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. 

Google AI Overview

August 16, 2025

Albert Einstein’s views on the creation of Israel were complex and evolved over time. While he supported the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a refuge from antisemitism, he was initially wary of a Jewish state based on nationalism. He favored a binational solution where Jews and Arabs could coexist peacefully in a single state with equal rights. 

Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

• Early Support for Zionism:Einstein initially embraced the idea of Zionism as a way to provide a haven for Jews facing persecution. 
• Opposition to a Jewish State:While supporting the cultural and intellectual aspects of Zionism, he voiced concerns about the potential for conflict with the Arab population and the dangers of nationalism. He expressed these concerns in letters to the New York Times, advocating for a binational state instead. 
• Shift in Perspective:After the Holocaust, Einstein recognized the urgent need for a refuge for Jews and became more open to the idea of a Jewish state, though he continued to advocate for peace and cooperation with Arabs. 
• Binational Solution:Einstein consistently promoted the idea of Jews and Arabs coexisting peacefully in a single state with equal rights, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and mutual understanding. 
• Rejection of Israeli Presidency:In 1952, Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel but declined, citing his lack of experience and skills for the position. 
• Continued Advocacy for Peace:Even as he supported the idea of a Jewish homeland, Einstein remained concerned about the treatment of Palestinians and emphasized the need for fair treatment and peaceful coexistence. 

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Democracy Now! Aug 15, 2025 Latest Shows Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-de… President Trump says his takeover of policing in Washington, D.C., will serve as an example of policies he hopes to enact in other major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. All the cities on his target list are led by Black mayors, and most have “sanctuary” policies limiting local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Responding to Trump’s threats, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tells Democracy Now! that his city will not “cower or bend or be intimidated by these attempts to divide and conquer our communities.” He says that unlike Trump’s militarized approach, Chicago has been investing in mental health services, raising wages and building affordable housing as part of a larger campaign to improve quality of life. Contrary to Trump’s claims, violent crime is down in Chicago. “We’re building the safest, most affordable big city in America, the most pro-worker city in America, and we’re doing it in a very collective way,” says Johnson.

By ROBERT KUTTNER

August 15, 2025 (Prospect.org)

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 (MissionLocal.org)

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As San Francisco students and families head back to public school 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 afterschool 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 funding 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

Jesse Welles Aug 7, 2025 No description has been added to this video.

A sign is seen at a rally for immigrants’ and workers’ rights in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 1, 2025.

(Photo: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“Billionaires are making record profits while we are losing people every day,” said one organizer. “And we are facing the moment, through mobilizations, conversations, and training. There’s more of us than there are of them.”

JULIA CONLEY

Aug 06, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

On Labor Day this year, unions and workers’ rights groups are calling on advocates to forgo the traditional barbecues and picnics known for ending the summer season, and to instead hold thousands of nationwide rallies “to expose the billionaire agenda” that’s harming working families and fueling U.S. President Donald Trump’s authoritarian rise.

Unions representing teachers and other workers are joining with other advocacy organizations to turn Labor Day 2025 on September 1 into “a day of protest and recruitment,” and an opportunity to fortify their national campaigns against Trump’s attacks on healthcare, Social Security, and other safety net programs.

With the Trump administration overseeing mass firings in the federal government and gutting worker protections and social services in the interest of transferring more than $1 trillion in tax breaks to the richest 1% of Americans, groups including Public Citizen and Popular Democracy will spend the holiday “connecting with 30 million workers, training thousands of new leaders to create ‘strike ready’ cities and states, and supporting each others’ local fights to stop abuses in the workplace,” according to the former group.

“The Trump regime is perpetrating the most anti-union, anti-worker agenda in modern American history,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. “Trump’s union-busting efforts are an order of magnitude greater than [former President Ronald] Reagan’s attack on the air traffic employee union; he is working to destroy the independence of the [National Labor Relations Board] and he has perpetrated possibly the largest ever transfer of wealth from working people to the super rich. This Labor Day, Americans are joining together to reject Trump’s authoritarian anti-worker agenda and demanding the society we want and need.”

“On Labor Day, workers of every race and every corner of this country will stand together to show them, stop their agenda, and push forward a democracy that actually puts working people’s needs first.”

The groups are building on nationwide actions that have already taken place in thousands of cities and towns as part of the Hands Off, No Kings, and Good Trouble Lives On mobilizations, where demonstrators have spoken out against Trump’s mass deportation agenda, attacks on voting rights through the administration’s mass collection of voter data, and his assault on federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts.

“Since May Day, we’ve see the onslaught of attacks on our communities escalating, [and] our organizing has to escalate with it,” said Neidi Dominguez, executive director of Organized Power in Numbers, which participated in nationwide protests on May Day. “We know that billionaires are making record profits while we are losing people every day. And we are facing the moment, through mobilizations, conversations, and training. There’s more of us than there are of them. We just have to organize ourselves together.”

The rallies will “center the conversation on the impact on working people specifically,” and will demand a unifying platform of:

• Stopping the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration;
• Protecting and defending Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people;
• Fully funding schools, healthcare, and housing for all;
• Stopping the attacks on immigrants, Black, Indigenous, trans people, and all our communities; and
• Investing in people not wars.

“The only thing to stop billionaires like Trump or [tech mogul] Peter Thiel from bulldozing working families’ economic security and the safety nets we’ve built to take care of each other is people power,” said Analilia Mejia, co-director of Popular Democracy. “They attack our democracy in order to get away with stealing our schools, our healthcare, and our futures. On Labor Day, workers of every race and every corner of this country will stand together to show them, stop their agenda, and push forward a democracy that actually puts working people’s needs first.”

In a separate action, the AFL-CIO is organizing nationwide rallies, picnics, and parades as part of its Workers’ Labor Day, following a Workers Deserve Labor Day week of action.

The union has spent two months crisscrossing the country on a bus tour, highlighting workers’ organizing efforts and fights to win fair contracts and working conditions.

Despite Trump’s deregulatory attacks on workers, the AFL-CIO noted that more than 70% of Americans and nearly 90% of people under 30 support unions.

“The fight for freedom, fairness, and security has never been more popular,” said the union.

Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, said that despite Republicans’ efforts to divide Americans, “working people are more united than ever to restore our fundamental freedoms and spark an organizing renaissance that sets our country on a new course.”

“The CEOs and billionaires are scared of us. That’s why they’re attacking us,” said Redmond. “I’ve got a message for those who are assaulting our rights: You’re right to be scared. Working people are the backbone of this country, and when we join together in solidarity, nothing can stop us.”

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

JULIA CONLEY

Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

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