March for Peace & Justice, not more WAR
Saturday, March 14th, in the annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.
Veterans For Peace (VFP) San Francisco chapter #69 has marched in the huge annual SF Saint Patrick’s Day Parade since 2012, marching for Palestine and against All Wars. Now the U.S. and Israel are bombing Iran! Join us!
The Irish government and People were the First in Europe to stand up to Israeli genocide and Call for a Ceasefire. They are again calling for a Ceasefire in the Entire Middle East.
VFP & “About Face – Veterans Against the War” (POST 9/11 vets), along with CodePink will be the official organizations representing our contingent. All Anti-War individuals are ASKED TO JOIN US!
The parade is viewed by thousands. We will be handing out an Informational Leaflet to those watching the parade.
Two years ago we had a very large contingent, with lots of Palestinian flags, and won First Place for a “Military” Unit!
Join us!
LOGISTICS:
· Saturday, March 14th. Muster by 11:30 AM on Second Street, between Bryant & Brannan – 5 ½ blocks South of Market St. on Second.
· We will have a vehicle as well. Our Official Number in the parade is #87.
· Bring Veterans For Peace banners, flags, etc. We will have US, Irish and VFP flags and banners - and a Palestinian flag as well. All to be carried by participants or taped to the vehicle.
CONTACTS: VFP SF Chapter 69 Organizers:
Nadya Williams - CELL: (415) 845-9492, EMAIL: nadyanomad@gmail.com
Louis Flores – CELL: (925) 550-9775, EMAIL: louisflores2468@comcast.net
Mike Wong - EMAIL: mikevfp69@gmail.com
Please join us on March 14 as we march for peace and justice through diplomacy not more war!
Eleanor Levine
CodePink, SF Bay Area
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March 19: The Voice of Hind Rajab Screening @ Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) Offices
1101 Eighth St, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA
Join the Middle East Children's Alliance for our screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab. This tragic docudrama, written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, follows the Red Crescent response during the killing of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl, by the Israel Occupation Forces during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. It stars Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Amer Hlehel, and Clara Khoury.
Tickets: $10.00
https://events.humanitix.com/the-voice-of-hind-rajab?emci=a59ade92-0318-f111-a69a-000d3a1f0a97&emdi=7c21261a-2118-f111-a69a-000d3a1f0a97&ceid=2453624*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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Saturday, March 28
11:30 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.
Embarcadero Plaza
Market and Steuart Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
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Veterans For Peace Condemns
U.S. Attack on Iran
Military Members and Civilians:
Resist Illegal Wars!
Veterans For Peace condemns the U.S./Israeli attack on Iran in the strongest possible terms. We call on our members, friends, and allies to resist this dangerous and illegal war. We offer our support to members of the military who decide to refuse illegal orders and resist an illegal war.
A War Based on Lies
The Trump administration’s ever-changing rationales for going to war against Iran are lies. Iran posed no threat to the United States. This military operation is not a defensive war, but rather a war of choice by Israel and the U.S., a war of aggression, a war for regime change – very much like the disastrous U.S. wars that killed millions of people in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan – wars that many veterans remember with horror and regret.
Contrary to President Trump’s oft-repeated lie, Iran has repeatedly stated that it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. Rather, the United States, the only country to attack another nation with nuclear weapons, has unilaterally abrogated multiple arms control treaties, and is investing Two Trillion Dollars in a new generation of nuclear weapons. It was the U.S., not Iran, that violated and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Israel also has nuclear weapons – undeclared and uninspected. Two nuclear powers attacking Iran, claiming to stop it from pursuing a nuclear program, is the height of hypocrisy.
The aggression against Iran follows by less than two months the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the unlawful abduction of its president and wife. It comes amid the ongoing war threats and oil blockade of Cuba. This complete disregard and abuse of the process of negotiations only encourages nuclear proliferation around the world.
Illegal and Unconstitutional
The U.S. war on Iran is illegal in multiple ways. It is a violation of the UN Charter, a treaty which is the “supreme law of the land” under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter states, “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
The unilateral war of aggression against Iran is a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly grants Congress the sole authority to declare war. This power was intentionally given to the legislative branch to prevent unilateral military action by a single executive.
These legal and constitutional issues may seem quaint to those of us who have seen them routinely violated by president after president with the complicity of a supine Congress. Nonetheless, they constitute both international and domestic law. They are the legal codification of a moral framework for international peace and cooperation. Peace-loving people must struggle to ensure that these laws are followed. We must hold our government officials accountable when they are not.
Refuse Illegal Orders – Resist Illegal Wars
Veterans For Peace reminds our sisters and brothers, children, and grandchildren in the U.S. military that an order to participate in an illegal war is, by extension, an illegal order. You have the right and even the duty to refuse illegal orders. Veterans For Peace and many others will stand with you when you do, and provide helpful information and resources. Whatever legal consequences you may endure pale compared to risking your life in an illegal war or living with Post Traumatic Stress and Moral Injury.
Veterans and civilians also have the right and the responsibility to resist the illegal actions of our government at home and abroad. This attack is a very critical moment in the history of the United States and the world. We must be in the streets protesting. We must be on our phones telling our representatives to Vote Yes on the Iran War Powers resolution. We must be on our keyboards, writing letters to the editors. Tell them to:
IMMEDIATELY HALT U.S. MILITARY ATTACKS ON IRAN!
· End U.S. Support for Israel and Genocide in Palestine!
· End Economic Warfare against Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba!
· End ICE and Authoritarian Repression in U.S. Cities!
· Abolish Nuclear Weapons and War!
PEACE AT HOME, PEACE ABROAD!
https://prod.cdn.everyaction.com/emails/van/EA/EA015/1/94223/Alqa3p0mdFGQOfwCaEOYO6dpWCJEn2qC1GPoEaid_7O_archive?emci=6196a802-9415-f111-a69a-000d3a57593f&emdi=d3c0d4a7-a515-f111-a69a-000d3a57593f&ceid=10474381
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Tell Congress: No War On Iran!
On Saturday, February 28th, the United States and Israel bombed Iran’s capital. Shortly after, President Donald Trump announced a planned prolonged war against Iran and stated that American servicemembers would likely be killed in the process. He addressed Iranians, telling them to stay inside because bombs would be dropping all over Iran, and called on them to overthrow their government. The self-proclaimed “peace president” has launched yet another endless war – risking millions of human lives. The entire world should be outraged.
Tell Congress we want PEACE with Iran, we don’t want the US bombing Iran, we don’t want a regime change war, and we want to lift the sanctions that are hurting everyday Iranians.
https://www.codepink.org/iranaction
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The Trump administration is escalating its attack on Cuba, cutting off the island’s access to oil in a deliberate attempt to induce famine and mass suffering. This is collective punishment, plain and simple.
In response, we’re releasing a public Call to Conscience, already signed by influential public figures, elected officials, artists, and organizations—including 22 members of the New York City Council, Kal Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, 50501, Movement for Black Lives, The People’s Forum, IFCO Pastors for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, and many others—demanding an end to this brutal policy.
The letter is open for everyone to sign. Add your name today. Cutting off energy to an island nation is not policy—it is a tactic of starvation.
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Petition to Force Amazon to Cut ICE Contracts!
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
Amazon Labor Union
Over 600,000 messages have already been sent directly to Amazon board members demanding one thing: Amazon must stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE and DHS rely on the data infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. Their campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon.
But workers and communities have real power when we act collectively. That’s why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine. Help us reach 1 million messages and force Amazon to act by signing our petition with The Labor Force today:
Tell Amazon: End contracts with ICE!
On Cyber Monday 2025, Amazon workers rallied outside of Amazon’s NYC headquarters to demand that Amazon stop fueling mass deportations through Amazon Web Services’ contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE cannot operate without corporate backing; its campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon. Mega-corporations may appear untouchable, but they are not. Anti-authoritarian movements have long understood that repression is sustained by a network of institutional enablers and when those enablers are disrupted, state violence weakens. Workers and communities have real power when they act collectively. That is why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its most commonly used cloud platform. DHS and ICE cannot wage their attack on immigrants without the critical data infrastructure that Amazon Web Services provide, allowing the agencies to collect, analyze, and store the massive amounts of data they need to do their dirty work. Without the power of AWS, ICE would not be able to track and target people at its current scale.
ICE and DHS use Amazon Web Services to collect and store massive amounts of purchased data on immigrants and their friends and family–everything from biometric data, DMV data, cellphone records, and more. And through its contracts with Palantir, DHS is able to scour regional, local, state, and federal databases and analyze and store this data on AWS. All of this information is ultimately used to target immigrants and other members of our communities.
No corporation should profit from oppression and abuse. Yet Amazon is raking in tens of millions of dollars to fuel DHS and ICE, while grossly exploiting its own workers. Can you sign our petition today, demanding that Amazon stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with DHS and ICE, now?
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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 Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) U.S. Tomahawk Hit Naval Base Beside Iranian School, Video Shows
The evidence contradicts President Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for a strike at the school that killed 175 people, most of them children.
By Malachy Browne and John Ismay, Published March 8, 2026, Updated March 9, 2026
Malachy Browne is an expert in verifying online imagery, and John Ismay is a former Navy bomb disposal officer.
The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long range cruise missile used for deep land attack warfare used by U.S. forces and international partners.
A newly released video adds to the evidence that an American missile likely hit an Iranian elementary school where 175 people, many of them children, were reported killed.
The video, uploaded on Sunday by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency and verified by The New York Times, shows a Tomahawk cruise missile striking a naval base beside the school in the town of Minab on Feb. 28. The U.S. military is the only force involved in the conflict that uses Tomahawk missiles.
A body of evidence assembled by The Times — including satellite imagery, social media posts and other verified videos — indicates that the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on the naval base. The base is operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Asked by a reporter from The Times on Saturday if the United States had bombed the school, President Trump said: “No. In my opinion and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.” He said, “They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was standing beside Mr. Trump, said the Pentagon was investigating, “but the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
The video of the strike, which was first reported by the research collective Bellingcat, was independently verified by The Times. We compared features visible in the footage to new satellite imagery captured days after the strikes in Minab.
The video was filmed from a construction site opposite the base and shows a worn, dirt path across a grassy area and piles of debris also evident in recent satellite imagery, bolstering its credibility. The video also comports with other verified videos taken in the immediate aftermath of the strikes.
A Times analysis of the video shows the missile striking a building described as a medical clinic in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base. Plumes of smoke and debris shoot out of the building after it is hit as the distant screams of onlookers are heard.
