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We need a united, independent, democratically organized mass movement for peace, justice and equality in solidarity with similar movements worldwide if we are to survive the death agony of capitalism and its inevitable descent into fascism and barbarism before it destroys the world altogether!
—Bonnie Weinstein
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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 Kagarlitsky
We, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles.
The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested.
On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release.
The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison.
The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences.
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course.
We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally.
We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest.
Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitsky
https://freeboris.info
The petition is also available on Change.org
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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.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024
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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Updates From Kevin Cooper
A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
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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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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1) ICE Detains Family of Suspect in Colorado Attack
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency would be investigating whether Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s family had information about his alleged plot.
By Hamed Aleaziz, Reporting from Washington, June 3, 2025
Police officers near the site of the attack in Boulder, Colo. Credit...Michael Ciaglo for The New York Times
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Tuesday arrested and detained the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian man who allegedly led a terror attack Sunday in Colorado, officials said.
“Today the Department of Homeland Security and ICE are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colo., terrorist and illegal alien Mohamed Soliman into ICE custody,” the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said in a video message on social media on Tuesday.
Ms. Noem said that the agency would also be investigating what his family knew about the attack, which injured 12 people during an event in Boulder in support of the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. The suspect allegedly threw homemade Molotov cocktails into the crowd.
The State Department revoked the visas of Mr. Soliman’s wife and five children after the attack, said Tricia McLaughlin, a D.H.S. spokeswoman. ICE officials arrested them on Tuesday, she said.
The White House trumpeted the arrests on social media, saying on Tuesday afternoon that the family “could be deported by tonight.”
Mr. Soliman entered the United States in August 2022 on a tourist visa, which he later overstayed, D.H.S. officials said Monday. He applied for asylum in the fall of 2022 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but his case was still pending, officials said. During his time waiting for his case to be processed, he was able to obtain a work permit, they said.
Trump administration officials have pointed to the attack as proof of what they say were lax immigration policies during the Biden administration.
“Suicidal migration must be fully reversed,” Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said on social media Sunday.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that his agency would be targeting other foreign nationals for potential revocation of visas.
“In light of yesterday’s horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” he wrote on social media on Monday.
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2) Israeli-Backed Aid Sites in Gaza Close Temporarily After Deadly Shootings
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it was working to improve operations, a day after the Red Cross said at least 27 Palestinians were killed near a distribution center.
By Aaron Boxerman, Reporting from Jerusalem, June 4, 2025
Receiving treatment at a hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday after gunfire broke out at an aid distribution site in the area. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The contentious Israeli-backed group distributing food in Gaza closed its sites on Wednesday, a day after Palestinians trying to get supplies came under Israeli fire near one of the organization’s aid centers.
The group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said that its four centers would be shut until Thursday to work on “organization and efficiency” to better prepare for the huge numbers of Palestinians who have traveled to the sites since operations began more than a week ago.
The foundation added that Israeli troops were doing their own preparations along access roads leading to the distribution centers, without specifying what that entailed.
The Israeli military warned Palestinians not to approach the sites or the adjacent roads, saying that they were now considered “combat zones.”
The pause in operations followed days in which dozens of Palestinians trying to reach one of the foundation’s sites in the southern Gaza city of Rafah were killed after coming under fire, according to local health workers.
On Tuesday, the Red Cross and Gaza health officials said that at least 27 people had died in the second large-scale deadly shooting in recent days. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that a number of civilians had been injured and killed in an area outside the site but did not provide a number.
According to the Red Cross: “The majority of cases suffered gunshot wounds. Again, all responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site.”
The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire roughly a third of a mile from the distribution site after they identified “several suspects moving toward them” away from the Israeli-designated access route. After they failed to respond to warning shots, troops fired “near a few individual suspects,” the military said.
Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, later suggested that the casualty numbers from the incident were inflated but did not provide an alternate toll. He said the Israeli military was investigating.
On Sunday, more than 20 Palestinians were killed near an aid site, according to Gaza health officials.
The deadly incidents have further ensnarled the Israeli-backed aid effort, which has come under severe international criticism since its inception.
Hunger has become widespread in Gaza after an 80-day Israeli blockade on food, fuel, medicine and other supplies. The Israeli government began relaxing those restrictions last month and allowed some aid to enter the enclave, much of which has been destroyed during the war.
Israel has said that the new aid distribution system, with sites located in areas secured by Israeli troops and overseen mainly by U.S. contractors, would prevent the supplies from falling into the hands of Hamas. The United Nations, however, says there is no evidence that Hamas systematically diverted international aid under the previous U.N.-coordinated distribution program.
The United Nations and other aid groups have boycotted the initiative and have warned that it could endanger Palestinian civilians by forcing them to travel on foot through a war zone and past Israeli lines.
The rollout of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been chaotic. Its executive director resigned hours before the initiative was set to begin operations, and Palestinians pushed through fences at one of the sites last week, prompting Israeli troops to fire warning shots.
Huge crowds of hungry Palestinians have been arriving early each morning at the aid sites, often walking for miles in the pre-dawn darkness. Palestinian witnesses have described a violent scramble for whatever boxes of food are available.
The foundation has pushed back against much of the criticism, arguing that Hamas is trying to undermine the initiative. In a statement on Tuesday, the foundation said that more than 100,000 boxes of food had been allocated at the sites.
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3) Deadly Aid Deliveries in Gaza
Israel’s troops have repeatedly shot near food distribution sites.
By Lauren Jackson, June 4, 2025
In Jabaliya, Gaza. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times
Israel’s decision to change how food is distributed in Gaza hasn’t just been disruptive — it has been deadly.
Last week, the military empowered private, mostly American contractors to deliver aid. They began getting food to some Gazans after an Israeli blockade stopped supplies for nearly three months.
The war has decimated farmland that once grew wheat and olives, and without crops or food shipments, Gaza has become the “hungriest place on Earth,” according to the U.N. As the first cardboard boxes of food arrived, people sprinted, scaled barriers and joined surging crowds to get them. And Israeli troops stationed near the aid sites have repeatedly opened fire. Nearly 50 people have been killed and dozens wounded, according to Red Cross officials.
All of the new sites suspended operations today, and Gazans are desperate for food and water. Below, I explain what is happening and why.
A new program
For most of the war, experienced groups like the United Nations have distributed aid. It has been contentious.
Aid groups say their work has been unsafe and constrained: Israel has targeted aid convoys and facilities that it erroneously determined to be a threat and repeatedly blocked deliveries. At the same time, Israel said some aid workers had ties to Hamas. And it claimed that Hamas had diverted many of the supplies. (That couldn’t be verified by The Times, and the U.N. said it was exaggerated.)
So last week, Israel implemented a new system. It transferred the responsibility to a private group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which pays American contractors to deliver food. Israel conceived of the plan and said the process would be “neutral” and “independent,” but the group’s leader said he didn’t think that was possible, so he resigned.
A chaotic rollout
The group began operating last week after Israel lifted an 80-day blockade on aid deliveries. The contractors were quickly overwhelmed.
Hungry Palestinians have walked for miles and gathered before dawn at the distribution sites. The crowds have panicked and shoved in the dark for a chance to get one of the limited cardboard boxes of food. Israeli soldiers stationed near the sites have repeatedly opened fire. The circumstances are contested, but the Red Cross reported that at least 27 people were killed yesterday morning and at least 21 people were killed in a shooting on Sunday.
In response to one shooting, the military said the troops had fired near “a few” people who it said had strayed from the designated route to a food site and who did not respond to warning shots. The statement said these people had “posed a threat” to soldiers, though a military spokeswoman declined to explain the nature of the threat.
Israel has blocked international correspondents from reporting on the ground in Gaza, and Hamas restricts what journalists can report on within the territory. Given the conflicting accounts, “it’s hard to say with certainty how these incidents have unraveled,” Patrick Kingsley, The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, told me. “Our interviews left us with the impression that those sudden surges have alarmed Israeli soldiers, prompting them to open fire.”
Abdulrahman Odeh, 21, said he saw several bodies carted away after the shooting, but was eventually able to get a carton of aid. “There’s no system or order to receive it,” he said. “It’s survival of the fittest.”
Others weren’t able to get a box: “We go, we see dead and injured people in front of us, and we leave empty-handed,” Rasha al-Nahal, a displaced Palestinian, said. “The only thing we get from going is humiliation.”
The chaos has several causes:
Widespread hunger: Israel’s recent blockade left all of Gaza on the brink of famine, according to the U.N. “There’s enormous desperation and need,” my colleague Aaron Boxerman, a reporter in Jerusalem, said. “Finding enough food and clean water is often a daily struggle for many Gazans.” People have dug holes to get unsanitary water and ground animal feed into makeshift flour to survive. (These photos show how emaciated many children have become.)
Scarcity: There are few places to get food. The new program has announced only four distribution points; the previous, U.N.-coordinated system had 400. It’s rare that all four sites are open, and there isn’t enough food for everyone.
Military strategy: Israel says the new system is needed to stop Hamas stealing, stockpiling and selling food, all of which could help the group, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, sustain its power. The U.N. claims Israel may have another goal — displacing people from northern Gaza by concentrating aid sites in the south.
The response
The shootings come at a particularly bad time for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Even Israel’s allies have condemned its approach to delivering food. Britain, Canada and France also denounced his plans to expand the war as “disproportionate” and “egregious.”
“The bloodshed heightens international scrutiny on Prime Minister Netanyahu at a time when he faces growing foreign demands, including from President Trump, to reach a truce with Hamas,” Patrick said. “The bigger the global outcry, the greater pressure he will face to compromise in the cease-fire negotiations.”
