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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a federal prison inmate cannot sue corrections officers for an alleged assault in which he was punched, kicked and had his face slammed into a wall.

The loss for inmate Andrew Fields is the latest setback for plaintiffs seeking to hold federal officials accountable for constitutional violations.

Although the Supreme Court allowed such claims in a 1971 ruling called Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, it has since changed course and made it almost impossible to do so in most situations.

The unsigned ruling, which had no dissents, said that if Fields’ claim was allowed to move forward, it “could have negative systemic consequences for prison officials.” Fields has other ways of vindicating his rights, the court added.

Fields, 53, had sought to bring a “Bivens claim” arising from the 2021 incident at a federal prison in Lee County, Virginia. He is now at a different prison in Florida.

The facts are disputed, with officers saying he initially assaulted them, which he denies.

Fields, serving a lengthy sentence for drugs and gun offenses, alleges that the incident began when he went to lunch without bringing a required movement pass.

While being moved to a special housing unit, Fields says officers punched him in the face and stomped on him.

Then, once he was secured in the unit and restrained, the officers shoved his face into the wall, slammed a security shield into his back, and again punched him and kneed him in the groin, he alleges.

A federal judge threw out Fields’ lawsuit, which he filed without the help of a lawyer. But in a 2024 ruling, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived it, saying he could bring a claim under the Constitution’s 8th Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment in the prison context.

The Supreme Court has over several decades shown a reluctance to allow Bivens claims.

In the most recent decision, the court in 2022 said Border Patrol agents could not be sued.

In the 12 months after that ruling, lower courts cited it 228 times in a variety of cases against all kinds of federal officials, an NBC News investigation found. In 195 of those cases, constitutional claims were dismissed.

Congress has never enacted legislation that would specifically allow federal officials to be sued individually for constitutional violations, even though it allows similar claims to be brought against state and local officials.

In fact, the appeals court noted that there is “little doubt that Fields would have a viable … claim against prison officials if he had been incarcerated at a state prison.”

Legislation in Congress that would codify Bivens claims has stalled.

Six people were killed after a small plane crashed in northeast Ohio on Sunday morning, officials said.

Two crew members and four passengers were on board the Cessna 441 plane that crashed seven minutes after taking off from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

NBC affiliate WFMJ of Youngstown reported that the Ohio State Highway Patrol received a call reporting a crash at 7:01 a.m. Sunday in the area of King Graves Road.

It crashed into a wooded area in Howland Township, 2 miles east of the airport. Officials said the plane was headed to Bozeman, Montana.

“We are heartbroken to report that there are no survivors,” Anthony Trevena, executive director at Western Reserve Port Authority, said at a news conference Sunday.

First responders retrieved the bodies from the wreckage and they are with the coroner’s office. Identities are pending next-of-kin notification.

The National Transportation Safety Board was on site Sunday evening and is investigating the cause of the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration is also aiding in the investigation.

Howland Township Fire Chief Ray Pace said it was difficult to access the plane as it crashed in a heavily wooded area between King Graves Road and Spring Run Road. Authorities could only put out a fire at the crash site through those roads and a person’s backyard.

Pace said the tragedy is likely the deadliest plane crash in the county’s history.

Officials said the pilots were “highly experienced.”

“These were the best of the best in terms of folks here at the field, as well as the pilots. Can’t say enough about them and give anything to rewind the day and take them to breakfast instead,” Mike Hillman of Jets FBO said.

“I can’t think of better people. So our community is at a great loss, and these were really wonderful people. It’s a very tight-knit community, so all those in the aviation community have reached out. These are really important people to us, so we’re grateful for the support of our community,” Trevena added.

ROME — Major heat waves across southern Europe have pushed temperatures above 40 C (104 F) in countries including Italy, Spain and Greece, as local authorities issued fresh warnings against the risk of wildfires.

Experts link the rising frequency and intensity of these heat waves to climate change, warning that such extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common across Europe’s southern region.

Severe heat was recorded in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal before the weekend, with locals and tourists alike taking shelter from the sweltering conditions.

Two-thirds of Portugal were on high alert Sunday for extreme heat and wildfires, with temperatures expected to top 42 C (107 F) in Lisbon.

