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The Trump administration is escalating its attack on Cuba, cutting off the island’s access to oil in a deliberate attempt to induce famine and mass suffering. This is collective punishment, plain and simple.
In response, we’re releasing a public Call to Conscience, already signed by influential public figures, elected officials, artists, and organizations—including 22 members of the New York City Council, Kal Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, 50501, Movement for Black Lives, The People’s Forum, IFCO Pastors for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, and many others—demanding an end to this brutal policy.
The letter is open for everyone to sign. Add your name today. Cutting off energy to an island nation is not policy—it is a tactic of starvation.
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VIDEO:
What Cubans Really Think About Trump
By Jeff Seal, May 28, 2026
Mr. Seal is a comedian and a visual journalist.
Born in rural Ohio, Howard Keylor attended a one-room country schoolhouse. He became a member of the National Honor Society when he graduated from Marietta High School.
After enlisting in the U.S. Army, Howard fought in the Pacific Theater in World War Two, during which he participated in the Battle of Okinawa as a Corporal. The 96th U.S. Army Division, which Howard trained with, had casualty rates above 50%. The incompetence and racism of the military command, the destruction of the capital city of Naha and the deliberate killings of tens of thousands of Okinawan civil-ians – a third of the population - made Howard a committed anti-imperialist, anti-militarist and anti-racist for the rest of his life.
Upon returning to the United States, Howard enrolled in the College of the Pacific, but dropped out to support Filipino agricultural workers in the 1948 asparagus strike, working with legendary labor leader Larry Itliong. He became a longshore worker in Stockton in 1953. As a member of the Communist Party, Howard and his wife, Evangeline, were attacked in the HUAC (McCarthy) hearings in San Francisco. Later, Howard transferred to ILWU Local 10. In 1971 he, along with Brothers Herb Mills, Leo Robinson and a ma-jority of Local 10’s members, opposed the proposed 1971 contract which codified the 9.43 steadyman sys-tem. This led to the longshore strike of 1971-1972, which shut down 56 West Coast ports and lasted 130 days. It was the longest strike in the ILWU’s history.
In Local 10 Brother Keylor was a member of the Militant Caucus, a class struggle rank-and-file group which published a regular newsletter, the “Longshore Militant”. He later left the Militant Caucus and pub-lished a separate newsletter on his own, the “Militant Longshoreman.” Howard advocated deliberate defi-ance of the “slave-labor” Taft-Hartley law through illegal secondary boycotts and pickets. Running on an open class-struggle program which called for breaking with the Democratic and Republican Parties, form-ing a worker’s government, expropriating the capitalists without compensation and creating a planned economy, Howard won election to the Executive Board of Local 10 for twelve years.
The Militant Caucus was involved in organizing protests and boycotts of military cargo bound for the military dictatorship in Chile in 1975 and 1978 and again in 1980 to the military dictatorship in El Sal-vador. The Caucus also participated in ILWU Local 6’s strike at KNC Glass in Union City, during which a mass picket line physically defeated police and scabs, winning a contract for a workforce composed pri-marily of Mexican-American immigrants.
In 1984, Brother Keylor made the motion, amended by Brother Leo Robinson, which led to the elev-en-day longshore boycott of South African cargo on the Nedlloyd Kimberley. In 1986, Howard again partici-pated in the Campaign Against Apartheid’s community picket line against the Nedlloyd Kemba. When Nel-son Mandela spoke at the Oakland Coliseum in 1990 after his release from prison, he credited Local 10 with re-igniting the anti-Apartheid movement in the Bay Area.
Other actions Brother Howard initiated, organized or participated in included the 1995-98 struggle of the Liverpool dockworkers; the 1999 coastwide shutdown and march of 25,000 in San Francisco to de-mand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal; the 2000 Charleston longshore union campaign; the 2008 May Day anti-imperialist war shutdown of all West Coast ports; the shutdown of Northern California ports in pro-test of the murder of Oscar Grant; the blockades of Israeli ships to protest the war on Gaza in 2010 and 2014; the 2011 ILWU struggle against the grain monopolies in Longview; Occupy Oakland’s march of 40,000 to the Port of Oakland, and countless other militant job actions and protests. Throughout his life, Brother Keylor always extended solidarity where it was needed. He fought racist police murders and fas-cist terror, defended abortion clinics, and fought for survivors of psychiatric abuse. Having grown up in Appalachia, he has always been an environmentalist, and helped shut down a Monsanto facility in Davis in 2012, as well as fighting pesticide use and deforestation in the East Bay.
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Petition to Force Amazon to Cut ICE Contracts!
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
Amazon Labor Union
Over 600,000 messages have already been sent directly to Amazon board members demanding one thing: Amazon must stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE and DHS rely on the data infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. Their campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon.
But workers and communities have real power when we act collectively. That’s why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine. Help us reach 1 million messages and force Amazon to act by signing our petition with The Labor Force today:
Tell Amazon: End contracts with ICE!
On Cyber Monday 2025, Amazon workers rallied outside of Amazon’s NYC headquarters to demand that Amazon stop fueling mass deportations through Amazon Web Services’ contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE cannot operate without corporate backing; its campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon. Mega-corporations may appear untouchable, but they are not. Anti-authoritarian movements have long understood that repression is sustained by a network of institutional enablers and when those enablers are disrupted, state violence weakens. Workers and communities have real power when they act collectively. That is why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its most commonly used cloud platform. DHS and ICE cannot wage their attack on immigrants without the critical data infrastructure that Amazon Web Services provide, allowing the agencies to collect, analyze, and store the massive amounts of data they need to do their dirty work. Without the power of AWS, ICE would not be able to track and target people at its current scale.
ICE and DHS use Amazon Web Services to collect and store massive amounts of purchased data on immigrants and their friends and family–everything from biometric data, DMV data, cellphone records, and more. And through its contracts with Palantir, DHS is able to scour regional, local, state, and federal databases and analyze and store this data on AWS. All of this information is ultimately used to target immigrants and other members of our communities.
No corporation should profit from oppression and abuse. Yet Amazon is raking in tens of millions of dollars to fuel DHS and ICE, while grossly exploiting its own workers. Can you sign our petition today, demanding that Amazon stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with DHS and ICE, now?
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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 Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity CampaignAn appeal for financial supportMay 12, 2026 Dear Friends of the Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign, It has been more than two years since Boris Kagarlitsky began serving the five-year sentence meted out to him by a Russian military court as a way of silencing and punishing him for his opposition to Putin’s war on Ukraine. With a multitude of longstanding friends and colleagues throughout the world, Boris is one of the best-known victims of the steadily escalating political repression in Russia. He has borne the gross injustice of his incarceration with characteristic courage, determination and defiance. But there is no denying that Putin’s gulag takes a toll on even the most valiant spirits. The Boris Kagarlitsky Solidarity Campaign has worked continuously these last two years to draw attention to Boris’s plight, and by extension to that of other prisoners unjustly condemned for protesting the ongoing war that has already cost upwards of half a million lives and vastly more maimed, according to estimates. We have sought, through a variety of activities, to bring pressure to bear on the Russian authorities to free Boris. The many people involved in the Campaign are happy to volunteer their time. However, we rely on the generosity of the Campaign’s supporters to cover the periodic expenses we incur. We recently reached out for help to defray costs associated with the participation of Boris’ daughter and tireless advocate for Russian political prisoners, Kseniia Kagarlitskya, in the international antifascist conference in Porto Alegre at the end of March. That trip was a great success. It allowed Kseniia and Mikhail Lobanov, Russian mathematician, political activist, and former associate professor at Moscow State University, to introduce the thousands of conference-goers from Brazil and across the world to the grim realities confronting Russian political dissidents. The Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Committee has many plans in store for the coming months and especially the fall, including a virtual conference devoted to the global manifestations of political repression. We are appealing to you for a little financial help to carry out our projects and support the day-to-day ongoing work of the committee. We would be deeply appreciative of any assistance you can provide. Because the members of the Campaign coordinating committee are scattered across Europe, North America and beyond, it has been a little complicated to set up a campaign bank account, although we are making progress on that front. For the time being we are asking that you send any contributions you can manage directly to our de facto treasurer Suzi Weissman who is located in Los Angeles, California. The details of her account are: Bank: Wells Fargo Swift/Bic: PNBPUS6L Account holder: Susan Claudia Weissman Account number: 0657205076 International wire transfers: WFBIUS6S wise.com personal account: @susanclaudiaw We thank you in anticipation of any contribution you can make to help keep the Campaign running. Yours in solidarity, Dick Nichols Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) Mexican Officials Have Become Informants for the Trump Administration
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has pushed back against U.S. investigations into Mexican politicians. Now some politicians want to cooperate.
By Steve Fisher, Jack Nicas and Alan Feuer, June 27, 2026
Steve Fisher and Jack Nicas reported from Mexico City, and Alan Feuer from New York.
