President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in its products.

The PGA Tour's Open Championship begins on Thursday in Scotland, where the top players on tour will compete at the Royal Portrush Golf Club's Dunluce Course.

A 61-year-old man was killed and 13 others injured when lightning stuck an archery range in New Jersey on Wednesday.

• Joe Foster, cofounder of Reebok, said it is difficult to move apparel manufacturing West.
• It is hard to find workers willing to spend hours in front of a sewing machine outside Asia, he said.
• Until manufacturing automation progresses, apparel production will "stay in the Far East," he said.

It's hard to move apparel manufacturing West because no one wants to sit in front of a sewing machine for hours, Reebok's founder said.

Joe Foster, a 90-year-old Reebok veteran who cofounded the footwear and clothing brand in 1958 in the UK, spoke on a Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast interview, released Monday.

When asked how tough it was for companies like Nike, Adidas, and Reebok to move production out of Asia, Foster said that's "virtually impossible" to accomplish on a short timeline.

"If you want millions, as we wanted, millions of products, you've got to go somewhere where you've got a lot of people who are quite willing to sit on a machine, women on the sewing machines, men on the production line, and that doesn't happen overnight," Foster said.

"In the UK, we can't get people to do that. They won't do it, they've moved on to whatever different things, and I think the States are exactly the same," he added.

He said that to move manufacturing West, a faster method of making shoes with robots and automation is needed. But automation for complicated sneakers, which he said have more than a hundred pieces, was difficult.

The industry had not progressed to that stage, and the apparel and footwear business was "going to be in the Far East for a long time," he said.

Reebok's manufacturing is concentrated in Asia, particularly in countries like Vietnam and China. The private company has been headed by CEO Todd Krinsky since 2022.

It is owned by the NYC-based Authentic Brands Group, which also owns other apparel brands such as Champion, Billabong, Van Heusen, and Ted Baker.

Retailers have been grappling with the effects of Trump's tariffs, which have targeted Asian countries heavily involved in apparel manufacturing. Goods entering the US from Vietnam and China are now hit with a 20% and 30% levy, respectively.

In a June earnings call, Nike announced it would raise prices for US customers because it anticipated a $1 billion cost increase from tariffs.

Other companies have announced that they will move manufacturing to the US to mitigate the impact of the tariffs. In April, French luxury giant LVMH said it was considering increasing the capacity of its production facilities in the US.

Representatives for Reebok did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Drone warfare is driving the creation of a new type of bullet in the Ukraine war.
• A Ukrainian version is designed to fire from a NATO rifle and spread pellets to kill drones from afar.
• With unjammable drones on the battlefield, troops need ways to defend themselves with physical force.

Anti-drone rifle bullets are emerging in the Ukraine war, potentially giving ground troops a safer option against the cheap drones that are now the battlefield's No. 1 killer.

While Russian troops were seen experimenting with such ammo since at least last year's winter, Ukraine's defense innovation program debuted its own version in late June.

Brave1 published a video of a soldier filling a cartridge with black and grey-tipped 5.56mm rounds, before loading it into a CZ Bren 2 assault rifle and firing at a drone in a test range.

"The goal is for every infantryman to carry these NATO-codified cartridges, enabling them to react quickly to aerial threats," the government organization wrote, adding that the bullets "dramatically increase the chances of downing FPV drones."

Brave1 did not publish footage of the bullet's interior design.

However, United24 Media, an outlet run by the Ukrainian government, wrote that the bullets use a "custom-designed warhead that creates a dense and rapid fragmentation effect upon firing."

In short, the tech would allow soldiers to fire a bullet that travels some distance before dispersing a spread of pellets to strike a first-person-view drone or quadcopter.

That could allow infantry to start shooting at attack drones from a safer distance, compared to the last-resort measure of trying to down the threat with a shotgun, which is now the norm across Ukrainian units.

