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The Trump administration is escalating its attack on Cuba, cutting off the island’s access to oil in a deliberate attempt to induce famine and mass suffering. This is collective punishment, plain and simple.
In response, we’re releasing a public Call to Conscience, already signed by influential public figures, elected officials, artists, and organizations—including 22 members of the New York City Council, Kal Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, 50501, Movement for Black Lives, The People’s Forum, IFCO Pastors for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, and many others—demanding an end to this brutal policy.
The letter is open for everyone to sign. Add your name today. Cutting off energy to an island nation is not policy—it is a tactic of starvation.
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VIDEO:
What Cubans Really Think About Trump
By Jeff Seal, May 28, 2026
Mr. Seal is a comedian and a visual journalist.
Born in rural Ohio, Howard Keylor attended a one-room country schoolhouse. He became a member of the National Honor Society when he graduated from Marietta High School.
After enlisting in the U.S. Army, Howard fought in the Pacific Theater in World War Two, during which he participated in the Battle of Okinawa as a Corporal. The 96th U.S. Army Division, which Howard trained with, had casualty rates above 50%. The incompetence and racism of the military command, the destruction of the capital city of Naha and the deliberate killings of tens of thousands of Okinawan civil-ians – a third of the population - made Howard a committed anti-imperialist, anti-militarist and anti-racist for the rest of his life.
Upon returning to the United States, Howard enrolled in the College of the Pacific, but dropped out to support Filipino agricultural workers in the 1948 asparagus strike, working with legendary labor leader Larry Itliong. He became a longshore worker in Stockton in 1953. As a member of the Communist Party, Howard and his wife, Evangeline, were attacked in the HUAC (McCarthy) hearings in San Francisco. Later, Howard transferred to ILWU Local 10. In 1971 he, along with Brothers Herb Mills, Leo Robinson and a ma-jority of Local 10’s members, opposed the proposed 1971 contract which codified the 9.43 steadyman sys-tem. This led to the longshore strike of 1971-1972, which shut down 56 West Coast ports and lasted 130 days. It was the longest strike in the ILWU’s history.
In Local 10 Brother Keylor was a member of the Militant Caucus, a class struggle rank-and-file group which published a regular newsletter, the “Longshore Militant”. He later left the Militant Caucus and pub-lished a separate newsletter on his own, the “Militant Longshoreman.” Howard advocated deliberate defi-ance of the “slave-labor” Taft-Hartley law through illegal secondary boycotts and pickets. Running on an open class-struggle program which called for breaking with the Democratic and Republican Parties, form-ing a worker’s government, expropriating the capitalists without compensation and creating a planned economy, Howard won election to the Executive Board of Local 10 for twelve years.
The Militant Caucus was involved in organizing protests and boycotts of military cargo bound for the military dictatorship in Chile in 1975 and 1978 and again in 1980 to the military dictatorship in El Sal-vador. The Caucus also participated in ILWU Local 6’s strike at KNC Glass in Union City, during which a mass picket line physically defeated police and scabs, winning a contract for a workforce composed pri-marily of Mexican-American immigrants.
In 1984, Brother Keylor made the motion, amended by Brother Leo Robinson, which led to the elev-en-day longshore boycott of South African cargo on the Nedlloyd Kimberley. In 1986, Howard again partici-pated in the Campaign Against Apartheid’s community picket line against the Nedlloyd Kemba. When Nel-son Mandela spoke at the Oakland Coliseum in 1990 after his release from prison, he credited Local 10 with re-igniting the anti-Apartheid movement in the Bay Area.
Other actions Brother Howard initiated, organized or participated in included the 1995-98 struggle of the Liverpool dockworkers; the 1999 coastwide shutdown and march of 25,000 in San Francisco to de-mand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal; the 2000 Charleston longshore union campaign; the 2008 May Day anti-imperialist war shutdown of all West Coast ports; the shutdown of Northern California ports in pro-test of the murder of Oscar Grant; the blockades of Israeli ships to protest the war on Gaza in 2010 and 2014; the 2011 ILWU struggle against the grain monopolies in Longview; Occupy Oakland’s march of 40,000 to the Port of Oakland, and countless other militant job actions and protests. Throughout his life, Brother Keylor always extended solidarity where it was needed. He fought racist police murders and fas-cist terror, defended abortion clinics, and fought for survivors of psychiatric abuse. Having grown up in Appalachia, he has always been an environmentalist, and helped shut down a Monsanto facility in Davis in 2012, as well as fighting pesticide use and deforestation in the East Bay.
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Petition to Force Amazon to Cut ICE Contracts!
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
Amazon Labor Union
Over 600,000 messages have already been sent directly to Amazon board members demanding one thing: Amazon must stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE and DHS rely on the data infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. Their campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon.
But workers and communities have real power when we act collectively. That’s why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine. Help us reach 1 million messages and force Amazon to act by signing our petition with The Labor Force today:
Tell Amazon: End contracts with ICE!
On Cyber Monday 2025, Amazon workers rallied outside of Amazon’s NYC headquarters to demand that Amazon stop fueling mass deportations through Amazon Web Services’ contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE cannot operate without corporate backing; its campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon. Mega-corporations may appear untouchable, but they are not. Anti-authoritarian movements have long understood that repression is sustained by a network of institutional enablers and when those enablers are disrupted, state violence weakens. Workers and communities have real power when they act collectively. That is why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its most commonly used cloud platform. DHS and ICE cannot wage their attack on immigrants without the critical data infrastructure that Amazon Web Services provide, allowing the agencies to collect, analyze, and store the massive amounts of data they need to do their dirty work. Without the power of AWS, ICE would not be able to track and target people at its current scale.
ICE and DHS use Amazon Web Services to collect and store massive amounts of purchased data on immigrants and their friends and family–everything from biometric data, DMV data, cellphone records, and more. And through its contracts with Palantir, DHS is able to scour regional, local, state, and federal databases and analyze and store this data on AWS. All of this information is ultimately used to target immigrants and other members of our communities.
No corporation should profit from oppression and abuse. Yet Amazon is raking in tens of millions of dollars to fuel DHS and ICE, while grossly exploiting its own workers. Can you sign our petition today, demanding that Amazon stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with DHS and ICE, now?
