News Summaries in July 2026

Note to readers: newly prepared summaries of older stories may sometimes be placed at the top to call attention to them, at least for a time. They also will be placed in chronological order.

“Colombian President Orders Immigration Raids, Vows Deportation of Migrants Without Legal Status,” Associated Press, August 24, 2026

The new president of Colombia says he will deport thousands of migrants in the country without residence permits, most of them Venezuelans. Abelardo de la Espriella says the changes to immigration policy will reduce crime. In office three weeks now, de la Espriella said he’ll order the immigration service to carry out raids with Colombian police as early as this week, reported Manuel Rueda and Astrid Suárez of the Associated Press. A close ally of President Trump, the ultraconservative leader said police will first target immigrants who are committing crimes followed by those without regular status. “I will not accept any illegal immigrants, wherever they come from,” he said in a video released August 23 on his X social media account. “They will have to leave and be deported. It is a political decision I am taking responsibility for.” Most migrants come from Venezuela, which lost about one-fifth of its population during the past ten years as they fled repression and poverty, including a 75 percent contraction in the country’s Gross Domestic Product. The United Nations estimated that about 2.8 million Venezuelans are living in Colombia. The country’s immigration service said in July it had granted temporary residence permits to about 2.3 million Venezuelans under a 2021 program started at the peak of the immigration crisis in Venezuela. Colombia stopped issuing temporary residence permits about three years ago, said Ana Carina Garcia of Juntos Se Puede, which assists Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. She said the administration should expand the ways in which people can become legal residents rather than going after those without residency permits. “We understand that the president wants to protect Colombians,” she said. “But there is no need to protect them from migrants. It has been proven that foreigners do not commit crimes at greater rates” than Colombians, she said.

“Milei Empowers Argentina to Bar or Deport Foreigners Over Hateful Remarks About the Country,” Associated Press, July 30, 2026

Argentine President Javier Milei has signed an emergency decree that gives his government the power to deny entry to or expel foreigners who incite discrimination or violence against Argentines because of their nationality, Isabel Debre of the Associated Press reported. The decree follows Argentina’s defeat in the soccer World Cup final that many Argentines saw as giving way to “a sweeping wave of hatred against their country,” Debre said. “Anyone who attacks the Argentine Republic is not welcome in our country,” Milei’s office said. According to Debre, “the widespread scorn for Argentina has played on long-standing stereotypes, particularly in Latin America, that Argentines saw themselves as culturally and economically superior to their neighbors, in part due to the large share of the population descended from European immigrants. The backlash intensified when Argentina players and staff attacked their Spanish opponents in a post-match brawl after the World Cup final.” Hundreds of thousands of people signed online petitions to expel Argentina from the World Cup. The decree says the punishments don’t apply to ideological disagreement or political, academic or civic criticism protected by the Argentine Constitution. Opposition lawmaker Maximiliano Ferraro suggested the decree was “little more than exclusionary nationalist theater.” He asked “who and how will [they] apply those grounds? How will it be determined that a person has engaged in such ambiguous assumptions as a ‘hate message’ toward the country or our population?”

“ICE Airport Arrests Surge as New Deportation Front Opens,” New York Times, July 30, 2026

The Trump administration has begun arresting foreign citizens with expired visas as they travel through airports -- even if they are awaiting visa extensions or green cards and have been issued work permits, a legal gray area. The tactic “opens up a vast new pool for deportation,” said Times reporters Hamed Aleaziz and Miriam Jordan. The Times said in December that ICE officers were coming to airports to arrest people with deportation orders, thanks to data provided them by the Transportation Security Administration. “The Times has learned that the program apparently now includes people with expired visas – a much larger group,” Aleaziz and Jordan said. “Hundreds of thousands of immigrants and visitors overstay visas each year.” The reporters said “immigration agents have whisked away targets at check-in counters and arrival gates, with enforcement actions at at least 15 airports in recent weeks.” In some cases, angry fellow passengers have filmed the arrests. Among those arrested were an engineer awaiting a work visa extension, several newly married people whose spouses are U.S. citizens, and a former au pair. “In 38 years practicing immigration law, I had never seen this,” said Charles Kuck, who is representing an Indian engineer arrested while awaiting the extension of a work permit. “And I know it’s happening to lots of people.” A Homeland Security spokesperson said "this administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport."

“Deporting Thousands of Cubans, Trump Seeks New Destination: Uruguay,” New York Times, July 30, 2026

The Trump administration, which has deported thousands of Cubans to Mexico, Africa and Cuba itself, is close to securing Uruguay as a new destination. Edward Wong and Emma Bubola of the New York Times said “Uruguay entered the negotiations partly because it needs immigrant workers, and partly to win favor with the Trump administration, a senior Uruguayan official said.” At the same time, the United States is making it worse for Cubans to stay in Cuba because it stopped oil shipments to the Communist country. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has expressed concern about mass migration from Cuba, noting the country is “deeply destabilized.” Uruguay, South America’s second smallest country, seeks to find work opportunities for Cubans and get them social services. “Many initially apply for asylum,” the Times reporters said. Cubans in the United States might have relatives in Uruguay and the governments of the two countries are looking at opportunities to reunite them, a Uruguayan official said. The Trump administration said in March it has sent 6,000 Cubans to Mexico, where they are having difficulty finding work. It also has sent Cuban migrants to Eswatini in Africa and South Sudan, which has been ravaged by war and where migrants have been kept in detention centers. “The State Department has been criticized for sending some deportees to distant countries where they have no connections, or where governments have records of human rights abuses,” the Times noted. Migrants rights groups, though critical of Trump’s immigration policy, said Uruguay would be a better destination for deportees than many other countries. It’s receptive to immigrants and needs more workers to compensate for a small and aging population. The U.N. said the country had 24,000 asylum seekers from Cuba last year. For years the U.S. government welcomed people from Communist Cuba and offered them a rapid pathway to permanent residence and citizenship. However, President Clinton began weakening rules requiring this eased entry in order to avoid accepting an influx of migrants. Trump has accelerated that, blocking several routes to permanent residency and citizenship. Some 600,000 Cubans in the U.S. are at risk of deportation, said María José Espinosa of the Center for Engagement and Advocacy in the Americas. Yael Schacher of Refugees International said all deportation plans are bad options, especially when targeting people who have lived in the United States a long time. But a Latin American country with “a well-functioning asylum system that is safe is like the least bad option.” Uruguay might be relatively tolerant, but migrants do struggle there. It’s expensive compared to other South American countries. “Many Cubans initially live in boardinghouses while working as delivery or Uber drivers, caregivers and security guards,” said Wong and Bubola.

“The Terrifying Future of Immigration Detention,” New York Times Opinion Column by Lauren-Brooke Eisen, July 29, 2026

Of the eleven warehouses it bought early in the Trump administration to convert into huge immigration detention centers, the federal government has decided to sell or offload seven. Even in deep red Hanover County north of Richmond, Virginia, where Donald Trump won 62 percent of the vote in 2024, local protests against the planned purchase and retrofitting of a 550,000 square-foot warehouse were vociferous. In January, the county’s board of supervisors opposed the plan, and the government’s purchase of the warehouse fell through. As in Hanover Country, “officials and communities across the country pushed back against warehouse expansion plans, citing humanitarian concerns, pressures on local infrastructure and services, and general revulsion at the notion of hosting detention centers in their hometowns.” But the solution created another problem. The Department of Homeland Security now will likely rely on private for-profit firms to maintain or increase detention capacity at existing facilities. Whether privately run or operated by the government, immigration detention facilities have had a "notoriously poor track record. Reports abound of detainees being placed in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities, deprived of medical care and served contaminated food. Thirty-three people died in ICE custody last year, the highest number in two decades.” Several newly purchased warehouse detention centers were thwarted because ICE hadn’t conducted needed environmental reviews. But with existing facilities the environmental tactic will be harder to use. For-profit firms generally aren’t required to comply directly with the Freedom of Information act. That can make it harder for a family member or journalist to get information about a detainee. But there are ways to address oversight and transparency concerns. States could follow California’s lead by passing laws to require a state department of justice to review and report on confinement conditions at detention facilities across the state. Congress should drastically expand information that private prison companies must disclose so the public can better track conditions inside the facilities. Selling warehouses won’t dismantle the Trump immigration detention agenda. Increased reliance on for-profit firms “comes with the dark possibility that we will know even less about what is happening to immigrants. But opening immigration detention practices to scrutiny is one of the most important ways to ensure that vulnerable people are being treated humanely.”

