“These were ISIS-inspired actions,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said during a news conference.

Two men from Pennsylvania, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, are now facing federal charges after being arrested outside Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s home, on Saturday.

Both suspects admitted that their actions on Saturday were because of ISIS, Tisch said. Kayumi allegedly told investigators that he had watched ISIS propaganda on his phone and was partly inspired by the group, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. According to the police commissioner, Balat pledged his allegiance to ISIS in writing while he was in custody.

Balat allegedly told investigators that he wanted to carry out an attack that was bigger than the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon that killed three people, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

“This was not random violence,” Police Commissioner Tisch told reporters. “This was a planned attack motivated by extremist ideology and inspired by a violent foreign terrorist organization.”

Federal prosecutors in New York unveiled charges Monday against the two men. They are each being charged with:

Attempted provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization,Use of a weapon of mass destruction, Transportation of explosive materials, Interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, Unlawful possession of destructive devices.

Mamdani said the suspects were seen on video throwing two devices toward protests outside Gracie Mansion on Saturday. The FBI said the devices contained explosive materials and fragmentation that could have killed and maimed numerous people.

“Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have been charged with committing a heinous act of terrorism and proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS. They should be held fully accountable for their actions,” Mamdani said in a statement Monday. “We will continue to keep New Yorkers safe. We will not tolerate terrorism or violence in our city.”

The FBI said later Monday that it was conducting “a court-authorized search of a storage unit in Pennsylvania related to the investigation into the incident near Gracie Mansion.”

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has taken the lead and launched a terrorism investigation. Tisch said search warrants were executed at the suspects’ residences in Pennsylvania.

Videos showing the chaos from the protests, verified by the CBS News Confirmed team, show a man apparently yelling “Allahu Akbar” – or “God is Most Great” – just as a protester, identified as Balat, allegedly throws an “ignited device.”

Tisch described the device as “a jar wrapped in tape, importantly with nuts, bolts and screws along with a hobby fuse.”

According to Tisch, the first device thrown by Balat extinguished itself after striking a barrier in a crosswalk, a few feet from police officers.

Balat then ran away and allegedly retrieved a second device from Kayumi, lit the device and started running with it before dropping the device, Tisch said.

Balat and Kayumi were taken into custody. Police arrested a person, identified as 21-year-old Ian McGuiness, who allegedly used pepper spray on counter-protesters, and three others on disorderly conduct and obstruction charges.

Another suspicious device was found Sunday in a vehicle on East End Avenue about three blocks south of the park where Gracie Mansion is located, the NYPD said, prompting “limited evacuations of buildings in the vicinity while the Bomb Squad assesses and removes the device.”  Police commissioner Tisch said Monday that the vehicle was linked to the suspects, and that investigators recovered from the vehicle handwritten notes with references to TATP and listing chemical ingredients for the type of explosive device used Saturday.

The device was safely removed for further testing, the NYPD said later Sunday.

Investigators looking into suspects’ background

Investigators are looking into the overseas travel for Balat and Kayumi. Balat left the U.S. for several months and traveled to Istanbul from May 6 to Aug. 26, 2025. He most recently traveled back to the U.S. from Turkey in January of this year. Meanwhile, Kayumi traveled to Istanbul for several weeks in July and August 2024 and to Saudi Arabia in late March of that year.

Federal investigators have also been interviewing family members of Balat and Kayumi as part of their investigation, as well as looking at their online communications. 

Balat’s parents were born in Turkey and were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2017. Balat is a U.S. citizen and has been living with his family in a large two-story home in Pennsylvania. A woman at the residence confirmed to CBS Philadelphia that Balat lived at the house.

Kayumi’s parents are originally from Afghanistan. They became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2004 and 2009. It is unclear if Kayumi was living with them at the time of the incident Saturday.

In a statement on Sunday, Mamdani specifically mentioned Lang and said the protest outside Gracie Mansion was “rooted in bigotry and racism” and has no place in New York City.

“It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are,” he said.

