February 24, 2026

Now, on to the news…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first budget season has been jarring. During his campaign last year, he was authentic, fun, and focused on free stuff. Now? He’s warning of a looming fiscal crisis and threatening a 9.5 percent property tax hike.

As Nicole Gelinas writes, “the guy who couldn’t stop smiling last year insists the city is in crisis now. Why? He needs a crisis to push through his proposed $9 billion in annual new taxes on high earners and corporations. He wants to raise taxes for the sake of raising taxes—and the governor, who must sign off on any such increases, won’t cooperate.”

Read her take on the budget, Mamdani’s strategy, and what’s at stake.

New York City progressives are ramping up their regulatory campaign against food. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “$30 by ‘30” pledge, for instance, has reignited a war against the tipped-wage structure—a pillar of the restaurant industry for more than 50 years. It allows hospitality workers to be paid below the minimum wage as long as tips make up the difference. Eliminating it, Jarrett Dieterle argues, would likely lead to lower server pay and higher dining costs. That’s exactly what happened in Washington, D.C.

Read more from Dieterle on progressives’ efforts and how they will ultimately push prices higher.

Meet Project Shema. A new organization, it’s gaining traction on college campuses by positioning itself as a DEI group for Jews. It offers seminars and sensitivity trainings in schools and workplaces to help address anti-Semitism.

But “Jews don’t need a seat at the DEI table,” Josh Appel writes. “They need civil-rights law applied consistently and enforced vigorously. If someone harasses or assaults a Jewish student, prosecute them. No sensitivity seminar needed, no ‘allyship’ workshop required—just equal protection under the law.”

Read more about the group.

Conservatives in Britain are facing an existential crisis. Voters have grown disillusioned with the party, leading to its defeat in 2024. As Joanna Williams writes, “the party that talked ‘right’ but governed ‘left,’ and that promised to take back control of the borders but instead opened them, found itself firmly rejected by the electorate.”

Now, right-leaning voters and Conservative MPs alike are defecting to Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s anti-woke populist party. Championing neither free-market capitalism nor government handouts, it has promised to end mass migration.

Read more about the party and what it means for Conservatives’ future.

“Tariffs are a powerful tool that Congress should have used years ago to coerce foreign governments to police drug traffic, etc. In addition, many trading ‘partners’ have long abused the U.S. with their own onerous tariffs.

President Trump just took the bull by the horns. Maybe he did overreach his constitutional powers, but a functional government with the country’s best interests in mind would cooperate across the different branches and parties. But the Dems are totally blindsided by TDS.”

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Mauly, commenting on the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling

Photo credits: Pacific Press / Contributor / LightRocket via Getty Images