As the camera pans to the right, large plumes of dust and smoke are already billowing from the area around the elementary school, suggesting that it had been struck shortly before the strike on the naval base. This is supported by a timeline of the strikes assembled by The Times that shows the school was hit around the time as the base.
Several other buildings inside the naval base were also hit by precision strikes in the attack, an analysis of satellite imagery showed. Determining precisely what happened has been impeded by the lack of visible weapons fragments and the inability of outside reporters to reach the scene.
The Times has identified the weapon seen in the new video as a Tomahawk cruise missile, a weapon that neither the Israeli military nor the Iranian military has. Dozens of Tomahawks have been launched by U.S. Navy warships into Iran since Feb. 28, when the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran began.
U.S. Central Command said a video it released of several Tomahawks being launched from Navy ships was filmed on Feb. 28, the day the Iranian base and school were hit.
The Defense Department describes Tomahawks as “long-range, highly accurate” guided missiles that can fly about 1,000 miles. They are programmed with a specific flight plan before launch, and the missiles steer themselves to their targets.
Each Tomahawk is about 20 feet long and has a wingspan of eight and a half feet, according to the Navy. The most commonly used Tomahawks have warheads that contain the explosive power of about 300 pounds of TNT.
Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician who works with Bellingcat, also identified the missile in the video as a Tomahawk, as did another weapons expert, Chris Cobb-Smith, director of Chiron Resources, a security and logistics agency.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference on Wednesday that U.S. forces were carrying out strikes in southern Iran at the time the naval base and school were hit. A map he presented showed that an area including Minab, which is near the Strait of Hormuz, had been targeted by strikes in the first 100 hours of the operation, although it did not explicitly identify the town.
“Along the southern axis, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln strike group has continued to provide pressure from the sea along the southeastern side of the coast and has been attriting naval capability all along the strait,” the general said.
It is not the only time that General Caine has acknowledged the role Tomahawk missiles played in the early hours of the war.
“The first shooters at sea were Tomahawks unleashed by the United States Navy,” he said in a briefing to reporters at the Pentagon on March 2, as the Navy “began to conduct strikes across the southern flank in Iran.”
In June, a Navy submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawks at a nuclear facility in Isfahan, Iran, as part of the 12-Day war.
Shawn McCreesh contributed reporting. Shawn Paik and McKinnon de Kuyper contributed video production.
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2) Israeli Forces Raid New Areas in Southern Lebanon
Israeli fighter jets also bombarded the southern outskirts of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, as part of its escalating military campaign against Hezbollah.
By Aaron Boxerman and Christina Goldbaum, March 9, 2026
Aaron Boxerman reported from Jerusalem
An airstrike in the Dahiya neighborhood in the southern outskirts of Beirut, in Lebanon, on Monday. Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
Israeli forces advanced in southern Lebanon on Monday, raiding new territory as part of a stated effort to expand a military-controlled buffer zone as it steps up its campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Israeli fighter jets also bombarded the southern outskirts of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, sending huge explosions echoing throughout the city. Earlier on Monday, Israel had threatened to begin attacking sites affiliated with Al-Qard Al-Hasan, Hezbollah’s de facto bank.
Israeli ground forces began raiding an area close to the border with Lebanon, the military said in a statement, after advancing in the border area over recent days and seizing new sites inside Lebanon.
Nearly 400 people had been killed, including more than 80 children, in the conflict in Lebanon as of Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Edouard Beigbeder, the regional director for UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s agency, called the death toll “a stark testament to the toll that conflict is taking on children.”
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had killed more than 190 militants, without commenting on the rest of the dead.
The conflict ignited last week, when Hezbollah launched a rocket attack against Israel, in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom Israel assassinated in the opening strikes of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Since then, the Israeli military has responded with an escalating military campaign across Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Parliament announced on Monday that it would postpone for two years legislative elections that had been set to take place in May because of the conflict. The Lebanese government has faced considerable pressure to disarm Hezbollah, which is also an entrenched political party and social movement.
Hezbollah is facing rising public frustration at home, where some Lebanese say they have now been dragged unwillingly into a dangerous and deadly confrontation with Israel without any clear benefit.
Analysts say the Israeli actions could signal that a wider ground invasion in Lebanon is in the works. The Israeli military has called up roughly 100,000 reserve soldiers as part of the war with Iran, some of whom have been sent to the northern border.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, dismissed that prospect. “This is part of our forward defense posture. This is a measure to make sure that our troops in those positions are safe,” Lt. Col. Shoshani told reporters on Monday.
Reham Mourshed and Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.
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3) Iran’s New Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei’s Son, Is a Mysterious Figure
The succession of the slain leader’s son is seen as a signal of the Islamic republic’s defiance of Israel and the United States, and of continuity during crisis.
By Farnaz Fassihi, Published March 8, 2026, Updated March 9, 2026
Farnaz Fassihi has lived and worked in Iran, has covered the country for three decades and was a war correspondent in the Middle East for 15 years.
Mojtaba Khamenei, center, at a rally in Tehran in 2019. Rouzbeh Fouladi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
There have been only two supreme leaders since the job was created after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Now Iran has a third.
Mojtaba Khamenei, a 56-year-old politician, cleric and son of the previous supreme leader, was appointed to the role by a council of 88 clerics, known as the Assembly of Experts, according to a statement released early Monday morning local time.
As supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei becomes the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Iran, both a spiritual leader and the highest authority in the land. Under Iran’s Constitution, that gives him overarching control of Iran’s politics and its armed forces, as well as leadership in religious affairs.
The supreme leader takes a public stance on foreign policy and military affairs, as well as internal issues — including suppressing dissent.
He rules by issuing decrees, oversees government policy and makes all senior appointments including for the military, the judiciary and the head of the state broadcasting service. The supreme leader can also issue a fatwa, a nonbinding religious opinion on matters of religious and civil life that can carry weight far beyond Iran’s borders.
The role has changed over the years partly because of the differences of the men appointed.
Ayatollah Khomeini was an eminent religious scholar and political revolutionary who inspired a popular following and was a driver in establishing Iran’s theocracy on the principle that an expert in Islamic jurisprudence should oversee the government to ensure justice.
Yet when he died ten years later in 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was less qualified as a religious scholar and did not command such a following among the faithful, was selected.
Iran’s Constitution was amended at the time of his selection to stipulate that the supreme leader only needed to show “Islamic scholarship.” He nevertheless was a Sayed, meaning he was from a family descended from Prophet Muhammad, and was accorded the title of Ayatollah with his appointment.
In his will and last word, Ayatollah Khomeini had set the tone for a transition, telling his people that their loyalty should be to the Islamic Republic. The state itself became the repository of spirituality and religion, said Vali Nasr, an expert on Iran and Shiite Islam at Johns Hopkins University.
“The office under Khamenei essentially became secular in its function,” Mr. Nasr said. “The state promoted him as a very distinguished cleric, but by no means was he recognized by the faithful as the pre-eminent Shia cleric,” such as the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of Iraq, Mr. Nasr said.
Ayatollah Khamenei ruled for more than 36 years until he was killed when the United States and Israel opened strikes on Iran on Saturday, Feb. 28. His legacy was of an authoritarian who sought to protect Shia communities abroad but brutally suppressed his own population.
His killing, perceived as martyrdom by the faithful, sparked anger and grief among many of the world’s more than 200 million Shiite Muslims, even while it was celebrated by the many who opposed his harsh rule.
Mojtaba Khamenei also does not have high religious standing, but was groomed for the position, serving in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, studying at a religious seminary and then working closely with his father.
His succession, following his father, marks a break from the meritocracy set by the Iranian revolution, which rejected the monarchy for the undemocratic nature of hereditary rule.
Yet he was considered a front-runner for the post because of the nature of his father’s death and his strong political and military connections, said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a London-based research group.
The office he inherits today draws its power from its political and military control.
The supreme leader is the commander in chief of Iran’s military forces and of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary force that has become the most powerful branch of the military and controls its ballistic missile arsenal.
Designated a terrorist group by the United States in 2019, the Revolutionary Guard is accused of sponsoring multiple proxy forces in countries across the Middle East to counter Israel and the United States.
Since they opened their military campaign, the U.S. and Israel have targeted bases of the Revolutionary Guard and other domestic security forces, hoping to shake the supreme leader’s hold on the country.
Iran has a nationally elected president who runs its administration. But even he is the second in command of the executive branch after the supreme leader.
The president appoints cabinet members, but they first have to be approved by parliament and the supreme leader. The president is elected to a four-year term and can only serve a maximum of two terms. His election is approved by the supreme leader.
The head of the judiciary is also appointed by the supreme leader. The judicial system in Iran is run by Shia clerics and all decisions must be in accordance with Islamic law, or Shariah. The penal code was rewritten after the 1979 revolution, and harsh punishments are imposed under Shariah including corporal punishments and executions.
None of the men considered contenders for supreme leader were highly ranked clerics, Mr. Nasr pointed out. Those selecting a new leader were most probably focused on continuity, he said.
“I don’t think anybody in Iran right now wants to do something that suggests that the system is breaking,” he said.
Mojtaba Khamenei was a leading contender because of the close connections forged working under his father, Ms. Vakil said.
“Because he’s deeply integrated into to the regime’s networks and he represents continuity, and he will be supported by Iran’s deep state,” she said. “He really will bring the support of elites, the security establishment, and the broad system. This is what he ultimately represents.”
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4) Country Joe McDonald, Whose Antiwar Song Became an Anthem, Dies at 84
One of the starring acts at Woodstock, he and his band, the Fish, came out of the Bay Area’s psychedelic rock scene. He went on to a long career as a solo artist.
By Jim Farber, Published March 8, 2026, Updated March 9, 2026
Country Joe McDonald in 1981. The tone of the politics and social commentary in his songs could range from whimsical to snarky. Credit...United Archives, via Getty Images
Country Joe McDonald, Whose Antiwar Song Became an Anthem, Dies at 84
One of the starring acts at Woodstock, he and his band, the Fish, came out of the Bay Area’s psychedelic rock scene. He went on to a long career as a solo artist.
By Jim Farber, Published March 8, 2026, Updated March 9, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/arts/music/country-joe-mcdonald-dead.html
Country Joe McDonald, whose performance at Woodstock — in which he led a crowd of 400,000 through a subversive cheer before starting his satirical antiwar song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” — struck a chord so deep, it often obscured the variety and scope of his career, died on Saturday at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 84.