Lauren-Brooke Eisen is the senior director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.

“Blazes Are Closing in on Madrid, Giving Booming City a Harsh Reality Check,” New York Times, July 29, 2026

The worst wildfires in its history are tearing through Spain, arousing fear in Madrid that they might reach the capital city. Fires raged 30 miles from the city the evening of July 26, leaving an acrid burning smell in the air in a park on its western edge, said Elena Sánchez, who was selling beer from a kiosk there. “I’m afraid it might reach here,” she said. Madrid is booming, owing to wealthy expatriates, immigrant workers and global attention, wrote Jason Horowitz of the New York Times. But now “these are difficult hours,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said July 27, speaking in Castellón on Spain’s eastern coast where a new fire was forcing thousands to evacuate. “In the face of what his government has called the largest fires in the country’s history, and after a summer of record-breaking heat waves, he called for a national pact with all of Spain’s political parties to work together to prevent blazes that he attributed to climate change,” Horowitz reported. Sánchez said “this climate emergency is exceeding every threshold and scale that scientists have long warned all of Spain and Europe about.” Firefighters were struggling to control blazes around Madrid before predicted temperatures topping 100 degrees struck. “Experts say they are a harbinger for the damage to come on the world’s fastest-warming continent,” Horowitz noted.

“’Shouting Like a Madman’: Argentina’s President Angers Brazil,” Associated Press, July 26, 2026

Brazil has recalled its ambassador to Argentina after Argentine President Javier Milei traveled to Brazil and insulted that country’s officials, the Associated Press reported. Milei was in Sao Paulo the day before the recall speaking at an event in which Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro was confirmed as the presidential candidate of the party of his father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Milei called the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, a “thief” and a “delinquent.” Milei also called Supreme Federal Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes “trash” after he denied him a chance to visit Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest serving a 27-year-sentence for attempting a coup to deny Lula the presidency. The former president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, said “Milei went to Brazil shouting like a madman, demanding to see a coup plotter in jail. Insulting the president of a sister nation and our main trading partner is unforgivable.” Axel Kicillof, the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, said he contacted Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira “to convey that Milei does not represent the feelings of the Argentine people.” He said “from the province of Buenos Aires, we maintain that Argentina respects its sister nations and is committed to regional integration.” Earlier, Brazil’s foreign ministry denied visas to two U.S. State Department officials who wanted to travel to Brazil next week. The ministry didn’t say why.

“Industries Fear the Deportation of Vital Workers,” New York Times, July 27, 2026

Salvadoran crews help renovate, rebuild and maintain the Capitol, the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. Haitian caregivers help aging Americans with daily activities in senior living facilities in Florida, Massachusetts and New York. They are among the more than one million people facing deportation after the Supreme Court in June cleared the way for the Trump administration to enforce its order ending their Temporary Protected Status, said Miriam Jordan and Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times. According to University of Pennsylvania researchers, about 70 percent of TPS holders are part of the U.S. labor force, many of them in construction and health care. TPS refers to the program under which people displaced by wars and natural disasters can legally live and work in the United States. On July 27, about 350,000 TPS recipients from Haiti and certain other countries will lose their work permits. “About 190,000 Salvadoran beneficiaries could be next to lose their status when it expires in September,” said Jordan and Ngo. Economists say the loss of jobs could be gradual. Some TPS holders might pursue other protections such as asylum. Others could keep working off the books, they say. But business organizations and state and local leaders in both political parties want Congress to intervene. In a July 10 letter to Senate leaders, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Congress should act to prevent significant disruption to the American work force “and avoid an unnecessary humanitarian crisis.” Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio, said ending TPS for Haitians would be a mistake and deliver a big economic blow to his state. Leaders in the Miami-Dade County area said ending TPS would cost, not save, America money. A construction trade group, the Associated Builders and Contractors, in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, highlighted the challenges of ending TPS. But President Trump and other Republicans object that the program was meant only to provide short-term relief instead of years of protection. However, Cornell University political scientist Patricia Campos-Medina said Central American TPS holders “have devoted their entire years of productivity to this country. It’s not about being able to return to their country of origin; this is their home. The majority are fully employed, have American-born children, own homes and have businesses.” There is also danger involved in returning home. More than one million people have been displaced by gang violence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The country has been engulfed in violence since the assassination of its last elected president, in 2021. “The country’s economy is in ruins, and international aid organizations report widespread food insecurity,” the Times reporters said. However, Trump’s top immigration aide Stephen Miller said Haiti is “absolutely” safe for Haitians. “It’d be crazy for us to say that Haitians couldn’t live in Haiti. It’s their country.”

“U.S. Faces a Quagmire in Venezuela,” Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2026

The Trump administration has been preparing to reap the benefits of its control of Venezuela since removing Nicolás Maduro from power early this year. The world’s biggest oil reserves and vast mineral deposits have opened up to American investors. But “now the Trump administration is facing a daunting multibillion-dollar cleanup after twin earthquakes last month tore open roads, downed power lines and flattened buildings,” said Kejal Vyas and Ryan Dubé of the Wall Street Journal. “We’re in the hands of God, as well as the Americans,” said Danny Muñoz, a bricklayer whose pregnant stepdaughter was killed in the collapse of their apartment building. “No one else can save us now.” An estimated 69,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in beachside communities in the devastated state of La Guaira. The June 24 earthquakes killed more than 5,000 people. The United Nations estimates that the damage to the infrastructure is about $37 billion, about a third of Venezuela’s annual output. Angel Cárdenas of the Latin American development bank CAF said a priority should be placed on building homes for 26,000 people left on the streets. “If you fail to deal with the infrastructure, you could later face security, governance and sanitation problems,” he said. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez already is facing unrest over rescue efforts. The Journal reporters said “failure to rebuild risks more unrest, creating a challenge not only for her hold on power but also for a U.S. administration that sees Rodríguez as vital to its plans for stabilizing Venezuela.” Venezuela has little chance of rebuilding on its own because it is bankrupt after a decade-long depression. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has promised a “whole of government response.” The State Department says it has provided $386 million in assistance since the earthquakes. The U.S. says it now controls billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenues and the country’s finances. Rodríguez wants the U.S. to further loosen sanctions on Venezuela and to reopen access to its government accounts held overseas.

“Shut Out of U.S., Cubans are Heading South,” Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2026

Curitiba, one of Brazil’s most prosperous cities, has become an outpost of the Cuban diaspora as Trump administration economic pressure leads many Cubans to leave their country and build new lives farther south. Jorge Ruiz, a professional baseball player from Havana who now lives in Curitiba in southern Brazil told Samantha Pearson of the Wall Street Journal that “we had no choice…we couldn’t take it anymore. There was no electricity, not enough food…you’d be lucky to eat meat once a month.” Pearson noted that “for decades, Cubans fleeing their homeland overwhelmingly headed north on rafts to Forida or flew to visa-friendly countries such as Nicaragua or Ecuador before making the trek to the U.S.-Mexico border to cross into the U.S.” But now Cubans are flying to Guyana in northeastern South America, which they can reach without a visa. They then pay several thousand dollars to smugglers who take them on a difficult journey into Brazil deep in the Amazon rainforest. They then take a 3,000 mile bus ride to the southern cities of Brazil where there are many jobs. Pearson said “some describe being threatened with machetes, sleeping on the jungle floor and wading through caiman-infested waters.” But “few regret it.” Brazilian authorities are increasing efforts to stop the influx but smugglers use unofficial river crossings and jungle trails to slip past the police. Brazil received a record 44,381 asylum applications from Cubans last year -- more than from Venezuelans, another migrant population that has grown in Curitiba, a city of almost two million people. Many of the Cubans there have no plans to return home. “It’s going to take years for the country to get back on its feet,” even if U.S. pressure forces change in Cuba, said Elena González, a 22-year-old fashion student.

