INTERNACIONAL
NYC taxpayers could pay twice under Mamdani’s city-owned grocery store plan
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New York City officials are looking at ways to ease costs for independent grocers as taxpayers foot the bill for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city-owned grocery store plan.
The administration is eyeing tax breaks, incentives and zoning benefits to help private grocers manage costs as the city moves ahead with taxpayer-subsidized stores that will receive low- or no-cost real estate, city-funded buildouts and other subsidies.
That could put taxpayers in a position of paying twice, once for the city-run stores and again for incentives that could be used to ease costs for private grocers operating alongside them.
Those city-run stores, meanwhile, are expected to sell groceries at prices 30% below comparable retailers, according to Mamdani’s administration.
NYC GROCERS SOUND ALARM ON MAMDANI’S SUPERMARKET PLAN: ‘WE’LL LOSE CUSTOMERS’
Groceries sit behind Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, during an announcement on municipal grocery stores at a Campaign for Hunger community food distribution center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday, July 27, 2026. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Adam Lehodey, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, said the arrangement masks the true cost of the discounts.
«The 30% savings that Mamdani announced on his government-owned stores are an illusion,» Lehodey previously told Fox News Digital. «Taxpayers will foot the bill for millions of dollars in subsidies, and they will operate on government-owned land with rents waived. New Yorkers will still be paying the full price, just indirectly,» he added.
Lehodey also warned that pricing groceries well below market rates could create unintended consequences for consumers and business alike.
«Pricing goods significantly below market price creates an additional problem of people purchasing them to resell elsewhere,» he said. «Shortages are also likely as people buy more than they otherwise would due to artificially low prices.»
EXPERTS SCORCH MAMDANI’S GROCERY PLAN AS AN ‘ILLUSION’ THAT WILL HAVE TAXPAYERS FOOTING THE BILL
Grocery prices have continued to strain household budgets, keeping the cost of everyday staples at the center of affordability concerns. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, also questioned whether the city’s pricing model is financially sustainable, arguing that grocery stores already operate on razor-thin profit margins.
«A 30% discount at stores with a 2% profit margin is simply a loss for taxpayers who will have to make up the difference,» Antoni told Fox News Digital. «These artificially low prices will also harm small businesses which will lose sales to taxpayer-subsidized grocery stores.»
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), tasked with overseeing the rollout of the program, disputed the suggestion that the municipal stores would hurt neighborhood grocers. The agency said the administration expects the stores to generate additional foot traffic and ultimately benefit nearby businesses.
MAMDANI’S AFFORDABILITY REVOLUTION STUMBLED AS RENT COSTS SOAR TO RECORD HIGHS
Shopping with a list and avoiding the produce aisle as the first stop at the grocery store are ways to be financially savvy, said an expert. (iStock)
The agency also walked back an official’s public suggestion Thursday that the city was considering grants for existing grocers. EDC told Fox News Digital that the administration is not currently considering any grant programs for existing grocers.
Waverly Neer, the lead official for NYC Groceries at EDC, told NY1 that the agency was exploring «complementary policies and programs, grants, incentives» to support local independent businesses alongside the city-run stores.
«We’re, as an agency, looking at a number of different complementary policies and programs, grants, incentives that can come alongside these grocery stores to support other local independent businesses that in the neighborhoods,» Neer said.
EDC subsequently told Fox News Digital that the city’s Grocery Task Force is «not currently considering any grant programs for existing grocers.»
«However, we are looking at the potential for tax abatement, incentives, and zoning benefits through existing City programs to ensure that the City is doing everything in our power to alleviate cost pressures for small businesses across the city.»
GROCERY BOSS WARNS MAMDANI’S CITY-RUN STORES PIT GOVERNMENT AGAINST ‘ITS OWN CITIZENS’
Asked what specific assistance was under consideration, EDC pointed to the city’s longstanding FRESH program, which offers tax incentives and zoning benefits to qualifying grocery stores.
The agency also cited Mamdani’s recently announced OPEN for Small Business initiative, a package of more than 50 reforms aimed at reducing fines, fees and bureaucracy for small businesses.
