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See the full list of signers and add your name at letcubalive.info

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.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/opinion/cuba-government-us-trump.html

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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli

Organization Support Letter

Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)

To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,

We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.

Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.

Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.

A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."

Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.

A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.

In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.

We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:

Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.

We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.

Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations

Endorsing Organizations:

Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.

Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:

https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/

IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:

PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast

FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement

CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net

CONTACT INFO:

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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‘Freedom Zone’ launches important human rights event
October 30 Global Festival in Support of Russian Political Prisoners
_
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THE DATE: October 30, the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression
THE LOCATIONS: Berlin, Munich, Warsaw, New York, Minnesota, Budva, Melbourne, Helsinki, Haifa, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Vilnius, São Paulo, Florianópolis, Batumi, Tbilisi, Belgrade, Riga, Paris, Yerevan, Milan, Vienna, London, Madrid
THE AUDIENCE: Anyone concerned about political prisoners in Russia

On October 30, the ‘Freedom Zone’ charity project will hold the largest event in its history.
Lectures, auctions, letter evenings, film screenings and other events will take place in more than 20 countries, including the US, Brazil and Australia, demonstrating worldwide solidarity with the prisoners of the Russian regime.
Speakers in different cities will include such well-known opponents of the Putin regime as Daria Serenko, Mikhail Lobanov, Sasha and Nadezhda Skochilenko, Ivan Philippov, Alexey Ponomaryov and other prominent Russian exiles.
Funds raised will go towards supporting political prisoners, covering the costs of legal representation, visits from loved ones and other needs. It is also possible to join the international campaign by making an online donation.
This global festival will be a tangible expression of opposition to lawlessness in Russia and support for its victims.
Let’s show that we stand shoulder to shoulder with those who have been unjustly convicted!

‘Freedom Zone’ was founded by Kseniia Kagarlitskaia, daughter of political prisoner Boris Kagarlitsky. Since 2024, the organisation has been holding charity events (festivals) abroad to raise funds for political prisoners in Russia, raising awareness of the unlawful persecution and inhumane prison conditions faced by people in the Russian Federation, as well as campaigning for the release of political prisoners.

Website: https://freedom-zone.com/festival
Contact: Kseniia Kagarlitskaiazona.svobody@gmail.com
+38268347993
Telegram @pruesha
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Donation link: https://buymeacoffee.com/zonasvobodk

Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky

By Monica Hill

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 Kagarlitsky

We, 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

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Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper

Funds for Kevin Cooper

Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/funds-for-kevin-cooper?lid=lwlp5hn0n00i&utm_medium=email&utm_source=product&utm_campaign=t_email-campaign-update&

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 speaking at a rally in support of his reinstatement as Professor at Texas State University and in defense of free speech.

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

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/24/fired-for-advocating-socialism-professor-tom-alter-speaks-out/

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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

Prison Radio is a project of the Redwood Justice Fund (RJF), which is a California 501c3 (Tax ID no. 680334309) not-for-profit foundation dedicated to the defense of the environment and of civil and human rights secured by law. Prison Radio/Redwood Justice Fund PO Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94141

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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) The Fed Has to Raise Rates. How Fast to Go Has Officials Divided.

The Federal Reserve’s gradual approach to raising rates is being tested by intensifying price pressures.

By Colby Smith, Colby Smith covers the Federal Reserve, Nov. 11, 2026

“If they’re not willing to hurt the labor market to bring inflation back to 2 percent, then they’re not willing to bring inflation back to 2 percent,” said Mr. Dutta. “It’s really that simple.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/business/fed-interest-rates-inflation.html

Federal Reserve officials are in broad agreement that interest rates need to rise in order to tame inflation. Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times

Officials at the Federal Reserve are in broad agreement that interest rates need to rise in order to tame inflation that continued to accelerate this year.

Less settled is the pace of those increases and how aggressive the Fed will need to be in order to return inflation to its 2 percent target, which has overshot that level for nearly six years.

The debate deepened on Tuesday after new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that price pressures broadened out in October, resulting in a swifter pickup in inflation than was expected.

The central bank, which embraced a gradual approach to raising rates just a few weeks ago, must now decide whether to ratchet up its response — either by delivering a big move when it next meets in December, or signaling increases at back-to-back meetings going forward.

Financial markets have for now leaned into the latter option, penciling in more rate increases in 2027 than previously. So too have many economists, who have largely downplayed the idea that the Fed will raise rates by half a percentage point next month even as they affirm the need for a faster pace of tightening.

“The latest inflation data reinforced the idea that price pressures remain sticky and elevated and are not just due to one-off shocks,” said Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. “Therefore, the Fed probably has more work to do and in order to balance the risks better, it makes sense to do that at a somewhat quicker pace than we were previously anticipating.”

Mr. Luzzetti now expects the Fed to raise rates by a quarter-point not only in December, but also in January and March.

The fraught path ahead for the Fed was evident on Tuesday following a speech by Christopher J. Waller, a Fed governor who spoke before the latest inflation report was published. He floated the possibility of a half-point move in December and even went so far as to offer a precise threshold that would warrant such a move.

Mr. Waller said that if October’s Consumer Price Index report showed that “core” prices, which exclude volatile food and energy items, rose around 0.3 percent or more, a “stronger policy move may be needed.”

Sticking to the central bank’s typical quarter-point pace would “put our credibility at risk, a risk I am not eager to take,” he said.

October’s data met Mr. Waller’s threshold. Core prices rose 0.3 percent for the month, while overall prices rose 0.4 percent. Shortly thereafter, two-year Treasury yields, which are highly sensitive to shifts in interest rate expectations, shot higher, notching the biggest one-day increase in more than a year. The 10-year Treasury yield, which underpins mortgages, business loans and many other types of debt, also jumped, rising above 5 percent.

Officials at the Federal Reserve are in broad agreement that interest rates need to rise in order to tame inflation that continued to accelerate this year.

Less settled is the pace of those increases and how aggressive the Fed will need to be in order to return inflation to its 2 percent target, which has overshot that level for nearly six years.

Mr. Luzzetti now expects the Fed to raise rates by a quarter-point not only in December, but also in January and March.

Sticking to the central bank’s typical quarter-point pace would “put our credibility at risk, a risk I am not eager to take,” he said.

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yield

The moves were further exacerbated by remarks from Lorie K. Logan, who as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas is a voting member on this year’s policy-setting committee. In a speech on Tuesday after the C.P.I. report was released, she warned that the Fed may need to accelerate the pace of additional rate increases.

The comments from Mr. Waller and Ms. Logan caused such a jolt because the central bank just weeks before had opted against raising rates despite a worrying turn in the inflation data. The rationale for most officials was that after taking action in September, there was little urgency to raise rates at back-to-back meetings. Moving gradually, they argued, would give households and businesses more time to adjust to higher borrowing costs, reducing the risk that the Fed would unnecessarily harm the economy.

Some policymakers at the Fed have yet to abandon this strategy. On Tuesday, Michelle W. Bowman, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, acknowledged in a speech that price pressures were persisting longer than she had hoped, but warned that “the benefit of additional policy tightening has to be carefully weighed against its costs for interest-rate-sensitive sectors.” Ms. Bowman also emphasized recent volatility in financial markets amid concerns about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence investment boom. She stressed that financial conditions, or the ease at which companies and households can access funding, had tightened.

Anna L. Paulson, president of the Philadelphia Fed, also on Tuesday offered her full-throated endorsement of the Fed’s gradual approach. And just a day before the inflation report, Thomas I. Barkin, president of the Richmond Fed and a voting member next year, said the central bank needed to adjust its policy settings “with care” given potential risks to the labor market.

What is hard to discern is whether October’s inflation report will be deemed worrisome enough by the majority of the policy-setting committee to usher in a change in strategy. One complicating factor is that Kevin M. Warsh, the chairman, has opted to obscure his own views about the outlook. He has rejected the notion that officials should provide guidance about where rates might be headed and has stopped short of providing his own detailed diagnosis of the inflation problem. That has stoked uncertainty about how much more tightening he believes is necessary to stamp out price pressures.

According to October’s inflation report, those price pressures appear to be spreading to a wider range of goods and services. Energy prices saw more muted gains for the month, but that was overtaken by increases in other categories, such as food, appliances, recreation and motor vehicle insurance.

One feature of recent inflation reports is that the categories driving the bulk of the monthly increase have been somewhat “random” and often reversed course shortly after, said Tom Porcelli, chief economist at Wells Fargo. In August, it was wireless telephone services. In September, it was tuition and toys. But instead of giving the Fed comfort, Mr. Porcelli warned that this dynamic could actually prove problematic.

“It’s probably going to be a source of discomfort for the Fed because it suggests that while these components may not be uniformly driving inflation higher month-after-month, the fact that the breadth of the inflation gains is so deep is the troubling part,” he said.

So far, even the most hawkish of Fed officials suggest that it will take only a few more rate increases to get price pressures under control. Ms. Logan on Tuesday affirmed her view that the central bank will need to deliver at least two more quarter-point increases before pausing to “examine economic and financial developments to determine what further action may be appropriate.”

One wild card is if there is a substantive sell-off in stocks that materially changes the outlook for consumer spending. A sharp rise in U.S. borrowing costs that significantly constrains lending to companies and households could also limit what the Fed needs to do.

Barring that, Neil Dutta, head of economic research at Renaissance Macro, said it is more likely than not that the Fed will end up having to raise rates more substantially than policymakers currently project. Mr. Dutta is bracing for housing inflation to accelerate in the year ahead, as rental prices pick up. He also expects the unemployment rate to continue edging lower as the labor market strengthens, helping to boost wages and, in turn, inflationary pressures.

Mr. Warsh last month said the Fed’s goal “isn’t to throw sand in the gears of the economy and throw people out of work.” But Mr. Dutta warned that some weakening of the labor market is likely to be necessary if Mr. Warsh wants to achieve his inflation goal.

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2) Average U.S. Heating Costs Will Rise 7% This Winter

People who use heating oil will see increases of around 70 percent because the war in Iran has greatly reduced supply of that fuel.

By Ivan Penn, Nov. 11, 2026

“The agency’s report found that utilities disconnected more than 15 million customers in 2024 for not paying their bills. While people using heating oil have been hit the hardest, others will also pay more. Households that use electricity to heat their homes could see an increase of about 6 percent, to $1,215. And those that use propane will pay $1,350 on average, or about 5 percent more than last year.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/business/energy-environment/winter-heating-oil-costs.html

A man in a yellow vest pulls a hose from a heating oil tanker toward a house. The side of the truck has the words “Heating oil delivery at your fingertips” on it.

Households that rely on heating oil, most of which are in the Northeast and Alaska, face some of the biggest expected increases this winter. Credit...Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald, via Getty Images

Home heating costs are expected to rise more than 7 percent on average across the country this winter, putting further strain on households that have been struggling with rising energy costs for many months.

A new report by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, an organization that represents state officials in seeking federal funding, warned that the disruptions caused by the war with Iran has contributed to high heating costs.