The shotgun tactic has become especially needed against the rising use of fiber-optic drones by both sides. These drones receive their signals through long, thin cables instead of radio, meaning they can't be jammed via electronic warfare.

As a result, many units carry 12-gauge shotguns with them. A new anti-drone bullet could allow infantry to simply bring extra rifle cartridges instead of a whole separate firearm.

Brave1 did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Russian troops are making anti-drone bullets

Notably, a similar style of bullet has appeared among Russian forces before.

In November, Russia's 74th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade published a photo of a 5.45mm bullet, which is fired by the AK rifle. It was tipped with a heat-shrinking tube.

Within the tube, the brigade wrote on its Telegram channel, there are four buckshot pellets meant to disperse and hit Ukrainian drones. It added that when handloading cartridges, troops should alternate between these new bullets and standard rounds or tracer rounds.

This design appears to be more of a DIY creation and is distinct from the version that Ukraine's Brave1 showed. It's not clear if the bullet was made widely available for Russian forces.

Z Parabellum MD, a pro-war Russian Telegram channel, published a separate video on November 29 showing several men working at a table to snap off the tips of 5.45mm rounds. In the footage, one of the men places heat-shrinking tubes on the bullet by hand.

The channel also posted a video of a Russian soldier demonstrating the rounds, shooting them at a metal sheet in a firing range.

In another example, a photo that circulated among Ukrainian channels in May showed a presentation board with an assortment of small-arms rounds used to destroy FPV drones.

One of these was a 5.45mm round tipped with a casing containing six pellets.

The growing appearance of such bullets on both sides shows how rapidly drone warfare is evolving in real time, with roughly three years of war driving a back-and-forth series of new technologies and tactics studied closely by militaries around the world.

• Billy McFarland, 33, became notorious for organizing the failed Fyre Festival in 2017.
• The disgraced founder said he auctioned off the branding rights for the event on eBay for $245,300.
• McFarland was ordered to pay $26 million to the investors, concert-goers, and vendors he defrauded.

Billy McFarland, the founder and CEO of the Fyre Festival, said on Tuesday that he has sold the branding rights for the infamous event.

McFarland, 33, wrote in a statement on X that he had auctioned off the Fyre Festival's brand and intellectual property on eBay. He added that the auction was the "most-watched non-charity listing on eBay."

McFarland's listing received 175 bids and was ultimately sold for $245,300, per its eBay auction page. He said in his statement that he looked forward to working with the buyer to "finalize the sale."

"Fyre Festival is just one chapter of my story, and I'm excited to move onto my next one," McFarland said in his statement.

McFarland also teased his next venture, "a tech platform designed to capture and power the value behind every view online." He did not elaborate further but said the project would be "coming soon."

Earlier, McFarland had expressed disappointment at the final sale price.

"Damn. This sucks, it's so low," he said in a livestream on Tuesday, per NBC News.

McFarland had gained notoriety following the failure of the Fyre Festival back in 2017. McFarland had marketed the event as a luxury music festival in the Bahamas.

McFarland managed to raise over $26 million from investors and recruited influencers like Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber to promote the event. He ended up selling over 5,000 tickets, some of which went up to $75,000.

But McFarland's customers were in for a rude shock when they arrived at the Bahamas in April 2017. What was supposed to look like paradise ended up resembling a disaster drill.

Disaster relief tents from FEMA replaced the villas they were promised. Instead of gourmet meals, customers were served cheese sandwiches and salads. Bahamian locals who worked as the event's caterers and laborers said they did not receive their salaries.

In 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud related to the festival and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $26 million to investors, concert-goers, and vendors.

McFarland was released from prison early in March 2022. He apologized for his actions during an interview with Good Morning America in November 2022, saying that what he did was "wrong" and "bad."

"I let people down. I let down employees. I let down their families. I let down investors. So I need to apologize," McFarland said.

McFarland, however, was not done with the Fyre Festival just yet. In April 2023, he wrote in a now-deleted post on X that a sequel to the Fyre Festival was "finally happening."