He also said, “The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”

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The legal observers, drawn from volunteers in the attorney general’s office, will not interfere with enforcement actions, and wear easily identifiable vests as they document Immigration Customs and Enforcement activity, she said.

“We have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability,” James said in a statement. “My office is launching the Legal Observation Project to examine federal enforcement activity in New York and whether it remains within the bounds of the law.”

The legal observers are meant to compile independent records of ICE conduct in the state that could, where potential violations occur, assist the attorney general’s office in any litigation.

The attorney general also urged New York residents to submit videos and other documentation of federal immigration enforcement to her office’s website.

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Hochul calls ICE “A rogue agency out of control.”

She added that the proposal of the state legislation is happening during a “moment in history where we’ll be judged by whether we stood up or we cowered to power.”

Gov. Hochul said that even though New York City is a sanctuary city, policing agencies in other areas of the state have “become basically deputized ICE agents.” She recalls a young boy’s story of local law enforcement taking his father away and handing him over to ICE. This is one instance the governor mentions in which police officers have been weaponized against their own communities.

In an interview with Morning Edition, Hochul said that while fewer than 10 of the state’s 62 counties cooperate with ICE at any level, it shouldn’t be happening at all.

While speaking with NPR’s A Martínez, Hochul discussed why her proposed legislation is so important now, how the Trump administration has deviated from its original immigration agenda and how she views the current state of the U.S.

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NYC Metro Cards may have been laid to rest last week, but the  Metro  cards  used for decades to pay for public transportation in the Big Apple, are selling for anywhere between $6 and $5,000 on resell sites like eBay.

While the majority of resell listings are for the bright yellow and blue MetroCard most are familiar with, some listings offer cards that may be more collectible. As of Jan. 5, eBay listings included a set of four original MetroCards, in unsealed packaging, from the cards’ debut in 1994; a Notorious B.I.G. collaboration from 2022; and a green Student Pass that expired in 2002.

Despite being out of circulation for more than 20 years, New York subway tokens are listed for very little on resell sites like eBay, averaging anywhere between $10 and $50 for a handful. First introduced in 1953, the MTA phased out the tokens in 2003.

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“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try,” Mamdani told a cheering crowd.

“To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives,” he said.

Mamdani’s remarks were peppered with references to those New Yorkers, citing workers in steel-toed boots, halal cart vendors “whose knees ache from working all day” and cooks “wielding a thousand spices.”

“I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said. “I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed ‘radical.’”

“In the richest country in the history of the world, making sure that people can live in affordable housing is not radical,” he told the crowd. “It is the right and decent thing to do.”

“A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are on the levers of change. And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition,” he said.

In his speech, Mamdani acknowledged the task ahead, saying he knows many will be watching to see whether he can succeed.

“They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again,” he said. “So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: We will set an example for the world.”

Throughout the daytime ceremony, Mamdani and other speakers hit on the theme that carried him to victory in the election: Using government power to lift up the millions of people who struggle with the city’s high cost of living.

Mamdani was accompanied on stage by his wife, Rama Duwaji. Adams was also in attendance, sitting near another former mayor, Bill de Blasio.

Actor Mandy Patinkin, who recently hosted Mamdani to celebrate Hannukah, sang “Over the Rainbow” with children from an elementary school chorus. The invocation was given by Imam Khalid Latif, the director of the Islamic Center of New York City. Poet Cornelius Eady read an original poem called “Proof.”

In addition to being the city’s first Muslim mayor, Mamdani is also its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, Mamdani is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations.

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7, with Mamdani growing up in a post-9/11 city where Muslims didn’t always feel welcome. He became an American citizen in 2018.

He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.

Now that he has taken office, Mamdani and his wife will depart their one-bedroom, rent stabilized apartment in the outer-borough to take up residence in the stately mayoral residence in Manhattan.

Mayor Johran Mamdani’s speech  read  as bellow:

I stand before you moved by the privilege of taking this sacred oath, humbled by the faith that you have placed in me, and honored to serve as either your 111th or 112th Mayor of New York City. But I do not stand alone.

