Thursday, July 30
National CALL to ACTION at U.S. Drone Bases
Please share far & wide
Simultaneous protests planned at 4 U.S. Drone Bases:
1. Beale AFB in Marysville, CA - Central base for drone surveillance data analysis, and home to the new “Collaborative Combat Aircraft” autonomous drone fleet.
2. Holloman AFB, Alamogordo, New Mexico - Largest drone training base in the U.S.
3. Creech AFB, Indian Springs, Nevada/near Las Vegas - Central command for U.S. MQ9 Reaper Drone combat attacks.
4. Hancock Field Air National Guard, (Syracuse, NY) - MQ9 Reaper Drone combat operations and training.
Dear Northern California Peace Allies,
BanKillerDrones.org and ShutDownDroneWarfare are collaborating this Thursday, July 20, 2026, in a National Call to Action at U.S. Drone Bases. If you live in California, please consider joining us for an early morning commute protest/vigil at Beale AFB. (Note: Early am to avoid the summer heat and still reach the troops in commute hours). Organize a carpool from your area. We will leave East Bay at 4 am! We can do this! (The military do it every day of the week).
Drones are a critical tool in the wars in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine. U.S. drones have been the illegal and immoral tools of choice of the U.S. Empire and global domination since their inception.
In the war on Iran, 30+ MQ9 Reaper drones have already been destroyed at a cost of $50 million dollars each! Consider the basic human needs that are being neglected due to this grossly wasteful expenditure of unbridled militarism.
In addition, 4,000 to 6,000 Iranians have already been killed, tens of thousands more injured in this unprovoked and aggressive U.S.-Israeli War on the people of Iran. Though we mourn the loss of U.S. military as well, only 18-20 American losses are reported to date. This vast disproportionality underlines the horrors and cruelty of the conflict.
Please join us this Thursday at Beale to call on our military to:
· REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS
· IRAN?: HELL NO, DON’T DRONE!
· PROMOTE PEACE WITH IRAN (& everywhere)
· STOP KILLING FOR EMPIRE!
If you’re interested in attending, please contact:
Toby Blomé, toby4peace@sonic.net
(for more details and assistance with carpooling, if needed)
Contacts for other base actions:
Holloman AFB: jonahph@proton.me
Creech AFB: Kb11680@gmail.com
Hancock AFB: Mary Anne Grady Flores: gradyflores08@gmail.com*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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The Bay Area Demo Legal Collab and friends are hosting a Grand Jury education and training event. Join us for a political history of how Grand Juries are used for political repression, hear from Grand Jury resisters and learn how to plan for repression for yourself and your community.
In the Bay Area there have been recent FBI visits, Grand Jury subpoenas and investigations into our political movements. If you are contacted by the feds or other law enforcement agencies you should exercise your rights and reach out to legal support:
· You do not have to open your door or let FBI or other agents into your home without a warrant.
· You have the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney: you do not have to talk to FBI or other agents or answer their questions. It can be dangerous to do so. Say, "I do not want to answer questions without my lawyer. Please slip your card under the door and my lawyer will call you."
· For legal help, call the Bay Area Federal Defense Line, 415-285-1041 and someone will return your call within 48 hours.
The Bay Area Federal Defense line can help connect you to a lawyer if you are contacted by agents related to progressive political activism. It is sponsored by the Bay Area Demo Legal Support Collaborative- a joint effort of Legal Solidarity Bay Area, NLG-SF, Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, Anti-Repression Committee, and Oaklaw.
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The Trump administration is escalating its attack on Cuba, cutting off the island’s access to oil in a deliberate attempt to induce famine and mass suffering. This is collective punishment, plain and simple.
In response, we’re releasing a public Call to Conscience, already signed by influential public figures, elected officials, artists, and organizations—including 22 members of the New York City Council, Kal Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, 50501, Movement for Black Lives, The People’s Forum, IFCO Pastors for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, and many others—demanding an end to this brutal policy.
The letter is open for everyone to sign. Add your name today. Cutting off energy to an island nation is not policy—it is a tactic of starvation.
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VIDEO:
What Cubans Really Think About Trump
By Jeff Seal, May 28, 2026
Mr. Seal is a comedian and a visual journalist.
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Petition to Force Amazon to Cut ICE Contracts!
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
Amazon Labor Union
Over 600,000 messages have already been sent directly to Amazon board members demanding one thing: Amazon must stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE and DHS rely on the data infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. Their campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon.
But workers and communities have real power when we act collectively. That’s why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine. Help us reach 1 million messages and force Amazon to act by signing our petition with The Labor Force today:
Tell Amazon: End contracts with ICE!
On Cyber Monday 2025, Amazon workers rallied outside of Amazon’s NYC headquarters to demand that Amazon stop fueling mass deportations through Amazon Web Services’ contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE cannot operate without corporate backing; its campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon. Mega-corporations may appear untouchable, but they are not. Anti-authoritarian movements have long understood that repression is sustained by a network of institutional enablers and when those enablers are disrupted, state violence weakens. Workers and communities have real power when they act collectively. That is why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its most commonly used cloud platform. DHS and ICE cannot wage their attack on immigrants without the critical data infrastructure that Amazon Web Services provide, allowing the agencies to collect, analyze, and store the massive amounts of data they need to do their dirty work. Without the power of AWS, ICE would not be able to track and target people at its current scale.
ICE and DHS use Amazon Web Services to collect and store massive amounts of purchased data on immigrants and their friends and family–everything from biometric data, DMV data, cellphone records, and more. And through its contracts with Palantir, DHS is able to scour regional, local, state, and federal databases and analyze and store this data on AWS. All of this information is ultimately used to target immigrants and other members of our communities.
No corporation should profit from oppression and abuse. Yet Amazon is raking in tens of millions of dollars to fuel DHS and ICE, while grossly exploiting its own workers. Can you sign our petition today, demanding that Amazon stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with DHS and ICE, now?
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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 Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity CampaignAn appeal for financial supportMay 12, 2026 Dear Friends of the Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign, It has been more than two years since Boris Kagarlitsky began serving the five-year sentence meted out to him by a Russian military court as a way of silencing and punishing him for his opposition to Putin’s war on Ukraine. With a multitude of longstanding friends and colleagues throughout the world, Boris is one of the best-known victims of the steadily escalating political repression in Russia. He has borne the gross injustice of his incarceration with characteristic courage, determination and defiance. But there is no denying that Putin’s gulag takes a toll on even the most valiant spirits. The Boris Kagarlitsky Solidarity Campaign has worked continuously these last two years to draw attention to Boris’s plight, and by extension to that of other prisoners unjustly condemned for protesting the ongoing war that has already cost upwards of half a million lives and vastly more maimed, according to estimates. We have sought, through a variety of activities, to bring pressure to bear on the Russian authorities to free Boris. The many people involved in the Campaign are happy to volunteer their time. However, we rely on the generosity of the Campaign’s supporters to cover the periodic expenses we incur. We recently reached out for help to defray costs associated with the participation of Boris’ daughter and tireless advocate for Russian political prisoners, Kseniia Kagarlitskya, in the international antifascist conference in Porto Alegre at the end of March. That trip was a great success. It allowed Kseniia and Mikhail Lobanov, Russian mathematician, political activist, and former associate professor at Moscow State University, to introduce the thousands of conference-goers from Brazil and across the world to the grim realities confronting Russian political dissidents. The Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Committee has many plans in store for the coming months and especially the fall, including a virtual conference devoted to the global manifestations of political repression. We are appealing to you for a little financial help to carry out our projects and support the day-to-day ongoing work of the committee. We would be deeply appreciative of any assistance you can provide. Because the members of the Campaign coordinating committee are scattered across Europe, North America and beyond, it has been a little complicated to set up a campaign bank account, although we are making progress on that front. For the time being we are asking that you send any contributions you can manage directly to our de facto treasurer Suzi Weissman who is located in Los Angeles, California. The details of her account are: Bank: Wells Fargo Swift/Bic: PNBPUS6L Account holder: Susan Claudia Weissman Account number: 0657205076 International wire transfers: WFBIUS6S wise.com personal account: @susanclaudiaw We thank you in anticipation of any contribution you can make to help keep the Campaign running. Yours in solidarity, Dick Nichols Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) Fauci invokes the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer a Senate committee’s questions.