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, seen here at the Supreme Court of Justice in Mexico last year, has objected to U.S. investigations into officials from her political party. Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times
As the Trump administration ramps up its investigations into Mexico’s government, elected officials in the country’s governing party have been quietly offering themselves to U.S. authorities as informants against fellow party members, according to eight people involved in the conversations.
The discussions have come in the weeks since the United States indicted 10 current and former Mexican officials, charging them with colluding with one of the nation’s most powerful drug cartels. In turn, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has made challenging those investigations a rallying cry for her leftist political party, Morena, denouncing the indictments as foreign interference.
But behind the scenes, the conversations between some of her party members and U.S. authorities could hand the United States critical momentum at a delicate time in U.S.-Mexico relations, escalating the standoff between the two countries.
At least a dozen elected officials in Mexico — including governors and members of Congress, many from the governing party — have reached out to discuss sharing information about fellow politicians, multiple people said, and several have already begun talks with the United States.
Many of the officials are seeking to get ahead of investigations that they fear could soon focus on them, the people said.
The sudden wave of cooperation was in part set off by a Drug Enforcement Administration initiative to privately contact Mexican officials in hopes of persuading them to talk, according to three people familiar with the efforts.
More than a dozen people spoke to The New York Times for this article on the condition of anonymity to discuss the D.E.A.’s efforts and the confidential talks between the U.S. government and Mexican officials.
The D.E.A. and Mexican government declined to comment.
Mexican politicians aiding U.S. investigations into their colleagues is a deeply worrying sign for Mexico’s dominant political party and its leader, Ms. Sheinbaum. It signals that U.S. corruption investigations are gaining speed, just as Ms. Sheinbaum has made opposing them a central bet of her presidency.
If U.S. investigators are able to persuade enough Morena politicians to act as informants, it could start a cascade of cooperating witnesses and indictments that would threaten to weaken the party. After a series of election losses by leftist parties across Latin America, Morena is the most important one still in power outside of Brazil.
Some Mexican analysts have predicted that the Trump administration’s investigations could give the governing party an issue to unify around. But the fact that some politicians are looking to cooperate with the U.S. investigations, despite Ms. Sheinbaum’s resistance to them, indicates fissures within the party.
“The closing of ranks that the president is calling for from above is not being matched from below,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a prominent Mexican political analyst. “Because some people within the system, instead of standing with the president, are rushing to the United States to save their own skin.”
Ms. Sheinbaum has often been regarded as a model for how to handle President Trump, but she is now stuck in a tightening predicament that illustrates the challenges for Latin America’s leftist leaders. Mr. Trump, who holds enormous sway over her country’s fortunes, wants her to turn over her political allies, while the left wing of her party, which provides her base of support, wants her to stand up to Mr. Trump.
She has opted to side with her party in recent weeks, refusing U.S. demands to arrest Rubén Rocha Moya, the Morena governor of Sinaloa state, after U.S. prosecutors charged him with protecting his state’s powerful cartel in exchange for help winning an election.
Ms. Sheinbaum has said that U.S. investigators have presented no evidence to warrant his arrest and that the demand represents meddling in Mexico’s affairs. She has also said that Mexican prosecutors would open their own investigations into the accused officials. But Ms. Sheinbaum has repeatedly accused the Trump administration of playing politics.
“Is there really a legitimate interest in fighting organized crime?” she said in a fiery speech last month. “Or are we maybe seeing how parts of the American far right are using our country to position themselves ahead of their 2026 elections?”
“We are no longer talking about cooperation,” she added, “we are talking about interference.”
Ms. Sheinbaum’s defiant stance has divided her cabinet between more pragmatist officials who push for more cooperation with Washington, and colleagues farther to the left who say the Trump administration is setting a dangerous precedent by prosecuting a sitting Mexican governor, according to two people familiar with the internal debate.
The United States is by far Mexico’s biggest trading partner, and the two countries are immersed in negotiations over an expiring trade deal. Mr. Trump has also threatened military action in Mexico to combat the cartels, which Ms. Sheinbaum has repeatedly rejected.
The Morena officials now cooperating in the investigations add to a growing roster of high-level Mexican informants who have given U.S. authorities a remarkably rich picture of the inner workings of the cartels and their nexus with Mexican politicians, according to four people with direct knowledge of the talks with informants, including lawyers and former U.S. law enforcement officials.
Two of the 10 Mexican officials indicted in April are now in U.S. custody, with one of them turning himself in at the U.S. border. U.S. prosecutors have been getting information from two imprisoned cartel leaders — sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo — who pleaded guilty last year to drug charges. And over the past 18 months, Ms. Sheinbaum’s government has sent to the United States 92 Mexican cartel operatives, several of whom have begun talking to U.S. authorities, according to the four people with direct knowledge of the discussions.
They said those who have provided information include top lieutenants to El Chapo’s sons, one of their senior pilots and one of their top advisers.
One of the main areas of questioning in those interrogations has been how the cartels corrupted Mexican officials, the people said. U.S. officials have said rooting out corruption is key to solving Mexico’s cartel problem, and last month, a top Justice Department official urged federal prosecutors to prioritize corruption investigations in Mexico, even instructing them to use terrorism statutes in their cases.
Derek Maltz, the former acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that the cooperating Morena officials and the bank of drug traffickers now in U.S. custody increase the likelihood that U.S. authorities are building major cases.
“I’m very confident there will be some high-level indictments coming,” he said.
Overall, Ms. Sheinbaum has built a positive relationship with the Trump administration, in large part by increasing Mexican military presence along the U.S.-Mexico border and significantly expanding security cooperation between the two countries. Mexican authorities, working in part off U.S. intelligence, recently killed Mexico’s top drug kingpin, Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho.
Ms. Sheinbaum’s government has also reported a decrease in violent crime nationwide. According to government data, homicides from January to May dropped by 63 percent, from the same period two years prior.
But going after politicians is far more politically complicated for Ms. Sheinbaum. Some targets of U.S. investigations are not only members of her party, but also close allies of her predecessor and political benefactor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who remains a larger-than-life figure in Mexican politics.
Critics have long accused Mr. López Obrador and some of his children, who have been Morena officials, of corruption. U.S. officials even examined those claims though never opened a formal investigation.
But this week, those accusations were revived by leaked excerpts from an upcoming book by the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar. In the book, Mr. Salazar wrote that he understood from a mutual contact that Mr. López Obrador was worried about the U.S. capture of a cartel leader in 2024 because of what information the criminal might hand over. Mr. Salazar later said he had no direct evidence that Mr. López Obrador had connections to cartels.
Mr. López Obrador and his sons have denied any ties to cartels. And Ms. Sheinbaum defended her predecessor this week, saying that if he had any concerns about that 2024 operation, it was about “interference and a violation of Mexico’s sovereignty.”
Two targets of the U.S. corruption investigations are the Morena governors of Sonora and Tamaulipas states, Alfonso Durazo and Américo Villarreal Anaya, according to five people familiar with the investigations who were not authorized to speak publicly. The governors have denied corruption accusations.
Mr. Durazo “has carried out public service with strict adherence to the law” and has not been notified that he is under investigation, his spokeswoman, Paloma Terán, said in a statement.
Mr. López Obrador is allied with both, picking Mr. Durazo as his security minister and publicly backing Mr. Villarreal when he faced claims of corruption in 2022, which he denied.
The investigations into the governors were previously reported by The Los Angeles Times.
This week, the Mexican news outlet El Universal published a leaked audio of another governor, Marina del Pilar, of Baja California state, that revealed her scheduling a meeting with U.S. authorities.
“I’m very willing because I want to resolve this and clarify anything, but I’d really like it to be through my lawyer,” she said in the three-minute clip.
Ms. del Pilar confirmed the authenticity of the recording, adding that the meeting was related to her revoked U.S. visa but that it never occurred. She also said she has a clear conscience: “The supposed shady agreements with the United States authorities are a total lie.”
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting from Mexico City.
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2) Trump Cut a Billion-Dollar Mining Deal. His Sons Stand to Profit.
An agreement between the U.S. and Kazakhstan has given a group of American investors with ties to the president and the commerce secretary access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten.
By Paul Sonne and Eric Lipton, June 28, 2026
Paul Sonne reported from Unrek, Karaganda and Astana in Kazakhstan, and Eric Lipton from Washington.
“…Mr. Trump and his team won an agreement from the Kazakh leader to give a little-known American company access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, a metal that the United States desperately needs for the production of missile warheads, fighter jets, computer chips and other critical goods. Ahead of the deal, the Trump administration approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing for the American company, now called Kaz Resources, which plans to break ground on the project in rural Kazakhstan.”
When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Kazakhstan’s president at the St. Regis Hotel last September in New York, President Trump jumped in by phone as the men sealed a deal on a top priority for Washington.
During the call, Mr. Trump and his team won an agreement from the Kazakh leader to give a little-known American company access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, a metal that the United States desperately needs for the production of missile warheads, fighter jets, computer chips and other critical goods.
Ahead of the deal, the Trump administration approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing for the American company, now called Kaz Resources, which plans to break ground on the project in rural Kazakhstan.