I stand alongside you, the tens of thousands gathered here in Lower Manhattan, warmed against the January chill by the resurgent flame of hope.

I stand alongside countless more New Yorkers watching from cramped kitchens in Flushing and barbershops in East New York, from cell phones propped against the dashboards of parked taxi cabs at LaGuardia, from hospitals in Mott Haven and libraries in El Barrio that have too long known only neglect.

I stand alongside construction workers in steel-toed boots and halal cart vendors whose knees ache from working all day.

I stand alongside neighbors who carry a plate of food to the elderly couple down the hall, those in a rush who still lift strangers’ strollers up subway stairs, and every person who makes the choice day after day, even when it feels impossible, to call our city home.

I stand alongside over one million New Yorkers who voted for this day nearly two months ago—and I stand just as resolutely alongside those who did not. I know there are some who view this administration with distrust or disdain, or who see politics as permanently broken. And while only action can change minds, I promise you this: if you are a New Yorker, I am your Mayor. Regardless of whether we agree, I will protect you, celebrate with you, mourn alongside you, and never, not for a second, hide from you.

I thank the labor and movement leaders here today, the activists and elected officials who will return to fighting for New Yorkers the second this ceremony concludes, and the performers who have gifted us with their talent.

Thank you to Governor Hochul for joining us. And thank you to Mayor Adams—Dorothy’s son, a son of Brownsville who rose from washing dishes to the highest position in our city—for being here as well. He and I have had our share of disagreements, but I will always be touched that he chose me as the Mayoral candidate that he would most want to be trapped with on an elevator.

Thank you to the two titans who, as an Assemblymember, I’ve had the privilege of being represented by in Congress—Nydia Velázquez and our incredible opening speaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You have paved the way for this moment.

Thank you to the man whose leadership I seek most to emulate, who I am so grateful to be sworn in by today—Senator Bernie Sanders.

Thank you to my teams—from the Assembly, to the campaign, to the transition and now, the team I am so excited to lead from City Hall.

Thank you to my parents, Mama and Baba, for raising me, for teaching me how to be in this world, and for having brought me to this city. Thank you to my family—from Kampala to Delhi. And thank you to my wife Rama for being my best friend, and for always showing me the beauty in everyday things.

Most of all—thank you to the people of New York.

A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are the ones upon the levers of change.

And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition. What was promised was never pursued, what could have changed remained the same. For the New Yorkers most eager to see our city remade, the weight has only grown heavier, the wait has only grown longer.

In writing this address, I have been told that this is the occasion to reset expectations, that I should use this opportunity to encourage the people of New York to ask for little and expect even less. I will do no such thing. The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations.

Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. 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, hear me when I say this—no longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives.

For too long, we have turned to the private sector for greatness, while accepting mediocrity from those who serve the public. I cannot blame anyone who has come to question the role of government, whose faith in democracy has been eroded by decades of apathy. We will restore that trust by walking a different path—one where government is no longer solely the final recourse for those struggling, one where excellence is no longer the exception.

We expect greatness from the cooks wielding a thousand spices, from those who stride out onto Broadway stages, from our starting point guard at Madison Square Garden. Let us demand the same from those who work in government. In a city where the mere names of our streets are associated with the innovation of the industries that call them home, we will make the words ‘City Hall’ synonymous with both resolve and results.

As we embark upon this work, let us advance a new answer to the question asked of every generation: Who does New York belong to?

For much of our history, the response from City Hall has been simple: it belongs only to the wealthy and well-connected, those who never strain to capture the attention of those in power.

Working people have reckoned with the consequences. Crowded classrooms and public housing developments where the elevators sit out of order; roads littered with potholes and buses that arrive half an hour late, if at all; wages that do not rise and corporations that rip off consumers and employees alike.

And still—there have been brief, fleeting moments where the equation changed.

Twelve years ago, Bill de Blasio stood where I stand now as he promised to “put an end to economic and social inequalities” that divided our city into two.