In Italy, a few regions — Lazio, Tuscany, Calabria, Puglia and Umbria — were planning to ban some outdoor work activities during the hottest hours of the day in response to the record-high temperatures. Italian trade unions pushed the government to expand such measures at a national level.

On Sunday, the Italian Health Ministry placed 21 out of 27 monitored cities under its highest heat alert, including top holiday destinations like Rome, Milan and Naples.

In Rome, tourists tried to seek shade near popular spots like the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain, using umbrellas and drinking from public water fountains to stay cool.

Similar scenes were reported in Milan and Naples, where street vendors sold lemonade to tourists and residents to offer some refreshment from the heat.

Greece was again on high wildfire alert because of extreme weather, with the first summer heat wave expected to continue throughout the weekend.

A large wildfire broke out south of Athens on Thursday, forcing evacuations and road closures near the ancient Temple of Poseidon. Strong winds spread the flames, damaging homes and sending smoke across the sky.

Greek authorities deployed 130 firefighters, 12 planes and 12 helicopters to battle the blaze, while police evacuated 40 people, with five areas under evacuation orders.

In Spain, locals and tourists were desperately trying to keep cool this weekend, as the country sizzled in temperatures as high as 42 C (107 F) in the southern city of Seville along with other locations in southern and central parts of the country.

Southern regions of Spain recorded temperatures above seasonal averages, prompting health alerts and safety recommendations from authorities. The country’s national meteorological service Aemet has said that June is set to break yet another record, becoming the hottest such month since records started.

Experts warned that intense heat can affect daily life, especially for vulnerable populations such as the elderly and children.

Local authorities advised against physical activity during the hottest hours of the day, and recommended drinking plenty of fluids.

A Lancet Public Health study published last year highlighted the increasing risk of heat-related deaths because of climate change. The study predicted that heat-related deaths could more than quadruple by midcentury under current climate policies.

While more people die from cold than heat, the study stressed that rising temperatures will offset the benefits of milder winters, leading to a significant net increase in heat-related mortality.

The Senate will begin ‘vote-a-rama’ today on Donald Trump’s agenda bill. Two firefighters were shot and killed as they responded to a brush fire in Idaho. Trump is expected to visit “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility tomorrow.

Here’s what to know today.

Senate to begin ‘vote-a-rama’ today on Trump’s agenda bill before final vote

The Senate will begin a process called “vote-a-rama” today at 9 a.m. ET in which members can offer unlimited amendments to the sweeping domestic policy package for President Donald Trump’s agenda. The Republican-led Senate advanced the bill Saturday night after a dramatic hourslong vote, moving it one step closer to passage.

Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published an analysis finding that the Senate bill would increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years. And it projected that the legislation would lead to 11.8 million people losing their health insurance by 2034 if it is enacted.

This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

It remains unclear whether the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 majority, will ultimately have the votes to pass the bill. The legislation would extend the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017 and slash taxes on tips and overtime pay. It includes a $150 billion boost to military spending this year, along with a surge of federal money to carry out Trump’s mass deportations and immigration enforcement agenda. It would partly pay for that with cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and clean energy funding.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., announced that he would not run for re-election, one day after he drew Trump’s ire for opposing the party’s sweeping domestic policy package. The surprise decision opens a seat in battleground North Carolina that was already set to be one of the most hotly contested races of the 2026 midterms.

Read more about Trump’s agenda bill in the Senate.

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Suspected gunman found dead after fatal shooting of Idaho firefighters

Two firefighters were shot and killed as they responded to a brush fire near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, authorities said. Another wounded firefighter was out of surgery and stable in the hospital late Sunday.

The fire appeared to have been set as part of an “ambush,” and sheriff’s deputies took active sniper fire, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said. A man whose body was found on Canfield Mountain next to a firearm is believed to have acted alone in firing at first responders, Norris said. Federal authorities contributed technology that helped track a cellphone signal leading to the suspect’s body.

Authorities have not released the names of the victims or the shooter.

Read the full story here.

