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.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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-
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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)
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
 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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Articles
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
1) In the Resistance, We Drive Minivans
By Will McGrath, Mr. McGrath is an essayist. He wrote from Minneapolis, Feb. 18, 2026
Sammy Harkham
In the resistance we drive minivans, we take ’em low and slow down Nicollet Avenue, our trunks stuffed with hockey skates and scuffed Frisbees and cardboard Costco flats. We drive Odysseys and Siennas, we drive Voyagers and Pacificas, we like it when the back end goes ka-thunk over speed bumps, shaking loose the Goldfish dust. One of our kids wrote “wash me” on the van’s exterior, etched it into the gray scurf of frozen Minneapolis slush. Our floor mats smell like mildew from the snowmelt.
In the resistance we play Idles loud, we prefer British punk, turn the volume up, “Danny Nedelko,” please and thank you — we cast that song like a protective spell across our minivans: Let us be bulletproof, let us be invisible. We double-check the address, two new kids in the car pool today, three more families requesting rides in the Signal chat. We scan our phones to see which intersections to avoid: armed ICE action in Powderhorn; saw a protester get pushed down. This is in the weeks following the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents. Following the killing of Renee Good by a federal agent.
In the resistance we drive the high school car pool, that holy responsibility, the ferrying of innocents among the wolves. We drive kids we’ve never met before from families afraid to leave their houses, and most mornings we’re in our pajamas, a staling doughnut grabbed with yesterday’s cold coffee, teeth unbrushed — and OK, fine, that might just be me. You wouldn’t be the first to cock an eyebrow at my personal hygiene.
And OK, fine, I don’t even drive a minivan, if you’re going to be pedantic — it’s a dark Chevy Traverse that looks just like an ICE truck. So in those subzero mornings, when I pull up in front of a new address, I roll the window down and shine my smiley pink face into the day — I know how this looks, sorry, sorry! — and I wave wave wave my cartoon wave right up to the point where those eyes peering from behind bent mini blinds register the thought: No… no, I do not think that man could be ICE.
We’ve been doing this since December, eight weeks-going-on-nine-going-on who knows. Kids stopped going to school when thousands of ICE officers arrived in Minnesota. They didn’t want to take the buses anymore, their parents too nervous to release their children onto the block, lest they get swept up by masked agents in flak jackets. This was before the 5-year-old in the blue bunny hat got taken, before a fourth grader in Columbia Heights disappeared, before my middle child’s middle school went into lockdown because ICE trucks were prowling outside her algebra classroom. A network of neighborhood moms and dads bloomed organically, divvying rides, vetting newcomers. There were no open calls, just friends talking with other friends, seeing who might want to help.
Today I’m driving a boy with big bright eyes and floppy hair and golden retriever vibes. He’s got his guitar case this afternoon, performed something for the class, and when I ask about it he smiles and nods and looks down at his seat. (I won’t name any of the kids I drive out of fear of government reprisal.)
Today I’m driving a girl with red lipstick and a gentle, cautious smile. Today I’m driving those sweet, shy sisters who politely take doughnuts from my proffered box even though they never eat them in the car. Today I’m driving the dignified and serious girl who told me English is her favorite class. They’re reading “Romeo and Juliet,” they’re writing sonnets. She told me next year she wants to take A.P. English. Today she’s going downtown to the protest, going because her parents can’t leave the house. Her father came out to shake my hand the first day I picked her up. Most mornings her mother waves from behind a cracked door. They’ve postponed her quinceañera for now; Mom says it’s going to be a Sweet Sixteen next year.
Today I’m driving a boy with braces and unstylish glasses, a dazed and daffy air. He’s always smiling about something. He is last on my drop-off list, four different stops today, and he was squeezed into the far back next to a girl in his grade. Am I wrong to think that neither was leaning away from the other, may in fact have been scrunching in a little closer? A gentleman never tells. Just before we reach his house I ask how his day went and he jolt-snorts awake, laughing. Oh, man, I was up so late last night, playing video games with my friends, he says. He’s bashful now. My friends are too funny. I pull up to his place and we scan the area for suspicious vehicles. I watch him turn the doorknob, step inside.
What they don’t often tell you is how beautiful the resistance can be. In the evening, on the day that Alex Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse, was shot to death by federal agents in front of Glam Doll Donuts, my wife and I drove through Minneapolis. There were candlelight vigils on nearly every corner we passed, some corners with four or five people cupping tiny flames, some corners with 50 neighbors milling about, communing, singing, stoking a firepit hauled to the sidewalk, lighting up the little Weber grill, just hanging out in the frozen dark.
What they don’t often tell you is how fun the resistance can be: the marches joyous and laced with adrenalized anger, people cheering the brass band that thumps its way down the block, chanting and pumping fists, belting out a ubiquitous profane call and response about ICE.
The biggest march was planned for a day of general strike, Jan. 23, when the weather was projected to be -9 degrees, wind chills reaching the negative 20s. People began to fret, worrying about low turnout, but when my wife and I arrived in downtown Minneapolis with our children we encountered one of the largest assemblies of humans I’d seen in person. Some news outlets reported 50,000 people.
I was not surprised, had not forgotten that people in the North have been practicing for this their entire lives. Mention a negative temperature and the Minnesotan eye is liable to glaze over in reverie — it is a near-erotic sensation, the act of considering which fleece to pair with which shell, which anorak has the thickest fur-lined hood, whether it’s time to bring down the warmest warm coat from the attic, whether the heated vest is still charged.
As we tramped through the arctic streets, a bearded dude pulled a wagon bearing a generator and a vat of bubbling soup, dishing up bowls for anyone who cared to slurp. My 13-year-old daughter carried a sign that said, “You can’t shoot us all,” but most of the signs were funny and usually vulgar, along with numerous variations on crushed and salted ice. A young woman held a piece of cardboard with a message insulting ICE agents’ mommas; I did a double take a few minutes later when I saw a different person holding aloft a sign with the exact same phrasing, the sentiment universal, apparently.
After the marches are over, after we’re warm at our fireplaces, we laugh at videos of ICE agents performing unintentional vaudeville pratfalls on the slicked-out sidewalks, feet swooped from underneath. We share the clips of the white supremacist agitator who, aiming to profit from the city’s chaos, organized a march that was meant to culminate with a burning of the Quran in a Somali neighborhood — only to be abandoned by his scraggly followers and met by a crowd of jeering Minnesotans who pelted him with water balloons in the subfreezing afternoon. And there was satisfaction, of course, in seeing that cosplay commandant get yanked from the spotlight he appeared to so desperately crave and retired back to the desert, while understanding that his removal was symbolic, an action that changed nothing. Still, in these unsettled times, one must nurture joy wherever one can.
As the poet Toi Derricotte writes, “Joy is an act of resistance.”
Everyone is doing his part here, each to his ability. This is easier to accomplish, it seems, when joy and love are the engines. Outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, where detainees, some of them American citizens and legal residents, are being held without beds or real blankets, the grannies of the Twin Cities are serving hot chocolate to college kids in active confrontation with ICE. I know of an off-grid network of doctors offering care to immigrants, a sub rosa collective of restaurateurs organizing miniature food banks in their basements. A friend of mine is a pastor who went with around 100 local clergy members to the airport in protest. Another friend is an immigration lawyer who spends his days endlessly filing habeas petitions, has gotten 30 people released from detention over the last few weeks. He recently offered a training session on how to file habeas petitions and 300 lawyers showed up, eager to do the work pro bono.
Every day and night, in the neighborhoods most affected by ICE raids, volunteers stand on street corners and patrol the blocks, phones and whistles ready. The middle-aged ladies of the metro area still take their jaunty 5 p.m. walks, but wearing neon observer vests now. My wife told me about a plumber out in the burbs offering his services free to immigrants affected by the federal occupation — and truly, when the suburban plumbers are against you, you can be sure you’re on the wrong side of history.
Our loose parent network keeps growing, more than 80 of us now. The demand is greater each week, as people in hiding talk with other people in hiding. The first week we had five families riding the car pool; by the seventh, more than 60 families had requested rides, just in our small corner of Minneapolis. We’ve started driving kids’ parents to their jobs, started putting up rent for people who can’t leave their apartments. This is happening in neighborhoods and suburbs across the Twin Cities. We are legion, the local moms and dads, we cruise the city in our minivans. You can’t shoot us all.
Here’s what you need to remember: There is no reward that comes later. No righteous justice will be dispensed, not soon and not ever. Renee Good and Alex Pretti don’t come back to life. The lives of their loved ones are not made whole again. Thousands of people will remain disappeared, relatives scattered, families broken. This story does not have a happy ending, and I can assure you the villains do not get punished in the end. If that is your motivation, try again, start over.
But you also need to understand — and this is equally important — that we’ve already won. The reward is right now, this minute, this moment. The reward is watching your city — whether it’s Chicago or Los Angeles or Charlotte or the cities still to come — organize in hyperlocal networks of compassion, in acephalous fashion, not because someone told you to, but because tens of thousands of people across a metro region simultaneously and instinctively felt the urge to help their neighbors get by.