In 1990, David Dinkins swore the same oath I swore today, vowing to celebrate the “gorgeous mosaic” that is New York, where every one of us is deserving of a decent life.

And nearly six decades before him, Fiorella La Guardia took office with the goal of building a city that was “far greater and more beautiful” for the hungry and the poor.

Some of these Mayors achieved more success than others. But they were unified by a shared belief that New York could belong to more than just a privileged few. It could belong to those who operate our subways and rake our parks, those who feed us biryani and beef patties, picanha and pastrami on rye. And they knew that this belief could be made true if only government dared to work hardest for those who work hardest.

Over the years to come, my administration will resurrect that legacy. City Hall will deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance—where government looks and lives like the people it represents, never flinches in the fight against corporate greed, and refuses to cower before challenges that others have deemed too complicated.

In so doing, we will provide our own answer to that age-old question—who does New York belong to? Well, my friends, we can look to Madiba and the South African Freedom Charter: New York “belongs to all who live in it.”

Together, we will tell a new story of our city.

This will not be a tale of one city, governed only by the one percent. Nor will it be a tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor.

It will be a tale of 8 and a half million cities, each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, each a universe, each of them woven together.

The authors of this story will speak Pashto and Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole. They will pray in mosques, at shul, at church, at Gurdwaras and Mandirs and temples—and many will not pray at all.

They will be Russian Jewish immigrants in Brighton Beach, Italians in Rossville, and Irish families in Woodhaven—many of whom came here with nothing but a dream of a better life, a dream which has withered away. They will be young people in cramped Marble Hill apartments where the walls shake when the subway passes. They will be Black homeowners in St. Albans whose homes represent a physical testament to triumph over decades of lesser-paid labor and redlining. They will be Palestinian New Yorkers in Bay Ridge, who will no longer have to contend with a politics that speaks of universalism and then makes them the exception.

Few of these 8 and a half million will fit into neat and easy boxes. Some will be voters from Hillside Avenue or Fordham Road who supported President Trump a year before they voted for me, tired of being failed by their party’s establishment. The majority will not use the language that we often expect from those who wield influence. I welcome the change. For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty.

Many of these people have been betrayed by the established order. But in our administration, their needs will be met. Their hopes and dreams and interests will be reflected transparently in government. They will shape our future.

And if for too long these communities have existed as distinct from one another, we will draw this city closer together. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. Because no matter what you eat, what language you speak, how you pray, or where you come from—the words that most define us are the two we all share: New Yorkers.

And it will be New Yorkers who reform a long-broken property tax system. New Yorkers who will create a new Department of Community Safety that will tackle the mental health crisis and let the police focus on the job they signed up to do. New Yorkers who will take on the bad landlords who mistreat their tenants and free small business owners from the shackles of bloated bureaucracy. And I am proud to be one of those New Yorkers.

When we won the primary last June, there were many who said that these aspirations and those who held them had come out of nowhere. Yet one man’s nowhere is another man’s somewhere. This movement came out of 8 and a half million somewheres—taxi cab depots and Amazon warehouses, DSA meetings and curbside domino games. The powers that be had looked away from these places for quite some time—if they’d known about them at all—so they dismissed them as nowhere. But in our city, where every corner of these five boroughs holds power, there is no nowhere and there is no no one. There is only New York, and there are only New Yorkers.

8 and a half million New Yorkers will speak this new era into existence. It will be loud. It will be different. It will feel like the New York we love.

No matter how long you have called this city home, that love has shaped your life. I know that it has shaped mine.

This is the city where I set landspeed records on my razor scooter at the age of 12. Quickest four blocks of my life.

The city where I ate powdered donuts at halftime during AYSO soccer games and realized I probably wouldn’t be going pro, devoured too-big slices at Koronet Pizza, played cricket with my friends at Ferry Point Park, and took the 1 train to the BX10 only to still show up late to Bronx Science.

The city where I have gone on hunger strike just outside these gates, sat claustrophobic on a stalled N train just after Atlantic Avenue, and waited in quiet terror for my father to emerge from 26 Federal Plaza.

