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The Trump administration is escalating its attack on Cuba, cutting off the island’s access to oil in a deliberate attempt to induce famine and mass suffering. This is collective punishment, plain and simple.
In response, we’re releasing a public Call to Conscience, already signed by influential public figures, elected officials, artists, and organizations—including 22 members of the New York City Council, Kal Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, 50501, Movement for Black Lives, The People’s Forum, IFCO Pastors for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, and many others—demanding an end to this brutal policy.
The letter is open for everyone to sign. Add your name today. Cutting off energy to an island nation is not policy—it is a tactic of starvation.
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VIDEO:
What Cubans Really Think About Trump
By Jeff Seal, May 28, 2026
Mr. Seal is a comedian and a visual journalist.
Born in rural Ohio, Howard Keylor attended a one-room country schoolhouse. He became a member of the National Honor Society when he graduated from Marietta High School.
After enlisting in the U.S. Army, Howard fought in the Pacific Theater in World War Two, during which he participated in the Battle of Okinawa as a Corporal. The 96th U.S. Army Division, which Howard trained with, had casualty rates above 50%. The incompetence and racism of the military command, the destruction of the capital city of Naha and the deliberate killings of tens of thousands of Okinawan civil-ians – a third of the population - made Howard a committed anti-imperialist, anti-militarist and anti-racist for the rest of his life.
Upon returning to the United States, Howard enrolled in the College of the Pacific, but dropped out to support Filipino agricultural workers in the 1948 asparagus strike, working with legendary labor leader Larry Itliong. He became a longshore worker in Stockton in 1953. As a member of the Communist Party, Howard and his wife, Evangeline, were attacked in the HUAC (McCarthy) hearings in San Francisco. Later, Howard transferred to ILWU Local 10. In 1971 he, along with Brothers Herb Mills, Leo Robinson and a ma-jority of Local 10’s members, opposed the proposed 1971 contract which codified the 9.43 steadyman sys-tem. This led to the longshore strike of 1971-1972, which shut down 56 West Coast ports and lasted 130 days. It was the longest strike in the ILWU’s history.
In Local 10 Brother Keylor was a member of the Militant Caucus, a class struggle rank-and-file group which published a regular newsletter, the “Longshore Militant”. He later left the Militant Caucus and pub-lished a separate newsletter on his own, the “Militant Longshoreman.” Howard advocated deliberate defi-ance of the “slave-labor” Taft-Hartley law through illegal secondary boycotts and pickets. Running on an open class-struggle program which called for breaking with the Democratic and Republican Parties, form-ing a worker’s government, expropriating the capitalists without compensation and creating a planned economy, Howard won election to the Executive Board of Local 10 for twelve years.
The Militant Caucus was involved in organizing protests and boycotts of military cargo bound for the military dictatorship in Chile in 1975 and 1978 and again in 1980 to the military dictatorship in El Sal-vador. The Caucus also participated in ILWU Local 6’s strike at KNC Glass in Union City, during which a mass picket line physically defeated police and scabs, winning a contract for a workforce composed pri-marily of Mexican-American immigrants.
In 1984, Brother Keylor made the motion, amended by Brother Leo Robinson, which led to the elev-en-day longshore boycott of South African cargo on the Nedlloyd Kimberley. In 1986, Howard again partici-pated in the Campaign Against Apartheid’s community picket line against the Nedlloyd Kemba. When Nel-son Mandela spoke at the Oakland Coliseum in 1990 after his release from prison, he credited Local 10 with re-igniting the anti-Apartheid movement in the Bay Area.
Other actions Brother Howard initiated, organized or participated in included the 1995-98 struggle of the Liverpool dockworkers; the 1999 coastwide shutdown and march of 25,000 in San Francisco to de-mand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal; the 2000 Charleston longshore union campaign; the 2008 May Day anti-imperialist war shutdown of all West Coast ports; the shutdown of Northern California ports in pro-test of the murder of Oscar Grant; the blockades of Israeli ships to protest the war on Gaza in 2010 and 2014; the 2011 ILWU struggle against the grain monopolies in Longview; Occupy Oakland’s march of 40,000 to the Port of Oakland, and countless other militant job actions and protests. Throughout his life, Brother Keylor always extended solidarity where it was needed. He fought racist police murders and fas-cist terror, defended abortion clinics, and fought for survivors of psychiatric abuse. Having grown up in Appalachia, he has always been an environmentalist, and helped shut down a Monsanto facility in Davis in 2012, as well as fighting pesticide use and deforestation in the East Bay.
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Petition to Force Amazon to Cut ICE Contracts!
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
Amazon Labor Union
Over 600,000 messages have already been sent directly to Amazon board members demanding one thing: Amazon must stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE and DHS rely on the data infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. Their campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon.
But workers and communities have real power when we act collectively. That’s why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine. Help us reach 1 million messages and force Amazon to act by signing our petition with The Labor Force today:
Tell Amazon: End contracts with ICE!
On Cyber Monday 2025, Amazon workers rallied outside of Amazon’s NYC headquarters to demand that Amazon stop fueling mass deportations through Amazon Web Services’ contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE cannot operate without corporate backing; its campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon. Mega-corporations may appear untouchable, but they are not. Anti-authoritarian movements have long understood that repression is sustained by a network of institutional enablers and when those enablers are disrupted, state violence weakens. Workers and communities have real power when they act collectively. That is why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its most commonly used cloud platform. DHS and ICE cannot wage their attack on immigrants without the critical data infrastructure that Amazon Web Services provide, allowing the agencies to collect, analyze, and store the massive amounts of data they need to do their dirty work. Without the power of AWS, ICE would not be able to track and target people at its current scale.
ICE and DHS use Amazon Web Services to collect and store massive amounts of purchased data on immigrants and their friends and family–everything from biometric data, DMV data, cellphone records, and more. And through its contracts with Palantir, DHS is able to scour regional, local, state, and federal databases and analyze and store this data on AWS. All of this information is ultimately used to target immigrants and other members of our communities.
No corporation should profit from oppression and abuse. Yet Amazon is raking in tens of millions of dollars to fuel DHS and ICE, while grossly exploiting its own workers. Can you sign our petition today, demanding that Amazon stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with DHS and ICE, now?
