
Milan's mayor denies wrongdoing in a corruption probe into the city's construction boom
Milan prosecutors last week announced a widespread investigation into the real estate boom that has seen skyscrapers transform the city's skyline and entire neighborhoods rebuilt, including the construction of an Olympic village for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games.
The investigation targets more than 70 people, including Sala, as prosecutors allege corruption that made Italy's financial and fashion capital 'a commodity to be plundered.'' The probe alleges that developers bribed officials to speed building permits and win approval for projects.
Prosecutors are seeking the arrest of six people, including Giancarlo Tancredi, an architect who has been the city's top urban development official since 2021. Tancredi announced his resignation to focus on his defense but denied any wrongdoing. 'My conscience is clear,'' he said.
Sala, a member of the center-left Democratic Party who is serving his second term as mayor, denied any wrongdoing during an address to the city council, saying, 'All I have done is in the interest of the city.''
Sala pledged to continue in his mandate, which expires at the end of 2026, and underlined the necessity of continuing projects that are in the works, including determining the future of Milan's San Siro stadium, home to soccer clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan. The teams want the city to jointly buy the stadium so they can tear it down and build a new one.
The investigation has led to calls by the center-right majority that governs from Rome for Sala to step down. But he has received the support of Lombardy 's regional governor, Attilio Fontana, a prominent center-right politician, while Premier Giorgia Meloni urged caution, saying an investigation should not automatically lead to resignation.
Milan's extraordinary development around the 2015 Expo and now the Olympics has sent real estate prices skyrocketing. Many say ordinary workers have been priced out in gentrification.
'Do we need to do more to make Milan more fair, healthy and balanced? By definition, we must always do more,'' Sala said.
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Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
TikTok cashes in as gangs post videos of dangerous crossings
Traffickers launching migrants across the Channel on small boats were promoting the crossings on TikTok – and being paid by the tech giant. The smugglers offered a 'subscription' service. They paid £5.39 a month through TikTok, which takes a cut of up to 50 per cent. Migrants subscribed to live video calls with the smuggler. One account had 3,550 followers and another 22,300, so traffickers could be earning thousands of pounds. The subscription service is a widely used feature for TikTok which makes clear on its website that after app store fees, 'TikTok splits the revenue up to 50/50 with you'.The Mail on Sunday contacted two subscription service users who promoted a new life in Britain on their profile. One revealed dates of crossings. A clip showed a Border Force vessel beside a small boat heading to Britain. One person replied: 'I spent eight hours in the sea, it was really hard. Thank goodness we all arrived.' We asked if the user could get us to Britain and received a love heart emoji in reply. Another user replied with a thumbs-up emoji when asked if he could arrange a crossing on a boat to Britain Another user replied with a thumbs-up emoji when asked if he could arrange a crossing on a boat to Britain. Videos posted on his TikTok profile showed him in migrant camps in northern France. Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: 'This is a scandal. TikTok tells us it is doing all it can to stop these videos but now we learn they are profiting from them.' TikTok confirmed that both accounts had now been closed. A spokesman said: 'We have zero tolerance for content that promotes human smuggling and will remove accounts that break our rules. 'We work closely with the UK National Crime Agency to help to identify and to combat organised immigration crime online and we respond to evolving threats.'


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Can Democratic socialists get Zohran Mamdani across the finish line?
Was it his charisma, communication skills or his captivating short-form videos? His high-profile endorsements or his clothing style? These elements were said to have contributed to Zohran Mamdani's record-setting success in New York's June mayoral primary. But another major factor in his win may have been his ties to the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Known for its endorsement of the Vermont independent senator and socialist Bernie Sanders's run for president, as well its role in electing the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the group has re-energized US left political movements in recent years, even while eliciting critique and fear from conservatives and some Democrats. In Mamdani's campaign, a stunning 60,000 volunteers knocked on 1.6m doors across New York City, home to 3.6m housing units. The effort reportedly led to conversations with a quarter of all New Yorkers who voted in the primary. Though the campaign has not yet released data showing how many of those volunteers were mobilized by NYC-DSA itself, Gustavo Gordillo, a co-chair of the chapter, says his organization turned out thousands. Though other organizations, such as the grassroots political group Drum Beats, also brought out volunteers, he said the chapter had an 'unparalleled field operation in New York City'. 'New York City DSA formed the heart of the field team,' he said. But the road ahead for Mamdani, who is a state assemblymember, may still be bumpy. Mainstream Democrats have been slow to embrace the democratic socialist, who ran on universalist material policies like a rent freeze and fast and free buses. In the past, centrists and conservatives have defeated DSA primary winners in elections that looked eminently winnable, such as India Walton in the 2021 Buffalo mayoral race. And rightwingers have already launched heavy smear campaigns against Mamdani, with polls showing the race could be tight. Fellow Democrat and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, whom Mamdani defeated, switched to an independent party run just to stay in the game, and incumbent Eric Adams is vying to keep his seat. The Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, a centrist, said: 'Mamdani's primary victory in the nation's cultural financial and media capital is the greatest challenge faced by traditional Democrats in more than 50 years. 