The city where I took a beautiful woman named Rama to McCarren Park on our first date and swore a different oath to become an American citizen on Pearl Street.

To live in New York, to love New York, is to know that we are the stewards of something without equal in our world. Where else can you hear the sound of the steelpan, savor the smell of sancocho, and pay $9 for coffee on the same block? Where else could a Muslim kid like me grow up eating bagels and lox every Sunday?

That love will be our guide as we pursue our agenda. Here, where the language of the New Deal was born, we will return the vast resources of this city to the workers who call it home. Not only will we make it possible for every New Yorker to afford a life they love once again—we will overcome the isolation that too many feel, and connect the people of this city to one another.

The cost of childcare will no longer discourage young adults from starting a family—because we will deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few.

Those in rent-stabilized homes will no longer dread the latest rent hike—because we will freeze the rent.

Getting on a bus without worrying about a fare hike or whether you’ll be late to your destination will no longer be deemed a small miracle—because we will make buses fast and free.

These policies are not simply about the costs we make free, but the lives we fill with freedom. For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it. Our City Hall will change that.

These promises carried our movement to City Hall, and they will carry us from the rallying cries of a campaign to the realities of a new era in politics.

Two Sundays ago, as snow softly fell, I spent twelve hours at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, listening to New Yorkers from every borough as they told me about the city that is theirs.

We discussed construction hours on the Van Wyck Expressway and EBT eligibility, affordable housing for artists and ICE raids. I spoke to a man named TJ who said that one day a few years ago, his heart broke as he realized he would never get ahead here, no matter how hard he worked. I spoke to a Pakistani Auntie named Samina, who told me that this movement had fostered something too rare: softness in people’s hearts. As she said in Urdu: logon ke dil badalgyehe.

142 New Yorkers out of 8 and a half million. And yet—if anything united each person sitting across from me, it was the shared recognition that this moment demands a new politics, and a new approach to power.

We will deliver nothing less as we work each day to make this city belong to more of its people than it did the day before.

Here is what I want you to expect from the administration that this morning moved into the building behind me.

We will transform the culture of City Hall from one of ‘no’ to one of ‘how?’

We will answer to all New Yorkers, not to any billionaire or oligarch who thinks they can buy our democracy.

We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe. I was elected as a Democratic socialist and I will govern as a Democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical. As the great Senator from Vermont once said: “What’s radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life.”

We will strive each day to ensure that no New Yorker is priced out of any one of those basic necessities.

And throughout it all we will, in the words of Jason Terrance Phillips, better known as Jadakiss or J to the Muah, be “outside”—because this is a government of New York, by New York, and for New York.

Before I end, I want to ask you, if you are able, whether you are here today or anywhere watching, to stand.

I ask you to stand with us now, and every day that follows. City Hall will not be able to deliver on our own. And while we will encourage New Yorkers to demand more from those with the great privilege of serving them, we will encourage you to demand more of yourselves as well.

The movement we began over a year ago did not end with our victory on Election Night. It will not end this afternoon. It lives on with every battle we will fight, together; every blizzard and flood we withstand, together; every moment of fiscal challenge we overcome with ambition, not austerity, together; every way we pursue change in working peoples’ interests, rather than at their expense, together.

No longer will we treat victory as an invitation to turn off the news. From today onwards, we will understand victory very simply: something with the power to transform lives, and something that demands effort from each of us, every single day.

What we achieve together will reach across the five boroughs and it will resonate far beyond. There are many who will be watching. They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again.

So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: we will set an example for the world. If what Sinatra said is true, let us prove that anyone can make it in New York—and anywhere else too. Let us prove that when a city belongs to the people, there is no need too small to be met, no person too sick to be made healthy, no one too alone to feel like New York is their home.

The work continues, the work endures, the work, my friends, has only just begun.

Thank you.

.

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One will revive the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, which will be led by Cea Weaver, who will serve as the executive director.

The other two executive orders establish task forces related to accelerating housing development.

The LIFT (Land Inventory Fast Track) task force will identify city-owned properties suitable for housing development.