Meanwhile, Mamdani has committed $70 million to open five municipal grocery stores. The first is expected to open in Hunts Point in the Bronx by the end of 2027, with additional locations planned for East Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Under the proposal, private grocery operators will manage the stores’ day-to-day operations, including staffing, merchandising and product sourcing, while the city sets pricing requirements and operating standards, provides the locations and absorbs major occupancy costs.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani during an announcement on municipal grocery stores at a Campaign for Hunger community food distribution center in the Brooklyn on July 27, 2026. (Adam Gray / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mamdani has pitched that model as a way to slash grocery bills by eliminating costs such as rent and profit margins.
Whether those savings can be sustained and at what ultimate cost to taxpayers and the city’s existing grocers is likely to remain a central test as the first municipal store moves toward its planned 2027 opening.
Mamdani’s office referred Fox News Digital’s request for comment to the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
zohran mamdani, new york city, state and local, costs, taxes, politics, local
INTERNACIONAL
Polo Carrera, el delantero ecuatoriano que jugó 24 años con un solo ojo, se consagró en tres países y atravesó un cáncer de huesos
Paúl Fernando Carrera Velasteguí, más conocido como Polo Carrera, nació en Quito el 11 de enero de 1945 y tiene 81 años. Casi nadie en la historia de Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito vio tanto fútbol desde tan cerca como él, y sin embargo lo vio, durante toda su carrera, con un solo ojo. Tenía ocho años y estudiaba en la escuela Vicente Rocafuerte de Quito cuando un dardo, lanzado en un juego escolar, le impactó en el ojo derecho. La lesión le dejó una ceguera permanente que ningún especialista logró revertir. Él mismo ha contado que en ese momento pensó que tal vez no volvería a jugar fútbol. No fue así: aprendió a vivir y a jugar con la visión reducida a su ojo izquierdo, y llegó a modificar su ubicación en la cancha para compensar la pérdida de campo visual por el lado derecho.
Durante buena parte de su carrera, ni siquiera sus entrenadores conocían la magnitud de esa limitación. Carrera ha relatado que fue en Uruguay, al tramitar su licencia de conducir, cuando los responsables se sorprendieron al comprobar que veía únicamente con un ojo. Con esa condición debutó como profesional en Liga en 1960: algunas fuentes, incluido el propio Carrera en entrevistas, sitúan ese debut a los 15 años, y se retiró en febrero de 1984, tras enfrentar al Grasshopper de Suiza. Entre un punto y otro pasaron 24 años, aunque no fueron 24 temporadas continuas: hubo salidas, regresos y pasos por media docena de clubes.
Esa itinerancia lo llevó a tres países. En Ecuador vistió las camisetas de Liga de Quito, Deportivo Quito, Barcelona, El Nacional, Universidad Católica y América de Quito. En 1966, con apenas 21 años, se convirtió en uno de los primeros ecuatorianos en jugar en Brasil, cuando el Fluminense de Río de Janeiro lo fichó para una etapa de unos nueve meses. Era, según sus propios recuerdos, prácticamente el único ecuatoriano en su entorno, y tuvo que adaptarse al idioma y a una cultura futbolística que le resultaba ajena. Con Fluminense disputó el Campeonato Guanabara y enfrentó al Santos de Pelé, a quien volvería a cruzarse años más tarde vistiendo otra camiseta. Su paso brasileño, sin embargo, no terminó en título: es una etapa central para entender el alcance internacional de su carrera, pero no un campeonato ganado allí.
El título fuera de Ecuador llegó en Uruguay. En 1968 Peñarol lo incorporó a un plantel que Carrera describiría después como extraordinario: Alberto Spencer en el ataque, Elías Figueroa en la defensa, Ladislao Mazurkiewicz bajo los tres palos. Ese equipo conquistó el Campeonato Uruguayo ese año, con un gol decisivo de Spencer de cabeza en la victoria sobre Nacional que definió el título. La relación entre los dos ecuatorianos trascendió la cancha: Carrera recordó a Spencer no solo como un gran futbolista, sino como una persona excepcional, y con el tiempo la amistad los llevó incluso a compartir negocios.