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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 Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity CampaignAn appeal for financial supportMay 12, 2026 Dear Friends of the Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign, It has been more than two years since Boris Kagarlitsky began serving the five-year sentence meted out to him by a Russian military court as a way of silencing and punishing him for his opposition to Putin’s war on Ukraine. With a multitude of longstanding friends and colleagues throughout the world, Boris is one of the best-known victims of the steadily escalating political repression in Russia. He has borne the gross injustice of his incarceration with characteristic courage, determination and defiance. But there is no denying that Putin’s gulag takes a toll on even the most valiant spirits. The Boris Kagarlitsky Solidarity Campaign has worked continuously these last two years to draw attention to Boris’s plight, and by extension to that of other prisoners unjustly condemned for protesting the ongoing war that has already cost upwards of half a million lives and vastly more maimed, according to estimates. We have sought, through a variety of activities, to bring pressure to bear on the Russian authorities to free Boris. The many people involved in the Campaign are happy to volunteer their time. However, we rely on the generosity of the Campaign’s supporters to cover the periodic expenses we incur. We recently reached out for help to defray costs associated with the participation of Boris’ daughter and tireless advocate for Russian political prisoners, Kseniia Kagarlitskya, in the international antifascist conference in Porto Alegre at the end of March. That trip was a great success. It allowed Kseniia and Mikhail Lobanov, Russian mathematician, political activist, and former associate professor at Moscow State University, to introduce the thousands of conference-goers from Brazil and across the world to the grim realities confronting Russian political dissidents. The Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Committee has many plans in store for the coming months and especially the fall, including a virtual conference devoted to the global manifestations of political repression. We are appealing to you for a little financial help to carry out our projects and support the day-to-day ongoing work of the committee. We would be deeply appreciative of any assistance you can provide. Because the members of the Campaign coordinating committee are scattered across Europe, North America and beyond, it has been a little complicated to set up a campaign bank account, although we are making progress on that front. For the time being we are asking that you send any contributions you can manage directly to our de facto treasurer Suzi Weissman who is located in Los Angeles, California. The details of her account are: Bank: Wells Fargo Swift/Bic: PNBPUS6L Account holder: Susan Claudia Weissman Account number: 0657205076 International wire transfers: WFBIUS6S wise.com personal account: @susanclaudiaw We thank you in anticipation of any contribution you can make to help keep the Campaign running. Yours in solidarity, Dick Nichols Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) We Need to Retrofit the Planet. The Heat Wave Proves It.
By David Wallace-Wells, Opinion Writer, July 1, 2026
Ibrahim Rayintakath
In Europe the next heat dome is already building. Another wave of hundred-degree days will soon sweep across Britain and the mainland as 200 million Americans mark the United States’ birthday by sweltering under our own extreme temperatures.
And the one last week? There are three big things to know, I think, about the astounding climatic anomaly that happened in Europe, with records shattered in half a dozen countries, more than a thousand people dying in a single week and roads melting and tram tracks buckling and bus drivers fainting and crashing in the historic heat.
The first is that the heat wave was so intense that in a stable preindustrial environment, according to one estimate, it would have been the kind of freak event the region could expect about once every 26,000 years.
The second is that, according to an analysis by World Weather Attribution, a heat wave of this magnitude has grown more than 100 times as likely just since the landmark European heat wave of 2003.
The third is that, according to Robert Rohde of Berkeley Earth, last week’s freak event isn’t even that freakish anymore. Measured not against a stable climate we’ve long since left behind but against a base line of rising global temperatures, the heat in Bordeaux, France, for instance, registered only its fifth-largest deviation over the past century. That would make it, he suggested, a once-in-20-years event. As temperatures not only rise but do so more quickly, we should expect to see temperatures like those even more often — every few years, perhaps, across Western Europe. We might approach those temperatures again within just a few weeks.
These three data points offer three ways of looking at a mind-bending climate extreme like this one. Other ways offer some reassuring context: for instance, that this heat wave was only about 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit (3.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than it would have been 50 years ago.
Nevertheless, the three points suggest a very vivid and pretty harrowing story: that a heat wave this intense was essentially impossible to imagine for the entire duration of human civilization until now; that over just a couple of decades, climate change has made it perhaps 100 times as likely as before this century; and that we might expect something like this not maybe once across tens of thousands of years but pretty reliably every few years.
If you find yourself asking — as many sweltering Europeans have asked over the past week and many Americans, too — why the countries of Northern Europe were not better prepared for such intense heat and why they haven’t embraced air-conditioning, as the United States or Canada or Japan has, the data points to one obvious answer. These kinds of conditions were genuinely unthinkable not very long ago, and the rate of change is progressing so rapidly that they have become routine faster than large-scale adaptation has managed to keep up, even after heat events in 2003 and 2010 that each killed tens of thousands of people. Some estimates suggest as many as 60,000 died as recently as 2022.
Over the past week, these figures have prompted a trans-Atlantic heat wave blame game, with a few French politicians attributing responsibility to American carbon emissions and technophilic Americans, in particular, shaking their heads at the lack of European air-conditioning and treating this failure of climate adaptation as an ideological problem — some mix of heavy-handed European regulation, climate virtue signaling and degrowthism.
I find that argument maddening: Climate change experts have been warning for many years about the risks of extreme heat and the need to take action against it, and though some people might have resisted adaptations that require more carbon dioxide emissions, the main reasons that air-conditioning in Northern Europe lags the United States are that the climate there was much cooler historically, the mores are different and the built environment is difficult and expensive to retrofit. But it is true that A.C. needs to be deployed much faster and that Europeans are suffering because of the slow rollout. By most measures, Europe has higher risk for heat mortality than hotter and poorer parts of the world. And it’s hard to deny there is some ideological pattern at play, given the thread of anti-A.C. talk in European media over the past week or the way that the French Socialist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon decried mass air-conditioning at the peak of the heat wave.
But with climate, as with so much else, I think we resort to ideological finger-pointing when the structural challenges of the world frustrate us, choosing to blame this party or that cohort or a particular strident corner of social media rather than acknowledge that some things are just really difficult — like rebuilding much of the physical infrastructure of a continent to make it more resilient to a rapidly warming climate. And as Kate Aronoff wrote in The New Republic, if progressives shy away from talking about what climate change demands, plenty of others will be happy to fill the vacuum with their own talking points.