'The future for the Democrats is unclear,' he said. Asked if mainstream Democrats should embrace the young socialist, he said much of the base the party needs to energize to win elections in New York and elsewhere is moving to the right, and 'will not accept' a socialist. Even so, NYC-DSA says it is ready for the battle, and if Mamdani wins, it could catapult the group from the sidelines to the center of the party. 'The opposition is in total disarray right now [and] their fragmentation is only going to be a source of weakness,' said Gordillo. 'We're ready to mount an offensive campaign that replays a lot of what succeeded in the primary with the army that we've amassed.' When formed in 1982, DSA had 6,000 members nationwide; that number grew modestly over the next 25 years. Then, in the mid-2010s, in the wake of democratic socialist Sanders's run for president – and Donald Trump's subsequent 2016 presidential victory – membership began to soar. Today, DSA boasts 80,000 members who oppose capitalism and advocate for the public ownership and democratic control of key sectors and resources such as healthcare, and the shift of power to workers from corporations. Though socialism was once a dirty word in the US, especially after crackdowns on socialists and communists in the 1950s, more than half of young Americans hold a positive view of it today, according to the rightwing Cato Institute thinktank. Though DSA factions have often sparred over the role elections and endorsements should play in the movement, the group has increasingly entered the sphere in recent years. The national group is supporting candidates in municipal elections from Ithaca, New York, to Atlanta, Georgia, with local chapters backing additional candidates in Boston's mayoral race, council runs in Richmond, California, Detroit, Michigan, and others. In Minneapolis, a DSA-backed mayoral candidate, state senator Omar Fateh won his primary this month, ; unlike Mamdani, Fateh has also won endorsement from local party officials. The New York City chapter, now home to 10,000 members, began prioritizing elections in 2017, creating an electoral working group. Since then, it has secured two New York City council seats and six New York state assembly seats, including Mamdani's, which he has held since 2020. Another 250-plus DSA-backed officials hold office nationwide, including progressive 'Squad' democrats in Congress: Rashida Tlaib and Greg Casar, and Chicago's mayor, Brandon Johnson. NYC-DSA employs a methodical volunteer model for each of its endorsed candidates. It has also been highly selective about who it chooses to support. 'You have to go speak to multiple branches of the chapter, talk to the electoral working group, go through multiple rounds of votes within DSA,' said the DSA-backed New York state senator Jabari Brisport, who represents a Brooklyn district. The robust endorsement pays off, Brisport said. 'When you're running with a DSA endorsement, you really have a whole operation of dedicated volunteers who want to advance socialism,' he said. 'They help with everything from field organizing to comms to fundraising.' For NYC-DSA, electoral campaigns are not only focused on single candidates but also on building support for their movement, said Phara Souffrant Forrest, another DSA state assemblymember from Brooklyn. 'When DSA campaigns for a candidate … we're organizing their district around shared values like housing justice, healthcare for all and workers' rights,' she said. The chapter does not use paid canvassers, though Mamdani's campaign hired roughly 50 for specialized outreach. 'Our main asset, which money can never buy, are volunteers who are passionate, who feel ownership over a campaign because the win would be personal for them,' said Sarahana Shrestha, a DSA assemblymember representing a south-eastern New York district. Her campaign brought in many voters who had otherwise 'given up on electoral politics', she said. DSA members appeared to do the same in the mayoral primary, mobilizing thousands of new voters. Some DSA endorsees – such as Ocasio-Cortez, who the group supported in her 2018 campaign – receive DSA backing upon request once they have launched their campaigns. Others, like Mamdani, are 'cadre candidates' who have strong pre-existing ties to the organization and are recruited by and from the chapter. Since joining NYC-DSA in 2017, Mamdani has been deeply involved with the organization, helping lead other electoral campaigns and working closely with the chapter on his successful 2020 assembly run. Once in office, Mamdani became an integral part of NYC-DSA's socialists in office committee, designed to facilitate chapter communications with elected socialists. Today, many of his staffers are chapter leaders. And when launching his mayoral campaign, 'he said that he would not run at all if he did not receive our endorsement,' the NYC-DSA organizer Michael Thomas Carter wrote in Drop Site News. 'While the coalition that coalesced around his campaign was much broader than NYC-DSA, in this very direct sense our organization is responsible for his mayoral run,' he wrote. This commitment to the chapter has been a throughline in Mamdani's career, said Gordillo. 'He's been really tested to learn how to exercise leadership while also being accountable to a base, because he's done that in DSA pretty often,' he said. Mamdani has championed some NYC-DSA campaigning efforts he did not pioneer, such as the successful fight for a bill to expand publicly owned renewable energy, which Gordillo helmed. But he has been a leader on other initiatives, such as the 'Not on Our Dime!' bill, which aims to pressure Israel to follow international law and on which he was the lead sponsor. (Ending US support for Israel's military is a key issue for DSA, whose national organization ended its support for Ocasio-Cortez and former New York congressman Jamaal Bowman over insufficient support for the issue.) That back-and-forth has continued through the mayoral campaign, with the chapter's political operatives also helping him make connections and shape his platform. 