NEW YORK: New York Governor Kathy Hochul has endorsed Zohran Mamdani in his run for mayor of New York City, a major boost for the rising Muslim politician.

“In the four years since I took office, one of my foundational beliefs has been the importance of the office of New York governor working hand in hand with the mayor of New York City for the betterment of the 8.3 million residents we both represent,” Hochul wrote in a New York Times opinion piece.

“The question of who will be the next mayor is one I take extremely seriously and to which I have devoted a great deal of thought. Tonight I am endorsing Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.”

In a post on X linking to the column, she wrote: “New York City deserves a mayor who will stand up to (President) Donald Trump and make life more affordable for New Yorkers. “That’s @ZohranKMamdani.”

In response, Mamdani welcomed the endorsement in a post on X. “I’m grateful for the Governor’s support in unifying our party, her resolve in standing up to Trump, and her focus on making New York affordable. I look forward to the great work we will accomplish together. Our movement is only growing stronger,” he wrote.

Mamdani won the Democratic primary in June, defeating the establishment candidate, Andrew Cuomo, with progressive promises to freeze rent, introduce a $ 30-per-hour minimum wage, and increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.

With a message of change and a savvy social media presence, Mamdani turned out thousands of new voters, and polling on the mayoral election shows him comfortably ahead of Cuomo, a former governor of New York, who is now running as an independent candidate.

Mamdani also has a large lead over Eric Adams, the unpopular incumbent mayor who is also running as an independent, and the Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Yet, Hochul, the most powerful Democrat in New York, had resisted endorsing Mamdani or any other candidate for mayor, telling journalists in June: “Obviously, there are areas of difference in our positions.”

The governor appears to have come round, however, having met with Mamdani in recent weeks. Hochul, who is running for re-election next year, released her first campaign ad in late August, casting herself as a straight-talking “fighter” who will stand up to Donald Trump.

Mamdani’s victory has inspired more than 10,000 progressives to consider a run for office and earned big-name endorsements from progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Pakistan-born Senator Chris van Hollen during the campaign.

Yet the centre of the party has appeared wary. Senior Democratic figures in the state, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, have yet to endorse anyone for mayor.

Chuck Schumer, the influential Senate majority leader who represents New York, has also yet to endorse in the race. Schumer is a staunch supporter of Israel, while Mamdani has repeatedly criticised the Israeli war on Gaza and described the situation there as a genocide, as have many human rights groups, including some from Israel.

Mamdani has also said that if elected, he would order the New York Police Department (NYPD) to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in the city.

He said in an interview with The New York Times that Netanyahu was a war criminal who was committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. If the Israeli leader were to come to New York, Mamdani said, he would honour a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu’s arrest by having him apprehended at the airport.

SYDNEY: Rising oceans and flooding caused by climate change will threaten the homes and livelihoods of more than a million Australians by 2050, while deaths from heat-related illness will soar, a landmark report warned Monday ahead of Canberra’s release of emission reduction targets this week.

The long-awaited national climate risk assessment found that rising temperatures will have “cascading, compounding, concurrent” impacts on life in Australia, home to more than 27 million people.

“We are living in climate change now. It’s no longer a forecast, a projection or prediction — it is a live reality, and it’s too late to avoid any impacts,” Climate Minister Chris Bowen said.

The report, prepared independently for the government, found that 1.5 million people living in coastal areas will be at risk of sea level rise and coastal flooding by 2050.

By 2090, about three million people will be at risk from rising oceans.

Sea level rises pose a significant threat to homes, livelihoods, and cultural connections — particularly in locations such as the Torres Strait Islands, the report said.

Scattered through the warm waters off Australia’s northernmost tip, the sparsely populated islands are threatened by seas rising much faster than the global average.

Joanne Hill, community engagement coordinator at Edith Cowan University and an Indigenous woman, said in response to the report “we cannot delay this emergency response anymore”.

“Our coastal and island communities, particularly the Torres Strait Islands, are at immediate risk of losing their homes, their cultural practices and traditions if we do not do anything now,” Hill said.

Monday’s report comes as Australia is set to release its next round of emissions reduction targets in the coming week, a key obligation under the landmark Paris climate agreement.

Many hope the country will reveal more ambitious targets.

‘Terrifying’

Losses in Australian property values are estimated to soar to Aus$611 billion (US$406 billion) by 2050 and could increase to Aus$770 billion by 2090.

Should the temperatures increase by 3°C, heat-related deaths could soar by more than 400% in Sydney, Australia’s most-populated city, the report said.

Australia’s unique species will also be forced to move, adapt to the new conditions or die out as climate change intensifies, the report said.

Amanda McKenzie, chief executive of the Climate Council NGO, described the report as “terrifying”.

“We can choose a better future by cutting climate pollution harder and faster now,” McKenzie said.

“The first step is legislating the strongest possible 2035 climate target and stopping new polluting projects,” she said.

One of the world’s biggest fossil fuel exporters, Australia, has been criticised for treating climate action as a political and economic liability.

The “climate wars” — a years-long domestic fight over emissions policy — were blamed for curtailing progress in cutting heat-trapping carbon emissions.

The centre-left Labour government has stepped up efforts in recent years to bring down emissions and roll out renewable energy.

However, despite its green ambitions, the government continues to approve fossil fuel projects, including granting a 40-year extension to a major liquefied natural gas plant.

The extended lifeline of the North West Shelf project — a sprawling complex of offshore rigs and processing factories pumping out more than 10 million tonnes of LNG and petroleum each year — has angered Indigenous and environmental groups.

Bowen said moving to a greener future presented a “complicated and complex” set of challenges and that gas would remain a necessary backup renewable in the future energy mix.

“But we also face that challenge from a position of strength, because we have the best renewable resources in the world,” he said.

• Mayor Muriel Bowser says police will not cooperate with ICE.
• Trump says crime would come “roaring back” from non-cooperation.
• President has already deployed over 2,000 troops in Washington.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would call a national emergency and federalise Washington, DC after Mayor Muriel Bowser said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

At issue is the provision of information on individuals living in, or entering, the United States illegally. Trump’s threat adds to a move critics have seen as federal overreach, with more than 2,000 troops patrolling the city.

The comments come after several thousand protesters hit the streets this month over Trump’s August deployment of National Guard troops to “re-establish law, order, and public safety,” after calling crime a blight on the capital.

“In just a few weeks. The ‘place’ is absolutely booming […] for the first time in decades, virtually NO CRIME,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Bowser’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.

Earlier, he had put the metropolitan police department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement, including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to police the streets. It is unclear when their mission will end.

Trump blamed “Radical Left Democrats” for pressuring Bowser to inform the government about the non-cooperation with ICE, adding that if the police halted cooperation with ICE, “Crime would come roaring back”.

He added, “To the people and businesses of Washington, DC, DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalise, if necessary!!!”

Bowser, who has previously praised Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement, bringing a sharp decline in crime, earlier signed an order for the city to coordinate with federal law enforcement.

The National Guard serves as a militia answering to the governors of the 50 states, except when called into federal service. The DC National Guard reports directly to the president.