Help World-Outlook Win New Subscribers
(the subscription is free of charge)
Dear reader,
Over the last month, World-Outlook and its sister publication in Spanish Panorama-Mundial have published unique coverage of U.S. and world events.
This includes the three-part interview with Cuban historian and writer Ernesto Limia Díaz, ‘Cuba Is the Moral and Political Compass of the World.’ A related article by Mark Satinoff, World Votes with Cuba to Demand an End to U.S. Blockade, included information on the campaign to send medical aid to Cuba in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa and was shared widely by the Los Angeles Hands Off Cuba Committee and other Cuba solidarity groups.
A number of readers sent their appreciation for Cathleen Gutekanst’s article Chicago Residents Fight ICE Abductions, Deportations, which provided a compelling, eyewitness account of this example of working-class resistance to the Trump administration’s war on undocumented immigrants. Some readers shared it widely on social media platforms.
The news analysis Bigotry, Jew Hatred Take Center Stage in GOP Mainstream also generated interest. It is part of World-Outlook’s consistent analysis of the danger of the rise of incipient fascism that Trumpism has posed for the working class and its allies in the U.S. and the world.
Most recently, another article by Mark Satinoff, ‘From Ceasefire to a Just Peace’ in Israel and Occupied Territories, was promoted by Friends of Standing Together (FOST NY/NJ) on the group’s website. Alon-Lee Green and Sally Abed — the two Standing Together leaders featured at the November 12 event in Brooklyn, New York, that Mark’s article covered — and Israelis for Peace sent their thanks to Mark for his accurate reporting.
This is a small sample of the news coverage and political analysis World-Outlook offers.
We ask you to use this information to try to convince at least one of your acquaintances, colleagues, friends, fellow students, neighbors, or relatives to subscribe to World-Outlook. As you know, the subscription is free of charge. Increasing World-Outlook’s subscription base will widen the site’s reach. It will also provide new impetus to improve our coverage. Comments and reactions from subscribers, or initiatives from readers to cover events in their areas, often result in unexpectedly invaluable articles or opinion columns clarifying important political questions.
Feel free to share this letter, or part of its contents, with those you are asking to subscribe. And keep World-Outlookinformed about the reactions you get from potential new readers.
In solidarity,
World-Outlook editors
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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)
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Stop Cop City Bay Area
Did you know about a proposed $47 million regional police training facility in San Pablo—designed for departments across the Bay Area?
We are Stop Cop City Bay Area (Tours & Teach-Ins), a QT+ Black-led grassroots collective raising awareness about this project. This would be the city’s second police training facility, built without voter approval and financed through a $32 million, 30-year loan.
We’re organizing to repurpose the facility into a community resource hub and youth center. To build people power, we’re taking this conversation on the road—visiting Bay Area campuses, classrooms, cafes, and community spaces via our Fall 2025 Tour.
We’d love to collaborate with you and/or co-create an event. Here’s what we offer:
Guest Speaker Presentations—5-minute visits (team meetings, classrooms, co-ops, etc.), panels, or deep dives into:
· the facility’s origins & regional impacts
· finding your role in activism
· reimagining the floorplan (micro-workshops)
· and more
· Interactive Art & Vendor/Tabling Pop-Ups — free zines, stickers, and live linocut printing with hand-carved stamps + artivism.
· Collaborations with Classrooms — project partnerships, research integration, or creative assignments.
· Film Screenings + Discussion — e.g., Power (Yance Ford, 2024) or Riotsville, U.S.A. (Sierra Pettengill, 2022), or a film of your choice.
👉 If you’re interested in hosting a stop, open to co-creating something else, or curious about the intersections of our work: simply reply to this email or visit: stopcopcitybayarea.com/tour
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to connecting.
In solidarity,
Stop Cop City Bay Area
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Dear Organization Coordinator
I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to invite your organization to consider co-sponsoring a regional proposal to implement Free Public Transit throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
This initiative directly supports low-income families, working people, seniors, youth, and others who rely on public transportation. It would eliminate fare barriers while helping to address climate justice, congestion, and air pollution—issues that disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities.
We believe your organization’s mission and values align strongly with this proposal. We are seeking endorsements, co-sponsorship, and coalition-building with groups that advocate for economic and racial equity.
I would love the opportunity to share a brief proposal or speak further if you're interested. Please let me know if there’s a staff member or program director I should connect with.
A description of our proposal is below:
sharethemoneyinstitute@gmail.com
Opinion: San Francisco Bay Area Should Provide Free Public Transportation
The San Francisco Bay Area is beautiful, with fantastic weather, food, diversity and culture. We’re also internationally famous for our progressiveness, creativity, and innovation.
I believe the next amazing world-leading feature we can add to our cornucopia of attractions is Free Public Transportation. Imagine how wonderful it would be if Muni, BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, SamTrans, SF Bay Ferries, and all the other transportation services were absolutely free?
Providing this convenience would deliver enormous, varied benefits to the 7.6 million SF Bay Area residents, and would make us a lovable destination for tourists.
This goal - Free Public Transportation - is ambitious, but it isn’t impossible, or even original. Truth is, many people world-wide already enjoy free rides in their smart municipalities.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is promoting free transit, with a plan that’s gained the endorsement of economists from Chile, United Kingdom, Greece, and the USA.
The entire nation of Luxembourg has offered free public transportation to both its citizens and visitors since 2020. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has given free transit to its residents since 2013. In France, thirty-five cities provide free public transportation. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, offers free rides to seniors, disabled, and students. In Maricá (Brazil) – the entire municipal bus system is free. Delhi (India) – offers free metro and bus travel for women. Madrid & Barcelona (Spain) offer free (or heavily discounted) passes to youth and seniors.
