Seven-month-old Hasan Ahmed Felfel receives limited treatment for severe malnutrition at Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, Palestine on August 3, 2025. 

(Photo by Mohammad Yasir/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A senior official at the global rights group implored members of the international community to “uphold their moral and legal obligations to bring an end to Israel’s ongoing genocide.”

BRETT WILKINS

Aug 18, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

Amnesty International on Monday published new testimonies of Palestinians suffering from Israel’s “systemic and intentional” campaign of starvation in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of people—including more than 100 children—have died of malnutrition over 682 days of US-backed genocide.

Israel “is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, well-being, and social fabric of Palestinian life,” Amnesty said in an introduction to the testimonies of starved and forcibly displaced civilians in the embattled enclave.

Amnesty said that the victims’ accounts underscore the group’s “repeated findings that the deadly combination of hunger and disease is not an unfortunate byproduct of Israel’s military operations.”

“It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented, over the past 22 months, to deliberately inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction—which is part and parcel of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” the group added. The statement used language found in the treaty under which the International Court of Justice is currently determining whether Israel is committing the crime of genocide.

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Among the 19 Palestinians interviewed by Amnesty are Hadeel, a 28-year-old pregnant mother of two, who said, “I fear miscarriage, but I also think about my baby: I panic just thinking about the potential impact of my own hunger on the baby’s health, its weight, whether it will have [birth defects], and even if the baby is born healthy, what life awaits it, amidst displacement, bombs, tents.”

Aziza, age 75, told Amnesty: “I feel like I have become a burden on my family. When we were displaced, they had to push me on a wheelchair. With toilet queues extremely long in the camp where we stay, I need adult diapers, which are extremely expensive. I need medication for diabetes, blood pressure, and a heart condition, and have had to take medicine which has expired.”

Nahed, who is 66 yearsc old, said that “people I knew were almost unrecognizable” due to the effects of famine, and that “the experience of hunger and war has changed Gaza completely.”

Adding that the desperate scramble for food “has denied people their humanity,” Nahed described what she saw at an aid distribution site. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed or wounded while seeking aid, including more than 850 people slain at or near sites run by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) whistleblowers have said they were ordered to fire live bullets and artillery shells into crowds of desperate aid-seekers, even when they posed no security threat.

“I had to go there because I have nobody to look after me,” Nahed explained. “I saw with my own eyes people carrying bags of flour stained with the blood of those who had just been shot.”

One emergency doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City—which has endured multiple IDF attacks, including the alleged execution of children in and around the facility—told Amnesty that many patients would be leading “reasonable lives” were it not for the “combination of starvation, destruction, and depletion of the healthcare system, unsanitary conditions, and multiple displacements under inhumane conditions.”

Referring to Israel’s imminent US-backed reoccupation of Gaza and plan to ethnically cleanse 1 million Palestinians from in and around Gaza City, Erika Guevara Rosas—Amnesty’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns—said Monday that “as Israeli authorities threaten to launch a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza City, the testimonies we have collected are far more than accounts of suffering, they are a searing indictment of an international system that has granted Israel a license to torment Palestinians with near-total impunity for decades.”

Such impunity was implicit in a recording broadcast on an Israeli news channel Sunday in which former IDF Gen. Aharon Haliva said that for every Israeli killed during the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, “50 Palestinians must die,” and “it doesn’t matter” if “they are children.”

Guevara Rosas continued:

To even begin reversing the devastating consequences of Israel’s inhumane policies and actions, which have made mass starvation a grim reality in Gaza, there must be an immediate, unconditional lifting of the blockade and a sustained ceasefire. The impact of Israel’s blockade and its ongoing genocide on civilians, particularly on children, people with disabilities, those with chronic illnesses, older people, and pregnant and breastfeeding women is catastrophic and cannot be undone by simply increasing the number of aid trucks or restoring performative, ineffective, and dangerous airdrops of aid.

“In the face of the horrors Israel is inflicting on the Palestinian population in Gaza, the international community, particularly Israel’s allies… must uphold their moral and legal obligations to bring an end to Israel’s ongoing genocide,” Guevara Rosas added. “States must urgently suspend all arms transfers, adopt targeted sanctions, and terminate any engagement with Israeli entities when this contributes to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

The new Amnesty report came as the Gaza Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s 22-month annihilation and siege of the strip topped 62,000—mostly women and children—although experts say the actual toll is likely far higher. The ministry also said Monday that at least 263 people, including 112 children, have starved to death since October 2023.

Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder and forced starvation—deny Gazans are starving. However, even as staunch a supporter as US Vice President JD Vance has acknowledged that “little kids… are clearly starving to death” in Gaza.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

BRETT WILKINS

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

Passengers on a bus watch federal and local law enforcement officers arrest five people on August 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. 

(Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

“If troops or federal agents violate our rights, they must be held accountable,” the ACLU said.

BRETT WILKINS

Aug 18, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

As President Donald Trump escalates the US military occupation of Washington, DC—including by importing hundreds of out-of-state National Guard troops and allowing others to start carrying guns on missions in the nation’s capital—the ACLU on Monday reminded his administration that federal forces are constitutionally obligated to protect, not violate, residents’ rights.

“With additional state National Guard troops deploying to DC as untrained federal law enforcement agents perform local police duties in city streets, the American Civil Liberties Union is issuing a stark reminder to all federal and military officials that—no matter what uniform they wear or what authority they claim—they are bound by the US Constitution and all federal and local laws,” the group said in a statement.

Over the weekend, the Republican governors of Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia announced that they are deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to join the 800 DC guardsmen and women recently activated by Trump, who also asserted federal control over the city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

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Trump dubiously declared a public safety emergency in a city where violent crime is down 26% from a year ago, when it was at its second-lowest level since 1966, according to official statistics. Critics have noted that Trump’s crackdown isn’t just targeting criminals, but also unhoused and mentally ill people, who have had their homes destroyed and property taken.

Contradicting assurances from military officials, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the newly deployed troops may be ordered to start carrying firearms. This, along with the president’s vow to let police “do whatever the hell they want” to reduce crime in the city and other statements, have raised serious concerns of possible abuses.

“Through his manufactured emergency, President Trump is engaging in dangerous political theater to expand his power and sow fear in our communities,” ACLU National Security Project director Hina Shamsi said Monday. “Sending heavily armed federal agents and National Guard troops from hundreds of miles away into our nation’s capital is unnecessary, inflammatory, and puts people’s rights at high risk of being violated.”

Shamsi stressed that “federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution, including our rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, due process, and safeguards against unlawful searches and seizures. If troops or federal agents violate our rights, they must be held accountable.”

On Friday, the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration to block its order asserting federal authority over the MPD, arguing the move violated the Home Rule Act. U.S. Attorney General Bondi subsequently rescinded her order to replace DC Police Chief Pamela Smith with Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole.

Also on Friday, a group of House Democrats introduced a resolution to terminate Trump’s emergency declaration.

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ACLU of DC executive director Monica Hopkins argued Monday that there is a way to curb Trump’s “brazen abuse of power” in the District.

“We need the nation to join us in the fight for statehood so that DC residents are treated like those in every other state and have the same guardrails against federal overreach,” she said.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

BRETT WILKINS

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

1. Fight the Trump-MAGA Redistricting Coup from any state with our new toolkit. Trump’s trying to steal the midterms by making his red-state minions rig the House maps. We all have a role to play in the fight for fair 2026 elections; visit our toolkit or scroll down for more info.
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3. Watch tonight’s Solidarity in Action session (7pm ET / 4pm PT) for an expert’s guide to building coalitions. Cristina Jimenez co-founded United We Dream and wrote a bestselling memoir on her experiences as an immigrant and organizer. She’ll share what she’s learned along the way — and how you can build powerful coalitions.
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P.S. As too many institutions kiss the ring, Indivisible’s leading the fight to ensure Trump’s enablers pay a price. We’re training one million people in strategic non-cooperation and rolling out campaigns to weaken Trump’s power at its foundations. Please consider donating to fund Indivisibles’ nationwide disruption and defiance of the Trump regime.

A new report reveals who funded the $180,000 slate of events welcoming Oakland’s new mayor in June.

by Natalie Orenstein Aug. 18, 2025 (Oaklandsidel.org)

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Following Mayor Barbara Lee’s election in April, an independent committee threw her an inaugural bash featuring a string quartet, spoken word, traditional lion dance, and speeches from prominent politicos. 