Across Europe, there is considerable national and regional variability when it comes to air-conditioning, with warmer countries exhibiting much more uptake. But Paris is north of all of Nova Scotia and is cooler in the summer than Seattle, where before its lethal heat wave in 2021 only 44 percent of homes had air-conditioning. London is farther north and milder still. Northern European cities are old and dense, with buildings designed to retain heat in winter, and though the continent can be broadly caricatured as more climate-conscious and more left wing than the United States, the truth is much more patchwork, as you’d expect across dozens of countries with varying national politics and regulatory cultures. And then there are what might seem like trivial complications, like whether existing windows can even accommodate cooling units and whether compressors can be safely set on sloping roofs. Also, as you might have heard, the price of electricity is quite high over there.
There are already signs of the tide turning for European A.C., which is great. But the job of retrofitting the planet is an enormous one, even if everyone were rowing in the right direction — as Americans should appreciate, given how much time we’ve spent over the past few years complaining about how hard it is to build anything and how poorly we’re managing the growing wildfire threat or planning for horrific inland flooding or adapting our home insurance to the way warming has redrawn the risk map.
And one lesson of these pummeling, sequential extreme temperature events — one heat dome after another after another — is that we’re going to have to do an awful lot to make a future punctuated by so many more of them manageable. Air-conditioning is not a cure-all for the problems of extreme heat. It does not address crop losses and the mass deaths of animals, as we’ve seen in Europe, let alone evaporative damage to soil and waterways or the effects on outdoor labor and infrastructure designed and built under entirely different climatic regimes. But presumably we need a whole lot more of it — not just in Europe but in the hotter parts of the world, as well.
That’s what climate experts mean when they say, as they have said for more than a decade, that warming not only changes everything but also requires that so much be changed. To pretend adaptation is simple is to live in denial of the pace and scale of warming.
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2) The Transgender Sports Decision Was About Something Deeper Than Law
By M. Gessen, Opinion Columnist, July 2, 2026
Paul Burnham Schwartz for The New York Times
Read the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on transgender athletes — the majority’s decision, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the dissent, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor — and you will see the members of the court arguing about something more fundamental than the law. They are arguing about who should be seen, whose story ought to be heard and who deserves to be protected.
Kavanaugh’s opinion contains a long lyrical tribute to female athletes. “They spend extraordinary time and effort to train in the heat and in the cold, to work out early in the morning and late at night, to get a little faster, to become a little stronger, to jump a little higher, to shoot a little better, to watch a little more video, to make the lonely journey back from an A.C.L. tear, to scrap for playing time, to start, to win the game, to win a championship, to hang a banner, to bring home a medal, to be all-tournament, all-County, all-State or all-American,” he writes. “Whether the star of the team or the last player on the bench, they form lifelong friendships and lifetime memories.”
Sotomayor’s dissent, too, includes a description of a young person in love with her sport. Referring to a plaintiff by her initials, Sotomayor writes, “B.P.J.’s mother reports that B.P.J. ‘has had the time of her life participating on these teams.’ She has watched B.P.J. make close friends and gain a sense of belonging. Her mother recalls taking B.P.J. to practice after hours and on weekends, and often witnessing B.P.J. practicing her form in the backyard ‘by herself, for hours.’ Above all, her mother explains that B.P.J. ‘is the happiest I have ever seen her when she is accepted for who she is and able to participate in school sports.’”
Kavanaugh and Sotomayor are looking at different athletes: He is describing cisgender girls, and Sotomayor is focusing on one of the plaintiffs in the case, a West Virginia high school student named Becky Pepper-Jackson who was excluded from middle school sports after her state enacted legislation banning the inclusion of trans girls in girls’ sports. (When a district court found West Virginia’s law to be probably unconstitutional, Pepper-Jackson joined her school’s track and cross-country teams.)
Kavanaugh’s argument stresses that everyone deserves to compete on a level playing field. People assigned male at birth have an inherent physical advantage, he writes; they are, on average, taller, bigger, faster and stronger than people assigned female at birth. Making members of these two groups compete with each other is unfair. Pepper-Jackson can join the boys’ team or not participate at all.
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Sotomayor’s argument is also based on the idea that everyone deserves to compete on a level playing field. Pepper-Jackson began taking puberty blockers at age 10, the justice points out, ensuring that she never went through male puberty. At 12 she started hormone replacement therapy, which brought about a typical female puberty. Sotomayor’s colleagues, she said, had reached their decision without considering whether Pepper-Jackson actually had an athletic advantage over other girls.
Concern for the physical safety of women and girls is an important part of the court’s decision and a leitmotif in the ongoing attacks on trans rights. The opinion emphasizes that competing with or alongside people the conservative majority insists on calling “biological males,” especially in contact sports, poses a physical danger to girls. This seems like a reasonable concern, but the logic is convoluted. If males, by virtue of their weight and height and sheer physical strength, pose a risk to women in sports, then putting a trans girl like Pepper-Jackson in an all-male sports environment would — aside from all the social complications and locker room logistics — by definition put her in physical danger.
The question, then, is: Who warrants the court’s protections? The millions of cisgender girls who participate in school sports in this country? The handful of trans girls who wish to take part, too? (Pepper-Jackson is believed to be the only trans girl in her state seeking a spot on a girls’ team.) The answer would seem to be obvious: To the extent that it is possible, both groups should be protected from physical danger and unfair competition.
Before West Virginia banned transgender girls from girls’ sports, the state used to handle such matters on a case-by-case basis. If a team objected to the presence of a trans girl on a competitor’s roster, the team could register a complaint, and a board would review the case. Sotomayor, arguing in favor of that approach, reminds the court that it used to believe in viewing people as individuals rather than solely as representatives of a group or a class. She quotes from United States v. Virginia, a 1996 case that forced the Virginia Military Institute to open its admissions to women. In that decision, the court banned “state action that denies individuals ‘full citizenship stature,’ or ‘equal opportunity to aspire, achieve, participate in and contribute to society based on their individual talents and capacities,’ because of a class to which they happen to belong.”