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4) E.P.A. Workers Are Unsettled as ICE Makes Arrests in Their Building
As immigration officials ramp up a crackdown in downtown Manhattan, employees at a neighboring federal agency have been ordered not to get in the way.
By Ana Ley, June 4, 2025
Federal immigration officers in Lower Manhattan and across the nation have begun arresting migrants immediately after court hearings if they have been ordered deported or if their cases have been dismissed. Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
Officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency have admonished their workers not to interfere with arrests by immigration officers in a downtown Manhattan building where the agency has offices, underscoring tension among federal employees as President Trump escalates his crackdown on immigrants.
A spokeswoman for the E.P.A. said an email was sent on Monday to regional employees after agency workers had asked questions about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers inside the federal building at 290 Broadway, which also houses a Department of Justice immigration court.
Immigration agents in recent days have been arresting migrants after their court hearings if they have been ordered deported or if their cases have been dismissed, a tactic that represents an aggressive new approach by ICE as part of Mr. Trump’s effort to boost deportation numbers.
A union representative for workers at the E.P.A. said that some employees had been pushed out of the way in elevators and had felt threatened coming to and from work since the ICE agents started appearing in the lobby of the building.
In the memo sent on Monday by an E.P.A. security official, employees were urged to identify themselves as federal staff by wearing their work badges to “significantly reduce the likelihood of employees being engaged by law enforcement.” The memo also ordered E.P.A. employees not to hinder ICE operations.
“The advice in this note reflects our priority, which is the safety of our employees,” said Mary Mears, an E.P.A. spokeswoman.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and ICE did not respond to questions about the email. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
Suzy Englot, president of Local 3911 of the American Federation of Government Employees and an E.P.A. staff member who works in the building on Broadway, said that many workers have been unsettled by the detention activities they have witnessed in the past two weeks. Ms. Englot said that some workers have been concerned about the welfare of the migrants, while others have been worried that agents might confuse them for the people they are there to arrest.
“Several members of our union have witnessed people being detained as they exit elevators, put in handcuffs, taken away somewhere,” Ms. Englot said. “Generally, people have started to feel unsafe.”
Ben Mabie, a staff organizer for Local 98 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers who works across the street from 290 Broadway, said he had overheard security guards teasing workers about carrying their passports when they step away from their offices to use the restroom. Mr. Mabie said that employees of color had expressed concern about being targeted.
“A lot of these arrests, and sometimes tussles over arrests, are taking place right in front of where child care for the federal building takes place,” Mr. Mabie said. “These are armed agents that are literally, you know, sometimes 15, 20 feet away.”
Historically, immigration officials have avoided courthouse arrests because of concerns that they might deter people from complying with orders to appear in court. The new operations have taken place across the country during the past two weeks.
E.P.A. workers have faced a drumbeat of challenges under Mr. Trump’s presidency, and the added ICE presence has felt like another blow, Ms. Englot said.
The agency has been one of Mr. Trump’s targets in his war on the federal bureaucracy. Mr. Trump and his administration have argued that spending cuts are necessary to reduce government bloat and excessive public spending. While experts and workers acknowledge that reforms are needed in the federal work force, some believe that the administration’s tactics, including offering blanket deferred resignations to two million workers, have lacked thought, empathy or strategy.
“I think for a lot of people, this is just adding another really awful thing on top of what has already been a really tough few months,” Ms. Englot said.
She added: “And then, it’s also the worry that we all have as people who are public servants. You know, we care about other people, and we worry about what’s happening.”
Jefferson Siegel contributed reporting.
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5) Steelers send letter to fans angry about players attending Donald Trump rally: Reports
By Zach Powell, June 3, 2025
The Pittsburgh Steelers sent a letter in response to upset fans who reached out to the organization about current and former players attending a rally for President Donald Trump last Friday, according to multiple reports.
Quarterback Mason Rudolph, safety Miles Killebrew and former Steelers running back Rocky Bleier attended the president’s rally in West Mifflin, Pa., a town 11 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. The trio presented Trump with a No. 47 Steelers jersey with Trump’s name on the back, which stirred up displeasure among some fans and season-ticket holders.
In the formal letter from the Steelers, sent via email Monday, the team acknowledged the fan outrage while expressing each player’s ability to convey their own opinion, per reports.
“We understand that a recent rally in Pittsburgh has generated a range of reactions from our fan base,” the letter said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Our alumni and current players make their own individual decisions that reflect their views, and they do not necessarily represent the view of the entire Pittsburgh Steelers organization. We appreciate your passion and your continued support of the team.”
Trump first called up Bleier, a four-time Super Bowl champion with the Steelers who played 11 seasons in Pittsburgh, to the stage. He was followed by Rudolph, who received praise from Trump and attendees at the rally, before Trump announced Killebrew.
“I think he’s gonna get a big shot, he’s tall, he’s handsome, got a great arm, and I have a feeling he’s gonna be the guy,” Trump said, referring to Rudolph.
Pittsburgh’s players have a history of sharing their political views. Former wide receiver Antonio Brown and former running back Le’Veon Bell appeared at a Trump rally outside of Pittsburgh in October, citing their support for Trump weeks before Election Day.
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6) New Travel Ban Stokes Uncertainty as President Bars Citizens of 12 Countries
The order, which primarily targets countries in Africa and the Middle East, revives an effort from President Trump’s first term that led to chaos and court battles.
By Enjoli Liston, June 5, 2025
Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey last month. The travel ban prohibits citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States. Credit...Dakota Santiago for The New York Times
Citizens of 12 countries, primarily in Africa and the Middle East, grappled on Thursday with the news that President Trump had barred them from traveling to the United States, reviving a travel ban from his first term that led to chaos and legal challenges.
When the president’s order takes effect on Monday, citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will not be allowed to enter the United States. It was not immediately clear why those countries were selected.
The ban announced by Mr. Trump on Wednesday was his latest crackdown on immigration. In recent months he has ordered raids across the country to detain immigrants, blocked asylum seekers at the southern border and barred international students from Harvard University, among other steps.
Last year the State Department issued about 170,000 total visas to citizens of the 12 countries subject to the ban. The new order touches more parts of the world and could affect more people than the travel ban announced during Mr. Trump’s first term, in 2017, which targeted seven Muslim-majority countries. Two of those countries, Syria and Iraq, were not named in this order.
Here’s what else to know:
· Partial ban: Mr. Trump also imposed restrictions on travel from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, but stopped short of a full ban. Citizens of those countries cannot come to the United States permanently or get tourist or student visas.
· Colorado attack: Mr. Trump’s order came days after an Egyptian man was arrested and charged with attacking a group in Boulder, Colo., that had been honoring the hostages held in Gaza. Announcing the ban, the president said the attack “underscored the extreme dangers” posed by the entry of some foreigners. The ban does not include Egypt.
· War-torn nations: The action is an effort to stop immigration from nations that Mr. Trump claimed to have a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” among other concerns. Many of the countries subject to the ban have been wracked by conflict, while others are ruled by repressive regimes. In both cases, Mr. Trump’s proclamation closes the door on those hoping to flee to the United States to build new lives.
· Some exceptions: Among those exempted from the travel ban are green card holders, dual citizens, refugees who have already been granted asylum in the United States, and athletes and coaches, and their families, who are traveling for major sports events.
· Legal challenges: The newly announced ban is more likely to withstand legal challenges than the first because the administration has learned lessons from the litigation against that effort, legal experts said.
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7) Rights groups, but few world leaders, race to condemn the travel ban.
By Amelia Nierenberg, June 5, 2025
Protesting Trump’s immigration ban at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in 2017. Credit...Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York Times
In 2017, when President Trump tried to ban citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days, global leaders denounced the move and Americans hurried to airports to protest.
But on Thursday, the morning after Mr. Trump targeted people from a dozen countries in a new ban, the immediate reaction was muted. Some leading rights groups condemned the move on social media, but few governments had a quick and decisive response to share.
“President Trump’s new travel ban is discriminatory, racist and downright cruel,” Amnesty International USA wrote on social media. “By targeting people based on their nationality, this ban only spreads disinformation and hate.”
“This ban disproportionately targets Muslim-majority nations and undermines the United States’ foundational principles of equality under the law,” Human Rights First said in a statement, noting the harm it could do to Afghans who helped the United States during the war there.
Abby Maxman, president and chief executive of Oxfam America, said in a statement that the ban “marks a chilling return to fear, discrimination and division.” She added: “This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the U.S.”
Shawn Paik contributed reporting.
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8) Judge Orders Trump Administration to Take Steps to Give Due Process to Deported Migrants
The judge also said the men, expelled under the Alien Enemies Act, were likely to prevail in their claims that they had been treated unfairly, deported with no chance to contest their removals.
By Alan Feuer. June 4, 2025
Judge James E. Boasberg compared the expelled men to characters in a Kafka novel. Credit...Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg
A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to take steps toward giving nearly 140 Venezuelan immigrants who were deported to El Salvador in March under a rarely invoked wartime law the due process that they had been denied.
In a sweeping and at times outraged opinion, the judge, James E. Boasberg, compared the expelled men to characters in a Kafka novel. Judge Boasberg also asserted that they were likely to prevail in their claims that President Trump had treated them unfairly by deporting them without hearings to a brutal Salvadoran prison under the expansive powers of the wartime statute, known as the Alien Enemies Act.