It was not only Mr. Trump and Mr. Lutnick who saw an opportunity.
Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.
Within weeks of the St. Regis negotiations, investors with a firm called Dominari Securities, which is housed at Trump Tower in New York and partly owned by the president’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, joined with other partners to take a 20 percent stake in a corporate entity related to the Kazakhstan project.
Around the same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment company controlled by Mr. Lutnick’s family and overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped one of the lead investors working with Dominari on the Kazakh deal raise $210 million in new capital for a related entity. Such rounds of fund-raising typically net Cantor millions of dollars in fees.
The Kazakh deal was ultimately signed on Nov. 6, six days after the investment involving the Trump sons and their partners, which was not publicly disclosed at the time.
The arrangement is hardly an outlier. One or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies that are actively working with the federal government on critical mining deals, including the Kazakhstan project, according to federal filings examined by The New York Times.
All 14 of these companies have either benefited directly from offers of financial assistance from the Trump administration, or have pending permit applications before the Commerce Department, which Mr. Lutnick oversees, The Times found. The total amount of federal funding that the Trump administration has provided or is considering providing to the companies exceeds $8.9 billion, according to public statements by the companies and federal government.
This emboldened mixing of federal policymaking and personal business began shortly after Mr. Trump returned to office last year, when the Trump and Lutnick sons played a role in billions of dollars of cryptocurrency deals as the fathers helped set policies that supercharged the crypto industry.
Now, the families’ ethically tangled pursuit of profits is extending to the new arms race for critical minerals.
These kinds of deals are a warning sign, said Representative Maxine Dexter of Oregon, the top Democrat on the House panel that investigates accusations of wrongdoing in the mining industry.
“Congress needs to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being used in the public’s interest and not to benefit family members or those closely tied with the Trump administration,” Ms. Dexter said in an interview.
The White House and the Commerce Department, in separate statements, rejected any suggestion that the Trump administration was improperly mixing government actions with family business.
“The only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people,” Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in a statement to The Times. “Securing and reshoring America’s critical supply chains has been a top priority for President Trump, and Secretary Lutnick along with the rest of the administration continue to take historic action to safeguard America’s national and economic security.”
The White House and the Commerce Department, in separate statements, rejected any suggestion that the Trump administration was improperly mixing government actions with family business.
“The only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people,” Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in a statement to The Times. “Securing and reshoring America’s critical supply chains has been a top priority for President Trump, and Secretary Lutnick along with the rest of the administration continue to take historic action to safeguard America’s national and economic security.”
Central Asia’s Promise
Past the herds of free-roaming horses, the abandoned skeleton of a Soviet worker village and the rolling hills of a verdant Kazakh steppe are the giant water-filled craters at the center of the U.S. deal.
Here, outside the village of Unrek, population 407, the little lakes mark the places where the Soviet Union dug holes to prospect for tungsten.
With its exceptional hardness, density and high melting point, tungsten became known as the “war metal,” with key uses in munitions, aviation and weapons.
The Soviet Union’s collapse interrupted its plans for new mines in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. Tungsten mining in the United States also petered out, with the last operating U.S. mine, in Utah, ceasing production about a decade ago.
China came to dominate the global tungsten trade. But as Mr. Trump was returning to the White House, Beijing began restricting tungsten and other critical mineral exports, sending the benchmark price for the metal outside China surging sixfold in the past year.
Mr. Trump and his aides responded by pushing through, with the help of Congress, a giant wave of federal funding to bankroll a new generation of U.S. mining firms.
Since Mr. Trump returned to office, the federal government has given conditional or final approval to 60 critical minerals projects worldwide backed by $18.6 billion in federal loans, loan guarantees or other financing, according to a count in May by BMO Capital Markets, a leading bank in the sector. That is the largest amount in U.S. history, a bank executive said.
The Pentagon and the Export-Import Bank, where Mr. Lutnick sits on the board, are among the federal agencies bankrolling the push. The moves have created a modern-day gold rush in the critical minerals industry, as start-ups seek to get a chunk of the federal largess.
For example, Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at another investment firm that last summer took a stake in a tiny start-up mining company called Vulcan Elements. Months later, the company signed a nearly $700 million deal with the federal government to help finance the expansion of its production in North Carolina.
“The level of activity compared to, say, 2023 is like night and day,” said Max Yerrill, a BMO vice president. “It has been one of the hottest sectors.”
For Kazakh officials, such deals offer their landlocked nation a new calling card in foreign affairs and an entree with Mr. Trump.
The country can produce and process 25 of the 60 commodities on the U.S. critical minerals list, according to Olzhas Alibekov, a top official at Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Construction.
“Kazakhstan is positioning itself as an important player in the global rare and rare earth metals market,” said Nurlan Zhakupov, the chief executive of the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund, which owns the state mining company that is partnering with Kaz Resources on the tungsten project.
That project will require a huge investment, which Mr. Althaus estimates will total about $650 million initially and $1.1 billion over the life of the project. According to his firm’s own calculations, the tungsten there might be worth as much as $80 billion.
His company could not make the project happen by itself. He needed the U.S. government to cut a deal with Kazakhstan at the highest levels, and to pledge financing to make the math work. In return, the United States could get access to an estimated 12,000 metric tons of tungsten a year, about as much as is now imported annually.
A New York Deal
At the St. Regis Hotel that day in September 2025, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan was in the middle of a speed-dating-like procession of meetings with executives from corporate giants like Citigroup, Amazon and Chevron.
Among Mr. Tokayev’s corporate guests was Mr. Althaus, who was there to push Kazakhstan to approve the mining project. Mr. Lutnick had his own audience with the Kazakh president at the hotel that day.
“You have great critical minerals that we can invest in together,” the commerce secretary told Mr. Tokayev, according to a recording of parts of the meeting that the Kazakh leader posted on social media.
Mr. Lutnick had made a number of moves over several months to help push along the deal.
He sent a letter last year to Mr. Tokayev urging the country to give the contract to Mr. Althaus and his financial backers, telling them that the Trump administration “fully supports” the company (then known as Cove Kaz) in its efforts.
The Export-Import Bank and a second federal agency where Mr. Lutnick is also on the board, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, each issued letters of interest last summer to provide Mr. Althaus’s firm with tentative financing for the project. Those loans together could be worth as much as $1.6 billion.
By the time of the St. Regis meeting, Mr. Lutnick was closing in on securing Mr. Tokayev’s agreement for the deal. That is when Mr. Trump called in.
“President Trump, Secretary Lutnick and Secretary Rubio all personally got involved,” said Mr. Althaus, who did not attend the closed-door meeting. “President Trump did the final negotiation with President Tokayev for this deal.”
Chinese bidders were also looking to get access to the Kazakh tungsten site, which is one reason Mr. Althaus needed help from the U.S. government.
The final signing took place on Nov. 6, during a high-profile summit in Washington, where Mr. Trump welcomed the five leaders of Central Asia and highlighted his interest in their critical minerals.
Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Althaus’s firm now owns 70 percent of the venture, and the Kazakh state mining company will own 30 percent.
Investors involved in the Kazakh deal have several different business plans slated to benefit from Trump administration support — and that also do business with Cantor Fitzgerald.
This month, for example, the Trump administration committed to provide up to $1.6 billion in financial support to USA Rare Earth, the other mining company Mr. Althaus founded and in which he remains a shareholder.
That deal gives the Commerce Department 16 million shares of the company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald separately earned millions of dollars in fees by helping USA Rare Earth in a series of deals since last year that ultimately raised $1.5 billion for the company.
Cantor Fitzgerald, which Mr. Lutnick ran before he became commerce secretary, has long had a division that helps mining companies raise capital. But it has seen a surge in its business helping to launch or finance mining companies, especially those benefiting from Trump administration support.
Democrats in Congress have called for an investigation into the proposed Commerce Department stake in USA Rare Earth. They told Mr. Lutnick in a letter that it was “the latest example of how official Commerce Department business has intersected with Cantor Fitzgerald’s financial interests during your tenure.”
Even some Trump administration officials directly involved in the effort — who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter — said they were disappointed to see the links between the Lutnick and Trump families and the projects the government has proposed to help finance.
A Cantor spokesman, in a statement to The Times, said the company’s executives were not involved in discussions related to government funding on behalf of their mining industry clients.
“Cantor is a natural partner for companies raising capital to meet the growing demand for critical minerals,” said the spokesman, Stan Neve.
In a statement, the Commerce Department said that neither Mr. Lutnick nor anyone at the department had “interacted with or had any discussions whatsoever with Cantor Fitzgerald regarding the rare earth minerals industry.” It noted that Mr. Lutnick had sold his ownership stake in Cantor.
A Trump Stake
The Trump brothers’ ties to the Kazakhstan deal started at their father’s tower on Fifth Avenue in New York.
That is where Dominari Securities, a small financial services firm, had set up its offices after Mr. Trump’s first stint in the White House ended.