The committee sought small and large donations to support this effort. The organizers said they would eventually release a list of contributors, promising an inaugural weekend guided by “transparency, equity, and community.” A new report from the committee and additional details provided to The Oaklandside show that some of Oakland’s largest companies and dozens of individuals bankrolled the events.

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The Oakland Inaugural Committee is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit set up this spring and run by volunteers Yvonne Hudson-Harmon, Dr. John Maa, and Dr. Glenda Newell-Harris. The committee operated independently from Lee and her campaign. 

In their report, the organizers said they designed a weekend that “celebrated not only the inauguration of Barbara Lee as Oakland’s first Black female mayor, but also the enduring strength of our community, its people, and the spirit of collective action that defines The Town.”

Businesspeople and community members often establish such committees to usher in newly elected officials. These nonprofits don’t face many of the restrictions that apply to campaign committees, such as limits on contributions and disclosure requirements. This can attract donors who want to support an elected official at a larger level or curry favor with them under the radar. 

Lee’s inaugural committee raised $290,052 and spent $176,453 on the weekend’s events, which included the 3,000-person ceremony at Jack London Square on June 8, as well as a smaller Black Cultural Zone event and a citywide “day of service” with street clean-ups.

“Thousands of Oaklanders, representing the city’s amazing tapestry, participated in neighborhood cleanups, celebrated local culture, and gathered in joy,” the committee wrote in its report.

The report released by this committee included the names of all contributors but not the exact amounts they gave; that information was provided to The Oaklandside when we asked for it. 

Kaiser Permanente and the California Nurses Association contributed the largest amounts, at $50,000 each. Tech company Block, Sutter Health, and PG&E each spent $25,000. 

At the $10,000 level: Blue Shield of California, businessman and former Port of Oakland commissioner Ces Butner, Comcast, attorney Gordon Greenwood, the Meadow Fund, and an anonymous donor. 

At these high tiers, contributors received perks like reserved inauguration seating (the event was otherwise free, open to the public, and live-streamed) and invitations to a private reception. The report also includes the names of about 60 individuals and organizations that gave amounts under $5,000.

In 2015, developer John Protopappas established a committee for Libby Schaaf’s inauguration. That group, which raised $88,000, refused to disclose its supporters. There was no inauguration committee established to support Mayor Sheng Thao; there does not appear to have been special events beyond the city-run swearing-in ceremony at the Paramount Theatre for Thao and new councilmembers.

The Lee committee said it will donate the fund’s remaining balance of over $100,000 to nonprofits “serving the Oakland community and Oakland youth.” It did not specify which nonprofits. 

In addition to contributing to campaign and inaugural committees, people and corporations looking to support elected officials can give money to their officeholder accounts. Last month, councilmembers filed reports detailing how they’ve spent those contributions so far this year.

NATALIE ORENSTEIN

natalie@oaklandside.org

Natalie Orenstein is a senior reporter covering City Hall, housing and homelessness for The Oaklandside. Her reporting on a flood of eviction cases following the end of the Alameda County pandemic moratorium won recognition from the Society of Professional Reporters NorCal in 2024. Natalie was previously on staff at Berkeleyside, where she covered education, including extensive, award-winning reporting on the legacy of school desegregation in Berkeley Unified. Natalie lives in Oakland, grew up in Berkeley, and has only left her beloved East Bay once, to attend Pomona College.More by Natalie Orenstein

Immigration enforcement escalated in San Francisco during the summer. Now, educators are worried that ICE fears will creep into the classroom.

by JESSICA BLOUGH August 15, 2025

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As San Francisco students and families head back to public schools next week, teachers are starting the year with a new worry: How do you prepare your students for the possibility of immigration agents showing up on school grounds? 

And has the district done enough to prepare teachers?

“We’re trained for school shootings, for situations where our life could be on the line,” said Daniel Alonso, a fifth-grade teacher at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in the Mission. “What does that look like if there’s a potential immigration raid?” 

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Several educators said they are taking it upon themselves to prepare for the possibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at schools, particularly after the Trump administration reversed a national policy that kept ICE off school campuses just hours after his inauguration in January. 

