Who is Zohran Mamdani – and how did he pull off astonishing New York victory?

Published

1 week ago

November 5, 2025

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Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani will become New York City’s next mayor after he swept to victory in a decisive win.

His rise to political stardom was complete late on Tuesday night when he was projected to have won the mayoral contest, which will see him sworn in to replace Eric Adams in January.

In a fiery acceptance speech last night, Mr Mamdani, the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York, said: “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”

The 34-year-old is the youngest person in a century to be elected as the famous city’s mayor.

So how did he get here, what does he stand for, and why has he proved a divisive figure?

From rapper to mayor

Mr Mamdani, a state lawmaker, was relatively unknown when he announced his run in October last year.

His win in the summer in the Democratic mayoral primary against then favourite Andrew Cuomo – a former New York governor making a political comeback from a sexual harassment scandal – shocked the nation.

He was elected to the State Assembly in 2020, representing a district in Queens, becoming the first South Asian man to serve in the NYS Assembly, as well as the first Ugandan and third Muslim to ever be a member of the body

Before that he was on the city’s rapping scene, going by Young Cardamom and later as Mr Cardamom.

He made a song called #1 Spice with the artist HAB for the 2016 Disney film Queen of Katwe, which was directed by his mother Mira Nair, an award-winning filmmaker, while another song, Nani – a tribute to his grandmother – was released in 2019.

Mr Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, and was raised there and briefly in South Africa until he was seven years old, when his family moved to New York.

He is the son of filmmaker mother Mira Nair, best known for 2001 comedy/drama Monsoon Wedding, and Mahmood Mamdani, an anthropology professor at Columbia University.

He went to a public school and attended the Bronx High School of Science, before receiving a degree in Africana Studies from Bowdoin College, where he co-started the school’s first Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

He became naturalised as an American citizen in 2018, and worked as a foreclosure prevention housing counsellor.

The politician says that the job, which saw him help low-income homeowners of colour across Queens fight off eviction and stay in their homes, inspired him to run for office.

Mr Trump has alleged without evidence that Mr Mamdani is in the US “illegally,” and some Republicans have called for his deportation.

Mr Mamdani married Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist whom he met on the dating app Hinge, earlier this year.

How did Mamdani win?

His energetic campaign, with cost-of-living concerns at its heart, has made Mr Mamdani popular among working-class voters.

He has used social media to engage with a younger demographic, with slickly-produced videos earning him nearly 5 million followers on Instagram and 1.6 million on TikTok.

He has set out his vision of free buses, free childcare, new apartments and a higher minimum wage – paid for by new taxes on the rich.

Likewise, he has also shared plans to hire thousands of new teachers, renegotiate city contracts and freeze rent increases for the city’s one million rent-regulated apartments.

“We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible,” Mr Mamdani told supporters after his win.

Critics have suggested his ambitious plans won’t be affordable.

Mr Mamdani’s campaign was helped by controversies plaguing his competitors.

Who ran against him?

Mr Cuomo had been trying to make a political comeback from a sexual harassment scandal that saw him resign as governor of New York state in 2021.

His resignation came after a report from the state attorney general concluded that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women. Mr Cuomo has said he did not intentionally mistreat the women but had run afoul of what was considered appropriate workplace conduct.

The 67-year-old refused to back down after losing the Democratic primary to Mr Mamdani, and became a more likely winner as an independent than Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, owing to New York’s largely Democratic-leaning population.

Adding to Mr Mamdani’s chances was the fact that the incumbent Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, decided to drop out of the race for re-election in September. His reputation had taken a hit after he was charged with taking bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals last year. The charges have since been dropped.

Why Mamdani is a divisive figure on the left

Progressives have rallied behind Mr Mamdani throughout his campaign, with his economic populism and youthful charisma raising his popularity beyond New York.

He has had heavy support from popular US Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from before he won the primary in June.

For much of his campaign, Democratic leaders in Washington and moderate Democrats were seen actively distancing themselves from Mr Mamdani, with some considering his socialist views too radical.

He has been an outspoken critic of Israel, calling its military campaign in Gaza a “genocide” and saying Palestine should exist as “a state with equal rights,” while demanding hefty tax increases on the wealthy to make life more affordable for everyday New Yorkers.

His views have posed a challenge for the leftist leaders, who want to appeal to voters not just in Democratic strongholds like New York but also in swing states or places that lean toward Republicans, such as Senate contests next year in North Carolina and Ohio.

Party leaders like governor Kathy Hochul and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries eventually endorsed Mr Mamdani months after he won the nomination.

Mr Jeffries, a moderate New York Democrat, said he had disagreements with Mr Mamdani but supported him as the nominee, adding that the party should unify against Republicans and Donald Trump.

While he did not openly endorse the 34-year-old, The New York Times reported that former US president Barack Obama had called Mr Mamdani and offered to be a “sounding board”.

