*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
VIDEO:
What Cubans Really Think About Trump
By Jeff Seal, May 28, 2026
Mr. Seal is a comedian and a visual journalist.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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-
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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)
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
 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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
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
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Articles
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
1) Trump Administration Fast-Tracks Military Cooperation With Colombia
The country’s new Trump-endorsed president takes office on Friday. Sweeping plans to target drug traffickers with U.S. help are already underway.
By Annie Correal and Eric Schmitt, Aug. 7, 2026
Annie Correal covers Latin America and Eric Schmitt covers the U.S. military and national security.
“The two governments have wasted no time. After meeting with defense officials in Washington, Colombia’s incoming defense minister, Gen. Jorge Eduardo Mora, said that the recently announced strategy, called Plan Patriot 2.0, marks ‘a new stage of cooperation, integration and joint action.’ The two countries have discussed plans to provide U.S. intelligence and support to Colombia’s military for counternarcotics missions, to extradite captured traffickers and to restart the aerial eradication of coca plants, according to U.S. officials.”
Colombia’s new president campaigned on promises to crush his country’s powerful drug traffickers with the help of the United States.
He takes office Friday, but his plans to partner with U.S. forces are already underway and could make Colombia a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s efforts to militarize the fight against drug trafficking across the region.
After Colombian officials from the incoming administration traveled to Washington last month, a senior U.S. defense official announced a new military partnership with Colombia that he said would take a historically strong alliance “to new levels.”
And the president-elect, Abelardo De La Espriella, has named Medellín the hub of President Trump’s new regional anti-trafficking alliance, the Shield of the Americas.
The Trump administration has made targeting traffickers in Latin America a priority. Blaming cartels and drug gangs for America’s overdose crisis and for fueling violent crime, his administration has designated two dozen groups in the region as terrorist organizations and has authorized using lethal force against them.
U.S. officials have created a regional anti-cartel coalition and military task force including 18 other nations, and have compared their push to U.S. military campaigns against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The Trump administration has also pressed Latin American leaders to allow U.S. forces to conduct joint strikes within their territory, and Mr. Trump has touted U.S.-involved operations that killed the leaders of a major cartel in Mexico and a transnational gang in Venezuela.
Previous U.S. crackdowns on drug trafficking in Latin America have had limited success — and the latest push has raised concerns that military operations could threaten countries’ sovereignty and endanger civilians.
Before Mr. De La Espriella’s election in June, the Trump administration had made little headway with Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer and traditionally Washington’s closest ally in the region.
The outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, a leftist, criticized Mr. Trump’s anti-trafficking strategy and denounced as murder the U.S. military strikes on boats that the Trump administration has claimed, without evidence, are carrying drugs off the coast of South America. The strikes have now killed at least 221 people.
The U.S. authorities imposed sanctions on Mr. Petro, decertified Colombia as a counternarcotics partner and threatened to cut off aid.
Mr. De La Espriella, a staunch conservative who had never held office, is poised to be a far more willing ally. On the campaign trail, he praised Mr. Trump’s boat strikes and won over many Colombians with vows to come down on armed traffickers “with the wrath of God.”
The two governments have wasted no time. After meeting with defense officials in Washington, Colombia’s incoming defense minister, Gen. Jorge Eduardo Mora, said that the recently announced strategy, called Plan Patriot 2.0, marks “a new stage of cooperation, integration and joint action.”
The two countries have discussed plans to provide U.S. intelligence and support to Colombia’s military for counternarcotics missions, to extradite captured traffickers and to restart the aerial eradication of coca plants, according to U.S. officials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the plans.
The timeline for joint operations is not clear. One former senior Trump administration official said there was pressure from the White House and senior Pentagon leaders to show results immediately after Mr. De La Espriella took office, but noted that U.S. military commanders were counseling more planning.
The Department of Defense declined to comment beyond a statement from last month. The White House referred questions to the State Department, which said in a statement, “We stand ready to support Colombia’s efforts to strengthen its security forces, defeat narcoterrorists and criminal organizations and end illegal immigration flows.”
Colombia’s armed groups, which include former leftist rebel armies and right-wing paramilitaries, have long been involved in drug trafficking, but have expanded significantly in recent years amid soaring global demand for cocaine. (They also traffic illegal gold and other minerals.)
The groups have multiplied and spread into more of the country, and the number of combatants has increased from around 13,000 in 2022 to nearly 27,000 last year, according to conflict researchers.
Military operations were largely halted for much of Mr. Petro’s term, as his government pursued peace talks with armed groups, a move critics say allowed the groups to expand.
“Is this the right moment for a more kinetic approach?” said Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia from 2014 to 2019. “My answer is ‘yes, and.’”
Even as armed drug trafficking has surged, Mr. Whitaker said, Colombia’s military has been hobbled by funding cuts, and scores of generals were purged under Mr. Petro.
Planning and executing operations is a cycle that improves with repetition, he said, “and this is an armed force which just hasn’t been doing it for the last four years at the same level that it had done before.”
He added: “You can’t just snap your fingers.”
Restarting the aerial eradication of coca, the plant used to make cocaine, also requires planning, experts say. Eradication using glyphosate, an herbicide, was banned by Colombia in 2015 in response to World Health Organization warnings about the health effects on humans.