McFarland initially announced in February that Fyre Festival 2 would take place on Isla Mujeres, a Mexican island. The location was later changed to another Mexican tourist hot spot, Playa del Carmen, after the Isla Mujeres government said it had "no knowledge of this event."

In April, the event's organizers said the festival would not be held at Playa del Carmen either. The organizers said in a statement to The New York Times published on April 16 that the event was "still on" and they were "vetting new locations."

That changed again on April 23, when McFarland said in a statement on Instagram that he was selling the brand rights to the Fyre Festival.

"For Fyre Festival 2 to succeed, it's clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently," McFarland said.

Representatives for McFarland and eBay did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

The House voted late Wednesday to take up a bill establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers, after a record-breaking session that involved intense negotiations to quell a rebellion from hardliners.

Why it matters: "The vote puts the GENIUS Act on a glide path to Trump's desk this week for his signature.

---

• After huddling in Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) office, members of the House Freedom Caucus switched their votes to "yes," ending a nearly 10-hour standoff.
• The House is set to vote Thursday on the GENIUS Act as a standalone measure. Conservatives were pushing to combine a trio of crypto bills into one package, but ultimately settled for a partial win.

The latest: House GOP leadership unlocked support for the vote by agreeing to attach one of the key crypto measures, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act.

• Johnson told reporters he spoke with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Wednesday about adding the provision to the NDAA.
• "We're hopeful that they'll hold the line," Johnson said of the Senate.

The big picture: Wednesday's revote prevailed 217-212 and follows a meeting Trump said he held late Tuesday in the Oval Office with opponents.

• "I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule," Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
• But that confidence proved premature.

Catch up quick: The House floor ground to a halt Tuesday after the chamber rejected a procedural vote setting terms for floor debate on the GENIUS Act.

• Johnson abruptly cancelled votes for the rest of the day amid demands to combine the GENIUS Act with two other crypto bills the chamber is considering this week.
• That would have forced the Senate to reconsider the legislation, likely leading to significant delays.

Zoom out: After months of delicate bipartisan negotiations, the Senate passed the GENIUS Act in June by a 68-30 vote.

• Although the House has drafted its own stablecoin legislation, it ultimately chose to take up the Senate-passed version — in part to avoid having to go back to the Senate.
• Trump has said he wants the GENIUS Act on his desk as soon as possible.

• Jason Kelce says he will "never ever" tell his wife, Kylie, to do household chores.
• The former Philadelphia Eagles center says he prefers when she tells him what to do.
• "I like coaching. I've been coached my whole life. I want people to tell me. I need that," Kelce said.

There's one thing that former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce will never say to his wife, Kylie Kelce.

"I have never ever, and I will never ever, tell Kylie to do something around the house, because, I don't know, she does enough," Kelce said on the Wednesday episode of the "New Heights" podcast, which he cohosts with his brother, Travis Kelce.

"If something doesn't get done, it's like, yeah, well, I should be helping out on this. Tell me what I can do because I am worthless unless you tell me that," Kelce said.

Kelce has been married to his wife since 2018, and they share four daughters: Wyatt, Elliotte, Bennett, and Finnley, who was born in March.

While he will never tell his wife what to do, he doesn't mind if the roles are reversed. In fact, the retired NFL player says he responds to being nagged at "really well."

"Tell me to get my lazy ass up, and take the goddamn trash out. If you tell me to take the trash out, I'm not going to be like, 'Oh, I can't believe she's telling me to take the trash out.' I'm like, 'Yeah, you're right. I should be doing that. OK, I'm sorry,'" he said.

Kelce says he "likes the nagging" and needs it because he can be forgetful sometimes.

"She's like, 'Jason, I don't want to tell you to do these things.' And I'm like, 'I get that. I'm just like, you know, it's not going to get done unless you tell me to do it,'" Kelce said.

