A Trial Date Is Set on August 26 for Alejandro Orellana, Join the Call for National Protests to Drop the Charges!
https://stopfbi.org/news/a-trial-date-is-set-on-august-26-for-alejandro-orellana-join-the-call-for-national-protests-to-drop-the-charges/
A trial date of August 26 was set for immigrant rights activist Alejandro Orellana at his July 3 court appearance in front of a room packed with supporters. Orellana was arrested by the FBI on June 12 for protesting against ICE in Los Angeles. He faces up to 5 years in prison for two bogus federal charges: conspiracy to commit civil disorder, and aiding and abetting civil disorder.
The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is calling for a national day of protests on the first day of Orellana's trial, August 26th, to demand that the charges be dropped. To everyone who believes in the right to free speech, to protest ICE, and to say no to deportations, we urge you to organize a local protest on that day at the nearest federal courthouse.
Orellana has spent much of his adult life fighting for justice for Chicanos, Latinos, and many others. He has opposed the killings of Chicanos and Latinos by the LAPD, such as 14-year-old Jesse Romero, stood against US wars, protested in defense of others targeted by political repression, and has been a longtime member of the activist group, Centro CSO, based out of East LA. His life is full of examples of courage, integrity, and a dedication to justice.
In contrast, the US Attorney who charged him, Bilal Essayli, believes in Trump's racist MAGA vision and does a lot to carry it out. He defended Trump's decision to defy the state of California and deploy the California National Guard to put down anti-ICE protests. Essayli has charged other protesters, including David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union California, who was held on a $50,000 bond.
Another Centro CSO immigrants rights activist, Verita Topete, was ambushed by the FBI on June 26. They served her a warrant and seized her phone. Orellana and his fellow organizers like Topete stand for the community that protested Trump last month. Essayli represents Trump’s attempts to crush that movement.
This case against Orellana is political repression, meant to stop the growth of the national immigrants rights movement. The basis for his arrest was the claim that he drove a truck carrying face shields for protesters, as police geared up to put down protests with rubber bullets. People of conscience are standing with Orellana. because nothing he did or is accused of doing is wrong. There is no crime in protesting Trump, deportations, and ICE. To protest is his - and our - First Amendment right. It’s up to us to make sure that Essayli and Trump fail to repress this movement and silence Orellana's supporters.
Just as he stood up for immigrants last month, we call on everyone to stand up for Orellana on August 26 and demand the charges be dropped. On the June 27 National Day of Action for Alejandro Orellana, at least 16 cities held protests or press conferences in front of their federal courthouses. We’ll make sure there are even more on August 26. In addition to planning local protests, we ask that organizations submit statements of support and to join in the call to drop the charges.
You can find protest organizing materials on our website, stopfbi.org. Please send information about your local protests and any statements of support to stopfbi@gmail.com. We will see you in the streets!
On August 26, Protest at Your Federal Courthouse for Alejandro Orellana!
Drop the Charges Now!
Protesting ICE Is Not a Crime!
Copyright © 2025 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
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Dear Organization Coordinator
I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to invite your organization to consider co-sponsoring a regional proposal to implement Free Public Transit throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
This initiative directly supports low-income families, working people, seniors, youth, and others who rely on public transportation. It would eliminate fare barriers while helping to address climate justice, congestion, and air pollution—issues that disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities.
We believe your organization’s mission and values align strongly with this proposal. We are seeking endorsements, co-sponsorship, and coalition-building with groups that advocate for economic and racial equity.
I would love the opportunity to share a brief proposal or speak further if you're interested. Please let me know if there’s a staff member or program director I should connect with.
A description of our proposal is below:
sharethemoneyinstitute@gmail.com
Opinion: San Francisco Bay Area Should Provide Free Public Transportation
The San Francisco Bay Area is beautiful, with fantastic weather, food, diversity and culture. We’re also internationally famous for our progressiveness, creativity, and innovation.
I believe the next amazing world-leading feature we can add to our cornucopia of attractions is Free Public Transportation. Imagine how wonderful it would be if Muni, BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, SamTrans, SF Bay Ferries, and all the other transportation services were absolutely free?
Providing this convenience would deliver enormous, varied benefits to the 7.6 million SF Bay Area residents, and would make us a lovable destination for tourists.
This goal - Free Public Transportation - is ambitious, but it isn’t impossible, or even original. Truth is, many people world-wide already enjoy free rides in their smart municipalities.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is promoting free transit, with a plan that’s gained the endorsement of economists from Chile, United Kingdom, Greece, and the USA.
The entire nation of Luxembourg has offered free public transportation to both its citizens and visitors since 2020. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has given free transit to its residents since 2013. In France, thirty-five cities provide free public transportation. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, offers free rides to seniors, disabled, and students. In Maricá (Brazil) – the entire municipal bus system is free. Delhi (India) – offers free metro and bus travel for women. Madrid & Barcelona (Spain) offer free (or heavily discounted) passes to youth and seniors.
Even in the USA, free public transit is already here. Kansas City, Missouri, has enjoyed a free bus system free since 2020. Olympia, Washington, has fully fare-free intercity transit. Missoula, Montana, is free for all riders. Columbia, South Carolina, has free buses, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has enjoyed free transit for over a decade. Ithaca, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin, offer free transit to students.
But if the San Francisco Bay Area offered free transit, we’d be the LARGEST municipality in the world to offer universal Free Transit to everyone, resident and visitor alike. (Population of Luxembourg is 666,430. Kansas City 510,704. Population of San Francisco Bay Area is 7.6 million in the nine-county area)
Providing free transit would be tremendously beneficial to millions of people, for three major reasons:
1. Combat Climate Change - increased public ridership would reduce harmful CO2 fossil fuel emissions. Estimates from Kansas City and Tallinn Estonia’s suggest an increase in ridership of 15 percent. Another estimate from a pilot project in New York City suggests a ridership increase of 30 percent. These increases in people taking public transportation instead of driving their own cars indicates a total reduction of 5.4 - 10.8 tons of emissions would be eliminated, leading to better air quality, improved public health, and long-term climate gains.
2. Reduce Traffic Congestion & Parking Difficulty - Estimates suggest public transit would decrease traffic congestion in dense urban areas and choke points like the Bay Bridge by up to 15 percent. Car ownership would also be reduced. Traffic in San Francisco is the second-slowest in the USA (NYC is #1) and getting worse every year. Parking costs in San Francisco are also the second-worst in the USA (NYC #1), and again, it is continually getting worse.
3. Promote Social Equity - Free transit removes a financial cost that hits low-income residents hard. Transportation is the second-biggest expense after housing for many Americans. In the Bay Area, a monthly Clipper pass can cost $86–$98 per system, and much more for multi-agency commuters. For people living paycheck-to-paycheck, this is a significant cost. People of color, immigrants, youth, seniors, and people with disabilities rely more heavily on public transit. 55–70% of frequent transit riders in the Bay Area are from low-to moderate-income households, but these riders usually pay more per mile of transit than wealthy drivers. Free fares equalize access regardless of income or geography.