They have distributed Know Your Rights red cards in classrooms and coordinated between their colleagues on how to move students and lock doors if ICE comes to campus.

Diana Diaz, who works in after-school programs through the Beacon Initiative, which supports low-income and immigrant students at public schools, said her team has discussed how to respond if a student’s parent is detained by ICE.

Her staff members have the Rapid Response Number saved in their phones so they can report any ICE sightings immediately. 

Administrators received a brief legal training from the district on how to follow policies dealing with law enforcement. But teachers say they have not received any training directly from the district, a sticking point in ongoing contract negotiations. United Educators of San Francisco wants specific language guaranteeing access to such training for all teachers.

“There’s things that have been posted. There’s feelings that have been shared, but when push comes to shove, quite literally, what is the district willing to do?” said teachers’ union president Cassondra Curiel. “Our members are looking for instruction.” 

In San Francisco, ICE has been detaining people who come to immigration court, but the city has yet to experience raids like the ones at workplaces or stores that have occurred in Southern and Central California.

Just this week, the Department of Homeland Security detained a boy who was waiting outside a high school in the Los Angeles area. 

The school district does have policies in place. It is a sanctuary district, in a sanctuary city, in a sanctuary state, and has a six-point FAQ on how to approach encounters with ICE. 

“We are engaged with city, state, and community partners to help [district] students, caregivers and staff to be prepared and know their rights,” a district spokesperson wrote in a statement to Mission Local. “We have and continue to provide information to school staff on how to handle immigration concerns.” 

At the most recent school board meeting, Superintendent Maria Su took a moment to reaffirm the district’s commitment to immigrant students and emphasized that families should not share immigration status with the district.

The district does not keep any kind of record related to the immigration status of students. She said the district would work with leadership in California and San Francisco, as well as nonprofits, to support students and staff through fears around immigration. 

“I want to be crystal clear: San Francisco public schools remain committed to providing a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all students and their families, regardless of immigration status,” Su said. 

District employees and officials are not allowed to help immigration enforcement. They are also instructed, by a statewide law, not to allow ICE to enter a school without a judicial warrant and explicit permission from the superintendent. 

Still, teachers worry about what to do if ICE agents do not comply. They worry that parents will stop their students from attending school due to fears about immigration enforcement. 

“It’s really anxiety-filling to go from a place where you’re making lesson plans and cutting decorations out and stapling shit on walls to creating a go plan for an evacuation or hiding,” Curiel said.

“We are looking to the district to communicate something that encourages families to feel like they can bring their child to school and know that we’re going to hold the line, whatever that is.” 

Immigration fears can directly impact student attendance: A Stanford University study published this summer found that an immigration raid in the Central Valley caused a 22 percent decrease in student attendance because parents feared that they would be separated from their children during the school day. 

Notably, over the course of two months, that 22 percent held steady, indicating that the impact of immigration enforcement can last beyond its immediate effects. 

Rates of absence were higher for younger students, who are more likely to have an undocumented person in their household, said Tom Dee, a Stanford researcher and the author of the study. 

“It’s a harbinger, a leading indicator of the disruption that’s occurring in families experiencing these raids,” Dee said. “There could be spillover learning consequences.” 

The district is worried about attendance generally — during a recent press conference, representatives said attendance has not recovered to its pre-pandemic rates and cost the district about $18 million a year. But the connection to immigration enforcement was not mentioned.

The responsibility to quell fears from parents can fall on the educators themselves.

Diaz at the Beacon Initiative said that last school year, she led a workshop with families on how the school and her program was protecting students from ICE on her own initiative.

They went over how security and monitoring at the school’s gate works, and how to call the Rapid Response Number to report or confirm an ICE sighting. 

Over the summer, even the sight of an unmarked van outside campus could terrify parents. 

“It can reduce stress and anxiety for them to be informed,” Diaz said.

MORE ON IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

ICE makes unusual arrest of indigenous woman in S.F. immigration court

Mayor Lurie takes credit for immigrant legal aid he had little to do with

ICE arrests one asylum-seeker from S.F. immigration court

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JESSICA BLOUGH

jessica@missionlocal.com

Reporting from the Tenderloin. I’m a multimedia journalist based in San Francisco and getting my Master’s degree in journalism at UC Berkeley. Earlier, I worked as an editor at Alta Journal and The Tufts Daily. I enjoy reading, reviewing books, teaching writing, hiking and rock climbing.More by Jessica Blough

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the 2017 film. For the 1953 event, see Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin. For other uses, see Death of Stalin (disambiguation).

