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We Support Dockworkers Blocking Weapons on October 30, 2026
Unions representing workers at 40 ports in Europe and the Mediterranean are calling for an international day of action on October 30. Read more here. |
| World Federation of Trade Unions |
We Support Dockworkers Blocking Weapons on October 30, 2026
Unions representing workers at 40 ports in Europe and the Mediterranean are calling for an international day of action on October 30. Read more here.
Statement from the World Federation of Trade Unions:
Ports For Peace – Jobs With Dignity
Following the Third International Meeting of Mediterranean and European Dockworkers’ and Port Workers’ Unions, held in Istanbul in May 2026, the participating unions have launched a common international day of action on 30 October 2026.
The meeting focused on the struggle against wars, genocide and military aggression, while also addressing the challenges facing dockworkers and port workers, including wages, working conditions, automation projects, and occupational health and safety.
The participating organizations, CGT Ports and Docks (France), ENEDEP (Greece), LAB (Basque Country), Liman-İş (Turkey), ODT (Morocco), and USB (Italy), representing workers in more than 40 Mediterranean and European ports, are calling on dockworkers and port workers to mobilize together on 30 October 2026.
This mobilization is based on the Istanbul Declaration, adopted unanimously by the participating organizations and now fully endorsed by ORSA Porti of Gioia Tauro (Italy), which has joined our international network.
The declaration sets out the following demands:
· An immediate end to the genocide of the Palestinian people and recognition of an independent Palestinian state, recognized by the international community, within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
· An end to the US-Israeli wars of aggression in the West Asia and against Iran, and full solidarity with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela and Sudan, alongside support for the right of all peoples to resist occupation and to self-determination.
· Ports must not be used for the transport of arms, ammunition, military equipment or troops destined for war zones.
· They must not become military bases for NATO, the United States or the European Union, nor serve as tools for shipowners and monopoly groups.
· No to the war economy, government rearmament plans, and the project of militarization of ports and strategic infrastructure from EU. Public resources must be used to meet people’s social needs, not to finance war.
· Collective agreements must guarantee real wage increases, secure employment, reduced working hours, and fair pension provisions.
· Technological progress, mechanization, automation and artificial intelligence must not be used to eliminate jobs or undermine workers’ rights. Dockworkers and port workers say NO to automation.
On October 30, all actions will be united as part of a common international struggle to stop wars, genocide and the militarization of ports at a very critical moment in history, while defending workers’ rights and better working conditions. Each union will decide the most appropriate form of mobilization according to its national circumstances, starting from strike action and from a shared commitment to prevent the loading of death and destruction.
The signatory trade unions of the Istanbul Declaration call on ALL dockworkers’ and port workers’ unions to join this international mobilization. We are ready to meet with organized groups of dockworkers and port workers from any other ports interested in becoming part of this common struggle.
CGT FNPD France – ENEDEP Greece – LAB Basque Country – LIMAN-IS Turkey – ODT Maroc – ORSA Porti Italy – USB Italy
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NOVEMBER 1-7
WEEK of GLOBAL RESISTANCE
to STOP U.S. IMPERIALISM & GENOCIDE
This year SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE (SDDW) Fall Actions will be a "Kick Off for A New Campaign": We want to help build a stronger network of global communities working in coordination to STOP U.S Imperialism & Genocide. Several other national organizations are already co-sponsors. (see below) This global call to action in the fall is only the beginning. We invite national and international organizations to sign on as sponsors/endorsers of the week and to plan simultaneous actions at U.S. Bases, Weapons Industries and AI Data Centers around the world. Organize actions for one day, or numerous days during or near the Week of Global Resistance. We recommend planning actions during weekday commute hours, if possible, when personnel are going into and out of military bases, weapons industry workplaces, AI Data Centers, etc. Educate, educate, educate and encourage resistance from within. Please spread the word: Help us get more sponsors & endorsers! More details to come soon.
"Week of Global Resistance" Co-sponsors: ShutDownDroneWarfare.org, BanKillerDrones.org, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, and Witness Against Empire.
Will your organization sponsor or endorse? Please contact: toby4peace@sonic.net
The above global call to action is part of SDDW Fall Action Week:
SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE! (SDDW)
ShutDownDroneWarfare.org
SDDW Fall Action Week:
NEW: Simultaneous Actions at both Creech AFB & Holloman AFB!
November 1-7, 2026
Nov.1-7, Creech AFB Fall Action, Indian Springs, NV
Nov. 4-6, Holloman AFB Fall Action, Alamogordo, NM
17 years of persistent resistance! Come for all or part of Fall Actions!
Shut Down Drone Warfare (SDDW) Campaign is Co-Sponsored by Veterans For Peace, Ban Killer Drones & CODEPINK
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To Iran’s Political Prisoners, trapped “Between Two Blades of a Scissors”
Open letter
August marks the anniversary of the 1988 mass executions in Iran, a horror that echoes in the country’s current surge in death sentences. It also marks the August 19 anniversary of the UK- and U.S.-orchestrated coup against the prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953. Amid the current, indiscriminate waves of U.S.-Israeli military assaults against Iran, this letter of solidarity denounces the repression of the Iranian people and their political prisoners by forces both at home and abroad.
To our fellow activists, students, thinkers, workers, artists, and other prisoners of conscience held behind the walls of all detention centers across Iran:
We write to you from a place of deep solidarity, our hearts heavy with the knowledge of the struggle you face within Iran’s prisons: the torture, the systematic neglect, the enforced silence, and the brutal reality of sham trials and executions. As former and current political prisoners, activists, and scholars committed to the global project of abolition, anti-authoritarianism and anti-imperialism, we see you across the distances of geography and the silence of censorship and internet blackouts. And we stand in solidarity with you, as you are at the intersection of two sources of oppression.
On one side, you face the Islamic Republic that, from its inception, enforced absolute social and political control based on an exclusionary ideology. It is a system that claims to counter imperial power while using its very logic of domination and systems of carcerality, torture and execution. On the other side, you face the aggression and violence of the very imperialist and Zionist forces the Islamic Republic purports to stand against. The U.S. and Israel instigate brutal wars, destroy civilian infrastructure, kill innocent schoolgirls, and treat you as collateral damage in their pursuit of regional dominance. We remember the horror of June 23, 2025, when Israel struck the Evin prison complex, flattening its hospital ward, transgender section, and visitor center. You best exposed this dual oppression when you voiced that you “feel stuck between the two blades of a scissors, the evil regime that imprisons and tortures [you] and a foreign force dropping bombs on [your] heads in the name of freedom.”
In the past year, we witnessed both blades of the scissor sharpen. We see the arbitrary arrests and the horrific wave of state executions. We see the deepening criminalization of the working class and unemployed, the targeting of Kurds, Arabs, and Baloch, and the scapegoating of Afghan migrants: all desperate attempts to kill the spirit of people they cannot contain. This is the logic of carceral states everywhere: when they fail to address the crises people face, they simply attempt to criminalize or disappear the people themselves.