Free transit would help people 1) take jobs they couldn’t otherwise afford to commute to, thus improving the economy, 2) Stay in school without worrying about bus fare, 3) Get to appointments, child care, or grocery stores without skipping meals to afford transit.
To conclude: Free Public Transit should be seen as a civil rights and economic justice intervention.
The Cost? How can San Francisco Bay Area pay for Free Transit throughout our large region?
ShareTheMoney.Institute estimates the cost as $1.5 billion annually. This sum can acquired via multiple strategies. Corvallis, Oregon, has had free public bus service since 2011, paid for by a $3.63 monthly fee added to each utility bill. Missoula, Montana, funds their fare-free Mountain Line transit system, via a property tax mill levy. Madison, Wisconsin’s transit is supported by general fund revenues, state and federal grants, and partnerships/sponsorships from local businesses and organizations.
Ideally, we’d like the funds to be obtained from the 37 local billionaires who, combined, have an approximate wealth of $885 billion. The $1.5 billion for free transit is only 0.17% of the local billionaire's wealth. Sponsorship from the ultra-wealthy would be ideal. Billionaires can view the “fair transit donation” they are asked to contribute not as punishment or an “envy tax”, but as their investment to create a municipality that is better for everyone, themselves included. They can pride themselves on instigating a world-leading, legacy-defining reform that will etch their names in history as leaders of a bold utopian reform.
Our motto: “we want to move freely around our beautiful bay”
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Hank Pellissier - Share The Money Institute
Reverend Gregory Stevens - Unitarian Universalist EcoSocialist Network
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*  Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest. Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitskyhttps://freeboris.infoThe petition is also available on Change.org *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
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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) SpaceX Gets Billions From the Government. It Gives Little to Nothing Back in Taxes.
Elon Musk’s rocket company relies on federal contracts, but years of losses have most likely let it avoid paying federal income taxes, according to internal company documents.
By Susanne Craig and Kirsten Grind, Aug. 15, 2025
(Susanne Craig and Kirsten Grind can be sent tips at nytimes.com/tips.)
“SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite internet company, has received billions of dollars in federal contracts over its more than two-decade existence. But SpaceX has most likely paid little to no federal income taxes since its founding in 2002 and has privately told investors that it may never have to pay any, according to internal company documents reviewed by The New York Times. The rocket maker’s finances have long been secret because the company is privately held. But the documents reviewed by The Times show that SpaceX can seize on a legal tax benefit that allows it to use the more than $5 billion in losses it racked up by late 2021 to offset paying future taxable income. President Trump made a change in 2017, during his first term, that eliminated the tax benefit’s expiration date for all companies. For SpaceX, that means that nearly $3 billion of its losses can be indefinitely applied against future taxable income.”
Illustration by Joan Wong, Photographs by Meridith Kohut for The New York Times, Carly Zavala for The New York Times
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite internet company, has received billions of dollars in federal contracts over its more than two-decade existence.
But SpaceX has most likely paid little to no federal income taxes since its founding in 2002 and has privately told investors that it may never have to pay any, according to internal company documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The rocket maker’s finances have long been secret because the company is privately held. But the documents reviewed by The Times show that SpaceX can seize on a legal tax benefit that allows it to use the more than $5 billion in losses it racked up by late 2021 to offset paying future taxable income. President Trump made a change in 2017, during his first term, that eliminated the tax benefit’s expiration date for all companies. For SpaceX, that means that nearly $3 billion of its losses can be indefinitely applied against future taxable income.
Tax experts consulted by The Times said that not having to pay $5 billion in federal income taxes was substantial and notable for a company that has relied on contracts with the U.S. government to an unusual degree. SpaceX works closely with the Pentagon, NASA and other agencies, giving it a vital role in national security. In 2020, federal contracts generated almost 84 percent of the rocket maker’s revenue, according to the documents, a figure that had not been previously reported.
Larger tech companies — including some that have taken advantage of the tax benefit — often pay billions in federal income taxes. Microsoft, for one, said it expected to pay $14.1 billion in federal income taxes in its last fiscal year.
SpaceX can use the tax benefit even if its business thrives. By one measure of corporate profitability, the company had roughly $5 billion in earnings from its core operations last year, up from $2.6 billion in 2023, according to what the company has privately told some stakeholders.
Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a group that investigates corruption and waste in the government, said the tax benefit had historically been aimed at encouraging companies to stay in business during difficult times.
It was “quaint” that SpaceX was using it, she said, as it “was clearly not intended for a company doing so well.”
Mr. Musk has built SpaceX into one of the world’s most influential companies, which dominates the space industry through its rockets and its Starlink satellite internet service. It has been a jewel in the crown of his business empire and an essential source of his wealth and power, along with his electric vehicle company, Tesla. It has also given Mr. Musk a perch on the world stage, allowing him to weigh in on geopolitics.
Like many tech start-ups, SpaceX lost money as it plowed billions of dollars into building its business. Uber, Amazon, Tesla and other tech firms were also not profitable for years. As SpaceX has grown, the firm has been valued at more than $350 billion, crowning it one of the world’s most valuable private companies, according to the start-up tracker PitchBook.
Several news organizations have reported on aspects of SpaceX’s finances, which the company discloses to its investors and other stakeholders. But the documents reviewed by The Times — including income statements and balance sheets covering 23 years — offered new insight into SpaceX’s revenue sources, investors and taxes.
SpaceX appears to have paid some income taxes over the years, though likely not to the federal government, according to the documents. In one document, the company said it expected to pay $483,000 in income tax to foreign governments and $78,000 in state income tax in 2021. Separately, it reported paying $6,000 for income taxes in 2020 and 2021, but did not disclose if the payments were for federal, state or local governments.
SpaceX and Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Musk has often trumpeted SpaceX’s role in carrying out missions for NASA and other agencies. In June, he proudly posted on social media that the company had reached a milestone, as its “commercial revenue from space will exceed the entire budget of @NASA next year.”
Mr. Musk, who left his role as a close adviser to Mr. Trump in late May, founded SpaceX with the goal of shuttling humans to Mars and colonizing the Red Planet. He owned 44 percent of the company as of 2022, according to the documents.
Getting to Mars is an expensive endeavor, and SpaceX’s losses piled up from the start. In its first year of operation in 2002, the company lost about $4 million, the documents show. The next year, it lost $14.5 million. Those losses ballooned in subsequent years, reaching $341 million in 2020. In 2021, it lost $968 million.
All the while, Mr. Musk and Gwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX, pushed the company to grow. It began developing and testing Starship, a reusable rocket that Mr. Musk hopes will one day reach Mars.