So in the resistance you drive the car pool. It’s fun, and it’s mostly not scary. Your invisible shield of whiteness has developed a small fissure. You understand that being a white mom dropping a kid at elementary school may no longer save you from being killed in the middle of the street, that being a bearded white bro may not stop government employees from firing their Glocks into your back outside the Cheapo Records. When these thoughts intrude, you slow down to the speed limit, you turn Idles a little louder, you play “Danny Nedelko” again. That song comes from an album called “Joy as an Act of Resistance.”
Today I’m driving a girl who never speaks other than to say thank you. She’s out of the car now and trying to clamber ungracefully over a dirty ice bank that walls off the roadway from her house. There is no entry point — she’d have to walk down to the corner to gain access — and I’m cursing myself for where I’ve dropped her off. The skies are an unsympathetic oatmeal. It is very cold, the dark dead of winter.
Out on the stoop of her building, the girl’s mom and little sister are waiting. The mother looks on nervously, wishing to minimize this vulnerable transition point between car and home. The little sister is probably 3 years old. She is in pigtails and wearing footie pajamas and she is radiant, leaping up and down, clapping, ecstatic to see her big sister come home. The quiet girl is stone-faced and stumbling, and eventually she makes it across the wall of gray ice to her stoop, where her little sister grabs her by the leg.
I’ll admit: This was the only time I cried, throughout this whole disgusting affair, as I sat in my car watching the girl in the footie pajamas clapping for big sister’s safe return. For a half-second I had the instinct to punch the steering wheel as hard as I could. But I’m not quite so melodramatic, and I was worried I’d just beep the horn awkwardly and look like a fool.
This afternoon I’m driving a brother and sister. We’ve been listening to the radio, which reports that almost all of the 3,000 ICE agents involved in the surge are leaving our state. No one believes it, not really, this declaration from the agency that asked us again and again to disbelieve our eyes, to accept that nurses were domestic terrorists, that children were violent criminals. In the meantime, the official story behind a third shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis has been outed as a lie, the offending agents now suspended for providing “untruthful statements” under oath. So you’ll have to forgive our collective skepticism. The drawdown has been rumored for a while now, but the car pool is still booked, with new families requesting assistance each week. Our network won’t be shutting down any time soon.
But there is a strange giddy energy in the car today. It’s the start of a long holiday weekend and the siblings are buzzing. The first time I met them, as they walked through the parking lot of their apartment building, I watched the sister draw a heart in the frost on the windshield of her mother’s car. When I ask about plans for the holiday, the sister says, I’m going to sleep all weekend. She starts laughing. I’m going to relax! It’s been so cold for so long, hovering around -8, -10, -15 since the start of the new year. But today the sun is out and the sky is brilliant blue. The days are getting longer. Thaw is coming.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
2) What to Know About Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’
President Trump’s new organization was established to oversee a Gaza cease-fire but has expanded its mandate. Critics say it could undermine the United Nations.
By Aaron Boxerman, Isabel Kershner and Natan Odenheimer, Reporting from Jerusalem, Published Jan. 19, 2026, Updated Feb. 19, 2026
President Trump was joined by top administration officials at a Board of Peace event in Washington. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
President Trump’s new “Board of Peace” for resolving global conflicts is set to hold its inaugural meeting on Thursday in Washington, where world leaders are expected to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza and funds pledged by member states.
Over 20 countries have so far accepted Mr. Trump’s invitation to join the board, though several allies of the United States, including a number of European nations, have declined.
The board was originally expected to be focused on the postwar redevelopment of Gaza. But its charter, which members signed at an event in Davos, Switzerland, last month, revealed that the organization has a mandate to “secure enduring peace” in other conflict zones, too.
Analysts say Mr. Trump, as chairman of the board, is seeking to build an alternative to the United Nations that places him in charge.
Writing on social media on Sunday, Mr. Trump said that the board “has unlimited potential,” which goes “far beyond Gaza — WORLD PEACE!”
What is its mission?
The Board of Peace was first mentioned in Mr. Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which paved the way for the October cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The plan said the board would “set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment” of the Palestinian enclave after the war.
The board has since directly intervened on some of the thorniest issues in Gaza’s postwar transition.
Board officials are drafting a plan for the demilitarization of Gaza that will require Hamas to surrender its heavy weapons, while allowing the group to retain some small arms, at least initially.
Last week, a senior official for the board held direct talks with a Hamas leader and pressed the group on disarmament. The militant group has long regarded that as tantamount to surrender, with armed struggle against Israel a crucial part of Hamas’s ideology.
Israel insists that the Palestinian militant group hand over all of its weapons before the next stage of the cease-fire can be implemented, which includes Israel further withdrawing its forces in Gaza and facilitating the reconstruction of the enclave.
The United Nations Security Council formally backed the Board of Peace in a U.S.-drafted resolution in November, giving it the force of international legitimacy, with a mandate until at least the end of 2027.
The resolution also authorized the board to work with governments to recruit an international peacekeeping force for Gaza.
The board’s charter, envisioning a broader role for the group beyond Gaza, called for “a more nimble and effective international peace-building body.” Observers widely regarded that as a barb aimed at the U.N, which Mr. Trump has accused of waste and liberal bias.
Who is part of the board?
Countries must contribute more than $1 billion to become permanent board members, but can join without cost for at least the first three years.
The more than 20 founding members, in addition to the United States, include Argentina, Hungary, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Israel has signed the board’s charter, albeit with reservations, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not attend the inaugural meeting on Thursday. The Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized body that administers parts of the West Bank, was not invited to join the group.
Several of the United States’ longtime European allies, such as France and Spain, have said that they would not join the board at this time, arguing that its charter raised serious questions about international law and respect for the United Nations’ role.
Yvette Cooper, Britain’s foreign secretary, also raised concerns about the prospect of Russia being part of the Board of Peace, given that the country has invaded Ukraine.
Russia and China have both said they were invited but not whether they would accept.
Mr. Trump has lashed out at those who have refused his invitation or criticized him. He rescinded an invitation sent to Canada after the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney, urged leaders of smaller nations to band together to resist Mr. Trump’s America First doctrine.
How will the board work?
The charter invests significant personal power in Mr. Trump, even after he leaves the White House.
It says that he will name members of an “Executive Board” to carry out the board’s decisions, and that Mr. Trump would wield considerable veto power over its actions.
In addition to his veto power, he would be able to name his own successor. He would also be empowered to enact “resolutions or other directives” to carry out the board’s mission.
On Jan. 16, the White House announced the names of seven people who would make up the executive board, including Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. The board is tasked with helping implement the 20-point plan for Gaza.
A second subcommittee, named the “Gaza Executive Board,” is tasked with overseeing reconstruction and includes Mr. Kushner, as well as the U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian officials are also on the Gaza board, as is an Israeli businessman — though no Palestinians have so far been announced.
The Board of Peace’s first draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, details the role of Nickolay Mladenov, a former U.N. envoy for the Middle East peace process, who was appointed as the board’s “high representative” for Gaza.
According to the resolution, Mr. Mladenov, a Bulgarian national, will closely supervise the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a body of Palestinian technocrats appointed to administer the territory and oversee the police force, and to direct all of its “day-to-day activities.”
The extent of the Palestinian National Committee’s autonomy remains unclear.
Adam Rasgon, Ségolène Le Stradic, Francesca Regalado, and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
3) In Devastated Gaza, Grandiose Peace Plans Clash With Reality
Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed about 600 people since a cease-fire began, according to health officials in the territory. Many displaced Palestinians are still living in tents. And there are some 60 million tons of war debris to be cleared.
By Isabel Kershner, Adam Rasgon, Aaron Boxerman and Natan Odenheimer, Photographs by Saher Alghorra, This story was reported from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem., Feb. 19, 2026
Gaza City last week.
As President Trump prepares for the inaugural gathering of his “Board of Peace” in Washington on Thursday, there are detailed proposals encompassing hopes and dreams for a gleaming new postwar Gaza.
Then there is reality.
“Trump is trying to make things rosy, but as a matter of fact, the situation is still catastrophic,” said Prof. Mkhaimar Abusada, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza City who was displaced from his home during the Israel-Hamas war and now resides in Cairo.
A fragile cease-fire came into force in October, two years after the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the war. But the path forward is uncharted, labyrinthine and strewed with obstacles.
“The Trump cease-fire plan is struggling to succeed,” Professor Abusada said, blaming both Hamas and Israel.
Member states of the new international body tasked with rebuilding Gaza have pledged more than $5 billion for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the enclave, according to Mr. Trump. But that is only a fraction of what is needed. The United Nations has estimated the cost of rebuilding the territory at more than $50 billion.
Countries have also committed thousands of troops and personnel, laying the ground work for an International Stabilization Force meant to “maintain Security,” Mr. Trump said.
American officials are discussing plans to build a military base for peacekeepers in an Israeli-controlled area of southern Gaza, according to several Western diplomats who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information publicly.
Slick Power Point presentations paint a picture of a futuristic seaside metropolis. But for now, the Israeli military and private contractors are removing unexploded ordnance and rubble from patches of the Israeli-controlled part of Gaza. There are an estimated 60 million tons of war debris to be cleared away.