We see the same logic of domination when Israel uses “administrative detention” to hold Palestinian political prisoners for years without charge. We see it when Israeli authorities celebrate a new law that allows them to execute the Palestinian political prisoners they cannot dominate. We see it in the ICE detention centers where the U.S. government imprisons our people in the pursuit of a political agenda of racist exclusion or detains our political activists for daring to speak against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide. We see it in the history of the U.S. targeting freedom fighters, particularly Black, Indigenous, Puerto Rican and other anticolonial organizers, locking them away for decades to crush movements for national liberation and sovereignty. And we see the connections between these carceral systems sharing intelligence and governance techniques, such as when the USP Marion prison in Illinois became a blueprint for prisons built in Iran and Israel in the 1960s. Whether it is a border wall or a prison gate, the goal is the same: to silence people through fear, domination, and isolation.
Your struggle is as global as our collective dreams of freedom and dignity. We stand with you, and we reject the false binary of imperialism and hollow anti-imperialism. We invite global civil society and anti-imperialist activists and organizations to extend their unconditional support and solidarity to all incarcerated kin fighting for our collective liberation, to build relationships with Iranian political prisoners and uplift their voices, to put pressure on the Islamic Republic by challenging its narrative, and to call upon that government to immediately stop all the executions and free all political prisoners.
The Iranian authorities must stop their inhumane practice of death and incarceration now. And the U.S. and Israel must end their barbaric wars and brutal sanctions that knowingly devastate our communities.
In solidarity and with love,
Alberto Toscano, emeritus professor of critical theory, Goldsmiths, *University of London
Angela Davis, former political prisoner, distinguished professor emerita, *University of California, Santa Cruz
Bernardine Dohrn, retired professor of law, *Northwestern University
Bill Ayers, professor, *College Unbound
Cherríe L Moraga, distinguished professor emerita, University of California, Santa Barbara, Chicana feminist writer, and activist
Dan Berger, professor of comparative ethnic studies, *University of Washington Bothell
Hossam el-Hamalawy, Egyptian socialist, scholar and former political prisoner
Jairus Banaji, historian, research professor, SOAS, *University of London
Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy, *University of Toronto
Judith Butler, distinguished professor in the Graduate School, *University of California, Berkeley
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, professor of African American studies, *Princeton University
Michael Löwy, emeritus research director of sociology at the* Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
Michael Mansfield, human rights and civil liberties Bbarrister
Mumia Abu-Jamal, current political prisoner, educator, journalist and activist
Ricardo Jiménez, social activist, former Puerto Rican political prisoner
Ruha Benjamin, professor of African American studies, *Princeton University
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Graduate Center, *CUNY
Walden F Bello, international adjunct professor of sociology, *State University of New York at Binghamton
Yasin al-Haj Saleh, Syrian writer, political dissident, and former political prisoner in Syria
* Organizations for identification purposes only
** Signatories are sorted alphabetically
—The Guardian, August 20, 2026
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2026/aug/20/iran-political-prisoners
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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.
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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 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 *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
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. Alter 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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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) From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle.
It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in its effort to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.
By Nick Corasaniti, Sept. 24, 2026
Despite its claims, the Trump administration has not yet offered evidence of a single instance of a noncitizen on Nevada’s voter rolls. Above, people cast their votes in Las Vegas in 2024.Credit...Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
When the Department of Homeland Security sent Nevada a list of 185 names last month that it claimed identified noncitizens who had been improperly allowed to register to vote, state election officials got to work.
On Tuesday, the state sent a strongly worded rebuke to the federal government: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen.
“As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens,” Greg D. Ott, a deputy attorney general in Nevada, wrote, according to a copy of a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security officials obtained through open records requests. “You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise.”
Mr. Ott also stated that D.H.S. officials had still not provided enough data for election officials to investigate their claims. Nor have they turned over the list of nearly 16,000 individuals they claim may be noncitizens.
“Our records do not support DHS’s claims, and DHS has still not provided evidence to change that,” Francisco Aguilar, the Democratic secretary of state in Nevada, said in a statement. “Instead, DHS officials continue their attempts to intimidate election officials into compliance and deter voters with huge claims of fraud with no evidence. Repeating unsupported claims does not make them true.
It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in a broad campaign to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting in American elections, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Nevada’s characterization was “false” and “the list of 185 were simply a subset of individuals that had gone through a rigorous manual review process” at the time of the last meeting between the two agencies.
The back and forth began in July, when President Trump and Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said they had identified more than 270,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in just four states: Nevada, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Both men stated the claims as fact, yet letters sent to election officials in the four states in the days that followed indicated that the numbers may have been inflated. Each letter qualified Mr. Trump’s concrete assertions with the phrase “there may be as many as.” None offered actual proof of noncitizens on voter rolls.
In Nevada’s case, Mr. Mullin initially claimed that there were as many as 15,903 noncitizens on the voter rolls. But in a meeting between Nevada election officials and the Department of Homeland Security last month, department leaders admitted that their initial claim was unsubstantiated. That prompted some pointed questions from Nevada election officials, according to a video recording of the virtual meeting.
“So what you’re saying is the 15,000 number has not been vetted?” asked C. Murphy Hebert, the chief deputy in the Nevada secretary of state’s office.
“I probably wouldn’t use the sentence, ‘It hasn’t been vetted,’” replied Kimberley Vogt, an official with Homeland Security. “Because definitely we’ve done something with it to get down to 15,000. So I wouldn’t say that. But it hasn’t had a full manual review of each one.”
Following the meeting, Ms. Vogt sent a clarifying email to Nevada officials. “I also wanted to be sure I clarified that we did not reduce the 15,903 to 185,” she wrote. “We’ve manually reviewed some of the 15,903 and confirmed 185 are not U.S. Citizens.”
Now, Nevada officials are saying even that 185 number is wrong. They also took issue with a letter D.H.S. sent them in early September, in which the agency reiterated its initial claims about nearly 16,000 noncitizens on the rolls and pressured state officials to review each case in a letter to Nevada officials in early September.
“Each one of the 15,903 individuals identified should be carefully reviewed by your state to determine eligibility for voting in a federal election,” read a letter from the Department of Homeland Security sent on September 9.
But Nevada election officials said in their letter that D.H.S. “has never provided Nevada with a list of 15,903 individuals.” Instead, they said, the department sent them a smaller batch of roughly 6,000 individuals, identified only by what Homeland Security called a voter case number.
“D.H.S. still has not provided any additional verifiable information for the individuals it suggests are noncitizens,” they wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the 6,218 individuals had “the highest number of matching attributes” to a potential noncitizen in their records, and that the smaller tranche of voters “was at the request of Nevada. They wanted to start with a subset less than the 15,903 registrants DHS originally identified.”
Nevada officials disputed that claim, and records reviewed by the Times did not show Nevada making that request.
Mr. Ott also said the use of so-called voter case numbers, which Nevada officials took to mean voter registration numbers, was imprecise.