By the end of 2021, SpaceX had accumulated almost $5.4 billion in tax losses, according to the most recent figure in the documents. Those losses generated the tax benefit, known as a net operating loss carryforward. It enables SpaceX to avoid federal income taxes on an equivalent amount of future taxable income. The benefit is available to all companies, including start-ups that lose money for years before turning a profit.
In one document, SpaceX told investors that it was “more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized,” meaning it might never pay taxes. The company cited, among other things, its past losses. Such language can be common for companies with a history of losses, and this outlook can be revised if their finances improve, said Robert Willens, an accounting analyst who runs his own firm.
SpaceX also benefited from a sweeping package of tax cuts that Mr. Trump signed in 2017. One change was eliminating a 20-year limit on the use of tax-loss carryforwards, meaning that losses generated after 2017 no longer expired. That change allows SpaceX to apply nearly $3 billion in carryforwards indefinitely.
In addition, the company had $227 million in carryforwards that could offset state income taxes, the documents show. It had more than $1.1 billion in other federal and state tax credits.
“Given the size of its net operating loss, the company almost surely didn’t pay any federal tax for years,” said Gregg Polsky, who teaches tax law at New York University School of Law. “And it’s so large, it’s unlikely it has paid taxes even if it has had positive taxable income in recent years.”
The tax benefits may have come in handy in recent years as SpaceX’s finances have improved, at least by one measure. The company has privately said its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization nearly doubled to roughly $5 billion last year from 2023. That figure, known as EBITDA, is one way of measuring corporate profits but is not the same as the bottom line and does not mean that SpaceX is paying taxes.
Starting in the mid-2000s, SpaceX began landing hundreds of federal contracts, including one with NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and another with a U.S. intelligence agency for $1.8 billion to provide spy satellites. Some contracts are expected to generate substantial revenue for years, according to the documents.
The documents, reviewed by The Times, provide the first insights into how heavily SpaceX depends on federal contracts. In 2020, they generated about $1.4 billion, or 83.8 percent, of the company’s total revenue that year. The next year, federal contracts brought in about $1.7 billion, or 76 percent, of the total revenue, the documents show.
Mr. Musk said in June that he expected SpaceX’s revenue to reach $15.5 billion this year. That is up from about $7.4 billion in 2023, the documents show. (Revenue includes sales of the company’s products.)
A big part of that growth stems from Starlink, which has six million subscribers, according to the company. The documents showed that SpaceX told investors that Starlink had 2.5 million users in 2023 and generated roughly $8 billion in revenue last year, more than double the previous year’s revenue and outpacing SpaceX’s rocket division in both years.
The documents do not include SpaceX’s net profits or losses for the past two years. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company generated $55 million in profit on $1.5 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2023. Companies can simultaneously report profits to shareholders and tax losses to the I.R.S. in any given year because of the differences in how certain items are treated.
To fund SpaceX, Mr. Musk has relied on longtime investors like Fidelity and Google and friends like Antonio Gracias, who is also a SpaceX board member. The documents reviewed by The Times identified others who had not been publicly associated with the company.
A company called AI RT SPX Holdings is listed as an investor on a 2020 document. It appears to be affiliated with Access Industries, an investment firm founded by Len Blavatnik, the billionaire investor who was born in Ukraine and raised in Moscow and made his fortune in the privatization era in the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed. Now a British and American citizen, he has become a prolific philanthropist and investor in American and European companies.
The document was signed by two Access executives, including Mr. Blavatnik’s brother Alex Blavatnik. It is unclear whether Access Industries remains a SpaceX investor. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Blavatnik declined to comment.
Chris Anderson, the entrepreneur who is the head of the organization behind TED Talks, appears to have invested in SpaceX through a company called Excalbians. He did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Musk has delivered several TED Talks in the past.
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2) Draft of White House Report Suggests Kennedy Won’t Push Strict Pesticide Regulations
The report is not final, but indicates good news for the food and agriculture industries.
By Dani Blum, Benjamin Mueller and Alice Callahan, Published Aug. 14, 2025, Updated Aug. 15, 2025
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., second from right, the health secretary, during a news conference at the Health and Human Services Department in Washington in April. Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times
A highly anticipated White House report on the health of American children would stop short of proposing direct restrictions on ultraprocessed foods and pesticides that the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called major threats, according to a draft of the document that was reviewed by The New York Times.
The report, if adopted, would be good news for the food and agriculture industries, which feared far more restrictive proposals than the ones outlined in the draft. Through his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, Mr. Kennedy has sought to overhaul the nation’s diet by pushing those industries to make major changes.
The draft includes an array of policy proposals calling for research into topics as distinct as electromagnetic radiation and children’s oral health.
It also recommends action on health initiatives, like efforts to increase breastfeeding rates, address infertility and educate the public on the dangers of vaping.
Questions about a possible push for new pesticide regulations were raised in May when the White House released an initial report, from a presidential commission chaired by Mr. Kennedy, that raised strong concerns about possible links between pesticides and childhood diseases. It also linked the dominance of ultraprocessed foods in children’s diets to a range of chronic diseases.
Those findings touched off tensions between Mr. Kennedy’s movement and Republican lawmakers who have traditionally drawn support from powerful agriculture, food and drug lobbyists.
The Times obtained the draft of the new report from a former federal official. An industry official confirmed that it was nearly identical to a copy the administration had recently shown the official at the White House.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, on Thursday would not verify the draft. At this stage, any draft would go through a number of revisions before it is finalized. The document The Times reviewed was labeled “pre-decisional” and dated Aug. 6.
Called the “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,” the report comes from the commission led by Mr. Kennedy, which includes cabinet secretaries and agency heads from across the government.
The White House has not said when the report will be made public, though it was to have been presented to President Trump on Tuesday, the deadline set by Mr. Trump’s executive order establishing the “MAHA Commission.” The final report is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
The draft report says that environmental regulators will work with “food and agricultural stakeholders” to ensure that the public is aware of and confident in existing pesticide review procedures. It described those procedures as “robust” and did not propose new restrictions.
It also says the Trump administration will back research on technologies to try to help farmers reduce pesticide use and on the health effects of Americans’ cumulative exposure to chemicals.
After the first report was published in May, agriculture groups, including the American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association, urged the Trump administration to listen to farmers as the commission prepared its follow-up report outlining a strategy.
The draft reviewed by The Times does not mention how the proposed research and the new policy initiatives would be funded or how much money might be allocated to them.
But it says that the Department of Health and Human Services will form a working group to evaluate “overprescription trends” involving mental health medications, such as S.S.R.I.s and stimulants, for children. It reiterates Mr. Kennedy’s pledge to study the “root causes” of autism.
Mr. Kennedy has spent much of his tenure as health secretary characterizing modern American childhood as a state of stress and sickness, with children mainly eating ultraprocessed food, which he has called “poison,” tethered to screens and reliant on pills and shots.
And he has railed against the pharmaceutical industry, which he says exerts undue influence over scientific research, all while the Trump administration has decimated funding for many academic research programs. Mr. Kennedy has also condemned scientific experts. In June, he fired all the members of an influential vaccine advisory panel.