The organization said households that rely on heating oil, most of which are in the Northeast and Alaska, face some of the biggest increases. The typical household that uses oil — almost five million nationwide — could pay as much as 70 percent more than last winter or about $2,977 for the season.

“Continued uncertainty about global oil supplies makes it difficult to predict where prices will go,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the association. “We hope we’re wrong, but states need to prepare for the possibility that prices will stay high.”

Heating oil is very similar to diesel, which is used in trucks and other heavy equipment. Supplies of diesel and related fuels have become strained because many refineries in the Middle East and Russia have shut down or reduced production as a result of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and Russia’s long-running war with Ukraine.

Rising energy costs have led to as many as one in six households falling behind on natural gas and electricity bills, according to data the U.S. Energy Information Administration released in April.

The agency’s report found that utilities disconnected more than 15 million customers in 2024 for not paying their bills.

While people using heating oil have been hit the hardest, others will also pay more. Households that use electricity to heat their homes could see an increase of about 6 percent, to $1,215. And those that use propane will pay $1,350 on average, or about 5 percent more than last year.

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3) The View From Space the U.S. Government Doesn’t Want You to See

By Ollie Ballinger and Zach Toombs, Nov. 11, 2026

Ollie Ballinger is an open-source researcher and lecturer in Geocomputation at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London. Zach Toombs is a journalist and founder of Evident, a nonprofit news organization for visual journalism.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/opinion/satellite-images-us-government.html

A large part of Zeitoun, a neighborhood in Gaza City, was still standing. But as Israeli forces have expanded their military campaign, the area has been turned into a barren wasteland, according to satellite images reviewed by The New York Times.

The U.S. government is trying to censor your view from space.

Ollie Ballinger, an open-source researcher and lecturer, uses satellite imagery to monitor conflicts around the world. But he says pressure from the government has prompted private companies to restrict access to images of places it may not want the public to see.

Why would companies listen to these requests? “Any pressure from the U.S. government carries a lot of weight for these companies,” Mr. Ballinger says, “because the American government is their biggest customer.”

In the Opinion video above, he reveals how these restrictions are limiting a vital tool for accountability and public safety and warns of a future in which governments have the power to control what the public can see and, ultimately, what it can know.

Below is an edited transcript of this video. We recommend watching it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the video player above.

Ollie Ballinger: Let me show you something the U.S. government doesn’t want you to see. The aftermath of American missile strikes on schools and homes, revealed by satellite imagery.

This view from space has been used to uncover destruction in Gaza, mass graves in Ukraine, internment camps in China and the Minab school strike in Iran. Journalists, humanitarian groups and researchers like me rely on satellite imagery to monitor conflicts, natural disasters and atrocities around the world.

Several months ago, I could go to multiple companies based in the U.S. and buy high quality images of the Middle East. But for much of this year, here’s what we’ve seen: a blackout. The U.S. government is pressuring private companies to censor satellite imagery. And that limits the public’s view of what’s happening in some of the most critical parts of the world.

In the early days of the Iran war, satellite imagery showed us details of American missile strikes on civilian targets. And it revealed the extent of damage to U.S. bases beyond what the Trump administration was admitting. But there was also concern, from both the administration and from members of Congress, that commercially available satellite imagery had been used by Iran to target U.S. troops.

Clip of U.S. House Armed Services Committee, March 25:

Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts: What are you doing, between the D.O.D. and the intelligence community, to work with these providers — many of whom have contracts with the U.S. government — to make sure we have better control over this?

William Adkins, National Reconnaissance Office deputy director: We have a strong partnership with our commercial providers. Their C.E.O.s meet with our leadership quarterly. We have an ongoing dialogue.

This email landed shortly after this exchange: It’s from Planet Labs, one of the biggest satellite companies in the world. They made it clear to their customers: They were restricting satellite imagery at the request of the U.S. government.

The other big player in this space, Vantor, began rolling out restrictions even earlier. They told us that they are just following their own policies. But any pressure from the U.S. government carries a lot of weight for these companies — because the American government is their biggest customer.

The blackouts imposed by U.S. companies were sweeping. They don’t just cover U.S. bases and troop positions. They cover much of the Gulf region, including Gaza, Lebanon and other places with conflict but with no official U.S. military presence. In the last couple of decades, open access to satellite images has become the norm. But this kind of censorship takes us back to a time when we had to take our governments at their word.

Archival clip of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.N.: Let me say a word about satellite images before I show a couple.

In 2003, Colin Powell justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq in part through the use of satellite imagery. He claimed that they showed evidence of weapons of mass destruction. At that time, governments had a near-monopoly on the view from above.

Powell: “The photos that I am about to show you are sometimes hard for the average person to interpret. But as I show you these images, I will try to capture and explain what they mean — what they indicate to our imagery specialists.”

In the case of Iraq, the story the government told was completely false. The result was decades of war. And now, we’re losing the ability to independently verify these sorts of claims.

Satellites have shrunk from the size of school buses to shoeboxes and now there are thousands of them taking photos from orbit, operated by companies all over the world. That means, even with U.S. restrictions, Iran can still view the pictures that it wants by using Chinese satellites.

Clip of Kevin O’Connell, former director, Office of Space Commerce: It makes sense that governments will reserve the right to control the dissemination of imagery in a crisis. I think the problem that we see is that as soon as the U.S. companies stopped providing satellite imagery, competitors — and specifically our adversaries, and the Chinese — were able to provide imagery in very short order of the exact same scenarios. And so when you ask the companies to control the imagery, are you actually having the effect that you want to have?

Meanwhile, researchers like me don’t have reliable access to that data. The imagery that the U.S. government is restricting is exactly the kind of imagery that we’ve been relying on for years.

Back in 2023, I built this tool to detect damage in Gaza. It uses a combination of freely available imagery from the European Space Agency and higher resolution imagery from American commercial providers to reveal details of damaged buildings and people killed in bombings. But for much of the year, we’ve seen this: I couldn’t tell you much about the kind of building that’s been damaged or the kind of bomb that’s been dropped.

When governments pressure private companies to withhold this kind of data, it sets a dangerous precedent for researchers like me who are investigating possible war crimes, for journalists making independent assessments of Iran’s nuclear program and aid groups figuring out where help is needed.

Clip of Rhiannan Price, a founder of Common Space: Satellite imagery helps you understand how to get to affected populations. Are there ways in which we need to make sure that refugee and internally displaced person camps are safe, that they are receiving the adequate resources that they need? These are just some of the questions that humanitarians are using high resolution satellite imagery for. When they don’t have access, it’s a real gap in terms of the information at every moment of a crisis.

Even environmental watchdogs rely on this data to protect rainforests.

Clip of Mark Fahey, Environmental Investigation Agency-U.S.: There’s no hiding these things from space. We have these territories in the Amazon that we work with, and now we can just scan the entire area using machine learning, find places that have the start of a pit and then order the high definition image. It is crazy, the vast amount of land that you can monitor once you have access to these things.”

Government censorship makes all of this work difficult or even impossible. And there’s reason to worry that the U.S. government is going to double down on these blackouts.

The House Intelligence Committee has asked the Pentagon, and the director of national intelligence, to come up with a new plan to regulate satellite companies that do business with the government. This could give the government new levers of control over the satellite imagery that the public relies on.

O’Connell: The United States has always been the world leader in commercial satellite imagery. When restrictions are put in place, that potentially dampens interest in buying access to those capabilities from American companies.

More government control over this industry would be a bad thing, especially under an administration that has consistently misled the public.

Reporter, off camera: Did the United States bomb a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran on the first day of the war and kill 175 people?

President Trump: No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.

There’s a lot to lose when our view from space is blocked. And the public has a right to see the earth without government censorship.

The U.S. Department of Defense and National Reconnaissance Office declined to answer questions about requests for restricting commercial satellite imagery. Planet Labs has partly lifted restrictions on its imagery across the Middle East. As of Nov. 1, multiple companies, including Planet Labs and Vantor, are still restricting imagery over Gaza and southern Lebanon, where bombings and demolitions continue.

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4) ICE Officer Involved in Maine Shooting Expressed Hatred of Immigrants

The agent talked of foreign bloodlines, denounced noncitizens and more, according to emails obtained by The Times. His fatal shooting of a Colombian-born motorist in July remains under investigation.

By Katie Benner and Alexandra Berzon, Nov. 11, 2026

Benner reported from Augusta, Maine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/us/david-brouillette-ice-maine-shooting-anti-immigrant-hatred.html

David Brouillette, right, in a tactical vest worn over a dark T-shirt, stands in front of another man who also is wearing a tactical vest. The latter vest says “police” on the back.

David Brouillette, right, in a screenshot from a video taken moments after Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was fatally shot on July 13 during an attempted traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine. Credit...via The Portland Press Herald

David Brouillette, the rookie Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a Colombian migrant in Maine this summer, has a troubling work history, past complaints of domestic violence and abuse, as well as mental health issues.

He also has a record of deep-seated anti-immigrant hostility, especially against Colombians.

In 2021, four years before he joined ICE, Mr. Brouillette, a former U.S. Army sergeant, raged against his sister and their relatives in a series of emails, castigating her for her longtime relationship with a Colombian man, with whom she had two children.

“He can takes his non citizen ass back to his country and enjoy his third world luxuries,” Mr. Brouillette wrote in an email thread riddled with typos, a copy of which was shared with The New York Times.

“He does not emulate what it means to be an American” but “rather he emulates what it’s like to be entitled and think he has a seat” at a table “that has no room for his (or your ignorance),” he wrote. Mr. Brouillette continued that the man’s “bloodline knows nothing about what it takes to earn and then CHERISH the freedom America offers.”

The man who sparked Mr. Brouillette’s anger was at the time a 37-year-old graduate student studying for a Ph.D. in education. Born in Colombia, the man was living in the United States legally and had dated Mr. Brouillette’s sister for five years.

The email exchange was shared by Elizabeth Emen, Mr. Brouillette’s sister, and confirmed by a friend who discussed the email with her at the time, as well as a family representative. Mr. Brouillette’s comments were a snapshot, they said, of his views and anger toward people born outside the United States.

“David had no basis for saying that my partner was undocumented,” Ms. Emen, a licensed therapist in Maryland, said in an interview. “It was about how he saw him based on his race.”

Mr. Brouillette, 38, fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero on July 13 during an attempted traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine.

The emails, which have never been made public, add another layer to Mr. Brouillette’s high-profile shooting and could factor into the pending state and federal investigations.

It is illegal in Maine to infringe on a person’s rights because of their actual or perceived race, color, ancestry or national origin, among other identifiers. Federal law prohibits an officer from depriving a person of their constitutional rights “on account of such person being an alien or by reason of his/her color or race.”

Mr. Brouillette’s family said he didn’t hide his sentiments about immigrants. Those views, along with publicly accessible court records documenting claims of abuse, mental health challenges and workplace struggles underscore concerns about the federal government’s hiring of Mr. Brouillette, who applied for a job with ICE as the agency relaxed its vetting process and added thousands of new officers.

“He is dangerous and should not have weapons,” Mr. Brouillette’s mother, Susan Bedard, said of her son in a text message to The Times. “Believe his victims, not him.”