His death was announced by his wife, Kathy McDonald. The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease.
In his breakthrough years, Mr. McDonald led Country Joe and the Fish, one of the first and most adventurous bands to rise from the Bay Area psychedelic rock scene of the 1960s. After the band’s main run ended in 1970, he released scores of solo albums in a number of styles over many decades.
Yet, it was his showcase at Woodstock, immortalized by its film and soundtrack, in which he spiked the main refrain of his band’s piece “The Fish Cheer,” with a far more provocative F-word, before beginning his best-known anti-Vietnam War song, that came to define him for many.
“From the moment I yelled ‘Give us an F … ’ it became a folk-protest moment,” Mr. McDonald told the British newspaper The Independent in 2002. “There was a certain in-yer-face Kurt Cobain-ness about it that matched the attitude of the time pretty well.”
Likewise, Mr. McDonald’s albums with the Fish, for which he wrote and sang most of the material, perfectly mirrored the experimentalism and politics of the psychedelic scene that birthed them.
At the same time, the group’s work augmented the era’s usual guitar distortions and drug references with arcane melodies, left-field lyrics and influences that also drew from ragtime, old time folk and the avant-garde.
The Fish’s first single, “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine,” centered on a death-obsessed woman who also had a yen for homicide, while another early song, “Superbird,” imagined President Lyndon B. Johnson as a lunatic cartoon character.
The tone of the politics and social commentary in Mr. McDonald’s songs could range from whimsical to snarky. In “The Harlem Song” he satirized white people’s fetish for Black culture, while in “Fixin’-to-Die,” he sang in the voice of a TV pitchman selling parents on the chance to “be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box!” The song culminated in the ironic refrain, “Whoopee! We’re all gonna die!”
While two of Mr. McDonald’s albums with the Fish broke Billboard’s Top 40, the band never came close to achieving the success enjoyed by other acts from the San Francisco scene like Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead.
And none of Mr. McDonald’s solo works made Billboard’s album chart. Yet, he remained true to his musical instincts and lyrical themes. Long after the Vietnam War ended, he continued to write about its effects and legacy, captured best in his 1986 album “Vietnam Experience,” which feature 12 of his songs on the subject.
Joseph Allen McDonald was born on Jan. 1, 1942, in Washington to Worden McDonald, who worked for the phone company, and Florence (Plotnik) McDonald, a political activist who later became prominent in Berkeley politics. Both his parents were members of the Communist Party, and they named him after Joseph Stalin.
When he was still a child, the family moved to El Monte, Calif., near Los Angeles. “My family were the only Communists in the entire area, and we lived a very isolated life,” Mr. McDonald told Let It Rock magazine in 1974. “My parents never went dancing or drinking — typical Communists.”
At the same time, his father had a Hawaiian guitar that he taught Joe to play when he was 7. When Joe was a teenager in the 1950s, his father was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, whose aim was to root out Communists in the United States, and as a result he lost his job. (His parents later renounced the cause.) At 17, Mr. McDonald enlisted in the Navy because, as he told Let It Rock, he wanted to “see the world and have sex.”
After serving a little over three years, he tried college for a few semesters before dropping out to move to Berkeley at around the time of the Free Speech Movement. “I went to San Francisco to become a beatnik,” he told Let It Rock.
Mr. McDonald started a small underground magazine called Rag Baby before forming an early version of Country Joe and the Fish with the guitarist Barry Melton in 1965. His stage name wryly reflected the fact that Stalin was sometimes referred to as “Country Joe” because of his rural background. The word “Fish” was taken from Mao Zedong, who wrote that revolutionaries “must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.”
In a “talking” version of the magazine, the band included the first version of “Fixin’-to-Die,” performed acoustically. “I was inspired to write a folk song — about how soldiers have no choice in the matter but to follow orders — but with the irreverence of rock ’n’ roll,” Mr. McDonald told The New York Times in 2017.
The group later electrified its sound, moved to San Francisco and was signed by Vanguard Records, which released its debut album, “Electric Music for the Mind and Body,” in 1967. The album’s producer, Samuel Charters (best known as a blues historian), refused to let it include “Fixin’” or “The Fish Cheer” on the debut, fearing it would lead to a boycott by radio stations.
But because no one complained about the anti-Johnson song “Superbird,” which was included on the debut, they were allowed to include it on their second album — as its title track no less.
At a show in Central Park in 1968, the band’s drummer, Gary Hirsh, suggested they change the word “fish” to the epithet to make a free speech statement. While the crowd deliriously cheered the change, Ed Sullivan immediately canceled the group’s scheduled appearance on his popular Sunday night variety show.
After performing the augmented “Cheer” in Worcester, Mass., Mr. McDonald was charged with inciting an audience to lewd behavior, resulting in a $500 fine and lots of publicity. By the time he performed the provocative version of the song at Woodstock, listeners were primed for it.
At the festival, Mr. McDonald played two sets, one with the band and the other solo, a reflection of long-simmering internal tensions that brought the group to an end by the next year. By then Mr. McDonald had already begun recording solo, having released a set under his own name in late 1969 titled “Thinking of Woody Guthrie,” which consisted entirely of songs associated with that folk legend.
While his solo work tended to be less quirky than his recordings with the Fish, his lyrics remained as imaginative: His 1973 album “Paris Sessions” explored feminism, and “War War War” used original lyrics based on the work of Canadian poet Robert William Service. In 2017, he celebrated half a century of his career with an album titled “50.”
Besides his wife of 43 years, Kathy, he is survived by five children, Seven McDonald, Devin McDonald, Tara Taylor McDonald, Emily McDonald Primus and Ryan McDonald; four grandchildren, and a brother, Billy.
Throughout his career, Mr. McDonald’s politics and lyrical concerns avoided the literal or the doctrinaire, extending the tone of his most famous song.
Speaking of the effect of “Fixin’ to Die” to Let it Rock, he said: “You laugh at the war. You laugh at yourself, and you laugh at the left wing at the same time. Something’s very attractive about the song.”
“Something’s very attractive about drugs, too,” he added. “It’s basically an insane song.”
Alex Traub contributed reporting.
I Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag Lyrics
Well, come on all of you big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
Got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
Put down your books and pick up a gun
We're going to have a whole lot of fun
And it's 1, 2, 3
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
And it's 5, 6, 7
Open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
We're all going to die
Come on generals let's move fast
Your big chance has come at last
Now you can go out and get those reds
The only good Commie is the one that's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown them all to kingdom come
And it's 1, 2, 3
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
And it's 5, 6, 7
Open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
We're all going to die
Come on Wall Street don't be slow
Why man, this war-a-go-go
There's plenty good money to be made
Supplying the Army with the tools of the trade
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb
They drop it on the Viet Cong
And it's 1, 2, 3
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
And it's 5, 6, 7
Open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
We're all going to die
Now come on mothers throughout the land
Pack your boys off to Vietnam
Come on fathers don't hesitate
Send your sons off before it's too late
And you can be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box
And it's 1, 2, 3
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Lebanon, Angora!
Oh yeah, there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
We're all going to die
Hey!
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5) Billionaires Are Swaying Elections in All Corners of America
Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in 2024, a Times analysis shows, and even more in some local elections. Wealthy donors are reaping the rewards.
By Mike Baker and Steven Rich, March 9, 2026
Protesters demonstrated outside the Supreme Court in 2019 as Senate Democrats proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn the court’s decision that lifted many campaign finance restrictions. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Several years ago, before he was elected as a U.S. senator from Montana, Tim Sheehy was running an aerial firefighting business that was struggling to secure clients and desperately hunting for cash to build out a fleet of aircraft.
Then he found a lifeline: As Mr. Sheehy has told the story over the years, Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire chairman of the private equity group Blackstone Inc., helped steer a $150 million investment from his company into Mr. Sheehy’s.
Both Mr. Schwarzman and Mr. Sheehy came out winners. Blackstone nearly doubled its investment by cashing in many of its shares a few years later, even as the firefighting company continued to struggle. Mr. Sheehy collected multi-million-dollar bonuses that helped him seed his Republican Senate campaign in 2024.
It was an uphill race against a popular, three-term Democratic incumbent, Jon Tester. But with control of the Senate up for grabs and Mr. Sheehy one of the few who could help tip it in favor of Republicans, Mr. Schwarzman came to his aid once again, hosting a fund-raiser for him and also donating $8 million to a political action committee that supported his candidacy.
He was not the only financial heavyweight in Mr. Sheehy’s corner.
At least 64 billionaires and 37 of their immediate family members donated directly to his campaign, a New York Times analysis found. When also accounting for money that flowed through political committees that support Mr. Sheehy, an analysis shows that billionaires contributed about $47 million in the race that Mr. Sheehy went on to win.
The extraordinary spending in Montana is part of a new era of political power for the rapidly growing number of billionaires minted over the past eight years. The Times analysis found that 300 billionaires and their immediate family members donated more than $3 billion — 19 percent of all contributions — in federal elections in 2024, either directly or through political action committees.
Five presidential elections ago, before the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling that lifted many remaining campaign finance restrictions, the share of billionaire spending was almost zero — 0.3 percent, to be precise.
The billionaire families gave an average total of $10 million each in 2024, an amount roughly equal to what 100,000 typical political donors gave, combined. Money at that scale can be game-changing in tight races. TV ads, targeted digital advertising, canvassing technology to aim door-knockers at the right voters — spending money wins elections.
Many of those billionaires are not only hoping to reshape the federal government, as Elon Musk did in the early months of President Trump’s second term, but to win influence in state legislatures, City Councils, school boards and courthouses.
Ultrawealthy donors on both the left and the right have helped overhaul political leadership and policy in states across the country, expanding private charter schools, restricting abortion rights, advancing artificial intelligence in government and blocking laws that would make it harder to evict tenants. And one issue behind many of these big contributions on both sides of the aisle is taxes.
In the Senate, Mr. Sheehy has become a key ally on tax policies that benefit the wealthy and cosponsored a proposal to eliminate the estate tax. This year, ultrawealthy donors are lining up to fight a California proposal to impose the nation’s first statewide tax on billionaires.
In past elections, as ultrawealthy donors became more active, both major parties reaped rewards. But there was a stark divergence in 2024, with less money flowing directly to Democrats and a sharp increase in the amount donated to Republicans.
For every dollar donated by billionaires and their immediate families to a candidate or committee associated with Democrats, five dollars went to Republicans.
