GREENPORT — Democrat Jackie Salvatore won the race for Columbia County Sheriff on Tuesday night, becoming the first Black woman elected county sheriff in New York state history. Salvatore, who is currently the undersheriff, defeated Republican John Rivero, 58% to 42%, with all 62 election districts reporting as of 10:46 p.m.

Salvatore, 60, served in the New York State Police for 28 years. She rose to the rank of detail commander and ran the State Police Employee Assistance Program, which offers psychological counseling to officers and their families. After leaving the State Police, she entered the private sector, running operations for United Airlines at the Albany International Airport and managing a literary agency, she said in an interview. She listed the Employee Assistance Program as her proudest accomplishment in her law enforcement career.
Salvatore was Sheriff Donald Krapf’s pick for undersheriff in 2021 and campaigned alongside him that year, even though the position is appointed and does not appear on the ballot. Krapf ran as an independent, but was backed by the Columbia County Democratic Committee.

…Columbia County has become increasingly Democratic in recent years. The number of registered Democrats surpassed registered Republicans around 2015 and has continued to rise as people relocate from more urban areas, especially New York City and its environs. The county now has a Democratic sheriff and a district attorney, and the balance of county government may turn Democratic when all the votes are tallied. Turnout was high for an off-year election, with 43% of the county’s 49,416 registered voters casting ballots, according to the Columbia County Board of Elections.

https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/jackie-salvatore-columbia-county-sheriff-election-21138741.php

The collective wealth of the top 10 US billionaires has soared by $698bn in the past year, according to a new report from Oxfam America published on Monday on the growing wealth divide. The report warns that Trump administration policies risk driving US inequality to new heights, but points out that both Republican and Democratic administrations have exacerbated the US’s growing wealth gap.

Using Federal Reserve data from 1989 to 2022, researchers also calculated that the top 1% of households gained 101 times more wealth than the median household during that time span and 987 times the wealth of a household at the bottom 20th percentile of income. This translated to a gain of $8.35m per household for the top 1% of households, compared with $83,000 for the average household during that 33-year period. Meanwhile, over 40% of the US population, including nearly 50% of children, are considered low-income, with family earnings that are less than 200% of the national poverty line.

When pitting the US against 38 other higher-income countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US has the highest rate of relative poverty, second-highest rate of child poverty and infant mortality, and the second-lowest life expectancy rate. “Inequality is a policy choice,” said Rebecca Riddell, senior policy lead for economic justice at Oxfam America. “These comparisons show us that we can make very different choices when it comes to poverty and inequality in our society.”

The report outlines the way that systems in the US, including the tax code, social safety nets, and worker’s rights and protections, have been slowly dismantled, allowing concentrated wealth to turn into concentrated power.

More at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/03/wealth-billionaires-increase-trump?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Life was never the same for New Yorkers after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, with every resident coping with the trauma and devastation of that day. But for Muslim New Yorkers there was an added burden: the suspicion and sometimes physical harm now lurking around every corner.…Born out of necessity to counter a rising tide of Islamophobia, young Muslim New Yorkers have spent years developing political power in the city, building local political institutions, and leaning into a different kind of politics, one that embraces identity yet also moves beyond its sometimes shallow appeal.

As the Muslims of New York have been organizing, their numbers have also been steadily growing, making it impossible to ignore Muslim voters for anyone who wants to run for office and win. The city likely has about 1 million Muslims (there are no official numbers tallied for religious groups), which is about the same number as Jews in New York City. The Council on American-Islamic Relations estimates more than 350,000 Muslim New Yorkers of that million are registered to vote, though only about 12% voted in the 2021 mayoral election. That is also now changing. Muslim and South Asian voter turnout in the mayoral primary this summer was up 60% compared with the 2021 primary, according to the Muslim Democratic Club of New York. And despite what rival Andrew Cuomo claims when he stated last month that “the Muslim community are not socialists,” it is clear that Muslims are a growing political force pushing the Democratic party to the left on fundamental issues.

…“We could not hide the fact [from the world] that we are Muslim,” Dandia said, referring to himself and Mamdani. “Yet we do not anchor our politics strictly on these identitarian terms. Adequate housing is a ‘Muslim issue’, public transit is a ‘Muslim issue’, and universal childcare is a ‘Muslim issue’. Zohran fights for these issues because they advance the common good for all of us, Muslim or not, and align with both Democratic Socialist principles and Islamic values.”