Using only “voter case numbers” without any other information such as a name, date of birth, address, or another verifiable data point, could lead to the identification of multiple individuals, Mr. Ott said. This is because Nevada recently transitioned to a statewide voter-registration system that was previously run by counties. So an individual may have been assigned one number by a county in the past and a different number under the new statewide system.
“The number also doesn’t tell us whether an individual was born in the United States, naturalized, derived citizenship through a parent, or holds any particular immigration status,” Mr. Ott wrote. “A number that matches a voter record thus establishes only that a number exists in, or once existed in, a voter registration system.”
Mr. Trump’s demand for evidence of fraud has prompted multiple governmental efforts. The New York Times this month reported that hundreds of agents with Homeland Security had been temporarily pulled from their duties investigating international crimes and terrorism for a roughly three-week intensive search noncitizens on voter rolls. The methodology was criticized by Democrats as faulty and potentially illegal, and the Virginia attorney general wrote a letter demanding more information.
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2) Unused Tents and Uneaten Food: Watchdog Finds ‘Waste’ in Immigration Crackdown
In a report Thursday, the Government Accountability Office said the Trump administration squandered millions of dollars to expand detention.
By Eileen Sullivan, Sept. 24, 2026
The Trump administration wasted millions of dollars in its swift effort to drastically expand immigration detention, including nearly $3 million on tents to house migrants at Guantánamo Bay that were never used, according to a review by the Government Accountability Office released on Thursday.
The camp in Cuba, planned near the prison that held suspected terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, was built to hold 5,000 detainees. As of June, the average daily population of detainees there was 16, G.A.O. said.
The administration also spent $20.5 million on administrative costs and utilities on the seven warehouses the government purchased in haste and later decided to sell. And it squandered $7.1 million for food it did not need at one of its new detention camps in Texas, the review found.
Neither ICE nor the Homeland Security Department responded to a request for comment.
The report is the latest indictment of the spending spree by federal officials to follow through on President Trump’s pledge to detain and deport record numbers of immigrants. Officials have poured billions of dollars into hiring immigration enforcement officers, purchasing unused warehouses to convert into detention centers and expanding other enforcement operations.
As a result, immigrant arrests have reached record levels and illegal border crossings have come to a halt. The spending blitz has also drawn scrutiny from critics and watchdogs.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched six major expansion efforts without a strategic plan in place and has since scaled back four of them, the G.A.O. said. As of July of this year, ICE spent more than $2.5 billion on warehouses and other facilities to house detainees but did not assess the long term costs, the congressional watchdog said.
In its report, the G.A.O. recommended that ICE develop a broad strategic plan to advise its detention expansion efforts with stated goals and budgets. ICE concurred.
The report included several costly, high-profile efforts by the Trump administration to expand detention that were ultimately scrapped that G.A.O. considered wasteful.
In one of its earliest efforts, the Trump administration planned to house 30,000 immigration detainees on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The Defense Department spent $2.85 million to build tents to house 5,000 migrants, but the shelters did not meet federal detention standards and as a result were never used. Ultimately, the plan was scrapped. As of June, the average daily population of detainees there was 16.
ICE also partnered with the Defense Department to use military camps to house detainees, including one on an Army base in El Paso, Texas, called Camp East Montana. The government wasted $11.5 million on detainee services over a two-week period when the facility was empty. The camp was built to hold 5,000 detainees, but had about 1,600 as of February of this year. Between October and March, ICE spent $7.1 million on meals it did not need.
After purchasing 11 warehouses for $1 billion to hold detainees, ICE decided to sell seven of them. To break even, the government must sell the seven warehouses for exactly what it paid for them: $707 million. And in the process of purchasing the seven warehouses it no longer wants, ICE spent $7.7 million in sunk costs for zoning assessments and title insurance as well as $12.8 million on utilities and security for the buildings even though they are not in use.
To add even more detention space, ICE housed migrants at a now-shuttered Florida facility called Alligator Alcatraz. ICE typically enters into formal agreements with state and local agencies to house detainees. But that was not the case for the Florida detention center, and the Department of Homeland Security reimbursed the state through a grant that includes payments of $249 for each detainee bed, which is nearly three times more than what ICE has been paying on average this year.
“Remember when Donald Trump promised to get rid of ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ in Washington? Well, G.A.O. now has exposed a shocking pattern of waste within the administration’s unconscionable mass deportation campaign,” Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in a statement on Thursday. Mr. Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and two other Democratic senators asked the G.A.O. to investigate the costs of the detention expansion efforts.
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3) A Quiet ICE Surge That Unfolded ‘Everywhere All at Once’ This Summer
A review of dozens of incidents caught on camera sheds new light on a largely invisible crackdown.
By Jazmine Ulloa, Miriam Jordan, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and David Ovalle, Sept. 25, 2026
The reporters reviewed more than 50 incidents and interviewed more than two dozen lawyers, business owners, residents and detained immigrants and their family members for this story.
The most effective escalation of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign happened quietly.
Unlike earlier high-profile raids that drew thousands of protesters into the streets of Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, the surge in arrests in June, July and August was captured mostly by grainy security camera footage, through cracked blinds and from behind closed doors.
Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this summer soared to record highs since the start of this Trump administration — with 43,000 in June, more than 49,000 in July and nearly 51,000 in August — as officials cut or narrowed the pathways to legal residency in the United States and expanded the pool of people eligible for deportation.
Federal agents appeared in nearly every corner of daily life, carrying out operations at hospitals and airports, outside suburban schools and along rural construction sites and truck stops. They fanned out from coastal cities in Maine to desert towns in Arizona, across the open plains of Wyoming and down through the southern borderlands.
In Republican-led states like Texas and Florida, where the swell was strongest, they amplified their reach through partnerships with sheriffs and state highway patrol officers. In Democratic strongholds, they intensified their activities despite laws meant to restrict them.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the local partnerships, an infusion of federal dollars and new technology had made the dragnet so decentralized that it had attracted less attention.
“This gradual rise everywhere all at once, through a lot of means, is enabling the operation to fly under the radar,” he said.
The spike in arrests, to little public backlash, reflects a turning point in the Trump administration’s efforts to carry out large-scale expulsions of noncitizens. Those arrested were accused of violating civil immigration laws, but most had not been charged with or convicted of a crime. In a statement, ICE defended the expansion of immigration enforcement.
“This is promises made and promises kept in action,” the statement read. “The results speak for themselves.”
To understand how the operations have unfolded around the country, The New York Times reviewed arrest videos, photographs and court records from more than 50 incidents. What follows is a sampling of those interactions.
A Presence in Routine Places
Federal agents appeared as people carried out their everyday routines. People were detained en route to a soccer match. Leaving Sunday Mass. Having a drink at a nightclub. At national forests and outside polling locations.
Roger Hansen, 83, owner of the Little Big Load Laundromat in Madison, Wis., said federal immigration agents took five people from two of his locations in June. Statewide sweeps the same day resulted in the arrests of roughly 40 people, many of whom Department of Homeland Security officials said had criminal charges for sexual assault, driving while intoxicated and other crimes.