Even in the USA, free public transit is already here. Kansas City, Missouri, has enjoyed a free bus system free since 2020. Olympia, Washington, has fully fare-free intercity transit. Missoula, Montana, is free for all riders. Columbia, South Carolina, has free buses, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has enjoyed free transit for over a decade. Ithaca, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin, offer free transit to students.
But if the San Francisco Bay Area offered free transit, we’d be the LARGEST municipality in the world to offer universal Free Transit to everyone, resident and visitor alike. (Population of Luxembourg is 666,430. Kansas City 510,704. Population of San Francisco Bay Area is 7.6 million in the nine-county area)
Providing free transit would be tremendously beneficial to millions of people, for three major reasons:
1. Combat Climate Change - increased public ridership would reduce harmful CO2 fossil fuel emissions. Estimates from Kansas City and Tallinn Estonia’s suggest an increase in ridership of 15 percent. Another estimate from a pilot project in New York City suggests a ridership increase of 30 percent. These increases in people taking public transportation instead of driving their own cars indicates a total reduction of 5.4 - 10.8 tons of emissions would be eliminated, leading to better air quality, improved public health, and long-term climate gains.
2. Reduce Traffic Congestion & Parking Difficulty - Estimates suggest public transit would decrease traffic congestion in dense urban areas and choke points like the Bay Bridge by up to 15 percent. Car ownership would also be reduced. Traffic in San Francisco is the second-slowest in the USA (NYC is #1) and getting worse every year. Parking costs in San Francisco are also the second-worst in the USA (NYC #1), and again, it is continually getting worse.
3. Promote Social Equity - Free transit removes a financial cost that hits low-income residents hard. Transportation is the second-biggest expense after housing for many Americans. In the Bay Area, a monthly Clipper pass can cost $86–$98 per system, and much more for multi-agency commuters. For people living paycheck-to-paycheck, this is a significant cost. People of color, immigrants, youth, seniors, and people with disabilities rely more heavily on public transit. 55–70% of frequent transit riders in the Bay Area are from low-to moderate-income households, but these riders usually pay more per mile of transit than wealthy drivers. Free fares equalize access regardless of income or geography.
Free transit would help people 1) take jobs they couldn’t otherwise afford to commute to, thus improving the economy, 2) Stay in school without worrying about bus fare, 3) Get to appointments, child care, or grocery stores without skipping meals to afford transit.
To conclude: Free Public Transit should be seen as a civil rights and economic justice intervention.
The Cost? How can San Francisco Bay Area pay for Free Transit throughout our large region?
ShareTheMoney.Institute estimates the cost as $1.5 billion annually. This sum can acquired via multiple strategies. Corvallis, Oregon, has had free public bus service since 2011, paid for by a $3.63 monthly fee added to each utility bill. Missoula, Montana, funds their fare-free Mountain Line transit system, via a property tax mill levy. Madison, Wisconsin’s transit is supported by general fund revenues, state and federal grants, and partnerships/sponsorships from local businesses and organizations.
Ideally, we’d like the funds to be obtained from the 37 local billionaires who, combined, have an approximate wealth of $885 billion. The $1.5 billion for free transit is only 0.17% of the local billionaire's wealth. Sponsorship from the ultra-wealthy would be ideal. Billionaires can view the “fair transit donation” they are asked to contribute not as punishment or an “envy tax”, but as their investment to create a municipality that is better for everyone, themselves included. They can pride themselves on instigating a world-leading, legacy-defining reform that will etch their names in history as leaders of a bold utopian reform.
Our motto: “we want to move freely around our beautiful bay”
——
Hank Pellissier - Share The Money Institute
Reverend Gregory Stevens - Unitarian Universalist EcoSocialist Network
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*  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 authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest. Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitskyhttps://freeboris.infoThe petition is also available on Change.org *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
1) Starbucks to Pay $39 Million in Landmark N.Y.C. Labor Law Settlement
Starbucks agreed to the settlement after failing to give workers stable schedules. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect, joined striking Starbucks workers in Brooklyn.
By Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Dec. 1, 2025
Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City.
Mayor Eric Adams announced a $38.9 million settlement with Starbucks on Monday over violations of New York City’s law guaranteeing fair working conditions, a resolution that city officials said was the largest worker protection settlement in the city’s history.
The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found that Starbucks had violated the law more than half a million times since 2021 by failing to provide workers with stable schedules. More than 15,000 hourly workers are expected to receive restitution payments under the agreement.
Workers have complained for years that the coffee behemoth was cutting their hours and refusing to give them predictable schedules. The city found that the company “arbitrarily cut schedules and illegally prioritized their own profits over their workers’ rights” across more than 300 locations.
“With this landmark settlement, we’ll put tens of millions of dollars back into the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers and reinforce every New Yorker’s right to a reliable schedule, full hours and basic dignity,” Mr. Adams said in a statement.
The city’s Fair Workweek Law was approved in 2017 by the City Council. Fast food employers must give workers regular schedules that stay the same week to week, must provide schedules 14 days in advance and cannot reduce hours by more than 15 percent without “just cause or a legitimate business reason.”
Starbucks said in a statement that the law was “notoriously challenging for businesses to navigate.” The company said that the violations were “about compliance” and “not about withholding wages or failing to pay partners.”
Mr. Adams, a Democrat who will leave office at the end of the month, has criticized Starbucks and stood with the workers, posting photos two years ago from a meeting with them.
His successor, Zohran Mamdani, has also embraced Starbucks workers and supported a strike by some of the company’s unionized workers to help them gain higher wages during contract negotiations.
On Monday, Mr. Mamdani appeared with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont alongside striking workers at a Starbucks store in Brooklyn. The mayor-elect said that New Yorkers should expect him to back striking workers even after he takes office.
“When I become mayor of this city, I am going to continue to stand on picket lines with workers across the five boroughs,” he said, adding, “We want to build an administration that is characterized by being there for workers every single step of the way.”
Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is expected to embrace more worker-friendly policies than Mr. Adams did, potentially further alienating business leaders who have already expressed skepticism over his affordability agenda.