Gaza barely has the basics. Experts have produced a comprehensive paper on waste management, according to internal planning documents viewed by The New York Times.
While the war is over, no one would call Gaza safe. Even under the cease-fire, Israeli strikes have killed about 600 Palestinians there, according to local health officials. Their data does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israel says its near daily strikes are retaliation against militants who violated the truce or to eliminate imminent threats. But children are among the dead.
In all, 72,000 people have been killed since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel says thousands of militants were among those killed.
Israeli forces now control about half the coastal territory, where anti-Hamas militias have taken up arms and looted aid. A weakened but resilient Hamas prevails for now in the other half, where most of the population of two million is living, many still displaced and in tents.
Hamas has pledged to give up the administration of Gaza, but its gunmen are still manning checkpoints, detaining and questioning people, and collecting some fees.
Any real progress in Gaza hinges upon the thorniest issues in Mr. Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. They include disarming Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza and ensuring a withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Hamas is reluctant to part with its weapons. The militants rely on them to control the population, and they are also core to its identity as a fighting force against Israel.
After being caught off-guard by the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which left about 1,200 people dead, according to Israeli officials, Israel is deeply skeptical of the group’s intentions.
For this reason, Israel is still barring the entry into Gaza of many so-called “dual use” items, saying they could be used by Hamas for military purposes. The list changes, but now includes wide-diameter steel tent poles, according to several officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
The severe food shortages of the war have eased, but Western officials and aid workers accuse Israel, which strictly controls the flow of all goods into Gaza, of slow-walking other kinds of assistance.
About 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza were damaged or destroyed during the war, according to the United Nations. But Israel has largely limited or delayed the entry of caravans and temporary homes, despite some harsh winter weather, according to the Shelter Cluster, a group of U.N. and humanitarian agencies working on housing solutions.
About 4,000 emergency temporary housing units are either now available or in the pipeline, according to the United Nations. About 200,000 prefab relief housing units are needed to support displaced families, according to Alexander De Croo, a U.N. development official who visited Gaza this week.
The Israeli military unit that oversees the entry of aid to Gaza, known as COGAT, rejected accusations that Israel was preventing or delaying assistance.
“The reality is completely opposite,” it said in a statement, adding that Israel was meeting its commitment under the cease-fire agreement.
The sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt recently reopened for people on foot after being closed for most of the past 20 months. Only a trickle of Gazans, mainly people seeking medical treatment abroad and their caregivers, or residents returning to the enclave from abroad, have been able to cross it.
Making headway is complicated because the main players are reluctant to take risks or make concessions before the other.
“All the structures are ready, but on the ground nothing has changed because one thing is dependent on another,” said Shira Efron, chair of Israel policy at the RAND Corporation, a U.S.-based research institute.
“Reconstruction and Israeli military withdrawal are contingent on disarmament and the deployment of the International Stabilization Force,” she added.
After nearly 20 years of dominating Gaza, Hamas has been trying to tighten its hold on the territory, rather than giving it up, Ms. Efron said. “They are the ones enforcing law and order,” she said.
“Even the seemingly simple challenge of Hamas handing over the civilian rule of Gaza — which they said they’d agree to do — will be complicated,” she said.
Hamas will not be eager to forfeit tax revenues, and it is hard to imagine an orderly transition, she said, noting that the group’s own governance of Gaza was “poor and partial at best.”
The Board of Peace has appointed a committee of Palestinian technocrats as a transitional government to replace Hamas, but they are still based in Cairo.
The committee members are waiting for a safer environment and a loosening of Israeli restrictions on goods that would improve residents’ lives and give them some credibility as they begin to operate in the territory, according to officials and people briefed on their thinking.
“They need to go back with something in their hands to win the hearts and minds of people in Gaza,” Professor Abusada said.
For now, committee members have been attending governance training workshops run by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, according to people briefed on their activities.
Over it all, the threat looms of a return to war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who is facing an election this year, says he will give the cease-fire plan a chance. But if Hamas does not agree to disarm, he says, it will be done “the hard way,” with a new Israeli military offensive.
The Trump administration and mediators have been drafting a phased disarmament deal that would see Hamas surrender all weapons capable of striking Israel, but would allow the group to keep some small arms, at least initially, according to officials and people familiar with the proposal.
Mr. Netanyahu appeared to reject that phased approach to disarmament which prioritizes heavy weapons such as rockets. The weapons that Hamas used during the October 2023 attack were Kalashnikov assault rifles, he said, demanding that the group hand over 60,000 of them.
In any case, it’s unclear whether Hamas would even agree to this. Nickolay Mladenov, a former U.N. official now serving as the Board of Peace “high representative” for Gaza, met Hamas’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, in Cairo this month to press the group on disarmament. Mr. al-Hayya refused to discuss the issue with him, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about a sensitive matter.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
4) ‘Our Patients Are More Frightened and Sicker Than Ever’
By Elizabeth Whidden, Robin Canada and D. Daphne Owen, Feb. 19, 2026
Ms. Whidden and Drs. Canada and Owen work and volunteer at a Philadelphia clinic serving uninsured patients, many of whom are immigrants.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Our patient had done everything right. After years of suffering from advanced liver disease, she had recovered and was caring for herself and her family. She had community support and regular medical care, and the last time we saw her in clinic, she expressed a cautious but real sense of optimism.
Then everything collapsed.
Her husband and teenage son were taken off the street by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Within hours of their arrest, they were pressured into signing self-deportation papers; within days, they were deported. Amid this terrifying situation, our patient stopped taking her medication and her health rapidly deteriorated.
In November, just a few weeks after the deportations, a life-threatening bleed left her unconscious at home. She died in the intensive care unit, without her family.
In June, another patient, still recovering from a recent stroke, was taken by ICE outside his home, seized in front of his wife and toddler. His stroke left him physically incapable of fleeing, yet two plainclothes officers manhandled him into an unmarked van and took him into custody.
After several weeks in Moshannon Valley Processing Center in central Pennsylvania, he was released, thanks to the efforts of family, legal advocates and his medical providers. When he came back to clinic, he was soft-spoken and visibly shaken. In detention he had missed weeks of medication, and he continues to deal with the undertreated effects of his stroke, which make walking difficult and returning to work impossible. He told us he struggles to sleep through the night and often feels exhausted and depressed.
What happened to our patients are the inevitable consequences of ICE treating people and families as targets rather than as human beings, carrying out enforcement without any consideration of medical risk or family circumstances. Detention, deportation and family separation don’t merely cause social and legal harm; they also create profound medical stress that exacerbates chronic disease, worsens mental health and induces medical crises.
Between the three of us, we have worked with undocumented patients for years across many administrations. Our patients have always dealt with fear of deportation, limited access to care and a paltry safety net. But the past year has brought a shift: Immigration enforcement has moved from a largely targeted system to a highly visible, indiscriminate one. The paramilitary-style raids in city streets, racialized targeting of people perceived as nonwhite, expanded data sharing between health and immigration authorities, and removal of sanctuary protections that previously prevented ICE activity in health care settings have fundamentally altered risk calculations for immigrant communities.
The fact that our patient was unable to get medication in immigration detention is a travesty, but not surprising. Across the country, families describe loved ones who entered custody with treatable illnesses and came home much sicker, or never came home at all, as a result of inadequate or delayed health care.
At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the deadliest year in two decades. Another six people have died this year. And things are likely to get worse. In October, ICE halted payments to third party medical providers who treated patients in its facilities. Infections spread rapidly in crowded facilities unable to deliver basic care. At the end of January, a detention center in Dilley, Texas that houses children reported at least two cases of measles.
Spaces once understood as safe — clinics, churches, schools, courtrooms — are no longer trusted. One patient of ours is at extremely high risk of stroke. She was prescribed a blood-thinning medication that requires regular laboratory monitoring. If the drug level is too low, it fails to prevent a stroke. If it is too high, it can cause catastrophic internal bleeding. Yet this patient for months was too afraid to leave her home and risk encountering ICE at a clinic or lab. It’s a cruel calculus: seek essential medical care and risk detention, or stay home and risk her life. Our once-vibrant waiting room is full of empty chairs now. For those patients who have simply disappeared, we are left to wonder whether they are hiding at home, detained, deported or dead.
The impact extends beyond undocumented individuals; fear is contagious. Even immigrants with legal status are, for good reason, afraid of being targeted by enforcement actions. Our patients tell us they are keeping their U.S. citizen children home from school because of fear of ICE.
Immigration is a polarizing and politically fraught issue, and our health care system is riddled with inequities that leave many citizens struggling to get basic care. Immigration policies are often justified by the claim that undocumented people overwhelm the system and take resources from working-class Americans.
But making it dangerous to seek medical attention does not make anyone safer or healthier. When people are deterred from preventive care, treatable conditions worsen, emergency department utilization increases, and costs rise for everyone. Our citizen patients are not better off when detention centers become hot spots for infectious disease outbreaks. Nor are they better off when undocumented patients are too afraid to seek care, get taken into ICE custody, or die because the trauma of family separation made their suffering unbearable.