The first report, from May, reflected many of Mr. Kennedy’s key talking points. It was heavily scrutinized. While some scientists applauded its focus on flaws within the American food system, many noted it misrepresented the scientific consensus on issues like vaccines. The report also cited studies that did not exist.
In recent weeks, Mr. Kennedy’s aides and allies have publicized what they described as the administration’s most significant steps to improve American health. These include persuading some food makers to phase out petroleum-based food dyes, working with several states to remove soda and candy from their food stamp programs and trying to tighten oversight of food additives. The draft reiterates that the administration will continue these efforts.
Some researchers have cautioned that such steps may not do much to improve the overall healthfulness of the American food supply.
Ultraprocessed foods, which make up about 62 percent of the calories consumed by U.S. children, are explicitly mentioned in the draft of the second report only once, in a line about the administration’s effort to define them. The near-omission of ultraprocessed foods from the draft report raises questions about the administration’s appetite for regulation, which the food industry is likely to vehemently oppose.
The draft does describe prioritizing “whole, healthy” foods in federal programs like those providing meals in schools. It suggests offering these foods in “MAHA boxes” for food stamp recipients.
The draft touches on a number of other topics, including vaccines, a focus of Mr. Kennedy’s. It says the health department will develop a framework for “Ensuring America has the Best Childhood Vaccine Schedule.”
Mr. Kennedy, one of the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptics, recently pledged to overhaul the nation’s system to compensate people harmed by vaccines. Earlier this month, he canceled nearly $500 million in contracts for mRNA vaccines.
The draft report also suggests that the government will consider developing guidelines that would limit marketing of unhealthy foods directly to children and will more vigorously enforce restrictions around direct-to-consumer drug advertising. It says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will update its recommendations on fluoride in water.
On Tuesday, Calley Means, a senior adviser to Mr. Kennedy, spoke at a Heritage Foundation event on the role of agriculture in public health, presenting farmers as key players in American health care. “We are not going to win if the soybean farmers and the corn growers are our enemy,” he said.
There are signs that the report, as drafted, could land with a thud among Mr. Kennedy’s followers. In July, 500 people, including leaders of advocacy groups aligned with Mr. Kennedy’s movement, sent a letter to Mr. Kennedy and other members of the White House commission urging them to ban pesticides like glyphosate.
Hundreds of people tied to the MAHA movement, including Vani Hari, a prominent food activist and MAHA influencer, also sent a letter addressed to Mr. Trump on Monday urging him to take action against protections for pesticide manufacturers.
Over the first six months of his presidency, Mr. Trump has largely supported Mr. Kennedy’s decisions, after urging him during the campaign to “go wild” on health. This month, though, after Mr. Kennedy canceled the contracts for mRNA vaccines, Mr. Trump told reporters that the mRNA coronavirus vaccine development initiative from his first term, Project Warp Speed, was “one of the most incredible things ever done in this country.” He said he had scheduled a meeting with Mr. Kennedy to discuss the cancellations.
While Mr. Trump convened the commission, and put Mr. Kennedy at the helm, he does not have to follow its guidance.
“Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interests,” Mr. Trump said in May during an event celebrating the release of the commission’s first report. “I want this group to do what they have to do.”
“In some cases, it won’t be nice, or it won’t be pretty,” he added, “but we have to do it.”
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3) The Trauma of Childhood in Gaza
Over the past two years, tens of thousands of children in the territory have been killed, wounded or orphaned. Childhood as they once knew it has ceased to exist.
By Patrick Kingsley and Bilal Shbair, Aug. 15, 2025
Patrick Kingsley reported from Jerusalem, and Bilal Shbair from Khan Younis, Al-Mawasi and Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip.
Wounded Palestinian children after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in April. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times
To numb the traumas of wartime Gaza, Rahma Abu Abed, 12, plays a game with her friends. They ask one another: What did you eat before the war? What did your home look like before the war? What would you wear if you had new clothes?
For Rahma, who recounted these details in an interview alongside her mother, Heba, the answers are often less soothing than tragic. She hasn’t eaten meat in months, her parents said. Her home in southern Gaza has been flattened, satellite imagery shows. Her clothes are mostly under the rubble. The beach, where her parents occasionally took her as a treat before the war, has become her full-time home.
Rahma now lives in a storehouse for fishing equipment with her parents and four siblings, who share the space with several displaced families. She usually eats one meal a day, often lentils or pasta, her parents said. Trying to remember what good food looked like, Rahma plays with the wet sand, shaping it into imaginary meals.
“If someone gave me a choice between crayons and bread,” Rahma said, “I would choose the bread.”
After 22 months of war, childhood in Gaza hardly exists.
There are about 1.1 million children in the territory, and nearly all require mental health or psychosocial support, according to research by the United Nations. Most of them have been out of school for nearly two years. After Israel’s 11-week blockade on food this year, all children younger than 5 are at risk of acute malnutrition, the U.N. said.
Israel’s military operation, which began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians under the age of 18, according to the Gazan health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. About two-thirds of them did not reach their teenage years. A New York Times investigation last year found that since the start of the war, the Israeli military has significantly loosened safeguards meant to protect civilians, including children.
“Normal markers of childhood are gone, replaced by hunger, fear and all-consuming trauma,” said James Elder, a spokesman for UNICEF who has regularly visited Gaza throughout the war. “This war is being waged as if childhood itself has no place in Gaza.”
The Israeli military has said that it tries to minimize harm to all civilians, including children, and blamed Hamas militants for hiding among them, sometimes alongside their own families. Soldiers with the Israel Defense Forces have reported seeing children used as lookouts by Palestinian militant groups, which also kidnapped and killed children on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Intentional harm to civilians, and especially to children, is strictly prohibited and completely contrary to both international law and the binding orders of the I.D.F.,” the military said in a statement.
A Life of Hunger
As Rahma flicked recently through prewar photos on a cellphone, she stopped at an image of herself at an ice-cream parlor.
“I just stared at it,” she said. “I felt like I didn’t recognize those days.”
Life for Rahma, like that of many children in Gaza, has become one of hunger. Israel has limited food supplies to the enclave since the earliest days of the war, and the situation has worsened since March, when Israel began its blockade. In late May, Israel allowed some food back into the territory, using private contractors to distribute the food from a few sites.
But for families like Rahma’s, that did not solve the problem. Reaching the sites is dangerous and exhausting in part because they were built behind Israeli military lines, far from where most people live. Hundreds have been shot and killed by Israeli soldiers as they try to reach the sites, and those who get there unscathed often find the food has already been taken. Israel says its soldiers have fired “warning shots” at people who have strayed from designated access routes toward Israeli military lines.