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Sheryl Gay Stolberg covers health policy from Washington, July 29, 2026
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci refused on Wednesday to answer questions from a Senate committee investigating the origins of Covid-19, accusing the panel’s chairman of having an “unhinged obsession with me” before invoking his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment not to incriminate himself.
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,” Dr. Fauci said repeatedly, as Republican members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee questioned him.
Senator Rand Paul, the panel’s chairman, pointedly warned the scientist that there would “be repercussions” for his refusal to answer questions. When a lawyer for Dr. Fauci, David Schertler, piped up to defend him, Mr. Paul ordered security to escort Mr. Schertler from the room. “He was not invited to testify,” the senator later said.
The decision not to testify marked the latest turn in the long-running battle between Dr. Fauci, who spent nearly four decades as the government’s top infectious disease expert, and Senator Paul, who accuses Dr. Fauci of funding research in China that sparked the pandemic, and then lying about it to Congress — accusations Dr. Fauci vehemently denies.
”Frankly the American people deserve an apology,” Mr. Paul said in his opening statement. “I hope to day Dr. Fauci will come clean, admit it was a mistake to fund dangerous research in China.” He accused Dr. Fauci of saying “one thing in public, and another in private” — an apparent reference to diary entries written by Dr. Fauci and released by Mr. Paul over the weekend.
In a brief opening statement, Dr. Fauci noted that he had testified before Congress more than 200 times during the 38 years he ran the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, including during the Covid pandemic.
“Over that period, I proved that I believe in and respect the value of legitimate congressional oversight,” he said.
“However,” Dr. Fauci added, “given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars.’”
Dr. Fauci received a pre-emptive pardon from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., but the pardon protects him only from federal prosecution for actions he took through the date it was issued, Jan. 19, 2025. He told the panel that it pained him not to answer questions, but that he was doing so on the advice of his lawyers.
At the center of Mr. Paul’s inquiry is whether the coronavirus originated naturally, as Dr. Fauci believes, or in a laboratory. Mr. Paul insists that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Dr. Fauci ran from 1984 until his retirement at the end of 2022, funded dangerous research in China that spun out of control and essentially created the virus that led to the pandemic. Dr. Fauci says that is not true.
That research, called “gain-of-function,” involves tinkering with the genetic makeup of viruses so that scientists can better understand how they evolve and use that information prevent future pandemics. On Tuesday, President Trump announced fresh restrictions on such work.
While Dr. Fauci’s institute did fund research at the Wuhan laboratory in China, the National Institutes of Health has repeatedly said the viruses being studied with American tax dollars were distinct from the one that caused Covid-19. But Mr. Paul asserted that the Dr. Fauci had stuck to a narrow definition of gain-of-function research that did not capture the risks of work his institute had funded in Wuhan.
“The American people weren’t asking for a semantics debate over what is gain of function,” the senator said. “They were asking for common sense over whether this research was dangerous in Wuhan.”
The top Democrat on the panel, Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, accused Mr. Paul of waging a politically-motivated inquiry to “basically legitimize a predetermined conclusion that was reached years ago.”
Dr. Fauci and Mr. Paul have been tangling with one another for years. In 2021, when the senator accused Dr. Fauci of lying while testifying before the Senate, Dr. Fauci replied, “If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.”
Mr. Schertler, Mr. Fauci’s lawyer, said in statement that he believes that exchange “triggered” the senator’s crusade against his client. But he did not deliver the statement, because Mr. Paul refused to let him speak. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, read parts of the statement into the record.
“The accusations that Chairman Paul continues to propagate are false and disgraceful,” the statement said, “and we will examine all options to hold him accountable.”
Over the weekend, Mr. Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Dr. Fauci’s typewritten diary without saying how he got them. On Tuesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he gave the documents to Mr. Paul and another Republican, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, “so they could see the light of day.”
The diary does not add much to the scientific debate around the so-called lab leak theory. Rather, it echoes past disclosures showing Dr. Fauci wrestling with a fast-moving crisis as scientific understanding of the virus evolved.
But the entries included personal observations in which Dr. Fauci marveled at his fame and his relationships with a rapidly growing list of celebrities, further inflaming a partisan political battle.
Mr. Paul has been taunting Dr. Fauci on Twitter all week, and Dr. Fauci’s conservative critics have been ridiculing him over diary entries that focus on his own fame and his relationships with celebrities.
Peter Staley, a longtime AIDS activist and close friend of Dr. Fauci’s, said he kept the diary to help write a memoir, which he was already drafting when the pandemic hit. It was published in 2024. Mr. Staley said the personal observations reflect Dr. Fauci being “astonished at what was happening in his life.”
On Tuesday, a group of more than 155 physicians, scientists and public health advocates, organized by AIDS activists who worked closely with Dr. Fauci in the 1990s, issued a public letter defending him and condemning what they considered the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on science and scientists.
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2) Why Do We Tolerate Elon Musk’s Racist Commentary?
By Jamelle Bouie, Opinion Columnist, July 29, 2026
Ioulex for The New York Times
“The Turner Diaries” is a work of white supremacist agitprop. It purports to be the diary of a neo-Nazi militant, Earl Turner, who is working to overthrow the United States government — or as the book calls it, “the System” — through a group called “the Organization.” Turner castigates “the System” for promoting integration, encouraging nonwhite immigration and placing Jewish people, Black Americans and other minorities in positions of authority over whites.
Among other atrocities, the novel describes nuclear attacks on predominantly Black cities, a Holocaust of Jewish Americans, the total ethnic cleansing of California, the subjugation of women and the “Day of the Rope” — a mass public lynching of white people deemed “race traitors” for their relationships with nonwhites. The book’s epilogue describes a future after the “Great Revolution” in which the former United States is now an all-white, utopian garrison state led by the Organization, which went on to export its revolution and exterminate nonwhites worldwide.
The white power movement in the United States, notes the historian Augusta Dell’Omo in “Saving Apartheid: White Internationalism at the End of the Cold War,” “looked to white southern Africa for inspiration as it planned for the coming ‘race war.’” This apocalyptic fantasy of racial conflict in places such as Zimbabwe and South Africa shaped “The Turner Diaries.” And in turn the novel, first serialized in the pages of a white nationalist periodical in 1975 and then published as a stand-alone volume in 1978, became a touchstone for the American and global far right.
“The Order,” a white supremacist terrorist group responsible for three killings, including the murder of the Denver talk-radio host Alan Berg, took its name from the book. And Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, carried passages from the book on his person and once sold the book at gun shows.
The ideas, images and language of “The Turner Diaries” have long since entered the gestalt of far-right ideology. The book hovers there even when it isn’t mentioned. In his manifesto, for example, Dylann Roof — who murdered nine people at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, S.C. — frames himself as a martyr and calls on white Americans to fight a race war against Black people.
Today, you don’t have to look far or dig deep to see the ambient influence of “The Turner Diaries” on the far right. You need just to spend a little time in the online world of the richest man on the planet, Elon Musk (although to be clear there is no direct evidence that Musk has read the book).