The SPEED (Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development) task force will identify and remove bureaucratic and permitting barriers that drive up costs and slow the construction of housing.

The task forces will be overseen by the deputy mayor for housing and planning.

Anthony Carlo has more on the housing-related executive orders announced by Mayor Mamdani following his public inauguration ceremony.

The press conference was held at 85 Clarkson Avenue in Brooklyn, a rent-stabilized building, where residents are threatening a rent strike.

The building, owned by Pinnacle Realty, is one of 90-plus buildings in bankruptcy proceedings set to be auctioned off to a different landlord who ranks No. 6 on the list of worst landlords in New York City, according to Mamdani.

He said the city will be taking action in the bankruptcy case, and will step in to represent the interests of the city and tenants.

“The city of New York has not lacked for tools or tactics. The city of New York has lacked for intent,” he said of the city’s legal action with landlord Pinnacle.

He has tasked Steve Banks, newly appointed as Counsel Corporation, to take action.

Zohran Mamdani signs first 2 executive orders as NYC mayor

In his first two executive orders, announced in a press release, Zohran Mamdani revoked all executive orders issued after Sept. 26, 2024, the day former New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted, saying “that was a date that marked a moment when many New Yorkers decided politics held nothing for them.”

He revoked multiple executive orders issued by the previous administration since Sept. 26, 2024, the date federal authorities announced former Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted on corruption charges, which were later dismissed following intervention by the Trump administration.

It also established that he will have five deputy mayors, less than during the Adams administration.

Then he visited an apartment building in Brooklyn to announce he is revitalizing a city office dedicated to protecting tenants and creating two task forces focused on housing construction.

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America250 is the nonpartisan organization charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

It will mark the first time in 120 years there will be ball drop in Times Square that doesn’t occur on New Year’s Eve.

In 2016, Congress authorized America250, also known as the United States Semiquincentennial Commission, “to provide for the observance and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and related events through local, State, national, and international activities planned, encouraged, developed, and coordinated by a national commission representative of appropriate public and private authorities and organizations.”

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Over one ton of confetti was also released at midnight. The biodegradable confetti included personal wishes submitted by people around the world.

Revelers wearing tall celebratory hats and light-up necklaces had waited for hours to see the 12,350-pound ball drop. The festivities also included with performance John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

This year, the stroke of midnight also marked the official launch of America Gives, a national service initiative created by America250.

After the ball dropped, it rose again, sparkling in red, white and blue, to mark the country’s upcoming 250th birthday.

At approximately 12:04 a.m. EST, the Times Square Ball was relit in a red, white, and blue America250 design and rose above the illuminated “2026” numerals. The moment included a new video “America Turns 250,” a first-ever post-midnight release of 2,000 pounds of red, white, and blue confetti, and a dynamic pyro finale set to Ray Charles’ rendition of “America the Beautiful.”

Also just after midnight and a few miles away, Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City after taking the oath of office at an historic, decommissioned subway station in Manhattan.

Mamdani, a self-described    Democratic  socialist, was sworn in as the first Muslim leader of America’s biggest city, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath.

The post Happy New Year 2026 appeared first on NEWSMAN.

The ceremony, held underground at an abandoned showpiece of a subway station by City Hall. The ornate station itself embodied a belief that New York leaders could elevate life for millions of New Yorkers by creating a grand subterranean vascular system. It is, Mr. Mamdani said after midnight, “a testament to the importance of public transit, to the vitality, the health, and the legacy of our city.” Then Mr. Mamdani invited his newly minted transportation commissioner, Michael Flynn, to stand by his side.

Four minutes before midnight, Mr. Mamdani, 34; his wife, Rama Duwaji; and Letitia James, the state attorney general, disembarked from a No. 6 train into the grimy, dimly lit, and yet stunning subway station. They promptly took their places on the steps beneath a dramatic archway emblazoned with the words, “City Hall.” And then they waited, a bit awkwardly, but  jovially, for the arrival of the appointed hour.