Reaching the sites is a process that favors the fittest. Rahma’s father, Nidal Abu Abed, 42, has often been knocked over during the rush toward the sites, and he was once nearly shot, according to Rahma’s mother, Heba Abu Abed, 32. Because he rarely manages to secure a box of food, Ms. Abu Abed added, her husband is regularly forced to gather lentil grains or bits of broken pasta that have spilled onto the ground.
“He picks them up, I clean them, and I rinse them again and again to remove the sand or dust,” Ms. Abu Abed said. “Then I cook them for the children. That’s our meal, once a day, if we’re lucky.”
Rahma’s younger sister, Rital, 2, is just learning to talk. The process of seeking aid looms so large in Rital’s life that it even dominates her limited vocabulary.
“Where’s your dad?” Rital was asked on a recent afternoon.
“Baba aid!” she replied.
While some food is available in the markets, it has often been unaffordable for families like Rahma’s; her parents, like the vast majority of Gazans, have no work. Though food prices have dropped in recent days after a rise in deliveries, they are still astronomically high. On Aug. 13, according to the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry, flour cost more than 10 times its prewar price.
Rahma helps her family survive by fetching water. She stands in line every day with several empty plastic containers, waiting for a water truck sent by an aid group. The process lasts for hours in the hot sun, often until the afternoon. People often push past her, knowing she can do little to stop them.
To alleviate the food crisis, which drew global condemnation, Israel recently loosened restrictions on U.N. food convoys and permitted foreign air forces to airdrop aid packages over Gaza.
When Rahma gazes up at those planes, she said, she wishes one would fly her family to a safer place.
“I imagine riding on it like a hot-air balloon, going to a country with no war — just food, school and toys,” she said.
A World Without School
Hala Abu Hilal, 10, pretends to be a teacher to keep her four younger sisters entertained. She stands up in their tent and recites things she remembers from school — sometimes simple math equations, sometimes the alphabet.
“Two plus four equals?” she calls.
“Six!” they reply.
In today’s Gaza, this game of make-believe is as close as most children get to school. Some 95 percent of schools have been damaged in the fighting, leaving most children without education for nearly two academic years, according to U.N. data. Many schools have been turned into displacement camps. Israel has regularly struck them, saying that Hamas leaders have used them as cover.
Hala’s school, like her home, is inaccessible. She is from Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, which has largely been flattened. She and her family fled their home last year and now live in a displacement camp close to a beach miles to the north.
In this camp, there is currently no school, according to Hala’s mother, Sanaa Abu Hilal. For a few months, volunteers in the camp ran a makeshift classroom, teaching ad hoc classes in a tent, but that system ended when the last truce collapsed in March, Ms. Abu Hilal said.
The U.N. tries to provide basic teaching via an online portal; some teachers also send educational material to parents via WhatsApp. But for families like Hala’s, the internet is often inaccessible. It’s hard to connect for prolonged periods to the phone network, and phone batteries run out quickly. Ms. Abu Hilal has a phone with a broken screen that barely responds to her touch.
Instead, Ms. Abu Hilal tries to teach the children herself — recently, she did Arabic grammar with Hala, simple geometry with Bisan, 6, and the alphabet with Deema, 5. But the sisters have lost four semesters of learning, while Bisan, who should have started school this year, has never received formal education.
Their sister, Tala, 8, seems most affected by the lack of classes. With no school to attend, Tala whiles away the day inventing games, some of which are disturbingly warped by the violence that surrounds her. Once, her mother recalled, Tala picked up a stone and said to her sisters: “I’ll throw this stone. Pretend it’s an F-16 missile.”
Then she hurled it at a tent.
Before the war, Ms. Abu Hilal said, Tala was the star of her class and sometimes got up in the middle of the night to cram for tests. “I wanted to be a doctor,” Tala said in an interview alongside her mother. “I wanted my daddy to build a hospital for me. I wanted to treat everyone for free. My daddy is in heaven now.”
Their father, Ashraf Abu Hilal, a former janitor, tried to return to their home last August, seeking to retrieve some goods that he could sell for food, according to Ms. Abu Hilal. He never returned.
A day later, his brother spotted him lying dead in a nearby street, Ms. Abu Hilal said. Nearby gunfire prevented the brother from reaching Ashraf’s body or discerning how he had died, Ms. Abu Hilal added. By the time they could reach the street safely, months later, little was left of the body, she said. (The Israeli military said it was unaware of the episode.)
“I hear how other kids call their dads — and their dad’s reply,” Ms. Abu Hilal recalled Hala telling her. “I wish baba could answer me, too.”
A Childhood Without Parents
On one page in his notebook, Sajed al-Ghalban, 10, has drawn a picture of his mother and father at their old home in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. On another page, there’s a drawing of his mother taking him to a vegetable stand.
This is the closest Sajed can get to a hug from his parents. His father, Muhammad, and mother, Shireen, were killed in a strike that also destroyed their home in the third week of the war in 2023. The Israeli military said the house had been used for “terror purposes” and declined to comment on whether Mr. al-Ghalban was the target. One of Sajed’s surviving aunts, Amany Abu Salah, said Sajed’s father had no links to militant groups. It was not possible to verify either assertion.
Sajed survived the attack unscathed, but his sister Alma, now 12, and brother Abdallah, now 8, suffered head injuries, according to video of the aftermath and their surviving relatives. Alma was later evacuated to Turkey for treatment, relatives told The Times.
For nearly two years, Sajed and Abdallah were cared for by another aunt. Then, in July, that aunt was killed in a strike on a nearby tent that also wounded the boys, according to Ms. Abu Salah, the surviving aunt. Now, they live in another tent with Ms. Abu Salah and her three children.
The boys’ skin is still scarred by the shrapnel from the second strike — Abdallah has scars on his stomach and shoulder; Sajed on his foot and back. The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying it was aimed at Hamas militants.
The brothers are among at least 40,000 children who have lost at least one parent since the start of the war, according to statistics published by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which employs thousands of officials in Gaza.
The children live in an encampment that local volunteers have created mainly to care for those orphaned in the war; in this camp alone, there are roughly 1,200 orphans, according to the camp administrators.
With no parents and a younger brother to care for, Sajed is suspended between childhood and premature adulthood. Sometimes he draws childish pictures in his notebook. Or he plays marbles and hide-and-seek with other children in the camp. But he is also increasingly trying to support his aunt in keeping their makeshift household together, according to Ms. Abu Salah.
He sweeps the tent each morning. He lines up for hours in the heat to fetch water. He fixes the tent poles when they collapse. He makes kites from scrap material and sells them for pocket change that he saves to buy food for himself and Abdallah.
“I’m the man now,” Sajed told his aunt, she said. “I’ll go buy what we need.”
Recently, Sajed, remembering how his father kept a rifle at home, said he wanted to help guard the aid convoys that bring food into Gaza. He also offered to make the perilous journey to the aid distribution sites, despite the risk of getting shot by soldiers or crushed by the crowds.
“How would you do that?” Ms. Abu Salah remembered asking him.