The Musk of the mainstream media is an enthusiastic, if awkward, technologist, industrialist and would-be government reformer, as seen in his now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency. But Musk spends much of his time on X, his social media website, where he amplifies far-right accounts and shares his own white nationalist, anti-immigrant politics for all the world to see.
Over the past month in particular, he has adopted the imagery of a recent film, “Citizen Vigilante,” in which the actor Armie Hammer spends the run time playing a Charles Bronson-esque character who targets alleged criminals, framed mostly as Arab and African migrants. Musk uses that imagery to state his views about what must be done to save Western civilization.
“Yes,” replied Musk to an image of a gun-toting Hammer clad in black with the caption, “First the traitors then the invaders.” He also shared a post from a different user who explained that the point of “Citizen Vigilante,” in which the Hammer character “spends the first half of the movie murdering white people not migrants,” is that you must “always hang a traitor before you hang an enemy.” Musk repeated this several times, including in a post that simply said, “Traitors before invaders.”
Last week, Musk again posted that we must “Deal with traitors before invaders” and then said a few days later that “Anyone who opposes remigration is a traitor.”
“Remigration” is the call, from far-right European political parties, to forcibly remove nonwhite citizens to their supposed countries of origin, regardless of whether they are immigrants or native-born. It is essentially a form of ethnic cleansing and it is envisioned as a response to the supposed “Great Replacement” of white Europeans with nonwhites, an idea originating from a different work of far-right fiction, “The Camp of the Saints,” published in 1973.
As Musk sees it, opponents of remigration are traitors to “the West.” And as “traitors” their proper fate, according to the logic of his posts, is to be killed as punishment for their role in the demographic transformation of majority-white nations and, presumably, as a warning to those who might pollute the national bloodstream by welcoming nonwhites into their lives and into the country.
Musk’s preoccupation with demographic “traitors” flows directly from his obsession with population collapse, which he frames in terms of shrinking European and white American birthrates. “White people are a rapidly diminishing minority of the global population,” Musk wrote in September 2025. “Low birth rate,” he later said, “is the number one threat to the West followed closely by migration. There will be no West if this continues.”
One might even see his destruction of the United States Agency for International Development — responsible, so far, for an estimated 700,000 deaths worldwide — as consistent with his concern with falling white birthrates relative to those in places such as sub-Saharan Africa, where U.S.A.I.D. was active. After all, one way to secure a future for Western children, in this zero-sum view of the world, would be to starve African ones.
Musk, it should be said, insists that no one has died because of his cuts.
In a recent interview with The Economist, Musk denied that he was a racist, even as he defended his far-right views of immigration. “If you have a large and growing, rapidly growing group of people whose beliefs are antithetical to Western beliefs, at some point, there will be a reckoning,” he said.
But those views, as we see, are indistinguishable from what you would find in “The Turner Diaries.” With hundreds of millions of followers on a platform he personally controls, Musk stands as the most prominent purveyor of far-right and ultranationalistic rhetoric in the world. This is the same Musk who is also busy leveraging his vast wealth to shape that same world in his own image.
And what is that image?
As Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff show in their book “Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed,” an important part of Musk’s vision is to see the world as a compound, where “the horizons of humankind” are shrunk “into the defense of white fertility.” This in turn is tied to a larger effort to liberate humanity from the “woke mind virus” that Musk sees as a self-destructive tendency responsible for the “empathy” that has led Western nations to open their societies to others.
This too is little more than a restatement of themes and ideas found in “The Turner Diaries,” where the titular character believes that whites have been corrupted by a “Jewish-liberal-democratic-egalitarian plague.” Slobodian and Tarnoff observe that these views are also downstream of Musk’s upbringing in South Africa, where apartheid leaders fretted over birthrates and the future of white society.
Musk’s virulent racism and vicious, disturbing views are no secret. He does not hide them. They sit in plain view, easily accessible on the social media website he owns, where he does everything he can to promote similarly far-right and white supremacist ideas.
If there is a question to ask, then, it is this: Why does Musk get a pass? Why do politicians, journalists and commentators treat his far-right racist radicalism as a sideshow rather than the core of his political, ideological and industrial project, seen in everything from his deep support for Donald Trump in the United States and Restore Britain in Britain to his decision to construct a massive pollution-generating data center in predominantly Black Memphis, Tenn.
Musk spends a large part of his free time fomenting violence and spreading the same hateful ideology that motivated some of the deadliest shootings and attacks ever to happen on American soil. It is that fact, and not the cars he builds or the rockets he launches, that ought to define his place in public life.
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3) As Trump Squeezes Cuba, He Plans to Send Cuban Deportees to Uruguay
The State Department under Secretary of State Marco Rubio has deported Cubans to Africa. Now it’s negotiating with a South American country.
By Edward Wong and Emma Bubola, July 29, 2026
Edward Wong reported from Washington and Manila, and Emma Bubola reported from Montevideo, Uruguay. Both have been covering the Trump administration’s policies in Latin America.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States had many concerns about Cuba, which is 90 miles from Florida, including “the threat of mass migration.” Eric Lee for The New York Times
As part of its anti-immigrant drive, the Trump administration has deported thousands of Cubans, sending some to Mexico and even African countries, and others back to Cuba.
Now, U.S. officials are close to securing a new destination: Uruguay, the second-smallest country in South America, which already has a relatively large population of residents who migrated from Cuba.
The State Department under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been discussing the proposal with Uruguay’s foreign ministry for months, according to officials from both countries.
Uruguay entered the negotiations partly because it needs immigrant workers, and partly to win favor with the Trump administration, a senior Uruguayan official said.
But as the United States searches for countries willing to take in Cubans, it is also worsening the circumstances that have forced many Cubans to flee their country in the first place.
In recent months, the Trump administration’s economic pressure campaign has blocked oil shipments to the Caribbean island, which was already devastated by years of U.S. sanctions and misrule by its authoritarian leaders.
Mr. Rubio said the United States had many concerns about Cuba, which is 90 miles from Florida, including “the threat of mass migration.”
That is “always a risk that you run when countries are as deeply destabilized as Cuba,” he told reporters traveling with him in Manila last week.
In Uruguay, the government seeks to regularize Cuban migrants so they can find work opportunities and get social services. Many initially apply for asylum.
Some American officials think that could help ensure deportees do not try to return to the United States, while also allowing them to live outside Cuba, officials said.
A written agreement with Uruguay might not specify Cubans in the text, an official said, though in practice they would be the focus of deportations to that country.
Some of the Cubans in the United States might have relatives in Uruguay, and the governments are discussing the possibility of reuniting families, a foreign ministry official in Uruguay said. Like other officials interviewed for this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
The Cuban government often has refused to take back citizens who have been deported from the United States, but it agreed to receive several flights this year.
The Trump administration told a federal court in March that it had sent 6,000 Cubans to Mexico, where many are struggling to find work. It has also sent Cuban migrants to Africa, including to Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, and war-ravaged South Sudan, where the migrants have been kept in detention centers.
The policy is part of a broad push by the Trump administration to find nations willing to take migrants and immigrants deported from the United States.
The State Department has been criticized for sending some deportees to distant countries where they have no connections, or where governments have records of human rights abuses.
Governments in South America have been reluctant to accept deportees. But Paraguay signed an agreement with the State Department last year and has accepted flights of deportees of various nationalities. Ecuador also signed an agreement last year, and the deportees sent there include Cubans.
Uruguay, a nation of 3.4 million, has long had a relatively open immigration policy.
“We have a tradition of welcoming people who come from other countries,” said Carlos Negro, the country’s interior minister. Uruguay, he added, “was born as an immigrant country.” Most Uruguayans are descended from colonial settlers and immigrants from Spain and Italy.