“U.S. is Handing Out Stiff Fines to Pressure the Undocumented,” New York Times, July 24, 2026

The Trump administration is imposing stiff fines on the undocumented to force them to self-deport. According to Miriam Jordan of the New York Times, “more than 100,000 people have received letters from the Homeland Security Department informing them that they owe $998 for each day that they have stayed in the United States after an immigration judge has ruled that they have no legal right to remain in the country.” Fines for failing to comply with a removal order have been permitted under immigration legislation passed in 1996. However, Donald Trump is the first president to impose them. Immigrants receiving the notice of a fine face “an agonizing ultimatum: abandon the lives they have built, or face the threat of financial ruin if the government moves to collect on the debt,” Jordan wrote. Penalties can reach up to $1.8 million per person. One recent fine recipient, Vivi Vasquez, is a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the United States for 17 years. She has three U.S.-born children of the ages of 10, 12 and 14. She has an active humanitarian visa application and a work permit and has worked legally at a convenience store and caring for the elderly. In April she opened an envelope she thought was an update on her visa application. Instead, it said she owed the government $1,820. It said she wouldn’t have to pay if she chose to leave the country. The letter gave her 15 days to contest the penalty. After filing an appeal she received a second, more menacing letter. It said if she didn’t pay promptly her debt would be referred to a private collection agency. The letter said the government would initiate collection litigation, report her to credit bureaus which could affect her credit rating and consider the debt in her future immigration proceedings. “These are people who have homes, cars, businesses in their names,” said her immigration lawyer. “The government says they stand to have all that confiscated.” He was able to have her fines canceled, but that is not typical according to a dozen lawyers interviewed by the Times. In case after case, appeals are denied, they say, including for a 68-year-old man who is the primary caregiver for his wife who has cancer. The Department of Homeland Security paused his 2012 removal order, but he received a letter a few months ago accusing him of willfully failing to depart and saying he owed the government $579,838. “Desperate to protect their life savings, some immigrants have removed their names from property deeds or transferred their modest assets into trusts,” Jordan said, based on the comments of two lawyers who help immigrants with estate planning. The pace of imposing fines is accelerating. “This administration is just churning out as many fines as it can to intimidate and harass people into leaving the country,” said Charles Moore of the nonprofit legal organization Public Justice. He is the lawyer for immigrants in a Massachusetts lawsuit to block the fines.

“Caritas Starts Distributing U.S. Humanitarian Aid in 12 Towns Near Havana,” Associated Press, July 23, 2026

The Catholic Church charity Caritas said it is distributing hundreds of boxes of humanitarian aid from the U.S. in two towns near Havana, reported Andrea Rodriguez of the Associated Press. Caritas said the food and hygiene kits will be distributed “to the most vulnerable Cuban families.” The U.S. State Department said a plane carrying 700 packages left Miami July 21, the first shipment in a planned $100 million distribution in coming months. Each box has enough food to feed a family for ten days, Caritas said. Items include: rice, beans, spaghetti, salt, brown sugar, canned sardines, tuna, oil, a solar lamp, water purification tablets, a plastic bucket, bars of soap, detergent, a toothbrush and sanitary napkins. The assistance “is shrouded in controversy due to the long-standing political distrust between Cuba and the U.S, and comes amid a crisis on the island exacerbated by an energy embargo imposed in January by U.S. President Donald Trump,” said Rodriguez.

“Death Toll Rises as International Crews Try to Salvage Capsized Ferry in Guyana,” Associated Press, July 23, 2026

The death toll from the capsizing of a state ferry off the coast of Guyana rose to 72 July 23. The AP’s Bert Wilkinson reported that a multinational team “struggled to salvage the partially submerged vessel.” Of an estimated 179 people on the ferry, 76 people were rescued. Wilkinson said “the government has estimated that 100 may have died in the accident, which would make it the worst marine tragedy on record for the South American nation.” The 87-year-old ferry, called the MV Barima, left the capital of Georgetown July 18 headed for Port Kaituma in the northwestern part of Guyana near Venezuela. It began taking on water and capsized in the Atlantic. Government officials said they hope divers can shed light on what happened. Police have detained three people so far in a criminal investigation. They include the captain and a crew member officials said tested positive for marijuana. Although the government has said otherwise, survivors told reporters they thought the ferry was overloaded. “A growing number of Guyanese are questioning why it took so long to rescue people, with some survivors telling the Associated Press that they spent hours in the water,” said Wilkinson.

“ICE Keeps Accusing Immigrants of ‘Weaponizing’ Vehicles. Most Claims Fall Apart,” The Guardian, July 22, 2026

The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to justify arrests and shootings of migrants and protestors by claiming they are “weaponizing” their vehicles to assault immigration officers. However, a review by The Guardian of 26 cases the federal Department of Homeland Security has promoted as evidence of a surge in vehicular attacks found that in only one instance was an individual convicted of assault. Sam Levine and Sophie Sullivan of The Guardian reported that “most of those claims have fallen apart under scrutiny, with the accusations consistently disproven by evidence or rejected in court.” The reporters said the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly claimed that its officers have seen a 3,300% increase in vehicle attacks in Donald Trump’s second term. But they said the department hasn’t provided evidence to support that figure. The reporters said they reviewed the most detailed list the DHS has put out, a summary released in February of incidents from June 2025 to January 2026. “The review reveals a stunning failure by DHS and prosecutors to prove the government’s initial allegations of violence in those cases.” Fifteen of the 26 people accused of vehicle attacks never faced federal criminal charges. Eight of the 11 people who did face charges had their charges dismissed; among the eight was a person who got a “deferred prosecution” meaning the charges will be dropped if the defendant meets certain conditions. One person has a pending charge. One person was convicted of assault and one was convicted of destruction of government property but acquitted of assault. “The sole guilty plea for assault involved a man accused of reversing his car during a traffic stop and hitting an ICE officer in the leg.” DHS said in its February press release that agents have experienced more than 180 vehicle attacks and summarized 23 incidents. It said its list was not exhaustive. The reporters said DHS “has not responded to requests for a list of cases.” They noted that other cases occurred in the timeframe involved in the 26 cases. These other cases included dismissals of attack charges, the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis in which she was accused of weaponizing her car, and a man convicted of assault in December who was accused of dragging an agent with his car. After the timeframe of the review, a Nebraska defendant this week pled guilty in a vehicle assault case. In recent days, ICE has come under intense scrutiny over its fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. DHS argued the men put officers and the public in peril with their vehicles but witnesses rejected those claims. One of the findings of the review was that “DHS has repeatedly continued to promote people’s cases as evidence of violence long after the original claims fell apart.” The review “reveals a pattern of DHS blasting statements to the press and on social media, painting the subjects of their traffic stops as violent assailants without evidence and then failing to correct the record when those claims collapse under basic scrutiny.”

“Mexico’s Lettuce Capital Is on Edge Over Outbreak’s Repercussions,” New York Times, July 23, 2026

“Now we’re mostly known because of diarrhea in the U.S.,” said Carmen Ramirez, giggling. But the 31-year-old resident of Doctor Mora, a town in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, “grew concerned when she saw that health officials said they had traced cases of tainted iceberg lettuce back to her hometown – specifically, to a shredding facility owned by Taylor Farms, a producer of vegetables and salad kits that has become a household name in the area,” said Emiliano Rodríguez Mega of the New York Times. The California-based company is the region’s most important employer, including for young adults and single mothers. Even the slightest suggestion that cyclospora, the parasite linked to 11,000 confirmed or suspected cases of illness in the U.S., may be linked to Taylor Farms “could jeopardize the livelihoods of company employees, lettuce growers, market vendors and their families,” wrote Rodríguez Mega. The illness, cyclosporiasis, “is marked by violent cramps, unrelenting nausea and, in many cases, sudden, urgent bursts of diarrhea.” No deaths have been reported either in the U.S. or in Mexico. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that “overwhelming epidemiological data” is compelling its investigation of Taylor Farms. “FDA’s traceback investigation and outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in central Mexico,” the agency said. The company has removed all iceberg lettuce from Guanajuato, Mexico’s lettuce powerhouse, from the U.S. market. In addition, grocers and retailers have taken its iceberg lettuce off their shelves. Guanajuato residents the Times spoke to expressed skepticism about the findings of U.S. investigators or insisted the lettuce hadn’t made them ill. Mexico’s health minister, David Kershenobich, told reporters July 21 that authorities were testing samples from Guanajuato farms and that no evidence had been found so far that the parasite originated there. But he said “we are taking every precaution in the event that it did.” But now there are fears of changes in U.S.-Mexico trade policy. The countries are expected to continue talks this week on their trilateral trade agreement with Canada. “It’s going to get ugly,” predicted Héctor Enrique López Espitia, an agronomist in Guanajuato. “What’s Trump going to say about this? They’re going to roll out a mountain of new rules to shield the U.S. market and completely screw over Mexican trade.”