De vuelta en Ecuador, la lista de títulos siguió creciendo. Con El Nacional fue campeón del torneo correspondiente a 1973, definido en febrero de 1974. Luego regresó a Liga, justo cuando el club iniciaba una de las etapas más importantes de su historia: en 1975 se coronó campeón nacional con Carrera como una de sus figuras, y esa misma generación llevó a Liga a semifinales de la Copa Libertadores en 1975 y 1976, algo inédito para un equipo ecuatoriano en esa época.
Fue en esa competición donde Carrera dejó la marca que lo definiría por casi veinte años: 12 goles en la Copa Libertadores con la camiseta de Liga, un récord histórico del club que solo caería cuando Patricio Urrutia lo superó, ya en la generación que en 2008 conquistaría el título continental que a Carrera se le había escapado. Ese registro conviene no confundirlo con otro, igual de notable: los 92 goles que anotó con Liga en todas las competiciones a lo largo de sus distintos ciclos en el club, una cifra que lo mantiene como máximo artillero histórico de la institución y que Hernán Barcos, con 91, no logró alcanzar.
Con la selección ecuatoriana, Carrera jugó las eliminatorias rumbo al Mundial de Inglaterra 1966, sin clasificación para Ecuador, y las copas sudamericanas de 1967, 1975 y 1983. Las estadísticas disponibles le atribuyen 20 partidos internacionales y tres goles, aunque las bases modernas varían según los criterios que aplican para considerar un encuentro oficial.
Su historia con los títulos no se cerró cuando colgó los botines. En 1990 asumió como entrenador de Liga, entonces al borde del descenso, y lo condujo al campeonato ecuatoriano, el primero del club en quince años. Carrera pasó así a ser campeón nacional con Liga tanto de jugador, en 1975, como de técnico, en 1990. Después dirigió a Espoli, El Nacional, Aucas, Deportivo Quito y a la selección, y en 1993 logró con Espoli el ascenso a la Serie A.
La historia, además, no terminó en el terreno deportivo. En diciembre de 2025 la Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol lo recibió en la Casa de la Selección para su rehabilitación tras una cirugía de rodilla, y en marzo de 2026 relató, en una entrevista concedida en su casa, que desde 2023 había enfrentado un cáncer de huesos en remisión, un infarto y complicaciones posteriores en las rodillas. A los 81 años, el hombre que aprendió a jugar sin visión en un ojo describió esa recuperación como una nueva batalla personal, distinta a las que libró en las canchas de Quito, Montevideo y Río de Janeiro, pero librada con la misma insistencia.
corresponsal:Desde Quito
INTERNACIONAL
Indonesian passenger ship carrying 240 people loses contact in Java Sea, search underway
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A passenger ship carrying 240 people vanished from contact in the Java Sea on Sunday local time, triggering an urgent search as Indonesian crews raced to locate the vessel.
The Virgo Transport 8 was traveling from Surabaya, East Java, to Banjarmasin on the island of Borneo when communications with the ship were lost, the Associated Press reported, citing Indonesia’s Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office.
Authorities said the vessel was last tracked roughly 92 miles from a pier in Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan province.
MOM LOSES GRIP ON DAUGHTER AS PASSENGER FERRY CAPSIZES WITH 20 PEOPLE STILL MISSING
Authorities are searching for the Virgo Transport 8 after the passenger ship lost contact while traveling from East Java to South Kalimantan. (EyesWideOpen/Getty Images)
Search-and-rescue teams launched an operation after receiving a report that the ship had suffered a communications failure during the voyage, according to the AP.
Officials had not reported any deaths or injuries as of Sunday, and it was not immediately clear what caused the vessel to lose contact or whether weather conditions were affecting the search.
MULTIPLE RESCUED FROM PONTOON BOAT NEAR ALCATRAZ AS SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MISSING PERSONS
The Virgo Transport 8 lost contact while traveling from Surabaya to Banjarmasin, according to officials. (EyesWideOpen/Getty Images)
The Virgo Transport 8 departed Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, before losing contact while crossing the Java Sea toward South Kalimantan.