Judge Boasberg did not weigh in on the question of whether Mr. Trump had invoked the act lawfully when he expelled the men, who are accused of being members of the street gang Tren de Aragua, to the prison in El Salvador on March 15. He simply asserted that the White House had stripped them of their rights by not allowing them to contest their deportations before they were flown into the custody of jailers at the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT.
“Perhaps the president lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act,” Judge Boasberg wrote. “Perhaps, moreover, defendants are correct that plaintiffs are gang members. But — and this is the critical point — there is simply no way to know for sure, as the CECOT plaintiffs never had any opportunity to challenge the government’s say-so.”
Instead, Judge Boasberg continued, Trump officials “spirited away planeloads of people before any such challenge could be made. And now, significant evidence has come to light indicating that many of those currently entombed in CECOT have no connection to the gang and thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.”
The 69-page ruling by Judge Boasberg was the latest flashpoint in a monthslong legal battle between the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been defending the Venezuelan men, and administration officials, who have sought time and again to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport people accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua with as little friction as possible.
Federal courts around the country have been divided on the issue of whether Mr. Trump has properly invoked the law, which was first passed in 1798 and is meant to be used only in times of declared war or during an invasion by a hostile foreign nation.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans is set to hear arguments on that question at the end of the month in a case that is likely to end up at the Supreme Court. The justices have already decided that the White House failed to give immigrants ample opportunity to challenge their removals under the act, but they have not yet issued an opinion on whether Mr. Trump’s claims that the presence of Tren de Aragua in the United States is tantamount to an invasion and that its members have been acting at the behest of a hostile Venezuelan government comport with reality.
The A.C.L.U. hailed Judge Boasberg’s decision.
“The court correctly held that the government cannot send people to a brutal foreign prison without any due process and then decline all responsibility to remedy the blatant constitutional violation,” said Lee Gelernt, the lead lawyer for the A.C.L.U.
The case in front of Judge Boasberg is unique. It is the sole legal proceeding in which the A.C.L.U. is trying not to prevent immigrants who are still in the United States from being expelled under the act, but rather is seeking to get due process for those who have already been deported under its powers to El Salvador.
The history of the case is fraught: The administration flew the 137 Venezuelan men in question to El Salvador from an airport in Texas even as Judge Boasberg was holding a hastily convened virtual hearing to consider the question of whether their removals were lawful.
The judge ordered the planes to be turned around midair, but officials failed to comply. He has since threatened to open an investigation into whether contempt sanctions are warranted, but the federal appeals court in Washington that sits over him has temporarily placed that inquiry on hold.
In many ways, Judge Boasberg’s ruling raised as many questions as it answered. While he told the administration that it must “facilitate” the ability of the men being detained in El Salvador “to contest their removal” under the Alien Enemies Act, he put off for the moment the thorny issue of “what such facilitation must entail.”
The A.C.L.U. had requested a more robust solution, asking Judge Boasberg to order the government to facilitate the return of the men to the United States. But the judge said he intended to “proceed in measured fashion,” beginning by allowing Trump officials to propose how the men being held at the Terrorism Confinement Center should receive the due process to which they are “constitutionally due.”
The Justice Department, representing the White House, had tried to avoid responsibility altogether for the deported men, arguing that they were in Salvadoran, not American, custody and thus were beyond the reach of the U.S. judicial system.
In his ruling, Judge Boasberg said that while it was “a close question,” he agreed with the government’s position. He asserted that the facts in the case appeared to show that “the United States and El Salvador have struck a diplomatic bargain vis-à-vis the detainees” and that he could not second-guess that arrangement — even though, as he acknowledged, several top Trump officials had made public statements that the administration was deeply involved in the plans to hold the men at the terrorism center.
Still, Judge Boasberg said the White House had a legal duty to give the men it had summarily expelled to El Salvador the due process they had been denied. While the judge conceded that the White House had expansive powers to conduct foreign affairs, he maintained that officials had to “right their legal wrongs.”
“Absent this relief,” he wrote, “the government could snatch anyone off the street, turn him over to a foreign country and then effectively foreclose any corrective course of action.”
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9) ‘Carol,’ Whose Detention Rattled Her Small Missouri Town, Is Released
Ming Li Hui’s detention by the immigration authorities brought the reality of President Trump’s immigration crackdown to rural Missouri, where supporters rallied for her freedom.
By Jack Healy, June 4, 2025
Ming Li Hui, known to people in Kennett, Mo., as Carol, immigrated to the United States 20 years ago. Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
An immigrant waitress from Hong Kong whose looming deportation brought home the reality of President Trump’s immigration crackdown to her conservative Missouri hometown was freed on Wednesday after more than a month in jail.
“They released me,” the waitress, Ming Li Hui, better known as Carol to everyone in Kennett, Mo., said in a voice mail message left for her lawyer and relayed to The New York Times.
Her lawyer, Raymond Bolourtchi, said Ms. Hui, 45, had been released under a federal immigration program that offers a “temporary safe haven” to immigrants from Hong Kong and a handful of other countries who are concerned about returning there. The so-called deferred enforced departure gives Ms. Hui a reprieve but does not guarantee her future in the United States.
“By no means are we in the clear,” Mr. Bolourtchi said. “But at this point I’m optimistic. It’s an immediate sigh of relief.”
Ms. Hui, who was born in Hong Kong, entered the United States 20 years ago on a short-term tourist visa and stayed long past its expiration, in the process building a life, having three children and becoming a beloved waitress serving waffles and hugs to the breakfast crowd at a diner in Kennett, a rural farming town in the Bootheel of Missouri.
She was ordered deported more than a decade ago but had been able to stay in the country through a series of temporary permissions from the immigration authorities that ended abruptly with her arrest in late April.
On Wednesday, the news of her release buzzed through the city of 10,000. Residents attending a City Council meeting asked each other: “Is Carol really out?” “Is she coming home?”
“I didn’t think it could really happen,” said Lisa Dry, a city councilwoman who called for Ms. Hui’s release.
The staff of John’s Waffle and Pancake House was elated. The diner, a morning mainstay in Kennett, rallied the community to bring attention to her story. Her co-workers organized a “Carol Day” fund-raiser, put petitions to free her on every table and swapped out the servers’ shirts with black-and-yellow T-shirts that read, “Bring Carol Home.”
“It took a whole village,” said Liradona Ramadani, whose family runs the restaurant.
Ms. Hui’s story drew widespread attention as it raced from the waffle house to the local newspaper, The Delta Dunklin Democrat, and beyond. The musician Sheryl Crow, who grew up in Kennett and whose name is on a sign announcing Kennett as her hometown, posted an Instagram message in support of Ms. Hui.
The public outrage and backlash to Ms. Hui’s arrest was remarkable in a town like Kennett, the seat of a rural county where 80 percent of voters supported Mr. Trump last November, and where many voters said they had supported his promises of mass deportations.
But many in Kennett said Ms. Hui should not have been apprehended. To them, she was not a gang member or a criminal alien. She was a mother of three they talked with at soccer and Little League games, who served them waffles and egg skillets, who cleaned houses as a side job and went to Sunday Mass at the local Catholic church.
Mr. Bolourtchi, Ms. Hui’s lawyer, had tried to get her yearslong immigration case reopened after she was arrested in April and said he had been preparing to file a federal lawsuit directly challenging her detention. Before he could, he said, a federal immigration official recommended that Ms. Hui be released under the deferred enforced departure program.
She next has to check in with the authorities on June 25. A spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately reply to a request for comment about her release.
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10) Four States Ask F.D.A. to Lift Special Restrictions on Abortion Pill
The states consider it a move to force the F.D.A. to review and acknowledge extensive research showing the pill’s safety.
By Pam Belluck, Pam Belluck covers reproductive health, June 5, 2025
Mifepristone, which blocks a hormone necessary for pregnancy to develop, was approved for abortion in the U.S. in 2000. Credit...Adria Malcolm for The New York Times
In a strategy aimed at countering efforts to further restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, attorneys general of four states that support abortion rights on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration to do the opposite and lift the most stringent remaining restrictions on the pill.
The petition filed by Massachusetts, New York, California and New Jersey might seem surprising given the opposition to abortion expressed by Trump administration officials. But the attorneys general consider it a move that would require the F.D.A. to acknowledge extensive scientific research that has consistently found mifepristone safe and effective, said an official with the Massachusetts attorney general’s office who worked on the filing and asked not to be named in order to share background information. It would also prevent the F.D.A. from changing mifepristone regulations while the petition is pending.
The petition notes that at a May senate hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, responded to questions by Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, who opposes abortion, by saying he had ordered the F.D.A. to do a “complete review” of mifepristone.
“We want to make sure that when F.D.A. is making these decisions that they have all the data in front of them, all of the really powerful data that show that mifepristone is safe,” the Massachusetts official said.
The F.D.A. is required to respond within 180 days by granting or denying the request, or saying it needs more time. In its responses, the agency must document its position, which could be useful in lawsuits, including one that the four states could file if their petition is denied.
Mifepristone, which blocks a hormone necessary for pregnancy development, was approved for abortion in America in 2000. The F.D.A. imposed an additional regulatory framework called Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, on mifepristone. That framework has been used for only about 300 drugs, currently covering only about 60 medications.
Mifepristone is the first pill in the two-drug medication abortion regimen in the United States, used through 12 weeks of pregnancy. It is followed 24 to 48 hours later by misoprostol, which causes contractions like a miscarriage. Misoprostol can terminate pregnancies itself but hasn’t generally been targeted by abortion opponents, perhaps because it isn’t specifically approved for abortion and can treat several medical conditions, including ulcers.