Mr. Mamdani has proposed raising the maximum corporate tax rate to 11.5 percent, from 7.25 percent, and adding a 2 percent tax on those who make more than $1 million to help pay for some of his proposals.
Mr. Sanders, who endorsed Mr. Mamdani in his run for mayor, assailed what he described as Starbucks’s “corporate greed.”
“We are living in an economy where the people on top have never, ever had it so good,” he said.
Mr. Mamdani, who has urged New Yorkers not to patronize Starbucks until the strike is over, said he wanted to show solidarity with the workers, and praised the city’s settlement.
“These are demands for decency,” Mr. Mamdani said. “These are workers who are simply being asked to be treated with the respect they deserve.”
Starbucks Workers United, which represents more than 12,000 baristas at over 600 locations, voted to authorize a strike at some stores that has lasted 19 days. Earlier this year, Starbucks and the union brought in a mediator in a push to revive contract talks, which had stalled over an impasse on wage increases.
For more than a decade, Starbucks workers have raised concerns about harsh working conditions. The company changed some of its practices in 2014.
New York City’s investigation found that most Starbucks employees never received regular schedules, making it difficult for them to manage child care or second jobs. The company also “routinely and unlawfully reduced employees’ hours by more than 15 percent,” the city found, which made it difficult for them to get by.
Under the settlement, most employees who worked for Starbucks in an hourly position from July 2021 through July 2024 will receive $50 for each week they worked. An employee who worked at a store for a year and a half could receive nearly $4,000.
Julie Menin, a City Council member from Manhattan who recently announced that she had enough support to become the next Council speaker, also celebrated the settlement.
“Today’s victory serves as a message to corporations: NYC will protect workers and hold violators accountable,” she wrote on social media.
Outside the Starbucks in Brooklyn, Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Sanders were asked about President Trump’s characterizing himself as the “affordability president.” Mr. Mamdani, whose meeting with the president at the White House last month was astonishingly affectionate, gave a diplomatic response, saying he was focused on how “we actually deliver” for working people.
Mr. Sanders was less tactful, calling Mr. Trump a “pathological liar.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
2) Vaccine Committee May Make Significant Changes to Childhood Schedule
Comments by President Trump, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some panelists suggest the committee is likely to delay hepatitis B shots and discuss revising the use of other vaccines.
By Apoorva Mandavilli, Dec. 2, 2025
"Dr. Prasad said that he was “open to vigorous discussions and debate” from F.D.A. employees but that anyone who did not agree with the new core principles should submit their resignations."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/health/vaccine-committee-hepatitis-b-children-trump-rfk-jr.html
Advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appear poised to make consequential changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, delaying a shot that is routinely administered to newborns and discussing big changes to when or how other childhood immunizations are given.
Decisions by the group are not legally binding, but they have profound implications for whether private insurance and government assistance programs are required to cover the vaccines.
Depending on what the committee does, the changes could also further erode Americans’ confidence in immunizations. Although a majority of Americans still say they are confident about vaccines’ effectiveness, multiple surveys show the percentage has dropped sharply over the last few years.
Members of the group, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, were handpicked by Mr. Kennedy, who has long campaigned against many childhood vaccines. They are scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday.
The specific proposals the members will vote on are still unknown. The agenda is thin on details, listing neither specific speakers nor times, merely mentioning “votes” on the first day of the two-day meeting. But public comments by some panelists, as well as by President Trump and Mr. Kennedy, hint at some possible outcomes.
The committee is likely to decide that a vaccine to prevent hepatitis B — a highly contagious disease that can severely damage the liver — should no longer be administered routinely at birth and perhaps should not be offered to children at all.
The committee members may also question the safety of ingredients like aluminum salts that are present in many childhood vaccines. And they are likely to discuss whether vaccines for different diseases should be offered as separate shots rather than in the combination products currently used.
The meeting comes on the heels of unsupported claims made by Dr. Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator, that Covid shots have killed “no fewer than 10” children. The internal memo did not provide any details or data. The memo went on to question the safety of administering multiple vaccines at the same time.
On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services named Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist and a current member of the committee, as its chair. During the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Milhoan raised concerns about myocarditis caused by Covid vaccines and urged the Biden administration to withdraw the shots from the market. Martin Kulldorff, the outgoing chair of the committee, will take on a new role as a chief science officer at the Health Department. The changes may require the department to add new members to the committee.
Mr. Kennedy has frequently said that children are given too many vaccines and too many at the same time, which, he contends, overloads the immune system and leads to conditions like autism.
Dozens of studies have looked for a possible link between vaccines and autism and have not found one. And children now receive more shots because scientists have developed effective vaccines for more of the diseases that harmed and killed people decades ago, said Dr. Bruce Gellin, who led the U.S. National Vaccine Program Office from 2002 to 2017.
The slate of routine vaccinations has grown more complex, so “it makes sense to take a step back and say, ‘Are we doing this in the most efficient and effective way that’s based on evidence?’” Dr. Gellin said.
“The question is, are they going to do that?” he said of the panelists.
In a public comment submitted to the committee, a coalition of 15 Democratic governors urged the members to ground their decisions in “rigorous science” because the guidelines will affect “families, providers, insurers, state immunization systems, and overall public health.”
At a meeting in September that devolved into chaos and confusion, A.C.I.P. members voted to limit access to the Covid vaccine and to stop recommending a combination shot against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox for children under 4.
The panel shelved a vote on hepatitis B because some members wanted a more robust discussion first.
In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new working group charged with reviewing the safety of childhood vaccines and their ingredients, as well as the times when the shots are administered and the other immunizations that are given to children at the same time.
The working group will “determine whether a change in the vaccine schedule may be warranted,” according to a document detailing the group’s goals.
Contrary to past practice, the names of the working group’s members have not been made public, and C.D.C. staff members are barred from participating in the meetings.