“Migrant Policy Creating Crisis for Elder Care,” New York Times, July 22, 2026

Americans are aging rapidly and living longer, creating soaring demand for elder care, notes Miriam Jordan of the New York Times. Now, even in bastions of wealth and privilege, the elderly are facing the sudden loss of caregivers because of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, she says. Millions of immigrants eligible to work in the United States work in elder care as nurses, dietitians, fitness instructors and maintenance technicians. Many face deportation. Jordan points to the example of a senior living community a mile from Stanford University that is “home to pioneering scientists, tech executives, and inventors.” Residents were told by the facility’s CEO at a meeting in June that “our work force is being drastically disrupted, and lives are being upended right now.” The CEO, Rhonda Bekkedahl, says she’s been forced to fire several employees who had work permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The government hasn’t processed their renewals. Many more dismissals are in the works, she adds. Other employees at the facility called Channing House are protected under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program that under a recent Supreme Court ruling no longer will block the deportation of 350,000 Haitians and later possibly one million migrants in total. Jordan of the Times says that “many residents expressed disbelief and outrage at the possibility that their caregivers, immigrants who have lived in the United States for the better part of their lives, could soon be forced to leave.” Among them: Gloria Castellanos, director of dining, who has worked at Channing House for two decades and knows the nutrition requirements of every resident. “If one of these days you don’t see me, you’ll know what happened,” she told residents. Workers losing protected status and facing deportation “are the people that clean their rooms, serve their food, lift them to take them to the bathroom and the shower,” said Adam Scott, chief executive of another senior living community, Hebrew SeniorLife in the Boston area. “There is no work force waiting in the wings capable of the longstanding relationships, in some cases built over years and even decades, that are so vital to quality care,” said Katie Smith Sloan, the chief executive of LeadingAge, which represents more than 5,000 aging service providers. She called the Supreme Court ruling and Trump’s immigration policies “a government-mandated disservice to older adults and families in need of care and services.” Even before the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the senior care system was under strain. More than half of nursing homes in a survey of 400 facilities in 2023 said they turned away prospective residents because they lacked enough staff.

“U.S. Faces a Quagmire in Venezuela,” Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2026

“Cuba Edges Toward Breakdown as Power Cuts and U.S. Meddling Push Society to Brink,” The Guardian, July 18, 2026

Cuba’s national grid collapsed July 14 for the third time in ten days, leaving its suffering populace to wonder whether its antiquated electrical system soon may become unrecoverable, reported Ruaridh Nicoll of The Guardian. “The backbone of the system is still the big power plants,” University of Texas researcher Jorge Piñon told him. “And they’re old, broken and tired.” People living in the high heat and humidity are losing their tempers. They share the misery of “no sleep, ruined food and fading hopes of reprieve,” wrote Nicoll. They pound pots and pans in protest, making that the country’s soundtrack instead of salsa that used to fill the streets. When electricity kicks on, it stops quickly. “An hour isn’t enough time to run the pump to get water or to charge phones,” said Alberto, a middle-aged Havana resident. The minister of energy, Vicente de la O Levy, said “we’ve said it before, there is a total absence of fuel. And we do not have access to spare parts for our thermoelectric units.” Cuba has been sweltering under a six-month long oil blockade imposed by the U.S. and Donald Trump has promised Cuba will fall. Ninety-five-year-old Raúl Castro was charged in May with murder by a Florida court, perhaps a move toward a Venezuela-style extraction 30 years after the downing of small planes out of Miami that were dropping leaflets on Havana. Cuba, once among the safest of Latin American countries, is now beset by fights on the streets, cars and houses being burglarized and violent muggings. “Police, once ubiquitous, are hard to find, and victims complain they take hours to turn up.” Meanwhile, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush sought to link Cuba with Iran over unconfirmed reports it has acquired 300 attack drones. “I think it’s important to recognize that Iran has consistently been working with Cuba,” Bush said. Trump followed up in the White House, saying “we’re not going to allow that to happen.” A package of 176 market-oriented measures announced by Cuba to overhaul its economy was termed by the U.S. State Department as “superficial smoke signals.” Living through the U.S. campaign to bring down the communist government and the hardship of a collapsing economy, Cubans live under enormous pressure. Laura Garcia, a Havana resident who is a single mother, said her neighbors now live only in the present. “What I hear is a level of desperation that doesn’t allow the distance to discuss the future,” she said. Asked for further comment after 72 hours without power, she “only muttered: ‘What has to fall doesn’t fall,’” said Nicoll.

"Nicaragua’s President Says Country Will Not Hold Any More Elections,” The Guardian, July 20, 2026

Nicaragua’s long-time president, Daniel Ortega, said July 19 the country will hold no more elections. He said the move is needed to prevent the opposition from coming to power. The 80-year-old authoritarian leader made the announcement during a ceremony marking the 47^thanniversary of the 1979 Sandinista Revolution in which he helped overthrow the brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, said Tiago Rogero of The Guardian. He also said he will work with the congress he controls to enact laws to “build a wall” against the opposition. Democracy has been steadily eroding in Nicaragua but observers described the announcement as a significant escalation. Tiziano Breda, an analyst with the NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data said Ortega and his wife, co-president Rosario Murillo, have sealed the transition of Nicaragua “to a full-fledged family dictatorship.” Ortega hadn’t appeared in public for 61 days. Elections had been scheduled for next year. Breda said “Ortega and Murillo are evidently afraid of the idea that the slightest political opening could create the conditions for dissent to manifest and threaten their grip on power, possibly suggesting that their already feeble domestic support is further falling.” In response to nationwide protests in 2018, organizations including the UN said Ortega carried out a crackdown that killed more than 350 people, wounded hundreds, jailed thousands, and drove nearly one million Nicaraguans into exile, Rogero said.

“The New Oligarchs of El Salvador: How Bukele’s Inner Circle Got Rich,” El País, July 19, 2026

A new class of millionaires has emerged under the rule of President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, testament to his family’s expanding real estate empire, lax fiscal controls, and suspect loans, writes Bryan Avelar of the Spanish news publication El País. Bukele “came to power presenting himself as an anti-politics messiah promising to restore dignity to the poor,” says Avelar. Bukele did not come from highborn families that owned major businesses, but once in power, says former economy minister Héctor Dada, “he became a member of the elite and displaced the old millionaires to make room for new actors such as bitcoin entrepreneurs and artificial intelligence agencies.” His net worth increased from $964,546 in 2012 to $4,466,478 today – a 363 percent increase. In the first seven years of his presidency, Bukele and his family bought 34 new properties, increasing their land-based assets twelvefold to more than $10 million. An analysis by El País of asset declarations by 75 public officials found that at least 21 of them increased their wealth by as much as 713 percent in seven years or less. The wealth of his press secretary, Ernesto Sanabria, increased from $269,884 when Bukele first took office in 2019 to more than $2 million in 2026. An emeritus history professor at Fordham University, Héctor Lindo, said “what the Bukeles are doing mirrors exactly what previous elites did. They changed the rules as they pleased. They made laws to favor their own interests. They put relatives in key positions.” Bukele, who previously was mayor of San Salvador, began in 2015 promoting the redevelopment of the historic downtown, an area marked by “neglect and disorder,” says Avalar. He placed the historic center under the authority of the executive branch instead of the municipal government. Avalar says “the government evicted tens of thousands of informal vendors who had occupied the area’s streets for decades and paved the way for chains such as Starbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC, GoGreen and Marriott to establish themselves there.” Three street-vendor leaders interviewed by El País claimed that those who refused to leave were threatened with indefinite imprisonment under the authority imposed by Bukele to combat gangs. The removal of thousands of merchants and residents sharply increased the value of commercial and residential properties. Among those who took advantage of the area’s rising value were Bukele’s brothers Karim and Yusef, who bought properties worth millions of dollars. El País said it contacted officials to ask them to explain their growing wealth but they did not respond to requests for information.