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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 Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity CampaignAn appeal for financial supportMay 12, 2026 Dear Friends of the Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign, It has been more than two years since Boris Kagarlitsky began serving the five-year sentence meted out to him by a Russian military court as a way of silencing and punishing him for his opposition to Putin’s war on Ukraine. With a multitude of longstanding friends and colleagues throughout the world, Boris is one of the best-known victims of the steadily escalating political repression in Russia. He has borne the gross injustice of his incarceration with characteristic courage, determination and defiance. But there is no denying that Putin’s gulag takes a toll on even the most valiant spirits. The Boris Kagarlitsky Solidarity Campaign has worked continuously these last two years to draw attention to Boris’s plight, and by extension to that of other prisoners unjustly condemned for protesting the ongoing war that has already cost upwards of half a million lives and vastly more maimed, according to estimates. We have sought, through a variety of activities, to bring pressure to bear on the Russian authorities to free Boris. The many people involved in the Campaign are happy to volunteer their time. However, we rely on the generosity of the Campaign’s supporters to cover the periodic expenses we incur. We recently reached out for help to defray costs associated with the participation of Boris’ daughter and tireless advocate for Russian political prisoners, Kseniia Kagarlitskya, in the international antifascist conference in Porto Alegre at the end of March. That trip was a great success. It allowed Kseniia and Mikhail Lobanov, Russian mathematician, political activist, and former associate professor at Moscow State University, to introduce the thousands of conference-goers from Brazil and across the world to the grim realities confronting Russian political dissidents. The Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Committee has many plans in store for the coming months and especially the fall, including a virtual conference devoted to the global manifestations of political repression. We are appealing to you for a little financial help to carry out our projects and support the day-to-day ongoing work of the committee. We would be deeply appreciative of any assistance you can provide. Because the members of the Campaign coordinating committee are scattered across Europe, North America and beyond, it has been a little complicated to set up a campaign bank account, although we are making progress on that front. For the time being we are asking that you send any contributions you can manage directly to our de facto treasurer Suzi Weissman who is located in Los Angeles, California. The details of her account are: Bank: Wells Fargo Swift/Bic: PNBPUS6L Account holder: Susan Claudia Weissman Account number: 0657205076 International wire transfers: WFBIUS6S wise.com personal account: @susanclaudiaw We thank you in anticipation of any contribution you can make to help keep the Campaign running. Yours in solidarity, Dick Nichols Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) A Big Moment for American Catholics Is Coming
By Kathleen Sprows Cummings, June 17, 2026
Dr. Cummings is a historian of Catholicism.
Naila Ruechel for The New York Times
On Saturday, Pope Leo XIV plans to visit the northern Italian village of Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, where he will venerate a saint close to his heart: Mother Frances Cabrini, who was born there in 1850 and died in 1917 in Chicago, the pope’s hometown. When the Catholic Church canonized Cabrini 29 years later — speedy for a painstaking process that can last centuries — she became the first American saint.
Leo’s visit would seem to be a ready-made occasion for a celebration of Catholicism in the United States, but that would miss the point. Leo and Cabrini are linked by something far more profound than their common U.S. citizenship: a shared global sensibility, developed by their own passages across borders, cultures and continents, that inspired a commitment to people building new lives in distant lands.
The pope’s Cabrini pilgrimage, like his election to the chair of Peter, is an invitation to Americans to see themselves as global citizens while their government appears to be retreating into political, cultural and economic isolation.
It’s fine for Americans to celebrate the creation of a homegrown pope. (Italian cities and villages have had that chance 217 times, after all!) But it would be even better if Americans adopted the lessons Leo and Cabrini learned from personal experience: that people, problems, goods and ideas flow freely across political boundaries, and as a consequence, the world’s challenges — climate change, public health crises, wars and economic instability — can’t be understood, let alone solved, simply on a local or national level.
Chiefly among these issues is migration, one of the world’s most urgent global challenges. While in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Leo will surely call attention to the matter by highlighting Cabrini’s lifelong ministry to migrants during an earlier era of mass displacement. His message will inevitably draw comparisons to President Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign, of which Leo has been a critic.
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As the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Cabrini made dozens of ocean journeys between 1889 and 1912, establishing 67 schools, orphanages and hospitals on three continents. The sisters had at first set out to minister to migrants from Italy, but before long their work came to embrace newcomers of all origins.
In his homily at the 1946 canonization Mass, Pope Pius XII praised the new saint for extending “a friendly hand, a sheltering refuge, relief and help” to people uprooted from their native countries. Pius suggested Cabrini’s international outlook rendered her an agent of peace and reconciliation in a world torn apart by conflict.
That message was drowned out in the United States. Instead, Cabrini’s canonization was celebrated as a national triumph. Her boosters pushed her American identity, ascribing to her a special love for the United States and insisting that she had become a naturalized citizen out of a desire to ally herself with its greatness. (In reality, the practical Cabrini had most likely been following her lawyer’s advice.)
The church presented Cabrini as a model of a woman who transcended national borders. Yet together with their fellow citizens, U.S. Catholics anointed her the unofficial patron saint of American exceptionalism.
Like Cabrini did, Pope Leo has lived for extended periods in Italy, the United States and South America. Also like she did, he traveled widely and became an adopted citizen of a country in which he had long served; for him it was Peru. Perhaps the most striking commonality between the first American pope and the first American saint is also the most instructive: Their U.S. citizenship means or meant far more to other U.S. citizens than to the rest of the world or, for that matter, to either of them.
It seemed that Leo’s U.S. citizenship barely registered with the cardinals who voted for him. Throughout his years in Peru, his travels as head of the Augustinian order and his work at the Vatican’s department overseeing bishops and their selection, he cultivated a global perspective that helped shatter the unspoken taboo within the Vatican of a U.S. pope. However ardently Leo might cheer for the White Sox or savor Chicago pizza, he stopped viewing the world primarily through an American lens long ago.
That might explain why he did not speak English during his first appearance as pope, or why he is pointedly choosing to travel to Lampedusa, the Italian island where so many migrants have landed, on July 4, rather than join the patriotic spectacle surrounding America’s 250th birthday celebrations. The sentiment, I suspect, that Cabrini said propelled her far from Sant’Angelo Lodigiano resonates with Leo: “The world is too small,” she wrote in 1887, “to limit ourselves to one point; I want to embrace it entirely and to reach all its parts.”
Eighty years ago, flush from victory in World War II, Americans could blithely ignore Pope Pius’s characterization of Cabrini as a global saint. Today, from a far more precarious perch in the world, they overlook the example of this global pope at their peril. The deeper lesson of the first U.S. pontiff may be that our interdependent world has become, in Cabrini’s words, “too small” for bygone fantasies of American exceptionalism.
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2) The Deck Is Stacked Against Healthy Eating
By Jessica Grose, Opinion Writer, June 17, 2026
“A 2023 study published in the journal Nature Communications indicated that ‘73 percent of the U.S. food supply is ultraprocessed.’ In a Times Opinion guest essay from September, Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall explained that ‘the root cause of America’s chronic disease crisis’ is ‘our toxic food environment.’ The endless array of hyper-palatable and always available foods disrupts our internal signals around satiety. ‘Our bodies weren’t designed for a calorie onslaught, in the same way a house built for moderate weather isn’t designed for a heat wave,’ Belluz and Hall wrote.”
Eleanor Davis
I spent last week close reading a special section of The American Journal of Public Health dedicated to ultraprocessed foods and corporate influence, and talking to some of the researchers behind these articles. While much of this information has been public for decades, seeing it all in one place is sobering, and maddening. As the days wore on and I started looking at the studies, I found myself experiencing the same kind of impotent, disgusted rage that I have felt when reporting on Big Tech.
Big Food and Big Tech know that the products they are marketing to children are not healthy in a variety of ways. Much as Meta, Snapchat and TikTok knew that students were using social media during school hours and did nothing to stop it, the tobacco giant Philip Morris — which owned Kraft Foods from 1988 to 2007 — used the research, development and marketing strategies it honed to sell cigarettes to hook schoolchildren on sodium-and-sugar-laden products.
We know as much as we do about the way the food industry targets kids with unhealthy food because of the trove of documents released by lawsuits against tobacco companies. Some of the papers in The American Journal of Public Health relied on a trove of over 19 million documents released through class action litigation against the tobacco industry and digitized by the University of California San Francisco.
Through her years of work analyzing these documents, Laura A. Schmidt, a professor at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at U.C.S.F., discovered that Philip Morris used what the company called “technical synergies” between its tobacco and food products. Her paper in The American Journal of Public Health focuses on the development and marketing of Lunchables.