Both governments will be eager for an early show of force, said Gimena Sánchez, the Andes director at the Washington Office on Latin America.
The U.S. government, which has promoted dramatic footage of military operations against alleged traffickers, may be looking for more such imagery in the run-up to November’s midterm elections. For his part, Mr. De La Espriella is likely to “go big,” Ms. Sánchez said, kicking off his term with “showy actions.”
Targeting the leaders of trafficking groups has been shown to have little long-term effect on the drug trade, she said.
Mr. De La Espriella’s presidential office did not respond to a request for comment.
The original Plan Patriot was a U.S.-backed military offensive in the 2000s that deployed thousands of Colombian soldiers against leftist rebel groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. It was part of Plan Colombia, a multibillion-dollar U.S. program to provide military aid and other assistance.
It dealt significant blows to the FARC, which eventually agreed to disband, signing a landmark peace accord in 2016. But a truth commission found that Plan Patriot also resulted in extreme violence by state forces, including extrajudicial killings.
Quashing traffickers has long been a challenge for Colombia’s military. The groups operate in rugged terrain and sometimes live among civilian populations. Adding to the challenge, they have now spilled across Colombia’s borders into Venezuela and Ecuador.
Another obstacle, conflict experts say, is that many minors have been recruited by trafficking groups, in part to ward off airstrikes.
It is not clear how much aid could now flow to Colombia. In the past, Colombia was the region’s largest recipient of U.S. security assistance, but during the first year of Mr. Trump’s second term, that assistance was cut by more than half, to around $187 million from $400 million, according to a report to Congress by the Trump administration.
With Mr. De La Espriella now in office, experts say, the spigot could reopen.
Mr. Mora, the incoming defense minister, has said Plan Patriot 2.0 would help restore Colombia’s military capabilities. According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, the partnership is expected to bolster Colombia’s helicopter fleet and provide drone protection technology as armed groups are increasingly turning to drone warfare.
The plan has drawn criticism from the left. Senator Iván Cepeda, whom Mr. De La Espriella narrowly defeated in June’s election, told an interviewer: “What’s being discussed is a strategy to subject Colombia to another sovereignty and convert it into a kind of protectorate.”
Mr. De La Espriella had originally planned to hold his inauguration at a military base in a conflict zone, instead of the capital. Lawmakers ultimately approved moving the event to Cali, a city near the zone.
This week, the Colombian authorities reported that they had intercepted a bus carrying 1,000 pounds of explosives meant to target military and police facilities during the inauguration. The police said the attack had been planned by a FARC dissident group.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
2) They Were Eager to Return Home. Then the U.S. Bombed Iran.
By John Eligon, Photographs by Joao Silva, Aug. 8, 2026
Reporting from Port Louis, Mauritius
Roseline Rabouine, who was forced to leave Chagos Islands when she was 8, attending mass in Port Louis, Mauritius, last month.
Roseline Rabouine was 8 when British soldiers showed up at her family’s home on the Chagos Islands and told them they had to leave.
To make way for a joint British and American military base on the islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Ms. Rabouine and most of the roughly 2,000 inhabitants were sent on an eight-day journey to Mauritius, and never allowed to return.
That was nearly six decades ago, she said.
“If they told me I could return, I would go today,” said Ms. Rabouine, sitting on a dimly lit porch in her working-class neighborhood in Port Louis, Mauritius’ capital.
That wish seemed tangible this year, as Britain prepared to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which has vowed to let displaced Chagossians like Ms. Rabouine, 61, go home.
Then the United States bombed Iran.
Now the tiny Chagos Archipelago is caught in a geopolitical tussle involving President Trump, British politics, China and the war in the Middle East.
Mr. Trump initially supported the British plan to ratify a treaty that would return the islands to Mauritius. But he withdrew his support shortly before the United States attacked Iran in February, saying he did not want to relinquish control of the joint military base on Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Chagos Archipelago.
The islands remain largely uninhabited and off-limits, except for the forces on Diego Garcia. The White House told The New York Times in a statement last month that Mr. Trump would “never allow the U.S. presence at Diego Garcia to be undermined or threatened for any reason.”
The treaty to return the islands, which was created after an international court said that Britain had failed to fully decolonize Mauritius, has also been criticized by conservative British politicians.
Although the treaty allows for American and British forces to continue operating on Diego Garcia on a 99-year lease, some British lawmakers have warned that a retreat would lead to Chinese encroachment in the hotly contested Indian Ocean.
Diego Garcia is central to American efforts to project power in the Indian Ocean, according to Nitya Labh, a fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. Its landing strips are long enough for large military aircraft and it has a deep-sea port, where warships can be stocked and serviced. There is also speculation that some covert operations are based on Diego Garcia.
Officials in Washington and London have raised concerns that ratifying the treaty could create an opening for China to build its own base on the Chagos Islands.
As the debate rages, people born on the islands say time for them is running out. Only a few hundred are still alive, and they fear that if they are not allowed to return, their culture and history will be lost.
They say they want to visit the graves of their ancestors and swim in the same turquoise waters and walk the same white sand beaches.
No Say in the Future
Survivors of the expulsion are themselves in disagreement about the archipelago’s future.
Some, like Jeanine Sadrien, 69 and born on the islands, say that Mauritius deserves full sovereignty, and that under British rule, “we were not given the right to go back.”