“Heartbreak of Quakes is Doubled for Venezuela’s Many Migrants,” New York Times, July 20, 2026

Mass migration defines modern Venezuela and also deeply marks its recent earthquakes and their aftermath. “Migration saved many Venezuelans, who survived simply because they were living abroad,” wrote Emma Bubola of the New York Times. “But it also made their grief harder.” Some “made long grueling trips home, turning a much awaited homecoming – a sacred milestone in a migrant’s life – into trauma,” Bubola continued. “Others could not return. They either did not have the money to make the trip or lacked legal status in the countries where they lived and could not risk travel across borders.” Children lost parents they hadn’t seen in years, and parents lost children they had seen mostly through a phone screen. Bubola noted that years of economic decay in Venezuela have scattered millions of Venezuelans across the globe. “So when the earthquakes struck, their impact rippled instantly across oceans and borders, striking families from Miami and Madrid to Bogotá and São Paulo. Migrants with the means to do so rushed home from long distances to try to save family members, only to arrive and have to dig through rubble to try to find their bodies. More than 5,200 Venezuelans have died and thousands more are missing. “Migration is hard, but at least you have the video calls,” said one mother, Liliana Figueroa, who lives in Brazil and lost her 16-year-old daughter in La Guaira, Venezuela. Their days were a deluge of WhatsApp messages sharing the details of their lives. “But there are no video calls to the sky,” Figueroa said. She still writes to her daughter Angelina, her only child, almost every day.

“AP Exclusive: ICE Officer in Maine Shooting Has History of Violent Behavior, Family and Records Say," July 16, 2026

Close relatives of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week said he “has a history of terrifying and violent behavior,” said Jack Brook, Michael R. Sisak, Amanda Swinhart, and Claire Galofaro of the Associated Press. They accused the officer, David Brouillette, “of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.” The relatives said he is an Army veteran who has had serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun. The AP reporters added that “Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.” At least ten people have died in encounters with immigration officers since Trump retook office, including the Colombian man shot in Biddeford, Maine, 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t released the name of the officer who killed Guerrero. It said “the vehicle [in which Guerrero was shot] “attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.” Three relatives who said they spoke to Brouillette after the shooting, among them his ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense. Asked to comment on Brouillette’s record and role in the shooting, an ICE spokeswoman said “we will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers…The ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training.” A second ex-wife said in a court filing Brouillette suffered from PTSD and depression, to which he accused her of slander in his own filing. An immediate relative said “Afghanistan destroyed him – trained him to be a killing monster, a machine. They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.” AP said Brouillette didn’t respond to requests for comment. His current wife said he told her it was a justified shooting, that “the guy was trying to run him over with a car.” His daughter said “I don’t think he sees himself as a killer. I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing.”

“Shut Out of U.S., Cubans are Heading South,” Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2026

“Brazil Calls Trump’s 25% Tariff Unjust and Vows to Impose Reciprocal Tariffs,” Associated Press, July 16, 2026

The Trump administration said July 15 it will impose a new 25% tariff on certain imports from Brazil because of what it called unfair trade practices. Although the tariff wouldn’t affect items such as coffee, beef, orange juice and aircraft components, the Brazilian government said it would hit some 3,000 items. AP reporters Mauricio Savarese and Eléonore Hughes said “President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office on Wednesday [July 15] denied U.S. allegations of unfair trade practices. It said 76% of imports from the U.S. entered Brazil duty-free in 2025, and that the average tariff effectively applied to U.S. products was only 3.1%.” The Brazilian government also said it has taken steps to impose reciprocal tariffs. The foreign minister of Brazil, Mauro Vieira, accused the Trump administration of pressuring Brazil to give it exclusive access to some sectors of the South American country’s economy. Brazilian officials also are blaming the Bolsonaro family, the main political opponents of Lula, for the new tariff. Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro visited Trump in May. Bolsonaro is expected to be named Lula’s main rival for the presidency in elections later this year.

“Half of ICE Officers Don’t Have Body Cameras Yet,” New York Times, July 16, 2026

Despite a pledge early this year by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to rapidly place body cameras on ICE agents, half of the agency’s field offices don’t have them, the department said. They will get them over the next 60 days, it said. None of the officers involved in operations that led to the fatal shootings of two people over the past week were wearing body cameras, the department said. Video evidence from the cameras can be key to investigations of the shootings. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine along with the Homeland Security Department blamed Democrats for the delayed deployment of the body cameras, attributing it to a funding shutdown of the agency. But Times reporter Madeleine Ngo reported that “Democrats said the department was flush with cash with billions in funding from the domestic policy bill that Republicans passed last summer, giving it ample time and money to equip immigration officers with cameras.”

“President Demands Reinstatement of Vehicle Stops,” New York Times, July 16, 2026

In a social media post July 15, President Trump demanded that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency restart it use of traffic stops to detain immigrants without legal status. He did so despite two fatal shootings in recent days that led the agency to call a temporary halt to the practice, reported Madeleine Ngo and Zolan Kanno-Youngs. Homeland Security Department officials did not immediately say whether they have lifted their pause of the stops, Trump said using numerous capital letters that if ICE gives up on traffic stops it would be “playing right into the criminals’ hands.” Aggressive tactics have led to a public backlash against his enforcement crackdown that may harm Republicans in the congressional midterm elections this November. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has sought a quieter approach to enforcement, pushing for agents to obtain judicial warrants before entering homes and privately voicing skepticism about plans to convert more than a dozen warehouses into detention centers, the Times reporters said. But he said July 15 the department’s priority is to keep officers safe and said “illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are.”

“ICE Ordered to Cease Most Vehicle Stops After 2 Killings in a Week,” New York Times, July 14, 2026

After Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shot and killed two people in their vehicles in the past week, one in Biddeford, Maine, and the other in Houston, the Trump administration has ordered ICE to halt most vehicle stops while carrying out operations across the country, according to people familiar with the matter. After reporting the action and noting the killings, Madeleine Ngo, Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times then raised the question whether the pause on vehicle stops could hamper the agency’s ability to increase arrests of undocumented immigrants --- “to deliver on the president’s promise of mass deportations.” Sen. Susan Collins, running for re-election in Maine, said the Biddeford shooting raised important questions and that she had urged Homeland Security Department Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.” White House border czar Tom Homan downplayed the order July 14 saying it was temporary and wouldn’t affect the ability of ICE to make arrests. “It’s a short pause just to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” he told Fox News. “Operations continue. Arrests are at record numbers. Deportations are at record numbers.” The enforcement crackdown in President Trump’s second term “has resulted in at least 22 people being fired on by federal immigration agents since January 2025,” the Times reporters noted. “Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed as a result of those shootings, nearly all of which involved officers firing into vehicles.” Officials said the two men killed in the past week had tried to escape traffic stops but did not provide video or other evidence to support that, the Times reported.