Such proximity to the Trump Organization’s headquarters afforded Dominari executives the chance to form friendships — and then business relationships — with Mr. Trump’s sons.
“That’s how the relationship started and developed,” Allan Evans, one of Dominari’s business partners, said in an interview.
After Mr. Trump returned to the White House, Dominari hired Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as paid advisers, giving them stock now worth about $7 million, representing about 10 percent of the company’s total shares. The firm launched an explicit effort to invest in companies aligned with the president’s agenda, ranging from military drones to critical minerals.
To carry out the Kazakh tungsten investment, Dominari relied on the sort of complex corporate maneuvering that is a hallmark of its deals.
First, Dominari partnered with Paul E. Mann, a British investor and entrepreneur who more recently has also been looking to get into the critical minerals sector.
Using a subsidiary of Mr. Mann’s nuclear energy company, ASP Isotopes, the group of investors last summer bought a controlling amount of shares in a failing road construction firm called Skyline Builders. That might seem like an odd move, but they did so for a reason — Skyline is listed on the Nasdaq exchange. So the ASP subsidiary now controlled a publicly traded company.
Dominari and the Trump sons joined this effort through what is known as a Special Purpose Vehicle, which took a stake in Skyline, as was first reported by The Financial Times. The Trump sons have a second small interest in the deal, through an investment they made directly in the ASP subsidiary late last year, according to Mr. Mann.
In late September, the Trump administration secured the verbal agreement from the Kazakh government for the tungsten rights.
That set their move into play.
In October, Cantor Fitzgerald helped raise $210 million for ASP Isotopes.
By Oct. 31, Skyline, now controlled by ASP, took a 20 percent stake in Mr. Althaus’s Kazakhstan-focused corporate entity, for $20 million. The former road building company was suddenly in the mining business.
Six days later, the final deal with the Kazakh government was signed in Washington by Mr. Lutnick.
Mr. Mann, in an interview, insisted the money that Cantor raised for ASP Isotopes was not used in the mining deal. Nevertheless, Cantor — the investment firm overseen by Mr. Lutnick’s sons — was fund-raising for Mr. Mann’s company at the same time that its subsidiary was preparing to invest in a deal that Mr. Lutnick was negotiating as commerce secretary.
In December, Mr. Mann approached Mr. Althaus with a proposal for a maneuver known as a “reverse merger,” which would replace Skyline Builders on the Nasdaq exchange with a new entity known as Kaz Resources, Mr. Althaus said. The merger, which will essentially take the mining operation public, was announced in April.
The listing will allow investors to profit on the Kazakhstan project by trading its stock before any tungsten comes out of the ground. U.S. government backing of such projects often pushes up the stock price, making money for early-stage investors who exit at the right time.
As part of the merger, Skyline agreed to make about $50 million available for the Kazakh project beyond the original $20 million investment, Mr. Althaus said.
Mr. Althaus said he needed the money from the merger to begin work on the Kazakhstan project. The merger still requires U.S. regulatory approval to close.
Dominari did not respond to requests to comment.
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. said in separate statements that they were not involved in the specifics of the deal, with Eric Trump writing that he “has always been a passive investor with absolutely no management role.”
Mr. Mann confirmed that Mr. Trump’s sons have a financial interest in the deal. But he said he had not spoken to them, or anyone in the Trump family, about it.
“When you look at it, take a step back here, there’s no conflict of interest here,” Mr. Mann said. “And it’s certainly in the United States government’s best interest to want to do this deal.”
He also said he did not pick Cantor to raise money for his company because Mr. Lutnick is commerce secretary.
“Of course not,” he said, adding, “Should Cantor exclude themselves from all deals in the mining sector? That’s unfair on Cantor.”
Moving Toward Production
So far, none of the $1.6 billion in U.S. government financial support for the Kazakh mining project has come through, as it is subject to additional approvals, a Trump administration official said. Mr. Althaus’s firm is undertaking a final feasibility study that will be reviewed.
That does not mean that no one has made money.
Federal filings suggest that both Cantor Fitzgerald (run by the Lutnicks) and Dominari Securities (partly owned by the Trumps) have earned fees for their work. They were both paid for their services helping executives involved in the series of transactions to raise new capital.
Mr. Althaus said he was now focused on moving the project toward production, which he hopes will begin by 2030, though there is pressure to speed up the timeline.
“If we had a door to knock on, so to speak, we would have,” he said. “We did this the hard way through advocacy.”
Kitty Bennett, Oleg Matsnev and Alina Lobzina contributed research.
Since the start of President Trump’s second term, The New York Times has been documenting examples of moves by members of Mr. Trump’s family or the families of top aides to profit off of Trump administration policy actions. The Times has already documented such moves in the worlds of cryptocurrency and military contracting. Today, we dive deeply into a similar pattern playing out as the United States, backed with billions of dollars in Trump-era federal funding, is pushing to expand the supply of critical metals for the Pentagon and American manufacturers. As the Trump administration has pursued this agenda, the president’s sons and an investment bank run by the sons of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have also been looked for ways to profit from the critical metals frenzy.
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3) Kazakhstan’s Leader Deepens U.S. Ties, Saying Trump Was ‘Sent by Heaven’
The Central Asian nation is aggressively courting President Trump’s Washington to counterbalance its powerful neighbors, Russia and China.
By Paul Sonne, Reporting from Astana, Kazakhstan, June 28, 2026
“In Washington, Mr. Trump has dispensed with America’s traditional talk of human rights and democracy in connection with foreign policy. He has instead embraced a mercantilist approach, judging countries like Kazakhstan by what deals they can offer. A top priority has been securing access to Kazakhstan’s large supply of critical minerals and ensuring that they can be exported via the Middle Corridor, a route that crosses the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus to avoid Russia.”
Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
The skyline of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, is a physical reflection of the Central Asian nation’s approach to foreign affairs.
A sign reading “Moscow” sits atop a Kazakh-Russian business center. Beside it is a pagoda-crowned luxury hotel owned by the Chinese state oil company. Nearby is a gleaming hotel tower and shopping mall, emblazoned with the American brand Ritz-Carlton.
And they all exist in the shadow of Abu Dhabi Plaza, the city’s biggest skyscraper, developed by a real estate firm from the United Arab Emirates.
It is the product of what Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, calls a “multivector” foreign policy.
In pursuit of greater independence and security, Mr. Tokayev’s landlocked nation of 21 million people, bordered by Russia and China, has tried to counterbalance the neighboring superpowers by inviting investment from countries farther afield. They include the United States; European nations like the Netherlands and Switzerland; South Korea; Turkey; and several in the Middle East.
A desire to emulate the Gulf states is palpable at the headquarters of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk Kazyna, which is named for a magical bird from Kazakh folklore that lays a golden egg atop the Tree of Life. Kazakhstan’s tightly controlled political system, its multinational quest for investment and its natural-resource-fueled development offer parallels to nations like the U.A.E. and Qatar.
“We are driven by a pragmatic approach,” Nurlan Zhakupov, the head of the fund, said in an interview atop a skyscraper overlooking a newly built part of Astana. “If we see merit in working with the U.S., the E.U., a Chinese, Russian, Korean, German, Emirati or whatever company, we assess it on a relative performance basis and we choose what is the best for us.”
Lately, there has been a particular focus on the United States.
Kazakhstan is a junior partner to Russia in a NATO-like military alliance and a European Union-like trade bloc. But that hasn’t stopped its leaders from aggressively courting Washington under President Trump, prompting a slew of business deals, a series of high-level meetings and a frenzy of engagement with American companies.
In response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Central Asian governments have drawn closer together as a bloc, while welcoming Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy. They are seeking opportunities to reduce their reliance on Moscow, even as they tread lightly so as not to cross the Kremlin or antagonize China.
“For the business relationship, it has never been better,” said Jeff Erlich, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kazakhstan, who has worked in and around the region since the late 1990s. “In my experience, that is clear.”
In Washington, Mr. Trump has dispensed with America’s traditional talk of human rights and democracy in connection with foreign policy. He has instead embraced a mercantilist approach, judging countries like Kazakhstan by what deals they can offer. A top priority has been securing access to Kazakhstan’s large supply of critical minerals and ensuring that they can be exported via the Middle Corridor, a route that crosses the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus to avoid Russia.
Mr. Tokayev’s authoritarian ways — he recently changed Kazakhstan’s Constitution to strengthen his power — once hindered his country’s relationship with the United States. But under the second Trump administration, which dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development programs working on human rights issues in Kazakhstan, such concerns are no longer an irritant for Washington.
The Kazakh leader has joined Mr. Trump’s Board of Peace. He signed up to the Abraham Accords even though Kazakhstan already had diplomatic relations with Israel. And he led a high-level delegation of Central Asian leaders to Washington last year, during which the Kazakh state mining firm signed a tungsten deal with a U.S. company that was later revealed to be backed by Mr. Trump’s sons.