Others, like Ms. Rabouine, would rather see the islands remain under British control. Ms. Rabouine argues that the diaspora community has been discriminated against in Mauritius, including being sent to live in slums by the government after they were displaced.
In Roche Bois, a neighborhood in Port Louis, some Chagossian families live in tin shacks wedged between cinder block homes, near fields littered with trash and water that smells like sewage. Those conditions are a sharp departure from those in the luxurious beachfront resorts and lush inland forests for which Mauritius is known.
The majority of the 1.3 million people on Mauritius are Hindu, but the main language is French, with locals mostly speaking a Creole language. Chagossians belong to a broader Creole ethnicity — people of African descent mixed with other races.
While Ms. Rabouine, a retired domestic worker, and her husband, who worked construction, built a solid home in Port Louis with concrete walls and granite-tile floors, she said many survivors were trapped in a cycle of generational poverty.
She recalled life on the Chagos Islands, where families were self-sufficient and didn’t worry about money. It was common to build your own home and eat fresh-caught lobster for dinner. On Friday evenings, everyone gathered on the beach for traditional singing and dancing, she said.
After being expelled to Mauritius, many struggled to navigate mundane routines like opening bank accounts and paying rent because they could not read or write, Ms. Rabouine said. They could barely afford to buy chicken feet for dinner.
“Too many people died, too many people lived in despair here in Mauritius because they didn’t choose to be here,” she said.
Mauritian government officials argue that Chagossians have long enjoyed the same rights and benefits as all Mauritians, including free health care and education. The government was planning to facilitate heritage visits to the Chagos Islands this year, but postponed them because of the Iran war.
Iran launched two missiles at Diego Garcia in March. One was intercepted, and the other malfunctioned en route.
America was the driving force behind the removal of Chagossians, said David Vine, a leading scholar on the islands. But many Chagossians now say they don’t mind the presence of the U.S. military base, as long as they can return home.
Yet with the Iran war and an increasingly bold China, they fear they won’t have much say in what comes next.
Diplomatic Triangulation
The British Parliament must approve the treaty for it to take effect, including a provision for Britain to pay Mauritius more than $135 million a year to lease Diego Garcia. Keir Starmer, the former British prime minister, had said he would not move that process forward without the Trump administration’s support.
It is unclear how the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, will proceed.
Dhananjay Ramful, the foreign minister in Mauritius, said that during a meeting in April, he assured Christopher Landau, America’s deputy secretary of state, that the United States would maintain access to the base and did not need to worry about China.
He said Mr. Landau told him in response that the United States was “‘satisfied with the deal,’” but needed to finalize “‘certain security aspects’” with Britain.
Dylan Johnson, an assistant secretary in the State Department, called Mr. Ramful’s account “a gross mis-characterization” of Mr. Landau’s comments. He added that the United States valued its partnership with Mauritius and Britain, and was prepared to continue collaborating on security matters.
Should Britain fail to ratify the treaty, Mauritius may escalate the issue, said Gavin Glover, the country’s attorney general.
“We’re going to make noises everywhere,” he said. “We are going to start sending boats and landing on the islands. What we will have to do is to actually create a situation of conflict.”
The goal would be to get a new case before the international court.
In the meantime, the best that Chagossians in Mauritius can do is to keep their folk traditions alive, they said. They cook traditional coconut milk stew with chicken or fish, known as seraz. They beat drums known as ravannes and perform song-and-dance rituals to sega music.
At a community center in Port Louis recently, Ms. Sadrien, who was 10 when she last lived on Chagos, swayed her hips and twirled with a vigor that belied her age. She flapped her red and blue floral skirt and flashed a smile.
“When I close my eyes and dance,” she said, “it’s like I’m on Diego Garcia.”
Ashley Victor contributed reporting from Port Louis, Mauritius.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
3) Growing Up in Peru, I Thought I Knew Poverty. America Surprised Me.
By Nicholas Kristof, Opinion Columnist, Aug. 8, 2026
Tamara Reynolds for The New York Times
Every year I choose a university student to accompany me on my win-a-trip journey, which is meant to highlight issues that deserve more attention. My 2026 winner is Brunella Tipismana, a recent Yale University graduate and budding journalist — and with that, I’m handing the rest of the column over to her. —Nicholas Kristof
By Brunella Tipismana, reporting from Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma
I thought I knew what poverty looked like. I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Lima, Peru, in a family of former agricultural workers who remembered what it was like to live in thatched-roof houses. So when I drove through Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma, meeting Americans in some of the poorest ZIP codes in the nation, my first reaction was one I’m not particularly proud of.
The people we met drove cars, lived in houses with air-conditioning, owned washing machines and bought groceries with electronic benefits cards. I found it hard to empathize with their circumstances: They reminded me less of my neighbors in Lima than of my country’s comfortable middle class.
As our 1,000-mile road trip went on, though, the people I met and the stories they told convinced me their poverty was more complicated than it appeared: the young people in deindustrialized towns who told us they felt left behind and terrified about their futures, the woman in Arkansas trying to raise six children on $13.40 an hour, the grandmother in eastern Kentucky who told me that I wouldn’t find a single family in her town whose lives hadn’t been touched by addiction — a sentiment I heard again and again as we drove through similar towns in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The Americans I met were financially better off than many of their counterparts in the developing world. But as anyone who has been poor knows, poverty is about much more than money. Many working-class Americans I met are troubled by addiction, loneliness and contempt to a degree that poor people where I’m from are often spared.
