Andrew Yang will not forestall the robot apocalypse from the Oval Office, but he may get to do it from New York City Hall. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, the former entrepreneur's quirky campaign found a surprisingly robust audience, attracted by Yang's warnings about automation and his promise to mail every American a "freedom dividend" (or, at least, by his math jokes and laid-back, open collar). In the end, the Yang Gang only got their guy as far as the New Hampshire primary. But thanks in part to the name recognition and national network of donors he accrued during that race, Yang is actually leading the polls this year's contest to be the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor. On Friday, Henry Grabar and Jordan Weissmann, two of Slate's native New Yorkers, convened to debate whether this is a good thing. Their debate has been edited and condensed for clarity.

New York State Troopers PBA President Thomas Mungeer says Mayor de Blasio's new laws are putting officers at risk. The president of a union representing New York State troopers said Friday that New York City's restrictions on police officers are setting the men and women on the force up for failure. "By raising the bar and almost making it impossible for my members to safely arrest, we've had enough. I want them out," New York State Troopers PBA President Thomas Mungeer told "Fox & Friends." "What has me alarmed is that troopers that are trained in certain tactics to arrest violent people can now be arrested for using those tactics within the five counties of New York City. Those tactics are still legal in the other 57 counties that make up New York state," Mungeer said.

A robot: less frightening than it looks. Now I have heard it all. The idea came out of Bill de Blasio just before he gave up his bid to gain the Democratic presidential nomination, but he is not alone. Other progressives have fastened on to the idea, as have several Silicon Valley business leaders. It has, in other words, acquired a life of its own.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Fox News' Tucker Carlson for a discussion on automation in the workforce and his new "robot tax." Far-left New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is getting less than 1 percent support in polls, wants to create a "robot tax" and a massive new government bureaucracy to slow the progress and innovation that have made America the world's economic powerhouse. The unpopular mayor is terrified of robots, computers with artificial intelligence and other advanced machines that will eventually be able to do things only people can do today, eliminating millions of jobs. He neglects to mention the obvious fact that technological advances also create new jobs – like auto workers replacing blacksmiths, airline pilots replacing stagecoach drivers, and photographers replacing portrait painters. Under de Blasio's proposed "robot tax," companies that replace jobs with automation would have to pay the equivalent of five years of payroll taxes for each employee whose job is lost, making cost-saving innovations far less attractive.

A "robot tax" could help protect American workers from the growing threat of automation, according to the latest policy proposal from Mayor Bill de Blasio's longshot presidential campaign. The Democratic mayor on Thursday proposed a tax against companies that bring in robots to replace humans without giving those workers new jobs. Such firms would have to pay five years' worth of payroll taxes for every person whose job is cut. De Blasio also proposed closing loopholes that allow corporations to deduct job-killing technology investments from their taxes. A new Federal Automation and Worker Protection Agency would use money from that reform and the new robot tax to create new jobs in health care, early-childhood education and green energy, according to the mayor's proposal.

Amazon picked a tough moment to come to New York. Progressive groups were in the ascendant and they turned their fire on an obvious target: a plan to lure a company run by the world's richest man with $3bn in subsidies and tax breaks. The abrupt collapse of Amazon's plan for a new headquarters, or HQ2, in Long Island City was a milestone victory for leftwing insurgents over establishment Democrats who backed the deal. "This is a new day in New York City politics," said Sasha Wijeyeratne, executive director of Caaav: Organizing Asian Communities. "They sauntered in here and said HQ2 was inevitable," she said.

The end of a politician's time in office often inspires a turn toward the existential, but few causes are as quixotic as the one chosen by James Vacca, who this month hits his three-term limit as a New York City Council member, representing the East Bronx. Vacca's nearly four decades in local government could well be defined by a bill that he introduced in August, and that passed last Monday by a unanimous vote. Once signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio, the legislation will establish a task force to examine the city's "automated decision systems"--the computerized algorithms that guide the allocation of everything from police officers and firehouses to public housing and food stamps--with an eye toward making them fairer and more open to scrutiny. In mid-October, I and some of my colleagues from a group at Cornell Tech that works on algorithmic accountability attended a hearing of the Council's technology committee to offer testimony on the bill. As Vacca, who chairs the committee, declared at the time, "If we're going to be governed by machines and algorithms and data, well, they better be transparent."

London could lose all of its Ubers, courtesy of the city's transportation agency. On Friday, Transport for London announced it would not renew the ridehailing giant's license to operate in the city, citing the company's "lack of corporate responsibility." The license expires September 30, though, unsurprisingly, Uber has declared it will exercise its right to an appeal. The company is able to continue operating in the city as long as the legal process drags on, but it didn't wait for its lawyers to prepare their case before dusting off the weapon that has carried it through many a battle: public fervor. Right after TfL dropped its news, Uber posted a petition on Change.org.