While migrants-rights groups have criticized Mr. Trump’s deportation policy, some have said that for Cuban deportees, ending up in Uruguay would be better than being sent to many other countries.
In March, Leydis Aguilera, who immigrated to Uruguay from Cuba 16 years ago, became a member of the national parliament. She has described the warm welcome she received in Uruguay and how she eventually found education and job opportunities there.
Uruguay needs to expand its work force to compensate for its small and aging population. Public opinion remains largely in favor of immigration, and deportations are rare. Even those who enter without a visa are often allowed to stay legally.
Last year, Uruguay had nearly 24,000 asylum seekers from Cuba, according to United Nations statistics.
The State Department declined to comment on the talks with Uruguay. “Implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies is a top priority for the Department of State,” it said in a statement. “As Secretary Rubio has said, we remain unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security.”
The Uruguayan foreign ministry declined to comment.
During much of the Cold War, the U.S. government welcomed people from Communist-ruled Cuba and offered them a rapid pathway toward permanent residency and citizenship. The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 has compelled this of Democratic and Republican administrations.
But starting in the Clinton administration, American officials have found ways to work around or weaken the requirements of the law to try to avoid taking in an influx of migrants.
President Trump has accelerated that. His administration has blocked several routes to permanent residency status and citizenship for Cubans.
That puts 600,000 Cubans at risk of deportation, according to María José Espinosa, the executive director of the Center for Engagement and Advocacy in the Americas, which analyzes deportation data.
Ada Ferrer, a history professor at Princeton and author of a book on the history of Cuba, said “there was a time when they wouldn’t go after Cubans because of the Cuban Adjustment Act, but no one is abiding by that anymore.”
“If you ran on mass deportations, you’re going to try to do mass deportations,” she added. “But Cuban Americans thought they would be protected.”
A Cuban grandfather of Mr. Rubio who flew to the United States in 1962 without a visa got a deportation order, but was allowed to remain in the country after being granted refugee status, according to a biography of Marco Rubio by Manuel Roig-Franzia.
Yael Schacher, the director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, said that all deportation plans were “bad options,” especially those targeting people who have lived in the United States for a long time.
Still, she said, a Latin American country “with a well-functioning asylum system that is safe is like the least bad option.”
Despite Uruguay’s relative tolerance, migrants often struggle. Uruguay is expensive compared to other South American nations. Many Cubans initially live in boardinghouses while working as delivery or Uber drivers, caregivers and security guards.
Hamed Aleaziz and Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting from Washington.
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4) In Ohio, Toxic Wastewater Is Bubbling Up Out of the Ground
The state is a major importer of fracking wastewater, which gets pumped underground but doesn’t always stay there. The city of Marietta is fighting back.
By Quinn Glabicki, Photographs by Maddie McGarvey, July 29, 2026
Quinn Glabicki and Maddie McGarvey reported from Marietta, Ohio, and the surrounding Ohio River Valley.
A truck carrying fracking wastewater arrived at an injection site near Marietta.
In historic Marietta, Ohio, riverboats churn past shores once surveyed by George Washington. Trolleys bump along brick roads that pass between Victorian homes and 2,000-year-old Adena and Hopewell burial mounds. Its cemeteries hold more Revolutionary War officers than anywhere else in the nation.
And there is something else buried deep beneath Marietta: Hundreds of millions of gallons of radioactive fracking wastewater.
For years, it has arrived in a caravan of tanker trucks that come night and day to deposit the toxic brine in injection wells that pump it thousands of feet underground, where it is supposed to stay forever.
But the brine is spurting to the surface, and locals fear it could soon contaminate the drinking water source for 32,000 people. “It would destroy the city,” said Susan Vessels, president of the Marietta City Council. “Once the damage is done, it cannot be undone.”
Residents and local officials were for years “completely unaware” of their place at the heart of an interstate marketplace for toxic waste, Ms. Vessels said. They’ve come to realize, she said, that their corner of Ohio has become a major destination for fracking brine.
Ohio has permitted more than 240 injection wells for the disposal of oil and gas waste. By comparison, there are 19 such injection wells in Pennsylvania, and a few dozen in West Virginia, both of which border Ohio.
Pennsylvania, which produces more natural gas than any state besides Texas, last year exported to Ohio roughly three-quarters of all the fracking brine that it needed to permanently dispose of, according to state records.
Ohio pumps about 1.4 billion gallons of wastewater underground annually, according to state data. Estimates vary, but roughly one-third to one-half likely comes from out of state.
The fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s largest producer of natural gas. But fracking also produces huge volumes of salty wastewater laden with heavy metals, radioactive materials and cancer-causing benzene, as well as hazardous chemical additives from the fracking process.
Ohio became a destination for wastewater because decades ago, long before fracking, it received permission from the federal government to regulate its own injection wells, which were then just a small part of the oil and gas industry. As a result, today it’s easier to drill injection wells in Ohio than in states like Pennsylvania where there’s federal oversight.
Rural Washington County, home to Marietta, has 19 permitted injection wells. Over the past two years, 59 percent of the 562 million gallons of waste injected under the county came from out of state, according to state records reviewed by The New York Times.
The industry says injection wells are tightly regulated, and that thousands of feet of rock and shale safely contain the wastewater. Injection wells, “when properly sited, constructed, operated, and regulated, do not pose a significant threat to drinking water,” said Rob Brundrett, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
But brine has bubbled up from injection wells in Oklahoma, raising concerns about drinking water contamination, and it has gushed from the ground in Texas. Now, it’s coming to the surface in Ohio.
Last month in a wooded hollow outside Marietta, Bob Wilson wrestled with a wrench beneath a traditional oil and gas well (not a fracked well). A jet of fluid erupted: briny fracking wastewater.
“There should not be any water here at all,” Mr. Wilson said. He squinted at a pressure gauge that read 335 pounds per square inch — higher than he’d ever seen it, he said. “It keeps climbing.”
Mr. Wilson said he’d lost two more of his oil and gas wells in recent weeks to intrusions from fracking wastewater. Now the wells “don’t make me a nickel,” he said. He is suing several injection well companies, arguing that injected brine contaminated oil and gas reservoirs and violated his property rights. A lower court dismissed the allegations, which have been appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. The injection well companies argue, among other things, that the plaintiffs couldn’t prove where the wastewater originated.
The flooded wells are evidence that brine is “migrating” underground through crooks and crannies in the rock, said David Jeffery, a professor of geology at Marietta College who previously worked as a petroleum geologist at BP.
Complicating matters, as many as 66,000 undocumented, old-fashioned oil and gas wells pockmark Ohio, according to state estimates. And some almost certainly pass through aquifers, experts say.
They could be conduits for brine that has been pumped underground, Dr. Jeffery said, and “we have no idea where they are.”
In 2024 the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, a body of industry experts that oversees regulatory appeals, “explicitly confirmed” that brine was migrating underground, according to Cory Haydocy, an attorney who served as the commission’s executive director until 2023.
“The state and industry have possessed definitive proof for years that these injection wells were threatening the surrounding geology,” Mr. Haydocy said.
Ms. Vessels, the Marietta City Council president, said she didn’t know a thing about injection wells until about a year ago. Four wells just outside Marietta, population 13,000, are permitted to inject a combined 840,000 gallons of brine daily within two miles of the city’s drinking water aquifer.
Sitting on her porch recently, surrounded by stacks of inspection reports and well permits, Ms. Vessels, a Republican and former U.S. Army intelligence officer, said she wanted an immediate halt on injection and for state leaders to prohibit injection wells near public drinking water.
“We need a community that we can hand down to our children and our grandchildren,” she said. “And if we keep walking down this path, we might not have that.”