Much of that was a result of ultrawealthy people in the tech industry, who aligned with Mr. Trump’s tax and deregulation policies. More than a dozen billionaires were awarded roles in his administration.
As unrestrained campaign spending grows, polls find that some three-quarters of Americans want limits on how much individuals or organizations can spend on political campaigns. But even in places where voters have handily approved new campaign finance rules, wealthy donors have found ways to circumvent the limits without breaking any laws.
The increasing influence of the ultrawealthy in U.S. politics has troubled Marc Racicot, a former Montana governor who served as chair of the Republican National Committee in the early 2000s. He recalled an era not long past when donors were reluctant to contribute too much to political campaigns to avoid being perceived as purchasing influence — and because the law imposed limits on individual donations.
Now, he said, the country is on the verge of becoming a place where wealthy people are able to spend millions of dollars to essentially direct how the government runs — without breaking any laws.
“Does any reasonable person on the planet think that’s appropriate?” he said.
A Wave of Billionaire Influence
Spending by ultrawealthy donors has at times dwarfed that of other contributors, shifting both major statewide elections and lesser-known races where their influence may be harder to discern. Some recent campaigns became duels between competing billionaires.
The Times analyzed federal, state and local campaign finance data, collected documents under public records law and traced money as it bounced through a network of political action committees to examine how contributions from wealthy donors play a considerable new role in political campaigns from California to Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania
One of the nation’s most prolific campaign donors is Jeff Yass, the co-founder of the trading firm Susquehanna International Group. Mr. Yass donated more than $100 million to federal campaigns in 2024, funding a variety of conservative political action committees that sought to sway congressional races toward Republicans. He is also one of the biggest individual donors to campaigns in the period since the presidential election, giving nearly $55 million to federal campaigns in the 2026 cycle. But his influence is perhaps most apparent in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Jeff Yass is the co-founder of the Wall Street trading firm Susquehanna International Group.
Net worth: $59 billion
The state attorney general’s race in 2024 was largely a contest between Republican Dave Sunday and Democrat Eugene DePasquale, who received a combined total of $20 million in direct and outside contributions. Mr. Yass, through a series of committees, provided nearly 90 percent of the $14 million that went to support Mr. Sunday. They were so intertwined that Mr. Sunday wrote a letter authorizing a political committee that was almost entirely funded by Mr. Yass to work with an advertising agency “to purchase television advertising on my behalf.”
Mr. Sunday, who won with 51 percent of the vote, now oversees the office that has been investigating TikTok, the social media app in which Mr. Yass was a major investor through its former Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Mr. Yass has long championed the cause of school vouchers and the closure of any public schools that are failing students. And the new attorney general had a promising future. Matt Brouillette, a political adviser to Mr. Yass, said that statewide offices are often a steppingstone to become governor, an office that has broader power over setting the state’s education agenda.
“We’re playing the long game,” Mr. Brouillette said.
Colorado
Voters in Denver are among those who have been eager to curtail outsized political spending. In 2018, they passed a measure to lower contribution limits with more than 70 percent of the vote.
But in the city’s most recent race for mayor, in 2023, the new limits failed to hinder Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn. Mr. Hoffman had little connection to Denver beyond a growing interest in the candidacy of Mike Johnston, a Democrat who was running to become the city’s mayor.
Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn.
Net worth: $2.7 billion
Mr. Hoffman gave more than $2 million to a super PAC supporting Mr. Johnston. At least four other out-of-state billionaires — hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund founder John Arnold and businessman Ken Tuchman — together gave nearly another $1 million. Combined, the donations from billionaires through the super PAC totaled more than the entire sum raised directly by the two leading candidates.
The alliance continued after Mr. Johnston won. During his first year in office, according to documents released under public records law, Mr. Johnston sent an email to Mr. Hoffman that began with a friendly greeting: “Reid!!” Mr. Johnston said he was planning to host a convention on artificial intelligence aiming “to have Denver be the earliest and most aggressive adopter of A.I. for good.”
Mr. Hoffman, who had positioned himself as a leading champion of the beneficial aspects of artificial intelligence and a co-founder of two A.I. companies, helped determine the event’s date and then joined Mr. Johnston onstage.
There, he criticized a landmark Colorado measure designed to ensure that companies’ algorithms don’t discriminate against people in areas such as housing, health care and employment. Mr. Johnston is also among those who have criticized the law, and lawmakers have now delayed implementation of the rules while considering substantial changes.
“I would push back pretty strongly on any assertion that Reid Hoffman had anything to do with our position on the A.I. bill,” a spokesman for the mayor, Jon Ewing, said in a statement. Mr. Hoffman declined to comment.
Nevada
In 2022, Robert Bigelow, the ultrawealthy owner of the extended-stay hotel chain Budget Suites of America, threw his weight behind Joe Lombardo, a Republican running for governor of Nevada. His support included some $12.3 million sent to a series of political action committees that heavily backed Mr. Lombardo, along with many donations sent in $10,000 increments from various business entities linked to Mr. Bigelow — each one the maximum allowed during an election cycle in the state.
He sent an additional $12 million to the Republican Governors Association.
Robert Bigelow is the founder of hotel chain Budget Suites of America.
Net worth: Unknown
Mr. Lombardo narrowly won the election with 48.8 percent of the vote, ousting the Democratic incumbent. The next year, Democratic lawmakers passed bills to expand tenant protections and limit evictions. It was a key issue for Mr. Bigelow, who had spoken out vigorously against a federal moratorium on evictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, calling it “legalized theft.”
Mr. Lombardo vetoed the measures, citing in part the burdens on landlords. Last year, he vetoed another round of similar legislation. Along the way, according to documents released under public records law, Mr. Lombardo has made time to dine with Mr. Bigelow, including a private meeting in the spring of 2024 at DragonRidge Country Club.
Florida, Nebraska, Washington
Ballot measures have been another avenue of billionaire campaign spending.
In Nebraska, the family of the TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, including his son Pete, a U.S. senator in the state, spent nearly $10 million in 2024, accounting for about 21 percent of all donations in the state. Much of it went to help narrowly defeat an initiative that would have enshrined abortion rights in the state Constitution — a measure that received $1.5 million in support from another billionaire, Mr. Bloomberg.
In Washington State, the former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, spent $2.5 million in 2024 to protect a carbon cap program. In Florida, the hedge fund manager Ken Griffin spent $12 million to help vote down an initiative that would have legalized marijuana.
Illinois
The top-spending candidate usually wins the election, the Times analysis of campaign spending showed. But the big political investments by billionaires don’t always pan out, and they have at times found themselves in a spending race with other billionaires.
JB Pritzker's family founded Hyatt hotels.
Net worth: $3.9 billion
That was the case for Mr. Griffin, who spent $50 million to back a Republican candidate, Richard Irvin, for governor in Illinois in 2022. But Mr. Irvin did not make it out of the primary, defeated by another Republican candidate, Darren Bailey. Mr. Bailey was backed by Richard Uihlein, the billionaire founder of the shipping supplies company Uline, who gave $12 million to Mr. Bailey and another $42 million to a PAC aligned with him. But Mr. Bailey also went on to falter against the Democratic candidate, JB Pritzker — himself a billionaire who spent $152 million of his own money on the race.
In total, 87 percent of the money given to the state’s gubernatorial campaigns came from billionaires.
Mr. Bailey is now preparing to challenge Mr. Pritzker again later this year. But some wealthy donors, including Mr. Uihlein, have shifted their allegiance to a new candidate, Ted Dabrowski, a conservative researcher who has vowed to cut taxes.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin has limits on how much donors can give to political candidates, but there are no such controls for donors who contribute through a political party.
In the months before a contested Wisconsin Supreme Court race last year, billionaires from across the country were flooding the state’s major parties with cash.
At stake was a seat that would determine the ideological balance of the court, potentially shaping key rulings on issues such as abortion and redistricting.
The Republican Party received $3 million from Mr. Musk, about $3 million more from the ABC Supply co-founder Diane Hendricks and another $3 million from members of the wealthy Uihlein family. The Democratic Party received $2 million from George Soros, a prominent funder of a wide range of liberal causes, $1.5 million from Mr. Pritzker, and about $900,000 from a different member of the Uihlein family.
Even more money flowed from political action committees, including one led by Mr. Musk that gave out some $1 million in checks to two voters in the state, helping make the election the country’s most expensive ever for a court seat. Susan Crawford, the judge backed by Democrats, went on to win the race.
California
A Times analysis shows that over the past two election cycles, a series of billionaires — led by the Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, a longtime proponent of charter schools, and the Walmart heir Jim Walton — have provided 90 percent of the funding used to support the political advocacy of the California Charter Schools Association. The donations amounted to more than $9 million.
Reed Hastings is the co-founder of Netflix.
Net worth: $5.2 billion
The California group has funded a wide range of legislative and school board races, including one in 2024 for the Sacramento County Board of Education, where the charter schools association backed two candidates, including Vanessa Caigoy, one of its own employees, and another candidate whose spouse worked for the group.
The association provided nearly $100,000 to Ms. Caigoy’s campaign — almost all of her total funding. It was eight times more than what was raised by any other candidate, helping Ms. Caigoy flood the region with mailers that the other candidates could not match. Both Ms. Caigoy and the other candidate backed by the charter group won.
Two of the losing candidates, Moe Sarama and Jay Martinez, got on the phone with each other afterward to commiserate. In interviews, Mr. Sarama and Mr. Martinez said they had been on opposite ends of the political spectrum, with different issues as priorities: Mr. Sarama focused on special education, Mr. Martinez on early reading. Neither had opposed charter schools.
Jim Walton’s father is Walmart founder Sam Walton.
Net worth: $143 billion
Despite their wide differences, Mr. Martinez said he would have rather had someone like Mr. Sarama get elected than have outside money determine the race.
“It’s not fair to shut out folks like that,” he said.
Mr. Hastings said in an interview that he contributes about $50 million a year to various political groups focused on charter schools, which he sees as critical to enhancing education, but that he did not involve himself in deciding which candidates to support in California and did not know Ms. Caigoy.
He said there were limits to the power of big donations to shape political outcomes. But, while reflecting on the state of U.S. politics, he said the current era of big spending is having a “moderately corrosive influence” on the country.
“It has the potential to be tremendously corrosive,” he said.
Federal campaigns
The Sheehy campaign in Montana had initially seemed like an uphill battle.
As a senator for Montana for 18 years, the incumbent, Mr. Tester, a moderate who had shown his willingness to reject the Democratic Party line occasionally, had already survived a series of political challenges. He began his re-election campaign with a commanding financial advantage. But that changed when Mr. Schwarzman and other wealthy donors entered the picture.