A similar working group for Covid, whose findings were presented at the September A.C.I.P. meeting, made sweeping statements about vaccine safety that were not backed by data, said Dr. Kathryn Edwards, who was a member of the vaccine committee in the 1990s.
“It just was really, really very disturbing,” she said.
Mr. Kennedy’s statements that vaccines have been added to the childhood schedule without adequate research is also inaccurate, Dr. Edwards said. She is a co-author of a textbook chapter on combination vaccines.
“Through the years, we’ve added one vaccine at a time, studying their impact on the other ones, and that’s how we’ve gotten to these schedules,” she said, adding, “I think that has to be acknowledged.”
But Dr. Prasad, who leads the F.D.A.’s vaccine division, said in the memo made public over the weekend that the agency’s current standards on giving multiple vaccines at the same time had created “a false sense of efficacy and safety.”
Dr. Prasad said that he was “open to vigorous discussions and debate” from F.D.A. employees but that anyone who did not agree with the new core principles should submit their resignations.
Other Trump administration officials, including Mr. Trump himself and the C.D.C.’s acting director, Jim O’Neill, have also suggested breaking up combination vaccines, including those for measles, mumps and rubella, into separate shots. They have argued that the combination vaccines produce too much of an immune jolt for young children.
But many immunologists say that represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the immune system. The vaccines manufactured today contain fewer antigens — the part of the vaccine that provokes an immune response — by orders of magnitude than those made decades ago. And children naturally encounter thousands of antigens in the course of a single day, the experts said.
Splitting the vaccines into separate shots would create formidable logistical hurdles for manufacturers, who may decide that it is too expensive and risky to continue making them, said Michael Osterholm, a public health expert at the University of Minnesota.
Companies would need to develop and test new, single-dose products, he said, and “we’re having a hard enough time keeping them producing the three-dose antigen vaccines.”
Administering vaccines as separate shots also would require multiple clinical visits, making it more difficult for parents to fully immunize their children and for doctors to keep their patients updated. It would also result in more needle jabs for children.
“On the one hand, this entire process started with a message of ‘Kids get too many shots,’” Ms. Cohen said. “And now we’re talking about taking away the combination vaccines, which of course is going to mean more doses for kids.”
“I’m not really sure what the end goal is here,” she added.
It is unclear how a new immunization schedule might affect the vaccines currently in use.
Since 1991, the C.D.C. has recommended that the hepatitis B vaccine be given as three doses, the first one administered right after birth. The hepatitis B shot is given on its own for the first dose, but the later two doses are often administered as combination products containing vaccines for other diseases, like diphtheria, tetanus and polio.
If A.C.I.P. votes to delay hepatitis B shots till age 4 or even age 12, as President Trump has suggested, doctors may no longer be able to administer the combination vaccines.
At the same time, parents who want the hepatitis B shot for their children may have trouble finding it or getting insurance companies to pay for it, said Chari Cohen, president of the Hepatitis B Foundation.
Public health experts credit the hepatitis B vaccine with nearly eliminating maternal transmission of the disease in the United States. Routine immunization has cut the number of babies infected at birth to fewer than 20 per year from about 20,000 babies per year.
Mr. Kennedy and his associates have argued that hepatitis B is primarily a sexually transmitted disease and babies do not need the protection unless their mothers are infected.
But supporters of the vaccine note that the virus can also be spread by household objects like toothbrushes, razors or combs that are used by an infected person. Only about half of cases before 1991 were a result of transmission from an infected mother. More than 90 percent of infants infected with the virus develop chronic hepatitis B.
Mr. Kennedy has pointed to other countries, like Denmark, that offer the vaccine only to babies of infected mothers. But the nationalized health care systems in such countries ensure that pregnant women are screened for diseases before delivery, some public health experts said.
In the United States, delaying the first dose to 2 months of age for babies of women with unknown hepatitis B status would result in about 1,400 additional infections per year, according to an estimate published on Monday by the Hepatitis B Foundation; delaying it to 12 years of age would lead to about 2,700 additional cases, the researchers estimated.
The Vaccine Integrity Project, an initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the U.S., evaluated more than 400 studies over 40 years, and concluded that “the hepatitis B vaccine is safe regardless of vaccine timing.”
At their meeting, the panelists may also address the safety of vaccine ingredients like aluminum salts, or alum (not aluminum metal as it is sometimes incorrectly described). Alum has been used as an adjuvant — a substance added to vaccines to boost the immune response — to vaccines for decades and is included now in dozens of vaccines.
By enhancing the immune response, alum allows for smaller doses of vaccines to be delivered in each dose. Taking it out of vaccines would be akin to leaving out eggs when making a cake, Dr. Gellin said: “You’re not going to get the protective immune response you need.”
Mr. Kennedy has said that aluminum can harm the brain. One study published by the C.D.C. in 2022 did find a small association with asthma that the researchers concluded warranted further investigation.
But this year, a large Danish study based on the country’s national registry found no association between cumulative alum exposure in the first two years of life and 50 medical conditions, including asthma, allergies and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Mr. Kennedy panned the study as a “deceitful propaganda stunt by the pharmaceutical industry.” But vaccine scientists said the analysis was carefully done.
“Just because he didn’t like the answer, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t done perfectly,” Dr. Gellin said.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
3) San Francisco Will Sue Ultraprocessed Food Companies
The city attorney accuses large manufacturers of causing diseases that have burdened governments with public health costs.
By Heather Knight, Reporting from San Francisco, Dec. 2, 2025
David Chiu, the city attorney of San Francisco, will file a lawsuit against a host of companies that make ultraprocessed foods. Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times
The San Francisco city attorney will file on Tuesday the nation’s first government lawsuit against food manufacturers over ultraprocessed fare, arguing that cities and counties have been burdened with the costs of treating diseases that stem from the companies’ products.
