtain call – and it is kind of flattering in a way – but for anyone who was filming the show, please don’t.”
Cate continued: “It spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us. So, thank you very much.”
One Instagram user commented on a clip of Cate’s message: “I was there on Friday, so just to clarify what happened: after the first act, while they were changing and preparing for the second, latecomers were being let in, the staff were cleaning the stage, and the cast were doing their makeup onstage.
“Cate noticed someone recording during that break. She came towards the front of the stage and gestured ‘no, no, no’ with her finger for them to stop. She also mentioned it to the audience at the very end before they left.
“The person wasn’t filming the actual performance, but the interval between the two acts while the cast were still onstage. To be fair, people do this quite often and the staff usually don’t say anything. It was my third time seeing the play, and I’ve seen people film during that break every time. Friday was simply the first time I saw Cate notice it herself, just after she had finished doing her makeup.”
Another added: “I was there. Great show. And I was appalled she felt she had to make this statement.
“I didn’t see anyone taping from where I was. But clearly people were. Get a life. If you’re only going so you can put it on Instagram then don’t bother. You’re not wanted.”
Cate is far from the first performer to call out people’s phone use in theatre during recent memory.
Back in June, Rosamund Pike called out an audience member during the curtain call of her show Inter Alia for using their phone in the auditorium, while Cynthia Erivo went as far as pausing a performance of Dracula when she noticed she was being recorded.
Since then, Amber Davies also made her feelings known on the “selfish actions” of those who chose to use their phones in a theatre environment.
Meanwhile, Broadway legend Patti LuPone has been vocal on this issue for years, infamously once swiping an audience member’s phone after seeing them on it during a performance in 2015.
Similarly, Gemma Arterton once claimed during an interview on The Graham Norton Show that she had done the same thing when she spotted a patron filming her while she was performing in the West End musical Made In Dagenham.
I’ll be honest: I always thought that solstice lasted an entire day. But the Met Office explained that it’s actually a “very specific moment which is over almost as soon as it has begun”.
“Solstice” comes from the Latin for “sun standing still” and refers to a moment in which the sun appears to stall in the sky. This year, the winter solstice will happen on December 21 at 8:50am GMT.
It’s the astronomical opposite of the equinox (the next of which is due on Wednesday, 23 September at 1:04am GMT ).
Here’s what the word means, as well as what’s actually happening in the sky when the phenomenon occurs.
What does equinox mean?
Equinox comes from two Latin words: “aequus”, meaning “equal”, and “nox, which means “night”.
Given that daytime and nighttime last roughly the same amount of time in an equinox, the name’s pretty apt.
There is, however, another day when light and dark hours are exactly even. This is called an “equilux” and happens “a few days before the spring equinox and a few days after the autumn equinox,” per the Met Office.
What is an equinox?
The Earth is tilted at an angle, which is why we have seasons. If we weren’t angled, the amount of light we get throughout the year would stay stable.
This means that there will be a point in the year where the North Pole is the closest, or furthest away, it’ll be to the sun in that cycle. This is a solstice (either the longest or shortest days).
Meanwhile, an equinox happens when the sun is as close as possible to the equator. This is why night and day seem equally divided: the amount of light we recieve depends on our angle in relation to the sun, so with minimal tilt, sunshine is divided about evenly.
Without that slant, the Earth would have an equinox everyday.
So why isn’t an equinox the same as an equilux?
If you remember from earlier, the day in which we actually get equal sunlight is called an “equilux,” not an “equinox”.
Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, told the BBC this is because sunlight has to get through Earth’s atmosphere before it reaches us.
“This means when the sun’s near the horizon it appears to be slightly higher than it is because the light is refracted through the atmosphere. So, you get slightly longer than the 12 hours of sunlight,” he explained.
Sir Tom Jones has thanked his supporters for backing him after his abrupt departure from The Voice UK.
The Delilah singer was one of The Voice UK’s original coaches, and had been part of the show’s panel for every series bar one until earlier this month, when it was announced he would no longer be judging the upcoming series.
“We have loved working with Sir Tom Jones over the past nine years on The Voice UK. While he will no longer be a full-time coach on series 15, we continue to talk to Sir Tom and his team about his involvement in the next series,” an ITV rep told HuffPost UK when the news was confirmed.
Meanwhile, the man himself later claimed that it was not his decision to leave The Voice UK’s panel, accusing bosses of “firing” him “because of a financial difficulty with insurance”.
ITV/Rachel Joseph/Shutterstock
In the weeks that have followed, many fans have been voicing their disappointment in ITV’s decision, with a Change.org petition calling for The Voice UK to reinstate him having reached more than 60,000 signatures at the time of writing.