In the last decade, the F.D.A. reviewed new data on mifepristone and lifted several restrictions, including a requirement that patients obtain it in person from a provider. That change, in 2021, allowed it to be prescribed by telemedicine and mailed to patients, expanding access to mifepristone, now used in nearly two-thirds of American abortions.
The states’ filing, called a citizen petition, seeks a complete lifting of the REMS framework, saying that “given mifepristone’s well-established, 25-year safety record, F.D.A.’s current restrictions on mifepristone are no longer justified by science or law.” Citing new studies, it says “mifepristone’s safety has remained stable even as its restrictions have been lessened” and that continuing the restrictions “cannot be squared with the F.D.A.’s lack of REMS programs on drugs that have significantly more risks than mifepristone.”
Recently, a conservative faith-based organization released a report saying that mifepristone is more dangerous than the vast majority of studies show. Some conservative Republicans have urged Mr. Kennedy and the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, to review the drug based on that report.
Medical experts in reproductive health point to flaws in the report, including that it was not peer-reviewed and doesn’t disclose the source of the insurance claims data it analyzed. The report also uses atypical methods to characterize what it calls “serious adverse events,” making it unclear, for example, whether an emergency room visit involved complications from mifepristone or other, more common issues that were either not serious or were unrelated to abortion, reproductive health experts say.
Asked about the report at a recent hearing, Dr. Makary said “there is no peer-reviewed publication, and the underlying data set is not available, but when it does become available, we’re going to take a hard look at it.” In a written response to Senator Hawley, Dr. Makary said he was “committed to conducting a review of mifepristone and working with the professional career scientists at the agency who review this data.”
The petition requests that if the F.D.A. declines to lift the REMS, it “exercise its discretion not to enforce” some or all of those restrictions in the four states because their regulations are sufficient.
The REMS provisions still in place include special certification processes for prescribers and for pharmacies dispensing mifepristone, requirements the petition says are unnecessary and have discouraged some providers from offering the medication.
Another requirement is an agreement patients must sign saying they are taking mifepristone because they decided to terminate their pregnancy. But mifepristone is also used to help with miscarriages, and, the petition notes, miscarriage patients must sign the same form.
For years, leading medical organizations have called for removing REMS restrictions on mifepristone, and several lawsuits seeking REMS removal are pending against the F.D.A., including one by attorneys general of 12 other states.
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11) Selfishness Is Not a Virtue
By David French, Opinion Columnist, June 5, 2025
Illustration by George Douglas; source photographs by Heritage Images, Glowimages and imagenavi/Getty Images
When Christianity goes wrong, it goes wrong in a familiar way.
Last Friday, at a town hall meeting in Butler County, Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst delivered a grim message to her constituents. In the midst of an exchange over Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” someone in the crowd shouted at Ernst, “People are going to die!”
Ernst’s immediate response was bizarre. “Well, we all are going to die,” she said.
True enough, but that’s irrelevant to the question at hand. Yes, we’re all going to die, but it matters a great deal when, how and why. There’s a tremendous difference between dying after living a long and full life that’s enabled at least in part by access to decent health care, and dying a premature and perhaps needlessly painful death because you can’t afford the care you need.
All of this should be too obvious to explain, and it would cost Ernst — who occupies a relatively safe seat in an increasingly red state — virtually nothing to apologize and move on. In fact, just after her flippant comment, she did emphasize that she wanted to protect vulnerable people. The full answer was more complicated than the headline-generating quip.
By the standards of 2025, Ernst’s comment would have been little more than a micro-scandal, gone by the end of the day. And if we lived even in the relatively recent past, demonstrating humility could have worked to her benefit. It can be inspiring to watch a person genuinely apologize.
When Christianity goes wrong, it goes wrong in a familiar way.
Last Friday, at a town hall meeting in Butler County, Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst delivered a grim message to her constituents. In the midst of an exchange over Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” someone in the crowd shouted at Ernst, “People are going to die!”
Ernst’s immediate response was bizarre. “Well, we all are going to die,” she said.
True enough, but that’s irrelevant to the question at hand. Yes, we’re all going to die, but it matters a great deal when, how and why. There’s a tremendous difference between dying after living a long and full life that’s enabled at least in part by access to decent health care, and dying a premature and perhaps needlessly painful death because you can’t afford the care you need.
All of this should be too obvious to explain, and it would cost Ernst — who occupies a relatively safe seat in an increasingly red state — virtually nothing to apologize and move on. In fact, just after her flippant comment, she did emphasize that she wanted to protect vulnerable people. The full answer was more complicated than the headline-generating quip.
By the standards of 2025, Ernst’s comment would have been little more than a micro-scandal, gone by the end of the day. And if we lived even in the relatively recent past, demonstrating humility could have worked to her benefit. It can be inspiring to watch a person genuinely apologize.
But we’re in a new normal now.
That means no apologies. That means doubling down. And that can also mean tying your cruelty to the Christian cross.
And so, the next day Ernst posted an apology video — filmed, incredibly enough, in what appears to be a cemetery. It began well. “I would like to take this opportunity,” she said, “to sincerely apologize for a statement I made yesterday at my town hall.” But her statement devolved from there.
“I made an incorrect assumption,” she continued, “that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.”
She didn’t stop there. “I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I’d encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
Remember, this was not a snarky, impulsive rejoinder. It was a considered response. She decided to film the statement and release it. There is no ambiguity — the video delivered exactly the message she wanted to send.
The fact that a sitting United States senator was that callous — and then tried to twist her cruelty into a bizarro version of the Christian gospel — is worth highlighting on its own as another instance of the pervasive “own the libs” ethos of the Republican Party. But Ernst’s fake apology was something different — and worse — than simple trolling. It exemplified the contortions of American Christianity in the Trump era.
Americans are now quite familiar with the “no apologies” ethos of the Trumpist right. They’re familiar with Trumpist trolling and with MAGA politicians and MAGA influencers doubling and tripling down on their mistakes. My former Times colleague Jane Coaston has even popularized a term — “vice signaling” — to describe MAGA’s performative transgressiveness. Trumpists think it’s good to be bad.
But why bring Jesus into it?
America has always been a country with lots of Christian citizens, but it has not always behaved like a Christian country, and for reasons that resonate again today. An old error is new. Too many Christians are transforming Christianity into a vertical faith, one that focuses on your personal relationship with God at the expense of the horizontal relationship you have with your neighbors.
To understand what I mean, let’s turn to a much darker time in American history, when Christianity and slavery existed side-by-side in the American South. In 1970, Wendell Berry published “The Hidden Wound,” a book-length essay about the profound damage that racism had inflicted on us all.
Reflecting on the Christianity of the slave-owning South, Berry wrote this passage, which is worth quoting at some length:
“First, consider the moral predicament of the master who sat in church with his slaves, thus attesting his belief in the immortality of the souls of people whose bodies he owned and used. He thus placed his body, if not his mind, at the very crux of the deepest contradiction of his life. How could he presume to own the body of a man whose soul he considered as worthy of salvation as his own? To keep this question from articulating itself in his thoughts and demanding an answer, he had to perfect an empty space in his mind, a silence, between heavenly concerns and earthly concerns, between body and spirit. If there had ever opened a conscious connection between the two claims, if the two sides of his mind had ever touched, it would have been like building a fire in a house full of gunpowder.”
The master hardened his heart to the plight of the slave by fundamentally rejecting the idea that his vertical faith in God carried with it a series of horizontal earthly obligations to love your neighbor as yourself, to do justice to the oppressed and to care for the vulnerable.
So long as the vertical relationship between God and man was secure, the horizontal relationship between men was of secondary importance, to the extent that it mattered at all. Why would this fleeting life matter when eternity was at stake?
Thankfully, we don’t live in such extreme times. We’re far from the dreadful days of slavery, and we’ve left Jim Crow behind, but I’m noticing a morphing of American evangelicalism back to the vertical, away from the horizontal, and that change is turning our gaze inward, to our own well-being above all, sometimes even to the exclusion of caring about the fate of others.
Let’s look at a different, more contemporary, example.
In April, I wrote about Paula White, one of Trump’s principal faith advisers, and her Easter offer of “seven supernatural blessings” in exchange for a suggested offering of $1,000. My piece was focused on the cohort of pastors and their Christian followers who behave more like Trump than like Jesus.
But I could have just as easily focused on the sheer selfishness of her message as well. Look again at the gifts White offered to her flock: “God will assign an angel to you, he’ll be an enemy to your enemies, he’ll give you prosperity, he’ll take sickness away from you, he will give you long life, he’ll bring increase in inheritance, and he’ll bring a special year of blessing.”
The emphasis is clear — look at what God will do for you. It’s all vertical. Honor God (by giving White a pile of cash), and he’ll make you healthy, wealthy and strong.
Consider also the evangelical turn against empathy. There are now Christian writers and theologians who are mounting a frontal attack against the very value that allows us to understand our neighbors, that places us in their shoes and asks what we would want and need if we were in their place.
But Christianity is a cross-shaped faith. The vertical relationship creates horizontal obligations. While Christians can certainly differ, for example, on the best way to provide health care to our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, it’s hard to see how we can disagree on the need to care for the poor.
Put another way, when the sick and lame approached Jesus, he did not say, “Depart from me, for thou shalt die anyway.” He healed the sick and fed the hungry and told his followers to do the same.
Or, as the Book of James declares, “If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,’ but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?”
Again, these passages do not dictate any particular policy, but they do tell us that we must try to meet the physical needs of the poor — here, on this earth — even if our souls are far more durable than our bodies.