For those of you who weren’t in elementary school in the late ’80s, Lunchables combine processed meats, cheeses and breads in stackable piles in a plastic tray. These “synergies” included chemical additives and “flavor encapsulation technology,” also used in cigarettes and other packaged foods.
“Philip Morris applied its ‘better for you’ reformulation strategy, first used to create filtered Marlboro cigarettes, to develop Low-Fat Lunchables in efforts to keep consumers worried about childhood obesity loyal to the brand,” in the mid-90s, Schmidt’s paper notes — but these “healthier” Lunchables weren’t much more nutritious than the originals, even if they were lower in fat.
You can see food brands using similar strategies today to appeal to health-conscious, MAHA-adjacent consumers: taking the artificial dyes out of chips and cereals, for instance. But those products often contain other additives that make them “hyper-palatable,” thanks to a combination of sodium, sugar, fat and carbohydrates that also make them easier to overeat.
I had already been frustrated with how difficult it is as a parent to have my daughters consume mostly healthy, nourishing foods, without encouraging restrictive or disordered eating, or making packaged foods some kind of forbidden fruit. I cook at home nearly every night and read food labels before buying anything, and I still feel ill equipped and trapped fighting multiple bad outcomes.
I also know that much of the food outside my home is junk, and I can’t (and don’t want to) control what my kids eat when they’re at friends’ homes or buying their own snacks. A 2023 study published in the journal Nature Communications indicated that “73 percent of the U.S. food supply is ultraprocessed.”
In a Times Opinion guest essay from September, Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall explained that “the root cause of America’s chronic disease crisis” is “our toxic food environment.” The endless array of hyper-palatable and always available foods disrupts our internal signals around satiety. “Our bodies weren’t designed for a calorie onslaught, in the same way a house built for moderate weather isn’t designed for a heat wave,” Belluz and Hall wrote.
Luckily there are a ton of policy ideas that could improve our food environment. George Washington University’s Global Food Institute just released a road map for reducing added sugar in American children’s diets.
These suggestions include asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to further reduce the cap on added sugar in school and day care food like flavored milk and yogurt, taxing sweetened beverages, restricting the marketing to children of foods with poor nutritional value and encouraging the Food and Drug Administration to finalize a proposed rule that would highlight products that are high in added sugar.
Many people don’t know how much added sugar is in everyday products like breads, cereals and pasta sauces, Priya Fielding-Singh, the director of policy and programs at the Global Food Institute, told me. Without even giving your children dessert, they can exceed the amount of added sugar recommended by the American Heart Association, Fielding-Singh said.
Schmidt, the U.C.S.F. professor, also mentioned improved food labeling as a policy fix that the United States should adopt. First, “we need a regulatory definition of ultraprocessed food,” she said. In the June 12 edition of Helena Bottemiller Evich’s Food Fix newsletter, Evich quotes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, as saying the definition is imminent and that once it is finalized, “we’re going to go to front-of-package labeling … the model that we’re looking at right now is a red light, green light, yellow light.”
This type of food labeling system, based on the amount of fat, sugar and salt, is in place in some other countries. Green means the food has the lowest levels, yellow is in the middle, and a food labeled red has the highest levels.
However “ultraprocessed” is ultimately defined, the food industry will most likely push back. In West Virginia, a state that was among the first to ban certain artificial food dyes, the International Association of Color Manufacturers sued and successfully blocked the law for the time being.
Though Kennedy has been promising to address ultraprocessed foods for years as a key part of his Make America Healthy Again movement, we have seen him make compromises before when his long-held beliefs conflict with the Trump administration’s business interests.
It is also worth noting that Republican policies are making healthy eating more expensive, and potentially out of reach for the poorest Americans. “The House of Representatives recently passed legislation proposing to cut $141 million from the vegetable and fruit allowance in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children,” the Bloomberg columnist Abby McCloskey wrote on Monday, showing that Kennedy’s “eat real food” slogan will “ring hollow” if few can afford it.
Still, awareness of the downsides of ultraprocessed foods is rising. A majority of Americans surveyed, regardless of political party, said they believe that food companies should have to label ultraprocessed foods, be transparent about their harms and reduce the amount of sugar and salt in their products. “People in the United States broadly believe that U.P.F.s are harmful and addictive and are aligned in support of a variety of potential regulations,” the survey’s authors note.
We know the problem. We know the solutions. We just need our federal government to actually work for us.
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3) Unlikely Coalition Begins Campaign Against Billionaire Tax in California
A surprising array of left-leaning interest groups is trying to kill a wealth tax initiative before the November ballot is finalized. Gov. Gavin Newsom is at the center of negotiations.
By Laurel Rosenhall, Reporting from Sacramento, June 17, 2026
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who says taxing billionaires would hurt California’s dominance as the cradle of tech innovation, is trying to pull it off the ballot before a deadline on June 25. Max Whittaker for The New York Times
It was hardly a surprise when California billionaires revolted last year at a groundbreaking ballot proposal to tax their assets. Some left the state. Others tried to kill the tax by pouring millions of dollars into political advertising and competing ballot measures.
But now opposition is emerging from a far more surprising corner. Health care organizations and education groups that typically support higher taxes are rallying against the initiative just days before a deadline to remove it from the November ballot.
The new effort, which will be disclosed on Wednesday, comes from advocacy groups representing California doctors, health clinics and school boards. The organizations are seeding their campaign with $200,000, according to a spokesman, and are running a digital ad that blasts the measure as a “reckless wealth tax experiment.”
The groups say the onetime nature of the billionaire tax does not address their long-term funding needs. They also fear that the wealth tax would threaten their efforts to pass a tax that would generate a steadier stream of revenue.
“The very folks that it’s supposed to help aren’t supporting it,” said Francisco Silva, president of the California Primary Care Association, which represents health clinics.
The new campaign is believed to be the first political spending against the tax that is not from the wealthy people who would have to pay it. It is also the most visible sign yet that the proposed billionaire tax would scramble traditional alliances if it reached the ballot this fall.
The tax proposal is backed by a labor union, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, and is expected to qualify for the ballot this week. It calls for a one-time, 5 percent tax on the assets of California billionaires to offset health care cuts that President Trump signed into law last year. The state would be required to spend 90 percent of the new revenues on health care and the rest on food assistance and education.
The initiative has already divided Democrats and labor unions. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who says taxing billionaires would hurt California’s dominance as the cradle of tech innovation, is trying to pull it off the ballot before a June 25 deadline.
The negotiations are complex. A grand compromise could involve several other ballot measures on taxes and health care already headed for the November ballot, as well as potential tax increases that the Legislature could approve as part of the state budget.
The health care workers union pushing for the tax said the school boards association was “carrying water for a few of the world’s most controversial billionaires” and criticized the groups representing doctors and clinics.
“Their complicity with billionaires at the expense of patient interests is no surprise,” Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for the S.E.I.U.-U.H.W., said in a statement.
The campaign for the billionaire tax debuted earlier this year with rousing support from Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, who cast it as a righteous move to address income inequality and pay for health care. Tapping into populist angst, the union gathered 1.5 million signatures and received endorsements from the Teamsters and AFSCME unions.
But most Democrats who ran for governor this year opposed the tax, including Xavier Becerra, who is in a strong position to win as the only Democrat to reach the general election. Mr. Becerra said that wealthy Californians have not paid their fair share but that the state needed a predictable tax structure.
