New York City in brief

Donald Trump has called on countries including China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom to dispatch warships to the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran blocked the vital energy chokepoint following attacks on the Jarg oil terminal. Washington promises “relentless” military action to keep oil flowing, as Teheran’s leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vows to keep the strait shut—reminding us that even “defeated” powers can still cause quite a bottleneck.

With a wary eye on 2026’s choppy waters, we note analysts poring over America’s employment figures, consumer spending, interest rates, and GDP—looking for hints of recession. Slack hiring, pricier loans courtesy of the Federal Reserve, and shrinking wallets have raised eyebrows, if not yet red flags. As economists peer at inverted yield curves for omens, families may soon prefer fortune cookies to forecasts.

New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is advertising for a “czar” to oversee the tricky business of shutting Rikers Island jail by 2027, as required by law, and wrangling four new borough-based jails into being. The post promises $130,000 to $180,000, plus heaps of lawsuits, a dash of federal scrutiny, and the delicate task of emptying a facility famous for housing both mayhem and, more recently, Harvey Weinstein.

Donald Trump dismissed reports of Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Jamenei’s death as mere “rumor,” questioning whether he’s even alive and bluntly suggesting surrender would be “very smart.” While his defense secretary claims Jamenei was injured in a US-Israeli strike, Iranian threats and talk of more American bombing keep the oil-rich Gulf on edge—though apparently, any peace deal with Tehran must be robust enough to avoid awkward resurrections.

Anthropic, born from OpenAI’s castaways wary of Sam Altman’s fondness for power and lucre, has now sent its AI, Claude, into classified Pentagon service—albeit with a constitution and a conscience. Claude won’t select targets or spy on citizens, thanks to CEO Dario Amodei’s carefully worded contracts; still, we suspect “kill switches” are easier to sign for than to enforce when the chips are down.