Trump expected to visit the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention facility this week

President Donald Trump is expected to attend the formal opening of a controversial immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades that state leaders have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Two White House officials and a Florida official familiar with the travel confirmed to NBC News that Trump is “likely” to be there.

Last weekend environmental groups sued to block the plan, arguing it could have devastating effects on the Everglades and hundreds of people also protested against construction of the facility, which is expected to have 5,000 immigrant detention beds. It is estimated to cost $450 million annually.

Debate over the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center is a personal one for members of Miccosukee and Seminole tribes — their homes and their ceremonial sites surround the detention center on three sides.

Read the full story here.

Fears grow for Gaza hospital chief who walked toward Israeli tanks before arrest

The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, was last seen walking towards Israeli tanks before he was taken into custody by soldiers laying siege to the complex. Before his detention, Abu Safiya, 51, was also the lead physician in Gaza for MedGlobal, a Chicago-based nonprofit that has partnered with local health care workers since 2018 and arranges volunteer medical missions to the enclave.

Five other members of MedGlobal’s team have also been detained, and today, the organization called for the release of scores of health workers detained by Israel, including Abu Safiya. “Israeli authorities have repeatedly and blatantly violated international humanitarian law in repeated detentions of and attacks on health care workers,” it said in a joint letter published today alongside several other organizations, including Human Rights Watch.

Their call for the “immediate, unconditional release” of detained health workers came as concern is growing for the health of Abu Safiya, who has been detained for more than six months without charge, according to his colleagues, family and legal team.

Read the full story here.

Read All About It

• An NBC News report found that organizers of several of the country’s premier Pride celebrations lost an estimated $200,000 to $350,000 apiece in funding from corporate sponsors this year.

• Canada has walked back on its digital services tax “in anticipation” of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States, Ottawa announced last night, just one day before the first tax payments were due.

• The NBA is cooperating with a federal investigation into Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley, spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement.

Staff Pick: Board game entrepreneur fears Trump tariff turmoil

Dan Linden has spent tens of thousands of dollars of his life savings betting on a board game that’s made in China. Under prior trading rules, the game, called Offshoots — think Jinga meets Kinex — would have been subject to no tariffs at all. But with Trump continually announcing new trade duties targeting Chinese goods, Linden fears for his entire livelihood, not just for the future of his dream product, since his day job is also in the industry. “I’m not a millionaire or anything,” Linden said. “These $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 tariff hits are going to take a significant chunk out of my own pocket.”

Linden’s story is representative of thousands of other small business owners and entrepreneurs, who, unlike the multi-billion dollar firms they compete with, often have little recourse when it comes to shifting their supply chains or cost structures to respond to Trump’s tariffs

— Rob Wile, business reporter

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

The key to saving on Fourth of July sales is to shop strategically, so NBC Select put together this guide with tips about what to buy and skip. Plus how July Fourth sales compare to Amazon Prime Day discounts.

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week.

Thanks for reading today’s Morning Rundown. Today’s newsletter was curated for you by Amina Kilpatrick. If you’re a fan, please send a link to your family and friends. They can sign-up here.

    

In recent years, the handling of the nation’s largest public pension fund has caused growing alarm among a group of retirees who rely on it.

They have sought an outside audit of California’s $530 billion pension fund, known as the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS. They have also tried to persuade legislators to install an inspector general to monitor its operations.

Both efforts went nowhere. Now, they’ve decided to take matters into their own hands.

The retired public employees are taking the unusual step of hiring a forensic pension investigator to provide clarity on the fund’s investments, the high fees it is paying to big Wall Street firms and its lagging performance.

“We’re going to take this on, on our own,” said Margaret Brown, a former CalPERS board member who is now president of the Retired Public Employees’ Association of California, a nonprofit advocacy group with roughly 22,000 members.

Retirement anxiety is a nationwide worry, of course, and it looms large for CalPERS’ 2.3 million members. CalPERS’ obligations to beneficiaries are only 75% funded, its latest financial statements show, below the national average of 83.1%, according to the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems.