“ICE Officer Shoots and Kills Man in Maine, Fueling Opposition to Trump Crackdown,” Washington Post, July 13, 2026

A federal immigration officer shot and killed a man around 7 a.m July 13 in Maine, but authorities did not identify him. An advocacy group said he was a 26-year-old Colombian national. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey will launch an investigation of the shooting, which occurred six days after the killing of a Mexican man in Houston by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer (see summaries below). Ted Hesson, Cole Renolds, Joanna Slater, Aaron Schaffer and Samuel Oakford of the Washington Post reported that the latest shooting is fueling a backlash against President Trump’s crackdown on immigration, which has ramped up in recent days, spurred by the goal of making 2,000 arrests per day. Frey’s office said initial reports were that an ICE officer shot the man when he tried to flee in his vehicle during an enforcement operation in the coastal city of Biddeford. An ICE spokesperson said the enforcement agency “was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal.” The spokesperson added that “an illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle. ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon.” Ruben Torres of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said the man was Colombian and that he had a Social Security number and was authorized to work in the United States. He said the man was the sole financial provider for his family in Maine and had been attending immigration court proceedings. A spokesperson for Sen. Angus Kine (I-Maine) said King was informed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that the man shot was not the target of an ICE operation. The spokesperson said Mullin said earlier in the day that he was the target of an operation. King said “body cameras were not on the agents, and so we have no video evidence of what occurred in this case.” King said an investigation is needed to determine whether deadly force was justified. “Video of the scene of the shooting showed officers treating a motionless person on the ground,” the Post said. The person’s body seemed limp when he was pulled out of the car and an officer began handcuffing him. The FBI went to the scene, an FBI spokesperson said, but offered no other details. The Biddeford police department said the shooting occurred at the intersection of Pool and Hill streets in Biddeford. The Post said “footage taken from a vehicle down the street from the site showed a white sedan going slowly in a circle” at the intersection. “Two law enforcement officers can be seen near the car.” A nearby doorbell camera captured the sound of what appeared to be at least five gunshots. A woman living in an apartment overlooking the intersection said she saw from her window a small car making a slow circle with two officers running alongside before a white SUV pinned the car to the sidewalk. The woman said officers tended to the victim and an ambulance arrived 10 or 15 minutes after the shooting. The New York Times reported that a woman nearby saw a woman screaming on her knees after the shooting. “I heard agony,” said the woman, Mary Hayes. “I heard a howl that came from your soul, that your whole life had just changed and it was never going to be the same.” Hayes said the woman was alongside a young girl with a pink backpack who was being comforted by another child. The Post reporters said that “amid a public backlash over aggressive immigration tactics, Democrats have pressed the Trump administration to require ICE officers to wear body cameras to increase accountability.” The officer who shot the man is being placed on leave, according to Frey’s office. The Times story noted that it was the second fatal shooting in a week that involved an ICE agent shooting into a vehicle. It said ICE used more pointed language in a communication received by some members of Congress that said the driver “weaponized his vehicle toward law enforcement.” As of the evening of July 13, the Times said, no video evidence confirming the government’s version of events had emerged. King’s office, the Times added, identified the man killed as Joan Sebastian Guerrero.

“Immigrant Shot Dead in Texas Wasn’t Target of Operation,” Wall Street Journal, July 11-12, 2026

The Mexican immigrant shot to death by an immigration officer in Texas during a traffic stop wasn’t the actual target of the operation, according to U.S. House Democrat Sylvia Garcia of Texas. She said she spoke July 10 to acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director David Venturella about the shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had been living in the United States for more than 35 years when he was killed. The ICE official also said immigration officers weren’t wearing body cameras during the incident, Garcia said. “Salgado Araujo’s death has sparked protests and criticism from politicians, who are pressing for an independent investigation,” wrote Joseph Pisani of the Wall Street Journal. The Department of Homeland Security said the FBI in Houston was investigating the incident as a potential assault of a federal law enforcement officer. The lawyer defending Salgado Araujo’s brother and a friend, who were in Salgado Araujo’s vehicle when he was shot, said “at no point was there ever an agent standing in front of the vehicle.” Hugo Balderas-Ibarra added, “Nor was an agent ever placed in the line of danger. I believe my clients are telling the truth.” Pisani wrote that “immigration agents have fired at or into civilian vehicles at least a dozen times, killing at least two people, The Wall Street Journal reported in January. The civilians were unarmed in all but one instance.”

“Outgoing Colombia Minister Warns Climate Gains Could Be at Risk Under New Government,” Associated Press, July 10, 2026

Colombia’s new government could reverse the country’s recent climate protection and conservation gains, the outgoing environment minister warned July 10. As examples, Irene Véles Torres cited the support of incoming officials for fracking and fossil fuel development and skepticism about climate change. In an interview with Steven Grattan of the Associated Press, she said that Colombia already is facing severe environmental challenges in the form of the El Nino weather pattern that can disrupt rainfall, and trigger droughts, floods and extreme heat. “Arriving with an attitude of climate denialism is absolutely dangerous,” Vélez said. The departing leader, President Gustavo Petro, tried to establish Colombia as a global leader on climate diplomacy, protecting the Amazon and moving away from fossil fuels. In his successful campaign, right-wing President-Elect Abelardo de la Espriella, who takes office August 7, promised to revive Colombia’s oil sector and called for greater use of the country’s natural resources to stimulate economic growth. Environmental activists and Indigenous leaders have warned that renewed efforts to extract resources could harm the Amazon rainforest, which covers almost half of Colombia. Vélez expressed concern that the new government won’t recognize Indigenous leaders as key decision-makers on environmental issues. Renewed spraying of coca leaves could increase exposure to carcinogens, she said. Fabio Arjona, a marine biologist chosen as the new environmental minister, defended fracking under strict controls and said it should not be done in protected areas such as national parks and paramos, high-altitude tundra ecosystems.

“Migrants Who Saw Man Killed by ICE in Houston Say He Did Not Ram Officers,” Washington Post, July 10, 2026

Three migrant men in the vehicle in which its driver Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop in Houston said he was not trying to run him over. According to Arelis R. Hernández of the Washington Post, the men “said a federal officer fired at them almost immediately after exiting his vehicle and that at no point did the driver veer in his direction.” The Department of Homeland Security asserted that Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and “weaponized” his white work van in an attempt to run over the ICE officer. “That is a lie,” one of the three men, Jose Trinidad Rojas wrote in a handwritten statement. Rojas wrote “it is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over …there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.” Immigration attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra shared the written and oral accounts of the men, who were in immigration detention. The other two men, who were not being housed together, told the same story in separate interviews, the attorney said -- that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van and they came in and started shooting from the sides. ICE said on the day of the July 7 shooting Salgado Araujo refused to follow commands and that officers fired in self-defense. The man killed was the father of three and a business owner. He had been living in the U.S. for more than three decades as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and had no criminal record, according to Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas). The men told the attorney that they were on their way to a construction site and pulled up to a stop light. An unmarked vehicle came up from behind and started following them. When the light turned green and the van accelerated, the unmarked vehicle pulled out onto the shoulder, accelerated, cut in front of them, and tapped on the brakes, the men said. Salgado Araujo then made a U-turn. The officers in the unmarked vehicle then turned on their police lights. The van continued, moving slowly, and ICE vehicles rammed into the work van, but “at no point did Salgado Araujo use his vehicle to hit law enforcement’s cars,” said the Post reporter, recounting the lawyer’s account taken from the three men. At one point there was an ICE vehicle on each side of the van. “Lorenzo thought we had lost them but suddenly they surrounded us,” Rojas said in his handwritten statement. An ICE officer then jumped out of one of the vehicles, ran toward them, yelled “Stop!” and started firing from the passenger side of the van, hitting Salgado Araujo in the abdomen. His brother, Victor Salgado, who was sitting in the passenger seat, said “when he shot my brother, the gun was in front of my face.” Salgado Araujo was able to stop the van and put it into park, the men said, but the officer or officers kept firing additional rounds from the sides of the vehicle. The brother, Victor Salgado, recounted an ICE officer saying to him in a mocking tone, “Se querían escaper, verdad?” – “You wanted to escape, right?” The three detained men had all been living undocumented in the U.S. for more than two decades without a criminal record, the lawyer said.

“Warming Could Ravage Amazon’s Useful Plants,” New York Times, July 10, 2026

In the coming decades global warming could kill off about 30 percent of the Amazon’s useful plant species within the communities that use them, according to a new study in the journal Nature. Indigenous societies in the Amazon have built up a large store of knowledge about the rainforest’s thousands of plant species and how to use them for nutrition and cosmetics and medical purposes, said Raymond Zhong and Flávia Milhorance of the New York Times. The plants offer huge scientific possibilities that barely have been explored, said University of Zurich ecology professor Jordi Bascompte. “Within the Amazon’s cornucopia may lie the next wonder compound, the next medical breakthrough akin to quinine, the malaria treatment that was first isolated from the bark of a rainforest tree,” the Post reporters noted. The study found that extensive losses could occur even if countries can keep worldwide warming to moderate levels. “For us, the forests, rivers, animals, everything was infinite,” said Oreme Ikpeng of a project to collect native seeds called the Xingu Seeds Network. “No one thought it was possible to destroy it.”