David Chiu, the city attorney, told The New York Times that he will sue 10 corporations that make some of the country’s most popular food and drinks. Ultraprocessed products now comprise 70 percent of the American food supply and fill grocery store shelves with a kaleidoscope of colorful packages.
Think Slim Jim meat sticks and Cool Ranch Doritos. But also aisles of breads, sauces and granola bars marketed as natural or healthy.
It is a rare issue on which the liberal leaders in San Francisco City Hall are fully aligned with the Trump administration, which has targeted ultraprocessed foods as part of its Make America Healthy Again mantra.
Mr. Chiu’s lawsuit, which will be filed in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of the State of California, will seek unspecified damages for the costs that local governments bear for treating residents whose health has been harmed by ultraprocessed food.
The city accuses the companies of “unfair and deceptive acts” in how they market and sell their foods, arguing that such practices violate the state’s Unfair Competition Law and public nuisance statute. The city also argues the companies knew that their food made people sick but sold it anyway.
It is unclear how successful the suit will be. In August, a federal judge in Philadelphia dismissed one of the nation’s first private lawsuits over ultraprocessed foods, filed by a young consumer who was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease at age 16. The judge, appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ruled that the plaintiff’s claims lacked specifics about which products he had consumed and when. (The plaintiff’s lawyers at Morgan & Morgan have since filed an amended complaint, according to the firm.)
But the San Francisco city attorney’s office has had success as a groundbreaking public agency on health matters. The office previously won $539 million from tobacco companies and $21 million from lead paint manufacturers.
In 2018, the office also sued multiple opioid manufacturers, distributors and dispensers, reaching settlements with all but one company worth a combined total of $120 million. San Francisco then prevailed at trial over the holdout, Walgreens, scooping up another $230 million.
Mr. Chiu, a former Democratic state legislator and San Francisco supervisor, recently walked the aisles of a Safeway supermarket in the Excelsior District, a working-class neighborhood near the city’s southern border.
He picked up a box of Lunchables, a “lunch combination” as the box put it, which contained pepperoni pizza, a fruit punch-flavored Capri Sun and a Nestle Crunch chocolate bar. Mr. Chiu struggled to pronounce the ingredients, listed in tiny type measuring a few inches long, which included diglycerides, xanthan gum, calcium propionate and cellulose powder “added to prevent caking.”
“Modified food starch. Potassium sorbate,” Mr. Chiu continued, ticking off more ingredients on the same label. “It makes me sick that generations of kids and parents are being deceived and buying food that’s not food.”
He sounded a lot like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, who has brought his Make America Healthy Again movement to Washington. Mr. Kennedy has railed against ultraprocessed foods, which are typically made in labs and contain ingredients not found in home kitchens, for contributing to chronic diseases.
Research has linked these foods to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and cognitive decline.
Mr. Chiu stressed that he does not agree with Mr. Kennedy on other health topics, including vaccine skepticism. But he said that the science is indisputable when it comes to ultraprocessed foods.
“Many of the perspectives of this administration are not backed by science, but this is different,” Mr. Chiu said. “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
In the San Francisco lawsuit, the defendants include the Coca-Cola Company; PepsiCo; Kraft Heinz Company, which makes Lunchables and Kool-Aid; Post Holdings, the cereal maker; and Mondelez International, which makes Oreos and Chips Ahoy. The lawsuit also names General Mills; Nestle USA; Kellogg; Mars Incorporated; and ConAgra Brands.
None of the companies responded to requests for comment.
The Consumer Brands Association, a trade group that represents many of them, said in a statement that the manufacturers were working to introduce products with more protein and fiber, less sugar and no synthetic dyes.
Jocelyn Kelly, a spokeswoman for the association, said that there was no uniform definition of ultraprocessed foods and that it was unfair to lump them all together.
“Attempting to classify foods as unhealthy simply because they are processed, or demonizing food by ignoring its full nutrient content, misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities,” she said.
Ms. Kelly added that the companies help to keep grocery store prices down for consumers.
States and cities have taken on ultraprocessed foods in other ways with regulations and legislation.
Democrats and Republicans in California, who are usually deeply divided, passed a bill this year that defined ultraprocessed foods and laid a foundation for banning them from schools, which Gov. Gavin Newsom called a bipartisan win.
In 2010, San Francisco banned fast-food restaurants from giving free toys, such as those found in McDonald’s Happy Meals. As mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg tried, but ultimately failed, to ban large sodas, including Big Gulps. Numerous cities have taxed soda and other sugary drinks, and California, Arizona and West Virginia have banned some ultraprocessed products, including food dyes, in schools.
Processed foods have been around since the 1800s. During World War II, they were a useful way to provide soldiers with shelf-stable food, including canned meats and chocolate bars that did not melt. After the war, companies realized that they could sell these kinds of products to families by emphasizing that they would save time.
In the 1970s, the country had an excess of corn and wheat and turned the crops into cheap ingredients, such as high-fructose corn syrup and modified starch. Companies heavily marketed ultraprocessed foods to children, using mascots such as Tony the Tiger and Count Chocula.
Tobacco companies, including Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, diversified their holdings by purchasing major food companies in the 1980s and used the same marketing techniques they use to promote cigarettes to sell ultraprocessed foods.
Mr. Chiu, the father of a boy in fourth grade, said it has been a constant struggle to limit ultraprocessed foods at home. His family lives at Candlestick Point in the city’s southeast corner, where few healthy food options exist.
“When we’re busy, we stop off at supermarkets that are filled with ultraprocessed foods,” Mr. Chiu said. “It’s extremely difficult when you’re walking down the aisles and your child is tugging at your sleeve to buy the products marketed to them.”
Winding through the aisles, he called out more products. Hot Pockets. Go-Gurt squeezable yogurt tubes. Cheetos. His personal ultraprocessed Kryptonite, he acknowledged, is Pringles. He found them at the end of the cold beverage aisle, just past the White Claws and other hard seltzers, but kept walking.