And finally, after an impromptu countdown to midnight and cries of “Happy New Year,” Mr. Mamdani placed his left hand on two Qurans held by his wife, raised his right hand and recited the oath of office (one Quran belonged to his grandfather, the other belonged to Arturo Schomburg, the Black historian and writer). Ms. James swore in Mr. Mamdani as a smattering of family, allies and reporters looked on.

“Congratulations, Mr. Mayor,” Ms. James said, to cheers.

Mr. Mamdani then signed the oath of office, handed the requisite $9, in cash, to the city clerk, Michael McSweeney, and signed a leather-bound book so the clerk can attest to the validity of his signature on future city documents.

The swearing-in ceremony took all of 10 minutes. The mood was understated, and the crowd intentionally intimate, with roughly 20 people in attendance, including the parents of Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Duwaji.

“He has led people ever since he could, I think, so it doesn’t seem like out of the blue, it seems very much in the river of things,” Mr. Mamdani’s mother, the film director Mira Nair, said after the brief ceremony. “But this was unimaginable, but I think quite beautiful.”

Mr. Mamdani made only limited remarks after his midnight swearing-in. He is expected to be more expansive on Thursday afternoon, when he is likely to embrace a message of hope and possibility for ordinary New Yorkers.

A self-described child of privilege, Mr. Mamdani ran for office vowing to make New York more affordable by establishing universal day care, freezing rent for rent-stabilized apartments and making city buses fast and free.

Mamdani’s yearlong rise from a state lawmaker to international figure, embodying the hopes of New Yorkers and Americans across the country that were enthralled by his journey to becoming the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor.

Mayor Mamdani will now oversee 300,000 employees working in dozens of city agencies — many of those agencies, individually, the largest of their kind in the nation — while attempting to make more affordable a city that 8.5 million people call home and that is subject to economic headwinds beyond his control.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in more than half of counties in the state ahead of the storm.

On Saturday, more than 900 flights were cancelled, mostly in the New York area, while more than 8,000 were delayed nationwide, according to tracker FlightAware.

The state activated a “code blue” to bring homeless people inside from the cold.

New York has woken up with its memory of heaviest snowfall in nearly four years which the highest amount in the park since the storm of Jan. 28-29, 2022, which dropped over 8 inches.

By early Saturday, about 6-10in of snow had fallen from Syracuse in central New York to Long Island in the south-east of the state.

The worst of the storm began Friday evening, but by dawn, lingering light snow was tapering off and most storm warnings had expired except in areas north and west where slick travel was a concern because of snowy and icy roads. The worst part  of the storm was over by Saturday morning, but temperatures were below freezing and road conditions hazardous. The National Weather service warned melting snow could lead to black ice forming on roads and bridges.

High snowfall was recorded in neighbouring New Jersey, where a state of emergency was also declared, and in Connecticut, where 9.1in of snow fell in Fairfield County.

Higher totals were kept down in New Jersey due to ice; some areas of the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and Connecticut, however, saw more substantial snowfall.

Connecticut   expected the  heavier snow bands set in. New Fairfield came in with 9.1 inches, Fairfield with 7 inches, Bridgeport at 7.1, and Newtown with 6 inches.

Parts of Long Island saw over half a foot, with Babylon and Orient both recording 7.5 inches, Mattituck coming in at 7 inches, North Patchogue getting 6.8 inches, 6.6 coming down at Islip, and Hampton Bays reporting 6.5.

The Hudson Valley was also in the snow sweet spot, with Lake Carmel at 6.5 inches, Armonk at 6.4 inches, Peekskill at 6.1 inches and Port Chester at 5.9.

Westchester County sees some of the heaviest snowfall totals in area. The steady snowfall covered roads and reduced visibility.

The storm was an Alberta Clipper that had been infused with energy from the Pacific storms delivering an atmospheric river of rain to the West Coast. As this system crashed into the cold air in our area, it squeezed out a lot of snow in a hurry for parts of the region. Meteorologist Jeff Smith described the system as an “Alberta Clipper on steroids.”

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