In recent weeks, many new opponents have emerged after Mr. Newsom worked behind the scenes to try to isolate the health care workers union. They include progressive groups such as the California Teachers Association and Planned Parenthood, as well as housing organizations, a hospital association and unions representing construction workers and police officers. The common thread among the diverging interests is fear that a one-time tax would hurt the state’s long-term finances.
“What we are looking for is stable, ongoing and durable revenue,” said Dustin Corcoran, chief executive of the California Medical Association, which represents doctors and is a funder of the new opposition campaign.
The doctors’ association and the teachers union are supporting a different ballot measure that would make permanent a tax hike on high earners that is set to expire in 2030. Supporters fear that voters might reject it if too many tax proposals are on the ballot.
Any deal to quash the billionaire tax would likely include an agreement to raise taxes in other ways for health care. On Monday, the State Assembly passed two bills that could become part of a deal. One would raise $1.4 billion next year by limiting corporate tax credits and extending a software tax. The other would change how California taxes managed-care health plans.
If the billionaire tax heads to the ballot this fall, Mr. Newsom’s office hopes that voters will see that many Democratic allies oppose it.
“This is not going to be, ‘Billionaires killed this wealth tax’ if it appears on the November ballot,” said Nathan Barankin, Mr. Newsom’s chief of staff. “It’s going to be Planned Parenthood, doctors, teachers and labor killed it.”
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4) The U.S. Economy Is Leaving These Companies Behind
Small businesses say relentless pressures from tariffs and higher energy prices have sapped their resilience and finances.
By Sydney Ember, June 17, 2026
Kirsten Davenport-Norwood, who owns Greene Thumb Landscape in Indianapolis. Kaiti Sullivan for The New York Times
After unrelenting economic shocks, small businesses around the country were feeling plucky at the start of the year.
Inflation was easing. Borrowing costs were coming down. Tax breaks were materializing. Even President Trump’s whipsawing tariff policy finally seemed to be getting more predictable.
That cheeriness has faded.
The monthslong war with Iran pushed up the cost of fuel and other materials. Inflation has accelerated. The prospect of further interest rate cuts before the end of the year is dimming.
Even as large corporations are posting solid earnings and the stock market is booming, small-business sentiment has plummeted in recent months. Lacking the funds to withstand an onslaught of financial gyrations, many smaller companies are instead rethinking their hiring and pausing any plans to expand — again.
The National Federation of Independent Business reported in May its lowest measure of economic expectations since Mr. Trump was elected to his second term. The Bank of America Institute reported that small-business profitability in April grew at its slowest pace in two years. Job openings at small companies have flatlined. On Sunday, Mr. Trump and Iranian officials announced a preliminary deal to end the war, though the economic consequences will probably linger for some time.
“It has been an incredible challenge for a small mom-and-pop operation to just simply keep the doors open,” said Bruce Jovaag, the owner of Norse Construction, a home remodeling company in Fenton, Mo., that he started in 2013. “It has been a fight like has never existed before.”
Mr. Jovaag, who is 68, said that he had loved the creative aspects of redesigning kitchens, bathrooms and other interior spaces, and that he had formed many meaningful long-term relationships with customers. But seemingly endless disruptions since the Covid-19 pandemic have “taken the enjoyment out of what I do for a living,” he said.
High interest rates slowed the housing market and deterred homeowners from renovating. Immigration enforcement exacerbated a worker shortage in the construction industry. Tariffs swelled the cost of plywood and other building materials. Last year, Mr. Jovaag’s sales, around $1 million in a good year, were down nearly 25 percent.
Although he received a $3,000 tax refund this year, that did not offset the $10,000 of his savings he put into the business last year to keep it afloat. Soaring gas prices, which have made driving to job sites more costly, have eaten further into his profits.
“It’s been a nightmare,” he said. “I’m ready to retire.”
The health of small businesses is critical to the American economy because they power employment and growth. Businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for nearly half of all employment and 55 percent of job creation, according to the Census Bureau.
Many owners were optimistic that the Trump administration would slash taxes and reduce regulations. Legislation that Mr. Trump signed into law last July made permanent the 20 percent tax deduction on business income for many owners. It also allowed them to deduct the cost of certain business investments all at once.
“America First policies are restoring the American dream on Main Street to new heights,” Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration, said last month during a small-business summit at the White House.
That hasn’t been the reality for the small-business owners who are still reeling from years of challenges, some of which have been compounded by tariffs and other policies introduced during Mr. Trump’s second term.
The persistent pressure has pushed some small businesses to the brink. Businesses with fewer than 10 workers have broadly been shedding employees for much of the past five years, according to data from QuickBooks, the accounting software company.
Bankruptcy filings for small businesses also rose last year in a pattern that suggested they were tied to tariff-related economic stress, said Edith Hotchkiss, a finance professor at Boston College. Using data from New Generation Research, a bankruptcy research firm, she found that bankruptcies for firms with less than $50,000 in liabilities had increased two to four months after the administration imposed new import duties.
“Prices are higher, and these small businesses don’t have the flexibility that larger firms do,” she said. “They don’t have the existing inventories that larger firms might have.”
“It’s only natural that these would be maybe the most vulnerable,” she added.
More recently, skyrocketing energy prices have ratcheted up the pain. Since the war in Iran began more than three months ago, a constrained supply of oil has resulted in higher fuel prices, which have raised the cost of transportation, shipping and some materials.
Wholesale prices — what businesses pay for goods and services — rose 1.1 percent in May and were up 6.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 12-month increase was the fastest since November 2022, evidence that elevated energy prices were working their way through the supply chain.
In a survey conducted in May and early June by the Small Business Majority, a nonprofit, three-quarters of business owners said the increases in fuel and transportation costs had affected them. More than a third said they had frozen hiring because of changes to expenses and other economic conditions this year, and roughly one in 10 had laid off workers.
Cost pressures, including higher energy prices, are “definitely the problem that we’re hearing most about right now,” said Holly Wade, the executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business’s research center.
Unlike tariffs, which have often been absorbed at least in part by wholesalers and suppliers, higher oil and gas prices are pummeling many small businesses directly.
“It’s really hitting their bottom line, and they’re having to pass those costs onto customers pretty quickly,” Ms. Wade said.
Francesca Costa, who with her fiancé runs a cafe in Houston called Cranky Carrot Juice, is among the business owners making difficult choices because of rising prices.
When she ran out of the tea that her company uses to make kombucha, she turned to a farm in Ecuador. She purchased about 100 kilograms for $440.
Getting the tea to Houston was another story. Shipping it by air was more expensive than she anticipated because of higher fuel prices. Import duties packed on cost. She said she had spent almost $1,000 on shipping and customs fees.
The cost of eggs and bacon that the company buys from local suppliers has also gone up. Shipping costs on glass bottles that it uses for juices have tripled.
Higher prices, along with expenses associated with opening a second location in downtown Houston in February, have pushed Ms. Costa and her fiancé to consider whether to keep the business going. She has already raised menu prices once this year — cold-pressed juices by 50 cents, smoothies by $1 — and is hesitant to do so again when consumers are pulling back spending on discretionary items like premium health food.
“We are very worried,” she said. “It is a very real possibility that we could also have to close.”
The coming months could bring some relief.
Energy prices are expected to fall if the war with Iran ends. And the labor market appears to be emerging from its period of stagnation, which could help small businesses that can respond nimbly to rising demand.