“I’ll do it just like the men do,” Sajed replied, she said.
Yet, sometimes Sajed just wants to be a child. He misses the sweets he ate before the war, he said. He misses being with his mother in their kitchen. He misses going to the park with his father.
“Why do all kids now have to wait in line for water?” Sajed asked.
“I just want to go home, to go to school,” he said.
“I just want the war to stop.”
Johnatan Reiss and Lia Lapidot contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.
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4) Man Fleeing an Immigration Raid Dies After Running Onto an L.A. Freeway
The man was hit by a vehicle. It happened about a month after an immigrant fell from a greenhouse and later died following a raid in Ventura County.
By Jesus Jiménez, Reporting from Los Angeles, Aug. 14, 2025
An immigration raid at a Home Depot in Monrovia, Calif., on Thursday caused a man to flee onto a freeway. He was struck by a vehicle and died, officials said. Credit...Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
A man died on Thursday after he was struck by vehicle on a freeway in Monrovia, Calif., as he was trying to flee an immigration raid at a Home Depot, officials said.
Federal immigration agents were seen conducting an operation near a Home Depot on Thursday morning in Monrovia, a city about 20 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, according to Dylan Feik, the city manager.
As the operation was unfolding, a man ran off, crossing a street and then entering the eastbound lanes of Interstate 210, a freeway. The man, who was not identified, was taken to a hospital, where he died, Mr. Feik said in a statement.
Details about the immigration operation were unclear.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the person was “not being pursued by any D.H.S. law enforcement.”
The agency added: “We do not know their legal status. We were not aware of this incident or notified by California Highway Patrol until hours after operations in the area had concluded.”
Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
A portion of Interstate 210 was briefly closed. The California Highway Patrol was investigating the episode.
“While we understand community members want to know more about the incident, the information provided in this update is all the city has to provide at this time,” Mr. Feik said. “We extend our condolences for the individual and his family.”
Palmira Figueroa, a spokeswoman with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said that organizers were working to learn more about the crash and the man’s identity.
Ms. Figueroa said that 10 to 12 day laborers were believed to have been detained during the immigration operation. She described the operation as “pretty aggressive” and said that agents had pursued day laborers in their vehicles.
Judy Chu, a Democratic member of Congress whose district includes a portion of Monrovia, said on social media that the man’s death was “a result of the Trump administration’s strategy of sowing intimidation and fear throughout Los Angeles.”
The fatal crash on Thursday came about a month after a similar episode in July at a cannabis farm in Ventura County.
During an immigration raid there last month, a Mexican farmworker died from injuries after falling several stories from a greenhouse as he was trying to flee immigration agents. The man, who was later identified as Jaime Alanís, fell more than 30 feet and suffered injuries to his spine and his skull, according to the United Farm Workers union.
Monrovia is one of dozens of cities across Southern California that have been targets of federal immigration operations this summer as the Trump administration has sought to increase the number of arrests of undocumented immigrants.
Home Depot stores across the region have regularly been targeted by federal immigration agents. Day laborers often gather outside the stores looking for work. Last week, federal immigration agents conducted a raid, named Operation Trojan Horse, outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles. In that operation, agents jumped out of a Penske rental truck and ran onto the streets. The raid led to the arrests of 16 undocumented immigrants.
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5) Groups calls on Delaware to revoke Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s corporate charter over complicity in genocide
BY MICHAEL ARRIA, AUGUST 15, 2025
Palestinians carry food parcels distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Palestinians in Gaza are being routinely killed while attempting to retrieve aid from GHF-run ‘aid distribution’ sites. (Photo by Omar Ashtawy/APAImages)
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is calling on Delaware’s Attorney General to investigate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is registered in the state.
This week, CCR sent a letter to Delaware AG Kathy Jennings detailing how the GHF is complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza. According to CCR, Jennings is obligated to sue the organization in order to revoke its corporate charter.
“GHF woefully fails to adhere to fundamental humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence and has proven to be an opportunistic and obsequious entity masquerading as a humanitarian organization,” declares the letter.
Jennings has not publicly acknowledged the demand.
“Attorney General Jennings has the power to significantly change the course of history and save lives by taking action to dissolve GHF,” said CRR attorney Adina Marx-Arpadi in a statement. “We call on her to use her power to stop this dangerous entity that is masquerading as a charitable organization while furthering death and violence in Gaza, and to do so without delay.”
The CCR letter comes just weeks after a similar letter was delivered to Jennings by Delawareans for Palestinian Human Rights (DelPHR).
“The GHF is an agent of the US and Israel and is being used to starve (a war crime), ethnically cleanse (a war crime) and intentionally kill Gazan civilians (a war crime),” it read. “Today, Delawareans have affirmed that we do not want to harbor war criminals in our state, and consequently have asked Attorney General Jennings to begin proceedings to dissolve the GHF based on its violations of international humanitarian and US law.”
The GHF has faced backlash since it effectively took over food distribution duties in Gaza in May 2025. Unlike UNWRA, which is a strictly humanitarian agency and was previously in charge of distributing aid in Gaza, GHF relies on private security forces and logistics companies. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed at the sites since GHF took over. The UN has condemned the current system as “inherently unsafe.”
In June, nearly 200 charities signed onto a joint statement calling for an end to the system.
“Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” read the statement.
A number of Democratic lawmakers have also demanded an end to the distribution structure.
“We urge you to immediately cease all U.S. funding for GHF and resume support for the existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms with enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need,” demands a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, led Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and signed by 21 Senators.
Last month, former GHF contractor Anthony Aguilar said that he witnessed Israeli soldiers commit war crimes at Gaza aid sites.
“In my entire career, I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population,” said Aguilar.
“I have never witnessed that in all the places that I have been deployed to war, until I was in Gaza — at the hands of IDF and U.S. contractors,” he continued.
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6) U.S. Pauses Visitor Visas for Gazans After Right-Wing Outcry
The move blocked a pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States, including young children, who have arrived in recent weeks with serious conditions.
By Hamed Aleaziz and Ken Bensinger, Aug. 16, 2025
Fadi Alzant, 6, arrived with his mother from Gaza for emergency medical treatment in New York in May. Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
The Trump administration announced Saturday that it had paused approvals of visitor visas for people from Gaza, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States, including young children who arrived in recent weeks with serious conditions.
The State Department said it would assess the process behind those visas. “All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review,” the department said in a statement on X Saturday morning.
The move came after an intense lobbying campaign by the right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who called the incoming flights a “national security threat” in a flurry of social media posts starting on Friday that targeted a nonprofit aiding in medical evacuations.
Just weeks ago, the nonprofit, HEAL Palestine, an Ohio-based group that helps Palestinian families and children, began orchestrating what it called the “largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the U.S.,” bringing injured and ill Gazan children to the United States for care.
