“Don’t call it a comeback.” Actor and rapper LL Cool J was in Sunset Park with co-star Scott Caan filming an episode of the new CBS show “NCIS: New York” on Sept. 24. The scenes were shot outside the bar Irish Haven, 5721 Fourth Ave. Shows such as “Ray Donovan,” “The Deuce,” “Gotham,” and Academy Award-winning movie “The Departed” all filmed scenes at the bar.

Happy Monday in NYC, where — did you guys see that sunset on Friday?!

The nor’easter has come and gone, leaving in its wake a trail of fallen trees, power outages and one fatality in Brooklyn. Gone as well is the stormy U.N. General Assembly, which brought two of the world’s most controversial politicians to our doorstep: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu was greeted by a wave of protests, including a mass walkout by delegates from dozens of countries as he began his address to the Assembly on Thursday. Things were much calmer with President Trump, however, who enjoyed a relatively uneventful visit back to his hometown, and once again chummed it up with Mayor Mamdani in what has got to be the most unlikely bromance since Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg.

Addressing the media outside Gracie Mansion last week, Trump said that he was rooting for Mamdani. “I want him to be a great mayor, and he’s certainly got potential, got great potential,” Trump said before giving the mayor a smile and a pat on the back.

As POLITICO reports, Trump’s affectionate attitude toward the Democratic-Socialist mayor has made it hard for the GOP to paint him as a symbol of leftist extremism and an existential threat to democracy in their midterm campaigns. “You need a good villain to run against in politics, and he’s just not a good villain,” Chapin Fay, a GOP operative, told POLITICO.

To politicians on the left, Mamdani represents something far different than a boogeyman: a kingmaker. The mayor proved his ability to vault his preferred candidates to victory earlier this year when his endorsement helped clinch primary wins for Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier. Now, Governor Hochul is hoping to lock down a bit of that Mamdani love to bolster her reelection campaign against Bruce Blakeman. The New York Times reports that Mamdani has already agreed to record a couple social media visitors promoting the governor and appear alongside her at key campaign stops before the election.

A year ago, when Mamdani was shooting videos for his own campaign, Hochul was very slow to get behind the Democratic candidate, and only gave her endorsement three months after Mamdani’s victory in the primaries. The question now: does Mamdani hold a grudge?

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An ironic development emerging alongside the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is the portrayal of nicotine as a wellness and performance-enhancing product. Across social media, podcasts, wellness communities and tech startups, prominent wellness personalities and other influencers are portraying nicotine as a misunderstood compound whose potential benefits have been overshadowed by its negative association with cigarette smoking.

As a result, nicotine is being repositioned from an addictive substance linked to tobacco use to a natural product that can be used for everything from improving focus to protecting against cognitive decline. This trend includes use of nicotine alone in noncombustible products such as nicotine pouches, or in combination with caffeine and nootropics, which are substances marketed to enhance cognition.

As a pulmonary physician-scientist who studies nicotine addiction and the health consequences of tobacco and nicotine products, I am concerned about claims that nicotine can enhance wellness, productivity and cognitive performance.

Read on to learn more.

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