The majority opinion seems to acknowledge that sport participation is indeed a form of participation in society — a pathway to that “full citizenship stature.” Kavanaugh writes that since 1972, when the law first required all schools to give girls a chance to take part in sports, “those lessons and experiences in sports have empowered millions of American women who have gone on to thrive in all aspects of American life.” Still, he writes, “regulations cannot and do not guarantee every student a spot on a team’s roster.”
Sports can be an instrument of inclusion. So can the law. But in the hands of this court, the principles and practices that were once intended to enfranchise more people often become, instead, tools of exclusion.
M. Gessen is an Opinion columnist for The Times. They are the winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for opinion writing. They are the author of 11 books, including “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” which won the National Book Award in 2017.
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3) It’s Too Hot to Cook. But Food Truck Workers Have No Choice.
The heat wave in New York this week is even hotter for those working, often without air-conditioning, in the carts that line city blocks.
By Claire Fahy, July 2, 2026
“Dr. Venkat said that the issues facing food-truck workers related to a broader issue of ‘thermal inequality’ — the heat burden imposed on others to get consumers what they want and need. ‘When we go up to a food truck and order a burrito or a sandwich,’ Dr. Venkat said, ‘we don’t think about what it’s like on the inside.’”
A heat wave settled over New York City on Wednesday afternoon, sending temperatures soaring into the mid-90s in Midtown Manhattan.
For Frank Sukonta, 49, who works in the Chop Steak food truck by Bryant Park, that meant his work environment — a metal-sided cart on wheels, parked beneath the blazing sun — felt hotter than 100 degrees inside. A small fan, ice water and cold rags were all he had to battle the sweltering weather.
“The grill and the stove spew heat inside,” Mr. Sukonta said, as his partner flipped steaks. “We’ve been in this business so many years, you get used to it.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who last month signed an executive order requiring new safeguards to protect workers from extreme heat, advised New Yorkers this week to stay inside in air-conditioning. But for the many food truck workers that serve meals around the city, that relief is usually nonexistent.
“We have a lot of windows but no air-conditioning,” said Cindy Qiu, 40, who works in the Teriyaki Food Truck near Bryant Park. She noted that she was lucky the truck had big windows that let in a fair amount of breeze.
Bharat Jayram Venkat, the director of the Heat Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that his team studied ambient temperatures in food trucks in that city and found that the metal structures take on outside heat throughout the day, while also producing heat in small spaces.
Many trucks did not have air-conditioning, Dr. Venkat said, and if they did, it was sometimes ineffective at cooling down the space.
On a temperate day in Los Angeles that was around 60 degrees, he said, his team found that workers inside food trucks could be experiencing 100 degrees of heat.
“Their bodies are also producing heat, while the ovens and stoves are producing heat, while the actual architecture of the food truck has absorbed all the heat during the day,” Dr. Venkat said. “That combination can be quite dangerous.”
Ensuring the safety of food vendors during extreme heat is a top priority for the Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center, said Andrew Conca-Cheng, who leads the advocacy group’s environmental justice program. The group distributes fliers — in many of the languages commonly spoken by the city’s food vendors — that provide guidance on preventing heat exhaustion and stroke, he said. Its website also lists city resources, such as the location of cooling centers.
Mr. Conca-Cheng said the group also worked on helping vendors transition to electric alternatives to gasoline-powered generators, which create additional heat and can often break in high temperatures. Carts and trucks are “generally not standardized,” he noted, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution to heat.
Working inside the El Asado Mexicano food truck on Wednesday afternoon, Aczel Prado, 21, tried to keep cool by drinking water and wiping down with cold rags.
The upside to the heat wave, he said, was that his truck was quite busy during the lunch rush.
“Who would want to cook? It’s really hot,” he said. “I don’t think I would want to cook.”
That was the case for Ray Lynch, 36, who lives in Brooklyn but works in an office near Bryant Park. He was waiting for a late breakfast outside of La Baguette Cafe truck on Wednesday.
“I have a pretty small apartment, so if I can cook before the sun comes up, I might,” he said. “But otherwise I have a tendency to eat out really quickly.”
But Louis Jachero, 40, said that business was actually slower for the Thai Mis Delicias food truck on Wednesday, despite a sizable line.
“They are either ordering for delivery for their offices, or they don’t come to work,” he said of his customers.
Mr. Jachero guessed that it was about 80 degrees inside the truck, which was parked in the shade. He said if the temperatures reached over 100 degrees, he would consider not working.
Mr. Sukonta at Chop Steak was also noticing that business was slower on Wednesday, he said. Some people stopped by for cold drinks only, and did not order food at all.
He said he would probably not open on Friday, when temperatures were set to reach over 100 degrees, because most people would be out of the city for the July 4 holiday weekend — not because of the heat.
“Cold, hot, whatever,” he said, unfazed.
Dr. Venkat said that the issues facing food-truck workers related to a broader issue of “thermal inequality” — the heat burden imposed on others to get consumers what they want and need.
“When we go up to a food truck and order a burrito or a sandwich,” Dr. Venkat said, “we don’t think about what it’s like on the inside.”
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4) Immigrant Arrests Surge to 10,000 in 5 Days as ICE Clamps Down
The agency has doubled its daily arrest numbers without the fanfare of last year’s large urban operations, sowing fear in immigrant communities.
By Hamed Aleaziz, Reporting from Washington, Published July 1, 2026, Updated July 2, 2026
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents patrolling a federal court building in New York last month. Credit...Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Federal immigration officials have detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days, a major surge that has stemmed from a push within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase arrest rates.
Agency leaders in recent days ordered top ICE officials to focus more of their officers’ efforts on picking up immigrants they want to deport, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with federal officials. ICE officers have arrested people at check-ins with immigration authorities, during traffic stops and on the street. The push has apparently yielded results, with recent arrest numbers roughly doubling from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year.
ICE officials were told that the White House wanted an increase in arrests, according to three officials with knowledge of the conversations. One of the officials said that it was unclear how long the pace could continue, but that ICE officials had been told that 2,000 arrests a day was the new standard for enforcement.