Security footage from one of Mr. Hansen’s laundromats shows two agents slamming a young customer to the ground near a soap dispenser. All the while, people continue to do laundry.
Outside, bystanders recorded the man being walked out in handcuffs and loaded into an S.U.V. with dark-tinted windows.
Mr. Hansen said he was disturbed by the violence. “They were having a heyday beating up on a kid,” he said, adding that business had dropped roughly 50 percent the next day and had not recovered. He said he believed many of his Latino and immigrant clientele may be too afraid to return.
In a statement, ICE said the arrests at the laundromat had been part of “targeted operations” in Wisconsin at the end of June. The five people from Nicaragua and Mexico were in the country illegally, ICE said. The agency did not respond to a question about their criminal records.
On July 7 in Salt Lake City, Elizabeth Garcia recorded three ICE agents forcing their way into her home without showing a warrant after following her father, Raul Moreno Meza, 52, from a gas station.
In the video, agents handcuff Mr. Moreno and his 15-year-old son, a U.S. citizen. Ms. Garcia howls and pleads as agents carry her father outside to their vehicles. Her 2-year-old can be heard crying in the background.
Before departing, an agent removed the shackles from Mr. Moreno’s son, who chased the S.U.V.s as they drove away. Mr. Moreno was later released on a bond, his daughter said, but her brother has become withdrawn and is attending therapy.
“He had lots of goals and intentions,” she said. “Now he is so negative.”
In a statement, ICE said officers arrested Mr. Moreno after he did not yield to officers at a traffic stop and then fled on foot. The agency alleged in the statement that “a juvenile occupant of Moreno’s vehicle” had assaulted an officer and was “detained in handcuffs for safety.”
Mr. Moreno, an undocumented Mexican man, crossed the border unlawfully about two decades ago, after his green card petition languished in delays and as his father, a naturalized U.S. citizen, fell ill, his family said. His father later died. Because Mr. Moreno’s green card petition was tied to his father’s citizenship, the application did not advance after the death, the family said.
All Corners of the Country
Immigration arrests climbed to near record highs in almost every state. Some of the sharpest percentage increases in daily arrests occurred in Oregon, Montana, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and New Jersey.
In June, the dragnet came to Harrison, N.J., where Asian and Hispanic residents account for about 65 percent of the population.
Tugrul Ozkarsli, 33, of Turkey, had just pulled up to his home with groceries when ICE agents in plain clothes boxed his vehicle in with their S.U.V.s, his wife, Kendra Ozkarsli, 46, said. He honked his horn and called her from his phone.
“All I hear is him screaming,” Ms. Ozkarsli recalled. She ran downstairs to find agents pulling him out of the vehicle.
“I’m married!” Mr. Ozkarsli yelled as agents handcuffed him.
“What are you doing? What are you doing?” Ms. Ozkarsli repeated, her hands shaking as she recorded with her phone. “This is my husband! Please stop!”
Mr. Ozkarsli had entered the United States legally on a business visa in December 2024. Before it expired, he applied for a student visa, which is still pending, Ms. Ozkarsli said. ICE said the pending application did not give him legal status.
The agency also said he had been arrested on burglary charges in New York last year. Ms. Ozkarsli said he was arrested after he entered the apartment of a woman he was dating at the time to retrieve his wallet and passport, prompting the woman to call the police. The charges were ultimately sealed and dismissed, she said.
Mr. Ozkarsli and Ms. Ozkarsli had married this summer, and he had been preparing to apply for a green card, she said.
From Roads to Airports
Traffic stops were central to the summer surge. Some were deadly. In Houston and Biddeford, Maine, traffic stops ended in fatal shootings involving officers. An encounter between people in a vehicle and agents at a Florida gas station resulted in a fatal car crash.
In Milwaukee, Frankely Quezada, 34, and Estenderly Marte Polanco, 31, of the Dominican Republic, were running errands with their 7-year-old son on a Saturday morning in June. Near home, Mr. Quezada said, he noticed an unmarked S.U.V. trailing his van. He turned into an alley and accelerated.
The vehicle behind him flashed its lights, and as Mr. Quezada crossed the street, more S.U.V.s emerged to box him in. Federal agents jumped out, and one of them pointed a yellow stun gun at him and shattered his window, Mr. Quezada recalled. From a balcony, a neighbor filmed officers dragging Ms. Polanco out as her son cried.
Mr. Quezada, who was not arrested, said Ms. Polanco bit a federal agent as they drove her away after he shoved her face into her lap so forcefully she believed she would suffocate. Ms. Polanco, who overstayed a visa and has no other criminal record, remains held without bond in Kansas.
In response to questions about Ms. Polanco’s arrest, ICE said in a statement that both Mr. Quezada and Ms. Polanco had been combative and refused to obey commands and that Ms. Polanco would remain in custody as her case moves through immigration proceedings.
ICE also stepped up its arrests of foreign citizens at airports in July, in encounters that could be more surreptitious. Footage recorded by an airline manager on July 13 captured two ICE officers in plain clothes approaching a gate agent at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport before a flight to Portland, Ore. They identified themselves only as federal officers and instructed the employee to page a passenger.
Flanking the woman, the men discreetly took her into custody, according to the manager, who asked not to be identified, citing concerns for her job. The worker followed them, recording as they escorted the passenger through the concourse, one of them wheeling her luggage.
In the parking lot, the woman was handcuffed and put into an unmarked vehicle.
ICE agents told the manager that the woman was being detained because she had overstayed her visa. U.S. authorities did not share her name with The Times or provide information about her whereabouts.
No More Protected Areas
During the summer surge, displays of force were routine inside some courthouses, and federal agents have increasingly been spotted at and near hospitals and schools.
ICE acknowledged operating in courthouses but said officers did not target schools.
“Nothing in the Constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them,” the agency said in a statement. “The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense. It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be.”
On the morning of Aug. 20, Grace Calero, 39, and her daughter, Giulianna Carriel, 19, were rushed to a hospital after a car crash south of Orlando, Fla. As medical staff treated them for injuries, a federal agent entered the emergency ward and began questioning Grace’s sister, Gia Calero, about the women’s immigration status, the sister said.
He remained in the room, joking with nurses.
It wasn’t until hours later, after Grace’s neck brace was removed, that the officer announced he was with ICE, Gia said. In the dramatic scene, captured by Gia on her cellphone, five deputies with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrived. They handcuffed Grace as Giulianna wailed on a bed, clinging to her mother and begging them not to take her.
“They didn’t even let them recover,” Gia Calero said.
In statements, ICE and Polk County sheriff’s officials said the women had overstayed their visas. Gia said her sister and niece had pending asylum claims, stemming from attempted kidnappings in Ecuador. The two have since been deported to their native country.
Caroline Kim contributed video editing and production. Kitty Bennett contributed research.
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4) Iran Proposes 7-Day Plan to End War
Under the offer, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen and nuclear talks would be revived.