“Decades Late, Cuba Approves Serious Market Reforms,” Wall Street Journal opinion column, July 8, 2026

The 176 market-oriented reforms approved June 18 by Cuba’s National Assembly make up “the most far-reaching economic overhaul since the 1959 revolution,” writes Roberto González of the Human Rights Foundation, which describes itself as a nonpartisan group that promotes and protects human rights “with a focus on closed societies.” Private companies for the first time will be able to employ more than 100 workers, private banks will be permitted, foreign investors no longer will have to form joint ventures with the state, and Cubans will be able to own multiple businesses. “The state monopoly on foreign trade – a pillar of the economy since Fidel Castro’s nationalizations – has been dismantled.” Fast-food chains are now permitted in Havana. President Miguel Díaz-Canel cited the experiences of China and Vietnam as influencing the Cuban government revisions. China was one of the poorest countries in the world in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping asked why a socialist country can’t have a market economy. Its per capita income then is a fraction of what it is today. His moves included decollectivizing agriculture, creating special economic zones, inviting foreign investment, and letting the market price goods and services. Its annual growth rate averaged around 9.4 percent in the following 40 years. Seeking to create a “socialist-oriented market economy,” Vietnam in 1986 legalized private enterprise, opened the country to foreign investment, and decollectivized agriculture while maintaining single-party control. The country became a top rice exporter, ending extreme poverty. In these and other countries the economies moved first, the party labels stayed and people became more prosperous. The Trump administration’s “maximum economic pressure” has been one catalyst for change in Cuba and the country’s leaders are hoping to buy time with the U.S. through its changes. But the June 18 measures are economic not political. The Cuban regime “outlaws political pluralism, bans independent media, and suppresses dissent. Economic opening and political opening aren’t the same.” But history doesn’t move in straight lines. Vietnam remains a one-party state but a middle class now exists. “Prosperity doesn’t automatically produce freedom, but it changes what people are willing to tolerate.” The changes in Cuba “create the conditions under which a middle class could emerge.” It isn’t always so, but “an independent economic base can lead to political demands that a government can’t simply starve into submission.” Cuba’s political prisoners are still in their cells. But June 18 was the admission of the failure of an economic idea. “What comes next depends on whether this economic opening leads to prosperity and freedom – and whether Cuba’s people will wait for both.”

“Peruvians Say They Were Promised Jobs in Russia, But Landed on the Front Lines in Ukraine,” CNN World, June 28, 2026

Peruvian authorities are investigating complaints from 36 Peruvian citizens who say their relatives or friends were deceived by offers of jobs in Russia that didn’t materialize and actually were a way to get them there to force them into combat against Ukraine. According to CNN reporters Magdalena Sofia Vitores Moreno, Max Saltman, Jimena De La Quintaña and Katharina Krebs, a Peruvian foreign ministry official told CNN that the government has made at least 247 separate requests to Moscow for information on Peruvians in the Russian military and has demanded their immediate safe return to Peru “given that they departed without the proper authorization.” Percy Salinas, a lawyer representing the families of recruits, estimated that there are some 800 Peruvians fighting for Russia, many of whom signed up because they were promised high salaries and never received the money they were promised. Salinas admitted an element of “personal responsibility” for men who signed army contracts but asserted that most of the Peruvians fighting for Russia were “lured by deception,” the CNN reporters said. Similarly, CNN reported in February that many men from African countries were pressed into military service in Russia after they were offered high-paying civilian jobs as drivers or security guards. Kenya’s foreign minister flew to Moscow in March “to demand that Russia stop recruiting Kenyans, describing the pipeline bringing Kenyan citizens to Russia as a human trafficking ring,” said the CNN report. The Russian Embassy in Nairobi called the allegations “dangerous and misleading.”

“Son of Man Fatally Shot by ICE Agent Calls for an Independent Inquiry,” New York Times, July 9, 2026

Ronaldo Salgado, whose father was fatally shot July 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during a traffic stop in Houston, is calling for an independent investigation of his death. His 52-year-old father, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who original came to the U.S. from Mexico, was on his way to work when he was shot inside his car. Authorities said that when they stopped a vehicle around 6:50 a.m. and tried to arrest Araujo as an “illegal alien,” he “weaponized his vehicle” and tried to run over an agent who then shot him, reported Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times. Araujo was “mourned by his family as a father, husband, and business owner who had been in the country for 35 years and was trying to obtain legal residency.” Authorities did not immediately provide evidence to support their account. Araujo’s son asked the public to step forward with any video or images shedding light on what led to the fatal encounter. Federal agents have shot more than 20 people since September, almost all in their cars and some fatally. Officials said in most cases the vehicles had been “weaponized” and the lives of the agents were in danger. Sandoval noted however that in the year since President Trump began an aggressive immigration crackdown “many accounts of shootings by immigration agents have since been contradicted by video evidence.” Juan Proaño of the League of United Latin American Citizens said Araujo, who runs a construction business, had been on his way to a work site with three workers, including his brother, when they encountered the federal agents.

“U.S. Blockades of Oil to Cuba Brings Its Schools to Standstill,” New York Times, June 23, 2026

The U.S. oil blockade of Cuba has brought transportation there largely to a standstill – and with fewer cars and buses on the streets, fewer students and teachers are in school, reported Ed Augustin and Frances Robles of the New York Times. “My children rarely go to school,” said Sergio Alfonso Vásquez, a 33-year-old farmer. “They go, but the teachers don’t come. I’m afraid because they aren’t learning anything.” In February, the government cut school to half days and switched college students to remote learning. The Trump administration pressure campaign aims to force the Cuban government into making economic and political changes. “But experts say the damage to the educational system is a striking example of the negative consequences of U.S. measures on regular Cubans and that, in the case of schools, amounts to a serious long-term threat,” said Augustin and Robles. The risk to education posed by the energy crisis “jeopardizes the future of an entire generation,” said Anne Lemaistre, regional director of UNESCO, the United Nations education organization. But even before the blockade, the school system had a shortage of 26,000 teachers, many of whom had quit for higher-paying jobs. A rec0rd-breaking exodus of Cubans after the Covid-19 pandemic included thousands of teachers. Remote learning for college students has proven all but impossible because of blackouts stretching over 20 hours a day and the inability of students and teachers to pay for enough data on their phones to provide for remote classes. The U.S. State Department “questioned why the Cuban regime claims it has no fuel for schools, while Interior Ministry officials who quash protests have enough to carry out their operations,” the Times said.

“Freshly Home in Venezuela, Deportees Die as Quakes Hit Building,” New York Times, July 2, 2026

A plane carrying 146 Venezuelan deportees from the United States arrived in their home country June 25 – many of whom may have perished in the earthquakes that struck hours later. “Venezuelan officials welcomed the deportees – 120 men, 19 women and seven children – and recorded carefully staged videos celebrating their arrival after spending weeks in U.S, detention centers,” wrote Luis Ferré Sadurní and Patricia Sulbarán of the New York Times. Many if not all were taken to a state-run holding facility, where they climbed into bunk beds to be released the next day. But the building swayed and the walls and ceilings fell, burying most beneath a pile of rubble according to two survivors. The government hasn’t said how many of the people in the building died. But “only a handful of survivor accounts have trickled out,” the Times reporters said. The building was run by Venezuela’s intelligence service, known as SEBIN. One survivor said SEBIN threatened him to remain quiet about what had happened at the facility. One deportee, Arturo Alejandro Morales Escandela, was coming back on the day of his 25^th birthday. His mother had bought him new clothes and organized a surprise party with balloons and pictures of him to welcome him home. He called to ask his mother for the address of his grandmother, where officials were supposed to drop him off. “But a few hours later, the ground began to shake, and she never heard from him again,” the Times reporters recounted.