People often ask me if I think the evangelical church has changed during the age of Trump or if its true nature is being revealed. There is not a neat yes or no answer. Certainly Trump’s rise has revealed the extent to which the will to power has always lurked in Christian hearts. When faced with a conflict between their stated principles and their access to power, millions of Republican Christians chose power over principle — and they are continuing to do so every day.
At the same time, some things have changed. An evangelical community that once celebrated, for example, George W. Bush’s PEPFAR program — the AIDS initiative that has saved an estimated 26 million lives — has now either applauded or stood by passively as Trump has decimated American foreign aid and damaged a program that was one of America’s greatest humanitarian accomplishments.
Ernst isn’t the chief offender here by any means. Nor do I think that she’s consciously trying to narrow Christian doctrine to the kind of purely vertical relationship that enables so much injustice. Senators aren’t theologians, and neither are columnists.
But politicians are weather vanes (as we’re all tempted to be), and there’s a foul wind blowing out of parts of American Christianity. Ernst’s first quip was a gaffe. Her apology video was no such thing. It was a premeditated effort to say exactly what she thinks Republicans want to hear.
Some other things I did
In my Sunday column, I explained why Trump has turned against the Federalist Society and why the judiciary — including Republican-appointed judges — is holding firm to its constitutional principles when the vast majority of Republican politicians have surrendered to Trump:
“Trump and I have something in common. We’ve both been thinking about why the judiciary has held firm when many other American institutions (especially conservative institutions) have collapsed. Why have a vast majority of conservative judges remained faithful to their legal philosophies when we’ve watched a vast majority of Republicans twist themselves into pretzels celebrating Trump for practices and policies they’d condemn in any other person or politician?
“I come from the conservative legal movement, I have friends throughout the conservative legal movement (including many Trump-appointed judges), and I think I know the answer, or at least part of it.
“The immense pressure that Trump puts on his perceived rivals and opponents exposes our core motivations, and the core motivations of federal judges are very different from the core motivations of members of Congress. Think of it as the difference between seeking the judgment of history over the judgment of the electorate, and to the extent that you seek approval, you place a higher priority on the respect of your peers than the applause of the crowd.”
On Monday, we published a conversation between my colleagues Jamelle Bouie, Michelle Cottle and me that tried to explain why politics feel so cruel these days. One reason is quite simple and connects with what I was just talking about — Trump is changing American evangelicalism more than American evangelicalism is changing Trump:
“There’s this very powerful argument that you choose among the lesser evils, especially when people are cynical about politics to begin with. But here’s the thing that’s interesting about human beings: We don’t like to be on Team Lesser Evil. No one’s running around chanting, ‘Lesser evil, lesser evil.’
“We want to be on the side that’s good. And if you can’t make Donald Trump good, you’ll just redefine Donald Trump as good. And this is part of what is all happening. If you can’t change the MAGA culture, they’re redefining the MAGA culture to try to assimilate it within Christianity or to assimilate Christianity into the MAGA culture. And so that’s why I think it’s quite clear to me why these attacks on empathy are now coming up several years into the Trump era. And it’s because it’s this long, slow process of ‘How do we make Trump good?’ Well, you can’t make Trump good, so how do you change our definition of what is good to meet Trump?”
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12) How the Trump Administration Banished Eight Men to Legal Limbo in Africa
Homeland Security is holding eight deportees under 24/7 guard at a U.S. military base in Djibouti. It’s unclear how long they’ll be there, or where they’ll be sent next.
By Mattathias Schwartz, Abbie VanSickle, Hamed Aleaziz and Eric Schmitt, June 6, 2025
Mattathias Schwartz, Abbie VanSickle and Hamed Aleaziz cover legal issues arising from President Trump’s deportation policies. Eric Schmitt covers U.S. military affairs.
Somewhere inside Camp Lemonnier, an American military base in the East African nation of Djibouti, eight men, all convicted of serious crimes in the United States, are under the guard of officers from the Homeland Security Department.
The Trump administration had planned to send the men, who had come to the United States years ago as immigrants from across the world, on to the war-torn country of South Sudan, an extraordinary gambit and part of President Trump’s broader plan for mass deportations. Then an order from a federal judge, on the other side of the planet in Boston, put a halt to the plan, at least for now.
And so for the past 16 days, the men have been in limbo, living and sleeping inside a modular, air-conditioned container that the military usually uses as a conference room. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have the detainees under “constant surveillance,” accompanying them on their trips to the bathroom and then searching them for contraband when they return, a D.H.S. spokeswoman said.
The detainees’ fate has emerged as a key test in the constitutional battle over the scope of due process. The White House is making a bold claim, arguing that handing immigrants a one-page document is sufficient to deport them to a dangerous country to which they have no previous connection.
A reconstruction of the men’s surreal journey from South Texas to Camp Lemonnier reveals a chaotic effort by the Trump administration to make an example of a group of immigrants the administration has termed “the worst of the worst.” At first, the detainees were told that they were going to be sent to South Africa, but hours later were told it would be South Sudan instead. What was to happen to them next — whether they were to have been imprisoned or set free — is unclear.
The judge, Brian E. Murphy of the District of Massachusetts, found that D.H.S. had given the men less than 24 hours’ notice before they were deported, in violation of a court order that migrants in their position be given a “meaningful opportunity” to voice a reasonable fear of torture.
Top military leaders at U.S. Africa Command were provided little more than a day’s notice that D.H.S. would be using one of their overseas bases as a way station for an immigration enforcement operation, according to a military official briefed on the matter.
The case has implications that could extend beyond the due-process rights of immigrants, according to Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a professor at Boston University School of Law.
“President Trump has floated the idea of sending people convicted of crimes out of the U.S., including American citizens,” she said. “What he’s trying now with the least sympathetic people, noncitizens who have been convicted of crimes, is a test of how much deplorable treatment and erosion of due process voters will stomach.”
To piece together the men’s story, The New York Times reviewed hundreds of pages of court and criminal records, and spoke with lawyers, officials and family members, as well as one detainee, still in custody, who was part of the group until officers pulled him aside before the plane departed. The Times also spoke with government officials with knowledge of the deportations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.
A homeland security spokeswoman emphasized the seriousness of the detainees’ crimes. She said Judge Murphy’s order that the eight men should remain in U.S. custody was to blame for the operation’s logistical challenges, as well as health risks facing the D.H.S. personnel tasked with guarding them.
For now, no one knows how long the men will be held in Djibouti, or where they might be sent next.
Ngoc Phan, the wife of one of the detainees, said she and her husband had already planned to return to Vietnam, his native country, this year.
A U.S. citizen, she acknowledged that her husband, Tuan Thanh Phan, who came to the United States from Vietnam at age 9, killed someone in a gang altercation when he was 18, leading to a 25-year prison sentence and an order from an immigration court to leave the United States. But he had completed his sentence, she said, and was now resigned to returning to the country of his birth.
Instead, the government’s attempt to send him to a country on the brink of civil war had landed him on a U.S. military base, “loaded onto a plane in the middle of the night to be disappeared somewhere,” she said.
“How is that OK?” she asked.
Bound for Djibouti
The journey that took the men to Camp Lemmonier began on May 17, when 10 men arrived at the ICE detention center in Port Isabel, Texas, near the border with Mexico.
They were strangers, according to Ahmer Shaikh, a detainee who remained with the group for the next two and a half days.
They came from countries around the world — Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba, Myanmar. Only one was from South Sudan.
Court documents show that U.S. courts had convicted all the men of violent crimes; many had either finished or were about to finish serving their sentences. Mr. Shaikh, 57, a native of Pakistan, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder for his role in a fatal assault on a Virginia man.
They also had “orders of removal,” meaning the government had the legal authority to deport them.
At Port Isabel, Mr. Shaikh said in a phone interview, the men tried to make small talk. At the time, they believed they were being sent back to their home countries, he said, and so they shared plans for the lives they planned to build upon their returns.
Then, on May 19, three officers handed the men papers for them to sign and therefore acknowledge that they had been notified of their pending deportation — to South Africa.
Mr. Shaikh was shocked. In his mind, returning to Pakistan would have been hardship enough. He had lived in the United States for more than four decades and has a wife and three children, all American citizens.
Still, he said, “when I go to my home country, I do have at least a little bit of chance of survival.”
“I’ve never been to South Africa,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m getting into. I don’t know nobody in South Africa.”
Each member of the group refused to sign, Mr. Shaikh said, and the men were sent back to their quarters.
With that, the men became part of a lawsuit pending before Judge Murphy, who had issued an order that required the government to give “written notice” to any migrant facing deportation to a third country. They would then have a chance to voice a “reasonable fear” of torture. Then, if the government found that they had failed to demonstrate such a fear, they would have “a minimum of 15 days” to challenge the legality of their deportations in court.
But the actual process unfolded much faster.
“Guys, I’ve got good news for you and bad news for you,” an officer told the men that evening, according to Mr. Shaikh. “The good news is we are not going to deport you guys to South Africa. But we are going to deport you guys to South Sudan.”
Mr. Shaikh said the officer then informed them that he had not brought any papers notifying them of the removal, because he knew no one would sign them anyway.
That same evening, a lawyer for another one of the detainees, Nyo Myint, received two emails in quick succession from an ICE official in Texas, according to court records, with one-page forms stating that Mr. Myint, who was born in Myanmar, was being sent to South Africa, and then South Sudan. A line marked “signature of alien” was stamped “refused to sign.”