“So many heartfelt messages, comments and even petitions of support,” the 86-year-old wrote on social media on Sunday. “It doesn’t go unnoticed and it’s been really lovely to receive these! Thank you!”
This message was shared alongside a clip of Sir Tom from the most recent season of The Voice UK, in which he was heard crooning one of his signature hits, It’s Not Unusual.
In his previous statement, Sir Tom claimed: “To be clear, I did not want to leave The Voice as I love the show and really appreciate the audience. ITV made this decision – obviously a while ago, and I was told just recently.
“The reason given is because of a financial difficulty with insurance. They now say in the press they wanted to ‘refresh’ the show, and with a new coaching line-up there wouldn’t be a chair for me.”
He added: “They are offering a much-reduced role where I would make an appearance but without being actually involved from the start, and I’m not thrilled about that.
“So, the only thing I know right now, is that there’s never a good time to fire an 86-year-old who’s still pretty good at his job.”
Mis-Teeq singer Sabrina Washington’s assertion that the group are going their separate ways following their recent reunion show has not gone down well with all of her bandmates.
Earlier this month, Sabrina came together with former Mis-Teeq stars Alesha Dixon and Su-Elise Nash (not to mention OG Mis-Teeq star Zena McNally in a surprise appearance) for a one-off show at London’s Wembley Arena, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their debut album.
Although the show was well-received by critics and fans, just one week later, Sabrina made it clear that Mis-Teeq would not be moving forward as a band when she announced a string of solo shows for 2026.
“There aren’t any further Mis-Teeq dates or new music planned and we’ve all gone back to doing our own things now,” she told The Sun. “For me, though, I wasn’t ready for the celebration to end there.”
Alan West/Hogan Media/Shutterstock
However, after Sabrina’s interview was published, Su-Elise claimed that this wasn’t a version of events that she necessarily agreed with.
On Monday evening, she wrote on Instagram: “As far as I was aware, today was our deadline to make a decision on some incredible Mis-Teeq offers for 2027… including headlining a major UK festival, performing at another huge UK festival and potentially taking the show regional for everyone who couldn’t make Wembley.
“After the incredible response to our sold-out Wembley Arena show, I genuinely believed these were opportunities we were all excited about and hopefully saying YES to today as Mis-Teeq! So to find out that a press release went out [to the media] today saying ‘Mis-Teeq have split’ has taken me by surprise.”
“That’s news to me,” she claimed. “Either way, I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved at Wembley and so grateful to everyone who came out and supported us.”
HuffPost UK has also contacted Alesha Dixon’s team for comment.
During their time together, Mis-Teeq racked up a string of top 10 hits, including All I Want, One Night Stand, Can’t Get It Back and Scandalous.
They went their separate ways in the mid-2000s after their record label, Telstar Records, entered bankruptcy proceedings.
Sen. Jon Husted became the latest battleground Republican this week to call for a quick end to the Iran war, as panic grows over how high gas prices and President Donald Trump’s agenda could imperil the party’s chances in November.
“The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” the Ohio senator told POLITICO, in his furthest comments yet on the matter.
Coming after Iowa Senate nominee Ashley Hinson, who broke from Trump over the war on Monday, and Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers, who followed suit hours later, Husted’s comments are another example of the pressure he and other Republicans are under to address prices at the pump. Several candidates are creating some distance from Trump, as voters continue to blame the president for the current economy and the Iran conflict for high costs of living.
Husted said in the interview that he still thinks Iran needs to reach a deal with Trump to end the conflict, but added: “I don’t know anybody that doesn’t want the war to come to an end.”
He has a finer line to walk with Trump in his state, and Republicans close to him say he can’t and won’t completely break with the president. Husted does not plan to support the Democratic-led war powers resolution when it comes up for a vote in the Senate this week, a spokesperson said. And Trump and Vice President JD Vance are expected to visit the state in the coming weeks to shore up his campaign and drive GOP turnout.
Husted is staring down a tight race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, where millions in spending and recent polling have put Brown slightly ahead. Top Hill Republicans and Senate GOP operatives have said the Ohio Senate race is among their primary concerns in the battle to keep control of the chamber.
But Ohio is just one in a series of battlegrounds where rising gas prices have become a defining issue. Beyond Hinson and Rogers, a growing number of Republicans are starting to call for emergency actions like a diesel export ban to lower gas prices, including Iowa GOP Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
“Hinson broke the dam,” said one GOP operative, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who is locked in an incredibly competitive race, called Tuesday for a diesel export ban to provide voters relief. He didn’t mention the Iran war.