The surge has occurred without the fanfare of highly visible operations last year, in which officials announced their intentions ahead of time to target cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, and send officers pouring into the streets. Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, pledged to mount a quieter enforcement campaign following the chaos of a monthlong operation in Minnesota, where federal officers killed two U.S. citizens.
The rise in arrests suggests that President Trump is determined to meet his pledge of mass deportations, a goal that is popular among his conservative supporters but that has fueled a political backlash amid the administration’s heavy-handed tactics. The Trump administration has promised more aggressive actions, particularly after the Supreme Court in recent days expanded the president’s power to set federal immigration policy, but undercut his effort to eliminate birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants and visitors.
“Our message is clear: If you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you and we will deport you,” Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Word of an uptick in arrests has started to trickle out, sowing fear in immigrant communities and among advocates already on edge after the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump could end deportation protections for people from disaster- and war-torn countries under the Temporary Protected Status program.
In recent days, ICE officers have launched an intense push to ramp up arrests. Arrests topped out on Saturday when authorities detained over 2,400 people, according to documents obtained by The Times. The detention population inside ICE facilities has jumped nearly 4,000, to more than 63,000 in the agency’s custody as of Tuesday, according to internal documents.
In emails to ICE personnel, agency leaders applauded the latest numbers.
“I want to personally thank each of you for your extraordinary efforts this past weekend,” Marcos Charles, the head of ICE’s deportation wing, wrote this week. “Through your dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to our mission, enforcement and removal operations achieved remarkable operational results.”
Top ICE officials were told to make sure that as many officers as possible were working seven days a week, and to put 80 percent of their officers on arrest operations, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Top supervisors were expected to be working closely on the operations as well.
Last year, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, set a goal of 3,000 arrests a day for the agency, a figure it was not able to hit. Since then, the agency has hired thousands of new officers and has had its budget increased by billions of dollars for the enforcement surge.
Across the country, immigration lawyers and advocates have reported an uptick in enforcement.
In South Texas, Sister Letty Ugboaja, a Nigerian nun, was arrested on her way to church on Sunday morning, according to Sister Norma Pimentel, her colleague. Ms. Ugboaja is a local nurse who also helps at a parish in the region. Ms. Pimentel called local leaders after learning of the arrest, and congressional officials soon got involved and pushed for her release.
On Sunday, she was let go from ICE custody, and Ms. Pimentel was there to greet her.
Ms. Pimentel said that Ms. Ugboaja was distraught upon her release.
“It took her awhile to be able to talk — she was crying,” she said.
In southern Florida, attorneys have been on alert. Cindy Blandon, an immigration attorney in Miami, said that one of her clients, a Nicaraguan father of two children, had an immigration court hearing set for 2027, but was arrested by ICE on Monday during a routine check-in.
And in Utah, Ysabel Lonazco, an immigration attorney, has noticed an uptick as well. She has spoken to several clients, including a man who was driving when he was picked up by the agency for overstaying his visa this weekend.
“It sets further fear in the community,” she said. “People don’t want to leave their houses. They are afraid to drive to do their grocery shopping. They are just terrified with these detentions.”
One of her clients, Arturo, a 48-year-old Mexican man, was arrested in Salt Lake City on his way to a soccer game on Sunday, according to his wife, Veronica. She said the arrest had shattered their family.
“They’re getting people — be very careful,” her husband told her from ICE detention, she recalled through an interpreter. She said her 13-year-old son was traumatized by the arrest of his father, who had worked most days of the week building furniture before his arrest, she added.
A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said that Arturo had illegally re-entered the United States and would be held in ICE custody as the agency sought to deport him.
Veronica said the family had not expected to be caught up in Mr. Trump’s deportation sweep.
“We were worried, but it wasn’t like we were extremely worried. We figured — we don’t have any criminal record, we pay taxes every year,” she said.
Allison McCann contributed reporting.
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5) California Bans ‘Sell By’ Labels, Hoping to Cut Food Waste
The law standardizes language around expiration dates, aiming to minimize confusion about when food is safe to eat. More than one-third of food sold nationwide is wasted, the U.S.D.A. says.
By Yan Zhuang, July 2, 2026
“Sell by” labels on perishable products are now banned in California, having reached their expiration date under a new food labeling law that came into effect Wednesday.
The bill, which passed in 2024, standardizes such labels in a bid to reduce consumer confusion and cut food waste in the state.
It limits manufacturers to a few terms: “best if used by” or “best if frozen by” to indicate when a food item is at its peak quality, and “use by” or “freeze by” to indicate when a food item is no longer safe to eat. The law applies to all products except for eggs and infant formula, according to California’s Department of Food and Agriculture.
The bill addressed what federal and state officials have long said can be a source of confusion for consumers: when to toss out aging food products. In the United States, there are roughly 50 variations of date labels.
The wording of these labels is usually shaped by the policies of individual states, each with their own requirements that vary across food products. Infant formula is the only product with standardized, federally regulated date labels in the United States.
More than one-third of food sold nationwide ends up going to waste, in part because consumers throw away food they think has gone bad when it hasn’t, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For the most part, “dates are not an indicator of the product’s safety,” the department says.
Experts say the term “sell by” is generally for retailers to know when to rotate inventory, compared with labels like “best if used by” and “use by,” which indicate quality.
Clarifying food date labels can “greatly aid in curbing food waste that often is discarded prematurely,” California’s Department of Food and Agriculture says.
Under the state’s bill, “sell by” dates can still be included on products as long as they are “coded” — information that is aimed at retailers rather than consumers.
There will be a grace period for manufacturers and retailers to finish selling products made before July 1, according to Californians Against Waste, an advocacy group that cosponsored the bill.
The organization said on its website that it hoped the bill would catalyze similar legislation in other states. New York state lawmakers recently approved a similar law, and legislation addressing food labeling has been proposed in several other states.
Opponents of the bill, including agriculture industry groups, had argued that the legislation would make it difficult for companies to do business across state lines.
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6) Look Past the Jobs Numbers: Three Ways Trump Is Strangling the Economy
By Steven N. Durlauf, July 2, 2026
Mr. Durlauf is the director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago.