Congressional Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless Republicans agree to basic limits on ICE’s conduct, including ending masked operations and banning enforcement at sensitive locations like medical facilities, churches, schools and courts. Democrats should hold the line: These demands are a bare minimum. ICE must also be barred from searching Medicaid databases to target patients, and detention facilities should be subject to regular, independent health inspections with swift corrective action to prevent infectious disease outbreaks, medical neglect and avoidable deaths. These steps are needed to protect public health, reduce preventable illness and save lives.
Instead, our patients are more frightened and sicker than ever, and health care providers are grappling with the moral injury of watching communities fracture and suffer in real time. Hippocrates, the physician of ancient Greece, instructs us to “do no harm.” Yet harm now seems to be woven into the very environment in which we practice.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
5) Ring’s Founder Knows You Hated That Super Bowl Ad
Since the commercial aired, Jamie Siminoff has been trying to quell an outcry over privacy concerns with his doorbell cameras.
By Jordyn Holman, Feb. 19, 2026
Jamie Siminoff, the founder and chief inventor of Ring, the ubiquitous doorbell camera, was excited for the company’s first Super Bowl television commercial. The 30-second ad presented its product helping with a task as unassailable as apple pie: finding lost dogs.
But since the ad aired, instead of a victory lap, Mr. Siminoff has been on an apology tour.
Or maybe an explanation tour. Whatever you call it, he is responding to a genuine public relations crisis.
The commercial showed a new Ring feature called Search Party, which uses artificial intelligence and images from its cameras to trace a lost pet’s wanderings across a neighborhood. Critics said the feature felt dystopian, showing the potential for far-reaching invasive surveillance. Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a critic of corporate data collection, called out “the serious privacy and civil liberties risks” in Ring’s technology.
This week, Mr. Siminoff has made the rounds on TV news shows, trying to allay users’ concerns. He has been on CNN and NBC and talked to The New York Times on Wednesday.
The ad landed at a tense media moment involving home surveillance. In the search for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of the TV news anchor Savannah Guthrie, law enforcement agencies were able to recover footage from her Google Nest doorbell, despite reports that she did not have a subscription to the device.
But Ring, which is owned by Amazon, is so ubiquitous that is has become a generic term for any doorbell camera, and users raised questions about how much Ring was monitoring them.
Mr. Siminoff took pains in his media appearances to clarify Ring’s privacy policies. He said his company does not store users’ footage if they don’t have a subscription with Ring.
“You have the A.I. angst, you have the Nancy Guthrie thing happening,” Mr. Siminoff said, offering his explanation as to why the Super Bowl ad created such an outcry. “All this came together and it created a perfect storm and it just hit and exploded.”
Ring is trying to balance communicating what it does — using video to monitor homes and neighborhoods — and not agitating people who are wary of that very thing.
Mr. Siminoff defended his technology, saying that protecting privacy and providing useful tools for helping people are both possible. He said that he understood people’s concerns, and that maybe people were “triggered” by an image in the ad that showed blue rings radiating out from suburban homes. There will be fewer maps in any future ads, he said.
But the company had come under criticism, even before the Super Bowl ad, from people like Mr. Markey. Last week, Ring ended its partnership with Flock Safety, which operates A.I.-powered surveillance cameras that critics feared would allow government agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement to gain access to user data. The partnership would have given Flock access to a tool to work with local law enforcement.
The company said users had to agree before their information was shared on Search Party. While the feature is on outdoor Ring cameras by default, “camera owners always control how their footage is shared in response to a Search Party request,” Meredith Chiricosta, a spokeswoman for Ring, said in an emailed statement. “Nothing is shared by default.”
Mr. Siminoff, who started Ring in his garage in Los Angeles, remains resolute that more video in the world is better. He believes that most people feel this way, too, even if they say they have misgivings.
“I think there’s been a lot of cases recently where if the video had not been there, I’m not sure if the story would have been told the same or we wouldn’t have known what happened,” he said.
But he gets that people want to have some measure of control.
“That’s the balance. It’s not just like unfettered mass surveillance,” he said. “That’s not what we have with Ring. You get to choose what you want to do with your individual home.”
Davia Temin, a longtime corporate crisis strategist, said Mr. Siminoff was emphasizing the most important point in this particular maelstrom.
“A C.E.O. who acknowledges that his company wants to give as much control to the consumer as possible — that is as healthy as it gets,” Ms. Temin, who runs the communications firm Davia Temin & Company, said. “Privacy will always be contested until we get to the next step.”
While the outcry over its Super Bowl commercial was intense, Mr. Siminoff, who had appeared in the ad with his dog Biscuit, said the company would move forward building out the Search Party feature. It hopes to be able to help people find their lost cats, a harder problem to solve than dogs.
“One of the biggest controversies we had for Search Party,” Mr. Siminoff said, “up until the Super Bowl commercial, was why don’t you have cats?”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
6) Police Investigate ICE Arrest of a Man Who Suffered Severe Head Injuries
The police in St. Paul, Minn., are investigating an arrest last month during the immigration crackdown. The man has said he was beaten by agents. ICE asserted that he ran into a wall.
By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Feb. 19, 2026
The police in St. Paul, Minn., say they are investigating an immigration arrest last month that left a man with a fractured skull and bleeding in his brain. Immigration agents have claimed the injuries were a result of the man running into a wall, but he has said that the agents beat him.
The arrest of Alberto Castañeda Mondragón on Jan. 8 left him with severe head injuries, according to a federal judge, who concluded that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents had “largely refused to provide information” about how Mr. Castañeda Mondragón had been injured. The judge, Donovan W. Frank, who ordered Mr. Castañeda Mondragón to be freed from detention last month, said in his ruling that the agents had suggested that the injured man ran headfirst into a brick wall.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not respond to requests for comment.
Tensions have been high for weeks between local and federal law enforcement agencies over the behavior of immigration agents during the Trump administration’s surge in the Twin Cities region. Federal prosecutors say they are investigating false statements by agents about the circumstances of a nonfatal shooting of a man in Minneapolis, and the Justice Department’s civil rights division is investigating the fatal shooting by agents of Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen who was a nurse. And after Renee Good, another U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an agent, federal officials refused to provide evidence to state investigators.
In Mr. Castañeda Mondragón’s case, The Associated Press reported last month that hospital employees quickly doubted descriptions by ICE agents about how he had gotten hurt, and this week reported that the F.B.I. was investigating the arrest, as were the St. Paul police. A spokeswoman for the Minneapolis field office of the F.B.I. did not respond to requests for comment.
John J. Choi, the prosecutor in Ramsey County, which includes St. Paul, has said that he expects to investigate “allegations of criminal conduct by federal agents” and would “hold accountable anyone who has violated Minnesota law.”
Mr. Castañeda Mondragón’s lawyers said in a statement that they were aware of “ongoing investigations” and that they “trust that the authorities will fully investigate” what had caused his injuries.
Mr. Castañeda Mondragón, who is from Mexico, entered the country legally in March 2022 on a temporary work visa, court records say.
Judge Frank ordered Mr. Castañeda Mondragón’s release from ICE custody after he was held for 15 days, with an agent monitoring him from his hospital bed as he recovered from the head injury. The judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said the detention was unlawful because agents did not have at the time a warrant or reasonable suspicion to believe that Mr. Castañeda Mondragón was in the country illegally.
In an interview, Mr. Castañeda Mondragón told The A.P. that he was in a friend’s car at a St. Paul shopping center when immigration agents pulled him from the car, threw him to the ground, handcuffed him and beat him with their fists and a baton. He was so injured and disoriented from the beating, he said, that he did not remember that he had a 10-year-old daughter.
His condition declined to the point where he struggled to communicate with hospital staff members, according to the judge’s order. Eventually, he improved and was released from the hospital on Jan. 27.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
7) A New U.S. Blockade Is Strangling Cuba
An analysis of ship movements shows that the Trump administration is isolating the island at one of its most vulnerable moments.
By Jack Nicas and Christiaan Triebert, Feb. 20, 2026
Jack Nicas reported from Mexico City, and Christiaan Triebert from New York.
The oil tanker Ocean Mariner at the port of Havana last month. Cuba is facing the United States’ first effective blockade since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Cuba is confronting the United States’ first effective blockade since the Cuban Missile Crisis and running out of fuel fast, pushing the nation toward a humanitarian crisis and its government to the edge of collapse, according to a New York Times analysis of shipping data and satellite images.
Cuban tankers have hardly left the island’s shores for months. Oil-rich allies have halted shipments or declined to come to the rescue. The U.S. military has seized ships that have supported Cuba. And in recent days, vessels roaming the Caribbean Sea in search of fuel for Cuba have come up empty or been intercepted by the U.S. authorities.
Last week, a tanker linked to Cuba burned fuel for five days to get to the port in Curaçao but then left without cargo, according to ship-tracking data. Three days later, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a tanker full of Colombian fuel oil en route to Cuba that had gotten within 70 miles of the island, the data showed.