The first thing that struck me about poverty I saw in this country was how it was braided together with the drug epidemic. While Latin America overwhelmingly bears the societal costs of drug production — like cartel-based violence and corruption — the United States bears the human costs of drug consumption at a scale not seen anywhere else. In 2023 it had the highest recorded rate of overdose deaths in the world.
And those who shoulder the lethal cost of this crisis are, disproportionately, poor working-class Americans.
In Tulsa, Okla., I met Drew May, 28, a woman with an easy demeanor. Four generations of women in her family had dealt with teenage pregnancy, addiction, mental illness and sexual violence, she said, and soon those patterns began to replicate in her life. At 5 she was pulling out her own teeth and hurting herself; at 7 she was hospitalized for what doctors thought was a mental health disorder.
“I wanted people who cared about me and who listened to me,” she said. “I found that in the drug community.” She told me that she began to smoke crystal meth at 13. In school she had been in the gifted and talented program, but soon she dropped out and left home.
At 19 she and her partner began engaging in vandalism. “We felt like we’d been left behind,” she said, and they wanted to express their frustration, even if they weren’t striking out at anyone in particular. “I personally didn’t have any strong beliefs,” she added. “I was in for the chaos.”
The second thing that struck me about the poverty I saw in America is that it can be unbelievably lonely. Many of those we met were cut off from extended family and left to fend for themselves. The emotional distance was compounded by the physical: empty miles separate a home from a church, a supermarket or another home, and travel was expensive or laborious.
It was a sharp contrast with the density — both geographic and relational — of where I grew up. My life was a node in a thick network of aunts, cousins, cousins twice removed and friends of friends. My parents still talk about the neighbors who tossed them a bag of oats in weeks when they had no food or money in the house. When our institutions failed, our community acted as social insurance — a threadbare substitute for state capacity but a substitute nevertheless.
American institutions have more resources than Peru’s, though America’s welfare state is thinner than those of other rich countries, and the current administration is eroding it further. But class solidarity and communal structures can make poverty more endurable, and the Americans who have to live without them end up more isolated and scared than we ever were.
America’s stories about itself can breed contempt for the poor. At a Fourth of July party in San Francisco, I mentioned this reporting project to a friend who writes about global development. According to him, it was simple: America’s talent-discovery mechanisms are so efficient, he said, that people remain poor only when it is their own fault.
His comment mirrored the suspicion I felt earlier in the trip. Despite approaching the question from radically different places, my friend and I both were asking, in essence: How real can poverty in America be? His framing was little more than a technocratic retelling of the American promise that anyone can rise here because effort and talent are rewarded. This thinking makes stories like mine — I was poor, and then I came to America, and now I am not — elicit sympathy. It turns the lives of a lucky few into evidence supporting the classic tale of American uplift.
Yet while I’ve experienced the success of meritocracy, I’ve also seen firsthand how often meritocracy fails and how easily effort is undone by luck and circumstance — two forces that particularly afflict those who can’t afford second chances. We can come to hold people responsible for what is, in the end, bad luck.
In Pine Bluff, Ark., Crystal Barnes, a young schoolteacher, painted a grim picture of America at 250. “We’re living in a world that’s taking away resources and forcing people to get desperate. And what happens when too many people get desperate?” she said. “We’ll see.”
Most of the people we met felt their desperation only as powerlessness and anxiety. But for some, like Ms. May, it curdled into nihilism and resentment. If a country whose views of itself tell its struggling people that their suffering is their own fault, it should not be surprising when some of those people decide they are in for the chaos.
And yet when I met Ms. May, things seemed to be looking up. She had been sober for more than three years; she was raising her two oldest children again and preparing to see all five of her children in the same room for the first time. She’d graduated from an Oklahoma program called Women in Recovery, a diversion initiative for women with substance abuse disorders.
Run by Tulsa’s Family & Children’s Services, it provides roughly two years of intensive treatment (housing, mental health counseling, work force training) as an alternative to prison. Only about 4 percent of participants go to prison within three years of graduating from the program. And Women in Recovery costs about $30,000 a year to enroll one woman — less than Oklahoma would have spent imprisoning her for the same period.
What struck me most about the program was not so much its top-line numbers as the immeasurable effect it had on women like Ms. May, who now drives a truck for Family & Children’s Services Thrift Store. It granted them full personhood, built a community around each of them, paid them the courtesy of believing their problems were real and tried to help address them.
Ultimately, a society as rich as America’s should be capable, however imperfectly, of providing families not only with money and consumer goods but also with a glimpse of a path forward.
“I had no hope before, and I couldn’t see past my own two feet, and that’s so different today,” she told me about her time in Women in Recovery. So many of those I spoke with are stuck in shrinking towns, in dead-end economies, in politics that look past them. As Ms. May said, they, too, “deserve to have lives that are full of options.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
4) A War Zone in Your Backyard
By Timothy Egan, Aug. 8, 2026
Mr. Egan is the author of 10 books, including “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America.”