The four injection wells within two miles of Marietta’s drinking water source accepted wastewater from fracking sites in Pennsylvania that reported median levels of radium-226, a cancer-causing radioactive material, ranging from 428 to 1,800 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water standard, according to Pennsylvania waste records assembled by FracTracker, an organization that monitors oil and gas activity.
“If we get anything nuclear in our water, that’s it,” Ms. Vessels said. “We’re done.”
Last year, after the state approved a fifth and then a sixth injection well at Marietta’s doorstep, officials declared an emergency. (A seventh proposed injection well is pending.)
Not only was brine “regularly migrating to the surface,” officials said, but seismic activity in Washington County had increased almost 20 times over since 2023, a “clear indication” that underground rock formations holding billions of gallons of waste were “moving and likely fracturing.”
Marietta officials asked state leaders to halt injection within six miles of the city’s aquifer and to stop permitting new wells. By March, eight more water authorities in the county had followed suit in calling for a moratorium.
Drinking-water tests in Marietta and surrounding areas show no signs of brine, officials said. But if radioactive material were to enter the system, “we don’t think we can remove it,” said Bob Allen, who serves on the board of the Little Hocking Water Association south of Marietta, which supplies drinking water to nearly 10,000 people in rural Washington County.
Earlier this year, a lawsuit brought by Buckeye Environmental Network, an environmental advocacy organization, and Earthjustice, an environmental law group, challenged the proposed wells outside Marietta, all of which belong to DeepRock Disposal Solutions. Lawyers argue that the state didn’t follow the proper rules for issuing the permits. A lawyer for DeepRock said the permits should be upheld.
And in July, state regulators said that four injection wells in Washington County had shut down, including one owned by DeepRock outside Marietta, after regulators determined that fluid and high pressures found at oil and gas wells like Mr. Wilson’s “could only be caused by nearby injection wells.”
At a Republican Party executive meeting last August, Ohio State Senator Brian Chavez, who stepped down as DeepRock’s chief executive after taking elected office in 2023, downplayed the threat posed by injection wells, describing the brine as “ancient seawater,” according to an ethics complaint filed against him with the state’s legislative ethics committee. Mr. Chavez, who chairs the senate energy committee, also compared the radioactivity levels of the waste to that of a banana, according to the complaint, which was filed by residents of Washington County over his relationship with DeepRock.
A spokesman for Ohio Senate Republicans called the ethics complaint meritless.
In a statement, Laura Goins, an attorney for DeepRock, said, “We respect the concerns that have been raised by members of the community and believe those concerns deserve to be addressed through a science-based regulatory process.” She said “DeepRock remains committed to protecting public health, drinking water resources, and the environment.”
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5) U.S. Economy Slows as Inflation Bites
Gross domestic product grew at a slower rate in the second quarter and persistent price pressures are unsettling financial markets.
By Talmon Joseph Smith, July 30, 2026
The difference between what retailers pay for wholesale gasoline and what they charge drivers has been widening over the past decade. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The American economy slowed in the second quarter of the year, expanding at an annual rate of 1.5 percent as the war with Iran upended prices, supply chains and energy markets.
Oil prices have receded from their peaks in the spring. But damage in the form of higher prices for gasoline and other petroleum-based products is still hitting households and businesses. Persistent inflation and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s plans to contain it pushed up bond yields this week, which can translate to higher overall borrowing costs and dampen growth.
It amounts to an uncertain moment for the U.S. economy, which continues to show signs of strength even as it is battered by persistent inflation, a destabilizing war in the Middle East and the potential for higher borrowing costs that could suck some of the juice out of its engine.
Growth over the past three months was lower than the 2.1 percent annual rate of growth in the first quarter. Growth in both personal income and consumer spending slowed.
Still, the report showed that overall consumption remained relatively healthy and business investment, especially related to the artificial intelligence boom, continued to plow forward. An underlying “core” measure of growth, which captures the sum of consumer spending and gross private investment, increased 3.9 percent in the second quarter, compared with 1.7 percent in the first quarter.
“Underlying growth was strong,” said Eric Wallerstein, a former adviser at the Federal Reserve and the chief macro strategist at the Clocktower Group, an asset management and advisory firm. Still, he added, “real incomes and spending have been trending lower.”
Because G.D.P. is adjusted for inflation, rising costs dampened the growth reflected in the data released on Thursday. This was the first estimate for the second quarter by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Revisions, conducted by civil servants at the agency, can be substantial, especially during periods of price volatility.
Data collected by Viresh Kanabar, a financial researcher, shows that business orders and expenditures are rising. Retail sales have also been strong for several months. But consumer purchases are also growing at a much softer pace when adjusted for inflation, Mr. Kanabar’s data shows. Over the past six months, he notes, “real” inflation-adjusted income has also fallen overall, and at a rate not seen since the height of the inflation spike in 2022.
G.D.P., in simplest terms, is an account of the exchange of goods and services in the economy. And G.D.P. growth is a fluctuating mix of four factors: business investment, government expenditures, net exports and household consumption, which typically constitutes about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.
Consumer spending and business investment are on solid footing, but a pullback in net government spending and an increase in imports dragged on momentum.
“It’s a chug-along economy until further notice,” said Dan Alpert, a senior fellow in macroeconomics at Cornell Law and managing partner at Westwood Capital, a financial firm.
Breaking down G.D.P.
Annual growth in gross domestic product was buoyed by spending and investment last quarter, which offset losses in trade and inventories.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration imposed tariffs of 10 to 12 percent on imports from more than 80 countries. Economists have criticized the president’s global tariffs, and courts have struck many of them down.
Economists do not expect the tariffs that remain in place to cause a downturn. But many do believe it will slow growth and raise prices. According to one estimate by Yale researchers, the tax duties are costing the average American family around $1,100 annually.
Many business leaders have expressed confidence that the Iran conflict will stay contained, with limited harm to broader commercial activity. But the Strait of Hormuz, a key fuel bottleneck partially under Iran’s control, is still not a reliable passage for global shippers. Market analysts have issued stark warnings that international oil inventories are quickly depleting. So the risk of widespread shortages could soon be rearing again.
One partial saving grace has been that the domestic and global economies have become much less “energy intensive.” The amount of energy burned to generate a dollar of growth has fallen by about a third since 2000 in the United States and Europe and by roughly 40 percent in China. But lower crude inventories could still lead to an inflationary surge in oil prices that halts growth.
There is some evidence that the jump in energy prices has already bled into the rest of the economy. Grocery prices are expected to rise and airfares, which have surged, are not expected to retreat anytime soon.
Separate monthly data released on Thursday showed that the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation actually fell 0.1 percent in June. That reflects the cool-off in oil prices in June. On an annual basis, inflation is still up 3.7 percent, well above the central bank’s long-run target of 2 percent. And inflation in the second quarter was especially high.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday. But three of the 12 members on the Fed’s policymaking committee dissented, voting to raise rates, a signal that pressure to contain inflation is mounting. Kevin M. Warsh, the Fed’s new chairman, has made stern pledges to curtail inflation. But he, like his predecessor, will also be weighing how tightening monetary policy could harm growth and the jobs market.
The labor market has stabilized this year, compared with 2025. The pace of payroll growth over the past three months has been uneven but averaged 111,000 jobs a month. That stabilization, some Fed observers say, gives Mr. Warsh and other Fed leaders room to raise rates without risking too much harm.
Yields on long-term bonds have risen recently, as investors worry that continually elevated inflation will erode the future value of some assets. Investors have been hand-wringing about a potential A.I. bubble. But stock indexes are up this year, and corporate earnings continue to outperform expectations.
According to FactSet, the S&P 500’s net profit margins are on track to rise to 16 percent in the latest quarter, the highest level since FactSet started tracking the metric in 2009. Economists are asking, with a mix of wonderment and anxiety, how closely tied the A.I. boom and G.D.P. growth could become.