It was just one of 29 pacts that Kazakhstan signed with U.S. companies, worth over $17 billion. They included a deal with Amazon’s Leo satellite internet service and an agreement with Nvidia, the U.S. chipmaker, and Firebird, an American cloud computing company, to build an A.I. data hub. Kazakhstan also agreed to a $4.2 billion deal to buy 300 rail cars from the American firm Wabtec.
During the trip to Washington, Mr. Tokayev proclaimed that Mr. Trump had been “sent by heaven.”
Leaning too aggressively into the relationship with Mr. Trump could carry risks for Kazakhstan if the political winds change in Washington. Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, while campaigning for re-election, has said that if Democrats take power in Congress, people will be questioned under oath about the involvement of Mr. Trump’s sons in the Kazakh tungsten deal.
Some Western investors have worried that Russian and Chinese leverage over Kazakhstan could jeopardize supplies of critical resources to Western nations, should Moscow or Beijing decide to intervene. But so far, Kazakhstan been a reliable supplier, even as relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated over Ukraine.
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4) U.S. and Iran Trade Attacks With Few Signs of De-escalation
President Trump and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards exchanged threats and U.S. allies in the Gulf said they had intercepted Iranian drones, as hostilities entered a fourth day.
By Aaron Boxerman, Euan Ward, Yan Zhuang and John Ismay, June 28, 2026
Iran and the United States traded new attacks and threats on Sunday, the fourth straight day of hostilities, with little sign of a de-escalation that would get their two-week-old cease-fire back on track.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement carried by Iranian state media that it had targeted a U.S. naval base in Bahrain and the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait in retaliation for American attacks.
The governments of Kuwait and Bahrain said the attacks had not caused any casualties. There were also no reports of American casualties or of major impact or damage to U.S. assets, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations.
But the persistent attacks further eroded hopes for a speedy return to normalcy in the Middle East after the initial truce that the United States and Iran agreed to this month.
The new hostilities began on Thursday, when Iran fired attack drones at a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials. American forces responded with a wave of attacks on Friday, prompting drone strikes on Saturday on another ship and on Bahrain, a U.S. ally, that were widely blamed on Iran.
Iranian officials have not claimed responsibility for attacking ships in the strait, which Tehran was supposed to fully reopen as part of the cease-fire. But the attack came hours after Iran had warned ships that they could only travel through its waters; many had been using an alternate route along the coast of nearby Oman.
Iran argues that the agreement gives it substantial authority to control the waterway, which has served as a key source of Iranian leverage in the negotiations with the United States.
The U.S. military said that its latest attacks had hit air-defense sites and other military infrastructure. Iran’s state broadcaster reported explosions in three cities near the strait, and a U.S. official said that the U.S. airstrikes were more expansive than the previous day’s.
The United States and Iran have ramped up their rhetoric in recent days, accusing each other of violating the cease-fire. While both seem to be testing each other’s red lines and making threats, analysts say, neither seems eager to return to a full-blown war.
On Saturday, President Trump said in a bellicose message on social media that the United States would annihilate Iran if it were forced to return to war. The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Sunday that American bases in the region “will be experiencing hell during these days.”
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5) Venezuela Government Accused of Politicizing Quake Relief
Critics say the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, is trying to exploit the tragedy for her political benefit. Her supporters accuse the opposition of doing the same.
By Frances Robles, June 28, 2026
The Venezuelan opposition party led by the exiled former legislator and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado mobilized volunteers throughout the nation last week to collect donations for homeless earthquake survivors, but it encountered an unexpected obstacle: the National Police.
On Thursday, Heidy Loicett, a leader of the opposition party, Vente, stood under a blue tarp on a sidewalk in Portuguesa, a state some 275 miles from the disaster zone, as people came by with a variety of items like diapers, bottled water and used clothing. The police came by, too, she said.
Several Venezuelan National Police officers and officials from the federal Civil Protection agency tried to shut down the charity drive, she explained in a telephone interview after the encounter, adding that she was told that all donations had to be channeled through the federal government.
“They said we couldn’t have a donation center, that the only authorized donation drop-off center was Civil Protection and the government,” Ms. Loicett said. “That was political persecution.”
The clash over who gets to take credit for the humanitarian relief effort for the earthquake-shattered nation highlights a much larger, high-stakes battle for political survival in a fractured Venezuela.
Last week Venezuela suffered two devastating earthquakes that killed more than 1,400 people, just six months after the U.S. military raided the country and seized the country’s former leader, Nicolás Maduro. Critics say they fear that Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, will politicize the tragedy, using the disaster response to establish her legitimacy at a critical inflection point.
Ms. Rodríguez’s government, which did not respond to requests for comment, has said the authorities are trying to impose order and keep areas and roads hit by the earthquakes clear so relief convoys and emergency responders can do their work unimpeded.
It is also a general rule of politics that opposition figures are quick to highlight any failures of the governing party.
Ms. Rodríguez had been vice president before the United States captured Mr. Maduro and said it was going to run the country, elevating her to the top job. Her tenure depends on the Trump administration’s approval, and her management of this crisis is also a key moment for President Trump.
White House officials have said the alliance with Ms. Rodríguez was meant to stabilize Venezuela and help revive its battered economy. The disaster is likely to put that relationship to a severe test.
Experts say that tightening control over aid and stifling the opposition’s grass-roots relief efforts is a page out of a decades-old authoritarian playbook. Ms. Rodríguez, they say, is gambling that international crisis management can mask the state’s internal decay and secure her hold on power.
That strategy was on full display in a widely circulated video in which a police officer appears to tell volunteers where the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, the ruling government party, had authorized donation drop-offs. Donation centers set up by the opposition in other cities were told that they could not display signs reading “Donation Center,” because those words could be used only by the government’s authorized drop-off sites, political activists said.
“They told us we could not use the words ‘donation center,’ like if they had trademarked those words,” said María Oropeza, a Vente party official. “It is inevitable that they will try to use this tragedy at their favor to stay in power.”
Party officials said the police backed off after crowds started gathering and taking videos. The volunteers took down the offending signs, and the drive continued.
Volunteers from the opposition planned to try to make deliveries to the earthquake zone over the weekend, but the authorities announced that civilians without authorization would be prohibited from entering La Guaira, the hardest-hit coastal area.
Government officials said the rush of volunteers in the disaster zone was blocking traffic, which was critical for the movement of heavy machinery.
“Those who do not have rescue or security duties in La Guaira state should please refrain from traveling there, as you are obstructing the movement of personnel needed for our military, police, Civil Protection, firefighters and rescue workers to reach the disaster zone,” Ms. Rodríguez said. “These are critical hours.”
She called for unity in the time of crisis, and has welcomed a number of international search and rescue delegations, including from the right-wing governments of El Salvador and Argentina.
Ms. Rodríguez’s decision to accept help from political adversaries underscored a delicate balance of projecting an image of effective disaster management while scoring political points before potential elections, said Pablo Quintero, a political consultant, who said he works mostly with the opposition in Venezuela.
“In the face of catastrophes, governments act based on political interests,” he said. “In this case, the Chavista government is acting to gain greater prominence, to demonstrate its management capacity to the international community, and in some way to send a message to the population that they have managed to unify the country.”
But Ms. Machado is acting in her own interests too, he said.
“María Corina Machado has a political agenda,” he said. “And the objective reality is that her media operatives are running a campaign to demonstrate the government’s incompetence.”
Ms. Machado was said to be trying to go back to Venezuela, which frustrated some U.S. officials, who considered a return in the wake of an emergency to be a “political stunt,” The Times reported Saturday.
A spokesman for Ms. Machado said she was not available for comment.
Ms. Rodríguez, as Mr. Maduro’s vice president in charge of the economy, was part of a repressive government that stole a presidential election in 2024.
After the U.S. raid in January that removed Mr. Maduro but allowed Ms. Rodríguez to stay on as interim leader, the Trump administration said Venezuela would eventually move toward elections and a restoration of democracy. The disaster engulfing Venezuela could delay such a transition, experts said.
“It’s hard to imagine that Delcy won’t use the earthquakes to delay discussions of a democratic transition; some of that is certainly legitimate in the face of such an overwhelming humanitarian emergency,” said Cynthia Arnson, an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
But it may not work out as she hopes, Ms. Arnson said.
“The political effects of natural disasters are often severe,” she said. “Weeks or a few short months after the immediate emergency, the quakes are likely to magnify the incapacity of the government to meet basic needs, let alone undertake any kind of reconstruction.”
Widespread corruption of international aid sent after a 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua was among the events that led to the unraveling of a dictatorship led by Anastasio Somoza Debayle. An earthquake in Mexico City in 1985 helped lead to the end of one-party rule there more than a decade later.
Benigno Alarcón, the former director of the Center of Government and Political Studies at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, said there was “no doubt” that Ms. Rodríguez would try to capitalize on the catastrophe — and she would not be the first.
He said many Venezuelans still recall the 1999 mudslides that occurred in the quake zone — including La Guaira — when the ruling party’s former leader, Hugo Chávez, refused to accept humanitarian assistance from the United States military.