After his time as a Navy SEAL, Mr. Sheehy had moved to Montana and launched an aerial firefighting business, Bridger Aerospace, in 2014. But he soon found himself in need of a fleet of aircraft to win contracts, he wrote in his book, “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting.” It was a gargantuan task, Mr. Sheehy wrote, to find “someone to fund an almost $200 million order of out-of-production aircraft, to be operated by a three-year-old company, led by a nobody, for a contract that didn’t exist, with an agency that couldn’t always agree on the required specifications for their aircraft.”
But Mr. Schwarzman was intrigued by the business, Mr. Sheehy wrote.
“He had once seen the Super Scoopers operating in France and was immediately impressed with their capabilities, like I was,” he went on, referring to a type of firefighting aircraft. “When he heard about our deal, he was very excited to proceed and provided us with a crack team at Blackstone to execute the deal.”
A spokesman for Mr. Sheehy said that the senator was proud to have Mr. Schwarzman “as an investor and mentor during his business career.”
Blackstone began investing in Mr. Sheehy’s business in 2018, though a company spokesman said in a statement that Mr. Schwarzman did not personally meet Mr. Sheehy until 2023, five years later. The investment went through a rigorous review process, the statement said, and there was no indication at the time that Mr. Sheehy intended to run for office.
Four years after the initial investment, the firefighting company was losing tens of millions of dollars; company officials had already turned to local government in Gallatin County with a proposal to expand its work force with the aid of a municipal bond issue.
The county agreed to issue $160 million in bond funds, designed to help private companies acquire lower-interest financing without obligating taxpayer funds.
Federal securities filings show that the bond money largely went at the time not to expanding the work force, but to paying out Blackstone, which nearly doubled its investment in a few years. Mr. Sheehy secured multi-million-dollar bonuses.
By 2024, the company was telling shareholders that its debt and persistent losses “raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The company’s financial outlook has since improved. It secured new financing last year and “repaid the bonds early and in full,” the company said in a statement. “Over the past decade, we have strengthened our financial foundation, created high-quality jobs, expanded our operational capacity, and built a leading aerial firefighting platform.”
Mr. Sheehy resigned from his chief executive role in the middle of 2024 to pursue his Senate campaign.
The entrepreneur, who had described himself as “poor” at the time he started the firefighting business in 2014, emerged from the deal making with an estimated net worth of more than $100 million, making him one of the wealthiest members of Congress. Part of that was thanks to a drone business that had been spun out of Bridger and sold.
In his Senate campaign, Mr. Sheehy began receiving contributions from dozens of billionaires, including Mr. Yass, the Uihlein family, Mr. Walton, Mr. Griffin and Mr. Schwarzman.
Mr. Sheehy’s arrival in Congress provided an ally for Mr. Schwarzman, who has long been one of the country’s biggest donors, helping the Republican Party in its efforts to control the U.S. Senate. Democrats had for years led efforts to eliminate the carried interest rule that allows executives at private equity firms to pay a tax of about 20 percent on their profits, much lower than even middle-class income tax rates. In 2010, as former President Barack Obama sought to tax carried interest at ordinary income tax rates, Mr. Schwarzman was one of the proposal’s biggest critics, likening it to “when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”
At one point, Democrats were one vote away in the Senate from approving the changes. Mr. Sheehy signed a pledge not to support tax increases, and the new Republican-controlled Congress has blocked action on any such proposal.
Mr. Tester, who had held the seat Mr. Sheehy ultimately won for 18 years, still came home over the years to northern Montana to cultivate wheat and peas. During an era and in a state in which in-person politicking held great value, he connected with voters over tractor-repair policies and the three fingers he had lost to a meat-grinder as a child.
He said he has noticed a drastic change in the role that money now plays in political campaigns. He himself found a network of wealthy supporters he could call on for aid.
“It’s a form of prostitution, quite frankly,” he said. “It’s one of the worst parts of the job. But if you want to effect change and want to make things better for your kids and grandkids going forward, then this is the field that the Supreme Court has laid out that we have to play on.”
Katie Benner and Theodore Schleifer contributed reporting.
About this story
To identify campaign donations from billionaires and members of their families, reporters began with each Forbes list of billionaires from 2000 to 2025. For each name on the list, reporters consulted public sources to find the names of their siblings, spouses, and children.
The Times then collected Federal Election Commission records for all contributions made by those people in 2023 and 2024, verifying addresses, occupations and places of work listed in the F.E.C. records. The Times excluded any contribution that it could not confirm through these records; for this reason, some actual contributions from billionaires may be missing from the analysis.
Some billionaires use their companies’ political action committees as a way to contribute to campaigns. Because of the difficulty of separating these committees from other corporate political action committees that might be funded by the company itself, The Times excluded these contributions from its analysis.
The Times classified each contribution as supporting the Democratic Party, Republican Party, independent/third-party or mixed/nonpartisan. The Times counted contributions to candidate committees as supporting the candidate’s stated party. To classify contributions made to PACs, The Times calculated the total funding that each committee dispersed to candidates and other committees. If a committee gave at least three-quarters of its money to one party, the contributions were considered to have gone to that party. Otherwise, The Times classified contributions to those committees as “mixed/nonpartisan.”
The Times also analyzed campaign finance records for a number of states and municipalities to calculate the impact of billionaires in non-federal elections.
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6) The Bank Trump Is Relying On for Rare-Earth Minerals
The Export-Import Bank is providing a $10 billion loan to Project Vault, an initiative to stockpile critical minerals. The project is the administration’s latest effort to reduce reliance on China.
By Alan Rappeport, Reporting from Washington, March 9, 2026
Simon Bailly
When President Trump made his first run for the White House more than a decade ago, he derided the Export-Import Bank of the United States as a “featherbedding” corporate welfare scheme.
“I don’t like it because I don’t think it’s necessary,” Mr. Trump said in 2015, echoing the concerns of many Republicans who wanted to abolish America’s export credit agency.
But the obscure bank, which was established in 1934 to give loan guarantees to foreign buyers of American-made products, survived Mr. Trump’s first term. It is now being reimagined as a government catalyst for imports and sits at the center of the Trump administration’s global race for critical minerals.
In early February, the White House announced a new initiative — Project Vault — to reduce America’s reliance on Chinese rare earths. The government’s plan is to work with the private sector to scour the world for minerals and then stockpile them in the United States. The initiative will be backed by a $10 billion loan from the bank, the largest in its 92-year history, along with $2 billion in private-sector funds.
The effort is an extension of Mr. Trump’s aggressive style of industrial policy, which has included tariffs and government stakes in companies from key sectors. Now Project Vault has emerged as another intervention that aims to shield companies from crisis if China again opts to withhold the critical magnets that power cars and computers, as it did last year.
“It’s actually overdue for there to be coordinated action from some of the largest U.S. companies that are exposed to these supply shocks coming from China to actually insulate themselves from the risk,” said Heidi Crebo-Rediker, senior fellow in the Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former chief economist at the State Department.
The project will establish a U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, a public-private partnership. The goal is to store 60 essential raw materials across the United States. The project has already attracted large corporations such as General Motors, Boeing and Google, according to a White House official, and they are joining forces to ensure that they have access to key materials.
Economic security experts and analysts have praised the concept as a novel approach for reinforcing the rare-earths supply chain, which is dominated by China. But details about where the minerals will be sourced remain scarce. It is also not clear what impact a global buying spree will have on minerals markets and if the United States will, at least initially, still need to rely on China for processing the rare earths. Storing the minerals around the United States could also be complicated.
“In the medium term it can source from China, but the strategic goal is to ensure that American manufacturing is not disrupted,” said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There will be no economic security without mineral security.”
For decades, the United States has relied on stockpiles to stabilize supplies of minerals that are components of military equipment. Project Vault, however, is different because of its focus on businesses and the private sector, reflecting how national security and economic security have merged as government priorities.
China mines 70 percent of the world’s rare earths, and does chemical processing for 90 percent of the global supply. When the Trump administration recently imposed high tariffs and more expansive technology controls, the Chinese government responded by rolling out a licensing system that would give it control over rare-earth shipments even outside China.
China’s export restrictions, which have since been lifted, set off a panic in the Trump administration and within corporate America, which relies on critical minerals for key components of technology that powers cars, computers and phones.
In recent months, the White House has been ramping up a governmentwide effort to make the United States less dependent on China for minerals and processing.
In January, the Trump administration extended up to $277 million in direct funding and up to $1.3 billion in loans to USA Rare Earth, a mining and manufacturing group, to help develop its supply chain for rare-earth metals and magnets. Last July, the Defense Department agreed to take a $400 million stake in MP Materials, a mining company that has struggled to turn profits amid tough price pressure from China.
The United States has also been striking economic agreements with countries around the world as it looks to reshape the market. International policymakers gathered in Washington in February for the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement, which is a successor to the Minerals Security Partnership. The policy frameworks are aimed at improving coordination on pricing and to jump-start investment in mining and processing in countries such as Morocco, Paraguay and Peru.
Jonas Nahm, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said that the creation of a critical minerals supply chain outside China could initially increase prices for certain raw materials but that eventually a stockpile could help reduce price volatility. That could depend on how well the Trump administration, which in many areas of economic diplomacy has chosen to act unilaterally, collaborates with nations, like Japan and South Korea, that have been building their own minerals stockpiles for commercial use.
“This could play a much bigger role in trying to establish a non-China industry if done well,” said Mr. Nahm, who served as an economist in the Biden administration White House focused on industrial policy.
Sushan Demirjian, an assistant trade representative for the Trump administration, said at a trade conference in Washington last month that her agency, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, was working on producing a lengthy and enforceable trade agreement pertaining to critical minerals.
The agreement would help set “minimum, market base price” for critical minerals among like-minded trading partners, she said, to help cover the cost of the production and processing of critical minerals and develop their capacity. Other countries, particularly China, have driven down prices for certain minerals to such a low level that miners and processors in other countries cannot afford to stay in business. The administration would soon begin soliciting public comments on this agreement, Ms. Demirjian said.
Beyond Project Vault, the bank, known as Ex-Im, has over the last year issued letters of interest to consider project financing for lithium extraction in Arkansas, nickel and cobalt production in Australia and tin extraction in Britain.
For years, free-market oriented conservatives assailed such government interventions in the economy.
Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, a libertarian-leaning research organization at George Mason University, lamented that the program lacked oversight. She also argued that since the United States already had a stockpile of minerals for military needs, the private sector should create its own stockpile without government help.
“It is unclear to me that it is the role of the government to guarantee stable prices to the private sector,” Ms. de Rugy said, suggesting that the Trump administration is stretching the definition of national security to justify its stockpiling initiative. “If it really is such an important thing, the private sector will do it.”
That view was once mainstream in Republican policymaking circles, but it has fallen out of fashion.
Fred Hochberg, who led Ex-Im from 2009 to 2017, noted that through Project Vault, the bank was shifting away from its focus on promoting U.S. exports and concentrating more on imports. The embrace of the bank by a Republican administration, he pointed out, is also a shift from when he was in charge of the bank and conservatives who loathed “crony capitalism” tried to shut it down.
“It’s changed because we have a Republican in the White House,” Mr. Hochberg said. “They have taken an about-face on the Export-Import Bank.”
At a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington in late February, John Jovanovic, the current chairman and president of Ex-Im, said he was prepared to work with American companies that were involved in Project Vault on expanding existing warehouse and storage capacity for minerals. He added that the United States wanted to work closely with American allies on shoring up rare-earth supply chains.
“Fundamentally, this is about de-risking our supply chain,” Mr. Jovanovic said. “In order to de-risk our supply chain, we have to work with our strategic allies.”
Ana Swanson contributed reporting.
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7) U.S. Carries Out Another Boat Strike, Killing 6 in Eastern Pacific
The attack, in the eastern Pacific, was part of a continuing campaign by the U.S. Southern Command to target people suspected of smuggling drugs by sea.
By Eric Schmitt, Reporting from Washington, Published March 8, 2026, Updated March 9, 2026
This image from a video provided by the U.S. military shows what it said was a strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Sunday. Credit...US Southern Command
The Defense Department said on Sunday that it had blown up a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean earlier in the day, killing six people. The strike raised the death toll in the campaign by the United States against people it accuses of smuggling drugs at sea to at least 156.
The U.S. Southern Command announced the strike on social media with an 11-second video clip that showed a stationary boat, with two or three outboard engines, floating in the water and then suddenly exploding.
Legal specialists on the use of lethal force have said the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, even if suspected of engaging in criminal acts. The Trump administration has not provided evidence of drug smuggling.
The Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean from headquarters near Miami, cited unspecified intelligence in the announcement. It said the boat had been traveling on “known narco-trafficking routes” and was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
The attack, the 45th since the U.S. campaign against the boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific started in early September, continued a recent increase in the pace of strikes. The six people killed on Sunday marked one of the deadliest boat strikes that the military has carried out in recent weeks.
The U.S. military has carried out strikes every three or four days since the new leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, took over in January.
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8) How Americans Are Feeling the Economic Effects of the War With Iran
Gas prices are rising, with the cost of food likely to follow. If the conflict drags on, the fallout for consumers could worsen, experts warned.
By Michael Levenson, March 9, 2026
Less than two weeks after U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran, Americans are already feeling the effects an ocean away. Gas prices are up. Food prices are likely to increase. And volatility in the stock market could threaten retirement savings.
President Trump initially said the war would last “four to five weeks,” but he has recently sent mixed signals, at times suggesting it could become a prolonged fight. If it does, the fallout for Americans could accumulate, some experts warned. Consumers could cut back on spending and businesses could stop hiring or resort to layoffs, threatening the broader economy.
Here’s how Americans are most likely to feel the economic impact of the war.
Oil and Gas Prices
The average price of gasoline in the United States hit $3.48 a gallon on Monday, according to the AAA motor club. That is a nearly 17 percent increase since the first U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. Gas hasn’t cost this much since 2024.
Diesel prices have risen 24 percent since the start of the war, to nearly $4.66 a gallon. Those prices could raise the cost of everything that is shipped by truck, including Amazon packages and food, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
These prices reflect the surging cost of oil. The international benchmark oil price briefly jumped to almost $120 on Monday, before ending the day below $90 after Mr. Trump made remarks suggesting a shorter conflict. If the price settles at about $95 a barrel, a gallon of regular gas could hit $3.75 or $4 by next week, Mr. Zandi said.
“There is already significant, serious fallout for the war,” he said.
Energy prices have been spiking as the war has throttled ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway off Iran’s southern coast where about one-fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Several refineries in the region have also shut down or cut processing, some after sustaining damage, according to Kpler, a research firm. That means they are turning less oil into fuels like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Mr. Trump, who campaigned partly on lowering the cost of energy, wrote on Truth Social on Sunday that higher oil prices were “short term” and “a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace.”
Food Prices
Rising oil and gas prices could lead to modest increases in food prices, said Miguel Gómez, director of the Food Industry Management Program at Cornell University. “Difficult to say how much, but there is going to be an impact,” he said, noting that many foods Americans buy, like fruits and vegetables, will cost more to import.
If ships do not start moving through the Strait of Hormuz in the coming weeks and months, food prices could keep rising, Dr. Gómez said. That’s because the Persian Gulf is a major source of the world’s fertilizer. If ships cannot bring fertilizer to market, farmers may use less, if they can get any at all. As a result, the world will get less food, and it will cost more.
With spring planting beginning around the United States, Zippy Duvall, the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, warned in a letter to Mr. Trump on Monday that farmers were bracing for disruptions in the fertilizer supply and rising prices.
If the United States does not prioritize the fertilizer supply, the country “risks a shortfall in crops,” Mr. Duvall wrote. “Not only is this a threat to our food security — and by extension our national security — such a production shock could contribute to inflationary pressures across the U.S. economy.”
Airline Tickets
Air travel could cost more because of the rising price of jet fuel, Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, said last week. While travel demand remains strong, the price of jet fuel, one of the biggest operational costs for airlines, has risen 58 percent since the start of the war, Mr. Kirby said.
“It’s becoming a lot more expensive to book a ticket and a lot more difficult to find an affordably priced discounted fare,” Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst at the Atmosphere Research Group in San Francisco, said on Monday.
If the war continues to drive ticket prices higher, sticker shock could prompt some Americans not to fly this spring and summer, Mr. Harteveldt said. “Airlines also know that if they push airfares too high, demand will decline so they are trying to find a balance,” Mr. Harteveldt said.
Cloudy Economic Forecasts
The surge in energy costs has rattled financial markets, leading the S&P 500 and other major stock indexes to drop. If the conflict “drags on, then the damage becomes much more serious,” Mr. Zandi said. Businesses could cut back on hiring if there is less demand. And if businesses resort to layoffs, a recession becomes more of a threat, Mr. Zandi said.
Daron Acemoglu, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also warned that oil price increases and heightened global uncertainty could hurt the American economy. “Since the U.S. does not seem to have a clear exit strategy from Iran,” he said in an email, the effects could be “long-lasting.”
Reporting was contributed by Emmett Lindner, Rebecca F. Elliott, Joe Rennison and Sam Sifton.
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9) Unlike Past U.S. Conflicts, Iran Attack Is Opposed by Most Americans
By Lily Boyce and Ruth Igielnik, March 10, 2026
In the days after President Trump launched U.S. forces in an attack against Iran, support for the strikes is far lower than what it has been at the beginnings of previous foreign conflicts.
So far, polls have found that most Americans oppose the Iran attacks. Support ranges from 27 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll to 50 percent in a Fox News poll. The wide variation suggests that public opinion is still taking shape as more Americans learn details of the attacks and the aftermath.
But even the highest level of public support for this conflict falls far lower than that at the start of most other conflicts, including World War II, the Korean War and the Iraq War.
In the days after the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor and subsequently declared war against Japan, 97 percent of the public supported the move, according to Gallup. And in the days after President George W. Bush put troops on the ground in Afghanistan, 92 percent of Americans were on board in a Gallup poll.
As unpopular as the Iraq War ultimately became, 76 percent of Americans approved of the decision to go to war in a poll taken the day after the conflict began.
A part of this difference in support, said Sarah Maxey, an associate professor of international relations at Loyola University of Chicago, is the way previous presidents have taken the time to sell wars to the public.
“Before the Iraq War in 2003, we had a whole year of why this mattered, why we exhausted other operations, why we needed this,” said Ms. Maxey, who studies public opinion around war and foreign conflicts. “We have not had many foreign conflicts without a clear communication strategy beforehand.”
But there are also larger forces at play.
At the beginning of wars, presidents typically experience what researchers call the “rally around the flag effect,” where support swells, even among those who otherwise disapprove of the president.
As polarization has grown over the last 30 years and Americans have drifted further apart politically, that effect has diminished.
“People from the opposing party of the president have been the source of most of the rally, but Democrats are not going to rally behind Trump,” said Matthew Baum, a professor at Harvard University who studies public opinion on foreign policy.
“For this president, to the extent that he has any rally from his base, he has a base who thinks they hired him to get him out of wars,” he added.
Support for wars typically wanes over time, as casualties increase and Americans start to feel the costs of war.
Near the start of the Vietnam War, a 60 percent majority of Americans did not see the war as a mistake. But as the number of casualties grew, so did the public’s doubts. By 1969, a majority of the public said the war was a mistake. That number continued to grow as the war went on. (There is no polling on public approval of the Vietnam War at the start of the conflict.)
Popular sentiment about the Iraq War plummeted soon after it began, with just 43 percent of Americans supportive of the war by the end. That drop in support, though, occurred across both parties.
But long gone are the days of a unified national front.
“To the extent that politics used to stop at the water’s edge, that’s no longer the case,” Mr. Baum said.
Sources: World War II: Gallup poll conducted Dec. 12-17, 1941; Korean War: NORC poll conducted July 1-31, 1950; Grenada: Gallup poll conducted Oct. 26-27, 1983; Panama: ABC poll conducted Dec. 20, 1989; Persian Gulf War: Los Angeles Times poll conducted Jan. 17-18, 1991; Kosovo: Princeton Survey Research Associates/Newsweek survey conducted April 1-2, 1999; Afghanistan War: Gallup poll conducted Oct. 11-14, 2001; Iraq War: Gallup poll conducted March 20, 2003; Libyan intervention: Gallup poll conducted March 21, 2011; Iran: CNN poll conducted Feb. 28-March 1, 2026.