Asked after he perused the store whether he felt hungry or repulsed, he laughed.
“A little bit of both,” he said.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
4) Federal Immigration Operation Starts in New Orleans
It is unclear how long the effort will last in Louisiana, where the Republican governor has welcomed the agents with open arms even as immigrant communities fear what might come.
By Eduardo Medina and Hamed Aleaziz, Dec. 3, 2025
Eduardo Medina reported from New Orleans
A protest on Monday against the deployment of Border Patrol agents in New Orleans. Credit...Kathleen Flynn for The New York Times
Federal authorities announced the start of an immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans on Wednesday, the latest front in the Trump administration’s crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that its targets would include violent criminals who were released after being arrested. For weeks, New Orleans, a city led by Democrats in a conservative state, had been nervously bracing for the agents’ arrival. Immigrant advocates have been warning residents to reduce their time outdoors as much as possible, given the outcomes of past operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, N.C.
It was unclear on Wednesday morning what specific federal agencies were involved in the operation. But previous efforts in those cities were led by the Border Patrol and a senior official, Gregory Bovino, who have been criticized for their aggressive tactics, with agents seen flooding grocery store parking lots frequented by Latinos, hanging around Home Depots to pick up undocumented people looking for work, and sometimes roughly detaining American citizens.
In announcing the New Orleans operation, the Trump administration said that it was pursuing “the worst of the worst” criminals who were in the country illegally, and included a list of 10 people it said had been released from local jails because of sanctuary city policies.
Most of the people detained in past operations, however, have not had criminal histories. In Charlotte, for example, where more than 370 people were arrested, only about 44 had criminal records, according to federal officials. The full scope of the arrested people’s crimes remains unclear.
Still, Mr. Bovino, who often engages with his critics and admirers on X, has posted on social media about a handful of the immigrants who he says have serious criminal records.
Data shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, but some argue that any crime committed by someone in the country illegally could have been prevented by stricter immigration enforcement.
Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, a Republican, has welcomed the agents with open arms, telling Fox News last month that he hoped they could start “taking some of these dangerous criminal illegal aliens off of our streets.”
Helena Moreno, New Orleans’s Democratic mayor-elect who was born in Mexico, expressed wariness about what might come next.
“The reports of due process violations and potential abuses in other cities are concerning,” Ms. Moreno said in a statement before the operation began. “I want our community to be aware and informed of the protections available under law.”
As it has in its other deployments around the country, the Homeland Security Department gave its New Orleans operation a nickname: Catahoula Crunch. Critics have derided these seemingly whimsical names as discordant and offensive given the seriousness of the operations and the harshness of the department’s tactics.
The Louisiana State Police and the New Orleans field office of the F.B.I. announced on Wednesday that they would be collaborating “to deter assaults on federal officers and attempts to obstruct law enforcement actions” during the immigration enforcement operation.
The operation comes at the end of a remarkably challenging year for New Orleans. It began with a deadly terrorist attack in January, and over the summer the city’s mayor, LaToya Cantrell, was indicted on charges of using public funds to carry out a romantic relationship with her bodyguard, a city police officer.
New Orleans is also grappling with a budget crisis, and residents have criticized the city for becoming too economically dependent on tourism, which mostly provides low-wage jobs.
Many of the jobs in that industry are filled by immigrants.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
5) Police in a Louisiana City Welcome a Federal Crackdown. Immigrants Are in Hiding.
Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans, has been transformed by an infusion of newcomers. Immigrants there have been on edge all year, particularly in recent weeks.
By Shannon Sims and Rick Rojas, Reporting from Kenner, La., Dec. 3, 2025
Even before news of the operation broke last month, many in Kenner were on edge. Emily Kask for The New York Times
Over the years, the tire shops and drive-throughs along Williams Boulevard, one of the busiest roadways in Kenner, La., have been joined by taquerias, immigration law offices and Norma’s Sweets Bakery, which adapts a Latin American holiday bread into king cake for Mardi Gras.
The new businesses serve residents from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico, many of whom came to Louisiana to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The strip is one of the most obvious signs of just how much Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans with about 66,000 residents, has changed.
But with dozens of federal agents arriving in New Orleans this week, following similar immigration crackdowns in Chicago and Charlotte, N.C., the usual bustle on Williams Boulevard has been replaced by an unsettling quiet.
Even before news of the operation broke last month, many in Kenner were on edge. After President Trump took office in January, the local Police Department strengthened its ties with federal law enforcement and pursued an immigration crackdown of its own. In June, the city canceled its annual Hispanic Heritage Festival after a number of sponsors and vendors pulled out.
“We all feel targeted,” said AnaMaria Bech, the publisher of Viva NOLA, a local bilingual culture and lifestyle magazine.
Kenner has made some efforts to welcome its growing immigrant community. In addition to hosting the annual festival, it opened a Hispanic Resource Center, a hub offering English classes, legal advice and health programs. Still, Mr. Trump’s relentless focus on immigration enforcement has resonated with many in the conservative, predominantly white city.
“The community, the city as a whole, they support it,” Keith Conley, Kenner’s police chief, said of the Department of Homeland Security operation that started on Wednesday. “They are totally glad to see the assistance of the federal government, our partners, coming in and doing this mission.”
Chief Conley is particularly grateful for the agreement that his department entered into in March with the Homeland Security, which deputizes his officers to identify undocumented immigrants and turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He said that undocumented immigrants have been involved in murder, sexual assault and human trafficking cases in Kenner. But far more frequent, he said, are nonviolent offenses that can still take a toll, particularly automobile crashes involving undocumented immigrants who are unlicensed or uninsured.
“I was screaming for help,” Chief Conley said.