Campaign fundraising statistics bear out how Mamdani’s affordability message is resonating beyond the confines of the Muslim community. According to Open Secrets, a non-partisan group tracking money in US politics, the Mamdani campaign has raised $16.8m, with about 90% of Mamdani’s donors contributing less than $250. The average contribution is $98. By contrast, the average contribution to the Cuomo campaign is $615, yet Cuomo has raised only $12.6m. Cuomo-supporting Super Pacs, on the other hand, have received 11 times as much money – including millions from Airbnb ($10m), former mayor Michael Bloomberg ($8.3m) and DoorDash ($1.8m) – than the Super Pacs that support Mamdani or oppose Cuomo.

More at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/24/zohran-mamdani-muslim-new-yorkers-sept-11?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Holding court for the cameras in Sharm el-Sheikh last week, a manically self-congratulatory Donald Trump, Gaza’s make-believe saviour, hailed his fellow “tough guys” – tame tyrants, such as Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who helped fabricate his flimsy Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. Yet later this month, the American pharaoh-president is due to face a far less biddable tough guy: China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Bookmakers may withhold odds on the outcome. In the US-China race for 21st-century primacy, Xi is sprinting ahead, assisted by spur-heeled Trump’s many missteps.

It’s amazing that debate still rages, in the UK and US, about the character and aims of China’s expansionist regime. Its aggressive, worldwide economic empire-building, suppression of basic rights in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, regional sabre-rattling and ubiquitous cyber-espionage, allow only one conclusion. Even as British MPs argued over whether Beijing is an enemy or an investment opportunity, Xi was providing an unequivocal answer. China’s drastically expanded global export controls on rare-earth minerals and magnets, over which it exercises a near monopoly, are the deliberately damaging act of a hostile power. These materials are essential for manufacturing most electronic devices, including phones and cars. The security implications are alarming. Rare-earth products are used in cruise missiles, combat jets, nuclear submarines, drones and other modern weapons systems. China’s new rules will prohibit their use for any military purpose. Governments are scrambling to find alternative supplies. This embargo, if enforced next month, potentially compromises western arms supplies to Ukraine and defences against Russia, Beijing’s ally.

China also intends to control use of these materials by overseas-based manufacturers and supply chains. The US has asserted similar extraterritorial jurisdiction since 1959. Now Beijing is playing Washington at its own imperious game — and weaponising trade for political purposes. Trump blew a fuse when the measures were announced, threatening 100% tariffs and cancellation of his planned meeting with Xi. Amid market panic, he backed off. But tit-for-tat trade penalties continue, stoking fears of global economic downturn. As usual, Trump has no plan, no idea what he’s doing. Not so Xi. He is demonstrating that if Trump insists on a full-blown trade war, he will go toe-to-toe with the White House windbag. The rare-earths diktat could be a negotiating tactic, or a side-product of Chinese Communist party (CCP) politicking. But that’s probably wishful thinking. Analysts detect a fundamental shift. After initially biding his time, Xi is going on the offensive.

What has caused the shift? It’s the realisation in Beijing that Trump’s reckless America First policies are alienating old and new friends alike, creating a vacuum it can fill. US global influence and leverage is plummeting, reflected in disrupted alliances in Europe and Asia, weakness in confronting authoritarian regimes in Russia and Israel, the virtual elimination of US foreign aid and soft-power outreach, and contempt for the UN and the international rules-based order.

China is staring at an open goal. Hardheaded Xi plays airhead Trump: it’s an embarrassing mismatch. Yet the slower-witted in Washington still don’t get it. “The president of the United States has far more cards than the People’s Republic of China,” JD Vance crowed last week. It would be rewarding to play the vice-president at poker. Does Vance realise, for example, that – to quote the Center for Strategic and International Studies – “China [with unlimited access to rare minerals] is rapidly scaling up its munitions manufacturing capacity and acquiring advanced weapons platforms at a rate estimated to be five to six times faster than that of the US”? Does Vance realise the US is losing the tariff fight it started? “Since Trump launched the trade war this year, Chinese exporters have had considerable success finding new markets. Last month, China’s year-over-year exports to the US fell by 27%, but exports as a whole were still up by 8.3%,” noted James Palmer in Foreign Policy. In contrast, US farmers have lost their crucial China soya bean market to Brazilian producers, perhaps permanently. With the holiday season approaching, American consumers face rising prices. Most toys and up to 90% of Christmas goods sold in the US are made in China.

More at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/19/donald-trump-xi-jinping-china-trade-tariffs-us-beijing?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other