THE DEATH OF STALIN
British theatrical release poster
DIRECTED BY	Armando Iannucci
WRITTEN BY	Armando IannucciDavid SchneiderIan MartinPeter Fellows (additional material)
SCREENPLAY BY	Fabien Nury
BASED ON	La Mort de Staline by Fabien Nury (writer) &Thierry Robin (illustrator)
PRODUCED BY	Yann ZenouLaurent ZeitounNicolas Duval AdassovskyKevin Loader
STARRING	Steve BuscemiSimon Russell BealePaddy ConsidineRupert FriendJason IsaacsMichael PalinAndrea RiseboroughJeffrey Tambor
CINEMATOGRAPHY	Zac Nicholson
EDITED BY	Peter Lambert
MUSIC BY	Christopher Willis
PRODUCTION COMPANIES	GaumontQuad ProductionsMain JourneyFrance 3 CinemaLa Cie CinématographiquePanache ProductionsAFPICanal+Ciné+France TélévisionsTitle Media
DISTRIBUTED BY	Entertainment One Films (United Kingdom)Gaumont (France)September Film Distribution (Belgium)
RELEASE DATES	8 September 2017 (TIFF)20 October 2017 (United Kingdom)4 April 2018 (France)18 April 2018 (Belgium)
RUNNING TIME	107 minutes[1]
COUNTRIES	FranceUnited KingdomBelgium
LANGUAGE	English
BUDGET	$13 million[2]
BOX OFFICE	$24.6 million[3]

The Death of Stalin is a 2017 political satire black comedy film written and directed by Armando Iannucci and co-written by David Schneider and Ian Martin with Peter Fellows. Based on the French graphic novel La Mort de Staline (2010–2012), the film depicts the internal social and political power struggle among the members of the Soviet Politburo following the death of leader Joseph Stalin in 1953.

The French-British-Belgian co-production stars an ensemble cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Dermot Crowley, Paul Chahidi, Adrian McLoughlin, Paul Whitehouse, and Jeffrey Tambor.

The film premiered on 8 September 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom by Entertainment One Films on 20 October 2017, in France by Gaumont on 4 April 2018, and in Belgium by September Film Distribution on 18 April 2018. It received critical acclaim and various accolades, including nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, one of which was for Outstanding British Film, and 13 British Independent Film Awards, four of which it won. There was fierce opposition to the film in Russia, where it was seen as “anti-Russian propaganda”, and it was banned there, as well as in Kyrgyzstan, for allegedly mocking the Soviet Union and its past.^[4][5]

Plot

On the night of 1 March 1953, Joseph Stalin calls the Radio Moscow director to demand a recording of the live recital of Mozart‘s Piano Concerto No. 23 soon after its conclusion. The performance was not recorded; not wanting to anger Stalin, the director hurriedly refills the half-empty auditorium, fetches a new conductor to replace the original one, who has passed out, and orders the orchestra to play again. Pianist Maria Yudina initially refuses to perform for the cruel dictator, but ultimately is bribed to comply.

Stalin is hosting a tense, but rowdy, gathering of Central Committee members at his home, the Kuntsevo Dacha. As Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov leaves, NKVD head Lavrentiy Beria reveals to Nikita Khrushchev and Deputy Chairman Georgy Malenkov that Molotov is to be part of the latest purge. When the concert recording arrives, Stalin finds a note Maria slipped in the record sleeve, admonishing Stalin and expressing hope for his death. He reads it, laughs, and suffers a cerebral haemorrhage. Despite hearing him fall, Stalin’s guards do not enter his office, fearful of being punished for disturbing him.