While President Trump has pledged to halt any oil headed to Cuba, the Trump administration has stopped short of calling its policy a blockade.
But it is functioning as one.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order last month threatening to impose tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba. That has succeeded at scaring other nations, like Mexico, into sitting on the sidelines despite their desire to help Cuba.
At the same time, the largest U.S. military presence in the Caribbean in decades is policing the waters around the island, fresh off its work blocking oil shipments to and from Venezuela ahead of the U.S. capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, last month.
And, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, the Coast Guard’s interception of the tanker headed to Cuba last week was part of a blockade that the Trump administration has not yet announced.
“Among us longtime Cuba watchers, we’ve always resisted people using the word blockade,” said Fulton Armstrong, the former lead Latin America analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, who has been studying Cuba since 1984. “But it is indeed a blockade.”
The White House declined to comment. A Cuban government spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations has criticized the U.S. policy as a violation of international law that has exacerbated the suffering of Cuba’s roughly 10 million residents. It also appears to have the island’s Communist government teetering on edge.
“Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, this is the biggest step,” Mr. Armstrong said, referring to the 13-day confrontation in 1962 when the U.S. Navy encircled Cuba. “And the Cubans will have to make a decision of whether to surrender.”
The U.S. government called its 1962 policy a “quarantine” to avoid using the word “blockade,” which legally could be interpreted as an act of war. The Trump administration has also avoided using the word “blockade.”
President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba has said he was open to negotiating with Washington, while promising to find ways around the blockade. “We are making every effort so that the country can once again have fuel,” he told reporters this month. “We have to do very hard, very creative and very intelligent work to overcome all these obstacles.”
To understand whether fuel was still flowing to the island, The Times conducted interviews and analyzed satellite images, port records and data broadcast from a series of ships connected to Cuba.
The analysis showed that oil-tanker traffic to and from the island has nearly stopped. Yet it also showed that several ships did appear to venture out in search of fuel. All were stymied by Mr. Trump’s policies.
The Ocean Mariner
On Jan. 29, Mr. Trump declared a national emergency, claiming that Cuba is a hotbed for spies and terrorists and threatening tariffs against any nation that provides petroleum products to the island.
On the same day, a tanker called the Ocean Mariner docked at a port in Barranquilla, Colombia, according to data broadcast by the boat and satellite imagery. It loaded 84,579 barrels of fuel oil, according to Kpler, a shipping data firm.
The Ocean Mariner has been a regular carrier of oil to Cuba, even delivering the island’s last shipment, from Mexico, on Jan. 9. But when it left Colombia, it broadcast its destination as the Dominican Republic.
Twelve days later, on Feb. 10, it changed course toward Cuba.
The Ocean Mariner’s meandering path
On Feb. 11, just 65 miles from Cuba, the Ocean Mariner abruptly made a U-turn, according to ship-tracking data. It appeared to have realized it was being pursued.
The next day, a U.S. Coast Guard vessel pulled up alongside the tanker, according to the data. The Coast Guard crew asked the Ocean Mariner where it was headed, and the tanker reported it was destined for the Dominican Republic, despite the fact that it was way off course, according to a U.S. official who was briefed on the episode.
The Coast Guard then sailed alongside the Ocean Mariner for nearly two days, escorting it into Dominican waters, the data show. The ship remained there, full of fuel, for several days.
On Thursday, a Coast Guard vessel again began escorting the Ocean Mariner — this time north toward the Bahamas, which the Ocean Mariner broadcast as its destination.
When U.S. vessels were seizing Venezuelan oil tankers late last year, those ships also brought their oil to the Bahamas.
Growing Isolation
In Cuba, people are struggling with frequent blackouts, shortages of gasoline and cooking gas and dwindling supplies of diesel that power the nation’s water pumps. Trash is piling up, food prices are soaring, schools are canceling classes and hospitals are suspending surgeries.
Some humanitarian aid is still arriving in the country, including from the United States. The U.S. government said this month it would send $6 million in aid to Cuba, including prepackaged food, via the Catholic Church.
Still, the U.S. embargo on Cuba has deeply complicated life for its residents for more than six decades, and now the blockade of oil tankers is plunging the island into one of its darkest moments.
Jorge Piñón, a former oil executive who runs a team at the University of Texas at Austin tracking Cuba’s oil, said the team estimates that the country’s fuel reserves could be depleted by mid-March, triggering social unrest that could threaten the government. Nearly all of Cuba’s energy runs on oil and oil products.
And Cuba appears to have few lifelines left.
Its once dominant supplier, Venezuela, is now effectively controlled by the United States. Russia recently promised to send oil but its ships are nowhere to be seen. And other oil-exporting countries friendly to Cuba are staying away, Mr. Piñón said, including Brazil, Angola and Algeria. “All of these countries have their own problems,” he said. “Why antagonize the White House?”
After Washington took control of Venezuela’s oil, Mexico was left as Cuba’s primary provider. But after Mr. Trump threatened tariffs, it halted its shipments. Mexico is economically dependent on the United States and locked in negotiations with Washington over an expiring trade deal.
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has tried to walk a fine line, sending humanitarian aid packages to Cuba, offering to mediate talks and saying: “You cannot suffocate a people like this.”
The Gas Exelero
The Times analysis suggests that in the absence of its typical suppliers, Cuba has begun looking to some of its smaller neighbors in the Caribbean.
On Feb. 9, a tanker called the Gas Exelero set sail from Cuba to Curaçao. The five-day journey consumed a significant amount of fuel for a nation short on it, and yet it all appeared to be for naught.
The vessel docked at a port in Curaçao for nine hours before departing again. According to the ship’s data on its depth in the water — a measure of how much product is on board — it appeared to depart empty. Ship data also showed that the ship docked on the side that would allow it to refuel for a return journey but not load supplies.
Curaçao officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The Gas Exelero then sailed to Jamaica, where it has sat at anchorage near the port of Kingston since Feb. 17.
The ship is at least the fourth vessel with links to Cuba that has anchored near the Kingston port since October. Exactly why the ships have stopped there is unclear. Ship data and satellite images show the boats have not docked at the port, which abuts Jamaica’s only oil refinery, nor have they taken on any weight.
Kamina Johnson Smith, Jamaica’s foreign minister, told reporters last week that Cuba had not requested to buy fuel from Jamaica and that Jamaica had not sold fuel to Cuba in at least a decade. Trade data shows that as recently as 2023, Jamaica’s largest export to Cuba was refined petroleum.
Some of the ships have anchored near Jamaica several times a year. Shipping analysts said the vessels may be changing crews because of the complicated logistics of doing business in Cuba.
Crew members also appeared to be visiting Jamaica. A Facebook account that appeared to belong to a Filipino man who works on one of the vessels posted a photo in 2024 of 15 people in what looked like a crew dining area, about to eat a meal of lechon, or suckling pig, a celebratory dish in both Cuba and the Philippines.
Every one of them wore matching Jamaica shirts.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
8) He Was a Climate Activist. One Day, the F.B.I. Came Knocking.
As the Trump administration cracks down on climate change activism, members of environmental groups like Extinction Rebellion fear they are being targeted.
By Hilary Howard, Feb. 20, 2026
Several climate activists, including six in Boston, have said that they were visited by F.B.I. agents within the last year. Credit...Michael Nigro/Pacific Press, via LightRocket, via Getty Images
On a recent frosty February morning, 200 miles north of New York City, a middle-aged man had just had his tea and toast and opened his laptop. He heard a knock on his door. When he answered it, a woman, accompanied by a man, identified herself as a counterterrorism agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She said that she wanted to talk with him about Extinction Rebellion, a global environmental group. He was not in trouble, she told him.
The man’s heart started racing. He told them he had nothing to say. The F.B.I. agent asked if there was someone who could speak on the man’s behalf. He said no. The two agents thanked him and left.
The man closed the door and called his lawyer.
For several years, the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, had been active in Extinction Rebellion, which specializes in splashy, nonviolent actions that call attention to global warming. Members have disrupted a Coco Gauff tennis match at the U.S. Open and interrupted a Broadway play. Now, Extinction Rebellion and other environmental groups are concerned that the Trump administration, as it continues to clamp down on protesters, is casting its net wider to include climate activists.
In January, the man, who is no longer active in the group, received a call from the F.B.I. He figured it was a scam and hung up. Two minutes later, an agent texted him, saying that she was standing outside his home. But it was his old address, hundreds of miles away. A few weeks later, the same agent and a colleague were standing outside the mud room of his current home.
“This door knock marks a significant escalation,” said Ronald L. Kuby, the man’s lawyer, who represents several climate activists. “The fact that they went to the wrong address of a member who has not been active suggests that they are starting an investigation. They are digging.”
Mr. Kuby called the agent, but did not hear back from her. When The New York Times called the agent, she referred a reporter to the public affairs officials in the F.B.I.’s New York office. A spokeswoman there said that the agency could not “confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of any investigation.”
Climate activists, with their disruptive and creative tactics, get both media attention and public criticism, but they are not violent, said Dana R. Fisher, the director of the Center for Environment, Community and Equity at American University.