CalPERS’ investments have lagged behind other pensions’ — its portfolio of stocks, bonds, real estate and private equity returned 6.6% on average in each of the past five years, against the average public fund’s gain of 7.15%, according to NCPERS. Last year was a bit better, with CalPERS up 9.3% versus the average public pension fund return of 9.47%. Still, CalPERS’ one-year gain lagged behind its benchmark return of 10.3%.

Although publicly traded stocks have been among CalPERS’ best performing assets of late, the fund has increased its exposure to costly and opaque private investments, including private equity.

The most recent annual financial report shows CalPERS had 15.6% of its portfolio in private equity, up from its previous target weight of 10% in 2023. Measured over one-year, five-year, 10-year and 20-year periods, CalPERS’ private equity has underperformed its benchmark in three of those time frames, its records show.

Meanwhile, other large institutional investors are dumping private equity investments as their performance wanes. In a February report about pension funds in general, S&P Global analysts characterized increasing exposure to private equity as problematic for pensions “since these investments often have opaque and variable disclosures and increasing fees, meaning that risk versus return might be hard to measure.”

Large state pension funds’ exposure to private equity and limited transparency has also prompted concerns in other parts of the country, including in Ohio and Minnesota.

Brown, who was on the CalPERS board from 2018 through 2022, spent her career at Garden Grove Unified School District and was responsible for the district’s planning, funding and construction of large-scale capital projects.

“Our members who are paying attention to what’s going on at CalPERS are concerned about the investment decisions and the 75% funding,” she said.

The fund’s decision to plow more money into private equity as other savvy investors are reducing their holdings is a major worry, she said.

“Does anyone honestly believe that CalPERS knows more than the major investors around the world?” Brown asked. “Or is CalPERS simply betting that private equity will save the pension fund and bolster returns? I believe the latter.”

J.J. Jelincic, another ex-CalPERS board member who is now director of health benefits at the Retired Public Employees’ Association, is especially concerned about a lack of transparency in the pension fund’s operations.

“They are getting more and more secretive, and that clearly is upsetting,” he said. “It’s getting harder and harder to know what they’re up to.”

James Scullary, a CalPERS spokesman, declined to comment on the new investigation. As for the pension fund’s higher allocations to private equity, he said the investments have outperformed all its other asset classes over the past 20 years, generating a 12% annualized return.

Still, that return failed to meet the benchmark CalPERS used for the asset class in the period.

As for the CalPERS’ 75% funding status, Scullary said it is well-prepared to provide payments to pension beneficiaries “for years to come.” CalPERS, he added, “is unwavering in its commitment to serving the best interests of its members, ensuring their financial security and well-being both now and in the future.”

Brown and Jelincic said they intend to raise the money to pay for the CalPERS analysis from members of the retired employees association and anyone else with an interest in holding the fund to account.

They plan to hire their own forensic pension investigator — Edward Siedle, a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney — because their previous efforts to monitor the fund’s operations failed.

These included unsuccessful attempts to get state legislators to order an audit of the fund and to require the creation of an inspector general to oversee it, Brown said.

Siedle’s task won’t be easy. He has faced opposition to his work at other pensions and said he expects a similar response from CalPERS.

Other large public pensions have inspectors general monitoring their activities. In 2008, after a pay-to-play scandal involving the New York State Common Retirement Fund, New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli established the Office of the Inspector General “to prevent, detect and deter corruption, fraud, criminal activity, conflicts of interest and abuse within the Office and within the NYS Common Retirement Fund.”

Scullary, of CalPERS, said oversight of the fund’s operation comes from its independent auditor and 13-member board. But Jelincic said when he requested copies of internal audits, he was advised that some are exempt from disclosure, so the auditor’s oversight is difficult to assess. Past reasons for denying access to audits include claims of attorney-client privilege and proprietary information in private equity documents.

At Scullary’s suggestion, NBC News raised Brown’s and Jelincic’s concerns with Rocco Paternoster, executive director of California State Retirees, a 44,000-member advocacy group advocating for retired state employees on their pension and health benefits. Paternoster characterized Brown and Jelincic as disgruntled former CalPERS board members and said that while his members would like the funding level to be higher than the current 75%, it “is not something we’re panicked about.”