Mr. Durán Guerrero, 25, was shot four times in the face and neck, said Sean P. Murphy, a lawyer for Mr. Durán Guerrero’s family.

The Department of Homeland Security said “the vehicle attempted to flee” and the officer, “fearing for public safety,” fired his weapon. Evidence confirming this account has yet to emerge.

The agency declined to confirm that Mr. Brouillette had fatally shot Mr. Durán Guerrero or describe his employment status. Mr. Brouillette’s family, however, identified him as the man pictured at the scene of the shooting being consoled by other officers.

His ex-wife and daughter told The Times that Mr. Brouillette said he fired the fatal bullets. Also, federal and state investigators examining the shooting have asked people who knew Mr. Brouillette about his background and whether they thought he should be fired over the killing of Mr. Durán Guerrero.

D.H.S. initially said that Mr. Durán Guerrero had illegally entered the country but later recanted that statement to Senator Angus King of Maine, the senator’s office said. The lawyer for the Durán Guerrero family said he was authorized to work in the United States and was not the target of ICE’s investigative efforts.

The shooting sparked a sharp outcry in Biddeford, and state officials from both parties condemned ICE’s actions. Susan Collins, Maine’s Republican senator, asked that ICE “cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that “any claims of substandard training or vetting are FALSE” and that ICE officers were “trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations.”

Mr. Brouillette declined to speak with a Times reporter who knocked on the door of his home in Maine and left a letter for him. In response, he called the local sheriff to warn the reporter not to return.

According to an incident report, Mr. Brouillette told the sheriff’s deputy he was under “‘executive protection’ through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”

This article is based on court records, emails and interviews with Mr. Brouillette’s relatives, including Ms. Emen; his mother; his first ex-wife and daughter; as well as a former classmate, neighbors, former colleagues and people with knowledge of his hiring at ICE. His two ex-wives and some former co-workers had previously spoken to the media about their concerns.

The accounts portray Mr. Brouillette as a man who longed to wield authority as a soldier and an officer of the law. (His teenage online message handle was citizensoldier22.) Yet he worked for only short stints as a corrections officer, a security guard at a V.A. medical center and an enforcement officer for Maine’s Health and Human Services department.

He struggled with mental health challenges, having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hospitalized “multiple times,” his mother, Ms. Bedard, told The Times. This type of health history is typically disqualifying for federal agents, according to federal hiring guidelines.

His two former wives said in court filings that he had physically abused them — claims that he disputed. In addition, Mr. Brouillette gave false statements at least twice in court filings. For example, he told a family court judge in 2019 that he had worked as a police officer in Hallowell, Maine, according to court records. The Hallowell police chief told The Times Mr. Brouillette had applied for a job with the department but was not hired.

Several former federal prosecutors said that this kind of false statement would make it hard for Mr. Brouillette to testify in court cases, impairing his ability to do his job.

A new hire on a fast track

Mr. Brouillette was cleared to start at ICE on Dec. 1 after being fast-tracked through a preliminary vetting process that had become much more lenient during that period, according to a person with knowledge of his hiring, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He joined the ranks amid a hiring surge that was prompted by Trump administration demands to more than double the number of deportation officers.

Hiring guidelines were changed, lowered or ignored to meet that demand, according to current and former officials involved in the agency hiring process. One agency whistle-blower told the Office of Inspector General that an “unprecedented lowering of standards” allowed improperly vetted, unqualified candidates to get job offers before they had passed basic fingerprint, identity or credit checks.

Mr. Brouillette was allowed to skip ICE’s full training course in Georgia, according to two people who were briefed on Mr. Brouillette’s work history at ICE and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. The decision was in keeping with ICE’s practice to have recruits with some law enforcement experience complete a shorter online training program.

After he was hired, his full background check was completed by an outside contractor, as is a standard part of the security clearance process for new officer hires, according to one of the people with knowledge of his hiring. But the agency had started to build a gigantic backlog of background reports. At the time of the shooting in Maine, officials still hadn’t gotten to look into Mr. Brouillette’s background report for red flags that could result in his termination, the person said.

Without his full clearance, Mr. Brouillette was limited in his access to some secure computer systems. But he was still deployed on the streets of Maine, armed and empowered to carry out President Trump’s immigration enforcement mandate.

In April he arrested a man born in Angola; in June, a man born in the Democratic Republic of Congo; on June 30, a man born in the Ivory Coast, federal arrest reports show. None of the men had criminal histories, the records show, and all three were detained for overstaying their visas.

On July 13, Mr. Brouillette shot Mr. Durán Guerrero.

Mr. Brouillette’s work history contained several red flags.

He held at least seven full- and part-time jobs from 2015 to 2025, including as a state corrections officer, a policeman at a V.A. hospital and an agent at Maine’s Health and Human Services Department, where he tracked down family court scofflaws.

His workplace struggles burst into view in late 2021, when he became a volunteer firefighter in Manchester, a small town near Augusta.

“It didn’t take me long to recognize that I’d made a mistake,” said Frank Wozniak, who was the fire chief at the time. “He was a loose cannon.”

While in a firefighter training program at Southern Maine Community College, a steel beam struck Mr. Brouillette in the head, causing a severe injury, according to a lawsuit that he filed against the college. Shortly after, Mr. Brouillette drove to the fire station to find Mr. Wozniak.

“He’s bandaged up and screaming at one of the guys, upset that I wouldn’t let him train or go on calls,” Mr. Wozniak said. “He was screaming, ‘I’ll punch you in the face and take your job!’” Mr. Brouillette then left the department.

Two years later he sued the college, claiming that his cognitive functioning and memory were still impaired. The lawsuit was settled.

In 2025, he ran through three jobs: He was let go from a pest control company over behavioral issues, according to two people briefed on his departure. He quit his job as a truck driver, citing health issues, and he joined a real estate agency, where he received a few thousand dollars in commissions, according to filings in a child support case.

In the fall of 2025, he applied at ICE.

The Times could not find any employer or family member who was contacted by the federal government about Mr. Brouillette until July 2026, after the fatal shooting.

When his first wife, Ashley Brouillette, found out in November that he was joining ICE, she recalled asking him how he continued to get jobs with guns. “He laughed,” she said.

She, like his sister, Ms. Emen, was surprised to learn of his new job. Ms. Emen said Mr. Brouillette’s mental health seemed to have declined after he returned from his service in Afghanistan in 2013.

“We talked about his behavior before, during and after he was in Afghanistan, and about his ongoing PTSD and mental health challenges,” said Ms. Emen, who never treated her brother or spoke with him in a professional capacity. “He conveyed to me that he protected himself in Afghanistan by racially profiling the people there. If he could dehumanize the people, he could be more self-protective and less empathetic.”

Ms. Emen said that Mr. Brouillette had made statements that certain races of people should not live in the United States. Their relationship ended in 2021.

When Ms. Emen invited her relatives to celebrate her son’s birthday, Mr. Brouillette responded with the email tirade, expressing his disapproval of her partner’s “bloodline” and his supposed “anti-American ideologies.”

“Your choices have cost you a brother. I am so so so ashamed of you,” he wrote. “You’re dead to me Liz. Enjoy it. Dead to me. DEAD.”

Dueling state and federal probes

The email exchange could come into play as investigators examine the shooting in Maine.

“Federal statute doesn’t require a prosecutor to prove racial animus, but such bias could support the idea that the officer used excessive force,” said Michael Gennaco, a former federal prosecutor in California who oversaw civil rights prosecutions against officers accused of excessive force.

Attorney General Aaron M. Frey of Maine launched the probe immediately after the shooting, saying his office “has exclusive responsibility both for any criminal investigation of a homicide and for the use of deadly force by law enforcement.”

Mr. Frey, through a spokesperson, declined further comment, citing the pending investigation.

Biddeford police captured footage from the aftermath of the shooting on their body worn cameras, including statements made by Mr. Brouillette, according to two people briefed on the inquiry.

Separately, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General, the agency watchdog, said that it was also investigating the use of deadly force in Maine.

Toby Dilworth, a former federal prosecutor in Maine, said that before the Trump administration, federal and state investigators worked in lock step on these inquiries.

In the Brouillette case, a detective from the state attorney general’s office and a special agent with the D.H.S. Inspector General’s office interviewed Mr. Brouillette’s first wife, Ashley.

But three people briefed on this investigation, none of whom were authorized to discuss the case, said that the federal government’s cooperation with Mr. Frey’s office has been more limited.

This is in keeping with friction that has arisen between federal and state investigators in multiple cases, including the shooting of Alex Pretti, a nurse who was killed by a Customs and Border Protection agent in Minneapolis. Mr. Pretti’s parents said that the Justice Department refuses to confirm the identity of the man who shot their son and has stopped sharing evidence related to the shooting with local investigators.

Local authorities are investigating several high-profile incidents involving federal immigration agents, including deadly shootings, and have indicted four officers in Colorado, Minnesota and Texas.

In Maine, some resolution could come soon. Mr. Frey’s term in office ends this December, when the State Legislature seats the next attorney general. Mr. Murphy, the lawyer for the Durán Guerrero family, said investigators recently told him that Mr. Frey plans to announce any decisions in the case before he leaves office.

Susan C. Beachy and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.

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5) General Strike Ripples Across Spain Weeks Before National Elections

Workers in a wide range of industries walked off the job to protest rising rents and stagnant wages, which have become central issues in the campaign.

By Carlos Barragán, Reporting from Madrid, Nov. 11, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/world/europe/spain-general-strike.html

A large crowd marches down a tree-lined street, many holding red and black flags.

Protesters in Barcelona on Wednesday. Unions said millions of workers would participate in the walkout. Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

Spanish workers staged a general strike on Wednesday for the first time in 14 years, protesting the rising rents and stagnant wages that have become central issues in the national election to be held this month.

Unions said millions of workers would participate in the walkout, with tens of thousands of Spaniards expected to join rallies in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and other cities in the evening. Early on Wednesday, protesters blocked roads in Madrid, set up picket lines outside major factories in Catalonia and disrupted transportation across Spain.

Police officers wielding shields and batons forced hundreds of demonstrators away from the Gran Vía, the central thoroughfare in Madrid, which rally goers had blocked. The anger of protesters in the capital was directed largely at “rentistas” — a Spanish term for people who live off rental income.

The left-wing administration of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for snap elections early last month, after the eviction in September of María del Carmen Abascal, an 87-year-old tenant in Madrid who became the face of Spain’s housing crisis.

Efforts by the government to enact legislation increasing tenants’ rights has failed to pass Parliament, blocked by opposition parties. Mr. Sánchez apparently hopes that frustration over that logjam will improve his chances in the vote, set for Nov. 29.

Mr. Sánchez’s government has been buffeted by damaging headlines over corruption scandals, a migration crisis and a deadly train crash late last month. Polls show that if the election were held today, his party and other left-wing allies would command fewer seats in Parliament than would a group of conservative parties.

The government has expressed support for the strike. “Every right that workers in this country enjoy was won through struggle and strikes,” Pablo Bustinduy, the social rights minister, said on Tuesday.