The Biden administration was open to differing public opinions — some of them voiced loudly and in large numbers — on global warming, Dr. Fisher said. But President Trump has called climate change a hoax, removing mentions of it on government websites. And last week, his administration ended the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is heating the planet.
Climate activists can prove to be especially vulnerable, Dr. Fisher said, because they often equate environmental justice with economic and racial justice, joining protests against other Trump-era actions, such as mass deportations. The Trump administration, in turn, will “try to pick off what they see as the lowest hanging fruit of activists,” she said.
The Department of Justice said in a statement that it would “continue to hold accountable any individual that crosses the red line between peaceful First Amendment activity and obstructing, impeding or attacking federal law enforcement agents. No matter the cause, no one is above the law.”
Marianne Engelman-Lado, the director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Initiative at the New York University School of Law, said that over the past year, she had noticed an uptick in efforts within the legal community to help nonprofits working in the realm of climate justice. Several of those groups have received threatening letters from members of Congress.
“They are now very aware that they need to have their ducks in a row,” she said.
In late January, a different climate group disrupted an event at a synagogue in Roslyn, N.Y., to protest a Long Island congressman’s support of a bill that would provide billions of dollars for deportations. Afterward, Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant attorney general, posted on social media that the Department of Justice would investigate the incident to see if federal law had been broken.
Mr. Trump has doubled down on what he calls “domestic terrorism.” Last fall, after the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the president issued a memorandum that called for a new strategy to “disband and uproot networks, entities and organizations that promote organized violence, violent intimidation, conspiracies against rights and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society.”
Climate groups were not mentioned in the document, but Nate Smith, a member of Extinction Rebellion, highlighted the memo’s sweeping language, which calls out those who it says oppose capitalism and Christianity and those who it says hold extreme views on migration, race and gender. “It is a very dangerous wish list,” he said.
In May, six activists in Boston, several of whom belong to Extinction Rebellion, were visited by people who said they were F.B.I. agents. In October, Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire and a Trump ally, called critics of artificial intelligence — including Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist — “legionnaires of the Antichrist.”
Three years ago, Marco Rubio, who was then a U.S. senator, asked the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security to stop foreign members of Extinction Rebellion from entering the country. He was concerned, he said in a letter to the agencies, about activists plotting to block important transit routes and disrupting federal sites. (In 2019, members of the group delayed train service at a London station, resulting in violent outbreaks among commuters. Afterward, group leaders said that the protest had been a mistake.)
The middle-aged man who said that he had received a knock on the door from an F.B.I. agent once witnessed tidal flooding submerge a neighborhood. It alarmed him. Soon, he was observing state-sponsored public planning meetings about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but he found them wonky and uninspired.
He started to believe that public awareness was the solution, so he joined Extinction Rebellion. He participated in about half a dozen actions between 2022 and 2024 and was arrested multiple times, facing a misdemeanor charge in Connecticut. He and other activists were fined more than $6,000 in total. But a year ago, he left New York City, as well as his activism, behind.
Extinction Rebellion is reminding members about measures they can take to deal with federal agents and the importance of knowing their legal risks each time they engage in activism. And the group’s leaders say they emphasize practicing nonviolence.
“We are not dissolving and not retreating,” Mr. Smith said. When asked if any new actions were planned, his response echoed the F.B.I. statement: “We can neither confirm nor deny that.”
Georgia Gee contributed research.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
9) Judge Rebukes U.S. Over Application to Search Reporter’s Home
A prosecutor apologized for failing to alert the magistrate to a 1980 law that restricts searches for reporting materials.
By Charlie Savage and Erik Wemple, Feb. 20, 2026
Charlie Savage reported from Washington, and Erik Wemple from federal court in Alexandria.
A magistrate judge on Friday sharply admonished the Justice Department for failing to tell him about a rarely invoked law that restricts searches for reporting material when it applied last month for a warrant to search a Washington Post reporter’s home.
“Why didn’t you raise it?” Judge William B. Porter of the Eastern District of Virginia asked during a heated stretch of a hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va. “It’s a threshold question in this case.”
The assistant U.S. attorney who submitted the warrant application, Gordon D. Kromberg, later conceded that he had known about the law, but also said he had been following department policy in not bringing it to the judge’s attention.
“I apologize to you,” Mr. Kromberg said.
First Amendment scholars say the search of the home of the Post reporter, Hannah Natanson, was unprecedented. It was part of a broader investigation into a government contractor’s handling of classified material.
The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 says that a search for reporting materials “shall be unlawful” unless there is probable cause the reporter committed certain crimes to which the materials relate.
Searches for reporting materials are exceedingly rare, and the Privacy Protection Act raises numerous legal questions. Among them is who decides whether the law’s standards have been met: the Justice Department when it wants to conduct a search or the judge being asked to issue a warrant.
Several specialists in legal ethics have faulted Mr. Kromberg for failing to bring the law to the judge’s attention. They said that if he knew about it, the omission appeared to violate a rule of professional conduct that requires telling a court about adverse legal authority, or laws and court precedents that could harm or contradict their clients’ position.
A First Amendment advocacy group, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, filed an ethics complaint against Mr. Kromberg with the Virginia State Bar over his failure to alert the judge to the 1980 law. The bar declined to review the matter, saying it was for Judge Porter to assess.
It was unclear whether the judge’s rebuke would be the extent of his response, or whether he intended to pursue the matter further.
Judge Porter initially grilled another federal prosecutor, Christian Dibblee, about whether the department knew about the 1980 law and its additional requirement of probable cause when it sought his blessing for the search.
Mr. Dibblee said he was not involved in the application, and Mr. Kromberg tried to interject. Judge Porter, spotting Mr. Kromberg’s movement, shouted, “Sit down!”
The judge repeatedly said that he found it hard to believe that the law did not apply, and pressed Justice Department lawyers to explain why the government had failed to tell him about it. “How could you miss it? How could you think it doesn’t apply?” he asked.
Mr. Dibblee told the judge he understood his “frustration,” and said the decision had been made by higher-level officials in the Justice Department. Judge Porter replied, “That’s minimizing it!”
Judge Porter also disclosed that the Justice Department had sought a warrant to search Ms. Natanson’s home multiple times, and that he had rejected earlier versions of the application before approving it. After he finished grilling Mr. Dibblee, he allowed Mr. Kromberg to defend the department’s actions, remarking, “I didn’t mean to be intemperate.”
The search of Ms. Natanson’s home was part of an investigation into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a government contractor accused of disclosing classified information to her.
The judge had scheduled the hearing several weeks ago to consider a request by The Post and Ms. Natanson to return various electronic devices that the government seized in the search.
The seizure of those devices has raised questions about whether the Trump administration would review her data to determine sources unrelated to any leak of classified information. Ms. Natanson, who covers the federal bureaucracy, wrote last December that 1,169 officials across the executive branch had contacted her during the first year of President Trump’s second term.
Mr. Dibblee expressed confidence in government protocols for filtering information from seized devices and ensuring that materials irrelevant to the case at hand do not reach investigators.
Simon Latcovich, a lawyer representing The Post, argued that the government’s seizure of Ms. Natanson’s devices amounted to having “commandeered the entirety” of her “professional life.”
But the hearing diverted into tense exchanges over the Privacy Protection Act. The Trump administration apparently decided that the 1980 law did not bar the search, because it concluded for itself that Ms. Natanson had probably violated the Espionage Act, which bars the unauthorized retention and dissemination of national security secrets.
That theory also raises an untested First Amendment issue: whether it is constitutional to criminalize ordinary news-gathering activity. The government has never charged a traditional reporter under the Espionage Act.
Mr. Kromberg, who was involved in the investigation of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, cited past cases in defending the department’s actions.
The one previous known instance in which the Justice Department sought a search warrant for reporting material as part of a classified leak investigation involved reading a Fox News reporter’s emails in his Google account in 2010. The department’s application materials in that case alerted the judge to the Privacy Protection Act.
When the search came to light in 2013, it was treated as a scandal across party lines. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued a rule barring investigators from portraying reporters as criminals to circumvent the Privacy Protection Act’s ban, unless they intended to bring charges. Last year, Attorney General Pam Bondi rescinded it.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
10) A Fatal ICE Shooting Occurred in Texas Months Before Renee Good’s Killing
A 23-year-old American was shot last March in South Padre Island. ICE’s involvement in the shooting was not disclosed until this week.
By Pooja Salhotra and Edgar Sandoval, Feb. 20, 2026
Months before Renee Good’s killing at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis set off nationwide protests, a federal officer shot and killed another American citizen in his car in South Texas, according to internal reports made public this week.
The victim, Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot multiple times in South Padre Island by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after he did not follow commands to exit his vehicle, according to internal ICE documents reviewed by The New York Times. ICE’s connection to the shooting was first reported by Newsweek this week.
The episode, which occurred around 12:40 a.m. on March 15, 2025, was reported by local media at the time as a shooting carried out by a law enforcement officer. It was not clear which agency was involved until the internal incident reports were made public this week.
The documents did not name the officers involved in the encounter, but the description of the victim matched that of Mr. Martinez. Charles Stam, a lawyer for the Martinez family, confirmed that his client was the victim mentioned in the ICE report.