"I am pro-nagging. I think nagging is a great thing to do," he added.

After all, Kelce says he's used to being told what to do after years of playing on the field.

"I like coaching. I've been coached my whole life. I want people to tell me. I need that," Kelce said.

Kelce's comments highlight a common relationship challenge: dividing responsibilities without resentment.

Splitting household chores 50/50 with a partner might not be the most effective, per couples therapist Lori Gottlieb.

"You can't treat a relationship like a spreadsheet. It has to be more organic than that. Each couple needs to find their own rhythm, where each person is participating in a way that makes you both feel like you're getting a good deal," Gottlieb told Jo Piazza, author of "How to Be Married."

In a personal essay for Business Insider, Melissa Petro wrote that she and her husband struggled with an uneven division of household chores until the pandemic prompted them to ditch traditional gender roles and switch to a shared family to-do list.

In another personal essay for BI, Maria Polansky wrote that she and her husband divide household chores based on the tasks they both enjoy and care about most — a method that's worked well for them.

A representative for Kelce did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular hours.

Storms sweeping through the U.S. this summer have dumped intense rain on cities across the country, left towns flood-ravaged and forced water rescues.

The big picture: Scientists who spoke to Axios say the deadly floods in Texas that killed more than 130 people underscores the risk that climate change can worsen extreme rainfall events.

---

• By the early hours of the Fourth of July, storms over Texas had dumped some 12 inches of rain in certain parts of the region, according to National Weather Service radar estimates cited by The Texas Tribune.
• But the threat didn't stop that day, with more rain falling and hindering desperate search efforts throughout the following week.

Driving the news: Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Tropical Storm Chantal rapidly formed — and slowly drenched North Carolina with flooding rains.

• Last week, storms sparked floods in New Mexico that killed three in the Village of Ruidoso.
• Widespread rainfall along the I-95 corridor in the Mid-Atlantic Monday set off flash flood warnings, grounded flights and sent torrents rushing through New York City subway stations.
• In New Jersey, two people died after the vehicle they were in was swept away by floodwaters.

Context: Climate change "is supercharging the water cycle," sparking heavier precipitation extremes and related flood risks, according to Climate Central, a climate research group.

• Among 144 U.S. cities analyzed by the group in a report from earlier this year, 88% experienced an increase in hourly rainfall intensity between 1970 and 2024.
• The summer months already provide the weather patterns for higher rainfall rates in some regions, and climate change makes that risk worse.

The latest: A National Weather Service discussion warned the risk wasn't over, noting that a "[p]otent summer storm system" will bring the threat of flash flooding and severe weather "to the Midwest and northern/central Plains Wednesday."

• It also noted "storms will continue ahead of the cold front across the interior Northeast/northern Mid-Atlantic/Upper Ohio Valley Thursday."
• In Louisiana, New Orleans and Jefferson Parish is bracing for up to 10 inches of rainfall as a tropical system moves through the region.

Friction point: The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the development of a tool aiming to predict how rising temperatures will impact extreme rainfall frequency had been delayed amid a Commerce Department review.

• A NWS spokesperson confirmed to the Post the move to delay the forward-looking part of the Atlas 15 project.
• But a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration spokesperson told Axios the administration "has not stopped the production of Atlas-15."
• The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

What they're saying: "With all these events, what they have in common is that in a warmer world, our atmosphere can hold more moisture," said meteorologist Shel Winkley, the weather and climate engagement specialist at Climate Central.

• In Texas, he said, the remnants of a tropical system primed the area for a heavy rain event over a part of the state prone for flash floods. In a stable climate, it still would have been a significant weather event. But with climate change, "we're essentially just loading up" systems, he said.
• Winkley continued, "We're adding a little bit more moisture, so that allows for higher rainfall intensity. It allows for a little more heavier rain to come down, and it allows for these weather systems to become more likely and ... more frequent."

By the numbers: For every 1°F of warming, the air can hold an extra 4% of moisture, per Climate Central.