A recent investigation by Verite News, a nonprofit outlet in Louisiana, found that traffic stops in Kenner had increasingly become a funnel for undocumented immigrants to be taken into federal custody and deported.
The outlet reported that from January to May, ICE issued at least 129 immigration detainers through the Kenner police; 20 had been issued during the same period last year. More than half of those detained this year were initially booked on traffic-related offenses.
The result has been a heightened wariness for many immigrant families, including some who have become deeply rooted in Kenner.
At one Mexican restaurant, the family who owns it has a new routine at closing time. Cesar, 50, pushes aside tables and drags out mattresses to sleep on rather than risk being pulled over on the way home. His daughter, Ximena, 19, closes the blinds. His wife, Sandra, 49, drapes a colorful cloth over the front door. They also keep close watch on a live feed from a camera perched over the back door.
“That way we can see if a truck pulls up that we don’t know, because it could be ICE,” said Cesar, who found his way to Kenner from Mexico after Hurricane Katrina. The family spoke on the condition of using only their first names, because they fear being detained.
“We lived through hurricanes and tornadoes and Covid,” Ximena said, “but nothing compares to the fear we feel now.”
The Hispanic population in Kenner, just west of New Orleans, has grown steadily over the past two decades, now accounting for 30 percent of the people living there. The increase has not been enough to offset population declines caused in part by extreme weather, soaring home and property insurance costs and a shortage of opportunity outside of service industry jobs. But it has helped soften the impacts.
Many came to Kenner because it had affordable housing, with less crime and chronic dysfunction than New Orleans. “Once you hit New Orleans, things get wild,” said Jeremy Allen, 39, a Kenner native who was watching the sun set from a park at the end of Williams Boulevard one night last week. “But here it’s always chill.”
Mr. Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that later this month, National Guard troops would also go to New Orleans; Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, requested the deployment in September to help with “public safety concerns regarding high crime rates.”
After Hurricane Katrina, the enormous recovery efforts drew people to the region from Mexico and Central America, both undocumented and on temporary work visas. By some estimates, about 100,000 Hispanic people moved into the New Orleans metropolitan area in the decade after storm.
Officials in the region did not exactly roll out a welcome mat for them. In 2005, after Katrina struck, the mayor of New Orleans at the time, Ray Nagin, openly raised concerns with business leaders about making sure the city was “not overrun by Mexican workers.”
A couple of years later, officials in Jefferson Parish, which includes Kenner, adopted onerous rules that effectively banned the taco trucks that had proliferated after the storm. Critics argued the restrictions were a not-so-veiled attempt to run off the customers patronizing the trucks, too.
Chief Conley stressed that it would be unfair to mistake the pursuit of undocumented immigrants in the city for antipathy toward the broader Latino population.
“Kenner is a diverse and inclusive community,” he said, describing it as a point of pride. Noting that Latino residents were among those who had been pleading for more aggressive immigration enforcement, he added: “They’re the ones that stressed the concerns to me with the open borders, and how they came to this country lawfully.”
In the not-so-distant past, Ideal Mart Express might have been one of the most popular shops on Williams Boulevard. The cramped store offered churros filled with dulce de leche, a counter serving tacos and dinner platters, and a stand where horchata was ladled out of barrels into cups. The business has recently had far fewer customers than normal.
George Gibbs, a cashier, pointed to a window where customers usually lined up to wire money to their families back home. “No one is sending money,” he said.
“I understand why it is happening,” Mr. Gibbs added, “but it is hard to see good people feel so scared.”
Wolfgang, 40, moved to Kenner from Honduras as a 5-year-old. He remembered the city being far different when he was younger. “Seeing another Hispanic was like a lottery moment, it was so rare,” said Wolfgang, who gave only his first name because he was wary of drawing the attention of law enforcement officials.
On a recent evening, he brought his 9-year-old son, Ubi, and his friends to a pier on Lake Pontchartrain, where they reeled in mullets and croakers.
“I like it because I can come here to fish,” Ubi said, “or I can play basketball outside, or soccer in the backyard.”
He glanced at his father.
“Or at least,” he added, “I used to be able to play soccer in the backyard.”
A few days earlier, his father explained, Ubi kicked a soccer ball through a rotten fence board, leading to a neighbor calling their landlord and threatening to call immigration officials.
“It didn’t used to be like that here,” Wolfgang said. “Now is the first time we’ve ever had any problems being Hispanic in Kenner.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
6) On Trump’s Insults, Somalia’s Prime Minister Says ‘It’s Better Not to Respond’
President Trump referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage” during a White House meeting on Tuesday.
By Amelia Nierenberg and Hussein Mohamed, Dec. 3, 2025
Hussein Mohamed reported from Mogadishu, Somalia.
Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, last year. Some Somalis were frustrated by what they saw as a pattern of disrespect toward Africa from President Trump. Brian Otieno for The New York Times
Somalia’s leader said Wednesday that it was “better not to respond” a day after President Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage” during a xenophobic tirade.
“We are not the only country that Trump insults,” Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre told an audience at an innovation summit in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in response to a question about Mr. Trump’s comments, according to video published by Shabelle TV, a local media network. “Sometimes it’s better not to respond,” he said.
Somalia, a nation of 19 million people in the Horn of Africa, has long regarded the United States as a key ally in the fight against the Al Shabab terrorist group. Though the Trump administration has slashed foreign aid budgets in recent months, the United States gave around $128 million to Somalia in the 2025 fiscal year.
But on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the country “stinks” and that he did not want Somali immigrants in the United States. “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Mr. Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House.
In Somalia on Wednesday, some people were angry that their government had not criticized Mr. Trump’s comments.
“Somali leaders and politicians have to defend the nation and the national interests,” said Abdullahi Omar, 35, a trader in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. “Why have you kept your mouth shut about Trump’s hate speech toward our people?”
Others were frustrated by what they saw as a pattern of disrespect toward Africa from Mr. Trump, who has a history of insulting Black people, particularly those from African countries.