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10) Fragments of U.S.-Made Missile Seen in Photos Taken by Iran Near Deadly School Strike
Iranian state media posted mangled remnants it claims were from the Feb. 28 attack in Minab. An analysis shows they have the markings of a missile made by American manufacturers
By Christiaan Triebert, Malachy Browne and John Ismay, Published March 9, 2026, Updated March 10, 2026
A government handout photograph showed weapon remnants displayed on a table near the ruins of the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, where a precision strike reportedly killed 175 people, mostly children, on Feb. 28. The remnants have been identified by The Times as components of a modern, U.S.-made Tomahawk missile.I RIB, via Telegram
Mangled missile fragments purporting to be from the deadly strikes that hit a naval base and elementary school in southern Iran on Feb. 28 bear the markings of an American cruise missile, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Photos of the fragments were posted to Telegram by Iran’s state broadcaster and were characterized as showing “the remains of the American missile that landed on the children of Minab school.”
The debris is displayed on a table near the shell of the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, most of which was destroyed in a precision strike, according to an earlier analysis by The Times. At least 175 people, most of them children, were reportedly killed.
While it is not clear where or how the fragments were recovered — or whether they pertain specifically to the school strike — they contain serial numbers and other details that are consistent with how the Department of Defense and its suppliers categorize and label munitions. The remnants appear to be from a U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missile manufactured in 2014 or later.
Evidence analyzed by The New York Times has been mounting that the school was hit during a series of U.S. strikes targeting an adjacent naval base. On Sunday, a video was uploaded by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency, that The Times and other outlets identified as a Tomahawk cruise missile striking a medical building in the naval base. The Pentagon categorizes the Tomahawk as a precision-guided munition.
The Defense Department released videos of U.S. Navy warships firing Tomahawks at Iran on Feb. 28, the first day of the strikes, and the day the school was hit, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in two separate appearances last week that Navy-launched Tomahawks were used to attack targets along Iran’s southern coast during the opening hours of the war.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump made the assertion that the school was hit by Iran without offering any proof. On Monday, he again posited that scenario.
“Iran also has some Tomahawks,” he said in response to questions from a New York Times reporter at a news conference. “As you know, numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us.”
In fact, Iran has no Tomahawks. Any country the U.S. has sold Tomahawks to would have to obtain authorization from the State Department before transferring them to a third party, like Iran.
Mr. Trump also added that he was made aware that the Minab incident was under investigation and that whatever the results of that show he was “willing to live with it."
Besides the United States, only two countries are known to have Tomahawk missiles: Australia and Britain. Two additional countries have agreed to purchase them — Japan in 2024, and the Netherlands in 2025.
In October, Mr. Trump openly mused about providing Tomahawks to Ukraine, but never followed through on the idea.
Even if Iran were able to somehow obtain a Tomahawk, it lacks the technical equipment and capabilities that are used to program their flight paths and upload that data into the missile’s onboard computer. Iran would also have to be in possession of a launcher capable of firing a Tomahawk without damaging it.
Iran has produced two models of cruise missiles for attacking land-based targets. But both of those weapons have design features that visually set them apart from a Tomahawk, even when viewed from a distance.
In the photos of the weapons debris, one remnant is marked SDL ANTENNA, or satellite data link antenna, part of a communications system installed in more modern versions of the Tomahawk. A number unique to Department of Defense contracts indicates that the component was supplied to the U.S. military as part of a 2014 order. The name of Ball Aerospace Technologies, a weapons manufacturer based in Boulder, Colo., that was acquired by BAE in 2024, is imprinted on the part.
Another remnant is stamped with “Made in USA” and bears the name of Globe Motors, an Ohio-based manufacturer. According to the official open-data source for American federal government spending, the company has been awarded millions of dollars in Department of Defense contracts for components, including the actuator motors used to move the guidance fins that steer Tomahawk missiles.
The photos match remnants documented in Tomahawk missile attacks in previous conflicts, including the Globe Motors component, as well as a circuit board, both photographed in Yemen, and archived by the Open Source Munitions Portal, a database of weapon fragments found in conflict zones. A similar Globe Motors component has also been found in Syria.
Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician who works with the research collective Bellingcat, also identified the components as being part of a Tomahawk missile. He has identified similar missile remnants photographed at other attack sites in Iran since the start of the Israeli-U.S. war.
Shawn McCreesh contributed reporting.
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11) America Is an Oil Exporter. Why Does a Mideast War Raise U.S. Gas Prices?
The U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran have intensified and the conflict has widened, shaking global energy markets.
By Emmett Lindner, March 10, 2026
A tanker and a cargo ship in Muscat, Oman, on Monday. The war in Iran has affected the shipping of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. Benoit Tessier/Reuters
The price of gasoline in the United States rose again on Tuesday, to an average of $3.54 a gallon, according to data from the AAA motor club, raising the cost of a fuel many Americans purchase frequently.
That’s an increase of 19 percent in since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, inciting a conflict that has engulfed oil production, storage and shipping from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world.
In financial markets, concern that oil shipments from the region won’t resume soon has lifted the price of crude oil — the largest factor in the cost of gasoline — about 24 percent in the same period.
The gains show just how vital the Persian Gulf region is to global energy supplies — and how interconnected global energy markets are, even if the United States produces plenty of oil.
Here’s what you need to know.
Who sets gas prices, and how are they determined?
In November the cost of crude oil accounted for about 50 percent of the price of a gallon of regular gasoline, according to the most recent estimate from the Energy Information Administration.
Refining and distribution by big energy companies and taxes account for most of the rest, which is why prices vary regionally. Station owners have a little wiggle room to set the price they charge, usually just a few cents per gallon.
Why does a disruption in the Middle East affect U.S. drivers?
Oil, no matter where it comes from, is priced largely on global supply and demand. Prices can change quickly when supply is cut off by wars or weather, or if demand rises or falls.
The price that American refiners pay is underpinned by benchmarks set in the commodities markets. The two main ones are Brent and West Texas Intermediate, but there are many different oil prices across the globe — determined by where it’s produced and how far into the future it’s expected to be delivered.
By any measure, oil prices have surged: West Texas Intermediate futures are 30 percent higher than before the attacks began.
“When there’s a supply disruption in the Middle East, that raises prices for every barrel of oil in the world,” said Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability at M.I.T. “Those price increases then trickle down to products that use oil, gasoline being the most relevant one.”
But isn’t the United States the world’s largest oil producer?
Yes, but not all American-produced oil can be easily used by American refiners. The United States is a net exporter of petroleum products, which include gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and propane, but it still imports millions of barrels of crude oil.
In December, the United States imported about 200 million barrels of crude oil, according to the Energy Information Administration. That same month, it exported more than 350 million barrels of petroleum products, including 128 million barrels of crude oil.
Fuel made from imported oil often winds up in U.S. gas stations. The type of oil produced in the United States tends to be higher-quality, so-called sweet oil, but domestic refineries are set up to handle heavy and sour oil. It is often more cost efficient to sell the sweet and buy the heavy.
It would be expensive and difficult to reconfigure refineries, said Willy Shih, an international trade expert at Harvard Business School.
Also, a federal law called the Jones Act requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be carried on American-made and operated vessels, which can sometimes make it more efficient for refiners to import oil than moving it within the country.
Refineries in New Jersey, for example, might import oil from Algeria or Nigeria instead of buying it from Texas.
“You say, ‘Well, how can that make sense?’” Mr. Shih said. “Because that was the most efficient way of transporting it.”
Can the government drive down prices?
Energy experts generally say presidents have little control over oil prices, but the United States does have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which can hold up to 714 million barrels of crude. In 2022, as gas prices spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. released millions of barrels from the stockpile to help tamp down prices.
But any effect from such sales will likely be temporary. Another option, drilling more, takes time.
“Let’s just say you wanted to open up some environmentally fragile areas up for oil drilling to respond to this oil shock,” Mr. Knittel said. “Those barrels of oil aren’t going to get online for upward of six months.”
What has the Trump administration said?
On Monday, top officials from the United States and six other industrialized nations, known as the Group of 7, signaled that they were not yet worried about running short of fuel.
President Trump has also roiled markets with conflicting messages about the war. He said in a Monday phone interview with a CBS News reporter that the war “is very complete, pretty much.”
A few hours later he warned of even more aggressive action if Iranian leaders tried to cut off the world’s energy supply.
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12) Trump Antisemitism Inquiry Demanding List of Jews at Penn Heads to Court
The Trump administration, which said it is investigating harassment, sued the University of Pennsylvania after it refused a request to provide information about Jewish students and staff.
By Alan Blinder and Michael C. Bender, March 10, 2026
Alan Blinder and Michael C. Bender have been covering the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on higher education. They welcome tips at nytimes.com/tips.
Jacob Naimark, a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, has worried ever since he learned that Trump administration investigators had demanded that his school turn over the names of many Jewish people on campus.
“It was disturbing,” said Mr. Naimark, a co-president of the school’s Jewish Law Students Association, adding: “We know very well the history of governments assembling lists of Jews does not end well.”
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Philadelphia is considering whether the government’s tactics went too far.
The government has argued it was investigating harassment and other potential episodes of antisemitism on campus, including some related to campus protests over the war in Gaza. But the request upset many Jewish faculty and students, and Penn has refused to comply, calling the Trump administration’s demands unconstitutional and “disconcerting.” Some say the campaign to force the university to give information about Jewish people makes them feel less safe, in part because it recalls the methods of Nazi-era Germany.
The two sides are meeting in court after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asked a judge, Gerald J. Pappert, to enforce a subpoena requiring Penn to turn over the information. Mr. Naimark’s group is among those that have joined the case opposing the government.
The Trump administration has repeatedly adopted a hard line toward elite universities, which it regards as opposed to its ideology and as hot spots of discrimination. Last year, the government paused $175 million in federal funding to Penn amid a dispute about a transgender swimmer, before it reached a settlement with the university.
The antisemitism case is testing how far the government can go to investigate its suspicions about American universities. It could determine how aggressively the Trump administration pursues inquiries on other campuses.
The E.E.O.C. has argued to Judge Pappert that there is nothing out of the ordinary about its investigation. A commissioner, Andrea R. Lucas, a Penn alumna, launched the case in 2023, asserting that she believed Penn had “engaged in a pattern or practice of harassment based on national origin, religion and/or race against Jewish employees.” Ms. Lucas is now the chairwoman of the E.E.O.C.
She said the allegations were based on information published in news reports and congressional testimony, among other sources.
In March 2025, the commission asked for a range of records, including complaints about antisemitism. It also asked for a list of “all clubs, groups, organizations and recreation groups” that were “related to the Jewish religion, faith, ancestry/national origin,” as well as membership rosters of those groups, so it can speak with students and faculty members about discrimination on campus.