'He met with our Labor Working Group a lot to learn more about what were the top demands for different unions where we have a lot of member density,' said Gordillo, who is a union electrician by day. Mamdani won more votes than any other mayoral candidate in New York City primary election history. Brisport said that's a testament not only to the power of NYC-DSA's organizational skills, but also to the popularity of their political values. 'Clearly there is something in the air that is shifting, because open socialists are running for office and winning, showing that our ideas are good, workable things that people actually need,' he said. Mamdani's embrace of the democratic socialist label has been a boon for NYC-DSA, with about 4,000 members joining since he launched his mayoral campaign. It will also be a test for the chapter and for American socialism. 'Zohran ran as an open democratic socialist and the billionaire class, the most powerful forces in the world and in the city, are aligning against him,' Gordillo said. 'They will be finding every moment to amplify anything that they can say is a mistake or a failure, and because he ran in a way that was so tied to the movement, I think that any of his shortcomings will also be attributed to us.' The chapter is now preparing to mobilize volunteers around the general election, but also organizing to support Mamdani's key policies like a proposal to increase taxes on the rich. The organization is prepared to hold Mamdani accountable to socialist values, but also to communicate his successes to the public, said Gordillo. 'We will make sure that the billionaire class and corporate interests can't just fearmonger about him, or hide it when he fulfills his campaign promises,' he said. 'The fate of the left in New York rests on the success of the Mamdani administration, so ensuring that there is a successful mayoralty is going to have to become our top priority.'


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Reform's bacon and egg offensive to woo business
Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice is conducting a 'bacon and eggs' charm offensive to woo British businesses ahead of the next election. Tice told The Mail on Sunday that he and other senior party figures, including leader Nigel Farage, had been meeting 'dozens and dozens and dozens' of bosses for breakfast meetings. He said they included chief executives, finance chiefs, chairmen and top lobbyists at FTSE 100 and FTSE 250-listed firms, as well as those at private and foreign-owned companies. It echoes the 'smoked salmon and scrambled eggs' charm offensive by Labour ahead of the last General Election. Tice, pictured with Farage, said the 'penny dropped' for many firms about Reform's potential to form the next government after its landslide success in May's local elections and taking a 14-point lead in the latest national opinion poll. And he dismissed concerns raised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) about whether Reform's sums added up, dismissing the respected economic think-tank as 'the institute for feeble studies'. Tice said: 'Lots of companies recognise we are a serious contender to be the next government, whenever the election is. They are taking it seriously, so want to meet me and understand where we're coming from on a variety of big issues. 'Whether you want to call it the bacon and eggs offensive or whatever, a series of breakfasts and other meetings are going on, and it is going well, and we're doing quite a lot of it.' A well-placed City source who alerted The Mail on Sunday to the meetings suggested there was some scepticism among business leaders about Reform's plans. Firms contacted by this newspaper were tight-lipped over whether they had met Tice. One FTSE 100 director, who asked not to be named, said he had 'not seen him' as part of the drive, but had once bumped into the politician and 'couldn't find anything we could agree on'. However, Tice said the reaction had been positive, particularly relating to plans to scrap the net zero carbon climate goal. 'We understand the language of business,' he said. 'I was chief executive of a billion-pound multinational listed company. Nigel's a businessman. We understand what it takes to save the British economy. 'We are talking about our dead seriousness about scrapping net zero and that is greeted with almost universal joy on a private basis. Privately, they all admit it's bonkers, it's costing them a fortune, it's making them uncompetitive.' Tice said Reform had told oil and gas companies to prepare applications for drilling licences in the North Sea 'so they can be checked and pre-approved before an election and rubber-stamped within a matter of days' if Reform were to win. He added: 'We're not mucking about. We're very clear that things like net zero, ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) – it's all for the birds. It all goes and we will be pretty aggressive on that and anyone who tries to get in our way.' The IFS's analysis of Reform's tax-cutting plans found that raising an individual's annual tax threshold from £12,570 to £20,000 and other measures could cost up to £80 billion a year, and that the party's strategy involved large, unspecified cuts to public services. And Simon French, chief economist at investment bank Panmure Liberum, has warned that Britain could face an 'immediate and violent' sterling crisis if Farage wins power. But Tice dismissed these, calling the IFS estimate a 'back-of-the-fag-packet guess' saying: 'We expect the enemy to do that.' Asked whether business leaders were convinced by Reform's plans, Tice said: 'They get it.' He added that he and Farage were 'probably two of the most successful financial, economic, businesslike MPs they've ever met'.