“We are not garbage,” said Ali Yahye, 24, a graphic designer in Mogadishu. “Trump’s remarks were baseless and the Somali community in the U.S. has made a lot of contributions to the country.”
Anwar Abdifatah Bashir, the executive director for the East African Institute for Peace and Governance, described Mr. Trump’s comments as “naked insults,” but said the Somali government was unlikely to criticize the Trump administration because it still provides Somalia with some financial support.
The Trump administration dismantled the United States Agency for International Development earlier this year, cutting off swaths of foreign assistance to the world’s poorest countries, including Somalia. Many Somalis are still struggling with the dire humanitarian crisis that followed years of severe drought, which killed at least 43,000 people there in 2022 alone, and heavy rains and floods in 2023.
“If they keep silent, they are indirectly subscribing to his bombastic and hyperbolic rhetoric,” said Mr. Bashir.
Mr. Trump has used such rhetoric throughout his rise in politics, including in his first term as president, when he demanded to know why the United States would accept immigrants from Haiti and African nations, which he described as “shithole countries,” rather than, say, Norway.
But he has long been especially focused on Somalis in the United States, and in particular, on Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who came to the United States from Somalia as a refugee and became a citizen 25 years ago.
Mr. Trump’s remarks came as an immigration enforcement operation began targeting Somalis in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Somalis began migrating to Minnesota in large numbers as the East African nation descended into civil war in the mid-1990s. There are about 79,400 Somalis in the state, of whom just over half were foreign-born, according to recent data from Minnesota Compass, a research group in the state.
Immigrant activists and local officials say that the vast majority of Minnesotans with Somali roots are American citizens or legal permanent residents. Nationally, about 73 percent of Somali immigrants are naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the Census Bureau.
Mr. Trump has seized on immigration as a potent political weapon, demonizing immigrants and equating them with crime and disease. In a social media post on Thursday night, Mr. Trump claimed that Somalis were “taking over” Minnesota and that Somali gangs were “roving the streets looking for ‘prey.’”
Abdirashid Hashi, an analyst who once led the Heritage Institute of Policy Studies, a nonpartisan think tank based in Mogadishu, condemned such framing as grossly disproportionate.
“There are about 40 million Somalis worldwide,” he said on X, noting the diaspora across Africa. He said while a “microscopic” number of Somalis in the diaspora may have committed crimes, “reducing an entire people to the actions of a handful is simply bigoted and dishonest.”
Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting from London.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
7) Israel Says a Gaza Border Will Reopen, but Only for Palestinians to Leave
Israel had agreed to open the Rafah crossing as part of the October cease-fire deal with Hamas but kept it closed. Egypt denied that the border would reopen soon.
By Aaron Boxerman, Reporting from Jerusalem, Dec. 3, 2025
The Rafah crossing at the border between southern Gaza and Egypt in 2023. Israel has said it will reopen “in the coming days,” but Egypt denies this. Credit...Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Israel said on Wednesday that it would begin allowing some Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt “in the coming days” through the Rafah border crossing.
Such an opening would be a lifeline for Gazans hoping to flee the devastated enclave, particularly the sick and wounded.
Israel’s military liaison on humanitarian affairs, widely known by its acronym, COGAT, said that the crossing would open only one way, allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza but not to return, and that it would be overseen in part by the European Union, working with Egypt and Israel.
But the Egyptian government on Wednesday denied that it was coordinating with Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing.
Egypt’s state information service said that, according to the cease-fire agreed upon between Israel and Hamas in October, the border had to be open in both directions. In addition to allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza for Egypt, that would most likely mean that the tens of thousands of Gazans displaced to Egypt could also begin returning home.
Israel and Hamas agreed on those broad terms for reopening the border in mid-October, when they signed a cease-fire that ended the two-year war in Gaza. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel later said the Rafah crossing would remain closed until further notice.
Shosh Bedrosian, an Israeli government spokeswoman, told reporters on Wednesday that opening Rafah was conditional on Hamas returning the last two bodies of captives believed to still be in Gaza. On Wednesday, Hamas handed over another body to Israel for identification.
Much about how the Rafah crossing will operate remains unclear, such as exactly when it will reopen and how many Palestinians will be allowed to leave.
The Rafah crossing was the main route out of Gaza for Palestinians who were able to escape during the first several months of the war. It was a gateway for many seeking medical treatment abroad, although Israel has also permitted some to leave through its territory.
Israeli forces invaded Rafah in May 2024 and seized the crossing. Israel and Egypt could not agree on how to reopen the border, which trapped some sick and wounded Palestinians without access to proper medical treatment.
At least 16,500 sick and injured Palestinians still need treatment unavailable in the devastated enclave, the World Health Organization said this week.
The Rafah crossing briefly reopened in February during a cease-fire that collapsed in mid-March. At the time, the E.U. border monitors, as well as officers from the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, helped oversee operations at the crossing.
Throughout the war, most Gazans have been unable to flee the Israeli military campaign for neighboring countries. Those who managed to leave often had to secure approval from Israeli and Egyptian security services.
More than 250 Israelis and foreign nationals were taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the war in Gaza. Two brief cease-fires freed more than 130 survivors, while Israeli forces rescued several others and recovered the bodies of still more.
In October, Hamas freed the final surviving 20 hostages and committed to handing over the remains of those who had been killed. Yet that process has taken time: Hamas says some were lost under rubble, while Israeli officials have accused Hamas of dragging its feet.
Two bodies — those of an Israeli and a Thai — are believed to still be somewhere in Gaza. Hamas officials, accompanied by the International Committee for the Red Cross, have been excavating parts of Gaza to find them.
If a body is found, the Israeli authorities will conduct forensic testing to establish whether it belongs to one of the final two people believed to have been taken captive. On Tuesday, Hamas handed over remains that Israeli officials later said did not belong to a hostage.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