Workers say that low wages have left them increasingly squeezed out of cities, where rents are rising. Spain has a shortage of roughly 750,000 homes, according to the Bank of Spain, a figure projected to exceed a million by 2028. Over the past decade, rents in Spain have soared 87 percent, while wages have increased only 28 percent, according to El País, a center-left newspaper.

One of the unions that organized the strike on Wednesday, Comisiones Obreras, called the industrial action “a resounding success” that showed solidarity with young workers. But business associations said that union’s estimates of how many workers would take part were overblown.

A strike supported by a sitting government is somewhat unusual, a point not lost on parties opposing Mr. Sánchez’s bid for re-election. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative Popular Party, said that the strike amounted to a campaign event against a potential right-wing government.

“It’s absurd,” he said on Monday, “a general strike against the opposition.”

Unions said the walkout was directed at local and national governments regardless of their political affiliation. “We don’t distinguish,” Valeria Racu, a spokeswoman for a tenants’ union, told the Spanish public broadcaster on Wednesday.

“We have no patience left,” she added. “The power is in the streets.”

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6) Why Your Heating Bills Are Going Through the Roof

By Skip York, Nov. 11, 2026

Mr. York is a fellow in energy and global oil at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute.

“Don’t expect much price relief. There’s plenty of oil, but because of damage done to refineries in the Middle East and Russia, fuel inventories are near multiyear lows. That means wholesale diesel “cracks” (the difference between the prices for refined diesel and crude oil) reached record highs in September — the refiners are extracting fatter profits.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/opinion/heating-bills-diesel-prices.html

An illustration of a person in a bed, with a heating bill serving as a blanket.

Mia Oberländer

Even though the price of oil fell with the prospect of a Democratic Congress and of a negotiated end to the Iran conflict, you should expect to pay more to heat your house this winter. The typical heating oil tank now costs $1,640 to fill — up from roughly $900 last year.

If you plan to fly over Christmas, expect higher fares than in 2025; rising jet fuel costs have already cost domestic airlines $6 billion this year, a nearly 84 percent increase. If you drive a truck that uses diesel, you, too, can expect to pay more; truckers on the New Jersey Turnpike are filling up with diesel at prices that are about 70 percent higher than they were a year ago.

Heating oil, diesel and jet fuel share a common molecule, which means that homeowners, truckers and airline passengers are competing for the same fuel, chasing prices higher.

This winter, the United States will have to bend environmental rules, empty the storage tanks, maximize alternative fuel sources and open the federal checkbook to supply enough fuel to the economy. American refineries are essentially running flat out — operating at 94 percent of capacity. The key to increasing supply rests in squeezing more out of biodiesel and renewable diesel refineries. The federal government also needs to extend the current waivers on the amount of sulfur that is allowed in diesel. For now, dirty heat is better than unaffordable heat.

Don’t expect much price relief. There’s plenty of oil, but because of damage done to refineries in the Middle East and Russia, fuel inventories are near multiyear lows. That means wholesale diesel “cracks” (the difference between the prices for refined diesel and crude oil) reached record highs in September — the refiners are extracting fatter profits.

So if you live in, say, Camden, Maine, where retail prices for heating oil have reached about $6 a gallon, you are going to be spending $2,370 this winter to heat a 1,500-square-foot house, versus $1,310 last year. Go farther south, in Chattanooga, Tenn., and heating that same home will cost $746, compared with $429 last winter.

There’s no escaping high prices on either side of the Atlantic. In Scotland, France and Germany, the story is much the same.

Trying to appear sensitive to affordability issues before the midterms, both Democrats and Republicans were calling for releases from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve (NHHOR), the one-million-barrel supply held in reserve for just such occasions (the Trump administration announced that it will release up to one-third of the reserve). Congress can also expand the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding. That will help financially.

But there isn’t much else the current Congress can do to increase supply. This winter will be more about efficiently moving barrels, not in filling more of them.

Let’s assume that stable geopolitical friction results in a Brent (European) oil price near $112 per barrel. Heating oil prices in Maine would remain close to today’s $5.97 a gallon, while New Jersey road diesel would sit near $6.40 a gallon and European prices would be about 1 percent lower than today.

But any significant escalations in the war — say, the United States attacking Iran again — could send the crude price and the diesel crack spread near $125 a barrel. Maine heating oil would reach $7.27 a gallon (up about 20 percent from where it is now), while heating bills in Europe could rise 18 percent. Neither side of the Atlantic has made the investments that would keep supply chains robust and flexible, and so they remain exposed to geopolitical volatility.

The Trump administration’s “drill, baby, drill” agenda, paired with its reversal of support for renewables, has produced more lease offerings than consumer relief. Even with high prices, oil producers largely skipped auctions for leases that would allow them to drill in Alaska. And the administration’s scheduled 2027 auctions of leases off California will have to survive the state’s opposition.

When the Democrats take control of Congress in January, they will need to generate power from all available sources — hydrocarbon, renewable, nuclear — to make our economy function and to lower energy costs for voters.

They particularly need to focus on making the next shortage less severe by completing the work on reforming the permitting process for energy projects while preserving effective scrutiny. Congress could also provide incentives to reduce households’ exposure to home heating oil shortages, especially in the Northeast. That will require improvements in the region’s power transmission lines and natural gas pipelines. And that too, makes permitting reform imperative.

We’ll also need to restock the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) , at no small cost. This would be a good opportunity to review the mix of what should be stocked, where those stocks are held, and possibly specify the conditions that trigger petroleum or heating oil releases from the SPR or NHHOR.

And lastly, don’t forget El Niño. That weather phenomenon introduces a wild card that could either ease or intensify heating demand. Previous strong El Niño winters brought milder temperatures across the northern tier of the United States. Yet these winters also suggest an elevated risk of a late-season shift toward sharp cold snaps. El Niño may buy a few percentage points of demand relief, but it does not buy refining capacity or refill inventories.

Whatever the winter brings, the Atlantic Basin enters it short of fuel — and short of options.

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7) An 8-Year-Old Was Separated From Family and Taken by ICE at a Check-In

The third grader from Haiti had been living with his uncle’s family since his father was deported last year. From a shelter where ICE sent him, “he cried and just begged to come home.”

By Miriam Jordan, Nov. 11, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/us/ice-detains-8-year-old.html

A man holds a child on his lap as two women confer at a nearby table.

A Haitian family receives help obtaining passports and documents at the St. Vincent de Paul center in Springfield, Ohio, this year. Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

The boy walked silently, flanked in front and back by immigration officers. He had reported for an appointment with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego with his uncle and his uncle’s family. He was taken away alone.

A 36-second video of agents escorting the child from an interview room to an elevator ricocheted across social media this week — in part because the footage shows the boy holding his arms in front of his body, prompting speculation of restraints.

Immigration agents determined that the boy, an 8-year-old from Haiti, was an unaccompanied minor, despite documentation from his uncle that his family had been tapped as the boy’s caregivers. Members of Congress wrote to Trump administration officials on Tuesday, demanding information about the boy’s case, his whereabouts and the possible use of restraints.

In his first interview since the boy was detained, his uncle Edmard Volmy said he had cared for the boy since his father, who worked as an Uber driver, was deported in 2025 after mistakenly crossing into Mexico and trying to re-enter the United States.

“He’s part of our family,” said Mr. Volmy. The boy and his father had lived with Mr. Volmy’s family since their arrival in the United States in 2019. They later gained Temporary Protected Status, a legal safeguard that allowed them to live, work and go to school without risk of deportation. The Trump administration revoked T.P.S. for Haitians in July, leaving hundreds of thousands vulnerable to detention and deportation.

The boy called his aunt “mama” and was treated as a beloved little brother by his two teenage cousins, Mr. Volmy said. The boy was thriving in the third grade, said Johana Bielma, the principal of Fay Elementary School, which he had attended since preschool.

“This has devastated us,” Mr. Volmy said. His lawyer, Robert Ferretti, who was not officially representing the child, said in an interview that Mr. Volmy had provided a notarized letter in which he was appointed by the boy’s father as the child’s caregiver.

Mr. Ferretti said an officer told him that the letter was not acceptable and that a court guardianship order was required.

The boy was separated from his family and escorted to a room where four officers stood watch, as an ICE agent delivered the news that the boy was being detained and would be sent to a migrant center, Mr. Ferretti said.

He also recalled that an ICE officer had told the boy, “It’s going to be fine. They have ice cream and video games.”

In response to questions, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that “a man claiming to be the child’s uncle” had brought the boy to the immigration check-in, his first since his father was deported.

“Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child’s safety, ICE determined it was best to remove the child from the household and place him in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement,” the statement read. The agency said the boy was taken into custody as an “unaccompanied alien child.”

D.H.S. did not confirm or deny that the boy had been restrained.

As the Trump administration has intensified its immigration crackdown, lawyers and advocates have encouraged parents at risk of deportation to prepare legal documents, such as powers of attorney, authorizing relatives or friends to care for their children if they are detained. However, many do not have this safeguard.

“Unfortunately, when parents get detained or deported, they aren’t allowed to go back and put a legal guardianship in place,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a national advocacy group.

Immigration authorities could have allowed the boy to stay with his family, said Mishan Wroe, directing attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, a legal advocacy organization.

“D.H.S. could have exercised discretion,” she said. “Instead, they chose to send him to a shelter where he will be alone rather than in school and with people who love him.”

On Tuesday, Democratic members of the House and Senate from California sent a letter to Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, demanding answers about the case and what steps were being taken to reunify the boy with the family.

“Video footage appears to show the use of restraints on a child who seemed to pose no threat to those around him, raising serious questions about the handling of this incident,” the lawmakers wrote.

The office of Representative Juan Vargas, among the signatories, said it had not yet received any information on the case or the child’s whereabouts.

Mr. Volmy, the uncle, said that he and his family reported to ICE with the child after receiving letters instructing them all to appear for a check-in on Nov. 4.

The woman who recorded the video, Karen Pohl, a 70-year-old retired Master Chief and civil servant in the Navy, said she spends three days a week at the federal building as an observer of ICE check-ins.

“This is the youngest person I have ever seen detained alone,” Ms. Pohl said.

Because she filmed from behind, Ms. Pohl said that it was impossible to see whether the child was restrained.

After the boy entered the elevator with the men, Ms. Pohl said that she rushed to a railing that overlooks the lobby, hoping she would spot him. When he failed to appear, she feared he had been detained.

Near the waiting area, she encountered Mr. Volmy and his family as they were leaving. The children were sobbing, Ms. Pohl said.

Late on Monday, Mr. Volmy said that he had spoken with the boy on a video call earlier.

“He just cried and begged to come home,” he said. “He was distraught. He didn’t know where he was.”

Back at home, “everyone is heartbroken,” he said. “We just want the boy back with us, his family.”

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8) Israeli Strikes on Gaza Hospital Kill 6 and Injure Dozens, Health Officials Say

The Israeli authorities said that Hamas had established a command center at the hospital complex. Hamas said the attack was “a heinous crime targeting a civilian medical facility.”