Gusto, a small-business payroll and benefits platform, said companies using its services had added 83,900 jobs in May, the fourth month in a row of hiring. Job growth occurred in nearly every sector.
These businesses “are looking at the future and seeing some sort of opportunity for themselves,” said Nich Tremper, a senior economist at Gusto.
Kirsten Davenport-Norwood, who owns Greene Thumb Landscape in Indianapolis, has seen the cost of mulch, concrete paving slabs and other materials balloon. Her clients include apartment complexes, parks and schools. Government budget cuts have meant that some that rely on funding have been unable to pay for services on time.
Last year, Ms. Davenport-Norwood and her husband, who together took over the business after her mother died four years ago, had to use their personal savings to pay workers because the company’s cash flow was so tight.
Ms. Davenport-Norwood is nervous about gas prices and the broader economic climate. For now, though, demand has held steady. There is “always grass to be mowed,” she said. She has jobs booked through August.
“I’m feeling really good about our organization right now,” she said.
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5) Indiana Professor Who Taught Anti-White Supremacy Lesson Loses Job
The lesson included a slide that suggested that the “Make America Great Again” slogan should be considered a form of covert white supremacy.
By Vimal Patel, June 17, 2026
The Indiana University campus in Bloomington. The professor who lost her job was an untenured social work lecturer there. Darron Cummings/Associated Press
An Indiana University instructor who showed a graphic in class that listed the “Make America Great Again” slogan as covert white supremacy has lost her job.
Administrators suspended the instructor, Jessica Adams, in October from teaching the course, “Diversity, Human Rights and Social Justice,” after Senator Jim Banks, an ally of President Trump, contacted the campus about the lecture.
In May, the university said it would not reappoint Ms. Adams, a lecturer who did not have tenure, “after a careful review” of her work. Her employment will end this month, according to a May 22 letter from Latha Ramchand, the university’s executive vice president.
The letter did not offer more detail and a spokesman declined to comment beyond saying that the university could not discuss personnel matters.
Ms. Adams was investigated under a controversial law passed in Indiana meant to further “intellectual diversity” and prevent students from being subjected to political views unrelated to the course. Professors and academic freedom groups have decried the law, saying it chills free-flowing conversations in classrooms and amounts to state-sponsored censorship.
“Universities should not bow to outside pressure to terminate faculty merely because others dislike what they teach,” Zach Greenberg, a lawyer with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free-speech group representing Ms. Adams, said in a statement.
A student complained in September to Mr. Banks, who then told the university that the student was uncomfortable in the graduate-level course. A message for Mr. Banks was not immediately returned. Ms. Adams said she had regularly taught the materials since joining the university’s School of Social Work in 2020.
Ms. Adams, whose research focuses on how political policy decisions influence social workers, was not immediately available. In a previous interview with The New York Times, she said that she included a discussion of racism because the topic often comes up in social work.
The graphic is a pyramid that lists several dozen statements or actions to illustrate overt forms of white supremacy, such as lynching and racial slurs, and covert forms of white supremacy, such as failing to challenge racist jokes.
The complaint from Kalea Benner, the dean of the School of Social Work, said that the graphic lists “Make America Great Again” as covert white supremacy that is “worse than police killing people of color.”
Ms. Adams said the graphic, a version of which is widely used in social work courses, does not suggest that. The Trump slogan appears higher than police killings of people of color but Ms. Adams said the items are not listed hierarchically.
In an appeal to the decision last week, Ms. Adams wrote that she found it “inexplicable” that a graduate student in a course focused on diversity and human rights would feel uncomfortable in a discussion about white supremacy and that Mr. Banks would weigh in on such a “minor matter.”
She also raised concerns about due process. Rather than directing the student to file a formal complaint, Ms. Adams wrote, Dr. Benner became the complainant herself.
“The dean thus credited a politician’s secondhand report on an I.U. classroom, referencing an anonymous student’s alleged ‘discomfort,’ and adopted it as her own internal complaint,” Ms. Adams wrote.
She added: “I.U. officials have once again yielded to political pressure to persecute faculty on ideological grounds.”
Dr. Benner did not immediately return a message.
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6) Iran Gets Major Economic Lifeline for Minimal Concessions in Initial Deal
The agreement delays the most difficult steps for Iran for later talks, while granting it crucial benefits.
By Yeganeh Torbati, June 18, 2026
A satellite image of Kharg Island, a crucial Iranian oil hub. The deal grants Iran waivers to begin exporting its oil even before the negotiation of a final agreement on its nuclear program. Credit...Planet Labs Pbc, via Reuters
An initial agreement by the United States and Iran to halt their war grants Iran major economic benefits while delaying, for now, the thorniest areas of disagreement between the two countries and the toughest concessions Iran would have to eventually make on its nuclear program.
The agreement lifts the U.S.-imposed naval blockade of Iranian ports and, most crucially, grants Iran waivers to begin exporting its oil even before the negotiation of a final agreement on its nuclear program. That will give Iran a critical economic lifeline. In recent years, its economy has been in a tailspin, with a collapsing currency and sky-high inflation.
The one major step to be taken by Iran is reopening the Strait of Hormuz to free passage for the next 60 days, though the agreement seems to leave open the possibility of charging fees after that period.
“On balance, the memorandum appears to favor Iran,” said Nicole Grajewski, who teaches at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po in France and studies Iran’s foreign policy. “Tehran secures movement toward sanctions relief, a pathway for the restoration of oil exports, access to economic benefits and a reduction in military pressure while making relatively limited new nuclear commitments.”
But many of the most difficult concessions that the United States sought have been postponed, she said, though it is possible a future agreement could rebalance each side’s concessions and gains.
“But judged solely on the memorandum itself, the immediate and concrete benefits accrue disproportionately to Iran,” Ms. Grajewski said.
The agreement stipulates that the United States must begin lifting its naval blockade of Iran immediately and that Iran must allow commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, but it was unclear whether those steps had occurred. Nevertheless, the news that the two countries had agreed to the deal sent oil prices downward, with the average U.S. gasoline price hitting less than $4 per gallon on Thursday for the first time in months.
Iran hawks are alarmed by the oil sales clause in particular, in part because it also commits the United States to temporarily lifting banking restrictions to help facilitate Iran’s oil trade.
“Broadening authorization to financial transactions would crack the core architecture of U.S. oil and financial sanctions against Iran, arguably the most powerful economic leverage the U.S. holds over this regime, absent the naval blockade,” Miad Maleki, a former U.S. Treasury official and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote on social media.
Those who favor diplomacy with Iran over open conflict or sanctions praised the memorandum, saying it offered the chance for a new page in U.S.-Iran relations.
“The measures in this agreement should not be read as concessions, but rather corrections to a decades-old policy of coercion that was an abject failure and made war inevitable,” Jamal Abdi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group, said in a statement.
Some analysts were puzzled over why a similar agreement could not have been made before a monthslong war that has killed Iranian civilians, destroyed parts of the country’s infrastructure and enabled Iran to exert leverage over the global economy.
“It’s difficult to escape the conclusion that these negotiations could have taken place without a three-month war,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute. “Much of what is outlined in the agreement — including the Strait of Hormuz, which has historically remained open — could have been addressed through diplomacy.”
And she pointed out that the agreement left the most difficult issues, including the precise limits to be imposed on Iran’s nuclear program, for later talks.
“I’m skeptical that the next 60 days of talks will produce concrete results,” she said. “This is merely kicking the can down the road.”
