NEW YORK: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani barreled into City Hall vowing to tackle the city's notoriously high cost of living, partly by fulfilling a campaign promise repeated with almost monomaniacal zeal in social media ads, speeches and rallies: "As your next mayor, I will freeze your rent.”On Thursday evening, a board he controls is poised to make good on that signature pledge.The city's Rent Guidelines Board, an independent panel of mayoral appointees, is poised to approve a rent freeze for people living in about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.The vote, while expected, is a big win for Mamdani, allowing him to beat back skepticism over his ability to deliver on his affordability agenda. And it came just two days after he made a splash as a budding progressive kingmaker when three congressional candidates he endorsed won their races in stunning fashion, unseating two Democratic incumbents and bucking the party establishment.Real estate groups say a rent freeze would pinch landlords, leaving them struggling to afford routine maintenance or other repairs. They say property owners have also been hit by rising costs and need to keep pace with inflation. Critics of rent regulation also argue that the policy leads to higher rental costs for non-stabilized units."This will only result in more dilapidated housing and potentially more foreclosures and bankruptcies, which the city is wholly unprepared for,” said Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association, a landlord lobbying group.A legal challenge is expected over the board's vote. One of its members, an appointee representing landlords, resigned in protest as she claimed the board's independence had been compromised."The Rent Guidelines Board has stopped being a fact-finding body,” former board member Christina Smyth wrote in her resignation letter, which she provided to The Associated Press. "It has become a body that starts with an answer and vibe codes its way backward to justify it.”Mamdani - who lived in a rent-stabilized apartment in Queens with his wife before moving this year into Gracie Mansion, the city's stately mayoral residence - appointed a majority of the board's members a little over a month into his term, signaling a focus on the freeze.He has said most New Yorkers are desperately in need of relief from high housing costs.Around 2 million people live in the highly sought-after rent stabilized units, which comprise about 40% of the city's housing stock. While the apartments are privately owned, the city board votes each year on the maximum allowed rent increase.The board has frozen rents in the past, most recently under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, but then approved modest increases under Mamdani's predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams. All three mayors are Democrats. Last year, the board approved an increase of up to 3% on one-year leases and up to 4.5% on two-year leases.There are no income limits that determine who can live in rent-stabilized units, and it is not uncommon for higher income people to live in such apartments, which has drawn criticism.During last year's mayoral race, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Mamdani - then a state Assembly member earning just under a $150,000 salary - to vacate his rent stabilized unit, calling the arrangement "disgusting" as he argued the apartment should go to someone making less money.

MAGDEBURG: A Saudi doctor ​was sentenced to life in prison on ‌Friday ​for killing six people and injuring hundreds, ramming a rented BMW into crowds at a historic market in the eastern German city of ⁠Magdeburg days before Christmas in 2024.The attack shocked the country and stirred up tensions over the charged issue of ‌immigration, months before a general election that was held in February 2025.The ‌defendant, identified as Taleb A. in ‌accordance with German privacy laws, was ‌a psychiatrist originally ‌from Saudi Arabia described by officials as having a ​history of anti-Islamic ‌rhetoric ​and far-right sympathies.Prosecutors had ⁠charged him with murdering six people and the attempted murder of hundreds more ​in ⁠an ⁠attack they say lasted one minute and four seconds and was planned over ⁠several weeks. Five women between the ages of 45-75 and a nine-year-old boy were killed.The defendant appears to have acted out of dissatisfaction and frustration ‌regarding the outcome of a civil law dispute ​and his lack of success in various criminal complaints, prosecutors have said, believing him to have acted alone.