Baptiste Virot
The solid employment data this week — 57,000 jobs added in June — tells us that the economy is not close to a recession and consumer confidence is rising, making inflation the main worry. But the good job news is deceiving. Our nation’s future economic performance is determined by three interconnected factors: the capital employed in production, the quality and efficient use of our work force, and the science and technology that determine what capital and labor can achieve. The Trump administration is undermining our economy on all three.
Start with the ballooning federal budget deficits and national debt, a product of tax cuts combined with large spending increases in areas such as defense — and that was happening even before the war with Iran. The U.S. debt-to-G.D.P. ratio recently surpassed 100 percent, and one forecast suggests it will reach an astonishing 194 percent by 2054. The Yale Budget Lab predicts that 10-year Treasury yields — the interest rate the government has to pay — will increase by 1.4 percentage points over its recent rate of about 4.4 percent by 2054 if you extrapolate the consequences of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
When the government competes for money by offering higher interest rates, it undercuts long-term capital accumulation by businesses, which is one of the key determinants of overall economic health and broad-based prosperity. While various tax cuts associated with Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy law have some short-run value by raising profitability, higher interest rates will swamp this effect. This is what led the researchers at the Penn Wharton Budget Model to conclude that the U.S. capital stock, now $80.8 trillion, will decrease by 0.6 percent by 2034 and 8.3 percent by 2054. It means we are getting poorer.
The United States is approaching a day when interest rates exceed economic growth rates, producing macroeconomic problems ranging from soaring inflation to the deterioration of the dollar as confidence in the American economy evaporates. Even under the best-case scenario, today’s budgetary decisions handcuff future policymakers. To ignore the dynamic consequences of today’s deficits to spur short-run G.D.P. growth is to whistle past the graveyard of dysfunctional economies of the future.
Yes, spending cuts are being made, but in the worst way possible: We are slashing investments in education and science. The House Appropriations Committee has recently proposed cuts to the Department of Education budget that will take $2 billion from K-12 education in poor communities. One consequence of this defunding is the inability to collect data needed to assess education policies. That’s not trimming a bloated bureaucracy; it’s handicapping governments at all levels in finding what policies work best for our children.
In higher education, revenue reductions for universities have led to thousands of layoffs. At the same time, federal policy is making higher education less affordable. Mr. Trump’s budget bill imposed significant caps for parents who take out loans to help their children attend college, and for graduate students who take out loans themselves.
The caps also mean that students from lower-income families have fewer opportunities to excel. This math adds up to a less skilled American work force as potential students find it more difficult to attend college or graduate school, and those who do so will benefit less. Today’s kindergartners, then, are facing a degraded education through college.
There’s also a direct cost to the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity policies. Somewhere between 20 percent and 40 percent of U.S. economic growth between 1960 and 2010 came from the opening of opportunities for women and people of color, according to research from the University of Chicago and Stanford. And a study of affirmative action in the University of California system found that diversity, equity and inclusion programs delivered higher educational achievement and wages for its beneficiaries without harming those who claimed to be crowded out. Well-designed diversity policies make an economy more productive and capture the essence of a true meritocracy. The Trump policies, despite the administration’s claims, do the opposite.
Scientific knowledge is the foundation of technological innovation, which determines the productivity of capital and labor. This productivity, in turn, determines living standards in the long run. So of course Mr. Trump is attacking science and health research. About $2.3 billion in National Institutes of Health grants have been frozen or terminated. The National Science Foundation budget has been nominally reduced by 3 percent, but operational reductions of existing grants have occurred on the order of 20 to 30 percent as funds are reallocated to new priorities of dubious merit.
The very process of knowledge creation is also being damaged. The Office of Management and Budget recently proposed a regulation that would create a bureaucracy that could radically reduce the ability of scientists to creatively pursue ideas. Every member of the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation, was terminated in April — that move places allocation decisions in the hands of political appointees. Perhaps the most significant dangers can be seen in the way that unscientific hostility to vaccines from the Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has damaged mRNA research that is on cusp of developing astonishing new therapies.
The administration is also undercutting our nation’s longtime status as the destination of choice for top scientists. In fact, foreign-born American scientists claimed around 40 percent of Nobel Prizes in chemistry, medicine and physics awarded to the United States since 2000. In Silicon Valley, about two-thirds of the work force is foreign-born. A quarter of all billion-dollar start-ups include a founder who arrived as a foreign student.
Highly skilled immigrants make American scientists and workers more productive and help raise wages, since worker productivity is interdependent within and across firms. America’s attraction, and the advantage it brings, may not survive the new wave of anti-immigration actions. H1-B visas have fallen by an estimated 40 percent and F-1 visas by 29 percent. Foreign-born biomedical researchers are turning away from the United States as a desirable place to conduct research. Reductions in education and science funding only compound the loss of America’s appeal. Contrast this with the fact that China conducted less than 8 percent of the world’s clinical pharmaceutical trials in 2010, but began to exceed the United States in trials in 2020.
The economies that win the 21st century will be those that maximize the potential of their entire population. This requires careful policy design given the complex, dynamic process by which firms invest capital, and by which society invests in education and allocates workers to jobs. It’s a process that requires investments that make capital and labor most productive. A society that turns away from science, fails to treat the human capital and skills of its work force as paramount social objectives and does not aspire to attract the most able from around the world is one that courts long-run decline. No amount of short-run economic news, especially when paired with unsustainable government debt, will stop it.
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7) JD Vance and Melania Trump Also Had Sharp Earnings Increases in 2025
But the revenue brought in by the vice president and the first lady paled in comparison to that of President Trump.
By Andrea Fuller, July 2, 2026
Andrea Fuller is a reporter specializing in data analysis.
First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Credit...Salwan Georges for The New York Times; Allison Robbert for The New York Times
As President Trump took in a staggering haul from his cryptocurrency and real estate empire last year, earnings for the vice president and first lady also sharply increased, federal disclosures show.
However, each earned a fraction of the minimum $2.2 billion that Mr. Trump reaped.
All told, Mr. Vance earned between $1.4 million and $7.4 million in 2025, including his investment income. That was up from a range of roughly $213,000 to $1.3 million the prior year, though the form does not reflect his salary as a U.S. senator.