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7) Israel, Stunned by Trump’s Iran Deal, Sees It as a ‘Catastrophic Capitulation’
The agreement accomplishes none of Israel’s stated war aims and arguably leaves the country in worse shape on each of them.
By David M. Halbfinger, Reporting from Jerusalem, June 18, 2026
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem on Monday. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Israel awoke to a frightening new reality on Thursday as it absorbed, with disbelief and largely in silence, the terms of President Trump’s preliminary agreement to end the war with Iran.
It accomplishes none of Israel’s war aims, analysts and officials said, and arguably leaves the country in worse shape on each of them.
Regime change? The government in Tehran is emerging from the war even more hard-line and emboldened, despite being decapitated at the outset of the conflict in late February. The deal’s requirement that American forces retreat from the “proximity” of Iran within 30 days means that Iran can boast that it has chased the U.S. military out of the region.
Ballistic missiles and proxy militias? The agreement does nothing to address Iran’s missile arsenal or its support of Israel’s enemies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Worse still for Israel, by constraining its military in Lebanon — indeed, by requiring that Israel withdraw its forces from that country — the agreement seeks to handcuff Israel in a way that it was not before the war.
The hundreds of billions of dollars that Iran may receive in sanctions relief, unfrozen assets, or reconstruction aid could wind up funding more missiles in Iran and aiding Tehran’s militia allies around the Middle East.
And Iran’s nuclear program? The existential threat to Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has tried to eliminate throughout his career, and which was Mr. Trump’s primary reason for joining the wars on Iran, was left for a later stage of U.S.-Iran negotiations.
“It’s a bad agreement in which the Americans are paying with cash, and got, at the maximum, a letter of intent,” Yaakov Amidror, a hawkish former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, said in an interview.
David Horovitz, the editor of The Times of Israel, called it “a catastrophic capitulation,” in the headline of a fiery opinion column.
And Nir Dvori, an analyst for Israel’s Channel 12 News, likened the deal to a “diplomatic Oct. 7” — a cataclysmic disaster for which Israel was wholly unprepared.
Mr. Netanyahu and top officials in his government offered no public comment on the agreement overnight, leaving minor ministers and backbench lawmakers to put the best possible face on it.
Amichai Chikli, the diaspora affairs minister, speculated in a radio interview that Mr. Netanyahu would know how to say no to Mr. Trump about pulling out of Lebanon just as he knew how “to bring the United States into this war.”
But others more soberly grappled with the degree to which Mr. Netanyahu’s triumphalist rhetoric from early in the war had proved fantastical. He had repeatedly and confidently assured Israelis that the country and its alliance with the United States were “changing the face of the Middle East” to Israel’s advantage.
“We are remaking the region,” Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, said on Thursday.
“Iran came out stronger, and I believe is now the regional hegemon,” he added. “They stood up to the U.S., the global superpower. They can have missiles, and there’s nothing in the agreement about the nuclear issue except we’ll talk about it. This is an Iranian victory over the U.S. and Israel.”
Even as they reeled from the terms of the agreement, Israelis across the political spectrum seemed also to be reckoning with Mr. Trump, the nature of his support for Israel, and the degree to which Mr. Netanyahu has tied Israel’s fortunes to the American leader’s good will.
On Wednesday at the Group of 7 summit in France, the president had again spoken of Mr. Netanyahu with disdain, suggesting he was excitable and prone to overreacting to Hezbollah’s attacks. He belittled him publicly as the “very small partner” in the relationship and saying that Israel would have been annihilated if it had not been for him.
Mr. Trump suggested that Syria could do a better job than Israel of cracking down on Hezbollah in Lebanon without killing as many civilians. And he minimized the ballistic-missile threat from Iran — which forced millions of Israelis to run in and out of shelters throughout the war. He said it was only fair for Iran to have missiles because other countries in the region did as well.
The reactions in Israel evoked a bad divorce.
Hanoch Milwidsky, a lawmaker from Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party, posted a video on social media of himself removing a red MAGA hat and replacing it with a blue one with the Hebrew words for “total victory.”
Ben-Dror Yemini, a columnist at Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s largest newspaper, wrote that Mr. Netanyahu had led Israel into “the most severe collapse in its history.”
“Trump reneged on every promise, turned Iran into a power, strengthened Hezbollah, and as a final flourish, gave Israel a kick and humiliation,” he wrote.
Dahlia Scheindlin, an American-born Israeli pollster, said it was “slowly sinking in” for Israelis that Mr. Netanyahu had staked the entire U.S.-Israeli relationship on his personal bond with a president prone to “temper tantrums” over “simple slights.”
“I think he was hoping that he could employ the tools that he has always employed with American presidents,” she said. “You know, tread carefully and strategically, but push the boundaries, and try to run circles around them if you can,” she added.
“I think that with a bit of a back-and-forth dance, it was largely working for him with Trump,” she said. “But he hit his limit.”
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8) Archbishop of Canterbury Says Church ‘Deeply Ashamed’ of Role in Forced Adoptions
Tens of thousands of babies were taken from unmarried women and girls from the 1950s to the 1980s in England and Wales.
By Megan Specia, Reporting from London, June 18, 2026
The archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, in April. In her apology, she said that the forced adoptions had taken place “in a society that often valued secrecy and respectability over compassion and care.” Credit...Pool photo by Gareth Fuller
The Church of England apologized Thursday for its role in the decades-long practice of forced adoptions, in which tens of thousands of unmarried pregnant women and girls in England and Wales were sent to institutions where their babies were taken from them.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said in the apology that the church had listened to firsthand accounts of some of the people affected, who she said had described “the pain, shame and indignity experienced both then and now.”
“Today, we say to each of you: The shame you were made to feel was wrong. You have nothing to be ashamed of,” the archbishop said. “Rather, we are deeply ashamed that this happened to people in the care of Christian communities.”
The apology came after years of advocacy by survivors of the institutions run by the church, known as “mother and baby homes,” where unwed mothers were often sent to give birth in secrecy. The women and girls sent to the homes faced stigma and stereotypes about their moral character, shouldering the burden of the shame of unplanned pregnancies while the men involved were typically excused that scrutiny.
Many women described being forced or pressured into handing over their babies for adoption in a system that exploited their shame. The Church of England ran an estimated 200 mother and baby homes in England and Wales from 1949 to 1976.
During that time, an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers and placed for adoption in England and Wales amid a culture of shame, stigma and hostility surrounding pregnancy outside marriage, new research published on Thursday by the Church of England detailed.
In her statement, Archbishop Mullally said that the forced adoptions had taken place “in a society that often valued secrecy and respectability over compassion and care,” and acknowledged that “The Church of England was part of that society and helped to sustain those attitudes.”
“For many mothers, children, fathers and wider families affected by these practices, the impact has been lifelong,” she said. “These practices are in the past and must never happen again.”
A 2022 report from Britain’s Joint Committee on Human Rights into the forced adoptions from these homes found that the state “bore ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and state employees that railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions.” It also called for more to be done to support the families living with the lifelong consequences of these adoptions.
The British government has previously said it plans to also make an apology for the adoptions on behalf of the state. The government oversaw and regulated many of the institutions. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that the apology would come “very soon.”
“But here and now, let me say to all of those affected, you will get the apology that you so profoundly deserve,” she said.
The homes were not exclusive to England and Wales or to the Church of England. They were modeled on the Magdalene Hospitals of the mid-1800s set up by the Protestant churches across Britain, Ireland, Australia and Canada. Mother and baby homes continued to function throughout much of the 20th century.