“Remember that these are not new people in power,” he said. “These people in the government have been in government for a long time.”
Ms. Rodríguez and Ms. Machado would hardly be the first to politicize natural disaster recovery, said Brian Naranjo, a former top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela. He cited the words of the liberator, Simon Bolivar, amid the political machinations following a catastrophic earthquake in 1812 in Venezuela.
“If nature opposes us,” Mr. Bolívar said, “we shall fight nature and make it obey.”
Sheyla Urdaneta contributed reporting.
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6) U.S. Officials Said to Be Frustrated With Machado’s Call for Help
María Corina Machado, the exiled leader of the Venezuelan opposition, hopes to go home. U.S. officials say her wishes to do so come at an inopportune time.
By Tyler Pager, Reporting from Washington, Published June 27, 2026, Updated June 28, 2026
Civilians searching for survivors in a collapsed residential building in La Guaira, Venezuela, on Thursday. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
U.S. officials say they are frustrated with María Corina Machado, the exiled Venezuelan opposition leader, for requesting help facilitating her return to Venezuela in the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes, according to two White House officials.
They said Ms. Machado’s multiple requests were ill-timed, and one official called them a “political stunt.” The United States, as well as dozens of other countries, has been focused on giving aid to Venezuela on Saturday.
At least 1,400 people died from the two earthquakes as of Saturday, and rescue teams from around the world have been trying to help find survivors. U.S. officials said they would take a leading role in the response, including dispatching rescue teams from around the country and deploying a naval ship to provide medical support.
Ms. Machado has wanted to return to Venezuela for months. White House officials said they supported her desire to do so, but they made clear that they did not want her to travel back to the country in the immediate future.
She left Venezuela in December in a risky operation to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, which she then gave to President Trump. After U.S. forces captured Nicolas Maduro, the country’s leader, in January, Ms. Machado wanted to return to Venezuela, but Mr. Trump and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, advised her against that.
In a meeting at the White House in March, the U.S. leaders said they were worried about her safety as they prioritized working with Delcy Rodriguez, the acting president of Venezuela, and the interim government.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Machado did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Julie Turkewitz contributed reporting.
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7) If These Celebrities Are Democracy’s Last Hope, We’re in Trouble
By Molly Jong-Fast, June 28, 2026
Ms. Jong-Fast is a contributing Opinion writer.
During Donald Trump’s first term, it was trendy, and even lucrative, to stand up to him, so much so that Mr. Trump often felt less like a president than a punchline.
It clearly got to the thin-skinned president, who wants to be the hugest, most adored celebrity in the world. But this time around, I’ve watched many of our most public voices face consequences that once seemed unthinkable.
I’ve texted with the journalist Don Lemon after he spent a night in jail. I’ve witnessed “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” on which some of the funniest people I know have worked, be brought to an unnatural end. The crown jewel of television journalism, “60 Minutes,” has all but imploded in the face of allegations of politically motivated interference.
This is what a less-free America looks like.
It’s true that Mr. Trump has had a bad couple of weeks, what with his green Reflecting Pool and his embarrassing loss in a war that he started. But if you want a sure sign that he still has an iron grip on this country, look no further than the way some of this country’s most prominent celebrities — who once had no problem denouncing Mr. Trump — have fallen silent.
Last year, Selena Gomez, a grandchild of undocumented immigrants, posted a tearful Instagram story about how “all my people are getting attacked,” in reference to the administration’s immigration policy. She was swarmed with internet hate — notably from Piers Morgan and some popular, anonymous right-wing accounts — and quickly deleted her post. Political speeches aimed at the administration have been largely absent from major Hollywood awards shows, and even “Saturday Night Live” seems to have gone soft on Mr. Trump.
The once-outspoken actress Jennifer Lawrence explained her view on politics these days to The Times: “Celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. So then what am I doing? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that’s going to add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart.” Many of her peers seem to have adopted the same approach. Lately, it seems that the far-right commentator Tucker Carlson seems to be speaking up louder against Mr. Trump than any of #Resistance crowd.
I saw this dynamic at work when I stood on the red carpet before the Tony Awards this month, interviewing actors about — among many things — their political views. I could feel the fear. The celebrities I spoke to were clearly worried that the views they had advertised just a few years earlier could cause them to be on the wrong side of a MAGA internet mob or a Brendan Carr call-out or a profitable film franchise’s hiring decisions. If they mentioned politics at all, they would gingerly nibble around its edges.
Kelly Ripa talked about education. Mark Ballas, of “Dancing With the Stars” fame, told me he was “not here to talk about politics.” Some actors tried to be bold, mentioning L.G.B.T.Q. rights in particular, but they didn’t really criticize the Republicans who are attacking those rights. There was a lot of opining on freedom but not a lot of outrage directed at those who want to take that freedom away.
In a world where legacy media brands have less influence or are losing their independence, and where celebrities and influencers have more cultural power than ever before, MAGA wants liberal celebrities to be too afraid to speak up, so that Mr. Trump can be the only true star. When Mr. Trump’s authoritarianism is all but underwritten by well-liked public figures and all but ignored by others, its toxic tenets start to look like politics as usual. If Americans begin to accept as normal that it’s just too risky to speak up, then something fundamental has changed in our country, for the worse.
Celebrity resistance is sometimes mocked as trivial. After all, ordinary people, in Minneapolis especially, have found the courage to stand up against the government’s overreach. At least two — Alex Pretti and Renee Good — have died while doing so. Their actions make a speech on an awards show stage seem frivolous by comparison. Who cares what actors or pop stars think about politics?
The president does. Celebrities are the only people who can dominate the algorithm with the same power as him, making them best poised to undermine the president’s otherwise overwhelming messaging. We look to our cultural figures to show us how to fight back against the pressure to stay silent, to give us the words to say that what we’re seeing isn’t normal. When speaking up actually means risking something, for once, it is more necessary than ever.
So what would resistance from those Americans who have the most cultural power really look like? The best example I have is from my grandfather, Howard Fast. He was not only the author of “Spartacus” and “April Morning” and scores of books no one can remember, he also risked his career to stand up to Joseph McCarthy. He went from being, quite literally, the Voice of America (he was an early writer for the broadcaster) to being held in contempt of Congress and then sent to Mill Point Federal Prison in West Virginia.
You see, Grandpa was involved in a charity which raised money for refugees of the Spanish Civil War and antifascist fighters from across Europe; he refused to turn over a list of Spanish Republicans the organization had helped. Grandpa Howie was absolutely a Communist, but his political beliefs should not have been a crime. He didn’t believe that the United States government would send him to prison for them.
As he wrote in his memoir, “There were no troops of brownshirts prowling our streets, and while some people who had been close to us withdrew from us, it was never an act of hostility.” He ultimately fared much better than most of his comrades — Pablo Neruda wrote a not-very-good poem about him, and after three months, he was released from prison. He was not the only celebrity who was punished in these times — Dalton Trumbo, Ring Lardner Jr. and Albert Maltz were too. Artists were jailed and ordinary people lost their jobs.
The point of it all was that when the government overreached, he pushed back against it, believing the principles of America would in the end withstand the efforts of those who would pervert them. In doing so, he perhaps gave others the courage to do so as well. I was thinking about him toward the end of my night on the red carpet, when I was truly starting to despair. Was there really no one with courage?
Then, with a new face and the same old gleeful crankiness, Rosie O’Donnell appeared. She told me she was coming back to America to do a one-woman show, and — despite having fled to Ireland upon Mr. Trump’s election to a second term — said she’s not afraid at all. Later, she texted me, “It’s the duty of all Americans to speak out against this fascist criminal administration — free speech — use it or lose it.”
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8) How Israel and Iran Are Fracturing Both Parties in the Midterms
Raging internal debates over foreign policy threaten both parties’ fortunes in November — and in 2028. Is a major ideological shift underway?
By Patricia Mazzei and Anton Troianovski, June 29, 2026
In New York’s primaries last week, two incumbent House Democrats lost to primary challengers who had cast them as insufficiently critical of Israel. Pictured are winners Claire Valdez, far left, and Darializa Avila Chevalier, far right, at a pre-primary rally with Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Credit...Angelina Katsanis for The New York Times
Bitter foreign policy debates over Israel and Iran are fracturing the Democratic and Republican parties, creating powerful wedge issues that are reshaping the battle for control of Congress this year and could affect the 2028 presidential election.
The dispute among Democrats, in particular, has already left a lasting mark on the midterms. Israel’s growing unpopularity since the war in Gaza began nearly three years ago emerged as a dominant force last week, when two incumbent House Democrats in New York lost to primary challengers who had cast them as insufficiently critical of the U.S. ally.
And both U.S. support of Israel and the war with Iran continue to cause fissures inside the Republican Party, and particularly within President Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. Isolationists who hailed Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to avoid foreign wars say they feel betrayed by his intervention in Iran and the domestic consequence: spiking prices.