Asked about CalPERS’ increased commitments to costly private equity partnerships, Paternoster said, “We believe you need to incentivize people to work hard on your behalf. Commissions and fees are not a concern for us.”

CalPERS records show it paid private equity managers $569 million in investment fees in its most recent fiscal year, just over half of the total $1 billion the fund paid in fees to manage its investments.

Brown and Jelincic are not the only retirees concerned about the state of CalPERS.

“I seriously feel my pension is at risk,” said David Soares, a former prosecutor in the San Francisco Bay area who retired in 2016 after 32 years on the job. “What we’re seeing is an absolute wholesale looting of the fund through fees being paid to outside managers. They are letting billions of dollars fly out the door with no benefit.”

CalPERS’ executive ranks have also experienced turmoil over the past decade. A former chief executive of the fund, Federico R. Buenrostro, received a 4.5-year prison sentence in 2016 for accepting $250,000 in cash bribes from a placement agent who solicited pensions to invest in private equity funds.

Since 2020, the fund has seen turnover among its chief investment officers, with two leaving unexpectedly after short tenures. One left after it came to light that he owned shares in a private equity company that does business with CalPERS.

In another setback, a state judge concluded that the fund had violated California’s open meetings law. Scullary declined to comment on the violation, saying the fund follows the law.

Siedle, the investigator hired by the retired public employees group, has probed three public pension funds in recent years. His 2024 analysis of the Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association pension, commissioned and crowdfunded by a group of retired educators, found the pension had underreported the fees it was paying to investment managers by failing to disclose large payments to private equity managers.

Following the investigation, the fund began listing these payments — $80 million in 2024, or 76% of the fund’s total external manager fees.

Sara Swenson, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota pension, said in a statement that the fees, although previously undisclosed, had always been netted out of the fund’s return calculations. The new practice of detailing fees paid to private investment managers “was made possible by work that began many years ago,” she said.

A sequestered jury in Australia began deliberations Monday in the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson, accused of killing her estranged husband’s relatives by deliberately serving them poisonous mushrooms for lunch.

Three of Patterson’s four lunch guests — her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson — died in the hospital after the 2023 meal at her home in Leongatha, at which she served individual beef Wellington pastries containing death cap mushrooms.

She is accused of attempting to murder the fourth, Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who was gravely ill but survived.

During the nine-week Supreme Court trial in the state of Victoria, Patterson gave evidence in her own defense. The 50-year-old mother of two faces life in prison if convicted.

Jury must decide if mushroom cook meant to kill

It isn’t disputed that Patterson served her guests the toxic mushrooms or that the meal killed them. But the jury must decide whether she meant for them to die.

Prosecutors in the case, which has gripped Australia for two years, said the accused woman researched, foraged and served the mushrooms deliberately and lied to investigators to cover her tracks. Their case against Patterson included that she disposed of a food dehydrator after the fatal meal and reset her phone multiple times.

The prosecution said she lied about having a dire medical diagnosis to ensure her guests attended the lunch, cooked individual pastries to avoid poisoning herself, and faked symptoms to make it look as though she fell ill, too.

But Patterson’s lawyers said the poisoning was a terrible accident caused by a pantry mix-up of store-bought and wild mushrooms, which she didn’t know were death caps. The defense case was that Patterson wasn’t as ill as the other diners because she induced vomiting after the meal due to an eating disorder.

The accused lied to the police that she had never foraged mushrooms or owned a dehydrator out of panic, her lawyers said. Patterson denied telling her lunch guests she had a confirmed diagnosis of cancer.

Prosecutors offered no motive

Justice Christopher Beale spent four days summarizing the case to jurors before their deliberations began, urging them not to be swayed by bias or prejudice, or by sympathy for the families of those who died. Patterson’s lies, some of which she admitted during her evidence, could be used to assess her credibility but didn’t mean she was guilty of murder, Justice Beale said.

Prosecutors didn’t offer a motive for the alleged killings and weren’t required to. But they suggested a deteriorating relationship between the accused and her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, as well as her exasperation with her former in-laws, which she expressed to friends on social media months before the deaths.

The defense said Erin Patterson had a positive and loving relationship with her lunch guests, who included her children’s only living grandparents, and that she had no reason to kill them. Justice Beale highlighted in his summary of the case the fleeting and minor nature of the past disputes.