By Farnaz Fassihi and Pranav Baskar, Reporting from New York, Published Sept. 24, 2026, Updated Sept. 25, 2026
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, at the General Assembly on Wednesday. Mike Segar/Reuters
Iran’s foreign minister said Thursday that Tehran had proposed to Washington a seven-day plan to cease hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and then begin comprehensive talks on his country’s nuclear program.
Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, told reporters at a press briefing at the United Nations General Assembly that the proposal closely mirrored the commitments laid out in a so-called memorandum of understanding that was struck between the United States and Iran in June but quickly unraveled.
He said Iran was ready to begin putting the plan into effect as soon as Washington agreed to it.
“We have introduced a plan to the United States through the intermediators that if certain conditions are met, the Strait of Hormuz would be open on the end of the seventh day and talks would restart,” Mr. Araghchi said.
He said “it would be better,” if a deal was reached before the U.S. midterm elections.
An American official familiar with the talks said that the administration was having positive and constructive discussions through mediators, but that the United States was not going to rush into a deal.
The Iranian proposal came even as President Trump and Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, delivered hostile speeches at the United Nations. Mr. Trump threatened Iran with “annihilation” if it did not strike a deal, while a defiant Mr. Pezeshkian told world leaders his country would not be bullied.
Though Iran’s proposal contains many of the same conditions of the deal that fell apart, the behind-the-scenes diplomacy suggested that both sides may see much to gain from finding an off-ramp from the war.
Iranian officials said that while the proposal was effectively the same as the memorandum of understanding made in June, it was designed to move at a much faster pace. In the earlier agreement, a 60-day time frame was set for reaching nuclear negotiations.
Under the conditions that Iran has set for the agreement, according to Mr. Araghchi, during the seven days all hostilities would end, including in Lebanon; the U.S. would release Iran’s frozen assets — estimated at at least $12 billion — waive sanctions on Iranian oil and lift the naval blockade on Iran. Then, on the last day, the Strait of Hormuz would be opened.
In the afternoon, Bahrain led 80 nations in condemning Iran’s attacks in the strait and the Houthis for their actions in Yemen and attacks in Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea, and they called for the immediate reopening of the strait without tolls.
After the seven days, Mr. Aragchi said, comprehensive negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program would immediately begin. Mr. Trump has said that his top goal is for Iran not to have a nuclear weapon, and that he would either achieve that through a diplomatic deal or with more attacks.
The United States and Iran have been at war for nearly seven months. It began in late February when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and military chain of command. Mr. Trump initially said the war would take only a few weeks.
The war has had widespread global repercussions including on oil, energy and food prices.
The Iranian proposal came as U.S. negotiators have tried to jump start diplomacy with Iran on its nuclear program through talks on the sidelines of the United Nations assembly. The U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said a three-hour meeting, mediated by Qatar, between U.S. and Iranian officials did not end in a breakthrough.
Mr. Araghchi, who will be in New York until next Monday, met on Tuesday with the U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, a son-in-law of Mr. Trump’s. It was mediated by Qataris passing messages between the two sides, and Mr. Araghchi described it as “productive” and said the messaging continued.
Ismaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry who is also in New York, said that it was possible that there would be more mediated meetings in the coming days.
Iran’s economy is under serious strain, and Iranians are suffering from skyrocketing inflation on basic food items, a shortage of medicine and disruptions to commerce.
Analysts said that Mr. Trump would have to weigh the benefits of reaching a deal with Iran before the midterms against keeping a chokehold on its economy in the hope of getting more concessions from Tehran.
“This is a smart move,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group. “They know it’s very tempting for President Trump because it ends an unpopular war and brings down energy prices in the run-up the midterms. But it also restores a deal that was largely favorable to the Iranians. A compressed timeline to get to the nuclear issue should be appealing to an impatient president.”
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5) U.S. Rejects U.N. Declaration on Preparing for Future Pandemics
Most member nations spoke in support of the declaration, but some rich countries had strong objections.
By Apoorva Mandavilli, Sept. 25, 2026
“Last year, after several rounds of failed negotiations, member nations of the W.H.O. — which no longer includes the United States — agreed to the text of a pandemic treaty that would allow for a more coordinated and equitable response to global outbreaks. But that treaty cannot be ratified and become international law until the countries can agree to the most contentious section, called Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing. That agreement would require countries to swiftly share genetic sequences and samples of emerging pathogens, allowing for rapid development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and treatments. Low-income nations want to be compensated for the information with quick and equitable access to the new tools, but higher-income nations have said they worry such arrangements would hinder progress in fast-moving crises and jeopardize intellectual property rights.”
The United States and the European Union on Friday rejected a declaration by member countries of the United Nations that pledged international collaboration and solidarity in preparing for and responding to pandemics.
The declaration, the product of a high-level U.N. meeting on pandemic preparedness, is largely ceremonial. It is not legally binding, and does not set rules for what countries should do during pandemics. But its universal endorsement would have signaled a powerful expression of global political commitment to the issue.
Its rejection by some of the wealthiest countries sharpened the divide that became apparent during the coronavirus pandemic, when low-income nations lagged richer countries by more than a year in being able to provide vaccines to citizens.
The declaration will now be considered at a future meeting of the General Assembly, where it is still likely to garner enough votes to be adopted.
The reasons for the disagreements varied. The European Union said the document crossed “red lines” on intellectual property protections, and that “technology transfer must be voluntary and on mutually agreed terms.”
The Trump administration’s objections were more along ideological lines. Representing the United States at the session, Dr. Erica Schwartz, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that despite some meaningful revisions, the document included “divisive ideologies that lack definitional consensus,” adding that “the United States is not in a position to support this text in full.”
She did not clarify what those ideologies were, but in an early draft viewed by The New York Times, the United States asked to delete mentions of equity, solidarity and universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services. U.S. officials suggested edits throughout the process that would have made the Trump administration more comfortable with the language, according to one official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Since President Trump’s second inauguration last year, the United States has refused to sign onto a number of public health declarations. At a U.N. meeting last year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered the message that the United States would not sign a political declaration on chronic diseases and mental health, saying that the U.N. was exceeding its “proper role” and that it promoted abortion and “radical gender ideology.” Earlier this year, the United States was the lone vote against a global commitment to reduce traffic accidents, saying road safety was being used “as a backdoor vehicle to enforce global climate pacts.”
Representatives of some countries like India and Germany also voiced qualms about the declaration’s text, but did not go so far as to reject it. Like the United States, Italy explicitly rejected the document.
“It is disappointing that the high level meeting was not asked to endorse the political declaration which had been negotiated by member states,” said Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
“Agreeing to collaborate to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics should not be controversial,” she said.
Peter Maybarduk, the director of access to medicines for the advocacy group Public Citizen, said the administration’s stance was detrimental to the interests of Americans.
“Blocking stepped-up cooperation against pandemics is an obvious shortsighted, unforced error,” he said. “The White House loves to talk about making other countries do their fair share, but it’s missing a chance to help that happen here, just to serve a myopic ideology.”