David Ryder/Reuters
As a boy, I found myself in Huck Finn heaven after our family moved to a new tract house amid a ponderosa pine forest in Spokane, Wash. During the summer, we free-ranged out from our street, Indian Trail Road, swimming in an idle river and building tree forts from plywood leftovers at the suburban frontier.
Further out, on camping trips in nearby national forests, we came upon charred tree husks from an inferno of legend and epic ferocity — the Big Burn of 1910. It ravaged an area about the size of Connecticut, more than three million acres, in a weekend, and still stands as the biggest wildfire in American history.
The blaze of 1910 spared Spokane, the largest city between Minneapolis and Seattle. But the fires of 2026 did not. I watched, heartbroken and sleepless, from a smoke-choked vacation retreat in eastern Washington as my old boyhood stomping ground fell to spikes of wind-driven flame last weekend.
Indian Trail Road was at the heart of a “war zone,” in the words of a National Guard general. Over 60,000 people, equal to one-fourth of the city’s population, were forced to evacuate. Mayor Lisa Brown called the Spokane Complex fires the “worst natural disaster” in the region’s civic history.
Nature on a rage was the main culprit. But an arsonist, allegedly, and conditions exacerbated by a global climate crisis were co-conspirators in the collapse of this formerly sylvan setting.
In an instant, a hot August Saturday was windblown into adrenal-surged panic. Friends and family members fled as lawns and shrubs caught fire, roofs went in a poof, bedrooms melted into fuel. They faced a giant plume of smoke, the pop-pop-pop from explosions, the smell of burned plastic. One of my childhood pals refused to go. He clambered atop his house, trying to set up a sprinkler to save his home. He slipped and fell, fracturing bones in three places. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people lost their homes, but miraculously no fatalities have been reported. The danger has yet to pass, as a new round of high winds and warm temperatures has left families in evacuation shelters wondering if their neighborhoods will make it through the coming days.
In a summer when France, Greece and Spain are burning, when southern England just recorded its driest month since records began almost 200 years ago, when New York and Chicago gagged on smoke from the faraway north, when the two largest reservoirs in the United States (on the Colorado River) shriveled to a combined record-low water level, it may seem provincial to dwell on a fire in your hometown.
But the lessons — some of them heeded, others ignored in the way of multigenerational hubris — from the Big Burn and this year’s tragedy are universal.
No one alive had ever seen anything like the flames that roared through parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana that Saturday night of August 1910. And no one had any idea how to contain them. For many people filling the new towns of the American West, fire was the last great fear. Wolves and grizzly bears had been nearly wiped out. Natives Americans were forced onto reservations, their populations crushed by disease and war. All that remained was fire.
Channeling a nation feeling its mid-adolescent invulnerability, Gifford Pinchot, the brilliant father of the Forest Service, made a prediction just before the woods blew up. “Today,” he stated, “we understand that forest fires are wholly within the control of men.”
He was asking for it.
Assembling an army of immigrants, convicts, loggers and Black troops known as Buffalo Soldiers, the fledgling Forest Service tried, for the first time, to attack a major wildfire. It failed miserably.
Some years later, the Forest Service adopted the 10 a.m. policy: Any wildfire spotted was to be snuffed by midmorning the next day. It suppressed many blazes, but put nature out of whack, allowing a huge fuel load of trees and brush to build up. Late in the 20th century, most foresters recognized that fire had a place. But they have since been alarmed by how big, how early, how hot, long and destructive the wildfires of the past 25 years have been. The new normal is catastrophe in places where people live, any month of the year, from Florida to Alaska.
The term of unpeaceful coexistence in the West was “wildland-urban interface.” In other words, we moved by the millions into the forests, the grasslands, the wilderness itself, and nature did what it always does. People throughout the region were told to clear safety buffers in the brush and trees around their houses, live under metal roofs, and expect to flee on any given summer day. That was the price.
I’d always assumed that in the cities a modern urban layout of tight, hard-surface grids and adequate fire departments would keep everyone safe.
As kids, we felt no fear. Those yellow-clad men and women jumping from low-flying planes into the maw of an inferno, our heroes, were dropped into neighboring public forests. Fire would never touch us.
The Spokane blaze, like the Southern California monsters that took down thousands of homes around Los Angeles in January of 2025, is forcing us to rethink the nature of the beast. Three major fires, one of them probably caused by an arsonist, roared through block after block, cul-de-sac after cul-de-sac, as if the human hand had never touched the landscape.
As Pinchot learned and lamented late in life, people can shape nature, but we cannot control it. If only President Trump had an ember of the founding forester’s insight. He blamed this summer’s fires in Canada’s vast and largely unpopulated boreal forests — the cause of bad air in many American cities — on poor management. He’s chosen negligent denial and willful ignorance over common sense, suggesting that “raking” forest floors in the West would prevent disasters.
Raking? In Spokane, some of the most manicured landscapes anywhere, in suburbia at its most refined, did not stand a chance against flames that jumped a river and stormed into backyards. In Washington, the Evergreen State, a drought emergency was declared in April. Driven by extreme heat and calcified land, fires have already consumed more than five million acres nationwide in 2026, well above the yearly average for this time of year. And the Pacific Northwest — known for peaks topped by millenniums-old glaciers, deep-green forests and clean mountain air — has been hit harder than any other region in the country.