Stalin’s housemaid discovers him unconscious the next morning. The members of the Central Committee each learn about the situation through their own networks and rush to the dacha. Beria, the first to arrive, finds Maria’s note. Once Malenkov, Khrushchev, Lazar Kaganovich, Anastas Mikoyan, and Nikolai Bulganin arrive, the Committee finally decide to send for a team of doctors. Most of the best doctors in Moscow have been arrested for being part of the “Doctors’ plot” and so the doctors who can be found are not impressive. After a brief bout of terminal lucidity, Stalin dies. As the members of the Committee return to Moscow, Beria orders the NKVD to take over the city’s security posts held by the Soviet Army.

Beria and Khrushchev vie for the support of Molotov and Stalin’s children, Svetlana and her unstable, alcoholic brother Vasily. Beria has Molotov removed from the list of those to be rounded up, and has Polina Zhemchuzhina, Molotov’s wife, released from prison. The Committee names Malenkov chairman. A puppet of Beria, Malenkov further exerts control by hijacking Khrushchev’s proposed reforms, such as releasing political prisoners and loosening clerical restrictions. Khrushchev is relegated to planning Stalin’s funeral.

After Beria learns that Khrushchev and Maria are acquainted, he threatens Khrushchev with Maria’s note. To create problems for the NKVD, Khrushchev reverses Beria’s order to halt all transport into Moscow. When 1,500 arriving mourners are killed, the Committee wants to blame junior NKVD officers. Beria angrily dissents, believing that would amount to blaming him, and threatens his colleagues with documents detailing their involvement in various purges.

Irate over the supplanting of the military by the NKVD, Marshal Georgy Zhukov agrees to support Khrushchev in a coup against Beria, provided it occurs after Stalin’s funeral the next day and Khrushchev can get the rest of the Committee on board in time. Khrushchev fails to find time to discuss his plan with Malenkov but he tells everyone else that the decision is unanimous, and they commit themselves. Khrushchev gives Zhukov the greenlight, and the Soviet Army reclaims its posts from the NKVD. Zhukov, assisted by a group of soldiers led by Kiril Moskalenko and Leonid Brezhnev, storms into a meeting of the Committee and arrests Beria.

Malenkov does not intervene and reluctantly signs Beria’s death warrant, horrified at what Beria had done to his victims. At Beria’s emergency trial, Khrushchev accuses him of counter-revolutionary activities, sexual assault, and paedophilia, and immediately declares him guilty after evidence of the final accusation is delivered by the Soviet Army. Beria begs for his life but is summarily shot in the head, and Zhukov has his body burned in the courtyard. Despite Svetlana’s protests, Khrushchev sends her to Vienna, while keeping Vasily in Russia, where he can be watched. He concurs with Kaganovich that Malenkov is too weak to lead. In 1956, Maria is once again performing the Mozart concerto. Having triumphed over other members of the Committee to become the new leader of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev attends. Brezhnev, who will eventually succeed Khrushchev in 1964, eyes Khrushchev from his seat.

More at: ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin

Police officers set up a roadside checkpoint on 14th Street Northwest on August 13, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

 (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Demonstrators yelled at federal agents to “get off our streets” as they set up a police checkpoint on a popular street in the nation’s capital.

JAKE JOHNSON

Aug 14, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

More than 100 protesters gathered late Wednesday at a checkpoint set up by a combination of local and federal officers on a popular street in Washington, D.C., where U.S. President Donald Trump has taken over the police force and deployed around 800 National Guard members as part of what he hopes will be a long-term occupation of the country’s capital—and potentially other major cities.

The officers at the Wednesday night checkpoint reportedly included agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is also taking part in immigration raids in the city. Some agents were wearing face coverings to conceal their identities.

After law enforcement agents established the checkpoint on 14th Street, protesters gathered and jeered the officers, chanting “get off our streets” and “go home fascists.” Some demonstrators yelled at the agents standing at the checkpoint, while others warned oncoming drivers to turn to avoid the police installation.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ho72b5YnfUc%3Frel%3D0

There was no officially stated purpose for the checkpoint, but it came amid the Trump administration’s lawless mass deportation campaign and its broader threats to deploy U.S. troops on the streets of American cities to crush dissent.

At least one person, a Black woman, was arrested at Wednesday’s checkpoint. One D.C. resident posted to Reddit that agents were “pulling people out of cars who are ‘suspicious’ or if they don’t like the answers to their questions.” The Washington Post reported that a “mix of local and federal authorities pulled over drivers for seat belt violations or broken taillights.”