• With climate change, the atmosphere becomes "greedier," Winkley said, meaning it can release more moisture — but it can also take more from the ground.

Zoom in: In New Mexico, rain fell over an area that had been previously hit by wildfires, increasing its risk of flash floods.

• Similarly, the ground in areas hit by drought — like Kerr County, Texas — may not be able to handle downpours, exacerbating flash flood risk.

The bottom line: With 2°C of global warming, a large majority of U.S. counties are likely to experience a 10% or higher increase in precipitation falling on the heaviest days, Winkley noted.

• "We understand that there's an even bigger increase ... where we're headed versus where we are now," he said.

Go deeper: How the Texas floods compare to the deadliest floods of the past decade

Editor's note: This article has been updated with comments from the NOAA.

The decision to dismiss Comey was delivered as the Justice Department faces renewed scrutiny over its handling of the sex offender's case.

The Trump administration is being sued by 20 states who are seeking to block the cancelation of a grant program that helped protect against potential natural disasters.

The big picture: "By unilaterally shutting down FEMA's flagship pre-disaster mitigation program, Defendants have acted unlawfully and violated core separation of powers principles," says the lawsuit that was filed in Boston, Mass., on Wednesday on the program, which has helped states, local and territorial governments and tribal nations work to reduce their hazard risk.

---

Driving the news: FEMA announced in April that it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program and canceling all BRIC applications from fiscal years 2020-23.

• The post announcing the cuts that appears to have since been removed was titled, "FEMA Ends Wasteful, Politicized Grant Program, Returning Agency to Core Mission of Helping Americans Recovering From Natural Disasters."
• The suit led by Washington and Massachusetts argues that by "refusing to spend funds Congress directed toward BRIC or trying to spend them on other programs," the administration had violated the Constitution and unlawfully intruded on Congress' "power of the purse."

Zoom in: "The impact of the shutdown has been devastating. Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding," the states argue in the suit.

• Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have invested millions of dollars for planning, permitting, and environmental review are now threatened. And in the meantime, Americans across the country face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters.

For the record: Most of the states suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, acting FEMA head David Richardson, the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are Democratic-led.

• The states suing the administration are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
• Representatives for the DHS and FEMA did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on Wednesday evening.

Go deeper: Governors accuse Trump admin of stalling disaster recovery

Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

House Republicans broke the record Wednesday for the lower chamber's longest vote in history — for the second time in as many weeks.

Why it matters: It's the latest example of House Speaker Mike Johnson's strategy for dealing with his razor-thin majority — holding votes open for hours as he tries to sway opponents in his own party.

---

• Wednesday's record-setting vote was on a resolution setting the terms of debate on several measures, including the GENIUS Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers.
• That broke the previous record, set two weeks ago to the day amid grueling negotiations over President Trump's "big, beautiful bill."

The big picture: Before two weeks ago, the previous record was set in 2021, when the House took seven hours and six minutes on a procedural vote related to then-President Biden's Build Back Better legislation.

• This was Johnson's (R-La.) second attempt after the House floor ground to a halt Tuesday when the chamber rejected the procedural vote on the first try.
• Johnson is facing demands from hardliners to combine the GENIUS Act with two other crypto bills the chamber is considering this week.
• That would force the Senate to reconsider the legislation, likely leading to significant delays.

Between the lines: Wednesday's revote followed a meeting Trump said he held late Tuesday in the Oval Office with opponents — after which he declared victory, apparently prematurely.

• "I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule," Trump posted on his Truth Social account.

The Commanders are adding a future Hall of Fame edge-rusher to their defense.

At the 2025 ESPYS, Shane Gillis and internet comedian Druski put together a sketch about the Philadelphia Eagles' infamous 'Tush Push' play.

The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly looking to pair Luka Doncic with Nikola Jokic long-term.

The recall was initiated for the products due to fears the beans could be contaminated with salmonella.