The form also stated that the officer had “served the alien a copy of this notice in person.” Mr. Shaikh said otherwise, recounting that the detainees were not provided paperwork about the change to South Sudan before they boarded the plane the following day.
D.H.S. did not respond to questions about the change in the men’s destination or the paperwork provided to them.
The next morning, May 20, Mr. Shaikh said, the men were loaded into a van and given new paperwork stating that they were being transferred to another immigration facility, in Louisiana. Instead, he said, they were driven to an airport.
Waiting on the tarmac was a Gulfstream V, a luxury long-range private jet owned by a charter company, according to public flight-tracking data that The Times was able to confirm using satellite imagery.
At that moment, Mr. Shaikh said, the men realized something was amiss.
“We all look in each other’s faces — we just look at each other,” he said. “Our faces just turned pale.”
As the others boarded the plane, Mr. Shaikh said, he and another man, an immigrant from South Korea, were pulled aside with no explanation.
“To this day, it’s a mystery,” he said. “Why? Why the two of us pulled out of that plane?”
He watched from the van as the plane took off.
‘Where Is the Plane?’
Before leaving Port Isabel, Mr. Phan had managed to call his wife. She alerted lawyers, who hurried to file an emergency motion for the judge to intervene. On the evening of May 20, Judge Murphy called a hearing to figure out what had become of the men.
“Where is the plane?” Judge Murphy repeatedly asked government lawyers.
“I’m told that that information is classified, and I am told that the final destination is also classified,” Elianis N. Perez, a Justice Department lawyer, replied at 6:06 p.m.
But by that time, the plane had already left U.S. airspace, according to a public flight-tracking website, bound for what was likely a refueling layover in Ireland.
At the hearing, Judge Murphy struggled to get information from the government about the rapidly evolving situation. Three times, he called a recess so Justice Department lawyers could try to get more information on the detainees’ whereabouts.
Finally, Judge Murphy said he would not order the plane to turn around but ordered the parties to reconvene the following morning, May 21.
At around 9:52 a.m. Eastern time that day, the Gulfstream landed at Camp Lemonnier, according to flight-tracking data.
A little more than an hour after the plane landed, Judge Murphy took the bench in Boston and announced that he believed the government had violated his order by giving the detainees so little notice before trying to deport them to South Sudan.
“It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their transfer to South Sudan,” he said.
At first, the government declined to disclose to Judge Murphy where the detainees had ended up.
“They’re sitting on a plane,” a D.H.S. official told the judge, explaining that their whereabouts was deemed too sensitive to discuss in open court.
The next day, in a social media post, Mr. Trump announced that “EIGHT of the most violent criminals on Earth” “remain in Djibouti.”
Mr. Trump’s post included an image showing mug shots of the men, their full names and the crimes for which they had been convicted.
It was a different situation than one in March when the administration had deported more than 200 Venezuelans, many without criminal convictions, to a prison in El Salvador. This time, the deportees had convictions for at least three murders, two attempted murders, two robberies and two sex crimes between them.
One of the men convicted of murder, Mr. Phan, had shot and killed a 19-year-old, Michael Holtmeyer, during a fight in a parking lot next to a fishing pier in Tacoma, Wash., in 2000. According to a police report, Mr. Phan, who was 18 at the time, said he “just shot into the crowd.” He pleaded guilty but said in court that he had acted in self-defense.
“I do not understand why Phan, or anyone like him should continue to have rights,” Mr. Holtmeyer’s mother wrote to the court in a victim impact statement then.
Still, Gerald Horne, the deputy county prosecutor who helped convict Mr. Phan, said in an interview that the attempt to send Mr. Phan to South Sudan “appears to me to be a sentence after his sentence.”
Despite the gravity of his crime, he said, Mr. Phan still deserved “some form of due process.”
At the hearing, Judge Murphy agreed, telling the government it could either fly the detainees back to the United States or figure out a way to set up interviews in Djibouti where the men would be given the chance to object to their deportations. Either way, he ordered that they remain in U.S. custody and be given access to a phone so they could contact their lawyers.
The military, now realizing that detainees would be on their base overnight, refused to take primary responsibility for guarding and housing them, a military official said.
Eleven ICE officers now guard the men, working 12-hour shifts in the face of risks to their health, according to a court filing by an ICE official. There are only six beds to be shared among the guards and two ICE officers who support the medical staff. Because they had not anticipated a long stay, they were not able to prepare for the trip by taking antimalarial medication. Some had fallen ill after exposure to smog from burn pits used by the military to dispose of waste.
D.H.S. agreed to set up the hearings on the base. “It is possible to do it,” Marcos Charles, an ICE official, told the court on May 21. “We’re going to have to look at how long it would take us to get it done.”
On Monday, D.H.S. said in a court filing that it had set up an interview room where the detainees could meet remotely with their lawyers, and had now provided them access to a satellite phone. But on Thursday afternoon, a lawyer for the men said her team had not yet heard from them.
Even as the Trump administration said it was taking steps to comply with Judge Murphy’s order, it was also going over his head. On May 27, it asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow it to send the detainees to South Sudan. The court could rule at any time.
On social media, the administration blamed Judge Murphy for the deteriorating conditions, saying it was “outrageous” for him to put the “safety of law enforcement officers at risk for the sake of criminals.” The post did not mention that the administration had the option of bringing the men back to a detention center in the United States.
Mr. Shaikh remains in immigration custody, where he said he wondered about the fate of the eight men whose lives crossed briefly with his own.
“I think about those eight men every day,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Phan received a phone call from her husband. “He sounded exhausted and said he can’t eat,” she wrote in an email.
The men wear shackles on their ankles, he told her. They are allowed to take them off every other day, when they use the shower, and have been told they will now be allowed a five-minute phone call to family every three days. He said that the guards were treating the detainees decently, but that everyone remained confused about why they were there in the first place.
“My husband wants to be deported back to Vietnam,” she wrote. “I am hoping that can happen.”
Reporting was contributed by Julie Tate, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Riley Mellen, Carol Rosenberg and Alain Delaquérière.
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13) Videos Show Chaos Around Israeli-Backed Gaza Food Sites
Danger and desperation are clear in imagery near the aid sites. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in at least two instances after Israeli troops opened fire near the sites.
By Sanjana Varghese, Arijeta Lajka, Nader Ibrahim and Lily Boyce, June 6, 2025
“According to the G.H.F., each box is meant to feed roughly five people and last for three days. Videos and interviews show that the boxes typically contain food like beans, rice and pasta. Some were reported to contain oil and flour.”
A new Israeli-backed food distribution system in Gaza has repeatedly turned deadly in its first week of operation.
Near one aid site, almost 50 people were killed in two large-scale shootings within the space of just three days, according to health officials in Gaza. In both cases, the Israeli military said its soldiers had opened fire nearby.
While very few videos captured the violence itself, an analysis of videos and satellite imagery by The New York Times showed the chaos that preceded as desperate Gazans sought aid.
In one video, taken at the crack of dawn as one site opened, Palestinians can be seen racing for food boxes before they run out. The video was shared by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Israeli-backed aid organization that runs the site.
Israel restricts international journalists from reporting in Gaza except on some military embeds, and videos from the new distribution sites are limited.
To assess conditions on the ground, The Times analyzed imagery from multiple sources, including eyewitnesses, the Israeli military, the United Nations and the G.H.F.
The United Nations once ran around 400 sites from which it distributed aid across the enclave. Even then, it had to contend with Israeli restrictions, looting and lawlessness and the extreme difficulty of operating in a war zone.
The aid distributed under the new Israeli-backed system is a trickle after Israel lifted a nearly three month blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The Israel-based group has only four distribution sites, generally in more remote locations, and it is unclear how many are operational.
The shootings took place near the biggest G.H.F. site, in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
Israeli officials say the new aid distribution system is intended to prevent the militant group Hamas from seizing food, fuel and other supplies. The United Nations says there is no evidence that Hamas systematically diverted international aid under the previous U.N.-coordinated distribution framework.
The scarcity of the G.H.F. sites and their relative remoteness mean that many people must often make arduous journeys to reach them — at times leaving empty-handed. Aid agencies have criticized the initiative for forcing Gazans to walk across military lines to reach food.
Another G.H.F. video, verified by The Times, shows crowds of people waiting at the Rafah distribution point as armed contractors pace in front of them. “Come back tomorrow,” the crowd is told.
Once they are near the distribution point, people are funneled through lanes of metal fencing on one side of the distribution center, and then emerge into an open area where boxes of aid are placed on tables or on the ground.
Those who manage to secure food exit through another lane. This video, provided by the U.N. and verified by The Times, shows people inside corridors at another distribution site in central Gaza, near the Netzarim corridor.
Ibrahim al Qardawi, a Gazan from Nuseirat, went to the site the day it opened to film what was happening.
“They’re humiliating people by making them go through these corridors to get to the distribution point,” Mr. al Qardawi said. “These corridors are only about a meter to a meter and a half wide.”
When the distribution site near the Netzarim corridor opened on May 29, crowds were dispersed quickly with stun grenades, captured in this video filmed by Mr. al Qardawi. It was unclear who used them.
The aid centers are run primarily by contractors working for private American firms tied to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. But the Israeli military, which invaded Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, is still in control of much of the enclave, and its soldiers are deployed near the distribution points.
One of them posted an Instagram video on Tuesday showing soldiers in Rafah just over 1,000 feet from the largest aid site, which is behind a building shown at the end of the video. Another aid site can be seen earlier in the clip.
The shootings both took place on the narrow route to that site.