The panic is being felt most acutely in the Midwest, as high gas and diesel prices and Trump’s tariffs hammer families, truckers and farmers just a few weeks ahead of the peak harvest season with no relief in sight.
By Sunday night, Rogers had filmed an ad at a grocery store decrying high prices and, straight to camera, breaking with Trump to call for an end to the Iran war, according to two Republicans involved in the matter, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
Rogers’ team was putting the finishing touches on the ad Monday morning when Hinson posted her break with Trump over the war directly on social media.
“The war’s just gone on too long. Mike still thinks Iran shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon, but we originally thought this would take six weeks,” said one person with direct knowledge of the conversations in Rogers’ camp about the move. “Voters have been paying for it at their kitchen tables for too long.”
Michigan’s GOP nominee for governor, Rep. John James, also said Tuesday the Iran war needs to end “quickly.” And Rep. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin’s GOP governor nominee, said Tuesday he believes “we should be exiting Iran, that it’s time to move on, we’ve degraded their nuclear facilities, we’ve degraded their military … time to come home, take care of business here in America.”
Trump, for his part, told reporters Tuesday that he asked his team to consider a diesel export ban, and that his administration is mulling it.
But the move is rife with internal GOP fighting behind the scenes: Trump’s team is getting an earful from GOP lawmakers in oil states who oppose the move, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. That makes any decision before the midterms highly problematic with at least one corner of the party.
Both the top House GOP leaders — Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise — have opposed similar measures from the past to protect their oil state of Louisiana. The Texas GOP delegation is also “strongly opposed,” according to another Republican.
Husted told POLITICO on Tuesday that he supports his state legislature suspending Ohio’s gas tax for a period. Democrat Amy Acton, who is running for governor, called for a gas tax suspension Monday. Her GOP opponent Vivek Ramaswamy and a broader swath of Republicans called for the state legislature to convene and pass legislation to suspend the state’s gas tax hours later.
“I think in the long run we are going to have lower gas prices,” Husted said, citing the war in Ukraine as a factor for spiking diesel costs as well as the war with Iran. “It’s taking longer than any of us wish it would. So in the interim, while those things are concluding, the idea of providing relief from the gas tax for Ohioans for a short period of time is a reasonable thing for Governor [Mike] DeWine to consider.”
LOCAL INPUT: Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing fresh backlash over sidelining key stakeholders from talks about developing thousands of housing units on top of a Queens rail yard.
The Sunnyside Yard project landed back in the headlines yesterday when Mamdani and President Donald Trump emerged from a chummy meeting at Gracie Mansion to announce they’d agreed to bring conversations about the long-stalled housing plan to “a new level.” The unlikely duo first announced at a White House meeting in February they were looking into reviving the project, which would be contingent on billions of dollars in federal funding and involve constructing a platform over the rail yard, on top of which 12,000 housing units would be built.
But Council member Julie Won — who represents Sunnyside and voiced concerns in February about not being included in the talks — said today she continues to be troubled by the fact that the mayor and the president aren’t consulting her or other local community voices.
“Since the last discussion on Sunnyside Yard months ago between the mayor and president there is no funding from Congress nor any public meetings to move this project forward,” Won said in a statement. “There is no federal, state, or city bill allocating funding for this project. There is still no timeline. Congress would have to fund it, and the State and City Legislature would have to approve it. Our neighbors in Sunnyside yet again were not part of yesterday’s conversation, and there still has been no meaningful engagement with the public.”
Farah Salam, Won’s chief of staff, said City Hall’s continued lack of engagement with her office flies in the face of a commitment Mamdani’s team made in February.
Salam recounted how, in a meeting with Won’s team at the time, Mamdani aides told the Council member’s staff they would keep them in the loop on any Sunnyside Yard-related updates. Nonetheless, Salam told Playbook that Won and her team haven’t heard a peep from Mamdani’s administration since then, and she added that Won only learned of the latest twist from watching Mamdani’s post-meeting press conference with Trump yesterday.
A Mamdani spokesperson declined to respond to Salam’s comments.
Won is a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, which has generally been supportive of the mayor, lending more weight to her Sunnyside-related rebuke. Still, she may have some political sour grapes with the mayor, given that she campaigned unsuccessfully this summer for Congress in a race that was ultimately won by Mamdani-endorsed Assemblymember Claire Valdez.
