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If you know anyone who might like this newsletter, send it to them. If this was sent to you by someone else, subscribe here — it's free!  Dear New Yorkers, In April 2022, just weeks before being tapped by Mayor Eric Adams to serve as New York City sheriff, former NYPD Sergeant Anthony Miranda attended an awards gala in Great Neck, Long Island, with his wife. They both wore purple badges. The story behind those ornaments is one you can’t miss. The host of that event, Gary Sze Kong, a Queens businessman whose many titles include president of the Sino American Commerce Association, was photographed sporting the same device. Marketed online as the “1 invisible mask,” the badges purported to protect the wearer against COVID-19 and other viruses by using colliding ions to produce a “protective gas” around the mouth and nose, guarding wearers for 30 days. A month earlier, following the Omicron surge that walloped the five boroughs and COVID had killed some 40,000 New Yorkers, Miranda took to social media to tout the device as “very real” and “very effective.” There was one problem. It didn’t work at all. Oh, and there’s an Elon Musk impersonator who figures into all of this.   Read more here. Sponsor message Some other items of note: A mail warehouse at JFK Airport has been equipped with 500 cots, plus several trailers with showers and bathrooms. Mayor Eric Adams’ administration plans to house up to 1,000 adult asylum-seekers there, THE CITY has learned, but needs final approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Airbnb hosts and the home-rental company itself filed lawsuits against New York City yesterday. The suits seek to block a new short-term rental law and elaborate registration rules that, the plaintiffs say, effectively ban stays — and could force the cancellation of thousands of summer vacation rentals.  City Council primary elections are coming later this month, in redrawn districts. Look yours up in our Know Your District tool, which includes candidates as well as information about how redistricting shaped your area. Did you know? District 26, covering Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside, which is 66% Democratic, has a challenger facing off against an incumbent in the June Democratic primary. For the latest local numbers on COVID-19 hospitalizations, positivity rates and more, check our coronavirus tracker.  Weather scoop by New York Metro Weather Friday's Weather Rating: 6/10. A very summerlike start, with warm temperatures and partly cloudy skies. Warmer and increasingly humid later on, with highs near 90 (!) — followed by a chance of scattered showers and storms this afternoon. The vibes are getting a bit more unsettled today! THE KICKER: It’s up for debate whether Queen’s catalog is really worth $1 billion — but entrance to Sotheby’s New York exhibition of legendary frontman Freddie Mercury’s personal effects is definitely free. It runs until June 8 at the auction house’s York Avenue location and includes things like Mercury’s shoes and comb, along with other ephemera.  Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Friday. Love, THE CITY P.S. If you liked something about today's newsletter, or didn't, let us know at zshah@thecity.nyc

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