Globally, nearly every year of late is hotter than the one before, and these changes make wildfires worse. Extreme infernos have more than doubled in frequency and intensity this century. I hesitate to say “duh” because that sounds like cynical surrender.
We are not powerless. “We shape our buildings,” said Churchill; “thereafter they shape us.” We need zoning and building codes for a hotter, drier world, which many cities have already put in place. For those who live in a fire zone, a sprinkler system on the roof, to match those in the ceiling of new buildings, might help.
The polling on human-caused climate change tells us that while most Americans believe it is happening, only about half think it will significantly threaten their way of life. It’s too often an academic debate, or a shouting match between pundits, or met with a shrug. The mournful site of my old neighborhood, the blackened playgrounds, the chimneys standing alone in the graveyards of homes that held three generations of memories, ashes and embers falling like snow in 90-degree heat, tell me something more personal. Loss. And grief. And a sense of urgency.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
5) New Jersey Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Delaney Hall
The state attorney general said that her office had issued subpoenas and would investigate whether employees at the migrant detention center had violated civil rights.
By Ana Ley and Tracey Tully, Published Aug. 7, 2026, Updated Aug. 8, 2026
The federal detention center has been a persistent target of criticism from protesters and Democratic lawmakers since it reopened last year. Credit...Ryan Murphy/Reuters
The New Jersey attorney general has opened a civil rights investigation into a 1,000-bed migrant detention center in Newark, ramping up the state’s fight against the Trump administration.
The attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, said on Friday that her office had issued subpoenas and would investigate whether employees at the center violated the civil rights of detainees.
The announcement was made days after a detainee died and his family denounced the center, known as Delaney Hall, for failing to tend to his medical needs.
The detainee, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, was 41 and from El Salvador. His family has expressed concern that he might not have been getting the medication he needed to treat his diabetes and epilepsy.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Geo Group, the private company that operates the detention center, referred questions to ICE.
Federal immigration officials said on Monday that Mr. Lopez-Cornejo had experienced a medical emergency at Delaney Hall and that employees there “responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services.”
After the announcement by the attorney general on Friday, Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey said: “ICE and the Geo Group have continued to block our efforts for a full health inspection and there are now reports that visitations have been stopped. I have long opposed private detention facilities, and my position is clear that Delaney Hall should be closed.”
Jorge Torres, a spokesman for Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s family, said that his relatives were gratified that New Jersey officials had responded to their request for an outside inquiry.
“It’s a step forward,” Mr. Torres said in an interview during a wake for Mr. Lopez-Cornejo in Plainfield, N.J. “Let’s hope that it’s an independent investigation.”
Mr. Lopez-Cornejo is at least the second Delaney detainee to die in ICE custody in less than a year. Jean Wilson Brutus, a Haitian immigrant, died in December after being taken to a hospital soon after arriving at Delaney. He was also 41.
Detainees held at Delaney have a broad and complex mix of immigration statuses. Some crossed the border illegally, while others overstayed their visas, which is a civil, not a criminal, offense. Many have legally applied to live in the United States and are awaiting the outcome of their cases as the federal government works to limit pathways to citizenship.
Border Patrol officials said that Mr. Lopez-Cornejo had entered the United States illegally in 2006. An immigration judge had ordered him removed at that time, and he was deported to El Salvador two months later, according to federal officials. He entered the country illegally again later. He was detained at Delaney Hall pending removal from the United States.
At least 53 people have died in immigration detention centers since Mr. Trump took office last year, according to a New York Times analysis of news releases from the federal government.
Delaney Hall has been a persistent target of criticism from protesters and Democratic lawmakers since it reopened last year as part of Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Detainees have long complained of inhumane living conditions there, and demonstrators have responded by gathering at the center’s front gates, where clashes with federal agents have at times turned violent.
Public records reviewed by The Times have validated some of the complaints made by detainees. The documents showed that inspectors had found food-preparation surfaces that had been left unsanitized. Workers had touched open garbage containers as they made meals and had not kept food at temperatures necessary to kill harmful contaminants.
The State Health Department received a complaint in May from a physician about a detainee with an active case of tuberculosis. The physician said that an employee at University Hospital in Newark had told her that the detainee was brought there and taken back to Delaney with no follow-up plan to contain the infection.
If the state finds evidence of civil rights violations at Delaney, Ms. Davenport said, the attorney general’s office will pursue “civil enforcement action” as a means to enforce local laws.
The federal government has refused to comply with other efforts by the Sherrill administration to modify the behavior of federal immigration officials in New Jersey.
In June, New Jersey sued Geo Group after state health officials were denied access to the medical unit at Delaney and several other areas of the center during an inspection. That litigation, which remains unresolved, is seeking to force the company to grant inspectors full access.
The Justice Department has also sued Ms. Sherrill and Ms. Davenport to halt implementation of a law that would bar all law enforcement officers in the state, including ICE agents, from wearing masks that shield their identity. The Trump administration has argued that a constitutional doctrine known as the supremacy clause makes federal officials immune from state prosecution when they are reasonably acting in their official capacity.
A federal judge this week blocked a similar mask ban in New York State.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
6) New York City Dismisses Haitian Workers After Loss of Protected Status
Officials said that dozens of Haitian workers for the city would lose their jobs, but warned that the number could easily reach the hundreds.