The National Guard troops activated by Trump this week were not seen at the checkpoint, which shut down before midnight.

Wednesday night’s protests are expected to be just the start as public anger mounts over Trump’s authoritarian actions in the nation’s capital—where violent crime fell to a 30-year low last year—and across the country.

Radley Balko, a journalist who has documented the growing militarization of U.S. police, wrote earlier this week that “the motivation for Donald Trump’s plan to ‘federalize’ Washington, D.C., is same as his motivation for sending active-duty troops into Los Angeles, deporting people to the CECOT torture prison in El Salvador, his politicization of the Department of Justice, and nearly every other authoritarian overreach of the last six months: He is testing the limits of his power—and, by extension, of our democracy.”

“He’s feeling out what the Supreme Court, Congress, and the public will let him get away with. And so far, he’s been able to do what he pleases,” Balko wrote. “We are now past the point of crisis. Trump has long dreamed of presiding over a police state. He has openly admired and been reluctant to criticize foreign leaders who helm one. He has now appointed people who have expressed their willingness to help him achieve one to the very positions with the power to make one happen. And both he and his highest-ranking advisers have both openly spoken about and written out their plans to implement one.”

“It’s time to believe them,” Balko added.

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Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

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16 AUGUST 2025/SF NEWS/LEANNE MAXWELL (SFist.com)

• The first draft of a newly proposed California congressional redistricting map has been released, likely giving House Republicans four seats instead of the current nine — California’s answer to Texas’s gerrymander. The Secretary of State’s Office set the deadline for finalizing the proposed map for Friday, August 22. [KFSN]

Video: https://abc30.com/video/embed/?pid=17553827

Novara Media Premiered Jun 15, 2025 Downstream – NEW episodes every Sunday 3pm UK Support our work: http://novara.media/support Get tickets to our live event: https://link.dice.fm/N9636716d4fd?dic… During the 2008 economic crisis, the Obama administration had an opportunity to enact widespread market reforms. Instead, they bailed out the banks and laid the groundwork for mass inequality and a political culture that has given us a second Trump administration. This week’s guest was in the room where those crucial decisions were made, and argued that financial institutions should not be able to escape the consequences of their recklessness. Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and author of ‘The Road To Freedom: Economics and The Good Society’. He sat down with Aaron to discuss the collapse of American democracy, his relationship with Milton Friedman and whether China is actually a socialist country. 00:00 Intro 02.40 Reflections on Globalization 08:37 Obama & Predicting MAGA 19:29 Milton Friedman 25:07 Adam Smith 33:55 Does The US Need A New FDR? 41:34 Debt & Collapse of Neo-Liberalism 46:44 Where Should The Money Come From? 51:01 What Can China Teach Us?

Google AI Overview

August 16, 2025

As of August 16, 2025, there have been multiple reports and responses regarding Hamas’s stance on releasing hostages and its potential role in the future governance of Gaza.

Hostage release

• Hamas has stated its willingness to release some hostages as part of a ceasefire deal, but has linked a full release to a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
• Recent reports suggest Hamas may be open to a partial deal, potentially involving the release of about 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 deceased in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
• Hamas has also reportedly conveyed to mediators a willingness to discuss a broader deal involving the release of all remaining hostages in a single phase, conditioned on Israeli agreement to a permanent ceasefire and the cessation of war aims.
• Haaretz reports suggest that Hamas is prepared to release all hostages at once for a five-year ceasefire in Gaza. 

Stepping back from power

• Hamas has generally been resistant to relinquishing its governing authority in Gaza and insists on remaining part of the Palestinian political fabric.
• However, some statements and reports suggest a possible willingness to hand over power to a Palestinian entity that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, but this remains uncertain and controversial.
• The group emphasizes that disarmament is not on the table as long as Israel occupies Palestinian lands.
• The New York Times reports that a Hamas official indicated the group would like to play a role in a future Gaza government similar to that of Hezbollah in Lebanon, where it holds significant influence without directly running the government. 

It is important to note that the situation remains fluid and negotiations are ongoing. There are significant discrepancies between the demands of Hamas and Israel, particularly regarding a permanent ceasefire and Hamas’s disarmament and future role in Gaza.