Recently, another front has emerged against the president. Now that he is negotiating with Iran, he faces backlash from hawks within the party who believe he did not achieve his goal of crippling the country’s military and nuclear capabilities, let alone end its hard-line regime.
The rifts are producing unsettling election outcomes in a critical midterm year in which control of Congress, and the fate of Mr. Trump’s agenda, are at stake. Some centrist Democrats are losing, with more at risk in upcoming races. Some Republican voters are staying home, a potential disaster for their party if the trend carries to November.
All of those dynamics are emboldening critics who want to permanently reshape their respective parties’ ideologies and policy platforms — and who are planning to take that fight to the 2028 presidential election.
The powers within both parties seem at a loss on how to handle their increasingly restive and unpredictable bases.
Democrats were especially shaken by the insurgent left’s success in New York last Tuesday. Voters nominated two democratic socialists who embraced anti-Israel positions and rhetoric.
“We’ve got to figure out a way so it doesn’t blow the party apart,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. Mr. Bennett described a Democratic “freakout” following the results on Tuesday over whether the rise of hard-left candidates would repel Jewish and moderate voters.
Republicans are experiencing divisions of their own over the party’s support for Israel. The Iran war exacerbated underlying tensions among Republicans over what “America First,” Mr. Trump’s resonant but ill-defined campaign message, means when it comes to backing Israel in conflicts in the Middle East.
“It’s much more fun, I think — for most of us who lean right or right-leaning independents — to be fighting with the left,” the podcaster Megyn Kelly told Vice President JD Vance earlier this month. “But it’s been kind of civil war-y over on the conservative team since this whole thing got launched.”
Still, Mr. Trump’s hold on his party remains dominant, with Republicans he has derided as insufficiently loyal losing their primaries. That grip has tamped down some internal party conflict.
Decisive primary outcomes
Polls show that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has radically changed attitudes among Democratic voters, who are now largely unified in sympathizing with the Palestinians. Many leading Democrats are now sharply more critical of Israel.
But the pro-Palestinian rhetoric from far-left candidates still makes some mainstream Democrats uncomfortable. Some of it, said Scott Stringer, a Democratic former New York City comptroller, amounts to “blatant antisemitism.”
“If there is a group of people who may be having temporary electoral success who believe the path forward is to use antisemitism as a wedge,” he said, “then there’s going to be a battle within the Democratic Party.”
The tensions have produced decisive primary outcomes only in states or congressional districts that are not competitive. The New York City races are likely to turn existing Democratic districts only a darker shade of blue.
The danger for establishment Democrats is for hard-left candidates to win competitive primaries and then struggle to appeal to more ideologically diverse voters in the general election, when economic issues are expected to drive voter choices.
Mr. Trump has already branded New York’s democratic socialist victors, who had the support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as “communists.”
“Donald Trump wants to portray the Democratic Party as either having been overtaken by D.S.A. or Mayor Mamdani, and that is not the case,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. The New York candidates, she added, “could not win anywhere else.”
That has not stopped them from trying. Far-left progressives are on the ballot in several states, including Colorado, Michigan and Wisconsin, trying to challenge the conventional wisdom that extremists cannot win battleground races. The left argues that it is time to try a different tack that could win over some Trump voters — a theory that will not be tested until the fall.
Democratic leaders are perhaps most worried about Michigan’s upcoming Senate primary in August, a race they believe they must win in November if they are to succeed at gaining the Senate majority.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, who has backed moderate candidates in an attempt to flip Republican-held seats, is supporting Representative Haley Stevens against Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official.
Richard Czuba, a Michigan pollster, said it would be a “huge mistake” to infer Michigan outcomes from the New York primary results. “The Michigan electorate for an August Democratic primary doesn’t look at all like a New York primary electorate,” he said, noting that Michigan voters lean older, less college educated and 30 percent Black.
Mr. Czuba also noted that, while most Democratic primary voters in the state consider Gaza an important issue, “consistently, Gaza comes in last on that list” as far as the issue that moves them to actually go vote.
In an interview, however, Dr. El-Sayed argued that Michigan voters share some of the same sentiments as New York City voters: that politicians are more interested in fund-raising from corporate donors than in making groceries, rent or homeownership more affordable.
“They are sick and tired of all of it, and they want answers,” he said on Friday. “And neither party seems to be giving it to them.”
“We make the mistake of thinking that Gaza is not a pocketbook issue,” he added. “People understand that their money is being used to kill other people.”
Declining Enthusiasm Within MAGA
Overall, Republicans still overwhelmingly support Mr. Trump, polls show. Most of his endorsed candidates have won their primaries, with a few notable exceptions in governor’s races.
And the generational divide on foreign policy is stark: 53 percent of Republican voters under 45 disapprove of Mr. Trump’s handling of the Iran war, according to a New York Times/Siena poll conducted in May, compared with the 75 percent of older Republicans who approve.
Republicans were forced to grapple with some of those questions beginning with Mr. Trump’s ascent in 2016. Over time, the party transformed into the president’s pro-tariff, anti-interventionist image, bringing into the Republican fold new voters who found those positions appealing.
That transformation made Mr. Trump’s support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his military campaign in Gaza, and even more so the Trump administration’s decision to attack Iran, hard for some MAGA voters to swallow.
On the same day that the two democratic socialists won in New York City last week, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former congresswoman and firebrand, announced that she was leaving the Republican Party because of her opposition to the Iran war. She followed the conservative media giant Tucker Carlson, who also left the party, citing the same reason.
In April, Mr. Trump lumped Ms. Kelly with Mr. Carlson, both former Fox News hosts, and other right-wing podcasters who have been critical of the Iran war, calling them “nut jobs” and “troublemakers.” But Mr. Vance’s appearance on Ms. Kelly’s popular podcast to defend the administration’s preliminary peace deal with Iran showed that the White House was attuned to the divisions over foreign policy on the right.
For Ms. Kelly and Mr. Carlson, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran represented a betrayal of Mr. Trump’s promises to avoid Middle East entanglements, and highlighted Israel’s exceptional status in American foreign policy. Even as Mr. Trump was turning away from traditional U.S. allies in Europe and Asia, he was doubling down on the partnership with Israel.
The terms of the debate switched again in the last two weeks, as the administration reached a preliminary agreement with Iran. The deal angered some of the same Republicans who had enthusiastically backed Mr. Trump’s decision to go to war in February.
Mark R. Levin, the hawkish Fox News host, called the administration’s diplomatic push with Iran “one of the most shocking flips in military and diplomatic history.”
The electoral consequences of the intraparty fight remain far from clear. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the Iran war’s loudest Republican critic in the House, lost in May to a primary challenger who was heavily backed by pro-Israel donors.
The depth of the fissures in the two parties will not become fully apparent until after the midterms, depending on how candidates representing anti-interventionist views in both parties do — and perhaps not until 2028 presidential contenders start campaigning. A presidential election, particularly in a year with no incumbent, more naturally leads to discussions about big policy questions and America’s role in the world.
“The intraparty fractures are really going to be interesting to watch,” Robert Blizzard, a Republican pollster, said. “The MAGA America First noninterventionists and progressive Democrats are not going to vote the same way on Election Day, but they’re functionally aligned.”
Robert Jimison contributed reporting.
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9) Search for Quake Survivors Presses On Even as Hopes Fade
The death toll has risen to 1,450 people, according to the Venezuelan government, but that grim figure is likely to be a dramatic undercount.
By Yan Zhuang, Isayen Herrera, Genevieve Glatsky, Fabiola Ferrero, Julie Turkewitz and Sheyla Urdaneta, June 29, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/06/29/world/venezuela-earthquake-news
The search for survivors of the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela was growing increasingly desperate as it entered its fifth day on Monday, with hopes of finding more people alive under the rubble fading as another aftershock rattled the area.
The full scale of the destruction from Wednesday’s 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes is still emerging. The death toll has risen to 1,450 people, with more than 3,000 injured and 12,000 displaced, according to the Venezuelan government, but the official number is probably a vast undercount.
The United Nations coordinator in Venezuela, Gianluca Rampolla, has said that the number of collapsed buildings suggested there were many more deaths. Doctors have said that in La Guaira (pronounced La-WHY-ra), the worst-hit state, officials are processing about 750 bodies each day.
Dozens of people gathered outside a state-run morgue in Caracas, the capital, on Sunday searching for their missing loved ones, many of whom are believed to have been in La Guaira. Power outages, blocked roads and wide devastation have made it difficult for family members to contact one other, leaving many people in a state of uncertainty amid the chaotic rescue effort.
Nonetheless, emergency workers are still digging out survivors, and President Delcy Rodríguez of Venezuela vowed that rescue operations would not stop. In the early hours of Monday, Ms. Rodríguez said a 21-year-old man was pulled from the rubble after a 43-hour rescue operation. He survived despite been trapped for 106 hours, she said.
The government, which has been criticized for not doing enough to help, and President Trump, who helped bring Ms. Rodríguez to power after U.S. forces seized the country’s longtime dictator, Nicolás Maduro, have been under increasing pressure. Late Sunday, she announced that the government would establish a commission to assess the integrity of roads and bridges and whether buildings were safe to return to.