By Abu Bakr Bashir and Ephrat Livni, Published Nov. 11, 2026, Updated Nov. 12, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/world/middleeast/nasser-hospital-gaza-strike-israel.html

A man in blue medical garb wades through a room full of debris after a blast.

Damage at Nasser Hospital after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Thursday. Ramadan Abed/Reuters

The Israeli military struck a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least six people and injuring 28 more, according to local health officials.

Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, general director of Nasser Hospital, said in a news conference on Thursday that two missiles had hit the facility and that among the dead was Rezeq Abu Shaira, 52, a doctor.

Health officials reached in Gaza by phone said that a man called Khaled Abu Anza had also been killed. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with protocol, said that Mr. Abu Anza was a Hamas operative.

The Israeli security agency and military said in a joint statement on Thursday that they had targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, whom they identified as a Hamas commander “responsible for holding numerous hostages captive” during the Gaza war.

The Israeli authorities said that Hamas had established a command center at the hospital complex to stage operations against Israeli forces and was storing weapons there. They added that steps had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians.

Hamas said the Israeli claim that the hospital was used for military activity was a “blatant attempt to justify a heinous crime targeting a civilian medical facility.” Residents of Gaza have said that officials affiliated with Hamas-run Gaza government and security forces sometimes use the enclave’s hospitals as offices.

In a statement, Gaza’s health ministry condemned the attack, calling it a “flagrant violation of international laws and conventions.” It did not respond to the Israeli claims.

Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, is the largest functioning hospital in southern Gaza. Video recorded in the facility, distributed by The Associated Press, showed remains of the munitions used in the attack.

Trevor Ball, a former explosive-ordnance disposal technician for the U.S. Army who is now an analyst at Armament Research Services, a consulting firm, said that the footage showed two 250-pound precision-guided, American-manufactured aerial bombs. In the footage, it appeared that one of the bombs had failed to detonate after penetrating the building. A serial number was still visible on the warhead.

Naseem Hassan, an emergency medical worker at Nasser Hospital, said in the hours after the attack that missiles had hit a four-story building in the hospital complex, damaging the surgery department.

The attack comes more than a year into a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that has not brought an end to Israeli military strikes in Gaza and that has done little to alleviate the dire and deadly living conditions for the enclave’s two million residents.

Israel has continued to carry out frequent strikes in Gaza despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that Israel and Hamas agreed to in October 2025. More than 1,600 people have been killed by Israeli fire during the cease-fire, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its death tolls.

Nasser Hospital has been struck by the Israeli military multiple times since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompted a devastating Israeli military response in Gaza. More than 74,000 people have been killed in the war, according to the health ministry.

In August last year, 20 people — including medical staff, rescue workers, patients and journalists — were killed in a strike on the hospital that drew a rare admission of error from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who called it a “tragic mishap.”

James McManagan contributed reporting.

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9) Hospitals Brace for Medicaid Work Rules and Deep Funding Cuts

Health systems are racing to guide millions of patients through new eligibility hoops, slated to go into effect Jan. 1.

By Christopher Rowland, Published Nov. 11, 2026, Updated Nov. 12, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/business/hospitals-medicaid-cuts.html

People sitting at a table and standing nearby, in front of a sign that reads “Questions about medical insurance?”

Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis is dispatching teams into the city’s low-income neighborhoods to help educate patients on keeping their Medicaid coverage. Lee Klafczynski for The New York Times

Hospitals across the country are mobilizing an expansive outreach effort in an attempt to ensure that roughly 19 million patients do not lose their insurance coverage under new Medicaid work rules that begin in January.

Saying the requirements are generating widespread anxiety and confusion, health care executives are using a variety of methods to help guide the Americans who will be affected. They are deploying staff and volunteers to contact patients with text messages, phone calls and offers of help.

The rules dictate that able-bodied adults without young children either work, volunteer or attend school or job training for at least 80 hours a month. Republicans included the rules last year as part of President Trump’s package of tax cuts and reductions in safety net spending, including nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.

Hospitals and other health centers are detailing what evidence people in many cases must provide — pay stubs or other proof of work or school attendance — to maintain coverage.

“There’s going to be people who fall through the cracks,” said Nicole Harper, chief financial officer at Eskenazi Health, a safety-net hospital in Indianapolis. “We’re bracing for impact.”

Because hospitals are heavily reliant on Medicaid funding, keeping a stable patient population is critical for them to maintain government reimbursements.

And now that Democrats will assume control of Congress on Jan. 3, some health systems are also preparing lobbying efforts to restore Medicaid cutbacks.

But even with their sizable new majorities, Democrats do not have the votes to override a presidential veto. Unless they strike a deal with Republicans, a rollback of the Medicaid rules and funding cutbacks is uncertain.

Many G.O.P. congressional members have long supported work requirements for Medicaid recipients, contending the system was riddled with fraud and that health insurance should be earned. The government estimates the mandates will save $317 billion in taxpayer spending over 10 years.

By 2034, more than five million low-income people in 44 states and the District of Columbia will lose Medicaid coverage because of the work rules, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Many will fall off by missing filing deadlines and failing to navigate red tape, even if they meet the rules’ criteria, officials and experts said.

Last month, a federal judge in Boston blocked a requirement that would have made it harder for people too sick to work to seek an exemption. Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said on CNBC recently that the ruling would be appealed.

But state and health officials must still review hundreds of serious illnesses and disabilities to decide which patients might qualify.

Complicating matters, the lists of ailments differ from state to state. Nebraska, for instance, has an exemption for rheumatoid arthritis, while Montana does not.

Effects will be far-reaching

For health systems, the price of patients losing Medicaid coverage is high. Emergency rooms could swell with uninsured patients and hospitals would take a significant financial hit from the loss of reimbursements. More than a third of the nearly $1 trillion in annual Medicaid spending goes to hospitals, paid for withfederal and state taxpayer money.

Safety-net hospitals with large numbers of Medicaid patients warn the financial losses will result in increases in charitable care and uncollected bills, which will shift higher costs to employers and patients with commercial insurance.

Small rural hospitals, which already are operating on thin margins, could be forced to shed jobs and services like maternity wards.

Roseland Community Hospital, a safety-net institution in Chicago, said looming Medicaid cuts were among factors that prompted its bankruptcy filing this month.

Among the people most affected are part-time retail employees, seasonal farm laborers and gig workers like Uber drivers. Many will need to hunt down pay stubs, meet recurring deadlines and fill out complicated eligibility forms.

In Indianapolis, the Eskenazi hospital is dispatching teams in the city’s low-income neighborhoods to educate patients, Ms. Harper said.

The requirements apply to states that expanded their Medicaid populations under the Affordable Care Act, which allowed childless adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty line to get coverage.

Nebraska and Montana imposed work rules earlier this year, providing a glimpse of what to expect in other states.

After Nebraska imposed mandates in May, wait times on its Medicaid call center rose to as much as two hours from under 30 minutes, according to executives and advocates.

Nebraska’s monthly Medicaid approvals fell 25 percent, or nearly 1,400 people, in May, June and July, according to an analysis of publicly available data by The Hilltop Institute, a nonpartisan research group at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

The state’s health centers also reported an increase in uninsured patients.

State officials said in an email that Nebraska denied Medicaid coverage to 1,773 people through September based on work rules alone. They said additional denials across other categories were caused by “seasonal fluctuations” and that it would be premature to attribute them to policy changes.

“Nebraska prepared carefully before launching work requirements on May 1, including training eligibility staff; communicating with community partners; and sending more than 75,000 notices, 38,000 text messages and 10,000 emails,” said Collin Spilinek, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

In Montana, which started applying the rules in October, experts said confusion is widespread. They cited state notification letters with conflicting deadlines and a website they found difficult to navigate.

To qualify for a medical exemption in Montana, people must select an ailment from a list of hundreds of permissible diagnoses.

Montana’s list includes kuru, a neurodegenerative disease originating in the South Pacific that is virtually extinct, according to a scientific paper, which notes: “The end of cannibalism has put an end to this disease.”

Nebraska’s diagnoses list also includes kuru but is more encompassing.

“Nebraska has a very exhaustive list that we feel is overly inclusive,” said Rebecca de Camara, Montana’s Medicaid director, said at a legislative hearing in June. “We are trying to have a fairly narrow list that we believe really constitutes medical frailty.”

Montana Medicaid officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Officials and community leaders from Pennsylvania to California say they are moving quickly to prepare for a deadline crush at year’s end.

“It’s going to be a big train wreck,” said Sara Singer, a Stanford University health policy professor and member of a Northern California coalition using artificial intelligence to identify patients at risk of losing coverage.

Community health executives are worried that state Medicaid managers are not fully prepared as the clock ticks down. States have scrambled to issue new contracts to vendors and build systems to scoop up data from multiple government sources, said Matthew Salo, a consultant and past president of the National Association of Medicaid Administrators.

“There really wasn’t enough time to roll out something that was this complex,” he said.

Indiana, which adopted tougher deadlines and procedures than Congress, including quarterly compliance checks, is hiring 400 workers as part of $43 million a year in new spending to manage the new rules, said its Medicaid director, Audrey Frenzel.

Hospital executives in Nebraska said they expected problems to intensify. Since May, 90 percent of the state’s Medicaid denials were attributed to incomplete or improperly filed paperwork, said Jeremy Nordquist, chief executive of the Nebraska Hospital Association.

“That shows that we all have a lot of work left to make sure folks understand what they have to do to keep their coverage,” he said.

Nebraska’s Medicaid agency said that 83 percent of coverage denials for new applications were for people who did not respond to requests for information.

Drew Gonshorowski, who stepped down as the state’s Medicaid director in August and supports work rules, said eligibility checks occur on the anniversary of the original enrollment, which would soften the impact by spreading the burden over the year.

“Regardless of the views on the specific policy, there is opportunity to do what Medicaid programs do really well: extend a hand to the most vulnerable,” he said.

In 2018, Arkansas was the first state to try work mandates under Medicaid, resulting in the loss of insurance for 18,000 people before a federal judge suspended the program.

A survey published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the program was “plagued by confusion,” noting that 92 percent of those who lost insurance had actually met the work requirement or should have been exempt.

Many of the 19 million adults who are subject to the work requirements can be automatically requalified using state income-tax data systems and other digital sources, according to state Medicaid directors. Others can expect a twice-yearly check-in.

“This is a little like having a D.M.V. appointment to try to prove you’re meeting your work requirements every month,” said Shelly Schlenker, executive vice president for CommonSpirit Health, a system with hospitals in 24 states. “If you’re already struggling to make ends meet, it’s one more burden in your life.”

Sanford Health, the nation’s largest rural health system based in Sioux Falls, S.D., said it was identifying opportunities in its 60 hospitals and 145 nursing homes for recipients to volunteer as valets or patient aides to maintain benefits.

In Michigan, the Henry Ford Health provider network assigned a four-person team a list of 1,400 Medicaid recipients to contact by phone last month, said Raquel Fenderson, who helps patients navigate the system.

People are asking: “How do I qualify, do I qualify?’’’ she said. “I tell them the process is still very new and we don’t have all the information.”