The bulk of Mr. Vance’s income came from royalties and advances associated with his autobiography, “Hillbilly Elegy,” published in 2016. He earned between about $1.2 million and $5.2 million from the book, compared with less than $100,000 in 2024.
The financial disclosure indicates that Mr. Vance sold his stake in a fund called Rise of the Rest, which brought him at least $100,000. Mr. Vance helped launch the investment fund in 2017 with AOL co-founder Steve Case at the venture firm Revolution.
The form does not show any income for Mr. Vance’s wife, Usha. She stepped down from her job at a law firm during the 2024 campaign.
The income of the first lady, Melania Trump, surpassed that of the vice president, with her business earnings totaling between roughly $17.3 and $18.2 million last year. She took in less than $1 million in 2024, federal disclosures show.
The bulk of her revenue came from a $10.7 million licensing agreement related to the “Melania” movie, which was acquired and promoted by Amazon. The company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has multiple business interests that could be affected by administration policies. Last year, Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit claiming that it tricked customers to sign up for its Prime membership program.
The first lady also earned $6 million from sales of her memecoin and roughly $500,000 from the publication of her autobiography, “Melania.”
Eric Lipton and Tyler Pager contributed reporting.
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8) Trump’s Huge Windfall Has Few Known Global Precedents
President Trump’s earnings in office are at a level once unimaginable for any leader of a liberal democracy, particularly a sitting American president.
By Jason Horowitz, Published July 2, 2026, Updated July 3, 2026
President Trump disclosed that he has made immense profits since returning to the presidency. Credit...Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and billionaire mogul who died in 2023, is often considered to have set the mold for President Trump with his mastery of the news media, gilded taste and, above all, legislative maneuvers that drew accusations of conflicts of interest.
Mr. Berlusconi passed laws that appeared tailor-made to protect and benefit his family’s vast business empire. And his annual earning disclosures showed he had been paid tens of millions of dollars while serving as prime minister.
This week, new financial disclosures suggested that Mr. Trump has broken that mold by making at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses.
Mr. Trump’s profits are a haul once unimaginable for any leader of a liberal democracy, particularly a sitting American president. No modern Western leader has ever publicly disclosed such big windfalls while in office.
The Trump family’s earnings, experts said, have moved him into an echelon of enrichment more associated with strongmen in Russia and Turkey.
His gains were all the more striking because the United States has long positioned itself as a standard-bearer for financial regulation, anti-graft measures and the rule of law. Yet his cryptocurrency earnings highlight an unusually glaring conflict: As president, Mr. Trump oversees the regulation of an industry that, as a businessman, he also greatly profits from.
The White House has denied that Mr. Trump or his family had engaged in conflicts of interest and he has personally brushed aside such concerns, saying this week: “I never speak to any of the people that run the money.”
That reluctance to acknowledge any conflict now makes it harder, experts said, for anti-corruption investigators in countries big and small to combat behavior that the United States, until Mr. Trump’s presidency, once condemned.
“How the U.S. behaved was quite influential in shaping international norms,” said Professor Liz David-Barrett, director of the Center for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex.
Now, Mr. Trump’s windfall has undermined the idea “that there is a standard to which we should all be aspiring,” she said. It was now easier for other global leaders to ask “‘why should I regulate my behavior?’ when the greatest power in the world” is not regulating its president, she added.
Mr. Trump is of course hardly alone when it comes to accusations of exploiting public office for private profit.
Mr. Berlusconi himself came to power after a bribery scandal that removed Italy’s ruling class. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has defended himself against charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He is accused of granting regulatory favors to prominent businessmen in exchange for gifts or sympathetic media coverage.
Spain’s former prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has been placed under formal investigation on suspicion of influence peddling, which he denies. And its current prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, recently defended himself in Parliament amid corruption allegations against his wife, brother and former political allies.
But the immensity of the Trump family’s profits, experts said, put him into a different league to any of those leaders.
Mr. Trump and his family have not been accused of violating the law to achieve their windfall and he is exempt from laws that would otherwise require senior U.S. officials to sell holdings in companies that might be helped by their political decisions.
Still, the scale of the profits has instead drawn comparisons with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Putin officially owns only a modest apartment, two vintage Soviet cars, a Lada S.U.V. and a Soviet camping trailer, but critics have claimed that he is the boss of a vast network of oligarchs and state power that have made him one of the richest people in the world.
An anti-corruption foundation led by Alexei A. Navalny, the Russian activist who died in a Russian jail in 2024, said that Mr. Putin had amassed a wide array of personal assets. The foundation alleged that those included estates across Russia to yachts in Europe and a sprawling, estimated $1.3 billion palatial complex on the Black Sea equipped with its own underground, multistory bunker system, with a tunnel to the beach, vast private luxury vineyards and a hockey rink. Mr. Putin denied owning the property.
In Africa, Sani Abacha of Nigeria, the general and former dictator who died in 1998, was accused by the Nigerian government of looting billions of dollars, including money taken from the central bank.
The Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who took power in a coup in 1965, laundered vast sums through real estate in Europe before he died in 1997. That property included a mansion on the French Riviera and a lavish palace complex in his hometown.
Professor David-Barrett said that the Trump family’s business ventures also drew comparisons with political dynasties in Asia, where leaders had been accused of conflicts of interest between their political activities and their families’ business empires.
Mr. Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization, has licensed the Trump name to properties in countries that rely on the Trump administration’s support, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The White House has often rejected concerns over such issues, saying that Mr. Trump’s children run the organization, not the president.
The family of Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecom billionaire and the populist former prime minister of Thailand, is among the Asian dynasties that have been accused of abusing their proximity to power. He was jailed for having used his time in office to further enrich his family after, among other things, his wife bought a desirable plot of land from a government agency. Mr. Thaksin said the conviction was politically motivated.
Najib Razak, until 2018 the prime minister of Malaysia, presided over the systematic bilking of billions of dollars from the state sovereign wealth fund, which he helped co-found. It helped to finance a superyacht, fine art and hundreds of handbags found in his wife’s closets. He has been convicted of abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust, among other charges, and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison so far.
Professor David-Barrett said that increasing polarization in many countries made it easier for leaders to escape accountability.