Where the future returns on all this A.I. spending will come from remains a key question, as large companies leverage debt and billions of dollars in cash flow to follow through on investment commitments.
Search queries, business software applications and content streams on personal devices can seem to manifest with virtual effortlessness. But cloud computing and A.I. systems rely on a massive, energy-intensive infrastructure of chips, cables and cooling systems. And the growth of those underlying physical systems is central to the immense investment boom among businesses. Goldman Sachs estimates $765 billion in capital expenditures on artificial intelligence by the end of the year.
Brian LeBlanc, an economist and managing director at PNC Bank, notes that this business “cap-ex” averaged an impressive 10 percent growth in the first half of the year alone. Because of some statistical quirks, however, the A.I. build-out — which relies on many imported foreign components rather than domestic parts — is partially tempering measures of domestic growth, too.
“From a G.D.P. math standpoint, a lot of the A.I.-related capital expenditure, which adds substantially to G.D.P., gets offset by the fact that we import most of what goes into the data centers,” said Jake Oubina, a managing director and deputy head of economic research at Piper Sandler, an investment firm.
Federal tax refunds, which bolstered households in spring, are now mostly exhausted. And with households’ savings buffers much lower than in the recent past, “consumption will be much weaker through the rest of the year,” Mr. Wallerstein of the Clocktower Group argued.
“Yes, the A.I. boom is not 100 percent of G.D.P.,” he said. “But it is an A.I.-driven economy.”
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6) An attack on an Egyptian port highlights the vulnerability of the Suez Canal.
By Lynsey Chutel, July 30, 2026
An attack on an Egyptian port near the Suez Canal demonstrated the important waterway’s vulnerability and showed how the widening conflict in the Middle East could further disrupt global trade, analysts said on Thursday.
Two ships, including a U.S.-owned gas storage tanker, caught fire in the Wednesday attack at the Port of Damietta, which Egypt said on Thursday appeared to have been carried out with a drone. The episode did not appear to disrupt traffic to the Suez Canal, which is southeast of the Mediterranean port.
But two Iranians, who asked not to be named to discuss security matters, said on Wednesday that the strike was meant to show that global shipping and energy supplies could be disrupted further if Iran chose to escalate. The Iranians did not say whether Iran or one of its allies had carried out the strike.
About 10 percent of seaborne trade moves through the Suez, with about 50 ships passing through the 120-mile canal each day, according to the Suez Canal Authority, an Egyptian government agency.
The canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, is the shortest maritime route between Europe and the Indian Ocean, linking supply in Asia and the Gulf to demand in Europe and North America.
It is not an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been mostly blocked since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February, because it supplies a different trade route. But a disruption of traffic through the Suez would force ships to undertake longer, costlier journeys around Africa, via the Cape of Good Hope, analysts said.
“The Hormuz and Suez risk stories are increasingly separate but compounding,” said Dimitris Ampatzidis, a maritime risk analyst at Kpler, a maritime-tracking firm.
The Wednesday attack — the first on Egyptian territory since the war began — effectively reinforced the blockade declared in the Red Sea last week by the Houthis, the Iran-backed militia in Yemen, said Nitya Labh, an analyst at Chatham House in London who focuses on maritime security. “It raises the stakes of the conflict and increases the leverage that the Houthis and Iran share,” Ms. Labh said.
The Houthis control the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow waterway between the southern end of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The militia has fired missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia and at ships in the Red Sea, widening the conflict and adding to the strains put on global trade since the war began.
President Trump said on Wednesday that he had been briefed on the attack on the Port of Damietta and implied that Iran was responsible for it. Egypt has not publicly blamed anyone for the attack. Ms. Labh said Egypt was being careful not to point fingers, hoping to avoid reprisal attacks and shocks to its economy.
A sustained disruption to traffic through the Red Sea would be a direct blow to Egypt’s economy. The country is deeply in debt, and revenue from the Suez is one of its major sources of hard currency, Mr. Ampatzidis said. The Suez Canal Authority said at the end of last year, before the Iran war began, that it expected the canal to generate $8 billion in revenue this fiscal year and $10 billion the next.
When the Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, was stuck in the Suez for nearly a week in 2021, the global traffic jam held up nearly $10 billion of cargo a day and cost the Egyptian government up to $90 million in lost toll revenue.
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7) U.S. Sees Iran as Likely Behind Cyberattack on Minnesota Water Systems
Investigators cautioned that the assessment was preliminary. There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink.
By Dustin Volz and Ernesto Londoño, July 30, 2026
Dustin Volz has written about Iranian cyberattacks for more than a decade and reported from Washington. Ernesto Londoño reported from St. Paul, Minn.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/minnesota-water-cyberattack-iran.html
Dozens of municipal water systems in Minnesota were the targets of a cyberattack this week. Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times
Investigators believe a cyberattack this week on dozens of municipal water systems in Minnesota was probably the work of Iranian hackers, according to U.S. and state officials and others familiar with the matter, a potential act of aggression that comes at a precarious moment in the U.S. war against Iran.
Officials cautioned that they had not definitively determined who was responsible for the attack and that the preliminary assessment could change as the authorities collected more technical data.
They also warned that the hackers could be attempting to pose as Iran-based in an effort to ratchet up tensions between the two countries, though former intelligence officials said such a scenario was unlikely.
Local officials reported that the well and treatment plant in at least one city was temporarily offline on Monday, while other cities in the state had to use manual workarounds to cope with attempted attacks on automated operations.
There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink.
Even with its limited impact, the hack — if confirmed to be linked to Tehran — comes at a sensitive time as direct fighting between the United States and Iran has resumed in the Middle East.
Three state officials briefed on the investigation into the breach said the tradecraft used, and the absence of a ransom demand, had led analysts to tentatively conclude that it was the work of Iranian hackers. Those officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing criminal investigation.
“The F.B.I. is aware of the incident and in contact with victims to resolve the matter,” said Matthew Vogel, a spokesman for the bureau, which declined to comment further.
While the investigation continued, former officials and cybersecurity experts said they expected the suspicions about Iran’s involvement would only grow stronger.
“Almost every initial assumption of attribution turns out to be true,” said Cynthia Kaiser, a former senior F.B.I. official who oversaw investigations into cyberattacks attributed to foreign governments. Several clues pointed to Iran in this instance, Ms. Kaiser said, including that it appeared focused on disruption rather than financial gain and that Tehran has demonstrated a recent interest in targeting the U.S. water supply.
John Israel, Minnesota’s chief information security officer, said that hackers targeted roughly 36 municipal water systems in the state as part of a breach that was first detected on Sunday.
The first report prompted state officials to warn municipalities with similar vulnerabilities to be on alert, which enabled a swift response, Mr. Israel said. The hackers targeted infrastructure used to remotely manage and monitor water towers maintained by municipal governments.
“Minnesota was one of the early detectors of this, but we’re seeing that this same threat activity has likely been occurring in other states throughout the nation,” he said.
Mr. Israel said that as of Wednesday afternoon, there had been no indication that any of the breaches contaminated or disrupted water delivery.
Iran has targeted the United States with an increased barrage of cyberattacks since the war began in February, with limited success. One notable exception was a hack in March on Stryker, a major medical equipment supplier, that caused a temporary companywide shutdown.
Other cyberactivity conducted by Iran against the United States has risen to the level of nuisance more than alarm. For example, a group affiliated with Iranian intelligence took responsibility for the release of emails and photographs stolen from a personal account of Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director.
Nick Andersen, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said on Wednesday that the agency was aware of “multiple potential incidents affecting local water utilities.”