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10) Cities Have a New Tactic to Block ICE Jails: Run Out the Clock

A lawsuit by San Antonio is part of a wave of legal challenges slowing the Trump administration’s effort to build immigration detention centers across the country.

By Edgar Sandoval, Reporting from San Antonio, Nov. 12, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/12/us/ice-detention-center-san-antonio.html

The Rev. Jimmy Drennan, wearing clerical garments, stands in front of a stained-glass window.

The Rev. Jimmy Drennan at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in San Antonio. Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

With roughly seven weeks until a Democratic majority takes over Congress, San Antonio is using a lawsuit to stall the Trump administration’s plan to turn a warehouse into a detention center for 1,500 immigrants.

Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat who represents part of the city, hopes the party’s new majority in Congress can block the project for good when it takes power in January.

“We are just getting going now,” Mr. Castro said. “Those places, those warehouses, are not suited for people.”

The projects have faced resistance and legal defeats, and several have been scrapped.

In San Antonio, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and other officials have said they have been kept in the dark since February, when the government purchased the sprawling warehouse for $66 million.

The city sued last month to stop work there until the federal government studies its effects on its neighborhood, joining nearly a dozen other cities, states and nonprofit groups to challenge such plans in court.

“In their rush to convert warehouses into Amazon-like store-and-ship facilities for immigrants, defendants have trampled over federal law designed to protect the city and other stakeholders’ interests,” San Antonio’s lawsuit reads.

The city, like others that have sued, argues that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has skipped legally required environmental reviews. The argument has already slowed the agency’s plans elsewhere: A federal judge in Maryland recently blocked a similar warehouse conversion on the same grounds. ICE has paused or dropped plans in at least five other states.

In San Antonio, the City Attorney’s Office said it was in talks with the Justice Department over a deal that would pause both the lawsuit and the work on the warehouse.

Ms. Jones said in a statement that she wants to cooperate with Democrats in Austin and Washington to resist ICE’s aggressive crackdown.

“I look forward to working with them on those approaches, which must include preventing the establishment of an ICE detention facility in San Antonio,” Ms. Jones said.

ICE did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Under the Trump administration, immigration arrests have surged in San Antonio. The area, which is majority Latino, has an estimated 100,000 undocumented residents, city officials said.

At St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, less than a 15-minute drive from the proposed detention center, fears have run rampant among the many immigrant parishioners, the Rev. Jimmy Drennan said. In the months before the midterm elections, many called him to ask for his help in locating missing loved ones, whom they presume have been taken by ICE.

The warehouse project makes the threat concrete, he said.

“They are going to fill it up with our children’s friends, colleagues, neighbors and the people who occupy our churches,” Father Drennan said.

Mayor Jones and Mr. Castro have said that the troubles at other such facilities in Texas are cautionary tales.

At the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, about 73 miles south of San Antonio, migrants have complained about the lack of healthy food and medical care, and unsanitary conditions.

Advocates filed a legal motion last month demanding better conditions at Camp East Montana, the nation’s largest immigration detention center, which is inside the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso.

A center in Laredo came under scrutiny this month after the death of a Mexican man, who relatives said was a legal U.S. resident. His daughter said he had not received medicine for a heart condition, diabetes and high blood pressure. An ICE official denied that.

Democrats taking over Congress in January intend to oversee ICE and other immigration agencies closely, using money as a primary lever. Spending bills could be written to withhold or pull back money from agencies that have already received more than $100 billion.

“ICE would be wise to pause the purchases or sales of all of those ICE warehouses,” Mr. Castro said.

The prospect of stopping the San Antonio center is not universally popular. Two council members who lean conservative, Marc Whyte and Misty Spears, disagreed with their colleagues on the question.

“Federal law controls immigration, and City Hall has no business interfering,” they said in a joint statement. “Our residents sent us here to keep them safe, fix our infrastructure and make San Antonio a better place to live. Washington sets immigration policy. We’ve got more than enough work to do right here at home.”

But resistance is growing. A march last month organized by a county commissioner, Tommy Calvert, drew hundreds.

“The facility is woefully inadequate for human beings,” Mr. Calvert said.

Father Drennan said that many of his parishioners feared that they might end up locked inside the 639,595-square-foot warehouse.

“They are trying to make San Antonio the epicenter of the immigration movement, and it’s creating a great sense of fear and anger within the people of our community,” Father Drennan said of the federal government.

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11) Caught Between Killers: Ebola on One Side, Islamic State on the Other

The new epicenter of Congo’s fast-spreading outbreak is a region scarred by rebel violence. Responders are struggling to help it.

By Declan Walsh, Photographs by Daniel Berehulak, Nov. 13, 2026

Declan Walsh and Daniel Berehulak have traveled for weeks through remote towns in eastern Congo to track the spread of Ebola.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/13/world/africa/ebola-congo-isis.html

People in white protective suits handle a small box in a dirt alley.

Health care workers disinfect and prepare the body of child for burial at a makeshift treatment center.

Six months on, Ebola continues to hack a deadly trail across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

When the outbreak was first detected in May, it resembled a single, giant blaze, with infections concentrated in a handful of towns in one province.

It has since morphed into a far bigger, more elusive foe, creeping into eight provinces and splintering into numerous hot spots as it moves through one of the world’s great rainforests.

Instead of one big fire, there are many now, scattered across a vast area about the size of Britain.

Health workers have corralled the virus where it was first detected, but infections are soaring elsewhere. Biakato, a small town deep in the rainforest, suddenly accounted for as many as one-quarter of new cases nationally. Yet its beleaguered residents were left almost entirely on their own, with dangerously little to defend themselves against the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history.

“We see the same mistakes as before,” said Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who helped discover Ebola in 1976 and now heads Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research. “It’s as if we were starting from zero. It’s very disappointing.”

And if that were not enough, the campaign to contain the epidemic has run into a terrifying new threat: the Islamic State.

Ebola was already swamping Biakato when I got to the town in mid-October with the photographer Daniel Berehulak. Exhausted health workers reported 300 cases in the span of a month, up from 20 the month before.

But there were only two doctors, they hadn’t been paid in months, and they felt utterly abandoned. The aid workers who would normally pour in and set up an Ebola treatment center were being scared off by rebel fighters who have been terrorizing the region for years.

Their fears were tragically realized in recent days when the rebels, who are affiliated with the Islamic State, killed 106 people in a series of attacks across the region, U.N. officials said. One of the deadliest episodes occurred 25 miles south of Biakato, where militants torched homes, shops and health facilities, forcing Ebola patients to flee their beds. Thousands of residents also fled in an exodus likely to further spread the disease.

Even by the standards of eastern Congo, where conflict has raged for three decades, the fighters — from a group called the Allied Democratic Forces, or A.D.F. — are considered especially brutal. They roam the sprawling forests, periodically springing from their hiding places to mount attacks. Civilians are beheaded, mutilated and abducted. Children are forced to fight with the group. Mass killings have taken place at funerals and churches.

In 2019, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and by one recent estimate, it is the world’s second-deadliest group for civilians. Now, its terror tactics are hobbling the fight against Ebola.

A tentative effort to rescue Biakato is underway. Aid groups are using helicopters to fly over the perilous forests and have begun to build a treatment center. Even so, the local volunteers battling to hold back the tide of infections say they are in an impossible bind.

“We’ve got the A.D.F. on one side, and Ebola on the other,” said Jean-Lefranc Sakara, head of a Red Cross team that collects the Ebola dead from their houses. “We are well and truly caught in the middle.”

Daniel and I reached Biakato after a jolting two-hour ride through the rainforest. A wall of trees rose on either side, interrupted in places by ghost villages, their deserted buildings barely visible behind grass and weeds.

The fighters started preying on this forested corridor five years ago, ambushing passing traffic and raiding settlements. Most residents have since fled.

“It wasn’t safe for children any more,” said a man who suddenly emerged from the bushes, “so everyone moved to Biakato.” He hurried away, vanishing into the tall grass.

This muddy track, running 85 miles through the rainforest, has become the central artery of the outbreak. Cases are soaring in the towns of Beni and Mambasa, at either end of the road. Halfway along it lies Biakato.

Since May, more than 5,000 people have died in this outbreak, and experts fear it is growing so fast that it may surpass the devastating West Africa epidemic of 2014 to 2016, the largest on record, which killed more than 11,000. As recently as September, experts thought they were getting a handle on this one, but in recent weeks the transmission rate has risen again, according to official figures obtained by The New York Times, meaning it is still out of control.

Here in the district traversed by the Beni-Mambasa corridor, the transmission rate is double the average, suggesting that Ebola is spreading largely unchecked, experts say.

As we pressed on, Biakato came into view, its tin roofs sparkling amid the sea of green. On the edge of town, municipal workers guided us through a hand-washing station. In the center, motorbikes roared as people flowed into small shops and gold counters. Farmers dried cacao beans on giant mats, their lucrative crop used to make chocolate.

At the town hospital, chaos reigned. Families clustered by the gate, some wailing, as the bagged bodies of Ebola victims were carried out. An isolation area had been set up inside a pediatric ward. Patients sat listlessly on the steps outside, some visibly weak, separated from a bustling public section by a flimsy strip of orange fencing that did almost nothing to contain the disease.

Ebola patients and their relatives gathered by the fence, chatting at close quarters. One patient shared a bottle of juice with a visitor, passing it back and forth, risking transmission through infected saliva. Conditions were so bad that 75 percent of Ebola patients had died, the town’s records showed.

Espérance Kombi, a mother of seven, had been in the ward for two weeks. She looked stronger than most patients, but was traumatized by the deaths and suffering she had witnessed.

“I need a second heart to endure what I’ve seen in there,” she said, pointing to the ward door. “This one is not enough,” she added, tapping her chest.

Until recently, violence was the most pressing concern in Biakato. In May, fighters with the Islamic State affiliate stormed into the town, killing 21 people. Soldiers from nearby Uganda began patrolling the streets, under an agreement with the Congolese government, to ward off attacks.

But the upheaval continues just outside town. It got so dangerous recently that a group of hunter-gatherers from the forest, whose ancestors had lived there for centuries, took shelter beside the town’s Catholic church.

Alice Gloria, 18, sat on a stoop, still dazed by her ordeal. In September, fighters snatched her and her family from their farm. For four nights, she was marched through the forest, her 1-year-old baby in her arms.

At night, the fighters raped her repeatedly, she said in a whisper. “The older men did it.”

Ms. Gloria escaped on the fifth day, as the fighters attacked another farm. She walked for three days, carrying her daughter, until they reached Biakato. But her husband, Augustin, couldn’t escape with them. He was back in the forest, his fate unknown. “Still no news,” she said.

At first, it seemed that Ebola might bypass Biakato, said Job Bakwata, the town’s chief medical officer. The first recorded case was a gold miner who returned from the town of Mongbwalu in June, then died. But in the months that followed, as the virus ravaged other areas, Biakato had only a dribble of cases: one more in June, 14 in July, 20 in August.

Then in mid-September, infections surged, overwhelming the battered town.