In Ireland, there has been a recent reckoning with the treatment of unwed women sent to mother and baby homes, most of which were later run by the Roman Catholic Church. Those institutions were rife with abuse and neglect, and forced adoptions were also common.
The discovery of the remains of hundreds of babies and children interred in an unmarked mass grave at a home run by nuns in the town of Tuam in Galway prompted an investigation by the Irish government and the Catholic Church in 2021. Ireland has also set up a scheme to providing funding to the people affected by their time in the homes.
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9) The Costs of the Iran War: Thousands of Lives and Billions of Dollars
The human toll and economic costs mounted rapidly after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.
By Edward Wong and Aruni Soni, June 19, 2026
Edward Wong reported from Washington, and Aruni Soni reported from New York.
Service members carrying the remains of one of six U.S. soldiers killed in Kuwait during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in March. Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
The war against Iran lasted just over 15 weeks before a preliminary U.S.-Iranian peace deal was reached this week. But the human and economic toll mounted rapidly, with consequences far beyond the region.
Facing pressure at home and abroad, President Trump announced on Monday that he and Vice President JD Vance had electronically signed a document with the Iranians formally ending the war, which began on Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel attacked Iran.
On Wednesday, the president signed the agreement again in France at the Palace of Versailles, where an ill-fated treaty was signed to end World War I more than a century ago.
The costs of the war to the United States, estimated at $132 billion overall, are still being tallied as a 60-day period for further negotiations begins. Here is what we know.
More than 3,000 Iranians were reported to have been killed in the conflict. Israel says 26 Israelis have been killed. Thousands of people in both countries have been injured.
The U.S. military says 13 of its members have been killed.
Israel renewed attacks on Lebanon on March 18 as part of the wider war, and about 3,700 people have been killed there, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Strikes, mainly by Iran, have also killed people across the Middle East, including workers from South Asian countries in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. military killed three Indian civilian sailors in a strike on a commercial ship near Oman, raising tensions between the United States and India.
In the deadliest known civilian casualty incident, a U.S. missile strike demolished an Iranian school, killing at least 175 people on the first day of the war, according to Iranian officials.
Financial Costs
Iran’s economy was already deeply troubled before the war. But now it is in free fall. Prices for food and other basic goods have skyrocketed, and daily life is a struggle.
The scale of devastation has been great, with hundreds of schools and health care facilities damaged or destroyed in the war, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, the country’s primary humanitarian relief organization.
For U.S. taxpayers and consumers, the cost of the war is at least $132 billion, according to an estimate by Moody’s Analytics. That factors in military spending, rising energy and commodity prices and interest rates, said Mark Zandi, the company’s chief economist.
A top Pentagon official told Congress last month that the cost had risen to around $29 billion for the military. That estimate did not include the price of repairing more than a dozen U.S. bases in the region damaged by Iranian attacks.
The costs of repair and maintenance, as well as keeping carrier strike groups at sea, also need to be factored in. “It costs a lot of money to just keep everyone and all this apparatus deployed there,” said Linda Bilmes, a public finance expert and senior lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Iran also severely damaged other U.S. assets in the region, including a valuable military radar jet on a tarmac in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Embassy compound in Riyadh.
Energy Prices
Americans have paid roughly $60 billion more for gasoline and diesel since the conflict began as a result of higher prices, according to an Iran War Energy Cost Tracker from Brown University. That’s about an extra $460 per household.
When the United States and Israel started the war with Iran, Americans were paying, on average, $2.98 a gallon at the pump, according to AAA, the motor club.
Since then, gas prices have seen large spikes and are now around $4 a gallon.
Oil prices surged when the Iranian military attacked some commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for shipping. That disrupted the global flow of petroleum. Crude oil is the main ingredient for gas.
The global benchmark for crude oil has dropped since a peace agreement framework was announced days ago. It is currently near $80 a barrel. At one point in March, prices climbed to around $120 a barrel.
Those high fuel prices have trickled down the chain and inflated many other costs tied to fuel, like airline fares and the transportation of commodities and manufactured goods.
Disruptions to global trade from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have squeezed prices of commodities such as sulfur, a key ingredient of certain fertilizers.
A Council on Foreign Relations report earlier this month by Máximo Torero Cullen, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization, said the disruptions in the strait would have consequences that “extend well beyond agriculture, threatening higher food prices, higher food inflation, reduced economic growth and increased hunger worldwide.”
Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.
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10) Is Climate Change Supercharging El Niño? Scientists Don’t Agree.
As a new, potentially record-breaking El Niño begins, researchers are vigorously debating whether climate change is driving the phenomenon’s intensity.
By Chico Harlan, June 19, 2026
It’s a vigorous debate taking place right now among scientists around the world, with far-reaching implications for extreme weather and costly disasters: Is climate change making El Niño more intense?
El Niño, the natural phenomenon that occurs every few years and pushes up global temperatures, has just begun and is expected to continue through 2027. Scientists say this latest version is likely to be especially potent and could smash records.
As greenhouse gasses heat the planet, El Niño events over the past few decades have been comparatively strong. The run of powerful El Niños since the 1980s stands out when measured against the past 600 years.
That’s led some scientists to suggest that climate change is supercharging El Niño. Others say there is no clear evidence to support that theory.
“It’s highly contested, because it’s such an important question to get right,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist and the director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.
It’s a mystery that might not become clearer until years into the future, as more data piles up.
The question is crucial, because El Niños disrupt weather patterns globally, often in devastating ways — driving temperatures higher, increasing the likelihood of drought in some places and flooding in others. The events are essentially ocean anomalies, and if climate change makes these anomalies larger in size, that means more chaos and damage.
But the debate shows that there are limits to how fully scientists can understand some of the most complicated consequences of rising greenhouse gas emissions, which result primarily from the burning of fossil fuels.
El Niño events are notoriously complex. They are driven not by a single cause, but by a series of feedback loops in the ocean and atmosphere. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration once described El Niño, and its cool Pacific counterpart known as La Niña, as a cycle “controlled by hundreds of dimmer switches.” Climate change can fiddle with those switches, turning some up and others down. But does that lead to a stronger or weaker signal?
“El Niño is the noisiest part of the climate system,” said Axel Timmermann, the director of the IBS Center for Climate Physics in Busan, South Korea. “We’re trying to look for a change in the noise.”
Of 16 scientists who spoke with The Times, eight said they see compelling evidence that climate change is likely increasing the intensity of El Niño events. Among them is Michael McPhaden, a senior scientist at NOAA, who cautioned that the science is “very uncertain,” but said the development of another strong El Niño this year would be “pretty remarkable.”
If the current El Niño reaches the proportions that many forecast, it would mean three of the six strongest events since 1950 have come in the last 11 years.
El Niño events are measured by looking at changes in sea surface temperatures in a vast rectangular zone in the central Pacific, where temperatures are currently soaring. Many forecasts indicate that temperatures there this year could rise more than 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, or 3 degrees Celsius, above the longer-term average, giving rise to an El Niño of unprecedented amplitude.
“It could be evidence that a climate change signal in today’s ENSO cycle is beginning to emerge from the background noise,” Dr. McPhaden said, using the acronym for the cycle of El Niños and La Niñas.