Mr. Andersen did not comment on who was responsible but referred to a recent cybersecurity advisory updated by the agency just days before the Minnesota attack began. It warned that “Iranian-affiliated cyberactors” were attempting to break into operational technology devices to potentially disrupt critical infrastructure in the United States, including in water and wastewater systems.
Cybersecurity experts have long said that U.S. water systems, which tend to be old and underfunded, were vulnerable to digital disruption.
Nate George, the mayor of Braham, Minn., a small city 65 miles north of Minneapolis, said public works personnel noted early Monday that the well that feeds the city’s water tower was malfunctioning.
“Public works isolated the affected system, restored a backup and restarted the plant within approximately 90 minutes,” Mr. George said in a statement. The city briefly urged residents to conserve water but promptly lifted that advisory.
“This attack on critical public infrastructure should be a warning to policymakers in St. Paul,” Mr. George wrote. “Minnesota’s local governments are expected to defend essential systems against foreign adversaries and sophisticated criminals, often with limited staff, aging technology and inadequate resources.”
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8) Uninsured Patients Rise Sharply, Hospitals Report, Citing Obamacare Cuts
More people who lost coverage after congressional Republicans ended enhanced federal subsidies are now seeking care in emergency rooms and unable to pay bills.
By Reed Abelson, July 30, 2026
Major hospitals have expressed growing concerns about the significant decrease in paying patients. Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
More and more uninsured patients are showing up in hospital emergency rooms and clinics, having lost their coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Executives running some of the biggest hospital systems, including large for-profit chains spanning many states, expressed concern over the unexpectedly sharp rise in uninsured patients and the costs associated with treating them.
And many executives said that the hospitals were also reporting more unpaid medical bills and providing more in the way of charity care. Some hospital systems also found that patients were forgoing or postponing lucrative elective surgeries like knee replacements in recent months.
The significant increase in uninsured patients, about 20 percent in some cases, was disclosed in earnings reports in the past week and interviews with nonprofit hospital groups. Major hospital officials expressed growing unease over lost revenues amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars across the country’s vast health systems.
Some executives attributed the diminishing numbers to the decision by congressional Republicans to end the more generous subsidies, or tax credits, that were initially put in place during the Covid pandemic and helped many people pay their monthly insurance premiums. While the vast majority of people enrolled in an A.C.A. plan this year still receive a federal subsidy, the federal assistance is less generous. People are paying significantly more for a plan in 2026, on average, and anyone making more than four times the federal poverty level — $62,600 for an individual — no longer qualified for help.
Since the beginning of the year, enrollment in Obamacare has dropped by about three million, or 13 percent, according to the latest government figures. Insurance companies expect even more people to drop their A.C.A. plans.
The Trump administration has described the falloff largely as a result of its crackdown on fraud. But many people covered by Obamacare said they were struggling to afford the monthly costs, according to a survey by KFF, the health research group.
The rise in unpaid bills underscores the difficult financial strains facing many families.
“What that tells me is that there are patients who are completely unable to pay,” said Laura Kaiser, the chief executive of SSM Health, a nonprofit Catholic hospital group, who is expected to become chairwoman of the American Hospital Association, an industry trade group, in 2028. “We’re really crushing people who are desperately trying to pay their bills.”
The hospitals “are absorbing that, and we can’t,” she said.
Americans have repeatedly cited the rising costs of health care as a top concern in public opinion polls during this midterm election year, with the economy and affordability important issues for voters.
But relief from higher insurance and medical expenses is not about to arrive any time soon. Roughly 30 million adults and children in the United States are uninsured. And to offset the losses, experts predict that hospitals will raise prices for those enrolled in plans, including policies offered by employers.
Increases in both premiums and deductibles have affected Americans covered by private plans as well. Many individuals have been forced to seek out cheaper plans with high deductibles, which require patients to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills before their insurance kicks in.
In an earnings call with analysts last Friday, executives at HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, said patients who were previously enrolled under the Affordable Care Act appeared unable to find other sources of coverage but still needed emergency care from a hospital.
They had “migrated almost one for one to uninsured,” Sam Hazen, the chief executive of HCA, said. The American company, which operates 190 hospitals in 19 states and Britain, said the impact was greatest at its hospitals in Florida and Texas as well as South Carolina and Georgia.
Company officials warned investors that the most likely result would be about roughly $1 billion less in operating profits this year.
At Community Health Systems, another for-profit chain that reported its six-month results last week, the visits by patients who did not use insurance to pay for medical care rose 20 percent, compared with last year.
In addition, an executive pointed to a drop in patients enrolled in Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor. Some appeared to have difficulty signing up, while others chose not to enroll, he said.
Centene, the for-profit health insurer that specializes in government programs, told investors on Tuesday that its Medicaid enrollment was declining more than expected, even before the looming changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Millions of people on Medicaid are expected to lose coverage in the coming years.
Hospital executives also said there were signs that people were putting off care, like deferring joint replacements or skipping testing for a heart condition.
“As gas prices go up, that has a pretty significant impact on disposable income for those households, and health care seems to be one of the first things that people will delay or at least attempt to delay if they can,” Kevin Hammons, the chief executive of Community Health Systems, told analysts.
Officials at Tenet Healthcare, another for-profit hospital group, said its experience was similar to that of HCA, in which some patients who had Obamacare coverage were now without any.
The company is “roughly seeing a pretty consistent conversion from exchange patient volume into uninsured on a pretty much one-to-one basis,” Tenet’s chief financial officer, Sun Park, said on the earnings call last week.
Executives at nonprofit hospitals are seeing the same patterns. At SSM Health, there has been a significant jump in the number of people who have not paid their medical bills, according to Ms. Kaiser, the chief executive.
The number of uninsured patients increased almost 21 percent from last year, and bad debt — patient medical bills that a hospital has been unable to collect over time — is up almost 37 percent, which includes people with insurance whose plans leave them with sizable out-of-pocket costs.
The speed with which hospitals are experiencing the fallout from the lower A.C.A. enrollment is worrisome, said Jeff Wurzburg, a health care lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright. The big hospital groups are “the tip of the spear,” with the impact very likely to be visible at smaller systems next.
Under federal law, hospitals are required to care for people with medical emergencies, regardless of their ability to pay. “We’re all going to end up paying more as hospitals take on more uncompensated care and bad debt,” Mr. Wurzburg said.
While the fallout from the lapse in enhanced subsidies varies from hospital to hospital, industry surveys suggest these recent reports are not unusual.
“When we look at this data, we have been seeing rising bad debt and charity care,” said Erik Swanson, a managing director at Kaufman Hall, a consulting firm that publishes a monthly report on hospital finances. In May, uncompensated care as a percentage of revenues was 21 percent higher than it was three years ago.
The hospitals most vulnerable to the falloff in enrollment in government programs like the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid are smaller rural hospitals and safety net hospitals that treat a large share of people without insurance. Because these types of hospitals make so little profit, “every little weight on the scale brings additional challenges,” said Duane Fitch, who advises hospitals for Plante Moran, a consulting firm.
Few industry experts predicted a surge in the number of closed hospitals, but many said hospitals were starting to shutter individual clinics and cut services like maternal care and behavioral health services. Some hospitals will cut back on big projects and defer maintenance on their facilities.
“We have seen systems quietly closing services,” said Dan Steingart, who oversees Moody’s Ratings coverage of nonprofit hospitals. The facilities are not making announcements, he said, but cutting services to reduce costs.
Banner Health, a nonprofit system based in Arizona that operates nearly three dozen hospitals, said more than a quarter of the uninsured patients it had recently treated had coverage last year.
Hospitals will face even more unpaid bills as the changes to Medicaid are expected to go into effect next year, said Amy Perry, the chief executive of Banner. Hospital systems like hers are looking at where they can save money, including closing facilities, which may mean patients would have to travel farther for care. “We’re doing that in every market in our portfolio,” Ms. Perry said.