To date, the group says it has evacuated 63 injured children for treatment, including 11, from age 6 to 15, who were flown to hospitals in nine U.S. cities this month. Many of the children had lost limbs during the conflict in Gaza. They are expected to travel to Egypt to rejoin their families once their medical care is completed, according to HEAL Palestine.
The group, which was founded last year and also operates food kitchens in Gaza, did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Dr. Zeena Salman, a co-founder of HEAL Palestine, said in a statement that the medical evacuation flights were a matter of life or death. “These children could not wait,” Dr. Salman said. “Their lives are at stake, and this mission is about giving them a future.”
Julia Gelatt, the associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said that more than 9,000 people with travel documents from the Palestinian Authority had entered the United States on visitor visas in the 2024 fiscal year.
“This move is consistent with the Trump administration’s overall treatment of immigrants as constituting a threat to U.S. public safety,” Ms. Gelatt said. “But it is extremely hard to imagine how someone coming to the U.S. for lifesaving medical treatment would present a national security risk.”
Ms. Loomer, who wields extraordinary power in shaping Trump administration decisions over personnel and policy despite not having an official role in government, said she first learned of the flights earlier this month.
“I felt like this is something that needs attention,” she said in an interview. “Under the Trump administration, they are actively importing Gazans into the U.S. Clearly this is not what we voted for.”
On social media, Ms. Loomer called attention to a video posted on Aug. 6 by HEAL Palestine, showing Palestinian children arriving at the San Francisco airport.
She subsequently posted about flights to St. Louis, San Antonio and Houston and claimed without providing evidence that the nonprofit was connected to Hamas, tagging state and federal officials in her posts.
Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, responded to her late on Friday on X, saying that he was “deeply concerned about the incoming flights” and was making inquiries.
Ms. Loomer said she spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday night to alert him to the flights and what she called the threat of an Islamic invasion.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Loomer has a long history of anti-Islam activism. In 2017, she wrote a social media post that cheered the drowning deaths of 2,000 refugees who were trying to flee violence in Syria and other countries with large Muslim populations by crossing the Mediterranean.
For years, she has pushed for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Sunni Islamist movement, to be designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, lobbying both members of Congress and the administration. Last week, Mr. Rubio said such a designation from the State Department was “in the works.”
Medical flights for children affected by the conflict in Gaza have been occurring for well over a year, organized by a variety of charities.
Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency room physician who volunteers for HEAL Palestine, said that he had previously treated some of the children who recently arrived to the Bay Area during his time in Gaza. He said that the injuries included orthopedic trauma and severe burns and that they were exacerbated by malnutrition.
“I am saddened to see fear and hate permeate within a small yet vocal segment of our society, whereby people have dehumanized children,” he said, by pushing for policies to withhold “life- and limb-saving care.”
Andrew Miller, a former senior State Department official on Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the Biden administration, said that Gazans could only get visas to the U.S. by appearing at an embassy in Jerusalem, Cairo or Amman and undergo security checks.
“What’s more, just to get to a U.S. embassy outside of Gaza, the Israeli military and security services had to clear them and anyone accompanying them,” he said, adding: “From what I saw, any insinuation that we were taking an unusual security risk in these cases is baseless.”
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7) Why Is the U.S. Offering a $5 Million Reward for a Haitian Gang Leader?
A major bounty has been offered for help apprehending Jimmy Cherizier, a gang leader known as “Barbecue.” Experts have doubts about whether it will make any difference.
By Frances Robles, Aug. 16, 2025
This past week, the United States government announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Jimmy Cherizier, a high-profile Haitian gang leader known as “Barbecue.”
The bounty was offered on Tuesday, the same day that a criminal indictment in federal court in Washington accused Mr. Cherizier of conspiring to circumvent U.S. economic sanctions. The sanctions aim to prevent him from receiving money or support from the United States.
The moves were intended as a major escalation in the Trump administration’s crusade against officially designated foreign terrorist organizations, like the one Mr. Cherizier leads. But as killings, poverty and displacement in Haiti rise, will the case against “Barbecue” make any difference?
Who is ‘Barbecue’?
Mr. Cherizier, 48, is the most-wanted man in Haiti. A former police officer, he is the most visible figure of “Viv Ansanm,” a coalition of armed groups wreaking havoc on the nation.
He has told reporters that his nickname was derived not — as urban lore suggests — from roasting his victims, but from the fact that when he was a child, his mother ran a fried chicken kiosk. Long the leader of armed groups operating in the Delmas 6 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital, he emerged to lead an alliance of gangs known as the “G9 Family and Allies” and then “Viv Ansanm,” an umbrella group that formed to attack state institutions.
In November 2018, while serving as an officer in the Haitian National Police, Mr. Cherizier planned and participated in an attack against civilians in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood known as La Saline, according to human rights organizations, the Haitian police and the United Nations.
At least 71 people were killed, over 400 houses destroyed and at least seven women raped by gangs. He was fired after 14 years as a police officer and an arrest warrant was issued, but he has yet to be apprehended — even though he often makes himself available for media interviews.
In the interviews, Mr. Cherizier has denied the allegations and portrayed himself as a revolutionary out to topple corrupt oligarchs. He has acknowledged that gangs have committed atrocities, but he has called for dialogue to end the crisis.
In one interview, he said he had something in common with President Trump.
“During his campaign, he said, ‘We need to drain the swamp,’” Mr. Cherizier told SBS Australia. “That’s the same thing I want to do in Haiti.”
What are the gangs actually doing?
The gangs succeeded in toppling the government last year, after they banded together to attack police stations, hospitals and neighborhoods, but it is unclear what their ultimate goal is.
Gangs set up road blocks and charge tolls, making it difficult for people in Port-au-Prince to travel. They regularly kidnap people for ransom and have burned down countless homes. The main airport has been closed to international flights since November because gangs shot at passing aircraft.
The U.N. estimates that 1.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and in the first half of the year more than 3,100 people have been killed.
Will the federal indictment change anything?
“There’s a good reason that there’s a $5 million reward for information leading to Cherizier’s arrest,” Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement. “He’s a gang leader responsible for heinous human rights abuses, including violence against American citizens in Haiti.”
But most experts who follow Haiti said the U.S. indictment was largely “performative,” given how long he has eluded capture. Large bounties for other gang leaders have yielded no results.
“This is very little, very late,” said Alexandra Filippova, a senior staff attorney with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.
Others noted that the 20-page accusation against Mr. Cherizier documented surprisingly low sums of money being funneled to him.
The indictment accuses a virtually unknown Haitian American trucker in North Carolina, Bazile Richardson, of sending Mr. Cherizier money through third parties. One transfer was for $25 to re-up his phone plan, and another was for $50.
A dozen transfers noted by prosecutors add up to less than $40,000.
The transfers were illegal because in 2020 the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Mr. Cherizier under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Mr. Richardson, who was arrested in Texas in July, has pleaded not guilty, court records show. An assistant federal public defender representing him did not respond to a request for comment.