Others were more sanguine. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said at a press briefing on Friday that it was “not a problem” for the declaration to be voted on and adopted at a future meeting. “It’s democracy in action,” he said.
Friday’s meeting came three years after the first major U.N. meeting on pandemic preparedness, when the lessons from Covid were still raw. The 2023 declaration, which the Biden administration supported, recognized “the need to tackle health inequities and inequalities, within and among countries.”
Last year, after several rounds of failed negotiations, member nations of the W.H.O. — which no longer includes the United States — agreed to the text of a pandemic treaty that would allow for a more coordinated and equitable response to global outbreaks. But that treaty cannot be ratified and become international law until the countries can agree to the most contentious section, called Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing.
That agreement would require countries to swiftly share genetic sequences and samples of emerging pathogens, allowing for rapid development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and treatments. Low-income nations want to be compensated for the information with quick and equitable access to the new tools, but higher-income nations have said they worry such arrangements would hinder progress in fast-moving crises and jeopardize intellectual property rights.
“A path must be found through the current impasse in negotiations,” Ms. Clark implored member nations in her opening remarks.
The administration’s rejection of the new U.N. declaration did not come as a surprise. Pandemic-related events during U.N. General Assembly sessions in New York this week were abuzz with rumors that U.S. officials would raise objections during Friday’s meeting. The only uncertainty seemed to be the timing and intensity of their disapproval.
All week, officials from member countries have been bemoaning what some called “Covid amnesia,” and shrinking global aid. Many cited as urgent concerns the very factors to which the United States objected.
“Climate change, land-use pressure, and the movement of people and animals are pushing pathogens across species barriers more and more frequently,” Justin Nsengiyumva, Rwanda’s prime minister, said at an event on Wednesday.
On Friday, representatives of countries, including Cape Verde and a union of 23 Caribbean nations, also noted climate disasters as a key vulnerability in their ability to cope with health emergencies. Dozens of other countries, including China, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Ghana and Russia, emphasized the need for equity and solidarity among nations.
Before Dr. Schwartz, the C.D.C. director, addressed the session, some speakers appeared to forestall previous criticisms from the Trump administration.
In his opening comments, Khalilur Rahman, the president of the General Assembly, said that to consider pandemic preparedness beyond the remit of the United Nations “would be a fallacy.”
“The charter and the United Nations were designed precisely to tackle global challenges for which no single isolated response can suffice,” Dr. Rahman, a Bangladeshi economist, said.
Last year, the Trump administration withdrew from the W.H.O. and rejected the International Health Regulations, which set detailed rules for countries to follow in the event of an outbreak that could breach borders. (The regulations prompted disclosure of the hantavirus outbreak in May, for example.)
In justifying that stance, Mr. Kennedy incorrectly said the I.H.R. would grant the W.H.O. the ability to “order global lockdowns,” and undermine U.S. sovereignty. Italy made similar comments when refusing to agree to the pandemic treaty, and in rejecting Friday’s declaration.
Dr. Tedros of the W.H.O. directly addressed that misunderstanding.
“The pandemic agreement and the I.H.R. do not — I repeat, do not — infringe on national sovereignty in any way,” he said. “On the contrary, they have been negotiated and adapted by sovereign states as an act of their sovereignty, because they recognize that pandemics do not respect borders.”
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6) ‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission
The agency has lost its independence and nearly a third of its staff, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and associates have tightened control.
By Apoorva Mandavilli, Sept. 26, 2026
A protest outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year after employees were laid off. Beyond staff reductions, the agency also faces a leadership vacuum. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
For decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was the undisputed global leader in public health. Its scientists helped train health officials worldwide. In the United States, it was the primary source of guidance for prevention and treatment of diseases, including diabetes, H.I.V. and the seasonal flu.
But after a year and a half in the cross hairs of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s drive to remake public health policy, the agency is a skeleton of the powerhouse it was.
The Trump administration’s widespread layoffs in early 2025 cut 18 percent of the C.D.C.’s staff. But new personnel data, compiled by a group of former federal scientists and reported here for the first time, indicate that the agency’s staff has dwindled far more, as large numbers of employees retired or resigned. As of May 2026, the C.D.C. had 30 percent fewer employees than it did before the layoffs, the data show.
Interviews with more than 30 current and former employees reveal the agency is now tightly controlled by Mr. Kennedy and his associates, and its scientists are finding it increasingly difficult to do their jobs effectively. (Some of them spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a fear of retaliation from the administration.)
The changes have hindered the C.D.C.’s ability to respond to outbreaks as measles spreads at home and Ebola abroad, and to issue timely guidance on vaccinations as cooling temperatures kick off the respiratory season, according to current and former employees. State and local health departments, which rely on the C.D.C. for resources and technical advice, have been stymied by delays. Entire divisions have been shuttered, including teams that worked on smoking, sexual violence, child abuse and falls among older adults.
Even some areas central to the Trump administration’s priorities have been gutted. Despite Mr. Kennedy’s focus on chronic diseases and autism, the C.D.C. centers that aim to prevent chronic diseases and birth defects are at half their previous size, according to the new data, compiled by the Public Data Observatory from the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the employee union.
The layoffs spared the agency’s infectious disease centers. But even so, the center for emerging and zoonotic diseases, which manages Ebola and hantavirus, among others, now has nearly 300 fewer employees than in March 2025, and the respiratory disease center has lost nearly 200 — about 17 percent in each case.
Beyond staff reductions, there is a leadership vacuum. Only one of the 11 center directors from March 2025 remains at the agency. Most of the other centers are being run by acting directors, some of whom were elevated from jobs one or two levels below.
“It’s a zombified C.D.C. where you have all the bits and pieces — like the body’s there, the substance is there, but it’s not acting like how an agency like that should act,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who led the respiratory disease center before he resigned in August 2025.
Despite a series of high-profile disease outbreaks, C.D.C. workers have had little contact with the World Health Organization, with members of Congress and even, for a time, with their partners in state and local health departments, some employees said. Statements to the media about health crises are also tightly controlled by H.H.S.
Even basic functions have broken down. Travel approvals take months; upkeep of bathrooms and vacuuming of offices have been disrupted, some current employees said.
One senior official said it felt as though the agency was being held together with bubble gum and duct tape, with employees running from crisis to crisis, and nothing working the way it is supposed to.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a series of questions about the C.D.C.’s work, staffing and independence. “C.D.C. continues to protect the health and safety of the American people and communicate clearly about the importance of vaccination,” the department said in an emailed statement.
But several former officials disagreed with that assessment, noting that the C.D.C. has offered little leadership or clear communication even as, in just a few months, the nation has grappled with record cases of measles, cyclosporiasis and rabies.
“Imagine losing a third of a city’s firefighters and then wondering why downtown is burning,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, who led the agency’s center for H.I.V. and sexually transmitted infections till April 2025, and is now the dean of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Political Interference
From the very first day of Mr. Trump’s second term, when he withdrew the country from the W.H.O., his administration has sought to upend the nation’s health policies and align them with his political priorities.