Mr. Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, described her son as a hard-working young man who did not have a history of confronting law enforcement officials. In a phone interview, she said that her son was celebrating his birthday in South Padre Island with a friend he had known since elementary school when he was killed, five days after he turned 23. Ms. Reyes said her son worked at an Amazon warehouse in San Antonio.
“He was a good kid. He doesn’t have a criminal history,” she said, adding: “He never got in trouble. He was never violent.”
The ICE documents state that Homeland Security Investigation agents from Harlingen, Texas, were helping the South Padre Island Police Department control traffic near a car accident when a blue Ford approached the area.
Mr. Martinez initially did not follow officers’ instructions but eventually slowed to a stop after receiving verbal commands. Agents surrounded the vehicle and told him to get out of the car before Mr. Martinez accelerated and hit a federal agent who landed on the roof of the car, according to the documents. Another agent then fired multiple times through the driver’s side window. Mr. Martinez was transported to a hospital in Brownsville and later died.
When asked about Mr. Martinez's killing, the Department of Homeland Security described the shooting as an act of self-defense, saying the agent had “fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public” after the driver “ran over” a Homeland Security Investigation special agent.
The agent who was hit by Mr. Martinez’s vehicle was released from the hospital after he was treated for a knee injury, according to the incident report.
In the more recent killings in Minneapolis of Ms. Good and Alex Pretti, another U.S. citizen who was also killed by an immigration agent, official accounts were later challenged by videos recorded by bystanders. No footage of Mr. Martinez’s killing has surfaced.
In a statement, Mr. Stam and Alex Stamm, another lawyer for the family, said that eyewitness accounts were not consistent with the government’s report and called for accountability.
“It is critical that there is a full and fair investigation into why H.S.I. was present at the scene of a traffic collision and why a federal officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen as he was trying to comply with instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic,” they said.
Ms. Reyes also said she disagreed with the government’s description of her son.
“What they’re saying is different from what they told the family, so that’s adding insult to injury,” she said, without elaborating. “They are making it sound different. I don’t appreciate their language.”
Mr. Martinez is at least the third U.S. citizen who was shot and killed by federal immigration officers since the start of President Trump’s second term. His presidency has been marked by a significant push to maximize deportations.
Ms. Good, a Minneapolis mother, was killed in her car by masked federal agents on Jan. 7, and Mr. Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was killed on a South Minneapolis street on Jan. 24 during a surge of immigration agents in the Twin Cities. Bystander videos of both killings circulated quickly and helped fuel protests across the country.
Since September, federal agents have fired at vehicles at least 10 times in six different cities. Two of the shootings were fatal.
An immigration enforcement agent is supposed to use deadly force only if the officer “has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury,” according to the Homeland Security Department’s policy. The policy also states that officers should avoid placing themselves in positions in which they have no other option but to use deadly force.
The shooting of Mr. Martinez is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, a state agency that reviews shootings involving law enforcement officers and oversees border security for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Sheridan Nolen, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said in an email on Friday that the investigation was ongoing, but declined to provide any additional information.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the city of South Padre Island directed questions about the shooting to the Texas Rangers. The statement confirmed that an officer involved shooting “by an outside agency” took place on March 15 while officers were responding to a traffic accident.
One incident report in the ICE documents indicated that the driver had appeared intoxicated or impaired. It also said that the passenger, whose identity is unknown, also appeared intoxicated or impaired and was arrested by the South Padre Island police. The police did not respond to requests for comment.
According to Ms. Reyes, the information in the ICE documents is different from what the family was initially told, though she declined to provide further details.
“Since Ruben’s death a year ago, all we have wanted is justice for him, and we have struggled with the silence surrounding his killing,” Ms. Reyes said in a statement sent by her lawyers. “Now, the country is in crisis and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have.”
Emma Schartz and Alexandra Berzon contributed reporting. Georgia Gee contributed research.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
11) Dozens of U.S. Planes Are at Jordan Base, Satellite Images and Flight Data Show
At least 60 attack aircraft are parked at the base, which has become a key hub for U.S. military planning for possible strikes on Iran.
By Riley Mellen, Christoph Koettl and Eric Schmitt, Published Feb. 20, 2026, Updated Feb. 21, 2026
New satellite imagery and flight tracking data show a base in central Jordan has become a key hub for the U.S. military’s planning for possible strikes on Iran.
Imagery captured on Friday shows more than 60 attack aircraft parked at the base, known as Muwaffaq Salti, roughly tripling the number of jets that are normally there. And at least 68 cargo planes have landed at the base since Sunday, according to flight tracking data. More fighter jets could be parked under shelters.
The satellite images also show more modern aircraft, including F-35 stealth jets, compared to the aircraft normally seen there. Several drones and helicopters are also seen.
Soldiers also installed new air defenses to protect the base from incoming Iranian missiles.
Jordanian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said that the American planes and equipment are deployed there as part of a defense agreement with the United States.
The changes at the base in Jordan are part of a large U.S. military buildup across the region, which comes amid negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. On Friday, President Trump told reporters he was considering a limited military strike to pressure Iran into a deal.
The Jordanian officials said they hoped negotiations between the United States and Iran lead to an agreement that would prevent war in the region. Over the past month, officials from Jordan — as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — praised the talks and said they barred attacks on Iran from their soil.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
11) What Exactly Is a ‘Concentration Camp’?
By Jamelle Bouie, Opinion Columnist, Feb. 21, 2026
Jesse Rieser for The New York Times
For the past month or so, I’ve been writing about the abysmal conditions in ICE detention centers. Last week, I argued that you could use the term “concentration camp” to describe the system the Trump administration is using to seize and detain immigrants, legal or otherwise.
Both to expand on that point and to bring in a broader perspective, I spoke to Andrea Pitzer, author of “One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.” Pitzer also tackled this question of identification in a recent piece for her newsletter, “Degenerate Art.” As we spoke about her argument, we tried to place the White House’s relentless drive to expand immigration detention in a larger context.
Our conversation covers quite a bit of ground. If, in particular, you want to learn more about the United States’ 19th and 20th century imperial expansion, let me recommend two books, both by journalists. The first, by Spencer Ackerman, is “Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump.” And the second, by Jonathan Katz, is “Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire.”
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Hi, Andrea. First, could you introduce yourself?
My name is Andrea Pitzer, and I am a journalist as well as the author of a few books. I think probably the most important one in this moment is “One Long Night, A Global History of Concentration Camps.”
You recently wrote an essay for your newsletter called “What Counts as a ‘Concentration Camp’?,” in relation to the use of the term to describe the ICE detention facilities. What prompted you to write this particular piece?
I think there is a lot of concern that I see from different communities, certainly from the Jewish community in the U.S. and abroad, that when people start trying to compare the Holocaust to anything, they’re doing so out of antisemitism. It is a natural response to say, “Wait, wait, wait” — are you diminishing this historical event in some way? And my point is always: absolutely not.
If there is a plain of concentration camps over 130 years in the world on six continents, Auschwitz is this tower that kind of looms above all of them. So, it is critical that we keep that in mind because that shows us where it’s possible for humanity to go. My work has been about, “How did we get to that point and how do we keep from returning to it?”
Now, we are really directly replicating a bunch of that history. And I think it’s become more and more important that we use that term to just to really bring information and educate people about how closely we are following history.
So let’s talk about that history for a moment. When does the concentration camp emerge as a technique for how governments manage populations?
One thing that’s important to get out of the way up front is that without centuries of colonialism and imperial rule, particularly the British and the Spanish, a lot of it in the Americas, but also in Africa and Asia, you don’t get to modern concentration camps. Native American genocide also relates to similar kinds of displacement and detention. But the modern concentration camp, for the purposes of my book, starts in the 1890s. And it only becomes possible due to the invention, mass production and patenting of barbed wire and automatic weapons. So suddenly you can hold a lot of people with a very small guard force.
That starts with Spanish rule in Cuba in the 1890s, putting down insurrection and very quickly appears again in South Africa with the British during the Second Boer War, where they’re rounding up civilians. And that’s a critical thing to say about who is getting held in these kinds of camps. These are not prisoner of war camps. It’s the mass detention of civilians without due process on the basis of identities — political, religious, racial, ethnic. And almost always it is done to expand or entrench political power.
When do Americans enter this story?
Unfortunately, the United States does it very early in the history of these modern camps. We see it in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. Ironically, and this is something that’s been lost to history, but I go into in my book quite a bit, the reason that America backed that war against Spain in 1898 was because of the images of these earliest concentration camps that they had been presented with. Americans were horrified with what Spain was doing in Cuba and that provided a lot of impetus for the war.
We won that war very quickly. We took over the Philippines. I’m condensing a lot of history here, obviously. This is a very simple version of it. But after some question of whether we had promised the Philippines their independence, we did not give them their independence. And we wound up with an insurrection on our hands as an imperial power. And we immediately, after denouncing concentration camps as something that, for example, President William McKinley said would lead to nothing but “the wilderness and the grave,” the U.S., in fact, installed those camps in the Philippines to put down that rebellion. So it was a very quick turn.