Won isn’t the only local politician concerned by Mamdani’s Sunnyside dealings with Trump, though.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards told Playbook it would be more fruitful for Mamdani to focus on securing federal funding from Trump for housing developments where shovels can hit the ground on a short timeframe. Inevitably, Sunnyside Yard would need to go through years-long review and permitting processes before construction could begin, and Richards argued Jamaica and Long Island City are better suited for immediate, federally-backed projects, given that both areas recently underwent neighborhood-wide rezonings.
“I’m not saying give up on Sunnyside Yard, but let’s first move somewhere where we can actually get shovels in the ground now,” he said. “We are in a housing emergency.”
Richards also said he’s skeptical Trump will actually make good on his Sunnyside musings. “I have trepidations about how fast the Trump administration is going to move on this — forgive me if I have my trepidations about them,” he said. “Anything you deal with the Trump administration on has to be show and tell, and I don’t have much confidence even with the president’s remarks yesterday.”
When asked about the comments from Won and Richards at a press conference today, Mamdani avoided any direct response. Instead he simply reiterated the merits of the project, which he said would include a significant share of affordable housing.
“I will do everything in my power to build more housing in this city,” Mamdani said. “And working with the president to fulfill an idea that has existed for 50 to 60 years — that to me is clearly an example of what could be done.”
It remains to be seen how much Trump and Mamdani can actually get done on the Sunnyside project. Though they said yesterday their respective housing policy teams are initiating technical talks about the project, there are no funding commitments on the table, and local community concerns remain.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan in 2015 to build housing on top of Sunnyside Yard, but that iteration of the project never went anywhere because of the COVID pandemic and local pushback. — Chris Sommerfeldt and Joe Anuta
From the Capitol
IT GUY GONE: The top official at the state’s Office of Information Technology Services was removed this week by Gov. Kathy Hochul after she lost confidence in him, her administration said today.
ITS Director Dru Rai held the job since September 2023, and his removal was effective immediately. Jenson Jacob will take over the role in an acting capacity. The office manages the state’s information technology, data centers and hardware infrastructure while providing digital services for state agencies and local governments.
“The administration has informed Dru Rai that the Governor no longer has confidence in his ability to effectively represent this administration and he was removed from his position as head of ITS,” a Hochul spokesperson said in a statement. “Jenson Jacob has been named Acting Director of ITS. Governor Hochul remains committed to holding employees to the highest leadership and ethical standards, and ITS will continue to deliver technology solutions and services for New Yorkers, our agencies and partners.”
Read more from POLITICO Pro’s Nick Reisman.
BLAKEMAN BRUSHES OFF GRACIE GATHERING: Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is downplaying the significance of Trump’s cordial Monday meeting with the mayor.
“Not at all,” he said when asked if Trump’s visit undercut Blakeman’s focus on Mamdani’s radicalism.
“The president is a government official. He’s the highest government official in the United States. And the mayor’s a government official, so I expect that the two of them would talk.”
Blakeman has attacked the mayor he refers to as “Commie Mamdani” while campaigning in every corner of the state. Would he similarly meet with Mamdani? “Depends what he was serving for lunch,” he said.
The Nassau County executive was in Albany today to receive the NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association’s endorsement. Prison guards have had an icy relationship with the state in recent years, due to Cuomo-era limits on solitary confinement and Hochul’s strict crackdown on guards who engaged in an illegal strike last year.
It’s the first time NYSCOPBA has endorsed a gubernatorial candidate.
“Kathy Hochul, I want you to think about that: 95 percent of your employees voted to endorse me, a democratic vote,” Blakeman said. “What does that say about your leadership? You should be embarrassed that 95 percent of your workers didn’t think highly enough of you to endorse you.” — Bill Mahoney
FROM CITY HALL
LEFT ON READ: City Council members — including the mayor’s allies — laced into Mamdani’s administration today at a Council hearing on the use of influencers in city government communications.
The central focus of their displeasure? Team Mamdani declined to send any representatives from the appropriate agencies to testify.
The oversight hearing comes on the heels of news that programs run by city agencies paid influencers to promote city policies. The hearing’s stated purpose: to begin to establish guidelines for how city officials communicate with influencers and disclose such communications.
Emilia Rowland, the mayor’s director of new media, skipped the hearing, despite being invited to testify. Earlier this month, a working paper from the Columbia University Initiative for Policy Dialogue reported that Rowland oversees a Signal group chat with more than 200 hand-picked influencers. In her place, the mayor’s office sent Tascha Van Auken, commissioner of the mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement, and Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, commissioner for the Department of Records and Information Services — neither of whom had much to offer on the administration’s use of influencers.