It also sought a list of employees in Penn’s Jewish Studies Program since November 2022. After Penn balked, the commission issued a subpoena for the records and added more demands, including notes taken during “listening sessions” of a campus antisemitism task force.
Instead, Penn, according to its court filings, told the commission it was willing to inform all employees about the inquiry and how to contact the commission directly.
The government refused the offer as unworkable and said it was not seeking to “imperil any individual.” In a court filing last month, Trump officials called the request routine and the criticism speculative.
In an earlier filing, the commission said that Penn was waging “an intensive and relentless public relations campaign” that yielded “dark prognosticating.”
A spokesman for the E.E.O.C. declined to comment. The commission’s case was filed by Debra Lawrence, a veteran civil rights lawyer who was named the top lawyer for the commission’s Philadelphia district in 2010.
Penn declined to make an administrator available for an interview for this article, and university officials have repeatedly declined to comment beyond court filings. Penn’s legal team includes Debo P. Adegbile, a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and Seth P. Waxman, a former U.S. solicitor general, who are partners at WilmerHale.
In one filing in January, the university argued that the government’s approach was unwarranted because Ms. Lucas’s charge failed “to identify a single allegedly unlawful employment practice or incident involving employees.”
Among other contentions, the university has also argued that the government’s demands threaten employees’ First Amendment right of association, and that the university does not even possess some of the information the commission has subpoenaed.
Some at Penn say the case has unified the campus after years of acrimony tied to the campus protests.
“Somehow, the E.E.O.C. has managed to find the one thing in the last three years that at least everybody I’ve talked to agrees on,” said Lorena Grundy, the vice president of Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which has also joined the case.
“There’s a lot of division right now,” she added, but “I have not talked to a single person who wants the list of information to be released.”
Dr. Grundy did not know how many A.A.U.P. members might be affected by the subpoena. “I don’t have a list, and I shouldn’t have a list,” she said. “There shouldn’t be a list!”
The E.E.O.C. has been central in other Trump administration’s negotiations with top universities. It has broad powers to investigate discrimination, and universities routinely cooperate with government investigations of all kinds.
But the Penn inquiry has revived concerns about the aggressive tactics the Trump administration is using to stamp out antisemitism.
“It’s good for governments to be concerned about prejudice and to combat it,” said Steven Weitzman, the director of Penn’s Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. “But the tactics from the Trump administration have been too coercive.”
Mr. Naimark, whose grandfather survived the Holocaust, said he did not believe that the sharing of the names would swiftly lead to a “second Holocaust.” But, he said, he and others feared what could happen if the list fell into the hands of a bad actor inside or outside the government.
“We’d like to sound the alarm before there’s a five-alarm fire,” he said.
Dr. Grundy warned that a victory for the E.E.O.C. could lead to similar scenarios for other institutions, because the commission’s purview extends beyond universities.
“It is absolutely the slipperiest of slopes,” she said.
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13) U.S. Solar Installations Fell in 2025 as Trump Attacked Clean Energy
More solar energy was added to U.S. grids than any other technology, but the amount installed fell by 14 percent, according to a new report.
By Ivan Penn, March 10, 2026
A solar field in Riesel, Texas, in 2023. Solar power is projected to account for just over half of the new power projects that will be added this year. Mason Trinca for The New York Times
Solar power installations declined in the United States last year, as the Trump administration sought to impede the growth of renewable energy, according to an industry report released on Tuesday.
Solar energy maintained its position as the largest source of new electricity generation added to the electric grid, but the amount added was 14 percent lower than in 2024, according to the report and data published by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm.
Last year was much better for battery storage installations, which increased to their highest annual level, the report said. Trump administration officials have not criticized batteries as much as they have criticized solar and wind power.
“The emphasis in federal energy policy that happened throughout 2025 on fossil fuels and a kind of a move away from renewables definitely made an impact on the solar industry, to be sure,” said Michelle Davis, head of global solar at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. “It’s undeniable.”
It is too early to say how the war with Iran, which has sharply driven up the prices of oil and natural gas, will affect renewable energy. A sustained rise in those costs could push businesses and individuals worldwide to buy more solar panels and batteries. But some policymakers may respond by pulling back clean energy goals and increase subsidies for fossil fuels.
The U.S. government began making drastic changes to energy policies when President Trump returned to office. Last summer, the Energy Department announced plans to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from federal renewable energy and efficiency programs, largely targeting solar and wind power. Other government departments and agencies have stalled environmental and other reviews of wind and solar projects.
Mr. Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, has frequently criticized renewable energy, describing it as inadequate and unreliable while praising and directing more federal funding to coal, natural gas and nuclear projects.
“Beyond the obvious scale and cost problems, there is simply no physical way wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas,” Mr. Wright, a former oil and gas executive, said last year at CERAWeek by S&P Global, an annual energy conference in Houston.
Yet the Energy Information Administration, a division of the Energy Department, still projects that solar power will account for just over half of the new power projects this year. More than half of those new installations are expected in Texas, Arizona, California and Michigan.
“We expect 2026 to be another big year for solar additions,” the agency said in a statement last month.
Mr. Wright and other administration officials have taken a softer position on the batteries as large as shipping containers used by energy companies and other businesses to store and discharge power. Many battery projects are being approved and built, especially in California and Texas.
Solar and battery installations are also growing in other countries, with solar panels leading all forms of new power generation worldwide. Wood Mackenzie expects global solar additions to triple by 2035, with countries like India and Saudi Arabia leading the way.
At the same time, growth of solar energy is starting to slow or decline in countries, like the United States and China, that have been adding a lot of renewable energy capacity for many years.
China is expected to experience a 32 percent drop in solar installations this year, largely because recent policy changes effectively reduced the profits of solar energy companies. Solar additions globally are expected to decline by a fifth as a result.
Despite the slowing of new installations, the solar industry could grow rapidly outside the United States and China.
The greater use of solar panels is one of the main reasons that the energy industry is adding a lot of batteries, which can soak up excess electricity generated during the day for use at night and in the early morning.
Last year, U.S. energy storage installations grew 30 percent above the previous record, set the prior year, and were four times what the industry installed just three years ago.
Businesses, including electric utilities, and individuals are both installing batteries. Many people buy batteries as part of a home solar system. But homeowners are also increasingly buying stand-alone batteries to protect themselves against power outages.
Solar and batteries can help individuals and businesses reduce electricity costs and support the electric grid, which is struggling with rising demand for energy. Utilities also are contending with the need to upgrade and repair aging equipment and prepare for extreme weather.
“Deployment is rising fast, but without a course correction from federal actions targeting the industry, Americans will face higher electricity prices and a less resilient energy system,” said Darren Van’t Hof, interim president and chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association.
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14) Cancer Haunts Neighbors of Canada’s Oil Sands Wastelands
Though high rates of the disease persist among the nearby Indigenous communities, the Canadian government is weighing rules that may allow energy giants to release treated mining waste into the river system.
By Emily Baumgaertner Nunn, March 10, 2026
Emily Baumgaertner Nunn reported from Fort Chipewyan, Fort McKay and Fort McMurray, Alberta.
A Syncrude facility near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Pat Kane for The New York Times
In a tiny hamlet of the Canadian subarctic, something was wrong with the fish.
Indigenous elders and university scientists stood over a tarp of dissected walleye on the banks of a channel near Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. The scientists clutched clipboards as they analyzed humpbacks, lesions, discolored scales and outsize livers. An elder, who had long relied on the waterway’s marine life for sustenance, knew simply by first glance: “No good.”
It was five days into their investigation on the freshwater Chenal des Quatre Fourches, in a place everyone just called Cutfish. They had pitched tents among the diamond willow and settled in for a week of dissections — their best chance at understanding the contaminants they believed were plaguing the food supply from one of the largest industrial operations on Earth.
That operation was more than 100 miles upstream, where energy companies, including a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil, were drilling for a viscous form of petroleum called bitumen, using water from the Athabasca River to extract it from deposits that stretch out beneath some 140,000 square kilometers of boreal forest. Massive pools of toxic waste with known carcinogens — their collective volumes estimated at more than half a million Olympic-size swimming pools — sit near the river, and an analysis suggests they are leaking around 11 million liters per day into the groundwater. As oil-company operations have increased, so have bouts of unexplained illness among residents of Fort Chipewyan.
Now, the Canadian government is weighing regulations that could allow the companies to release the oil sands wastewater directly into the river system, so long as they first use filtration systems, microorganisms or other methods to reduce contaminants to safe levels. But scientists say there are no safe levels of exposure to some carcinogenic components — and no proven methods for fully eliminating them.
Environmental experts are worried about implications well beyond Fort Chipewyan, since the Athabasca River runs north through Alberta and the Northwest Territories, ultimately joining a vast river system that empties into the Arctic Ocean. They say pollution from the oil sands could threaten biodiversity and the waterway’s climate-stabilizing properties — and could share contaminants from the mining waste, known as tailings, with the rest of the world.
When the last walleye was examined, elders from the three Indigenous groups in Fort Chipewyan gathered in a tent for an emergency meeting. It wasn’t just the fish, they agreed: The muskrat dens had all but disappeared. The wild tern eggs were contaminated with mercury. Petroleum sheens were collecting around the water caves. And the rate of rare cancers in the hamlet was high. There were fewer than a thousand residents, but lately, there seemed to be a funeral every week, sometimes two.
“I don’t care how many times they treat that contaminated water — it’s going to end up here,” said Alice Martin, a Mikisew Cree elder with feathery gray bangs who was pleading with others to help make a plan to fight the oil companies. “We can’t depend on others to say what is important to us. It’s time. Because we’re going to die out.”
The wind rushed in from the marshlands, and the smell of mint tea wafted from a fire nearby. Ron Campbell, an elder who spent six decades in Fort Chipewyan, cleared his throat.
“For thousands of years, we have lived off this delta,” he said, adjusting his Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap. “It’s in our genetic makeup to hunt, trap, fish, gather. Now the food that kept us alive for thousands of years is killing us. Where do they expect us to go?”
Decades of Worry
From above, the oil sands tailings are a study in explosive growth.
In 1975, their footprint in the Fort McMurray region was smaller than one square mile.
By 2000, the tailings grew more than 30 times larger.
They now cover an area greater than 115 square miles, more than twice the size of Vancouver.
As the tailings ponds leak waste, doctors are worried about the health effects in communities downstream.
Source: Landsat. By Blacki Migliozzi/The New York Times
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