TV News LIES

Billionaires raised fortunes against him. The president threatened to strip his citizenship. Mainstream synagogues slandered him as the spawn of Osama bin Laden and Chairman Mao. But today, Zohran Mamdani became the first socialist mayor of New York City.

For all the hysteria, when I look at Mamdani, I didn’t see some radical departure from the past. I see him as the heir to an old and venerable Jewish tradition – that of Yiddish socialism – which helped build New York.

In some cases, the link is direct. Bruce Vladeck, a member of one of Mamdani’s transition committees, is a well-respected expert on Medicare, but for the sake of this article, his credentials matter less than his surname.

Vladeck is the grandson of Baruch Charney Vladeck, a Marxist troublemaker from the Pale of Settlement, a tract of land in the Russian empire where Jews were permitted to live at a time of rampant antisemitic oppression. Baruch showed up in New York after the failed Russian revolution of 1905 with a Cossack’s saber scars all over his face. He later became a socialist alderman and member of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s housing administration. Vladeck was not actually his birth name. It was rather a nom de guerre, adopted when he joined the Jewish Labor Bund, the socialist, secular and defiantly anti-Zionist movement whose slogan, “here where we live is our country,” would make an apt tagline for Mamdani’s New York.

In our city, exiled revolutionaries like Vladeck found fertile ground. At the dawn of the 20th century, New York was home to nearly 600,000 Jews, making it the largest Jewish city on Earth, a title it still holds. They packed 10 to a room, into the squalid tenements of the Lower East Side, where they toiled in garment sweatshops, and where the fires caused by their in-home piecework businesses mirror those caused by the exploding lithium-ion batteries of e-bikes today. They soon transformed into a clamorous, disputatious and utterly radical proletariat – the same sort of constituency that powered Mamdani’s campaign.

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A state law creating the first registry of people convicted of domestic abuse in the US took effect Thursday in Tennessee.

Named after Savanna Puckett, a woman who was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend in January 2022, “Savanna’s law” requires the Tennessee bureau of investigation to maintain a database of people who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to at least two domestic violence offenses.

The database will include the offender’s name, date of birth, and a photo and location of their convictions. It will not include their address.The database can include information about offenders for up to 20 years after their last conviction, although it is not retroactive. People will only be eligible for the database if they plead guilty to or are convicted of offenses after 1 January.

In January 2022, after Puckett failed to appear for work as a sheriff’s deputy in Robertson county in northern Tennessee, a co-worker went to her home and found it in flames. Firefighters later discovered Puckett’s body, which had been shot multiple times. James Jackson Conn, Puckett’s ex-boyfriend, pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree murder. He is now serving a life sentence.

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That’s the tactic they use,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island senator, pondering whether Donald Trump might attach his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “You float stuff and you float stuff and you float stuff until people get inured to what a stupid or outrageous thing it is that has been floated and then you pull the trigger.”

Whitehouse was sitting in his Senate office and speaking to the Guardian at 11am on Thursday 18 December. Two hours later, his word

In November Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate environment and public works (EPW) committee, launched a formal investigation into allegations of widespread cronyism, financial mismanagement and corruption at what he describes as a “secular temple to the arts”.

Democrats on the committee said they obtained documents that suggest the national cultural centre is being operated as a “slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies”, resulting in millions of dollars in losses and a significant deviation from its statutory mission.

s proved prophetic. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced on X that the Kennedy Center board had “voted unanimously” to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.

By Friday workmen on scissor lifts were adding metal lettering to the building’s facade, before dropping a blue tarpaulin to reveal a sign saying “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For the Performing Arts”. Family members of Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, conhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/01/trump-kennedy-center-canceled-programsdemned the move as “beyond wild” and pointed out that an act of Congress is needed to alter its name.

The takeover of the national cultural centre began in February when, in what many critics regard as a case study in institutional capture, Trump ousted members of the Kennedy Center board appointed by former president Joe Biden, took over as chairman and installed Richard Grenell, a longtime ally and former ambassador to Germany, as its president.

In November Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate environment and public works (EPW) committee, launched a formal investigation into allegations of widespread cronyism, financial mismanagement and corruption at what he describes as a “secular temple to the arts”.

Democrats on the committee said they obtained documents that suggest the national cultural centre is being operated as a “slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies”, resulting in millions of dollars in losses and a significant deviation from its statutory mission.

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Donald Trump has denied falling asleep while attending public meetings and robustly defended his health after the first year of his second term in office raised growing questions.

Trump, who at 79 is the oldest person to assume the US presidency, told the Wall Street Journal “my health is perfect” and expressed frustration with scrutiny of his wellbeing.

In the interview, the president denied he had fallen asleep during White House meetings – when cameras have caught him with his eyes closed – instead insisting he was resting his eyes or blinking.

“I’ll just close. It’s very relaxing to me,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink.”

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Speculation over former President Donald Trump’s health surged over the weekend after a viral video from his latest golf outing appeared to show him struggling with mobility. The footage, which quickly gained traction on social media, has prompted a wave of theories and discussions about the 78-year-old’s physical condition, with particular attention paid to his right leg.

The video in question was originally shared by Aleman’s Brothers LLC, a groundskeeping company that appears to service Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. It captures Trump engaging in one of his frequent pastimes, hitting the golf course on a sunny Sunday afternoon. However, it was not his swing that caught the internet’s attention, but rather his gait.

Numerous users on X (formerly Twitter) voiced their concerns, with many questioning whether the former president might be experiencing a significant health issue.

One user bluntly asked, “Is something wrong with Trump’s legs?” Others speculated that he was exhibiting signs of a neurological condition or musculoskeletal disorder.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s four-year term leading the nation’s largest city began Thursday with a seven-block long street party and guest appearances at his inaugural ceremony from the leading lights of the left.

On a freezing New Year’s Day, the 34-year-old democratic socialist was sworn on the steps of City Hall by Sen. Bernie Sanders after an introduction by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

"Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously," Mamdani said. "We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try to those who insist that the era of big government is over."

"I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist," he said.

Mamdani is the 112th person, but the first Muslim and the first person of South Asian descent, to lead the nation's largest city.

In 2025, Mamdani stunned political establishment by defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo first in the Democratic primary and again in the November general election. He ran on a progressive platform to address affordability, reshaping a mayor’s race that resonated even in the White House with Republican President Donald Trump.

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