While pressing the two during their testimony, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams expressed disappointment that the communications officials who “should be here are not.”
“I don’t know that anything was done wrong, but there were questions that were raised by this article that I believe the public should hear answers to, so that they can feel sure that nothing wrong occurred,” Williams said. “The fact that the correct folks aren’t here doesn’t really help that story.”
Williams, a progressive Democrat, found himself in agreement with Council Minority Leader David Carr, the Republican who sponsored legislation that would require explicit disclosures on city-funded or directed influencer communications.
Carr pressed Van Auken and Smith-Cruz on specifics about the relationship between City Hall and third-party influencers — such as the number of influencers the administration has worked with, how much has been spent on the social media campaigns, how budgets are determined and how influencers are selected.
Van Auken and Smith-Cruz acknowledged they didn’t have fulsome answers to any of Carr’s questions, in stark contrast with the mayor’s characterization of the situation earlier today.
“I am confident in the testimony that our administration is providing today, that it will be sufficient in answering the council’s questions,” Mamdani told reporters this morning.
Taiwan Green, a Queens-based influencer with more than 50,000 followers, testified he was contacted a year ago by then-candidate Mamdani’s social media team. He said he’s never been offered pay for any content about the administration, though, and that he was never directed as to how to message his videos.
“I believe it’s my responsibility to sacrifice my time and my resources to educate myself and my followers on the political process,” said Green, who goes by the handle @mrfingaz. “Traditional press may not have the time to ask questions that are related to southeast Queens, but I will use this opportunity to do just that.”
Green left abruptly after about 90 seconds of testimony and didn’t take questions from council members.
It wasn’t the first time relevant officials from the mayor’s office skipped a Council oversight meeting. Last month, lawmakers slammed Mamdani’s administration for opting out of a hearing on the city’s controversial pied-à-terre tax rollout. At that hearing, Council Members Gale Brewer and Linda Lee read out 11 pages of questions to a row of empty chairs. — Molly Reinmann
SO MANY GAVELS: The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board fined Council member Mercedes Narcisse $2,500 for filming a reelection campaign video inside City Hall.
In one portion of the video, Narcisse is sitting in the Council chambers at the speaker’s chair, where she strikes a gavel. In another, she sits behind her nameplate in a separate committee room and … also strikes a gavel.
Narcisse is then filmed speaking (though not striking a gavel) at an official Council podium.
Because these areas of City Hall are off limits to the public, the board found Narcisee was using her government perch for personal gain. In a settlement agreement, the Brooklyn lawmaker said she did not intend to break the rules, but admitted wrongdoing. — Joe Anuta
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
AOC IN BUF: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is planning to hit Buffalo Thursday to meet with Mayor Sean Ryan and host an organizing training aimed at inactive voters.
The trip comes amid speculation about whether she’ll run for the White House or Senate in 2028. In comments to The New York Times published on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez said she’s thinking about how her identity will factor into the campaign she chooses to mount.
“There’s an argument that some make that this is a very unique political window and, oftentimes in politics, you do only get one shot,” she told the Times. “And you don’t — and just in life in general — life doesn’t wait for you to be ready for things. Sometimes life just makes things ready for you.”
The Buffalo trip is part of an upstate swing that is also set to include Syracuse and Ithaca, the Times reported last week.
Ocasio-Cortez has been leaning into the curiosity surrounding her next political endeavor — but said she’s keeping her focus on the midterms as she stumps across the country boosting candidates. — Madison Fernandez
TAKING THE STAGE: Candidates for governor, state attorney general and comptroller will debate next month.
Spectrum News NY1 announced Tuesday that Hochul and Blakeman will debate on Oct. 13. Attorney General Letitia James will face off against GOP challenger Saritha Komatireddy on Oct. 8, and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Republican Joseph Hernandez will debate on Oct. 1.
Each of the debates will air live at 7 p.m.
Playbook previously reported that Hochul intended to debate Blakeman, even though she is not required to do so since her campaign declined to participate in the new public campaign finance system. — Madison Fernandez
IN OTHER NEWS
— ZO + BIBI: Mamdani doubled down on his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of his speech at the U.N. this week. (CNN)
— SCHUMER ON AI: Sen. Chuck Schumer demanded Trump completely block China’s access to U.S. artificial intelligence technology ahead of the president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow. (Punchbowl)
— MENIN + THE MET: City Council Speaker Julie Menin expanded on her condemnation of the Met Gala’s now-walked back decision to honor John Galliano, who has a history of racism and antisemitism. (New York Magazine)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
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