“With Billions From Oil, U.S. Puts $300 Million Into Aid for Venezuela,” New York Times, July 7, 2026

The U.S. response when Haiti suffered a catastrophic earthquake in 2010 dwarfed that of the Trump administration to earthquake-ravaged Venezuela, says Simon Romero of the New York Times. The earlier effort involved $3 billion in U.S. aid, 7,000 troops on the ground, and a stop to the deportation of Haitians. Now, the U.S. has provided $300 million in aid to Venezuela, 900 military personnel, and hasn’t stopped deporting Venezuelans. Romero writes that “the amount of recovery aid the Trump administration has announced is just a fraction of the estimated $8 billion in revenues from oil exports it has taken out of Venezuela since the United States deposed the country’s ruler, Nicolás Maduro, in January.” The Trump administration “has refused to disclose precisely how much revenue it has collected by selling Venezuelan oil or even how it is using these funds.” Trump says Venezuelans are happy now with new trade between the U.S. and Venezuela but even before earthquakes hit the South American country many Venezuelans were complaining life was just as hard as when Maduro was in power with regular blackouts, rising prices and weakening currency occurring now. But Haiti’s experience shows bigger isn’t always better when it comes to aid, according to Romero. Infrastructure projects were delayed, cost more than expected, or had to be scaled back. Many fewer new houses were built than expected. Total foreign aid reached $13 billion but corruption and political dysfunction go unchecked. Kenneth Merten, U.S. ambassador to Haiti in 2010 when the earthquakes struck, said “I think people look back on seeing the state Haiti is in today, in 2026, and they argue that was not money well spent for the U.S. taxpayer. But I would argue that in terms of saving lives and providing shelter, food, and water for people, it was really a very well-run operation by us and our partners.”

“Trump Describes Venezuela as ‘Happy.’ Its People Disagree.” New York Times, June 25, 2026

Note: This story appears to have been written before the earthquakes in Venezuela.

President Trump and Venezuela’s leaders have depicted their relationship in glowing terms but beneath that narrative the latter face growing difficulties meeting the clashing expectations of the Venezuelan people, foreign investors and U.S. officials, said Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times. “U.S. oversight has started to address the worst of the country’s chronic corruption under Mr. Maduro, but it has not yet made a difference for average Venezuelans,” he said. “For most, life remains just as hard as it was before the U.S, attack.” Annual inflation is falling but at 524 percent is still the highest rate in the world. Wages, though up, still leave people destitute. The bolivar, Venezuela’s currency, has kept collapsing since Delcy Rodríguez, took power as interim president after serving as vice president to the U.S.-deposed Nicolás Maduro. Her approval rate fell to 25 percent in May. Trump’s efforts to tap Venezuela’s natural resources have sparked much investor interest but few binding agreements. The new efforts to increase oil production draw electricity away from Venezuelan homes though the main problem with the grid is a drought lessening hydropower. Street protests are occurring at about triple the rate they were in 2025. Rodríguez is trying to get U.S. officials to recognize the risk of their tight economic restrictions, saying they slow investment and growth. She is urging an end to U.S. sanctions. Trump said recently that “Venezuela has become a happy country because they have never made the money that they are making now.” But only a fraction of Venezuela’s oil money stays there. Well-connected people and companies that get scarce dollars at the low official exchange rate can make money by reselling the dollars to people outside the formal currency system. They do that instead of making investments like building a factory or hiring workers, said Kurmanaev.

“Spain’s Leader Paints Wife’s Graft Case as Vendetta,” New York Times, June 25, 2026

The wife of Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was ordered to stand trial June 20 on corruption charges, making hers another of the corruption cases piling up around him. On its face, the trial of Begoña Gómez appears a potential “coup de grace” against Sánchez, said Jason Horowitz of the New York Times. However, “analysts say the prime minister, who is known for his survival skills, is transforming the case against his wife into a lifeline.” The Spanish government argues that the case against Begoña Gómez is a hit job by an obsessed judge. Gómez is accused of using her influence to support a bid for a public contract by companies with which she has personal and professional ties. Sánchez officials privately say the case against his wife “was a self-inflicted wound against his opponents,” writes Horowitz. Like his clashes with President Trump, “the trial of his wife has handed him an issue with which to mobilize unenthusiastic left-wing voters.” The corruption cases around Sánchez have targeted allies, associates and foreign ministers. According to analysts, the tactic of his government is to portray the Sánchez family “as the victim of an overreaching mudslinging operation,” says Horowitz. Sánchez said June 24 his government is rooting out corruption and that it is important to examine “the anatomy” of the cases and what Sánchez said is intentional confusion created by his opponents. Speaking after him, the leader of the conservative opposition, Núñez Feijóo, read a list of the cases. He said “Come on – justify all of this? It’s impossible.” He demanded new elections.

“Suit in U.S. Claims Maduro Authorized Extrajudicial Killings,” New York Times, July 2, 2026

At least 1,300 people were killed by an elite Venezuelan security force from 2017 to 2020 during a major police operation launched by then-President Nicolás Maduro, a federal lawsuit filed June 30 alleged. The suit filed by family members of five young men killed alleged that Maduro, now imprisoned in New York, authorized the killings. Frances Robles of the New York Times wrote that “the police raided homes in lower-income neighborhoods, forced men and boys to their knees and shot them, according to evidence gathered by civil rights groups. Houses were ransacked and anything of even modest value was pilfered.” The crackdown was ostensibly a crime-fighting operation. The suit was filed under a law called the Torture Victim Protection Act. The 1991 law “allows the filing of civil suits in U.S. federal district court against people accused of committing torture or extrajudicial killings while acting in an official capacity in another country,” Robles said. A United Nations report said that Venezuelan security forces killed at least 6,856 people in an 18-month period in 2018 and 2019. The report said they then altered crime scenes by planting guns or drugs or firing shots into the wall to make it appear that the victims had resisted arrest. The Venezuelan government didn’t respond to requests for comment about the suit, Robles said. “This complaint reflects the extraordinary determination of the victims’ families to confront abuses of power and affirm that no one is beyond the reach of the law,” said Michael Reed Hurtado, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit. One of the plaintiffs in the case said that “my son was murdered in his own room.”

“Daily Arrests Double to 2,000 as ICE Steps Up Push to Detain and Deport Migrants,” New York Times, July 3, 2026

U.S. immigration officials detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days of June, a rate more than double the 1,000 migrants per day picked up earlier this year. “Word of an uptick in arrests has started to trickle out, sowing fear in immigrant communities and among advocates already on edge after the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump could end deportation protections for people from disaster- and war-torn countries under the Temporary Protected Status program,” said Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, set a goal last year of arresting 3,000 migrants per day but the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency could not meet it. But since then ICE has hired thousands of new officers with a budget increased by billions of dollars. ICE now has 63,000 migrants in detention, an increase of 4,000. In the stepped-up sweep a Nigerian nun, Sister Letty Ugboaja, was arrested in South Texas on her way to church Sunday June 28. A fellow nun called local leaders and Ugboaja was released after congressional officials became involved. She was distraught upon her release, said Sister Norma Pimentel. “It took her awhile to be able to talk – she was crying.” In Utah, immigration lawyer Ysabel Lonazco said “people don’t want to leave their houses. They are afraid to drive to do their grocery shopping. They are just terrified with these detentions.” She said a client, a 48-year-old Mexican man, was arrested in Salt Lake City on his way to a soccer game June 28, according to his wife. His wife said her 13-year-old son was traumatized by the arrest of his father, who had been working most days building furniture. A Homeland Security Department spokeswoman said the man had illegally reentered the U.S. and would remain in custody while ICE tries to deport him. His wife said “we were worried but it wasn’t like we were extremely worried. We figured – we don’t have any criminal record; we pay taxes every year.” Lauren Bis of the Homeland Security Department said “our message is clear: If you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

“Venezuela Mired in Grim Task of Counting Earthquake Dead,” New York Times, July 1, 2026

According to an unofficial website where Venezuelans can report the missing, more than 46,000 people haven’t been accounted for after the earthquakes that devastated the South American country. The New York Times couldn’t verify that figure, but to veteran rescue workers, that number is ominous. “Contact is difficult, but not that difficult that you wouldn’t have gotten in contact,” said Linda Hornisberger of the Swiss search-and-rescue organization REDOG. “We must assume most to be dead.” It’s expected to take several weeks to get a full picture of the magnitude of the disaster. Many of the buildings in La Guaira where the earthquake struck had ten or more stories. Builders went up many stories because a mountain range limited where they could be constructed. “There are mountains of rubble from buildings of many, many levels, made of concrete, which basically turns them into tombs,” said Josué Araque, a Venezuelan geographer. He said it’s difficult to search the lower floors because there are ten floors that fell on top of them.

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