Politics
Trump oil tariffs expected to raise price at the pump
President Trump’s tariff on Canadian oil is expected to raise prices at the pump for U.S. consumers, if it takes effect as planned after a 30-day delay. Analysts told Blue Light News that the 10 percent tariff set to be imposed under an executive order Trump signed over the weekend would lead to a pricing bump…
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NEW YORK — There’s no bots about it.
The New York City-themed World Cup jerseys announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in June and released online from July 8 to July 16 sold out every morning within minutes, though the Mamdani administration tells Blue Light News there was no foul play involved.
Frustrated shoppers suspected scalpers using automated bots to buy the jerseys within seconds during each morning’s release at 10 a.m., but New York’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services said it only detected two out of 3,500 orders that came from bots.
“The NYC soccer jerseys have been tremendously popular—thousands have attempted to purchase through CityStore online every day. One thousand very real, very happy New Yorkers have already picked up their jerseys in person—we have not seen widespread bot activity,” a DCAS spokesperson said in a statement.
The two detected bot orders were canceled, the spokesperson added.
The jerseys’ high demand and low supply is a more likely explanation for why they sold out so quickly. The website limited releases to 500 jerseys every morning, and averaged 25,000 visitors to the store during the week it was for sale.
DCAS said it used Shopify’s bot prevention services such as CAPTCHA tests and required in-person pick-ups to prevent automated purchases.
SANFORD, Maine — Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Democratic nomination in the crucial Maine Senate race, winning the support of a majority of the state delegates who will officially nominate a candidate next weekend.
While they are not legally bound to support him, nearly two-thirds of the 601 delegates have committed to voting for Jackson at that statewide convention. Jackson dominated the county-level meetings this weekend that selected those delegates, with two rivals falling far behind — and one of them, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, dropping out of the race partway through the process Sunday.
The party’s statewide convention in Bangor, Maine, next weekend will cap a tumultuous scramble to replace Graham Platner, who won the primary but dropped out this month after POLITICO reported that a woman he previously dated said he forced her to have sex with him. Platner denied the allegations.
Jackson will have less than four months to spin up a major battleground Senate campaign against GOP Sen. Susan Collins, the only Senate Republican running for reelection in a state carried by former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
Jackson turned his attention to the general election at a Sunday morning rally ahead of the delegate meeting in York County, where he secured the support of enough delegates to cross the 50 percent threshold.
“Whether you supported me from the beginning, or are still deciding, or support another candidate, there is a place for you in this movement,” he told a few dozen supporters in a school parking lot in Sanford, Maine, echoing what has been a familiar line in his speeches since entering the Senate race. “Because we’re not going to defeat Susan Collins by making this movement smaller. There’s no way that that’s ever going to work.”
Bellows dropped out of the race just minutes before voting began on Sunday and encouraged Democrats to coalesce behind Jackson.
“This has been an unprecedented nominating process, compressed into days instead of months, and I’m grateful to every volunteer who worked around the clock for this movement,” she said in a statement. “That energy is exactly what we need to beat Susan Collins in November — and Democrats don’t have a day to waste in unifying around that shared goal.”
Jackson’s whirlwind path to the nomination is the prologue to an even tougher test. Collins has defeated well-funded Democrats of all stripes since she was first elected in 1996, and currently has an $11 million war chest in reserves, according to the latest filings from the Federal Election Commission.
And Jackson’s last-minute ascension puts him at an even greater disadvantage: Maine’s nominating convention on Saturday is just 101 days before Election Day in November, giving Jackson less time to run against Collins than Harris had in her losing campaign against Donald Trump in 2024.
“We’re going to have to put our ground game even more into maximum overdrive,” Jackson told reporters after his Sanford rally, referencing Platner’s large number of town halls and his short timeline. “What did Graham have, 70 town halls? If we did one every other day we wouldn’t be able to do 70 from here on out.”
Jackson also said he will have to quickly introduce himself to the southern part of the state, given he hails from the far-north and represented the area in the state Senate.
“I’m not as well known down here,” he said. “I’m six hours away from my home. And as we know, the state legislature means nothing. Nobody’s following it. It’s a lot of work to make sure people know what I’m about.”
Jackson’s ascent to the Senate nomination marks the pinnacle of a long career in organizing progressive activists in Maine. His failed gubernatorial campaign was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and he campaigned alongside Platner ahead of the June primary. Jackson ultimately called for Platner to drop out of the race after the sexual assault allegation. A 5th generation logger from the far-northern tip of Allagash, Jackson hails from the same county as Collins as he prepares to take her on in November.
Many former Platner supporters were part of the team of volunteers, organizers and delegate nominees that whipped votes for Jackson’s delegate slate in counties across Maine over the weekend. The strength of his organizing operation helped Jackson jump out to a commanding lead after Saturday’s meetings, including a sweep of all 149 delegates in Cumberland County, the largest county in the state.
Travis Jones, a former Platner supporter from Seal Harbor, Maine, who was elected as a delegate alternate in Hancock County, where Platner lives, said he’s backing Jackson because of the similarities between Platner’s progressive agenda and the Jackson campaign.
“I was a big supporter of the previous candidate, Graham Platner. I really liked his policies. Troy mirrors a lot of those,” Jones said ahead of the delegate meeting in Ellsworth, Maine, on Saturday. “The previous campaign really energized me, and here I am today.”
66%
Sixty-six percent of Spaniards say they would feel pride if their country won the World Cup, just under Canada’s 67 percent for the highest level recorded in countries covered by the latest cross-border Blue Light News Poll. (The United States was lowest, at 50 percent.) As was the case in other European countries surveyed, supporters of Spain’s right-of-center parties are the most likely to say pride would accompany soccer victory, including 83 percent of likely voters for Spain’s opposition People’s Party.
Follow other findings from the latest Blue Light News poll here.
- Mamdani’s NYC World Cup jerseys beat the bots
- Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Maine Senate Democratic nomination
- Why Spain’s right is ready to cheer
- Thom Tillis tells Todd Blanche to meet with Epstein victims — or don’t expect his support
- Did MAGA ever really fall in love with the world’s game?
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