New York Democrats cast ballots Tuesday under smothering summer heat to choose the likely next leader of the largest US city, someone voters say must resist President Donald Trump and provide relief to high costs of living.With about a dozen candidates offering a range of personalities and proposals, the race is an increasingly tight contest between former governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, 33, who has mounted a surprise challenge to the better-known but tainted frontrunner.The winner of Tuesday’s primary vote will represent the Democrats in the general election in November, in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one.Cuomo, whose father was also a New York governor, is eyeing a political comeback after being dogged by sex assault claims. In August 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Cuomo of sexually harassing 11 women. He resigned and then his brother Chris, a star anchor on CNN who advised his campaign, had to do the same.But just four years later, the candidate was welcomed by cheering supporters in various venues after throwing his hat in the ring for mayor in March.Cuomo has been the frontrunner for most of the race, but some recent polls have shown Mamdani closing the gap, even narrowly pulling ahead. Mamdani represents the diverse borough of Queens in the New York State Assembly, describes himself as progressive and Muslim, and is backed by popular leftist figures Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.He has fired up an army of young volunteers with a social media campaign promising to tackle the high cost of living with free buses, daycare centers and rent freezes in a city where a three-bedroom apartment can easily cost $6,000 per month.”Tomorrow is ours if we want it,” Mamdani said late Monday in a social media post including a video appealing to voters.”We are on the cusp of toppling a political dynasty, and delivering a New York everyone can afford,” he said.Sheryl Stein, who works in tourism marketing, sounded skeptical.”I like youth,” the voter in her fifties told AFP. But Mamdani having “no experience and no proven track record to run the largest city in this country and one of the largest in the world, is pretty scary.”Other voters spoke of the need for a mayor who understands the city’s complicated infrastructure, who is honest, or who can “stand up to Trump.”- Candidate handcuffed -With more than eight million residents, New York houses the world’s greatest concentration of millionaires, but a quarter of its population lives in poverty, according to a recent report by an anti-poverty organization Robin Hood and its partner Columbia University. According to a New York Times editorial, while Mamdani offers “a fresh political style” — videos that show him chatting with voters have gone viral — he lacks experience and “offers an agenda that remains alluring among elite progressives but has proved damaging to city life.”The campaign is unfolding as Democrats fume at Trump’s proposed budget cuts and aggressive campaigns against undocumented immigrants. Last week, in another startling display of America’s political discord, mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the city’s current comptroller and a Democrat, was hauled away in handcuffs after accompanying a migrant to a court hearing. Endorsed by the likes of former president Bill Clinton and ex-New York mayor and billionaire Mike Bloomberg, Cuomo is presenting himself as the candidate with the heft required to helm the country’s most populous city in the current political climate. “This is not a job for a novice,” Cuomo told supporters, apparently attacking Mamdani’s relative inexperience during an 11th hour rally Monday at a carpenters’s union. “We need someone who knows what they’re doing on day one, because your lives depend on it.”Meanwhile current New York Mayor Eric Adams — accused of cooperating with Trump’s administration in return for the dropping of federal corruption charges against him — has said he will run as an independent.Though a heat wave could stifle Tuesday’s turnout, some 380,000 voters have already cast ballots. A system that asks voters to list five candidates in order of preference makes opinion polling challenging. 

The high-profile trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is approaching its final stretch, with both teams poised to rest their cases as soon as Tuesday.Closing arguments are tentatively expected to begin on Thursday, after which jurors will be tasked with deciding the fate of the music mogul who faces life in prison if convicted.The prosecution’s 34th and last witness is currently on the stand, and defense lawyers indicated Monday they do not plan on calling their own witnesses to testify in Manhattan federal court.It’s not abnormal for defense teams to opt not to present a case; the obligation to prove guilt lies on prosecutors, and unless jurors decide they have, the defendant is presumed innocent.Over seven weeks of testimony prosecutors drew connections across a web of witnesses, phone records and travel bookings, a bid to show that Combs was the kingpin of an enterprise comprised of high-ranking employees that carried out crimes including bribery, arson and kidnapping to enforce his power and satisfy his every desire.The prosecution said the artist and entrepreneur trafficked women and men for drug-fueled sexual marathons, sometimes days-long encounters dubbed “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”Some of the events were filmed, and jurors have watched a number of sexually explicit clips.Government attorneys are closing their questioning by offering reams of text messages and other records for jurors to review, documentation of dozens of freak-offs that they say also shows arrangements for prostitution and trafficking.The 55-year-old denies the charges.- No defense witnesses? -The defense’s decision not to call witnesses could indicate they believe their questioning of government witnesses could have cast enough doubt on the case against Combs.It could also mean they haven’t identified any witnesses who could help them.They did indicate they plan to submit some exhibits into evidence before resting.Lawyers for Combs have insisted that what prosecutors have called sex trafficking was consensual.Three women have testified in graphic detail of harrowing abuse that ranged sexual, physical and emotional.The singer Casandra Ventura, Combs’s girlfriend for more than a decade, filed suit against Combs in 2023, a civil case that was settled out of court in less than 24 hours — but which opened the floodgates for a deluge of accusations against the one-time music industry powerhouse.She was among the key witnesses to testify at the trial, and jurors were repeatedly shown now-infamous surveillance footage of Combs violently kicking and dragging Ventura in a hotel.A hotel security guard testified that he received $100,000 in a brown paper bag from Combs in exchange for the disturbing tape, which CNN published last year.Jurors are not sequestered but are instructed every day not to consume any media about the case — a mighty task, as news of the trial has permeated both traditional and social media.