By Emma Goldberg, Published Aug. 7, 2026, Updated Aug. 8, 2026
City officials said dozens of city workers were affected, but that number could rise to the hundreds. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
New York City is terminating the employment of Haitian city workers who have lost Temporary Protected Status, after a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for President Trump to end humanitarian protections for Haitian immigrants, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Friday.
City officials said at least dozens of city workers were affected, but that number could rise to the hundreds. Under the Temporary Protected Status program, more than 350,000 people from Haiti and Syria were allowed to live and work across the United States while their home countries faced humanitarian disasters. Mr. Trump has been working to end the program, as part of his administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigrant communities.
The work permits of Haitians with Temporary Protected Status expired on July 24, and the mayor said the city had little choice but to comply with federal law. “The City of New York was forced by federal law, as recently decided by the Supreme Court, to review the work authorization of Haitian T.P.S. holders,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Mamdani has tended to avoid directly antagonizing Mr. Trump, with whom he has had a surprisingly warm relationship. But after announcing the cuts, he took aim at the president.
“Only President Trump has the power to restore T.P.S.,” Mr. Mamdani said. “The president should exercise his authority to benefit all New Yorkers and protect our economy.”
The end of T.P.S. protections brought fear and grief to corners of the city with large Haitian populations. Haitian immigrants and people of Haitian descent form a large and politically vocal New York City community; at well over 250,000 people, the population has grown since large numbers of immigrants from Haiti started coming to the city in the 1960s. Many Haitian immigrants in New York have fled earthquakes, violence and political instability. In his statement on Friday, Mr. Mamdani noted that they have contributed to the city’s industries, including health care, construction and hospitality.
During his mayoral campaign, Mr. Mamdani worked to build relationships with this community, doing a video tour around Little Haiti after accepting the endorsement of Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who represents Flatbush and Midwood.
In his statement, Mr. Mamdani said that every worker whose job is being cut would receive support to assess their options, including preserving the possibility to reinstate their employment if they obtain a new work authorization. Other resources available to those workers include free legal consultations and help navigating health insurance.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
7) Costco, Kayaks and Netflix: Medicare Advantage’s Perks Get Scrutiny
Officials said no to health plans that wanted to expand extra benefits to cover medical marijuana, streaming services and shopping clubs. More changes are coming in 2027.
By Susan Jaffe, Aug. 8, 2026
Kyle Ellingson
Every three months, John Holland’s health insurance plan reloads a debit card with $50 to buy toothpaste, Band-Aids and sunscreen, among other items.
The plan also deposits $300 a year into his online “wellness wallet,” which he can use toward the purchase of acupuncture treatments, Weight Watchers classes and sporting goods such as exercise equipment, pickleball paddles — even a kayak or canoe.
Mr. Holland, who lives in Gorham, Maine, prefers going to the gym, which his plan, from the health care nonprofit Martin’s Point, pays for. “They’re trying to keep you healthy, keep you moving,” he said.
Mr. Holland, 78, is one of nearly 35.5 million people who have chosen Medicare Advantage, the plans sold by commercial health insurers, over the traditional government-run Medicare program, which provides health insurance to adults who are 65 and older or disabled.
But since the first Trump administration gave insurers huge leeway in 2019 to offer extra benefits not covered by traditional Medicare, officials have signaled things have gone a little too far. They are fine-tuning some restrictions.
“C.M.S. guidelines were very broad in the beginning,” said David Lipschutz, co-director the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “As plans get more creative and try to entice enrollees with new benefits, C.M.S. is making judgment calls about what complies with the law.”
The federal government pays the commercial insurers a set monthly amount for each member to cover everything Medicare does, and a host of extras. The plans will receive nearly $615 billion this year, or about $76 billion more than the government pays to care for similar patients in traditional Medicare, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a nonpartisan independent group created by Congress.
That includes an average of $2,660 per member this year — a record high — for benefits not available from traditional Medicare, such as dental, vision and hearing coverage, as well as transportation, groceries, bathroom grab bars and caregiver support.
Dental, vision and hearing care plus gym memberships were and remain standard fare but in 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cleared the way for more benefits intended to prevent or reduce illness. A year later, Congress allowed plans to offer a new assortment of extra benefits that did not have to be primarily related to health care.
Then C.M.S. gave Advantage plans “broad discretion” to offer a new category, called Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill, that have “a reasonable expectation of improving or maintaining health.” These can include reducing premiums and other out-of-pocket expenses.
Mr. Lipschutz and other patient advocates argue that the freebies are simply enticements meant to attract customers, but Martin’s Point chief marketing and sales officer, Steve Amendo, disagrees.
“The things that are included in our wellness wallet are meant to keep our members healthy, active and socialized,” he said.
These extra benefits must support people’s health, but the plans don’t have to tell the government if their members use the benefits and what they cost.
Lately, the C.M.S. administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and other Trump administration officials have been targeting wasteful government spending in health programs. They’ve imposed a moratorium on accepting new hospice providers into Medicare and cracked down on bogus claims for procedures requiring expensive skin substitutes. And they’re taking a closer look at some of Advantage plans’ extra benefits.
“I don’t want you buying kayaks with that money — it’s the American taxpayer that subsidized this process and got it going,” he told a conference at the Aspen Institute in October. “So let’s be thoughtful about how the money is spent.”
