JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has opened up about his recent private meeting with the Mayor of New York City Zohran MamdaniHe said he warned socialists about the risks of bad governance and ideology-driven policy making.Speaking to Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo on Friday, Dimon called the closed-door meeting “pleasant” but made clear he did not back down during the conversation.Dimon said, “He was very polite. It was very serious. We had a very good conversation, but I said everything I wanted to say.”The banker said she used the debate to speak out on key issues affecting New Yorkers, including affordable housing and child care. However, he said poorly designed policies could create bigger problems rather than solutions.“I have to talk about affordable housing and child care. Most people want it. If you do it badly, it will be a disaster… Do it right. There are studies that can tell you how to do it right. Get people involved who know what they’re doing and implement appropriate policies,” he said.Dimon also criticized politicians who focus primarily on taxes and spending rather than fixing the system and administration.“Good policy is free,” he said. “I want to say to politicians, ‘Don’t try to raise more taxes or spend more money, sit down and decide policy.’The JPMorgan boss also pointed to Mamdani’s lack of executive experience while discussing the challenges of running America’s largest city.“I mean, he’s now running a city with 300,000 employees,” Dimon said before the Reagan National Economic Forum in California.“And I’ve seen mayors fail miserably because they can’t make themselves run out of a paper bag, or ideology blinds them from practical, realistic, real-world policy. And so we’ll see.”He said he would be willing to help if the administration adopts practical solutions.“And, you know, if I can help them do good things, I’m happy to do that.”The meeting took place on May 18, when Mamdani met separately with both Dimon and Goldman Sachs Chief Executive David Solomon. The talks came amid growing concern from business leaders over Mamdani’s proposed economic policies, which also include a tax on second homes worth more than $1 million. The mayor recently faced criticism after filming a promotional video for the proposed tax outside a penthouse owned by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.Griffin later described the move as “scary” and announced plans to further expand Citadel’s operations in Florida rather than New York. He also suggested the company might reconsider its planned $6 billion development project on Park Avenue.When asked about the controversy, Dimon suggested that Mamdani may regret the video.“My guess is he probably regrets it,” Dimon said.He added, “But you’ll have to ask them that.”

A pregnant Ghanaian woman and her young son have been held at Washington Dulles International Airport for more than a week, with the pair being held in a windowless detention cell despite serious health concerns, according to lawyers.Annabella Gyasi, 38, arrived at Dulles Airport last Tuesday with her four-year-old son after traveling from Ghana for a medical appointment in Ohio. According to an emergency court petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia, the boy was born with deformed hands and was scheduled to be evaluated at Akron Children’s Hospital on May 30 to determine whether he is now old enough for surgery.Instead of boarding their connecting flight, Gyasi and his son were detained by US Customs and Border Protection officers.The couple first traveled to the US in 2024 for treatment for the child, but later returned to Ghana after doctors advised he was still too young for surgery.Gyasi is more than four months pregnant and told immigration officials she feared returning to Ghana because of the harassment she and her son faced. His lawyers say that statement led to his detention.“Ms. Gyasi traveled to the United States legally to get the medical care she needed for her son, but the illegal detention and inhumane treatment she is experiencing at Dulles is putting her son’s health at risk as well as her own,” Sophia Gregg, senior counsel for immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Virginia, said in a statement.Legal filings allege Gyasi has been hospitalized twice since arriving in the US due to pregnancy-related complications, including vaginal bleeding and dizziness. Despite receiving treatment, he was returned to the airport detention facility after both hospital visits. Doctors raised concerns that she was not eating enough and experiencing stress while in custody. They also allege that repeated requests for additional food for both mother and child were refused.According to the ACLU, Gyasi ultimately agreed to sign the deportation paperwork because she feared for the health of her unborn child and believed it was the only way to secure adequate food. His legal team later informed the authorities that the decision was taken out of frustration.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rejected the allegations of abuse.“These allegations are false,” the department said in a statement.He added: “Everyone in CBP custody, including this individual, has access to appropriate care, including medical evaluation by a doctor, medication, and food.”Immigration officials argued that Gyasi could not use a tourist visa to enter the country because she had said under oath that she wanted to seek asylum and did not plan to return to Ghana.