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10) Deep Under the Rubble, Rescuers Find an 11-Year-Old Boy Alive
A Colombian rescue team worked for six hours to recover the child, Moises, from under nearly 10 feet of rubble in La Guaira. His rescue was captured on video.
By Anushka Patil, Published June 28, 2026, Updated June 29, 2026
A canine rescue unit from the Mexican army searching a damaged building in Caraballeda, Venezuela, on Friday. Juan Barreto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
With the window for finding survivors rapidly closing days after twin earthquakes devastated Venezuela, rescuers on Saturday managed a miracle: saving the life of an 11-year-old boy who was pulled from the rubble without injury.
A Colombian rescue team worked for six hours to recover the child, Moises, from under nearly 10 feet of rubble in La Guaira, the state that was hardest hit by the quakes.
“How are you? Are you next to the closet?” a worker called to him during the recovery effort. The response from his small voice was barely audible.
The people who saved Moises are among the hundreds of foreign relief workers who have flooded Venezuela to help find survivors. Time is not on their side: Experts say the first 72 hours after a disaster are the most critical for finding victims alive. Doctors who rushed to La Guaira to treat patients have instead found only body after body.
So it was against all odds that Moises was ultimately found not just alive but largely unharmed. “The way the structure collapsed created a pocket of space that sheltered him, and he sustained no injuries,” said Nelson Quintin, a rescuer and firefighter.
The search for other survivors was continuing on Sunday, carried out by civil protection teams and specially trained dogs, but also by ordinary civilians who have rushed to provide aid. The official death toll stands at 1,430 people, but the real number is believed to be far higher.
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11) The Ohio City Revived by Haitian Immigration Sees an Uncertain Future
In Springfield, Ohio, some residents see the end of an economic boom after the end of a humanitarian program for immigrants. Others see still darker possibilities.
By Miriam Jordan, June 29, 2026
Miriam Jordan reported from Springfield, Ohio. She has been reporting for two years on Haitian immigration there.
Risner, who brought his family to Springfield and bought a home, fears a bleak future in Haiti. Amy Powell for The New York Times
Haitians who arrived in Springfield, Ohio, by the thousands in recent years revived a city that had been in decline for decades.
They worked in manufacturing, distribution and the service sector, easing labor shortages and fueling economic growth. Their children starred on athletic teams and played in school concerts.
Now, Springfield faces the prospect of losing the people that powered its resurgence.
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can proceed with terminating Temporary Protected Status for more than 330,000 Haitian and 6,100 Syrians. The humanitarian program, maintained by successive administrations, had allowed recipients to live and work in the United States because their home countries were considered too perilous to risk a return.
The Trump administration has argued that the protection, granted for up to 18 months at a time, has been renewed repeatedly and turned into a de facto permanent residency program.
The court’s decision threatens to transform Springfield into ground zero for what some legal scholars are calling the first mass “de-documentation” of immigrants in modern American history. The city of 60,000 — including more than 10,000 Haitians — could become the target of a major enforcement operation.
American residents are preparing to protect Haitians, with some making plans to care for their Haitian neighbors’ native-born children and even to hide and shelter immigrants who remain.
“The Supreme Court decision is not just a tragedy for Haitians, it’s a tragedy for Springfield, Ohio,” said Carl Ruby, pastor at Central Christian Church. “We went from being one of the fastest-shrinking cities to one of the fastest-growing cities in America. This undoes all that progress.”
And, on a more prosaic level, it threatens the Springfield High School soccer team, whose co-captain was Haitian. Other Haitian students were often on the starting 11 last season, when the team had its best record in years.
“The Haitians brought skills and talents, and made our team better,” said Emerson Babian, an American player.
“If the Haitians had to leave Springfield, it would be devastating,” said the rising senior. “Skill, morale and friends would be gone.”
But the Supreme Court freed the administration’s hand with a 6–3 ruling split along ideological lines, holding that federal courts have no authority to review T.P.S. terminations by the executive branch.
The decision handed President Trump a significant victory. While the case specifically addressed Haiti and Syria, it established a precedent that would let the administration dismantle the program for nearly 1.3 million T.P.S. recipients, including those from Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan and El Salvador. Many have been in the United States for years.
Haitian migration to the United States surged after a 2010 earthquake devastated the impoverished country. It accelerated again following the 2021 assassination of its last president, which unleashed gang violence, deepened instability and pushed the state to the brink of collapse.
After initially settling in established enclaves in South Florida, Boston and New York, Haitians began dispersing in search of opportunity. Thousands moved to Springfield between 2020 and 2024.
Once an industrial powerhouse, the city between Dayton and Columbus had fallen on hard times as manufacturing migrated overseas; Springfield had shed more than a quarter of its population since the 1960s.
Equipped with work permits, thanks to their protected status, Haitians assembled car engines at Honda, operated robots at Amazon and packed salads at Dole. They were welcomed by Republican leaders and business executives who had invested millions after being lured by the city’s revitalization plan.
“These Haitians were working and contributing to our community and economy,’’ Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.
Haitians wove themselves into the fabric of the city: They filled church pews, bought new homes and renovated old ones. Their children played in high school recitals — and became soccer stars.
François, one of the starters, said that his parents sent him to the United States with an older brother in 2023 after their Port-au-Prince restaurant was ransacked by gangs.
“My friends were kidnapped,” said François, who asked to be identified by one name for fear of immigration authorities. “I hope I can stay here to study and maybe one day go back, if the situation gets better.”
Doubt began to suffuse Springfield in 2024 after the community was thrust into the rancorous national immigration debate: Mr. Trump amplified a baseless claim by his running mate, JD Vance, that Haitians there were stealing and eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.
The falsehood inflamed tensions that had already been building. At City Commission meetings, some residents denounced the newcomers in racist terms, accusing them of ruining the city and draining public services. White supremacists marched. Bomb threats closed schools and government buildings.
Throughout it all, Haitians kept a low profile. Since the Supreme Court’s decision, many have been stunned and confused, said Viles Dorsainvil, who leads a support center. Some are in denial, he said, and Christians are praying for God to intervene.
For others, including a 38-year-old immigrant named Risner, who has a young family and owns a home, the ruling has brought despair.
Risner, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of attracting official attention, has had T.P.S. since 2021. In Springfield, he found work at an auto-parts plant and saved to bring his family, who came in 2023. The next year, they bought a three-bedroom house. They also welcomed a second son, an American-born child.
The family put down roots. Risner plays the bass and his wife, Fabiola, plays the saxophone in their church band. Fabiola, a nurse in Haiti, recently passed her U.S. licensing exam.
“If I’m forced to go back to my country, I don’t have a house. I don’t have anything,” he said. “All my money, I spent here in the United States.”
Sadrac Delva, a Haitian real estate agent, said that he had closed on more than 15 homes bought by Haitians since last month, reflecting the community’s cautious optimism.
Mr. Delva, who has lived in Springfield for six years, said he had entered the country lawfully and has a pending asylum claim. His daughters, 12, 7 and 4, take swimming lessons. The eldest is learning the violin. His wife, Gerda, is a nurse at the main hospital.
They had been thinking of buying a bigger house, he said, but the T.P.S. decision was making him uneasy.
“Even I am concerned about our future here,” said Mr. Delva, whose two younger girls were born in the United States.
Several American residents said that they favored better management of immigration, but that the administration would be going too far if it began roundups.
“I understand the need for laws around immigration and border control,” said Luke Taylor, 35, a software developer. “But the Trump administration should do a serious evaluation of conditions in Haiti.”
Haitians have been here legally, Mr. Taylor added. “Many have American children.”
Ben James, 44, who has a special-needs child, said that he had seen Haitians at a family services center.
“If your protected status is up, that’s it,” he said. “But if children are going to be separated from their parents, I disagree with that. These are humans.”
Amid the uncertainty, a loose network of Springfield supporters of Haitians has sprung into action.
Central Christian Church, which started a group called G92 after the ancient Hebrew word “ger,” for stranger, organized a City Hall rally to protest the court decision on Thursday.
“We are not laying down. We have been planning for this for 18 months,” said Jen Casto, an activist who spoke at the event.
Several churches have lists of congregants willing to care for American children of Haitian parents who are detained or deported.
A rapid-response group has been formed, and members are planning to drive through the streets and alert people about immigration agents if raids occur.
A small, secret network is ready to place Haitians in the homes of vetted Americans willing to shelter people in spare bedrooms and basements — hiding them the way that another generation of Springfield residents hid people fleeing slavery in the 1850s as part of the Underground Railroad.
At St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic charity, more than 20 volunteers showed up Friday to pack boxes with rice, canned vegetables and cereal. Members of another organization, Springfield Neighbors United, delivered them to Haitian families afraid of leaving their homes.
“We don’t know if it’s going to get ugly,” said Tammy McEldowney, 67, a retired social worker who was among the volunteers.
Kevin Williams contributed reporting.
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