This is a bit of a sidebar, but the Philippine war and the Philippine occupation, the Spanish-American War, are this kind of blank spot in popular memory, right? I bring this up because with the occupation of Iraq, the American experience in the Philippines was brought in to contextualize kind of some of what the United States is doing in the Middle East. These are not the first American experiences with this form of occupation. I think it’s useful to consider, right, how the American experience in the Philippines is again coming back to us in the use of concentration camps.
I do think there’s something really important to say about that, which is people never want to think that the camps they’re doing, that their country is doing, are like those other camps. That’s something I found across the board, across a whole 130 years. As soon as there was one system to compare to the next, as soon as they were comparing the Boer system to the Spanish system in Cuba, people said, no, our camps aren’t like that. These are actually bad people. But if you bake a cake with the same ingredients, you don’t have to have the same recipe exactly, right? You’re going to get something similar.
So in the period you’re talking about in the Middle East with U.S. actions, we see a pre-emptive war, right? It was not a necessary war. It was a war of choice. And you see waterboarding, right? Very specific tactics. You see this same kind of detention. You see torture. You know, Gitmo rose out of that same phenomenon as well. So you see this proto-concentration camp that is between domestic soil and foreign soil. It’s slowly being brought into the U.S.
I think there is this feeling of recognition, right? Oh, wait, we know what this constellation of things is. And it approaches a concentration camp society. We’ve been on this road for some time.
To fast forward to the present, and looking at the administration’s current detention policies, how much of this is truly unique to the Trump administration? How much of it is an outgrowth of American detention policies on the southern border?
It is, of course, both. And that’s an important thing that I’ve been trying to write a lot about. It’s in my book, but I’ve been emphasizing it even more with the second Trump administration because concentration camps are not just a thing that shows up like an alien ship and lands, right? It has to grow out of something in this society.
What are the things in U.S. society that will allow this kind of detention, this mass detention of civilians to take root? The answer is twofold, I would say. It is that we have an extremely carceral state in which local police departments have all of this equipment of war brought over from the very conflicts we were talking about. It is a weirdly militarized, highly violent society where we already lock people up. That’s one important piece of it.
The other important piece of it is that across U.S. history, what is the flashpoint in our society? In Germany, it was Jews that had been vilified for centuries, right? That’s the point where they could have this cultural wedge. What is it in the United States? It is who gets to actually be American. And I mean that in terms of citizenship, but I also mean it in some broader terms as well, right? So from the beginning, Native Americans are not considered Americans. Chattel slavery, we literally are litigating whether Africans brought to the U.S. for chattel slavery are going to count as human. And then with Japanese American internment, which I do frame as a concentration camp system during World War II, the majority of those people were actually U.S. citizens, right? But they were not allowed to actually be citizens in that moment. So who gets excluded that way?
These questions of who is a foreigner, who is an outsider, and who is a citizen have gone to the heart of our country from the beginning. And that’s why I think we see immigrants being focused on today. There’s a tremendous hatred movement that’s actively being pushed against trans people right now in the U.S., but it doesn’t have as long or deep a history in the U.S. culture and in the U.S. rhetoric of, you know, deliberate propaganda and polarization. And so the reason immigrants are the people being locked up right now is because of these deep historical fissures.
What Trump is doing that is new is he is externalizing that violence, right? That stuff that was kind of hidden before. Trump is seizing the tools that he’s been left. And he and his allies are working together to do the purging of people of color. The purging of anyone that’s deemed the outsider or the foreigner. It has been weaponized into this much, much more dangerous state. And with the number of detention beds in terms of expansions and the warehousing, the potential for this, we’re really looking at stuff on the scale of the concentration camp systems that most people have heard of. The earlier years, pre-death camp, it’s important to say, Nazi concentration camp system, we are very much mimicking that. And if they get all the beds that they have funding for, we’ll be starting to approach the Soviet gulag as well.
Can you tease out that distinction between the “concentration camp” and the “death camp?”
So Auschwitz and a handful of other death camps were expressly built as part of what was termed the “final solution.” And it was for the mass extermination of targeted populations, particularly Jewish communities and Jews that were rounded up and shipped there deliberately for extermination.
But before that, for almost a decade, the Nazis had opened and run their concentration camp system. And I don’t want to say, death camps were really bad and concentration camps weren’t. It was all terrible. But those camps were not deliberately aimed at mass extermination as quickly as possible to remove people from the planet. They were seen to re-educate people. They were to punish people. They were to hide people. The concentration camp tendency, as I define it, is this impulse politically to remove groups of people from society for various reasons.
When the Nazis took power, they were not necessarily imagining the death camps. They were not necessarily imagining Auschwitz. But it was after having these other camps in place for many years that you then see the doors open to worse possibilities.
Yes, you have this line in your recent piece that “Concentration camps are a process, one that can be interrupted at the beginning but less easily further along, and often only at dreadful cost.”
What I would say to people is that if a concentration camp is a process, how do you know if you’re in it? It is less immediately the instant conditions of detention, because sometimes detention can start out a little more neutral in terms of daily life and the kind of abuses that are there. But always, always, always concentration camps are an end run around the existing legal system. These people that are getting rounded up because whoever’s in power wants to do something that they can’t do using the letter of the law. And anytime you create or expand that kind of detention — and again, we already had some of that before Trump came to office, we’ve got to be clear about it — but when you expand that, when you lean into it, things always get worse in there because it does not have the same kind of oversight.
The very definition of what it is means a lot is going to happen in secret. A lot of it is not going to be accounted for. And we are looking at even more of this lack of accountability, this lack of transparency, with the warehouse-ification. The warehouse-ification will allow people to be more isolated. And I think that the conditions we’ve already been hearing of lack of food, lack of clean water, lack of medical access, lack of hygiene, sexual assaults, beatings, one homicide’s already been declared, other deaths, those are going to get exponentially worse.
I want to return to a point you made earlier because it is so critical, which is that the purpose of these facilities is to do things that you cannot do in the open. This perspective extends to other aspects of the government’s authority, like the use of masked agents, who are masked because they don’t want the legal and political accountability that comes with being identifiable.
Yeah, so it isn’t just that concentration camps are a process, it is that concentration camps are part of a larger thing that happens, right? They’re very visibly and violently getting people off the streets. That’s not hiding it. And the point isn’t that they hide it. The point is to instill terror on the society as a whole, right? To particularly terrorize one group and then to make the rest of the community that’s not currently targeted feel like “I better lay low because I don’t want to be on their radar.”
So the terror side of that on the streets is scaring people very visibly and very publicly. But the terror side of that in the camps is you don’t know what’s happening in there and you don’t want to go there, do you? And so it’s so you can have that secrecy and that public performance of violence both be part of what’s going on. They’re both part of a concentration camp society. And the goal is always to use one group as an example of what can happen to everybody. But first, you have to target that group that people will tolerate being harmed. And for far too long in the U.S., we have actively as an economy and as a country pulled in immigrants, right, while still punishing them.
The answer in the long run is going to have to be, if we’re going to undo the concentration camp society, it has to be that nobody gets that end-run treatment, that nobody gets that performative cruelty on the streets, or that illicit detention in which they are outside the protection of the law. And I think more people are seeing that now that it’s right in front of their faces. But with all the talk of small reforms, I really hope that we, and we do have a few politicians, but I hope we’ll have even more who keep their eye on the big picture, which is in the end, this is going to have to get undone. So you can call it abolish, you can call it dismantle, you can call it whatever, but our existing immigration system is a funnel to create a concentration camp society. We have to change that somehow.
This gets to what I wanted to end on, which is that it is easy for people to think, oh, we can elect, put the political opposition into office after the next midterm elections and impose some accountability. But in terms of actually reversing or dismantling what we’re experiencing — and taking away the tools altogether — it does seem like what ultimately is necessary is a fundamental re-envisioning of just what we want the relationship of immigration to be to the United States.
I think that it’s easy to say that, right? And it’s harder to do it. And one thing we haven’t talked much about here that I’ll just throw one word in that’s really critical is you don’t get to a concentration camp society without years and years of sustained, active propaganda. And so I think we’re going to have to really look at how propaganda functions in the U.S. and its role right now and what’s happening and how we can and how we can press back against that.
But in addition to that, the elections this November are, I think, critical. At the same time, I think we as people can’t wait for those elections to happen. And we can’t assume that they’re going to resolve everything because the natural tendency for anybody just psychologically is to want things to kind of feel normal. And so I think that that’s why we need some leadership staking big visions. And if they don’t do it, then we the people have to do it.
Forty-six percent of Americans were on the record in a recent poll saying they supported abolishing ICE. Like if you can’t seize the public momentum for the reaction to this, then we need better politicians who can, because I think there is a tremendous desire to see something different. And I think that it’s possible to do it. There’s real possibility to make these changes in a way that I will say I have not seen in the other countries that I have looked at around the globe across this time. Because there is still so much individual freedom to act, we have a lot of potential to make those changes. But assuming that we don’t have to actively do it would be a huge mistake.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