The search remains underway.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
world, asia world regions, missing persons
INTERNACIONAL
‘Trump-level’ smackdown earns Vance roaring praise as 2028 buzz builds at GOP convention
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Republicans reached a consensus that Vice President JD Vance solidified his position as the presumptive 2028 presidential candidate with his «Trump-level» smackdown of a foreign flag-waving protester who disrupted his speech at the Republican National Convention.
Vance did not hesitate after a protester interrupted his primetime speech in Dallas on Thursday by waving the flags of the Palestinian Authority and Mexico. He recalled to those watching his speech on TV: «What the people at home missed is that we just had a protester interrupting us and waving the Mexican flag.»
«Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your a– over there. I’ll buy you the plane ticket,» the VP said, to which the crowd erupted into applause.
«JD Vance just MIC DROPPED a leftist heckler who interrupted him waving a Mexican flag…this place is DEAFENING,» conservative commentator Eric Daugherty wrote on X, adding, «TOTAL PANDEMONIUM.»
CROWD ERUPTS AS VANCE SMACKS DOWN PROTESTER WAVING MEXICAN FLAG: ‘GET YOUR A– OVER THERE’
A protestor throws a Mexican flag as Vice President JD Vance speaks during the second day of the Republican National Committee midterm convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on September 10, 2026. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
Popular conservative pundit Benny Johnson called Vance’s quick wit an «epic response.» President Donald Trump supporter and activist Scott Pressler similarly praised Vance for reacting «without missing a beat,» and called it «an iconic moment.»
«This was masterful. A Trump-level move from JD Vance,» wrote Overton, a conservative commentary and news account. «Vice President Vance perfectly handled a protestor waving a Mexican flag at the RNC in Dallas. Then he fired back with a savage one-liner that sent the American Airlines Center into absolute bedlam.»
The moment was capped off with a «USA!» chant from those in the crowd at the GOP Midterm Convention.
Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier wrote, «JD Vance just absolute [sic] WIPED THE FLOOR with a leftist heckler who interrupted his rally waving a Mexican flag.»
«The crowd went completely WILD. Unbelievable energy,» wrote Fournier.
VANCE DECLARES DEMOCRATS ‘PARTY OF HATRED,’ SAYS PARTY HAS MOVED BEYOND BIG GOVERNMENT, CENSORSHIP
Vice President JD Vance introduces U.S. President Donald Trump to speak on stage on the second day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center on September 10, 2026, in Dallas, Texas. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
«JD Vance just notched the most iconic moment of the RNC when he told a protester waving a Mexican flag exactly what all red blooded Americans were thinking,» wrote Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet.
Commentator Brilyn Hollyhand put it simply, posting on X, «Yea JD for President after this.»
Vance recovered from the interruption quickly, telling the crowd, «Ladies and gentlemen, I had a whole speech written. But I think I’ve got to change it because we just discovered the symbol of the far left — an idiot waving … a Mexican flag at a protest when he should be waving the flag of the United States of America.»
«Now, we all know, of course, that as much as that person might wave around a foreign flag, he’d much rather live in Dallas, or in Cincinnati, or in any one of our great cities than Mexico,» President Donald Trump’s No. 2 continued. «But while we wave the American flag and fight for the American dream, we have to remind ourselves tonight that the good life that is the foundation of this country’s promise is not guaranteed.»
CHARLIE KIRK HONORED AT GOP CONVENTION WITH CALL TO REJECT ‘COMFORTABLE LOSING’
People hold signs on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center on September 9, 2026, in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
«Every generation of Americans has had to fight for these things when it’s our turn,» he went on.
«And this fall, the Democrats are running candidates who will tell your children what they’re allowed to say, how they’re allowed to live, and importantly, who they ought to hate, because that’s what the Democrat Party is about in 2026,» Vance continued. «It’s not about you, it’s about foreign fraudsters, and it’s about who they hate. And we got to send their a–es back in November.»
Speculation has swirled over who will be the heir to Trump’s MAGA throne in 2028. The consensus so far among Republicans appears to be split between Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — but a lot could change before the next presidential election.
jd vance, republican convention, politics, dallas fort worth, texas, donald trump, us protests
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