Shiv's Newsletter #25
Welcome to the 25th edition! Stay hydrated 💪
👋 Hello and welcome to the 25th edition of my newsletter! Congrats to the Oklahoma City Thunder on winning their first title since relocating to OKC from Seattle. I’m also grateful for the Knicks for giving us some good memories in these 2025 NBA playoffs.
🗽 Five months ago, I joined the Manhattan Climate Changemakers Hour of Action and discovered Zohran Mamdani while crafting outreach to my state legislators. I was doing some research on his committee memberships, policy priorities, and prime-sponsored legislation. That’s when I also learned that he was running for mayor of New York City.
🙏 Well, last night former governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the race to my guy Mamdani who seized a seismic lead over the longtime frontrunner (primarily due to Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens—which also happens to be the three boroughs I’ve lived in since I moved to NYC four years ago). I feel like the Democratic candidates in the 2021 mayoral election failed to fully take advantage of ranked choice voting and that’s how we ended up with Mayor Eric Adams.
This year we witnessed a new kind of politics as comptroller Brad Lander and Mamdani cross-endorsed each other in a successful team effort to defeat Cuomo, who was backed by the establishment and billionaire class while Zohran picked up endorsements from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders.
The victory won’t be confirmed until after the city releases its first ranked choice voting results next week but we know Zohran has secured 43.5% of first-choice votes ahead of Cuomo’s 36.4% according to preliminary results from the NYC Board of Elections.
As bestselling authors and journalistic titans Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson wrote in their book Abundance: “One way of understanding the era we’re in is as the messy interregnum between political orders; a molten moment when old institutions are failing, traditional elites are flailing, and the public is casting about for a politics that feels like it is of today rather than of yesterday.”
“Tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it’s done. My friends, we have done it. I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.” — Zohran Mamdani
📰 Global News Roundup
🇳🇦 Namibia wants to build an economy around clean hydrogen, which can be used as a green fuel in transportation and heavy industry. The country’s gamble could pay off big if it succeeds, boosting national development. But hydrogen is still far from a proven technology according to the MIT Technology Review
⚡️ New York intends to build a large nuclear-power facility, the first major new U.S. plant undertaken in more than 15 years—Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed the state’s public electric utility to add at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear capacity upstate according to The Wall Street Journal
🇮🇪 Ireland just shut down its last coal-fired power plant. The country is the latest in Europe to join the coal phaseout, with Spain and Italy set to follow soon—the shift was made possible by Ireland’s booming wind sector, which now supplies more than a third of the country’s electricity according to Bloomberg
🔮 What to watch for in the month ahead
🎾 June 30-July 13: The 138th Wimbledon Championships (London)
⚽️ July 2-27: UEFA Women's Euro 2025 (Final in Basel, Switzerland)
👀 Recommendation Zone
📚 What I’m reading
🍎 Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by award-winning journalist Patrick McGee1
📝 In London and Paris, we’ve experienced vicious backlash to climate action. But we’re not backing down by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo2 | The Guardian
🍃 Mayors are making climate action personal. It’s working by senior staff writer Matt Simon | Grist
🏀 Study says WNBA franchises increased in value by an average of 180% since last year, setting a record by Ben Morse, digital producer for CNN Sports
🎧 What I’m listening to
Laho by Shallipopi (Bun Xapa Edit)
Positions by Stryv, Malachiii, Adam Port
360 by Charli XCX (Domenico Ferrari Remix)
AUTONOMOUS RADIO '25 by Oliver El-Khatib (co-founder of OVO)
Nitefreak’s full set live from one of London’s most iconic underground spaces
🎥 What I’m watching
💎 Your Friends & Neighbors starring Jon Hamm, Olivia Munn, and Amanda Peet (Apple TV+)
⛳️ Full Swing featuring Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Bryson DeChambeau (Netflix)
🎮 The Last of Us taking us on a journey with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey (HBO)
✍️ My favorite quotes
“America has the ability to invent. China has the ability to build. The first country that can figure out how to do both will be the superpower.”
— John Arnold“Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget—and I’ll tell you what you value.”
— Joe Biden“Light is only possible through dialogue between cultures, not through rejection of one or the other.”
— James McBride
Thanks for reading! Send any SGA highlights, investment banker memes, and recommendations for restaurants to check out this summer in NYC!
With gratitude,
Shiv
Check out Jon Stewart hosting the author Patrick McGee on The Daily Show to discuss how Apple built China and his new book
An opinion piece penned by the mayors of London and Paris!! Both are involved in the climate action movement via the leadership team at C40 Cities (a global network of mayors taking urgent action to confront the climate crisis and create a future where everyone can thrive)
Let's gooo! Great letter as always Shiv!
360 and Your Friends & Neighbors - very brat of you, Shiv!!