Simon Patterson was invited to the fatal lunch but didn’t go.

Jurors will remain sequestered

A 14-member jury heard the case, but 12 were selected by ballot Monday to decide the verdict. The jury will remain sequestered, meaning they will stay together in court-appointed accommodation until they reach a unanimous decision.

Late Monday afternoon, court staff told reporters that jurors had finished deliberations for the day and would return to consider the case Tuesday. The jury is not permitted to return a verdict outside of the court’s sitting hours and members are barred from discussing the case outside the jury room — even with each other.

Sequestration is rare in Australia and reflects public and media fervor about the case, with several news outlets publishing live blogs that covered every moment of the trial for its more than two-month run. The lengthy fixture in the town of Morwell, Victoria, drew lines of people eager to watch proceedings each day.

MIAMI — A depression that was formerly Tropical Storm Barry dumped rain on eastern Mexico late Sunday as Tropical Storm Flossie brewed off its southwestern Pacific coast.

The weakening and ill-defined depression came ashore south of Tampico with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was moving northwest at 9 mph. All tropical storm warnings and watches were lifted, but rainfall and a risk of flooding were expected through Monday.

In the Pacific, Tropical Storm Flossie maintained strength early Monday with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. It was centered about 195 miles south-southwest of Acapulco and was moving northwest at 9 mph.

A tropical storm watch remained in effect for Mexico’s southwest coast from Zihuatanejo to Cabo Corrientes. A watch means tropical storm conditions are possible in the area within two days.

Flossie is expected to rapidly intensify into a hurricane late Monday or Tuesday, then skirt the coast for a few days. While its center is forecast to remain offshore, moderate rain was likely in parts of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, Colima, and Jalisco through early next week.

Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City, said Sunday that he doesn’t believe billionaires should exist.

Asked directly whether billionaires should have a right to exist, Mamdani, who identifies himself as a democratic socialist, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.”

“And I look forward to working with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fair for all of them,” he added.

His remarks come as some wealthy people in New York City soured on Mamdani in the days after it became clear that he would be the presumptive nominee.

Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has backed President Donald Trump in the past, on Thursday pledged to use his money to bankroll a challenger to Mamdani in the general election.

“[Mamdani’s] policies would be disastrous for NYC. Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country. The ability for NYC to offer services for the poor and needy, let alone the average New Yorker, is entirely dependent on NYC being a business-friendly environment and a place where wealthy residents are willing to spend 183 days and assume the associated tax burden,” Ackman wrote in a post on X.

“Importantly, there are hundreds of million of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight (believe me, I am in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups) so that a great alternative candidate won’t spend any time raising funds. So, if the right candidate would raise his or her hand tomorrow, the funds will pour in,” he added.

On Sunday, Mamdani also spoke about his plans to raise taxes on the wealthiest people living in the Big Apple, telling “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, “Ultimately, the reason I want to increase these taxes on the top 1%, the most profitable corporations, is to increase quality of life for everyone, including those who are going to be taxed.”

He credited his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy as one of the key tenets of his platform that helped him win the primary.

“We’re seeing that our vision to tax the top 1% of New Yorkers — these are New Yorkers who make a million dollars a year or more — and our proposal is to just tax them by 2% additional, is something that has broad support, and we’ll continue to increase that support over the next few months.”

Mamdani has also faced critics — including President Donald Trump — who call him a communist.

“I am not” a communist, Mamdani said on Sunday, in response to a question about Trump’s comments.

On Sunday, in a separate interview on Fox News that was taped Friday, Trump again spoke about Mamdani, making a threat to pull federal funding from New York City if the next mayor doesn’t “do the right thing.”

“But let’s say this: If he does get in, I’m going to be president, and he’s going to have to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money, he’s got to do the right thing,” the president told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.

Mamdani added in his response: “I have already had to start to get used to, get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am, ultimately, because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for, and I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.”

A key focus of Mamdani’s campaign was speaking about affordability and the economy, a point that he made on “Meet the Press” Sunday when asked about why he thought he won.