What has Trump said about Mamdani?

Mr Trump, unsurprisingly, has been critical of Mr Mamdani, calling him a “communist” who “doesn’t know a thing” and “probably never worked a day in his life”.

He even suggested Republican candidate Mr Sliwa should drop out to give Mr Cuomo a bigger share of votes, and on the day before the last day of voting, explicitly endorsed the independent candidate on Truth Social.

Throughout his campaign to be mayor, Mr Mamdani was critical of the Trump administration – in particular about the immigration raids seen in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, vowing to hire more lawyers for the city to challenge any National Guard or ICE deployment.

In August, he said a New York with him as mayor would be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare”.

Mr Trump said Mr Mamdani’s election would bring “disaster” for the city.

And in a speech on Tuesday night after winning the election, Mr Mamdani fired attacks against Mr Trump, saying: “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”

As he was speaking, the president posted a blunt rebuttal on Truth Social, saying: “…AND SO IT BEGINS!”

US

Donald Trump and his long history of lawsuits against the media

Published

8 hours ago

November 12, 2025

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Donald Trump and his long history of lawsuits against the media

Donald Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn (£760m) – but this is not his first legal battle with the media.

The US president has clashed with the broadcaster over edits made to one of his 2021 speeches in a Panorama documentary aired before last year’s election.

Mr Trump’s legal team has accused the BBC of using “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements”.

BBC Chair Samir Shah has apologised for an “error of judgment” over the way the speech was edited, while director-general, Tim Davie, and CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness, have both announced their resignations.

But this is not the first time Mr Trump has taken on the media – and is in fact the latest in a recent spate of legal battles with the press.

Trump vs CNN

If past examples are anything to go by, Mr Trump’s legal threat is not an empty one.

He previously filed a $475m (£360m) defamation suit against CNN, alleging it had compared him to Adolf Hitler.

It came after CNN referred to Mr Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him as the “Big Lie” – an expression also used by Hitler in Mein Kampf.

But the case was thrown out after US district judge Raag Singhal ruled that the term “does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews”.

Election campaign lawsuit

His election campaign in 2020 also sued the New York Times and the Washington Post over opinion pieces alleging ties between with Russia.

These cases were dismissed in 2021 and 2023, respectively.

Yet, Mr Trump has had more success in recent years.

ABC settlement

In 2024, Trump sued American broadcaster ABC and its news host George Stephanopoulos, after the anchor falsely referred to the president being found “liable for rape” in an interview.

In the civil case in question, he was actually found liable for sexual abuse and defamation – a verdict which Trump is appealing.

Given the high bar for proving defamation against public figures, experts were sceptical that he could win the lawsuit.

George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center told CBS at the time: “I don’t know of any president who successfully sued a media company for defamation.”

Yet ABC, which is owned by Disney, agreed to settle, paying $15m (£11.4m) to Trump for his future presidential library, and a further $1m (£760,000) towards his legal fees.

Battle with CBS

In another lawsuit, the president demanded $20bn (£15.2bn) from CBS over an interview with his election rival Kamala Harris broadcast on 60 Minutes.

His team accused the broadcaster of “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” with its editing of the interview, saying it intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” in the contest.

First Amendment attorney Charles Tobin of the law firm Ballard Spahr told CNN at the time: “This is a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media.”

Yet they too settled out of court, with CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, paying $16m (£12.1m) to end the legal dispute – again towards Trump’s future presidential library.

Trump vs Meta

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also settled with the president to the tune of $25m (£19m).

That lawsuit came after he sued over the suspension of his accounts in the wake of the 6 January riots.

Why the recent spate?

While Mr Trump has made several threats to media organisations in recent years, it is not the first time he has done so.

According to Columbia Journalism Review, he threatened to sue a journalist at New York’s Village Voice as far back as 1979, and actually sued the Chicago Tribune in 1984.

That 1984 lawsuit, which came after Mr Trump took umbrage at a column by the paper’s award-winning architecture columnist criticising his plans for a huge tower block in New York City, was thrown out as an opinion by a judge.

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However, the number of lawsuits, and the size of his compensation demands, have increased of late. So what has changed?

“As president, Trump’s leverage has increased exponentially,” wrote media reporter Paul Farhi in Vanity Fair.

“It’s no coincidence that Disney and Meta have settled since Election Day, and Paramount has come to the table.”

Now that he’s turning his ire on the BBC, what will the outcome be?

Mr Freeman called his threat to the broadcaster “totally meaningless”, noting that he “has a long record of unsuccessful libel suits” intended to “threaten and scare media he doesn’t like”.

Can the BBC rely on that assessment?

With a deadline set for Friday, 10pm UK time, we may be about to find out.