On Sunday, more than 20 people were killed, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, when Israeli soldiers opened fire near the site.
Two days later, at least 27 people were killed, according to the Red Cross and Gaza health ministry. The Israeli military said its forces had fired near people who were “deviating from the designated access routes” and who did not respond to warning shots. The statement said “additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects.”
One video verified by The Times shows people running as short bursts of gunfire are heard along Al-Rasheed road, near the Rafah distribution site, early Tuesday morning. Some are carrying bags of aid on their backs.
In announcements published on G.H.F’s Facebook page, the group said the Israeli military would be in the area and would prohibit anyone from approaching the aid site before 5 a.m. “The military considers anyone advancing into the square ahead of time as endangering their troops,” said Mohanad Keshta, a freelance journalist who shot the video above.
Some people begin waiting as early as 11 p.m. the night before in an area more than a mile away, he said. Others arrive after dawn prayers, around 4 a.m.
They are supposed to wait for 5 a.m., but the scramble often begins before then, Mr. Keshta said.
“They push each other, and some move in ahead,” he said.
After all the waiting and chaos, many come away with nothing.
Reports vary about what those lucky enough to secure a box find inside.
According to the G.H.F., each box is meant to feed roughly five people and last for three days. Videos and interviews show that the boxes typically contain food like beans, rice and pasta. Some were reported to contain oil and flour.
The G.H.F. said that it had distributed 5.8 million meals by the end of the first week, but it did not provide further details. After the shootings, the organization temporarily closed its aid sites before reopening two on Thursday.
“Restoration and reorganization,” were the reasons given.
Additional work by Eric Rabinowitz.
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14) ‘I Felt a Bullet’: Palestinians Recount Deadly Shooting Near New Gaza Aid Site
Nearly 50 people have been reported killed and 300 others wounded in incidents near the Israeli-backed distribution center, which was designed to keep food out of the hands of Hamas.
By Adam Rasgon, Bilal Shbair and Aaron Boxerman, June 6, 2025
Adam Rasgon and Aaron Boxerman from Jerusalem, and Bilal Shbair reported from southern Gaza
Palestinians taking away the dead after people came under fire near the aid distribution center in Rafah on Sunday. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
It was still unclear whether there were other sources of gunfire in the area. Asked who shot the Palestinians on Sunday, a military spokeswoman referred to an earlier statement that did not answer the question.
From a hospital bed in southern Gaza, Mr. Abdulal recalled the moments after being shot.
He forced himself to stand up and run to a nearby donkey cart and persuaded its owner to transport him to a field hospital run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Red Cross said its 60-bed field hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, had collectively received 40 bodies on Sunday and Tuesday and 323 patients, most of whom had gunshot and shrapnel wounds and some of whom later died. On Tuesday, the hospital received the highest number of people wounded by weapons in a single episode since it was established over a year ago, the Red Cross said.
A field hospital operated by UK-Med in southern Gaza received 65 patients on Sunday and Tuesday, mostly with gunshot wounds and blast injuries, according to Mandy Blackman, a nurse overseeing the hospital’s operations.
Victoria Rose, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who was volunteering at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, said dead and wounded people had streamed into the emergency room.
“It was so absolutely packed that people were being nursed on the floor,” she said.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, urged people on Sunday to disregard what he said were Hamas rumors about the new aid site. The military, he said, would investigate every incident and allegation.
Even though Israel has said the new system will prevent Hamas from accessing aid, the Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have largely not checked the identifications of people arriving at the distribution site in Rafah, according to Palestinians who received aid there.
The Israeli military said the foundation was responsible for inspecting people entering the aid site. A spokesman for the organization emphasized that “trying to meter aid is going to get people hurt or killed” and said the group had not noticed an organized effort by Hamas to take its aid.
U.N. officials say there is little evidence that Hamas has systematically diverted relief. Critics in Israel have warned that the G.H.F. effort could be the first step toward establishing formal Israeli rule over Gaza.
A U.N. briefing paper circulated before the G.H.F. initiative was launched last week warned of “overcrowded distribution sites” and said that Israeli forces or American contractors might “use force to control crowds.” The memo also cautioned about the potential for “organized and opportunistic looting” near the hubs.
Jalal al-Homs, 35, said he left a tent in southern Gaza where his family was sheltering around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Accompanied by his brother, he walked for two hours through darkness to Rafah, where he joined throngs of people trying to secure food. Israeli military vehicles, he said, could be seen in the distance, and drones could be heard hovering in the sky.
It was Mr. al-Homs’s fourth attempt this week to get a box, he said. On previous trips, he said, all the aid had been taken by the time he made it into the distribution site.
Mr. al-Homs said people were trying to push their way to the front of the crowd before the shooting began around 4:30 a.m. “It felt like it came from all over,” he said.
His brother was shot in the leg, he said, and taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery.
Despite the danger, Mr. al-Homs said, he had few options other than returning to the distribution site so that he could feed his two sons and two daughters.
“This system isn’t just at all — it requires me risking my life for food,” he said.
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15) Who Leads the Israeli-backed Palestinian Militia in Gaza?
Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin man in his 30s, holds sway in eastern Rafah, an area close to a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
By Adam Rasgon, Reporting from Jerusalem, June 6, 2025
Palestinians carry aid packages in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Friday. Credit...Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press
Yasser Abu Shabab is the leader of a Palestinian militia in southern Gaza that Israeli officials say they have armed as part of an effort to undermine Hamas. Mr. Abu Shabab, whose group has denied receiving weapons from Israel, is a Bedouin man in his 30s. He holds sway in eastern Rafah, an area close to a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
For months, Palestinians and international humanitarian officials have accused him of looting aid trucks that made their way to distribution sites across Gaza, where hunger has been widespread.
Here is a look at Mr. Abu Shabab.
Why is Israel working with Mr. Abu Shabab’s militia?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday that the Israeli government “activated” clans in Gaza opposed to Hamas at the advice of security officials. “What’s bad about it?” he said. “It’s only good and it only saves the lives of Israel Defense Force soldiers.”
Mr. Abu Shabab’s group, the Popular Forces, is believed to comprise a relatively small number of members. It is unclear how many people are in its ranks, but it is much smaller than Hamas.
Israel’s engagement with Mr. Abu Shabab, Israeli analysts said, underscored Mr. Netanyahu’s vacillation on who should take over the future administration of Gaza.
“If you think about who really can be an alternative to Hamas in Gaza, you have two options: either an Israeli military administration or the Palestinian Authority,” said Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, a former top Israeli military strategist, now retired.
Mr. Netanyahu, he said, does not want either, because a full occupation of Gaza would be costly, financially and politically, for Israel. And engaging with the Palestinian Authority, he said, would probably require a discussion about a Palestinian state, a prospect opposed by leading members of the Israeli government
“So they’re looking for other solutions,” General Brom said, describing the options as “dubious.”
Who is accusing Mr. Abu Shabab of looting aid?
Gazan transportation company owners, truck drivers, and international humanitarian officials have accused Mr. Abu Shabab of running a sophisticated operation, saying his group had looted trucks filled with sacks of flour.
Georgios Petropoulos, a senior United Nations official who was based in Gaza last year, called him “the self-styled power broker of east Rafah.”
In an interview in November 2024, Mr. Abu Shabab, thin and lightly bearded, denied he looted a large number of aid trucks, although he conceded that his men — armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles — had raided half a dozen or so since the start of the war.
“We are taking trucks so we can eat, not so we can sell,” he said, asserting that he was feeding his family and neighbors. “Every hungry person is taking aid.” He accused Hamas of being primarily responsible for stealing the aid, an accusation that Hamas has denied.
Still, truck drivers have said people who identify as being tied to Mr. Abu Shabab have intercepted them on aid deliveries and forced them to unload flour and other goods.
What is Mr. Abu Shabab’s militia doing in Gaza?
Referring to itself as the Popular Forces, the group started posting photos of its members wielding guns on its Facebook page in May.
In a video posted on Wednesday, Mr. Abu Shabab can be heard calling on people from eastern Rafah to return to their homes, saying that food, medicine and shelter would be provided. The footage features images of several tents that appeared to have been erected in the area.
He also can be heard saying that the Popular Forces are working under “Palestinian legitimacy,” a phrase that Palestinian Authority leaders often use to refer to their government.
The Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based rival of Hamas, has declined to comment on reports of connections between Mr. Abu Shabab and its government. Maj. Gen. Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security services, told The New York Times: “I will issue a statement clarifying everything soon, as the matter is complex and involves overlapping security, political, and — most importantly — humanitarian factors.”
In other posts, the Popular Forces claimed responsibility for safeguarding dozens of aid trucks entering Gaza, possibly an attempt to burnish its image among Palestinians in the enclave. “We confirm that 92 trucks were secured and entered areas under the protection of our popular forces, and exited safely under our supervision,” the group wrote on May 21.
The post did not clarify which organization hired the trucks to transport the aid, but the Popular Forces have said it had secured trucks for U.N. agencies.
How has Hamas dealt with Mr. Abu Shabab?
In November, Hamas security forces raided Mr. Abu Shabab’s neighborhood, killing more than 20 people, including his brother, according to Mr. Abu Shabab.
“They killed everyone they saw,” he said, adding that he had left the area before the Hamas forces showed up.
Official Hamas media reported at the time that its forces had killed 20 members of “gangs of thieves who were stealing aid.”
Fatima AbdulKarim contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.
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16) ‘A Big Slap in the Face’: Africans Jolted by Trump’s New Travel Ban
Seven of the 12 countries on President Trump’s new list are on the continent, where some said the policy was discriminatory and would unfairly affect their future.