In past administrations, just two or three political appointees had purview over the C.D.C. Now, there are nearly 20 political appointees from H.H.S. who communicate with C.D.C. staff members, sometimes directing them to spend time and funding on dubious theories outside the agency’s scope, according to several officials.
Last year, an H.H.S. official directed the C.D.C. to award a no-bid contract — a rarity for the agency — to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to explore whether immunizing pregnant women would lead to autism in their children, a theory that Mr. Kennedy has espoused but that has been debunked by numerous studies. To pay for the research, the C.D.C. took $362,000 from a program that provides free vaccines to about half of American children.
In an email viewed by The New York Times, Stuart Burns, a political appointee, asked C.D.C. employees to pull together details of every measles case since 2010, including patients’ underlying medical conditions with diagnostic codes; that information is not collected routinely, they told him. Mr. Kennedy has falsely argued that measles only causes death in children who are already ill with other conditions.
Dr. William “Reyn” Archer III, another appointee who previously oversaw the C.D.C., repeatedly asked agency employees to work on screwworm, a disease that mostly affects cattle, even though the C.D.C.’s mission is to protect human health, said Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who headed the agency’s emerging disease center before resigning in August 2025. Dr. Archer did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Kennedy’s associates outside the administration have also been allowed direct access to senior C.D.C. staff members. Dr. Ben Edwards, a physician in Lubbock, Texas, who treated children while he was infected with measles and whom Mr. Kennedy had praised as an “extraordinary” healer, asked senior C.D.C. officials to look into cod liver oil as a treatment for measles, citing “historical references dating back to the 1700s,” in an email viewed by The Times.
“We just would have to run around constantly to be responsive to all of these strange asks,” recalled Dr. Daskalakis, the former head of the respiratory disease center.
Numerous other instances of political interference in the C.D.C.’s activities have already been reported. Most notably, Mr. Kennedy openly overruled the C.D.C.’s scientists in imposing strict quarantine measures for people exposed to hantavirus. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who led the agency for six months in the absence of a Senate-confirmed director, squashed publication of a study on the effectiveness of Covid vaccines.
Some observers had hoped the C.D.C.’s new director, Dr. Erica Schwartz, a physician who has pledged to “follow the science,” would provide a bulwark against political interference. But one month into the job, she has made no public statements about the importance of childhood vaccines or corrected misinformation from her boss, Mr. Kennedy. In one of her first big decisions, she ordered agency employees to challenge Pennsylvania’s announcement of two measles deaths, shunning standard procedure.
In its statement, H.H.S. said, “Dr. Schwartz and C.D.C.’s new leadership are evaluating the agency’s structure and operations to ensure C.D.C. can effectively advance the priorities of President Trump and Secretary Kennedy and fulfill its core public health mission.”
Delays and Dysfunction
Across the C.D.C., the employees who remain are backfilling roles left vacant.
“I’ve never seen such a plethora of acting roles in my life,” the agency’s new chief operating officer, Sean Slovenski, acknowledged to staff members at a meeting in June, a recording of which was obtained by The Times.
Many divisions are struggling to disburse money appropriated by Congress. In an email in May viewed by The Times, an official asked for volunteers from other offices to help the Division of Population Health, which had lost 88 percent of its staff, write notices of funding opportunities for diseases like lupus and epilepsy.
“We are overseeing millions of dollars in funded work, but how can we do this in a responsible way when we just don’t have enough people to really oversee the work well?” said one official at the agency’s chronic disease center.
The agency’s dysfunction is alarming public health experts even outside the country, who had long relied on the C.D.C.’s expertise during global crises. At a recent meeting of global flu experts, Dr. Jernigan said, “people truly believe that we are less prepared now and less capable of having a coordinated response than we were before the pandemic.”
By this time of year in 2024, the C.D.C. had published detailed recommendations for vaccines against respiratory diseases, with endorsements from the director at the time, Dr. Mandy Cohen, and notes from a meeting of its vaccine advisers.
But because of a federal court ruling, the C.D.C.’s vaccine advisers have not met since December, and the agency has not issued updated recommendations for the vaccines. Some employees at the agency wanted to post clear recommendations for flu vaccines, but did not want to get into a conflict with political appointees, Dr. Jernigan said.
After controversy erupted over the Covid vaccine study, Dr. Bhattacharya demoted the previous acting director of the respiratory disease center, Dr. Brandi Limbago, and replaced her with Rebecca Greco Koné, an operational leader who is not a scientist.
The lack of experienced staff members is also affecting one of the C.D.C.’s primary functions: helping state and local governments.
The C.D.C.’s public health infrastructure grant, which helps health departments train employees and build systems, was managed by 20 project officers but it now has just three. As a result, the team’s response time for requests from local departments has increased from less than a day to more than 10, and some requests have been missed entirely. One county health department requested help on Aug. 7 with submitting data for its annual report but as of Sept. 21, the request was unanswered.
“We’re seeing a movement away from clinical guidance, from data, and from working with states,” said Dr. Debra Houry, who was the agency’s chief medical officer before resigning in August 2025.
In all, more than 1,200 people retired between March 2025 and May 2026, nearly four times the number in the comparable period in 2023-24. About 270 people are still on administrative leave, being paid but not working, while a lawsuit challenging the layoffs makes its way through the courts.
Aaron Sussell, an epidemiologist in the agency’s office in Spokane, Wash., who studied the health of miners, was placed on administrative leave in April 2025. He and his colleagues were suddenly recalled to work in January with 24 hours’ notice but by then, some had moved out of state and others had taken jobs outside the government.
Dr. Sussell, who worked at the C.D.C. for 37 years, decided to retire at the end of February. He would normally have trained his replacement. Instead, he saw an ad for his job go up five months after he left, then get taken down. His position remains unfilled.
The agency’s global health center was approved to fill 18 critical positions. Officials posted ads, interviewed candidates and made job offers to some. But the offers expired before H.H.S. completed the next steps like background checks, so they had to start the interview process all over again, according to an official with knowledge of the situation.
By law, C.D.C. employees who were laid off have priority to be rehired, but some applicants were told they were ineligible for the very jobs they had previously held for years. In all, the agency hired 108 employees between March 2025 and May 2026, compared with more than 1,500 between March 2023 and May 2024.
The staffing totals do not always tell the full story. One C.D.C. branch that works on vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, has lost only seven of its 50 people. But they include the four most experienced scientists from the measles lab team, which is trying to analyze genetic material that will determine whether the United States can still claim to have eliminated measles. And funding cuts to other federal agencies have also affected the C.D.C.’s budget for fighting infectious diseases: The budget for a branch that tackles Ebola and other deadly diseases has dropped by 36 percent.
Some C.D.C. scientists are hesitant to sign up for the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo because they disagree with the administration’s focus on keeping infected people out of the country rather than on helping to contain the outbreak.