What is going on now is “a slow burn,” Ms. Perry said, but she warned that the impact would be greater as more people lost their insurance coverage in the coming years, and hospitals took more drastic steps to cut costs.
“We see this about to happen,” she said. “We’re basically saying, ‘Please don’t touch the stove.’”
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9) Cuba to Trump: We’re Open for Business
A top Cuban official says the island won’t negotiate its politics, but it is willing to talk investment, including from President Trump.
By Jack Nicas, Reporting from Havana, July 30, 2026
Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, in the Fidel Castro museum in Havana. Lisette Poole González for The New York Times
Young members of the Cuban military during a May Day celebration this year. Credit...Lisette Poole González for The New York Times [Note they march without any weapons whatsoever—BW]
Since a band of rebels led by Fidel Castro pushed out Cuba’s dictator in 1959, the island’s government has largely been defined by its defiance of its far larger neighbor to the north — and its ability to survive the intense pressure that friction has provoked.
But the current U.S. campaign, led by an effective oil blockade, is the most intense in a half-century. And it is pushing the Cuban government to the brink.
Tourism has cratered. The energy grid collapsed three times over nine days this month. And other than a single Russian oil tanker in March, Cuba’s allies have not been willing to test President Trump’s order that no fuel be delivered to the island.
Yet, more than six months later, the government is still intact, and Cubans are finding ways to get by.
This month, we visited Cuba on the first journalism visa granted to The New York Times in nearly eight years. In Havana, I interviewed Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, one of the Communist government’s interlocutors with the United States.
He said Cuba’s main strategy to escape the Trump administration’s ire was to enact a series of economic policy changes, including opening the country to foreign investment. Mr. Trump could even invest himself, Mr. Fernández de Cossío said.
White House and State Department spokespeople called Cuba a national security threat and accused it of harboring terrorists, which Cuba denies. They blamed Cuba for the energy crisis, saying it sold off fuel to enrich elites and failed to maintain its electric grid. And they said Cuba’s political and economic system are broken and must change, though U.S. officials have not clarified what would be required to lift the blockade.
The two sides acknowledge that their talks have made little progress. Many people, especially Cubans, are now watching closely for signs of what is next.
This interview was edited for clarity.
The Trump administration seems to be demanding changes to Cuba’s political system. Your government has said that is not on the table. What is?
I can be sure that the government of the United States would not negotiate its Constitution and political system with another government. So there should be no surprise that Cuba is not ready to discuss its internal political issues with the United States.
So what is the Cuban strategy then?
We introduced some changes in our economy a few weeks back. We believe they can allow us to cope.
Yet, if the United States is trying to provoke humanitarian difficulties in Cuba, unfortunately it has the power to. There’s nothing Cuba can do.
And if they lead to military action against Cuba, we will suffer thousands of deaths. Probably there will be a blood bath in Cuba. There will also be deaths of young Americans.
But after all this damage is caused, what is the goal gained by the United States? That is where we believe there should be some common sense within the American people.
Russia delivered a single tanker of fuel in March, but no other country has challenged Trump’s threats to not ship fuel to Cuba. Where are your allies?
The coercive arm of the United States has proved to be very successful. To tell a European, a Latin American, an Asian company that you cannot export your national resources to Cuba, it’s a new world order.
Do you expect more oil coming from Russia, Mexico or Brazil?
We do expect some oil to come from some part of the world. We believe that the capacity of the United States to isolate Cuba and deprive countries of their right to export their own products cannot be forever.
Trump has discussed “taking Cuba.” Is Cuba preparing militarily?
It’s absurd. What excuse can there be to carry out a military action that will cause death and destruction against a peaceful country?
Now, regardless of how irrational it is, we would be naïve if we did not prepare ourselves, if we did not update our military strategy, which is based on the involvement of the population as a whole. We understand the asymmetric reality in terms of technology and firepower, but our people will defend our country. We have weekly preparations for that.
There have been reports that an Emirati developer is building a luxury resort on a Cuban island and wants to pitch it to the Trump Organization as Trump Island. Is the Cuban government entertaining a Trump Organization project on Cuban soil?
We’re not entertaining specifically, I would say, anything like that. But we are trying to attract foreign investment from any country. And that does not exclude the United States.
Does it exclude President Trump?
If he wants to do it peacefully, we see no specific reason to exclude.
Have you heard of this Trump Island proposal on this part of Cuba?
I saw the news. There are many developments there already in place and some projected, and we’ve presented this to business people in several parts of the world. If somebody comes and says they have connections with important business people in the United States, we’re ready to engage. If it’s with the Trump administration, in principle, there’s no reason for us to say no.
What prohibits Donald Trump from investing in Cuba are U.S. laws. We don’t exclude him or his organization from doing business in Cuba, if it does it respecting Cuban laws.
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10) Justice Dept. Seeks to Deport Mother of Convicted ISIS Supporter
The case is an early test of a court that has never been used before, where much of the evidence is presented in secret and defendants cannot challenge how it was collected.
By Alan Feuer, July 30, 2026
The Justice Department headquarters in Washington last month. Credit...Alex Kent/The New York Times
A court set up 30 years ago to expel immigrants accused of acts of terrorism from the country will hear its first case on Thursday morning: a request by the Justice Department to deport an Afghan woman living in Texas who prosecutors say is a supporter of the terrorist group Islamic State, or ISIS.
At a hearing in Washington before what is known as the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, prosecutors will offer their initial claims that the woman, Nazira Haji Zada, should be removed from the United States even though she is a lawful permanent resident. The court was created by Congress in 1996 to handle deportation proceedings that largely rest on classified information.
The government contends that Ms. Zada, 47, is connected to a foiled ISIS-inspired terrorist plot to commit a mass shooting on Election Day in 2024. Last year, both her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, pleaded guilty to charges connected to the plot and admitted trying to buy two AK-47-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition to carry it out.
“The allegations in this case show the matriarch of an ISIS-sympathizing family aiding in a plot to launch a mass casualty attack on American voters on Election Day,” the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said in a statement.
The case against Ms. Zada is an early test of the court where much of the evidence is presented in secret and defendants cannot challenge how it was collected. The Trump administration has used an expansive array of legal methods to carry out the president’s aggressive deportation agenda — many of them challenged in court. Now, it has sought to use the sweeping powers of the terrorist removal court for the first time in its 30-year history.
Ms. Zada has not been publicly charged with any crimes of terrorism and has no criminal history, according to court papers. Still, in an unclassified summary of her case submitted to the court, prosecutors said she “supported” the Election Day conspiracy and “pledged loyalty to ISIS.”
The summary also said she “worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology” and concealed a plan to relocate her family to ISIS-controlled territory from “her unsuspecting husband,” Abdul Haji Zada, who worked at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2016, court papers say.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court is set up in a fashion similar to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews sensitive requests for surveillance warrants. It has five judges, including a chief judge, a position now held by Joan N. Ericksen, who also sits in Federal District Court in Minnesota.
The government filed its opening request to the court seeking to deport Ms. Zada on July 16, supported by multiple classified exhibits. The court held a closed-door hearing that same day, raising “a number of questions, both legal and administrative,” Judge Ericksen wrote in an order unsealed on Wednesday.
The government submitted a supplementary briefing on July 22 to bolster its case that Ms. Zada was what it described as “an alien terrorist” whose removal from the country through normal immigration procedures would “pose a risk to the United States’ national security,” Judge Ericksen wrote.
The judge ultimately found there was probable cause to proceed with the case and will preside over an initial hearing at the federal courthouse in Washington at 11 a.m.
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