By Ruth Maclean and Saikou Jammeh, Reporting from Dakar, Senegal, June 6, 2025
In Khartoum, the war-torn capital of Sudan, in March. Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
When Africans woke up to the news this week that seven of the 12 countries on President Trump’s new travel ban list were African nations, the response, for many, was a mix of resignation and anger.
Resignation because several African nations were previously banned during Mr. Trump’s first term, including Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
Anger because they were unsure what African governments could do to get the ban lifted, if it would lead to family separations and how exactly each country landed on the list in the first place.
“I think it’s a discriminatory decision, a decision he’s taken out of racism,” Narciso Edjang, a 19-year-old medical student in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, said of Mr. Trump’s announcement.
Equatorial Guinea is one of the seven African nations Mr. Trump targeted in the travel ban announced on Wednesday night. The others are Chad, the Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia and Sudan. The ban goes into effect on Monday.
Mr. Edjang had hoped to one day study medicine in the United States, where, he said, training was much better than in Equatorial Guinea, a country that is rich in oil but mired in pervasive poverty and inequality.
Those hopes have now faded, he said.
Travel to the United States from Africa was already difficult for most Africans; visa applications are frequently rejected and fees are often prohibitively expensive. During Mr. Trump’s first ban, in 2017 — which was seen as targeting Muslim-majority countries — many students, professionals and refugees faced prolonged uncertainty as the legal challenges wended their way through court.
“This is a worrying decision for us Equatoguineans, because we know that when we travel, we always try to respect the rules,” said Juan Pedro, a 40-year-old teacher in Malabo.
Even Africans from countries not on Mr. Trump’s list were anxious about what the new ban might mean for them, fearing it could be extended to other nations on a moment’s notice.
“Regardless of whether I have been a law abiding resident in USA, regardless of my contribution to the USA in any capacity, I may be asked to leave or prevented from re-entry into the country,” Isaac Antwi, a scientist from Ghana who studied in the United States, wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Mr. Trump’s announcement on Wednesday included partial bans on countries such as Sierra Leone, where many were shocked to learn they were no longer welcome to travel to the United States.
In the capital, Freetown, Joseph Bockarie, a metalworker with a sister in the United States, was trying to decide what to do. His sister had invited him to visit, and he has saved up money for the trip. He has a visa appointment next week, but now he is not sure he will show up. “I am afraid to be rejected,” he said. “I can’t imagine that trauma.”
The Trump proclamation identified Sierra Leone as a country where visitors frequently overstay their visas, though many in the West African nation speculated that it had been targeted because of its reputation as a narcotics hub.
“It’s a big slap on the face,” said Willcy Pratt, a resident of Freetown. He worried that it would affect his chances of visiting the United States someday, and said his government should do whatever it could to ensure it was not put on the list of fully banned countries.
On Thursday, the African Union called on the Trump administration to adopt a “more consultative approach” with the countries on the list. The group said it was concerned about the state of relations between the United States and African nations, which have been “carefully nurtured over decades.”
Since Mr. Trump took office in January, those relations have been strained. He imposed steep tariffs, throwing the future of a critical trade program into doubt. The Agency for International Development, which saved millions of African lives over decades, has been dismantled. Mr. Trump lectured South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the Oval Office last month, on what he falsely claimed amounted to a genocide against white South Africans.
David Gilmour, the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, wrote on social media that 70 percent of the Equatoguineans who travel to the United States to study overstay their visas.
“Those Equatoguineans who have not respected U.S. immigration law are causing a problem that has restricted the travel of their fellow citizens,” he wrote. “If you know someone who is presently in the United States without a valid visa, tell them to return to Equatorial Guinea immediately.”
Margarita Mbang, a 24-year-old student at the University of Equatorial Guinea, acknowledged that some citizens from her country, when they arrive in the United States, “stay forever.”
Mr. Trump’s proclamation also criticized nations on the list for refusing to take back citizens who were flagged for deportation by the United States.
Neither the West African regional body known as ECOWAS nor the Central African one called ECCAS immediately issued statements about the travel ban. Chad’s president, Mahamat Idriss Déby, said that he had instructed his government to suspend visas for Americans in response to Mr. Trump’s decision.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad does have its dignity and pride,” he said in a statement.
Bright Simons, a policy analyst in Ghana, said African officials needed to recognize the “hyper-transactional and low-consultation model” of the Trump administration and try to keep up. “The rules of the game in Washington have changed,” he said. “Too many African embassies are staffed with people who can’t respond at the pace required with the skill necessary.”
The foreign minister of Sierra Leone, Timothy Kabba, acknowledged that in the past his country had refused to accept citizens in the United States who had been added to deportation lists. But that has changed since he took office in 2023, he said.
“Since I took over, we have accepted all identified affected persons,” Mr. Kabba said.
Some Africans said the ban presented an opportunity for African governments not only to push back against the Trump administration, but also to do better for all Africans.
Mohamed Kamara, a deliveryman in Freetown, Sierra Leone, called on his government to make sure there were enough jobs in the country for people to make a living. If there were, he said, there would be “no need for someone to go to another man’s country.”
“If there are job opportunities, there is no need to travel to hustle,” he said.
Samuel Obiang Mbana contributed reporting from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Joseph Johnson from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Abdi Latif Dahir from Nairobi, Kenya.
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17) Trump’s New Travel Ban Is Rife With Contradictions
The Trump administration appears to have relied on a variety of considerations as it put together its latest restrictions.
By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz, Reporting from Washington, Published June 5, 2025, Updated June 6, 2025
Travelers at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursday after President Trump’s announcement of a travel ban targeting a dozen countries. Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times
President Trump said on Thursday that his new travel ban against a dozen mostly African and Middle Eastern countries “can’t come soon enough.” He argued the ban would help prevent terrorist attacks and keep out those who overstay their visas.
But even by that logic, Mr. Trump’s ban is rife with contradictions.
“There’s no consistent set of criteria that would lead you to these 19 countries,” said Doug Rand, a former immigration official in the Biden administration, referring to the 12 countries and seven others that face restrictions but not a full ban. “You have a bunch of countries that seem to be politically motivated and then a bunch of random countries with a fig leaf of data to support their conclusion.”
The order, which goes into effect on Monday, bans travel to the United States by citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. And it limits travel from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. It includes some exemptions, including people with existing visas.
Mr. Trump argued that the timing of the ban was spurred by a recent attack in Colorado on a group honoring hostages being held in Gaza in which an Egyptian man has been arrested and charged.
But Egypt — which is both a military partner and a critical mediator in negotiations between Israel and Hamas — was not on the travel ban list. Also omitted were nations that national security officials have long treated as pariahs, including Syria, where Mr. Trump has recently sought to improve relations.
Mr. Rand and other immigration experts noted that nations home to a higher number of people who overstay visas were left off the list.
Spain is not on there, even though more than 20,000 visitors from the nation overstayed their visas in the United States in the fiscal year covering 2023, according to government data, far more than the combined total for all seven banned African countries. Roughly 400 people from Chad, for example, stayed in the United States longer than their visa allowed during the same time period, according to government data.
Legal experts suggest that the travel ban appears devised to avoid legal flaws that slowed early versions during Mr. Trump’s first term in office.
But the White House has also indicated that working with Mr. Trump on his strategy for mass deportations was a way to avoid getting included. “Several countries have historically failed to accept back their removable nationals, complicating U.S. efforts to manage immigration and public safety,” according to Mr. Trump’s proclamation.
The White House also argued the nations on the list were “deficient” when it came to screening and vetting.
Chad Wolf, the former acting Homeland Security secretary during Mr. Trump’s first term, pushed back on the notion the travel ban unfairly targeted predominately African or Middle Eastern nations.
“Can I help that some very dangerous countries are both Muslim and located in Africa and elsewhere?” he said. “No. I don’t get to pick that. That’s the reality. That’s the world we live in. I understand why people would say, ‘Oh, it’s a Muslim ban 2.0 or it’s just politics.’ The reality and the facts on the ground tell a very different story.”
Mr. Trump’s frequent references to increasing migration to Europe, a continent he has framed as a cautionary tale for America, raised concerns that the true intent of the ban was to cut off immigrants from mostly African and Muslim nations.
When he announced the restrictions on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump promised that his administration would “not let what happened in Europe happen to America.”
Sitting alongside Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany on Thursday in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said Mr. Merz’s country also has “a little problem too with some of the people that were allowed into your country.”
“We want to get them out now,” Mr. Trump said.
P. Deep Gulasekaram, a professor of immigration law at the University of Colorado’s law school, said that the effort appeared to be “performative national security theater.”
He said that Mr. Trump’s actions — including the attempted deportations of students protesting the war in Gaza, statements about Haitian migrants eating pets during the presidential campaign and the prioritizing of white South Africans to seek refuge in the United States — were pointed in one direction.
“This new proclamation is another step in trying to reclaim a white, Christian America, and capitalize by stoking the fires of racial and foreign threat,” he said.
Others said the selection of the countries on the list did not support the argument that the ban was about protecting Americans from attacks.
“If the ban had been preventing attacks, then why did those attacks not happen when the ban was lifted?” said David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.
Mr. Bier said that consular officers vet immigrants seeking to enter the United States with visas and that people cannot enter the country based on their word alone.
“The idea that the government is blindly approving applicants from these countries is insulting to the consular officers,” he said. “It’s inaccurate as well.”
Ruth Maclean contributed reporting.
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