Others are too overburdened to help. About 100 C.D.C. staff members have been deployed to Congo to help with the outbreak, compared with about 2,000 who went to West African countries during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
“If you’re doing your job and your boss’s job who left, and you also have three staff people who left under you,” said Dr. Fiona Havers, who resigned from the C.D.C. in June 2025, “no one has the spare capacity to help out in something that’s not in their field.”
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7) The Four TV Shows That Heralded America’s Fall
By Stephen Marche, Sept. 26, 2026
Mr. Marche is the author, most recently, of “The Next Civil War” and the host of the podcast “Gloves Off.”
Photo illustration by Rebecca Chew/The New York Times
This week, The Times rolled out a list of the top 100 TV shows of the 21st century, as decided by a large group of television watchers and insiders. A few familiar shows, long anointed as part of the Mount Rushmore of prestige TV, topped the list: “Breaking Bad” at No. 1, “The Wire” at No. 2 and “Mad Men” at No. 3. (A fourth behemoth, “The Sopranos,” just missed being eligible, having debuted in 1999.)
Any list of great artworks presents a portrait of the era that produced them — in this case, the prestreaming era 20 years ago when cable channels like HBO and AMC ruled the dial and America felt like the world’s last remaining superpower. But what strikes me about these shows is not just how closely they echo their era but how presciently they envisioned the turmoil to come that would lead to the moment we’re in now.
“The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” besides being among the best shows the medium has ever produced, together served as a televisual Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Two hundred years from now, when people look to understand life in the United States in 2026 — a time of masked federal agents in the streets, presidential pardons for sale and gulag-style detention camps for immigrants — they’d be well advised to bypass whatever happens to be playing currently on TV. Despite these shows’ very different premises — one about the mafia, one about the drug trade in Baltimore, one about advertising on Madison Avenue in the 1960s and one about a chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin in New Mexico — all four contained clear warnings about where the country was headed, and their warnings have come true. Critics, at the time of their release, saw them, collectively, as prestige antihero television. We can now see they all had the same antihero at their core: America itself.
In 2008, “Breaking Bad” offered two separate portraits of American decline. The first was a portrayal of the financial crisis-era plight of the middle class. A good man with a decent job cannot afford even basic health care. The message: Don’t get unlucky in America. You’re on your own.
But the show shifted over its five seasons, subtly, slowly, into a portrait of a capitalist overlord run amok. The show was about meth in suburban America but now feels like an allegory about the material rise and spiritual decline of Silicon Valley. Like tech lords, Walter White sells an addictive product, produced by a proprietary formula, along global logistics networks, that generates a pile of cash so big the money is virtually meaningless. His accomplice Jesse asks him if he’s in the meth business or the money business, and the answer is neither: “I’m in the empire business,” he replies. Elon Musk couldn’t have put it any better. Seen from the vantage point of 2026, it’s almost too on the nose that Mr. White joins forces with a crew of white-power supremacists in his relentless quest for impunity.
“The Wire” was more systematic in its portrayal of societal breakdown. Its show bible — the detailed proposal and outline written before production — promised it “will be, in the strictest sense, a police procedural,” but one that addresses “larger universal themes that have more to do with the human condition, the nature of the American city and, indeed, the national culture.” David Simon, one of the show’s creators, was a journalist before he made television and Ed Burns, his co-creator, was a retired homicide detective. The great strength of “The Wire” lies in the depth of its creators’ familiarity with their subject matter, established over years of experience.
In “The Wire,” previously dependable social institutions flail and end in failure. Unions die. Journalism erodes, beset from within and without. The police devolve into a military force imposing its will with ever more desperate brutality against the most vulnerable citizens. Over its five seasons the show was less a snapshot than a warning about the corrosive effects of hypercapitalism as it consumes society. For all its gritty contemporary realism, the world that “The Wire” envisioned is the world we live in now.
“Mad Men,” with its swaggering advertising executives, seemed at first like a celebration of American optimism. When people talk about making America great again, this is the “again” they’re likely talking about. But inside the show’s portrayal of an imagined apex of American life was a revelation of the darkness that lay inside it. The show’s hero, Don Draper, is a whole-cloth creation: the son of a prostitute who stole another man’s name and rose to a new life, a kind of perverse Horatio Alger. The countercultural critique of advertising, which gave the show its central tension, is that advertising turns values into slogans and emotions into products, and once a feeling has been sold, it’s gone. “What is happiness?” Mr. Draper asks in a meeting. “It’s a moment before you need more happiness.”
The show ended with Mr. Draper having a spiritual crisis, retreating to a Californian Shangri-La of personal reinvention, where he looks to get in touch with how he really feels. But what he discovers, in the show’s memorable final moments, is that the counterculture — the authentic opposition to corporate consumption of human feelings — just wants to buy itself a sugary drink under the slogan “It’s the real thing.” Even the desire for authenticity can be converted into a product, packaged up and put on sale. Transaction is the only reality, and everyone sells out. Has there been a better definition of Trumpism?
Perhaps the most prescient show is “The Sopranos,” which among other attributes taught us sympathy for the gangster — or, rather, revealed to us just how willing we are to cheer a gangster on. Over the show’s six seasons, Tony Soprano’s evil kept expanding, his cruelty becoming more explicit, as “The Sopranos” taught us that everyone in America, even within crime families, is out for themselves. It offered a critique of the emerging hypocrisies that justified self interest above all, and showed how the survivors of all this brutality, even the wealthiest among them, still sat around wondering why they’re so unhappy. Sound familiar?
The show’s opening episode didn’t portend a program that would define one era, let alone prevision another. In its basic comic contrast and play on stereotypes, it felt like an extended riff on “Analyze This” — mafioso seeks therapy. But in his very first session with Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony articulated the show’s broader theme: “It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that, I know. But lately I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.” What was he talking about? The mafia? Manhood? The country? “Many Americans, I think, feel that way,” Dr. Melfi agreed. Twenty-seven years later, it’s safe to say it’s not a feeling anymore. It’s a certainty.
In his 1947 book, “From Caligari to Hitler: a Psychological History of the German Film,” the critic Siegfried Kracauer charted the collapse of the Weimar Republic through its movies, which were rife with hypnosis, haunted men, sexual obsession, criminal authorities, abjection, split identities, technologies run amok and mass death. He called film the national “soul at work,” because it was produced and consumed collectively. The public fantasies captured the incipient reality.
Perhaps it’s coincidence but when Carmela Soprano visits a therapist in the third season of “The Sopranos,” his name is Dr. Krakower. In that scene — and I’m not sure there’s a better scene in the history of television — Carmela nearly storms out of his office. “You can leave now or you can stay and hear what I have to say,” Dr. Krakower says. She sits back down.
“You must trust your initial impulse and consider leaving him. You’ll never be able to feel good about yourself. You’ll never be able to quell the feelings of guilt and shame.” His advice? “Take only the children, what’s left of them, and go.”
Carmela hedges. Faced with her predicament, she’s not sure how to process her conundrum or her complicity.
“One thing you can never say,” Dr. Krakower tells her, “that you haven’t been told.”
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