• Consumer prices have not risen as much as expected, but this may change soon.
• The Federal Reserve's Beige Book warns of price hikes as tariffs become entrenched.
• Businesses are reporting rising costs overall, with some sacrificing profit margins for tariffs.

Prices have not gone up as much as expected for consumers, but this might not last for long.

The latest Federal Reserve Board Beige Book, a publication that provides general information about the current state of the economy, mentioned tariffs 75 times and warns of price hikes as tariffs become more entrenched.

Across all 12 Federal Reserve districts, businesses told the Federal Reserve that tariffs have increased their costs either modestly or pronouncedly. Many manufacturers reported being surcharged by their suppliers, especially for raw materials used in manufacturing and construction.

While many businesses said they passed along costs to consumers through price hikes, others held off due to price-sensitive consumers, which affected their profit margins.

For instance, a manufacturing company in Memphis told the St. Louis Federal Reserve that it had raised prices significantly to offset the tariff cost on steel and aluminum, but a packaging company in the district is swallowing at least 10% in surcharge due to competition with larger manufacturers.

But the prices may not stay low for long as tariffs prolong.

"Contacts in a wide range of industries expected cost pressures to remain elevated in the coming months, increasing the likelihood that consumer prices will start to rise more rapidly by late summer," wrote the Federal Reserve System in the July Beige Book.

"It seems that prices have gone up out of fear that prices will go up," a construction materials supplier told the Federal Reserve.

The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of goods and services costs, shows that prices have not skyrocketed post-tariffs. In June, prices inched up by 0.3%, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.7%. This is mostly in line with analyst expectations, though it's still above the Federal Reserve's goal of 2%.

The Trump administration recently sent tariff letters to nearly two dozen trading partners, threatening duties as high as 50% starting from August 1. None of the four existing trade agreements with the UK, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia has yielded tariffs below 10%, suggesting that the baseline tariff imposed on April 2 may be here to stay.

The Michigan Wolverines and head coach Sherrone Moore have picked up a big-time recruiting flip.

Jalen Hurts was not considered a top-five quarterback in the NFL, according to a recent poll. A former player-turned-analyst went off on the rankings this week.

• New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani tried to woo the city's tech denizens on Wednesday.
• He engaged in a fireside chat attended by roughly 200 startup founders and venture capitalists.
• In the discussion, Mamdani seemed to balance progressive ideas with pragmatic outreach.

Zohran Mamdani had no deck, but plenty of pitch when he met with New York City's tech community on Wednesday night.

At an invite-only fireside chat with venture capitalist Kevin Ryan, the New York City Democratic mayoral candidate tried to sell a room of tech workers and startup investors on his vision for a city that works for the working class.

And he mostly avoided the controversy surrounding his views on Israel and tax hikes for the city's millionaires and billionaires, according to multiple people who attended the event.

Fresh off a primary win powered by the blunt message that New York is too expensive, Mamdani spent about an hour taking questions from New York's tech workers at an event hosted by the Partnership for New York City, Tech:NYC, and AlleyCorp, Ryan's venture capital firm that incubates and invests in startups.

The crowd of some 200 people included startup founders, angel investors, and general partners from venture capital funds.

The event, held at a gleaming skyscraper in Midtown, offered a stark contrast to the candidate's grassroots campaign, which was built around free city buses, a freeze on New York rents, and tax hikes for millionaires. Mamdani leaned in, fielding questions with a mix of what attendees who spoke to Business Insider characterized as "charisma" and pragmatism.

Ryan told Business Insider that when someone in the audience raised President Donald Trump's social media post about Mamdani, which referred to him as "a 100% Communist Lunatic" who "looks TERRIBLE," he joked that it must have hurt Mamdani to hear he looked lousy, drawing scattered laughs.

During their discussion, Mamdani and Ryan pinballed from the state of affairs in New York's tech scene to initiatives across housing, childcare, transportation, healthcare, and government efficiency, attendees said.