Dr. Oz has also questioned payments for other items. Ensuring a water filter in the member’s house is important, he told a conference last fall of the Better Medicare Alliance, an industry group, “but it also might be you’re better off just making sure they can afford their medications so you buy down the premiums.”
For 2026 C.M.S. rejected requests from insurers that wanted to cover medical marijuana because like other cannabis-based products, it is illegal under federal law. Shopping club memberships like Costco are also off-limits because they can include streaming services like Netflix and travel discounts that don’t fit the criteria for “improving or maintaining health.”
More changes are coming in 2027 from C.M.S. as well as from some insurers, which are expected to scale back benefits to save money. Next year’s plan offerings will be unveiled in the fall.
Dr. Oz and other C.M.S. officials declined to be interviewed.
In Tucson, 68-year-old Lorinda Destrini appreciates the $130 a month her SCAN Medicare Advantage plan gives her on a debit card to buy over-the-counter pharmacy items and healthy foods.
“A lot of people nowadays have a hard time buying groceries,” Ms. Destrini said. She also uses her plan’s free rides to medical appointments.
Because Ms. Destrini has heart disease, she qualifies for the chronic illness benefits. These include home-delivered meals after a hospital stay, air-conditioners for asthma sufferers, pest control, rides to medical or social appointments, pet supplies, home modifications and help paying for utility bills, internet, rent and healthy groceries — just to name a few.
A confusing maze
The result is a maze of benefits for different groups of people with various eligibility restrictions and monetary value from different in-network providers. Purchasing methods also vary, with some plans limiting purchases of different items to an amount loaded onto a debit or “flex” card that can be used for online orders from a retail website, the plan’s exclusive website, or in-person shopping at certain stores.
The debit card amounts fluctuate widely even within Advantage plans from the same insurer. For example, this year UnitedHealthcare Advantage members with certain chronic diseases can get $407 per month in some Virginia counties, but only $35 in some New York counties. Members who don’t have a chronic illness and don’t qualify for Medicaid — the government health insurance program for low-income families — receive $25 every three months in some Oklahoma counties but $250 in some Tennessee counties.
“The most common purchases are exactly what you’d expect: fresh and frozen meats, milk, bananas, toothpaste, and vitamins, the everyday essentials that support health and well-being,” Bobby Hunter, chief operating officer of UnitedHealthcare Government Programs, said in a statement. A for-profit insurer, UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage provider, with nearly eight million members.
But the plethora of benefits with different strings attached can be frustrating, said Stephanie Fajuri, program director for the Center for Health Care Rights in Los Angeles. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some people signed up for plans thinking they were going to get certain supplemental benefits, only to later learn that they don’t qualify,” she said. The center is one of the 2,220 sites across the country that are part of the federally funded State Health Insurance Assistance Program, which offers free help navigating Medicare.
“It’s as clear as mud,” she said.
Medicare’s online plan finder at Medicare.gov helps beneficiaries narrow down their options. But it still omits some information.
“The only way to get the really nitty-gritty details about the added benefits is to contact the plans directly,” said Christina Reeg, director of Ohio’s Senior Health Insurance Information Program at the Ohio Department of Insurance. The number of plans varies by county, she added. Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, has 73 this year.
In addition to the challenges of finding which plans offer which extra benefits, C.M.S. has acknowledged problems with using one debit card to pay for different kinds of benefits such as groceries and pharmacy items. Combining benefits “can create confusion as enrollees may not realize that using the card for one benefit means foregoing another,” Medicare officials wrote in a preamble to rules that will take effect Jan. 1.
Under the new regulations, plans will be required to post eligibility criteria for each benefit for chronically ill members. They must also provide instructions for using debit cards and ensure verification at the point of sale so that the debit cards pay only for covered items.
UnitedHealthcare’s “UCare” debit card is already programmed so it won’t pay for things it shouldn’t — like chocolate cake and other prohibited items, Mr. Hunter said.
To clear up some confusion about this year’s cannabis ban, CMS officials added an explanation for 2027: Advantage plans cannot cover cannabis products that are illegal under federal law, including medical marijuana and some forms of CBD, regardless of what state law allows, said Deborah Steinberg, senior health policy attorney at the Legal Action Center.
Where is the money going?
A Biden-era change that was supposed to take effect this year was delayed and then rescinded by the Trump administration. It would have required plans to notify beneficiaries every July about which extra supplemental benefits they haven’t used. Insurers had argued that one month was not enough time to mail an individualized lengthy document to millions of members without incurring excessive costs.
Information about which Advantage extra benefits are used is also essential to determine whether the federal tax dollars paid to Advantage plans are a good investment, said Gretchen Jacobson, vice president for Medicare at the Commonwealth Fund.
It’s no secret how much insurers receive to provide these benefits, but C.M.S. does not require plans to disclose how much money they spend and how much they keep. “There’s a lot of money going towards supplemental benefits, but we do not know if they’re the benefits that people truly want and the extent to which they’re actually being used,” Ms. Jacobson said.
This money would be enough to pay for a package of dental, vision, hearing and other extra benefits for all Medicare beneficiaries, according to a 2024 analysis Ms. Jacobson and her colleagues published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
That sounds like a good idea to Ms. Destrini, in Tucson. “I think it should be across the board for all seniors,” she said.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