A note of discord: America divided over proposed Trump $250 bill

TOI correspondent from Washington: America, a republic that was founded in rebellion against monarchy and was once a little shy about personality cults, is now considering celebrating its 250th birthday by putting Donald Trump’s face on a new $250 bill — a value so strangely specific that it seems less like legal tender and more like a minimum spending requirement at a casino.The proposal, once dismissed as Internet satire, turned into reality this week when Treasury Secretary Scott Besant confirmed that the administration has already prepared designs for the bill “if Congress approves it.” Critics who assumed the story was a parody need to check whether the Treasury Department has opened a spoof division.“We’ve got the bill done,” Besant said with a smile at a White House briefing on Thursday, before adding that Treasury was only “making preparations” and that Congress would eventually decide whether the United States should begin circulating a note bearing the likeness of a living president.The “Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act” proposed by South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson would be an exception to an 1866 federal law that prevents living people from appearing on U.S. currency.According to the leaked memo, the design – by British “royal portrait artist” Ian Alexander – features Trump’s trademark campaign trail glower, surrounded by the colors of the American flag and his own ECG-like Sharpie signature.While the bill is expected to pass through the Republican-controlled House, it may face obstacles in the Senate, where the GOP is 53 seats short of the 60 votes needed to break the Democratic filibuster.But in the MAGA world, reality has never been a prerequisite for the launch of a product, so bill or no bill, the currency, if not a legitimate currency at all, will take on a life.Trump’s critics immediately embraced this proposal as the most Trumpian thing ever proposed, a personalized birthday party for America complete with guest of honor cake, fireworks, marching band and commemorative merchandise.Within hours, memes began appearing depicting the bill being accepted only at Mar-a-Lago check-ins, cryptocurrency conferences, and civil fraud settlements.Social media, never a sanctuary of restraint, descended into full creative combustion, with one troll suggesting the bill would become “expensive toilet paper” and another mocking that the denomination meant nothing because “nobody in America has exactly $250 except people who pay parking tickets in Manhattan.”The denomination itself has baffled economists and currency experts. The US once printed $500, $1,000, and even $10,000 bills for interbank transfers, before electronic systems made them obsolete.But $250 occupies a strange psychological territory — too big for ordinary transactions, too small for oligarchs, and suspiciously close to the average cost of brunch at a tony Georgetown restaurant.Currency historians also struggled to identify globally comparable odd-numbered notes.Some countries have issued unconventional denominations during periods of hyperinflation or currency transition – Zimbabwe famously produced trillion-dollar notes – but the proposed Trump bill appears to be less an economic instrument than a commemorative refrigerator magnet that accidentally became legal tender.However, the proposal fits into increasingly unrealistic preparations for “USA250,” a nationwide celebration of America’s centennial next year. If you walk through the National Mall today, you won’t see quiet tourists contemplating the delicate experiment of democracy.Instead, cranes are actively assembling a giant steel cage on the South Lawn of the White House for “UFC Freedom 250,” a mixed-martial-arts extravaganza scheduled to take place on June 14 — which is Flag Day, and, completely coincidentally, Trump’s 80th birthday. Nearby, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is currently drained, with bulldozers trying to remove decades of green sludge before the MAGA party begins.However, the official USA250 stage concerts have run into a brick wall of progressive Hollywood solidarity, with the entertainment community, overwhelmingly left-liberal, boycotting most of the official Washington festivities.Instead, a slim list of rookie entertainers will entertain the mostly MAGA crowd expected to descend on the capital. Clearly, as July 4th approaches, the United States is divided: one half is preparing to celebrate 250 years of the constitutional republic, and the other half is trying to figure out how to replace the $250 bill.

An illegal immigrant from India has been jailed for 10 years in the US after paying human traffickers to abuse minor girls in a hotel in Nebraska.Kavankumar Patel, a 27-year-old citizen of Gujarat, India, who is living in the US illegally, was sentenced this week in a federal court in Omaha, Nebraska. Patel was given a decade-long prison sentence after being convicted of two counts of sex trafficking of a minor.Upon his release, he will be sentenced to five years of supervised release, in addition, he will face deportation back to India due to his illegal immigration status.The sex trafficking ring was busted on January 6, 2025, after Omaha police officers responded to a routine theft complaint. While investigating the case, officials observed clear signs of possible human trafficking at the location.The Homeland Security Task Force and local police launched a rescue operation, rescuing two underage girls, ages 15 and 16, from the AmericanInn Hotel in Omaha. The victims were at times transported across state lines between Denver and Omaha to be sold for commercial sex. Following their rescue, both teenagers were taken to Project Harmony for expert interviews.During their interviews, both victims revealed that their traffickers had forced them to comply with an ultimatum. The girls were told that they had to perform sexual acts with hotel staff to gain a discounted room rate, otherwise they would be thrown out onto the street. Hotel staff actively enabled the abuse. Two employees paid traffickers to abuse one girl, while a third employee had sex with another minor. Patel worked at the AmericanInn and admitted that she stole money directly from the hotel cash to pay traffickers to have sex with one of the underage victims.In exchange for these sexual relations, the hotel staff allowed the traffickers and two minors to stay on the premises for several days. During this time, traffickers posted commercial sex advertisements online and coordinated appointments for clients. The victims later reported that they were given very little food and were trapped. They thought they had no choice but to follow the smugglers’ orders.After sentencing, United States Attorney Leslie A. Woods praised the multi-agency rescue operation.“The United States Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners will never tire of working as hard as we need to protect the most vulnerable victims in our communities,” Woods said.

A Canadian man accused of supplying deadly substances linked to the deaths of more than 100 people in Britain will not be extradited to face prosecution in Britain.Kenneth Law, 60, is currently facing criminal proceedings in Canada and is expected to appear in court in Ontario on Friday. He is accused of inciting suicide after allegedly delivering packages containing deadly substances to customers in dozens of countries.The National Crime Agency linked Law’s alleged operation to 112 deaths in the UK after finding 286 people had received packages from websites selling substances linked to assisted suicide, Sky News reports.Investigators found that 330 products were sent to the UK. Law is accused of sending approximately 1,200 packages to customers in 40 countries.The NCA and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) informed the families this week that they will not seek Law’s extradition after the Canadian proceedings conclude.In a letter sent to the families of those killed, the agencies said they agreed that the full scale of the alleged crime should be punished through the same legal process as in Canada. “After careful assessment, we agreed that Mr. Law should be sentenced for the full extent of his crime under the same sentencing process in Canada,” the letter said.Officials acknowledged that some families had expected a separate prosecution in England and Wales, but said the decision was taken after detailed consideration of all available options.The move prompted renewed calls for a public inquiry from relatives of those who died.Adele Zeynep Walton, whose sister Amy Walton died aged 21 in Southampton in 2022, said the family were still waiting for answers about how the substance was able to reach vulnerable people in Britain.“Foreign sentencing hearings cannot answer this. Only a statutory public inquiry can answer this,” he said, as quoted by Sky News.The law has also been investigated by authorities in the United States, Italy, Australia and New Zealand as law enforcement agencies investigate the international reach of the alleged scheme.