Mr. Sakara, the Red Cross volunteer, threw himself into the response. A onetime seminarian, he had moved to Biakato four years earlier in search of safety. The rebels had attacked his home in the mountains of North Kivu, killing a sister and three brothers. “My grandfather told me to get out,” he said. “We came here to start over.”

After Ebola hit, he dropped everything to lead a small team that collects and disinfects the bodies of Ebola victims. Working that close to the virus was daunting, he said. The volunteers had protective suits but little training, and he felt terrified in the homes of Ebola victims who had just died, mopping up their infected blood or dragging their contaminated mattresses outside.

His team also faced hostility from the very people they are trying to save. Mourners hurled stones as they tried to bury the dead, showering them with insults and accusing them of somehow profiting from the outbreak. “They call it ‘Ebola business,’” he said.

That hostility was a disaster for the effort to stop the virus from spreading further. Ebola victims are at their most contagious after they die, which can turn unmanaged funerals into superspreader events.

Over the previous week, four members of his 12-person team had quit, fearing for their lives, he said. Nobody had stepped forward to replace them. “You cannot imagine what we are going through,” he said.

Rebels and many residents have one thing in common: Both groups were drawn to Biakato by cacao and gold. In a forest clearing outside town, Ismail Mbafumoja plucked a colorful pod from a branch, split it open and scooped out a brown seed coated in white pulp. “Cacao,” he said.

Until recently, his biggest worry was guarding his crop against Islamic State fighters and Congolese soldiers, both of whom he considered a threat. But now he had little time to farm at all because of all the funerals for Ebola’s victims. “I can’t count how many I’ve been to,” he said.

The farmer paused outside a neighbor’s house. Nobody was home, he said, because a child who lived here had just died. “Ebola,” he said.

The care Biakato’s patients so urgently needed could be found just 40 miles away, in Beni.

A treatment center run by Doctors Without Borders offered the gold standard in Ebola care. Doctors in white suits worked in tented wards. Strict safety protocols were observed. There were over 200 staff members, about six per patient. The center even had psychologists to manage patient trauma.

“We’ve learned a lot from previous outbreaks,” said Sam Arnold, the facility’s deputy head.

There was nothing of the sort in Biakato, despite the surging cases. In 2013, four Doctors Without Borders workers were abducted in an A.D.F. raid on a village in North Kivu Province. One escaped after 13 months; the other three have never been found.

The World Health Organization, which is leading the effort to get help to Biakato, has its own painful history in the town. During the last outbreak in this area, in 2019, armed men attacked its guesthouse in Biakato, killing three Ebola responders. Officials blamed the violence on the Mai-Mai, a term for local militias.

That leaves health officials walking a tightrope. Proceed too slowly, and Biakato could become a deep reservoir of Ebola, spreading infection across the region. Move too quickly, and they risk an attack, like a killing or a kidnapping of aid workers, that could collapse the entire effort.

Mistrust among local residents is also a problem. After decades of war, and numerous failed military operations, faith in the government has collapsed, officials said. The same Congolese soldiers who are supposed to protect the community also prey on it, seeking bribes or profiting from gold. When Ebola came along, locals saw the disease as yet another plot to suppress them.

“They don’t trust outsiders,” said Julien Harneis, the United Nations Ebola coordinator in Congo. “Experience has taught them not to.”

As infections began to rise in September, a W.H.O. team returned to Biakato to see how they might help. The omens were ominous, at first. The health workers woke one morning to find a headless sheep dumped outside their hotel — a sign they were not welcome, said Dr. Steve Ahuka, the head of Congo’s Ebola response.

But within weeks, Ebola had become so overwhelming that Biakato’s distrustful leaders were pleading for help.

On Oct. 12, Dr. Ahuka and Catherine Smallwood, a senior W.H.O. official, returned to Biakato to a very different reception. Local leaders formed a circle around Ms. Smallwood and, after apologizing for the 2019 killings, implored her to send help.

“They asked me to put the past in the past,” she recalled. “It was an extremely touching moment.”

Since then, the W.H.O. has deployed officials and revamped the chaotic health center. The Congolese government set up a lab to test patients. Medair, a Swiss aid organization, has sent medics.

And yet, even that may not be enough.

To stamp out the virus, health workers need to trace every known contact of an infected person. That kind of investigative work is impossible in the countryside while the A.D.F. still threatens it.

Dr. Muyembe, the Ebola expert, urged his government to consider what was once unthinkable: reaching out to the Islamic State.

“You absolutely have to find a way to get in touch with these people,” he said. “You have to tell them, ‘This is a risk you face, too.’”

Such an approach, even if exploratory, would be difficult, he admitted. Congo’s government officially refuses to negotiate with the A.D.F., a group the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.

“But we have to do it,” Dr. Muyembe urged.

Otherwise, he said, Ebola “will be impossible to contain.”

On the verge of collapse, Moïse Kalindera, 27, struggled up the steps of the Ebola ward, assisted by a medical worker in a white suit.

For weeks, relatives had been ferrying him from one clinic to another, in an increasingly frantic search for a cure. When he tested positive for Ebola, they refused to believe it.

“We think he has been poisoned,” his sister, Consolée, said as she watched him shuffle through the ward doors.

Mr. Kalindera was placed in a small room with another young man who offered hope of a way out.

Germain Kanyungu, a 31-year-old farmhand, had no illusions about Ebola. After fighting the virus for weeks, he was finally recovering and had just tested negative. One more result like that and he would be free.

He couldn’t wait. “Once I get out of here,” he said, “I’m never coming back to Biakato.”

That night, the two young men got to talking in the lonely Ebola ward, Mr. Kanyungu later recounted. They shared jokes and laughed. Mr. Kanyungu helped his roommate eat and comforted him when he confided his fears of dying.

The next day, Consolée and a brother came to visit. But neither wore any protection, and the brother emptied Mr. Kalindera’s urine bucket with his bare hands — a risk that Mr. Kanyungu found utterly reckless.

That night, Mr. Kalindera deteriorated sharply. He vomited, suffered diarrhea and begged for water. A nurse tried to insert an IV line, but failed to find a vein. Soon after, he died quietly in his sleep.

Nobody came to collect the body, leaving Mr. Kanyungu to spend the night alongside his dead companion, unable to sleep.

“I don’t want to go back inside,” he said the next morning, sitting outside in the sun. “I’ve seen too many people die.”

A truck arrived to carry Mr. Kalindera’s flower-print coffin to a forest clearing, a few miles outside town, where Ebola victims were being buried.

Over 100 freshly dug graves were squeezed amid a cluster of towering palm trees whose fronds formed a vaulted canopy over the impromptu cemetery. Plain wooden crosses bore no names. Gravediggers leaned on shovels, some swigging from beer bottles. The smell of hashish wafted through the air.

Mr. Sakara’s Red Cross volunteers maneuvered the coffin toward an open pit, struggling to keep their balance in the narrow spaces between graves. One slipped, causing the coffin to lurch, then fall into the grave with a thud. Onlookers grimaced or cried out in shock.

With no priest and no prayers, the gravediggers quickly scooped the rich, loamy earth into the grave. Wailing filled the air. One woman fell to the ground as soil hit Mr. Kalindera’s coffin. “Oh, Moïse!” she cried.

Consolée was absent — family members had forced her into isolation, fearing her visit to the ward might have infected her.

Yards away, another group began digging the next grave. A third group arrived, bearing a coffin for burial.

One mourner turned toward us.

“This is the fault of the white people,” she said loudly. “You brought Ebola here.”

Jeering erupted, led by the gravediggers.

“You killed him! I hope you are happy!”

“Let’s attack them!”

Two men beside us debated whether we were really journalists. Another walked up, holding out a hoe. “Take it, white man,” he said to me. “Help us dig.”

One of the gravediggers waved a toy wooden rifle, then pointed it at me.

As we slipped away, handfuls of soil fell on our heads, thrown from the direction of Mr. Kalindera’s grave.

The next day, Mr. Kanyungu left the Ebola ward, removing his white face mask to reveal a broad smile.

His second test had come back negative.

He was going home.

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12) Study Hard, Get a Career, Get Ahead? It’s Not What It Used to Be.

From India to France, the implicit meritocratic bargain that underwrote stable societies by providing advancement to new generations is breaking down.

By Amanda Taub, Nov. 13, 2026

“And young people across Europe are set to walk out on Nov. 20 in a general strike that could disrupt schools and businesses throughout the continent.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/13/world/europe/education-meritocracy.html

A dense crowd of protesters, many in white shirts, some with masks with the face of an insect.

A Cockroach Janta Party protest at the New Delhi airport in June. Atul Loke for The New York Times

Protest movements have long relied on students as some of the most ardent foot soldiers. Young people have been on the front lines of protests against war, climate change and racial inequality. But in huge protests that have shaken India and France this fall, students have revolted against the failed promises of education itself.

In India, students took to the streets after the government abruptly canceled the results of a medical-school admissions exam because test questions had been leaked online. Aspiring doctors had to take the test again, after many spent years studying for up to 12 hours a day in hopes of winning one of the coveted spots — and the chance of upward mobility. Young people across the country saw the scandal as emblematic of a broken education system and were furious.

In France, students in poor suburbs outside Paris began protesting the decrepit physical condition of their schools, an opaque university admissions system and absent teachers. French education had long promised to serve as a “social elevator” enabling young people to advance in society, but had fallen into disrepair. Soon, demonstrations spread across the country and, in some cities, spiraled into rioting.

In both countries, the anger of the students shows no signs of abating. And while in many ways France and India could hardly be more different, their unrest was sparked by a similar source of outrage: the breakdown of a foundational social contract that one could call the meritocratic bargain.

It is a promise that lies at the core of many countries’ political compacts. Though specifics can vary, the central proposition usually goes something like this: A fair society rewards merit. Educational achievements are a good measure of merit because education is open to all and leads to valuable skills. Therefore, education should be a route to social and economic advancement.

The value of this system is not just that it selects for those with high ability, but also that it offers a justification for the resulting socioeconomic hierarchy — including who ends up at the bottom. “All selection mechanisms generate losers,” said Nicholas Kuipers, a professor at Princeton University who studies the politics of meritocracy. “The question is, Who do you want to be a loser, and who do you want to be a winner?”

In many places around the world, that system has proved to be remarkably effective, in large part because education has translated relatively straightforwardly into economic mobility.

But increasingly, many who work hard at higher education, often going into debt and sacrificing years of earnings potential to do so, are finding that the rewards are not there at the end. Instead of expected winnings, many young people are greeted with a life of economic struggle.

This discontent is affecting politics elsewhere as well. In the United States, data from The New York Times showed that 70 percent of voters under 30 in the recent midterm elections cast their ballots for Democrats, who tapped educated young people’s widespread frustration over being saddled with debt and stuck in low-paid, dead-end jobs.

In Serbia, student protests grew into a political movement that ousted Aleksandar Vucic, the country’s longtime nationalist strongman, in an election last month. And young people across Europe are set to walk out on Nov. 20 in a general strike that could disrupt schools and businesses throughout the continent.

An even bigger threat looms on the horizon, one that could upend the bargain everywhere: A.I. promises to dramatically restructure, or perhaps sever completely, the relationship between education and well-paid work.