US

UK stops some intelligence sharing with US over boat strikes in Caribbean

Published

8 hours ago

November 12, 2025

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UK stops some intelligence sharing with US over boat strikes in Caribbean

The UK has reportedly stopped sharing some intelligence with the US on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean following concerns over America’s strikes against the vessels.

The US has reported carrying out 14 strikes since September on boats near the Venezuelan coast, with the number of people killed rising beyond 70.

Downing Street did not deny reporting by CNN that the UK is withholding intelligence from the US to avoid being complicit in military strikes it believes may breach international law.

Britain controls several territories in the Caribbean, where it bases intelligence assets, and has long assisted the US in identifying vessels suspected of smuggling narcotics.

That information helped the US Coast Guard locate the ships, seize drugs and detain crews, CNN cited sources as saying, but officials are concerned the Trump administration’s actions may be illegal.

The intelligence-sharing pause began more than a month ago, CNN reported, quoting sources as saying Britain shares UN human rights chief Volker Turk’s assessment that the strikes amount to extrajudicial killing.

The reports could provide an awkward backdrop for a meeting between Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and her US counterpart Marco Rubio, expected on Wednesday at the G7 foreign ministerial summit in Canada.

A Number 10 spokesman did not deny the move when asked about the pause in intelligence sharing.

“We don’t comment on security or intelligence matters,” the official said in response to repeated questions.

“The US is our closest partner on defence, security and intelligence, but in line with a long-standing principle, I’m just not going to comment on intelligence matters.”

He added that “decisions on this are a matter for the US” and that “issues around whether or not anything is against international law is a matter for a competent international court, not for governments to determine”.

A Pentagon official told CNN the department “doesn’t talk about intelligence matters”.

On Monday, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, now styled as the war secretary, said on X that the previous day, “two lethal kinetic strikes were conducted on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organisations”.

He said: “These vessels were known by our intelligence to be associated with illicit narcotics smuggling, were carrying narcotics, and were transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific.

“Both strikes were conducted in international waters and 3 male narco-terrorists were aboard each vessel. All 6 were killed. No U.S. forces were harmed.”

The United Nations human rights chief has described the US strikes on alleged drug dealers off the coast of South America as “unacceptable” and a violation of international human rights law.

Venezuela says they are illegal, amount to murder and are aggression against the sovereign South American nation.

US

California governor Gavin Newsom accuses Donald Trump of ‘abdicating responsibility’ over green energy at COP30

Published

8 hours ago

November 12, 2025

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California governor Gavin Newsom accuses Donald Trump of 'abdicating responsibility' over green energy at COP30

A possible Democratic contender for the White House says he’s at the COP summit with an “open hand not a closed fist” – as he vowed not to let China dominate the green space.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has for months been teasing a bid for the next presidential election in 2028.

Sky News asked him at COP30 in Brazil if he was using it to drum up support for his campaign.

“I’m here in the absence of leadership from Donald Trump, who’s abdicated responsibility on a critical issue,” he said.

The Republican president has ignored the meeting of tens of thousands of people in Belem, leaving the stage wide open for Democrats to swoop in and lob criticism from afar.

Mr Newsom is a longstanding political foe of US President Donald Trump – they trade insults like “Gavin Newscum” and “The Nodfather”.

He added the switch to green energy is about “more than electric power”.

“It’s about economic power,” Mr Newsom said, “and I’m not going to cede America’s economic leadership to China.”

When he took office this year, Donald Trump cancelled clean energy projects and subsidies.

Meanwhile, China is making eight in ten of the world’s solar panels and seven in ten electric vehicles – while also producing more coal than any other country.

The US president is fighting back for the domestic oil and gas industry by trying to sell more of it abroad.

But in doing so he has given China more room to dominate green markets, Democrats say.

The US and China have been locked in tariff threats and trade wars this year.

‘Open hand, not a closed fist’

Mr Newsom said at another event at COP30 today California was going to “lean in” and “compete in this space”.

“But we can’t do that without all of you… So we’re here with an open hand, not a closed fist.”

Democrats have been pounding the hot and humid hallways in Amazonian Belem to tout California’s “climate leadership”.

The state doesn’t have any formal say in these inter-governmental negotiations. But as the fourth-largest economy in the world, it does wield influence in energy markets.

California gets two thirds of its electricity from renewables, but also still imports 300,000 barrels of oil a year, the second-biggest provider of which is the country hosting the climate summit, Brazil.

Republican states were also faster to roll out renewable power than Democrats. Sky News put that to California senator Josh Becker yesterday, also here on a PR exercise for the state.

Mr Becker said the fact that Republican Texas had rolled out more solar and wind than California was “a good thing that shows that it’s economically competitive”.

“It’s actually cheaper. That’s really why they did it,” he said. “Not necessarily because of climate action. And that’s good news. So we’re all for that.”