“It was the focus on the fact that we live in the most expensive city in the United States of America. It’s also the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and yet 1 in 4 New Yorkers are living in poverty, and the rest are seemingly trapped in a state of anxiety,” Mamdani said.

He added, “And what we’ve seen is that this is a city that needs to be affordable for the people who build it every day. Our focus was on exactly that, and by keeping that focus on an economic agenda, we showed New Yorkers that this could be more than just a museum of what once was. It could be a living, breathing testament to possibility.”

Palestinian flags waved amid the crowd at Glastonbury, England, on Saturday as several performers at one of Britain’s biggest music festivals led the audience in chants criticizing Israel’s continued military campaign in Gaza.

The English punk duo Bob Vylan came under fire after it appeared to encourage tens of thousands of audience members to call for “death” to the Israel Defense Forces. Following chants of “Free, free Palestine,” singer Bobby Vylan appeared to switch to a different line: “Death, death to the IDF.”

“From the river to the sea,” Vylan could be seen saying on video shared across social media, “Palestine must be, will be, inshallah, it will be free.”

Emily Eavis, a co-organizer of the Glastonbury Festival in southwestern England, said in a statement Sunday that the festival is “appalled” by Vylan’s statements.

“Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence,” Eavis wrote.

She wrote that the organizers stand against “all forms of war and terrorism” and will always advocate for “hope, unity, peace and love.”

“With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share,” Eavis added, “and a performer’s presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs.”

Criticism of Israel is growing louder around the world, with many in the U.K., the United States and elsewhere protesting Israel’s campaign in Gaza, where the death toll has surpassed 55,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out a terrorist attack on southern Israel in which at least 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, according to an Israeli tally. Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas in response.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has also accused Israel of war crimes.

Vylan, in a response shared on Instagram Sunday, wrote that he had received an influx of messages expressing both “support and hatred” while his daughter filled out a survey asking her opinions about school meals. He emphasized the importance of “teaching children to speak up for the change they want and need.”

“Let us display to them loudly and visibly the right thing to do when we want and need change,” Vylan wrote. “Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered.”

He captioned his post, “I said what I said.”

As the backlash rolled in Saturday afternoon, the Avon and Somerset police were quick to announce on X that officers are assessing video evidence to “determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”

The BBC, which aired the festival, also said some of Vylan’s comments onstage were “deeply offensive.”

“During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. “We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.”

And officials at the Israeli Embassy in the U.K. denounced the speech in a statement, saying it “crosses into incitement, hatred, and advocacy of ethnic cleansing.” The embassy wrote that chants like “Death to the IDF” and “From the river to the sea” are phrases that “advocate for the dismantling of the State of Israel and implicitly call for the elimination of Jewish self-determination.”

“When such messages are delivered before tens of thousands of festivalgoers and met with applause, it raises serious concerns about the normalization of extremist language and the glorification of violence,” the embassy wrote.

The punk group wasn’t the only act to land in hot water for its conduct at the festival. The Northern Irish rap trio Kneecap — which has stirred controversy before for its vocally pro-Palestinian views — also criticized Israel during its set while encouraging chants of “Free, free Palestine.”

Last month, British authorities charged Kneecap rapper Mo Chara, whose real name is Liam O’Hanna (or Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh), with a terrorism offense after he was accused of displaying the flag of the Hezbollah militant group. He appeared in court this month.

On Saturday, the band appeared to kick off its set with a video compilation highlighting the terrorism charge and politicians who criticized Glastonbury’s decision to allow it to play, according to clips that circulated online.

“I don’t have to lecture you people. Israel are war criminals. It’s a f—–g genocide,” O’Hanna told the crowd. He also called attention to the number of Palestinian flags in the audience, adding, “The BBC editors are gonna have some job.”

He then called on the crowd to join him in the chant, emphasizing the “difference it makes to people in Palestine when they see people from the other side of the world.”

The band also drew backlash this year when it included pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel messaging at Coachella, where it displayed a screen with the words: “F— Israel, Free Palestine.”

“The Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the … skies with nowhere to go,” O’Hanna said during the band’s second weekend performance at Coachella. “The Palestinians have nowhere to go.”