Last week, Mamdani collided with tech's more conservative wing on social media after a Sequoia Capital investor's viral comments referring to the candidate as an "Islamist."

Ryan said the post didn't come up during the chat, but one audience member did ask Mamdani about his past comments on Israel. Mamdani deflected, Ryan said.

"He was trying to focus on being mayor of New York," Ryan said, "not mayor of the Middle East."

Mamdani was somewhat vague, Ryan and other attendees said, when asked about his previous comments about billionaires. "I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality," Mamdani said in a TV interview in June.

He seemed to be reaching out to the business community, nonetheless.

"He didn't have to meet with the CEOs," said Ryan, referring to a Tuesday meeting with New York's business leaders.

In that meeting, Mamdani reportedly said that he would not use the phrase "globalize the intifada" and that he would "discourage" others from doing so, after months of declining to condemn the phrase that some interpret as a call to violence against the Jewish people.

At Wednesday's event, one attendee, who works at an artificial intelligence company, said he saw the candidate's rhetoric soften into a more pragmatic approach. The person said that when someone asked Mamdani what he hoped to achieve in his first hundred days in office, the candidate referenced a 2009 proposal by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to make cross-town buses free. Mamdani has said that he plans to make every bus in New York free.

"I was glad to see him being open to new ideas and working with people outside his base," said Yoni Rechtman, a Brooklyn venture capitalist who attended the event. "Over the last few months, he's done a good job moderating on issues that matter to New York." Rechtman questioned if that was because of "an authentic commitment to pragmatism" or "just typical politicking."

"He's engaging," Ryan said, "even though he knows that many people in the room don't agree with a number of his positions. I will give him credit for reaching out."

As an organizer, Ryan played both host and ambassador. He's among the early architects of New York's startup scene, the original "Silicon Alley insider." His hands were on many of its flagship tech companies: Gilt Groupe, MongoDB, and even Business Insider, which he started along with Henry Blodget and Dwight Merriman in 2007.

Ryan, who has previously cohosted events with Mamdani rivals Mayor Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo, and other New York politicians, said he hasn't endorsed a candidate. This event, he said, came together after Mamdani's primary win and offered a chance to introduce the candidate to the tech ecosystem — and for the ecosystem to size him up.

A spokesperson for Mamdani didn't return a request for comment.

Mamdani's campaign has proposed a 2% income tax hike on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year — a bracket that likely doesn't include most of the city's early-stage founders and startup employees, and might only graze a few of the investors in the room.

Zach Weinberg, a New York tech founder who notched one of the city's biggest startup exits with the $2.1 billion sale of Flatiron Health in 2018, didn't attend the fireside chat, but he didn't mince words when asked about Mamdani's platform. While the candidate "seems like a perfectly nice guy," Weinberg told Business Insider, he believes many of Mamdani's policies, especially rent freezes and higher taxes, "will not work" and could do more harm than good.

"If he pushes tax rates higher on residents, you will see people move out of the city, which actually decreases tax revenue," he said. "Super wealthy people have flexibility where they live."

He pointed to hedge fund manager David Tepper's departure from New Jersey — a move that caused a drop in the state's annual tax revenue — as a cautionary tale for what happens when tax policy collides with high-net-worth mobility.

Mamdani sits further to the left than most in a room full of card-carrying capitalists, said Ryan. But he tried to show on Wednesday that he's willing to engage with a spectrum of viewpoints ahead of the general election, where he will face a Republican and several independent candidates, he added.

When asked about technology's role in the government, Mamdani lamented that while he can track a food delivery order on his phone, he can't monitor a complaint he's logged in NYC311, the city's information and service hotline, as easily. The public sector, he told the group, could learn from the private sector in how it applies technology.

"He's a good politician and understands that we need to create jobs in the city if people want to pay for anything," Ryan said.

Have a tip? Contact the reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at @MeliaRussell.01. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.