In a polarized society, voters often view accusations against their chosen political leaders as a politically motivated attack, rather than a legitimate source for concern — leading them to dismiss the claims’ relevance. Or even if voters believe the accusations, Professor David-Barrett said, their loyalty to their parties and leaders can allow them to turn a blind eye to their missteps.
As Mr. Trump said of his own deal making in January, “I found out that nobody cared.”
Mr. Berlusconi’s close friend, Fedele Confalonieri, once said something similar. “Of course Mr. Berlusconi has a conflict of interest,” Mr. Confalonieri told me in 2011 as Italy became increasingly polarized between Mr. Berlusconi’s supporters and critics.
“But it is so clear and so transparent,” Mr. Confalonieri added, that it was hardly worth talking about.
That kind of indifference has blunted the ability of traditional checks and balances to hold leaders accountable, experts said. If voters dispute the importance of accusations against their leaders, they may also eventually reject the legitimacy of the watchdogs making those accusations, according to Fernando Jiménez Sánchez, a political scientist who specializes in corruption at the University of Murcia, Spain.
The stain of corruption can still be a powerful political weapon. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s former prime minister, lost power in a recent election after voters turned on him, in part, because of widespread corruption allegations against his government. Transparency International often put Hungary at the bottom of its annual corruption rankings for countries in the European Union.
Yet for many voters in countries run by populists, Mr. Sánchez said, “checks and balances in general are seen as just another part of the elite politics they criticize.”
Since Watergate, he added, the United States had helped set the standard for international anti-corruption norms. Now, he said, Mr. Trump was setting a different standard that could have the effect of demolishing democratic guardrails and clearing the way for others’ conflicts of interest.
“This,” Mr. Sánchez said, “is what is being lost.”
Reporting was contributed by Hannah Beech, Ivan Nechepurenko and Matthew Mpoke Bigg.
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9) Microsoft Disclosure Provides Rare Glimpse of Tax Haven Tactics
Other U.S. companies will soon need to provide similar reports as a new European directive takes effect.
By Jesse Drucker and Karen Weise, July 3, 2026
Jesse Drucker reported from New York and Karen Weise from Seattle.
“U.S. companies last year avoided at least $40 billion in taxes from parking profits in [tax] havens, The New York Times found.”
The French headquarters of Microsoft in Issy-les-Moulineaux. France is one of the European countries where Microsoft said it had small profits. Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A compliance report released by Microsoft this week provided a rare look into how tech giants shift profits out of the countries where they have many employees and significant sales and into low-tax havens that help them cut their tax bills by billions of dollars.
Microsoft was most likely the first major U.S. technology company to make a so-called country by country report of its finances to comply with a new European Union directive. Like other big companies, Microsoft uses transactions between subsidiaries to shift profits around to reduce its tax bill. The report revealed a consistent pattern: high returns in low-tax jurisdictions and slim margins in higher-tax ones.
Microsoft’s report detailed the company’s sales, tax bills and employees in dozens of countries, mostly in Europe, for its fiscal year that ended in June 2025. The report showed the sometimes absurd results.
Microsoft said it had generated almost 40 percent of its pretax income in tax-friendly Ireland, where it employed about 3 percent of its global work force. In higher-tax Germany, the largest economy in Europe, Microsoft earned barely half of 1 percent of its global profits, it said. Excluding Ireland, the company said, it generated less than 2 percent of its worldwide pretax earnings in Europe.
Microsoft said in a blog post accompanying the report that it followed all the laws in every jurisdiction where it operated, and that the reporting standards created some inconsistencies among countries.
“Microsoft is committed to a tax structure that reflects where our people work, where we invest, and where functions, assets, and risks occur,” wrote Jeff Bullwinkel, Microsoft’s top lawyer in Europe.
The Internal Revenue Service is challenging profit-shifting transactions used by Microsoft, and is seeking back taxes of nearly $29 billion. The company has said it disagrees with the I.R.S. and said in a securities filing that it “will vigorously contest” the proposed tax bills.
In the wake of the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, European countries slashing basic services trained their sights on tax dodges employed by big companies, such as Google, Apple, Starbucks, Amazon and Facebook.
The European Parliament proposed the country by country reports to increase “the transparency on where they pay their taxes,” said Iban García del Blanco of Spain, one of the directive’s lead negotiators. The reports would give the public insight into companies’ economic activity — which can be quite different from where they claim to earn their income for tax purposes. The European Parliament passed the directive in 2021, and it is now taking effect.
Microsoft’s report showed that, despite the efforts to crack down on tax havens, companies are able to “shift their profits to low-tax jurisdictions with no corresponding shift in real activity,” said Reuven Avi-Yonah, a tax law professor at the University of Michigan.
For years, Microsoft has disclosed that it booked a disproportionate amount of earnings in Ireland, whose porous tax laws have permitted big companies — including Google, Facebook and PepsiCo — to avoid billions of dollars of taxes by transferring income into island havens like Bermuda and Grand Cayman.
For its 2025 fiscal year, Microsoft reported profit margins of 24 percent in Ireland, where it paid taxes at a rate of just over 14 percent. In Luxembourg, Microsoft claimed profit margins of 142 percent and a tax rate of just 3 percent. The company said it had $283 million in pretax income and only 34 employees in the tiny country.
But in several of Microsoft’s biggest markets — where tax rates exceed 25 percent — it reported tiny profit margins. In Germany, France and Italy, the company claimed single-digit profit margins, sometimes barely 5 percent.
The report still gave only a partial picture, because it lumped in the United States with other countries.
Microsoft said it had built its presence in Ireland over more than four decades, and it has grown into the company’s primary hub in the region. It employs roughly 6,600 people there, more than anywhere else in Europe.
For 13 years, international regulators have tried to crack down on how big companies shift earnings into tax havens, and more than 100 countries have passed laws creating a minimum corporate income tax. But the Trump administration struck an agreement this year with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that effectively exempts U.S. companies from much of that crackdown.
As a result, U.S. companies last year avoided at least $40 billion in taxes from parking profits in havens, The New York Times found.
Mr. Bullwinkel said Microsoft’s capital expenditures in data centers, its corporate work forces and its work through local partners were also key investments in local economies. “Tax is one important measure of contribution, but it is not the only one,” he wrote.
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