By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic nomination on a platform of making the city more affordable, is now calling on soccer’s global governing body to make it cheaper for New Yorkers to attend the World Cup.

In a petition released Wednesday, Mamdani demanded FIFA reverse its plan to set ticket prices for next year’s tournament based on demand, likening the practice to “price gouging.”

The Democratic socialist, who dubbed his campaign “Game Over Greed,” also called for 15% of tickets to be set aside at discounted prices for residents.

“As a lifelong football — sorry, I mean soccer fan, I couldn’t be more excited,” Mamdani said in an accompanying social media video, affecting a faux-British accent as he juggled a soccer ball in his dress shoes. “But are any working-class New Yorkers actually going to be able to watch any of the matches?”

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The tournament will be played across 16 cities in North America. Eight matches, including the final, will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, a short train ride away from New York City.

“So many of our neighbors will not be able to afford to be there,” Mamdani added, accusing FIFA of “pricing working people out of the game that they love.”

A spokesperson for FIFA did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

In recent days, FIFA’s plan to adopt a “variable pricing” model for ticket sales — similar to the one used by airlines or hotels — has sparked controversy among some fans.

Tickets will start at $60 for group-stage matches and increase to $6,730 for the final, officials said last week, but could fluctuate under the demand-based pricing model. Mamdani also called on the governing body to implement a cap on resale ticket prices — something it has agreed to do in Mexico, but not in the United States or Canada, he said.

Mamdani, who surged to victory in the primary based on promises such as freezing rent for New Yorkers and making buses free, situated the World Cup fight as part of his larger battle against rising costs for working people.

“Pope John Paul II said, ‘Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important,’” he said at a press conference Wednesday. “This is part and parcel of a larger affordability crisis in this city. Once again, it will be working people who will be left behind.”

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The man who killed John Lennon outside the former Beatle’s Manhattan apartment building in 1980 has been denied parole for a 14th time, according to New York prison officials.

Mark David Chapman, 70, appeared before a parole board on Aug 27, and the decision was recently posted online by the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

FILE – This photo provided by the New York State Department of Corrections shows Mark David Chapman, the man who shot and killed John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment building in 1980, Jan. 31, 2018. (New York State Department of Corrections via AP, File)

Chapman fatally shot Lennon on the night of Dec. 8, 1980, as the musician and his wife, Yoko Ono, were returning to their Upper West Side apartment. Lennon had signed an autograph for Chapman on a copy of his recently released album, “Double Fantasy,” earlier that day.

Chapman was arrested within minutes, sitting near the shooting scene with a copy of J.D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye.”

Lennon was 40 years old.

FILE – In this May 13, 1968 file photo, singer John Lennon appears during a press conference at the Hotel Americana in New York. (AP Photo, File)

The transcript for the latest parole board hearing was not immediately available. But Chapman previously expressed remorse for the crime.

“I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life,” he told a parole board three years ago.

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Chapman is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility, north of New York City, according to online state corrections records.

His next parole hearing is in February 2027.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

BENSENVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Federal agents seized hundreds of thousands of illegal vaping products in raids across the country Wednesday as the Trump administration moved to crack down on devices that are regularly used by teens in the U.S. after being smuggled in from China.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top federal officials traveled to Illinois to tout the seizures, which included more than 600,000 illegal products taken from a distributor outside of Chicago, officials said. They stood outside the warehouse flanked by colored boxes of vapes in fruity flavors officials say are being illegally sold at stores nationwide.

“They’re targeting children, young adults, college students and even members of our military” Bondi said. “Make no mistake Chinese companies are making billions of dollars off of these products. They’re peddling them into our country.”

It’s the latest attempt by law enforcement to staunch the flow of unauthorized vapes that have flooded into the U.S. in kid-friendly flavors, often from China. Their influx has forced the FDA to try to eliminate thousands of illegal products sold by under-the-radar importers and distributors.

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Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service also seized illegal products from distributors and retailers in North Carolina, Arizona, New Jersey, Georgia and Florida, federal officials said.

The Justice Department also filed civil actions Wednesday seeking to halt illegal business practices happening at five distributors and five retailers, officials said. That follows undercover buys of illegal products that ATF agents carried out at distributors across the country last month, according to authorities.

Bondi said the Justice Department would also not rule out bringing criminal charges, if warranted.

Vaping among teens skyrocketed in 2019, when more than a quarter reported using vapes daily. But use has declined in recent years with fewer adolescents reported vaping in 2024 than at any point in the last decade. Officials attributed that drop in part to more aggressive enforcement against retailers and manufacturers.

The Vapor Technology Association blasted the FDA and federal officials, arguing the actions threaten to bankrupt thousands of small businesses, cost tens of thousands of jobs, and erase billions in tax revenue. The group’s executive director, Tony Abboud, called the seizures “an assault on American workers, small businesses, and the tax base” and urged regulators to reverse course.

Associated Press journalists Amanda Seitz and Matthew Perrone in Washington contributed to this report.

By BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday, according to wealth tracker Bloomberg, as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading.

A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years running. Stock in one of Musk’s biggest holdings, Tesla, has been moving in the opposite direction of Oracle’s, dropping 14% so far this year as of Tuesday.

The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle powered by multibillion dollar orders from customers as the AI race heats up.

Another news organization with a long history of tallying the world’s richest, Forbes, still has Musk at the top, at $439 billion. Bloomberg put his net worth at $385 billion. The difference is in how the two estimate the value of Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, among other private holdings.

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With Ellison’s surging fortune Wednesday, he could fund the lifestyles of 5 million American families for a year, about the entire population of Florida, allowing them to all quit their jobs, assuming the U.S. median household income.

Or Ellison could just tell all of South Africa to take a vacation for year and produce nothing, based on its gross domestic product.