Perhaps the most assertive case is made by Wenju Cai, a scientist at the Ocean University of China, who has spent more than 20 years running climate models and trying to tease out a potential link between rising emissions and more powerful El Niños. In a 2023 study published in Nature Dr. Cai and other scientists simulated hundreds of years of El Niño and La Niña events in an imaginary world where greenhouse gas concentrations remained at the low levels of before the Industrial Revolution. The odds of such a world producing a 60-year run of strong events comparable to modern times: 2.5 percent.
“It’s almost impossible to have this without climate change,” Dr. Cai said.
Many future-looking models also project El Niño intensity to increase.
Still, other scientists caution that models can have flaws. They note that there are limits in the historic record. Precise oceanic readings date back to the 1950s. A decent account of ocean temperatures, from sailors’ logbooks, extends into the 1800s. Beyond that, scientists have tried to understand El Niño’s fluctuations by looking for signatures of weather and temperature change left in corals and tree rings. That provides a meaningful estimate about the amplitude and frequency of past events, but not certainty.
Clara Deser, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said the El Niños of recent decades might be “just a random signal.”
“I’m the skeptical scientist,” Dr. Deser said. “How much is just due to the chaos in the climate system that can give you a whole string of heads — or tails — for no apparent reason?”
Because there is no consensus, scientific groups have tended to move carefully. In 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s pre-eminent climate science body, wrote that there was “low confidence” that human-caused climate change had influenced the changes in El Niño and La Niña. Earlier this month, the World Meteorological Organization, in an advisory about the developing El Niño, said there was “no evidence that climate change increases the frequency or intensity of El Niño events.”
Responding to a question from The Times, the W.M.O. stated that its position reflects “the current assessed state of the science.”
“However it is important also to acknowledge the ongoing scientific debate,” the organization said. “This is not a settled scientific question.”
Dr. Cobb, an I.P.C.C. lead author, said she personally thinks that climate change is intensifying the pattern. In 2019, she coauthored a research paper, based on coral analysis, that concluded modern day El Niño extremes were “significantly stronger than those of the preindustrial era in the central tropical Pacific.”
There is widespread agreement that any El Niño occurring now, compared with preindustrial times, will yield more extremes around the world, with a moister atmosphere supercharging floods and hotter temperatures amplifying droughts.
“El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said this month. “Impacts will hit even harder.”
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11) What Does It All Mean? Once a Year, French Students Try to Explain.
The high school philosophy exam is a rite of passage for French students. This year included questions about Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1878 book, “Human, All Too Human.”
By Catherine Porter, Reporting from Paris and its suburbs, June 19, 2026
The French were grappling with two questions this week.
Not whether President Trump would hurl insults and leave the Group of 7 early or who the least-known player in the World Cup is.
Instead, they were asking: Can one be happy when others are not? And, Do we have control of our words?
The questions were part of this year’s written test in philosophy, taken at the exact same time each year around the country by more than a half-million 17- and 18-year-olds. The students, who have spent all year taking a required course in philosophy, have to answer one of two questions, or dissect a philosophical tract. This year, the tract came from Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1878 book, “Human, All Too Human.”
Students have four hours to write their responses. The exam is such an important part of French education that local news outlets commit live-blogs to it, beside their rolling updates on the wars in Iran and Ukraine, and invite philosophers to discuss their own responses to the questions on the radio and television and in newspapers.
“For me, the philosophy exam says everything about who we are,” said Édouard Geffray, France’s education minister. He was speaking from the yard of a high school he visited on Monday to crack open exam packages in front of television cameras and pass them out to students, and also to offer some last-minute nonphilosophical advice about proofreading.
The exam, he said, “actually says that we are a country in which we have chosen to put the examination of opposing views and debate at the heart of education.”
Napoleon introduced the subject of philosophy to high schools in 1809, originally to train administrators, explained Bruno Poucet, an expert on the history of education in France and a professor emeritus at the University of Picardy Jules Verne in Amiens.
But in the 1880s, the course took on a different purpose as the country re-established a democratic government after years of being ruled by an emperor. The new government worked to root out the Roman Catholic Church from schools, Mr. Poucet said.
“The Republic was breaking free, so it was going to rely on the Enlightenment to emancipate itself, intellectually and politically, from the weight of the Catholic Church,” he said.
All students take the course in their final year of high school, except for those in vocational programs, who train for jobs in areas like construction or hotel management.
“Victor Hugo said, ‘Instead of cutting off the heads, just fill them up,’” said Frédéric Worms, a philosopher and the head of the country’s prestigious École Normale Supérieure, paraphrasing a passage from Hugo’s novella, “Claude Gueux.”
At his institution, the country’s top students are paid to study to become professors, scientists and, yes, philosophers. Alumni include Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.
As a reflection of how important philosophy remains in France, Mr. Worms is one of many French philosophers who moonlight as radio hosts. Every week, he poses and answers three philosophical questions on air.
Anne-Sophie Moreau, an editor of Philosophie Magazine, said the philosophy course and exam were a rite of passage for the French, similar to military service in other countries.
“It’s the idea that you have to go through this collective reflection on values — on justice, on freedom, on what is a state, on democracy — to become a good citizen,” said Ms. Moreau, who is regularly hired by companies to lead seminars with their staff on topics like ethical investments and worker engagement through a philosophical lens.
So what’s a typical French philosophy class like? I visited Nicolas Franck’s class in a public high school in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a leafy Parisian suburb, to find out.
Mr. Franck is the former president of the French philosophy teachers’ union and has taught the subject for 35 years. The day I visited, his students grappled with the question “Why do we work?” He sat on a desk at the front and went through the responses that students had offered.
“If it’s just to make a living, why do people earn more than they need?” he asked, reacting to one response. “There has to be something else at play.”
Work is one of 17 interwoven concepts that are the pillars of the course’s curriculum. Others include freedom, justice, truth, language and happiness. Teachers can design their courses as they see fit, dipping into a huge list of philosophers along the way.
Later, he explained that the point of the course was not just to learn historical philosophical theories.
“What counts most,” he said, “is an individual’s capacity to understand and grasp ideas.”
Over two hours, Mr. Franck and his students explored different views about work, from the 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal’s view that it formed a distraction from contemplating our own mortality, to Karl Marx’s theory that through work, humans transform raw materials and their inner selves at the same time.
He told the students that their “convictions and biases” formed his raw material and that by teaching them, he was “transforming” them. “That’s the work I’m doing now,” he said.
One of Mr. Franck’s students, Raphaël Bakouch, said his teacher was succeeding. The class, he said, had “completely changed how I perceive the world.” Things he took as self-evident had become much more complicated. He said he was hounded by the question of “who am I?”
“My parents named me, and I inherited my family name,” Mr. Bakouch, 17, said. “Ultimately, the only thing that truly represents us and forms our true identity is our work — what we do, what we create.” He said he loved how the concepts all overlapped.
The philosophy course is widely considered the most difficult of a student’s final year. The average grade in 2025 was 10.8 out of 20, 2.3 points below the general grade point average.
The day of the exam, many around the country reminisced — often ruefully — about their own experience.
“For me, it was an incredible revelation,” Mr. Geffray, the education minister, said. His press secretary mumbled that he had been “hopeless” in the class and graduated with just an eight. The police officer outside said she had also failed the exam, which is why she went into policing.
“The grade is taken very personally,” Mr. Worms said. “It evaluates you for thinking about life’s deepest questions.” When he tells cabdrivers his profession, they invariably share what mark they got in the class, he said.
“If you are not able to explain the meaning of life, who are you?”
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