If the United States wants to capture people like Mr. Cherizier, there is much more it could do, said Gédéon Jean, a human-rights activist in Haiti. It could provide material, technical and technological resources to the national police, and join local authorities to mount special operations, he said.
“That way, they could easily capture Barbecue and other gang leaders,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s just one more reward.”
In a video released after his indictment, Mr. Cherizier said the charges against his co-defendant were false. “If the F.B.I. wants me, I’m here,” he said. “I am willing to collaborate with them on one condition: There can be no lies told.”
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8) North Carolina Confederate Monument Goes Too Far, Lawsuit Says
A long battle over the pro-slavery words on a Tyrrell County statue intensifies as the Trump administration reclaims Confederate imagery.
By Audra D. S. Burch, Reporting from Columbia, N.C., Aug. 17, 2025
A confederate monument next to the Tyrrell County Courthouse has overlooked Main Street in Columbia, N.C., for 123 years. Credit...Cornell Watson for The New York Times
The first time Sherryreed Robinson remembers noticing the words — “IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES” — etched on a Confederate monument in Columbia, N.C., she was a teenager performing with her high school band on the steps of the Tyrrell County courthouse. She remembers approaching the 23-foot Confederate soldier statue and focusing on those six words.
For Ms. Robinson, a high school junior at the time, “faithful” and “slaves” did not feel right together.
About three decades later, with the 123-year-old monument still overlooking the historic town’s Main Street, she joined a federal lawsuit calling for the “faithful slaves” inscription to be removed or covered. It is believed to be the only courthouse monument in the country to “textually express” such a message, according to the lawsuit.
“I just remember thinking that slaves had to be so-called faithful or they would be punished or even worse,” Ms. Robinson, 50, said. “As an adult, the words sitting on the grounds of a courthouse made me question whether Blacks could really receive justice there.”
Earlier this year, a federal judge allowed a portion of the 2024 lawsuit to move forward. County officials have long contended that a state monument protection law restricts them from moving the statue or making changes to it.
The Columbia case is unfolding amid a reverse reckoning of sorts, as the Trump administration reclaims Confederate iconography, part of a sweeping mission to shift or reframe how American history is presented.
In June, President Trump directed the military to restore Confederate names that had been removed from military bases, but drawing from other people with similar names or initials. In early August, the National Park Service announced plans to restore a statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general and diplomat, and return it to a public square near the Capitol grounds. The 11-foot statue was toppled and set on fire by demonstrators during 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Washington. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a Confederate sculpture that had been removed from Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia in 2023 to be reinstalled.
Last year, Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County, a civic group made up of mostly older Black residents, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina against the county.
The suit argued that the “faithful slave” message constitutes racially discriminatory government speech, violating the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, and called for the county to remove or cover the message.
David Clegg, the county manager and attorney, declined to comment beyond the legal pleadings. In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, filed in October 2024, the defendants argued the body has legislative immunity and that they are bound by a 2015 North Carolina monument protection law that limits when an “object of remembrance” on public property can be moved or altered.
“The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that county commissioners are bound by this statute, and that commissioners who are bound by this statute are not motivated by a discriminatory intent,” it reads. “Tyrrell County should not be subject to liability based on its decision to follow state law.”
With 160 years having passed since the end of the Civil War, Confederate symbols — mounted on courthouse lawns, towering over town squares, affixed to schools and streets and parks — are celebrated, contested and used as a lens on American history and race relations. Critics consider Confederate imagery racist, an offensive tribute to the Lost Cause. Supporters contend that they are a way to honor the sacrifices of soldiers who fought in the war.
Today, the national landscape is still dotted with more than 2,000 Confederate symbols in public spaces, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group.
“This is about history and memory and power,” said Rivka Maizlish, a senior research analyst with the center who focuses on tracking the symbols. “These debates over Confederate memorials are about resisting a propaganda campaign to erase the memory of the true meaning of the Civil War, which was a struggle between slavery and freedom.”
The fight in Tyrrell County mirrors other places, mostly small Southern towns and rural communities, where neighbors sometimes take opposing sides over how slavery and the Civil War should be memorialized. About 30 miles away, the town of Edenton has also been embroiled in a legal battle over moving its Confederate monument from a waterfront location. But the example most similar to the one in Columbia includes the phrase “faithful slaves” and stands in Confederate Park in Fort Mill, S.C.
Along the Main Street in Columbia — a riverfront town about 150 miles east of Raleigh — few people were willing to speak publicly about the monument and the lawsuit.
But a community Facebook page offered a glimpse into how some Tyrrell County residents and others felt. Some were embarrassed by the “faithful slave” language, describing it as a relic of an ugly past. Others felt moving or altering the monument was effectively erasing history. They saw the statue as a way to honor soldiers and said that their Southern pride and heritage were being unfairly attacked.
The statue has stood near the entrance of the courthouse since 1902, part of a wave of Confederate monuments erected during the Jim Crow era, beginning in the late 1800s. It was a gift from the Tyrrell Monument Association, an organization founded by William Fessenden Beasley, a former lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army, according to the lawsuit. The monument consists of a Confederate soldier standing atop a base featuring a bust of Gen. Robert E. Lee. One of the statue’s panels includes the “faithful slave” inscription.
Mark Snell Brickhouse’s great-great-grandfather’s name is among those etched on the monument. He returns to Columbia regularly to visit a family cemetery and the monument.
“I love the statue because it honors my family members,” said Mr. Brickhouse, 72. “But I can see how the words are offensive to some people. I think the statue should stay because it reflects our history, but those words should be covered.”
Since the 1990s, Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County has pushed to have the statue moved off the courthouse grounds. Recently, they began to focus on removing the inscription, seeing it as an easier task, but also so the next generation of students doesn’t have to see the words.
Over the years, the group held public marches and demonstrations, spoke at commission meetings and mounted billboards.
“The statue has been here all of my life, but I had no idea the message about faithful slaves was there,” said Joyce Sykes Fitch, a plaintiff in the case who traces her family lineage in the area to before the Civil War. “It was not until I moved back to North Carolina in 2017 after I retired and decided to get involved in the community that I discovered what it said. It’s still hard to believe those words are there.”
The lawsuit describes the plaintiffs as part of a small Black population of less than 1,000 residents in Tyrrell County — about one-third of the total — who are “direct descendants of people whom the county, by way of the ‘faithful slaves’ message, is talking about.”
“This is the only monument of its kind at a courthouse with that language of appreciation, or an endorsement, of slavery on it,” said Ian Mance, a lawyer of Emancipate NC, a racial justice advocacy and litigation organization. “You are talking about families who have been here since before the Civil War. For them, there is this feeling that this monument is offering commentary about their families.”
Mr. Mance said the suit was not seeking damages. “Our contention is that equal protection does not allow the government itself to actually make racially discriminatory statements,” he said. “By the statue being on government property, it represents government speech.”
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