That has the potential to further challenge not only the distribution of economic rewards, but the political bargain on which modern societies have been built.

Historically, such moments have been explosive — even revolutionary.

Meritocracy’s Promises and Pitfalls

The version of the meritocratic bargain we see today, with university education as a primary filter for middle-class careers, is a relatively recent construct, and not to be taken for granted.

Britain didn’t introduce universal, free secondary education until 1944. In the United States, college was largely the province of the privileged few until the G.I. Bill opened access to veterans after World War II. Around the same time, the SAT created the first nationally standardized benchmark for admissions.

In countries whose economies developed later, the bargain took even longer to take shape. In India, the national college entrance exam was not introduced until the 1960s. In China, there is a long history of using meritocratic exams to select civil servants and other elites, but that system was disrupted by 20th-century reforms and the Cultural Revolution. The modern system was ushered in by Deng Xiaoping. In 1977 he re-established the national “gaokao” exam system as part of a post-Cultural Revolution rebuilding process. In the late 1990s, further reforms radically expanded university access.

For individuals, this access to education promised more money, more status or both. But for governments, it also offered political stability — a way to convince people to buy into society as currently structured, by promising the potential for advancement to the underprivileged without ousting those who had wealth and power already.

Research has shown that the prospect of upward mobility — sometimes abbreviated as POUM — can make the poor less likely to demand redistribution. In China, merit-based selection for civil service jobs made people more willing to tolerate inequality, Hanzhang Liu, a political scientist at Florida State University, has found.

When people believed the system was meritocratic, they were more likely to attribute their failures to their own poor abilities, or to the high quality of the competition, she said. But when they did not believe so, those who lost out on jobs were more likely to consider the system rigged.

Still, education-based meritocracy puts significant burdens on the young people working to advance, and on their families. In India, students often go into debt and spend years of grueling study to try to win spots at the most prestigious engineering and medical programs.

In South Korea, national tests have generated an entire industry of cram schools known as hagwons, where students toil for hours each day on top of their regular schoolwork. In the United States, networks of charter schools like KIPP popularized the idea that for poor, ambitious kids, “college starts in kindergarten.” And when actual college starts, American students can easily take on six-figure debts for their degrees.

The Danger of Shattered Expectations

Just as the meritocratic bargain can be a source of social cohesion, a breakdown can become a trigger for social explosion.

In 1905, China abolished the national civil service exam that had for 1,300 years been a major way to recruit elites, including government bureaucrats. That move came as a shock to the people who had invested in years of education, hoping to earn a privileged position in society.

Those shattered expectations contributed to the revolutionary uprisings that eventually overthrew the imperial dynasty in 1911, according to the economists Ying Bai, at the University of Hong Kong, and Ruixue Jia, at the University of California, San Diego.

In an influential 2016 paper, they found that frustrated commoners who had hoped to become elites via the exam were especially likely to join the revolution. Disillusioned scholars flocked to revolutionary organizations in search of alternative routes to advancement, and became a major force behind the revolt.

That is not to say that France’s unrest signals the imminent return of the guillotine. But the recent protests there, and in other European countries like Italy and Spain, were fueled, in part, by the sense that the old order was enriching itself at the expense of providing opportunities for young people.

Much the same can be said of the student protest movement that led to the election defeat of Mr. Vucic in Serbia, where angry young people felt that meritocratic opportunity had been crowded out by corruption.

Protests can be a blunt instrument. But data show that the demonstrators have a point. In Europe, high unemployment rates for young people, paired with skyrocketing costs of living, have put the traditional milestones of independent adulthood out of reach for many.

Even in countries with healthier economies, there are signs that the breakdown of the meritocratic bargain is already having political consequences. In India, economic growth has been stronger, but it has not created enough jobs to keep up with the expansion of higher education.

In the United States, the emphasis on higher education as a sorting mechanism has led to people pouring tens of thousands of dollars into degrees that no longer necessarily confer economic advancement but still charge as if they do. Discontent has fueled the rise of political movements like the Democratic Socialists of America and efforts to unionize the work forces of companies like Starbucks and Amazon, Noam Scheiber, a Times labor reporter, writes in his new book, “Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class.”

But the biggest blow to the meritocratic bargain may be yet to come, as many fear that A.I. could do for knowledge work what a meteor strike once did for the dinosaurs.

A.I.’s arrival has already wiped out some entry-level technical jobs. In the United States, young coders are finding themselves working at Chipotle rather than starting the highly paid tech careers they had expected.

Even if A.I. does not eliminate professionals like lawyers, scientists and doctors, it may radically reshape those fields — and perhaps slash the salaries that come with them.

Some professions may adapt by making greater use of A.I. tools, even as other careers see their pay and numbers collapse. With time, new educational structures may also develop to match skills and meritocratic selection to the demands of a new economy.

But such profound economic change is by its very nature disruptive. In the meantime, it is likely to sow even more confusion about how young people can set themselves up for success, or prevent themselves from sliding down the economic ladder.

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13) The Twisted Logic of the Death Penalty Is Losing Its Power

By Bryan Stevenson, Nov. 13, 2026

Mr. Stevenson is a public interest lawyer. He has helped win reversals, relief or release from prison for over 140 people who had been wrongly sentenced to death.

“A decade after the death penalty was restored, overwhelming evidence of racial disparities in sentencing was presented to the Supreme Court in McCleskey v. Kemp. In response, the court’s majority surrendered to racial bigotry, declaring that racial disparities in sentencing were ‘an inevitable part of our criminal justice system.’ These disparities have endured. A lawsuit filed in the California Supreme Court in 2024 presented empirical evidence that Black and Latino defendants are up to 8.7 and 6.2 times as likely to be sentenced to death compared to all other defendants. It is impossible to claim a commitment to racial equality while authorizing executions in the face of such evidence of systemic bias.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/13/opinion/sunday/gavin-newsom-clemency-california.html

Gavin Newsom stares into the distance with a serious expression on his face. He is wearing a white button-down shirt and is set in front of a warm, blurred background.

Will Crooks for The New York Times

The death penalty in America is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit; it is about whether our imperfect governments deserve to kill. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s commutation last week of all of California’s 548 death sentences to life imprisonment without parole is a remarkable act of moral leadership.

California’s death penalty has cost taxpayers billions of dollars. It has absorbed enormous judicial and legal resources, even though California’s homicide rate has dropped dramatically without a single execution in 20 years. No one disputes that people on California’s death row have been convicted of horrific crimes. Many law enforcement officials and survivors of victims have understandably expressed anger about these commutations. My grandfather was murdered when I was 16, and I understand the rage and pain that violent crime produces. But we must reject the policy of blood for blood. The men and women who were on California’s death row will still be severely punished without the death penalty.

The United States Supreme Court effectively ended capital punishment in 1972 when it concluded in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty had been applied in an arbitrary and unreliable manner, violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

In many states, particularly former Confederate states in the South, the disproportionate execution of Black and poor people was considered so essential that new, discretionary schemes for imposing the death penalty were quickly devised. Within four years, the Supreme Court upheld a new era of capital punishment that spread across the nation.

The modern death penalty has been a complete failure. It is characterized by wrongful convictions, racial bias, unreliable proceedings and arbitrary and unjust sentencing. More than 200 people sentenced to death have been exonerated of the crimes for which they were convicted. For every eight people executed in America, one innocent person has been identified. This astonishing failure ratio would never be tolerated in aviation, food safety or virtually any other area of public policy — but executions persist.

Recent executions have exposed the cruelty of capital punishment in graphic and shocking ways. Botched executions, where condemned people writhe, gasp for air, moan and struggle before death, have become common in multiple states. The recent, torturous execution attempt in Tennessee that left Christa Pike unconscious for days forced many Americans to confront the myth that lethal injection leads to a peaceful death.

All of this dysfunction has taken place at a time when the United States Supreme Court has largely abandoned its oversight role in ensuring that states carry out the death penalty constitutionally. A decade after the death penalty was restored, overwhelming evidence of racial disparities in sentencing was presented to the Supreme Court in McCleskey v. Kemp. In response, the court’s majority surrendered to racial bigotry, declaring that racial disparities in sentencing were “an inevitable part of our criminal justice system.”

These disparities have endured. A lawsuit filed in the California Supreme Court in 2024 presented empirical evidence that Black and Latino defendants are up to 8.7 and 6.2 times as likely to be sentenced to death compared to all other defendants. It is impossible to claim a commitment to racial equality while authorizing executions in the face of such evidence of systemic bias.

Today’s Supreme Court almost always refuses to stop executions, even when there are grave concerns about someone’s guilt, or lower federal judges have issued stays based on serious claims of constitutional violations. Without meaningful Supreme Court review, the burden has shifted to governors. Mr. Newsom’s decision should encourage other elected officials to be more active guardians of justice. The power of commutation exists for precisely such a moment as this.

Protecting the powerless and despised frequently comes with harsh and bitter political backlash. That’s true for any act of principled and moral leadership. During the civil rights era, a handful of federal judges and elected officials in the South confronted the injustice of Jim Crow segregation and distinguished themselves by doing what was right, despite intense opposition. These leaders upheld the values that make for a more just society. Mr. Newsom has reminded us that the death penalty presents a similar reckoning.

Like Mr. Newsom, Governors Laura Kelly in Kansas and Mike DeWine in Ohio have spoken openly about the flaws surrounding capital punishment. As their terms draw to a close, these governors have a chance to use their power and authority to do what the law permits and justice requires and commute death sentences to life imprisonment.

Ms. Pike endured her torturous botched execution attempt under Gov. Bill Lee’s watch. The governor has paused executions in his state but his successor, Marsha Blackburn, has threatened to electrocute Ms. Pike once she is sworn in. Ms. Pike’s attorneys have asked Mr. Lee to commute her death sentence before he leaves office in January. The governor has a short window to demonstrate that his role is not to enable the cruelty of the state, but to act as a backstop against it.

Exercising that authority need not be political suicide. Some will continue to use the death penalty to project a false sense of strength, but the twisted logic of killing people to show that killing is wrong is losing its power. This week, Gallup published a poll showing that support for the death penalty has dropped below 50 percent for the first time in over 50 years. Roy Cooper commuted 15 death sentences before leaving the North Carolina governor’s mansion in 2025. Last week, he became the first Democrat to win a North Carolina seat in the Senate in nearly 20 years. Even Alabama’s conservative Republican governor, Kay Ivey, has been compelled to commute three death sentences in recent years, more than any Alabama governor in decades.

At the end of the Revolutionary War, George Washington wrote to the nation’s newly independent governors, invoking the biblical charge “to do justice and to love mercy.” Throughout our nation’s history, that dictate has been ignored again and again in favor of retribution. By commuting hundreds of death sentences, Mr. Newsom has demonstrated what it means to lead with both of these virtues. It is now up to other leaders to find the moral courage to do the same.

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BAUAW NEWSLETTER

11/13/2026

Bay Area United Against War Newsletter, November 13, 2026

End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli

Organization Support Letter

Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky

Petition in Support of Boris Kagarlitsky

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