It’s Thursday, September 4. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Gazans against Al Jazeera. Inside the phenomenon of “dropout graduations.” And remembering basketball legend George Raveling.

But first: Mamdani’s policies and their consequences.

Until yesterday, Zohran Mamdani seemed all but assured of becoming the next mayor of New York City. The far-left state legislator won the Democratic nomination in June in an upset against former governor Andrew Cuomo, and has since then maintained a double-digit lead against a crowd of general election opponents including Cuomo, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and incumbent mayor Eric Adams.

Then came the (possible) plot twist: rumors that Adams could leave the race and take a job in the Trump administration with just two months to go before election day. So is the incumbent really quitting? That’s the subject of Olivia Reingold’s latest report. Read it here:

For now, however, Mamdani remains in the catbird seat. He’s been winning more endorsements from local officials, including former mayor Bill de Blasio’s earlier this week. And he remains a charismatic figure with a devoted base of support. But it’s a lot easier to run for the city’s top job than it is to run the city itself.

Being mayor is mostly about the unglamorous work of ensuring the trains and buses stay moving, overseeing schools and public housing, keeping crime in check, dealing with myriad union bosses, and the many other arduous tasks necessary to keep the nation’s largest city halfway functioning. It’s a very difficult and tedious job, in other words, which is probably why so many New York mayors either give up or go crazy.

So today we’re taking a close look at Mamdani’s policies—and what they would actually mean for the city.

Joel Klein, who ran New York City’s public school system for nearly a decade under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, says that what little Mamdani has said about education is deeply troubling. “Mamdani’s platform is almost certain to hurt the mostly black and Latino kids who live in the city’s poorer communities while driving middle-class and affluent families out of the public school system,” Klein writes.

Next, Judge Glock offers a skeptical view of Mamdani’s plans to freeze rents, which always sounds nice in theory but, Glock argues, has consistently led to municipal catastrophe.

Likewise, Charles Lane takes issue with another signature Mamdani promise—free bus rides—and notes that it’s an idea that’s already been tried and failed. “The Soviet Union used to charge a few kopecks to ride the bus or the subway in Moscow,” Lane writes. “Mamdani’s idea of socialism doesn’t have room for even that much individual responsibility—or realism.”

—Will Rahn

WATCH: Gazan Journalists Say Al Jazeera Works Hand in Glove with Hamas

Tanya Lukyanova

Al Jazeera is a household name for frontline coverage of the Middle East. But for some in Gaza, the network represents something else entirely: an arm of Hamas’s repressive machinery. In her latest report, Tanya Lukyanova speaks with Gazan journalists and activists who say Al Jazeera staffers are complicit in silencing reporters deemed critical of the terror group. Read full story

Generation Dropout

Sean Fischer

Ever heard of a “dropout graduation”? Sean Fischer just attended one in San Francisco, and found a lot of tech-obsessed young people in start-up–branded hoodies and Rolexes who left schools like Stanford, MIT, and UC Berkeley to build companies in the real world. They’re convinced that the future belongs not to the credentialed but to the self-taught—and are hungry enough to prove it. Read full story

George Raveling’s Extraordinary American Life

Ryan Holiday

George Raveling, the legendary basketball coach and player, died Monday at age 88. Today for The Free Press, Ryan Holiday recalls a life spanning from segregated Washington, D.C., to playing against famed players like Jerry West, standing beside MLK at the “I Have a Dream” speech, and orchestrating Michael Jordan’s deal with Nike. He lived, Holiday writes, “gratefully, never leaving anything undone or unsaid.” Read full story