Vezione has great insight here.
I'm no authority, but I did deal with a landlord to wrote a bogus contract in NYS a number of years ago. Some illegal items can void a contract. Newsy might be screwed out of the deposit, but there could be a way to report this dude for predatory practices. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to waive basic tenants rights, at least certain ones (per:
https://caretaker.com/learn/lease-ag...al-lease-terms). A landlord cannot just fully declare themselves exempt from laws that are in place of a reason via a contract.