Atlanta has become one of the hubs for Black-owned businesses, as it leads the country with Black-owned firms making up more than 10% of all businesses across the city. The National Business League held the conference in Atlanta for the fourth consecutive year.

The 2026 conference operated under the theme, “Booker T. Washington and the Sacred AI Codes to Economic Sovereignty.” It was hosted by the National Alliance for Black Business, a unified coalition including The National Business League led by president and CEO Dr. Ken Harris;

The World Conference of Mayors, founded by Tuskegee Councilman and former Tuskegee, Ala. Mayor Johnny Ford; the National Black Chamber of Commerce, led by executive director Charles H. DeBow III; and The Black Business School, founded by educator and businessman Dr. Boyce Watkins.

The spirit of Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala., and the National Negro Business League, dwelled in the conference rooms of Hilton Atlanta throughout the weekend. Booker T. Washington held the first National Negro Business League conference in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 23, 1900.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, who taught Black people to unite, do for self, to own land and to open and to support businesses, admired Booker T. Washington and the principles he established among Black people.

“We must revisit and engrain those principles into our very being, and teach them, and pass them on to our children and unborn generations in the future,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, said in Part 38 of his 2013 weekly lecture series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”

“The principles, if followed, upon which Dr. Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, are immutable principles that any and every human being of every race, creed or color—any people who are down.

And in the mud of civilization, or nonproductive, could become producers for self and producers of a great community, and become a people that produce a great civilization.,” Minister Farrakhan said.

“Dr. Washington was interested not just in farming and agriculture and animal husbandry; he was interested in our growth into Science and Civilization: the manners and behavior of a civilized people,” he continued.

The 2026 National Business League Conference began where it all started, in Tuskegee. During a citywide tour, attendees viewed Booker T. Washington’s home, the Tuskegee University Historic Campus District, George Washington Carver Museum, George Washington Carver National Monument and other historical sites.

On the following day, Aug. 20, several summits ran concurrently. During the World Conference of Mayors summit, Tuskegee Councilman Johnny Ford, mayor emeritus of Tuskegee, declared a proclamation for the Nation of Islam’s upcoming Holy Day of Atonement, which will be in Atlanta, Oct. 10-11.

“As you know, Tuskegee hosted a Holy Day of Atonement, and so we intend to support it.  And I’m so proud of the Holy Day of Atonement, and we commend the [Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan] for continuing to have it,” Mayor Emeritus Ford said to The Final Call.

The Nation of Islam convened the Holy Day of Atonement, commemorating the 18th anniversary of the historic Million Man March in Tuskegee in 2013.

At a welcome reception Aug. 20, evening, Booker T. Washington’s great-great-granddaughter, Dr. Erica Washington McDonald, shared words with attendees.

“On behalf of the family of Booker T. Washington, we want to thank you all for coming out again, for keeping his legacy alive and continuing with business, to continue to show us what Black excellence looks like,” she said.

Artificial intelligence and Black businesses

The conference’s main sessions began Aug. 21, when Dr. Harris and other presenters introduced and launched “Project 2035,” a national economic sovereignty think tank to assist in forming a national economic agenda for Black people.

“We got Project 2035, which is our plan towards national economic sovereignty. We launched a pilot this weekend with an unbelievable technology app that allows for us to collect the thoughts of the community and allow the community to come forward with the types of things that’s necessary as we rebuild over the next 10 years towards an economic sovereignty agenda,” Dr. Harris said to The Final Call.

As part of the project’s working sessions, panelists tackled artificial intelligence, digitalization and digital infrastructure.

“As a Black community, that digital divide is real. It has always been. We have missed so many movements, cultural movements, technology movements, etc. throughout history. We missed the agricultural revolution because we were the ones picking the cotton, not being able to participate, not being able to own the land in a way that allowed for us to be a part of the economy.

We missed the Renaissance movement. We missed the Civil Rights Movement because it did not have economics attached to it,” Dr. Harris said. “So, 62 years later, post the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Black people are at the bottom of every major economic indicator and quality of life, and we do not want to miss the technology boom, but most importantly, the artificial intelligence boom.

We want to be a part of it, and we just don’t want to participate or be included anymore. We want to own and control the technological advances of the future because we believe … that this will lead to freedom, liberation, emancipation, and most importantly, economic sovereignty.”

Conference keynote presenter Dr. Talitha Washington, executive director of the Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics at Howard University, defined A.I. as “a system that performs tasks normally requiring human intelligence, including reasoning, perception and judgment.”

It can include machine learning (systems that improve by learning patterns from data), generative A.I. (models that produce new content such as text, images, code and audio) and agentic A.I. (systems that plan, use tools and take multi-step actions toward a goal with limited human supervision).

Panelists discussed how A.I. could change the landscape for Black business owners and entrepreneurs. A.I. can help break down barriers to building capacity and scaling, they shared. But it must be tied with unity, collaboration and the will to do the work.

“One thing about A.I. that’s really interesting to me is I have found that it is a fascinating place to generate ideas and create plans to execute those ideas. What the A.I. won’t do for you, though, is do the actual legwork required to make that idea into a real thing. It’s not going to replace the work necessary for you to take that thing all the way to the finish line,” panelist Dr. Boyce Watkins said.

News analysis, surveys and research have presented A.I. as both a major opportunity for Black entrepreneurs but also as a new way to possibly reproduce longstanding racial disparities, if Black people fail to keep up. There are concerns that the data and information that is fed into A.I. is discriminatory toward non-Whites. For example, there are studies that show A.I. algorithms used in healthcare are racially biased.

But as big tech companies increasingly build their massive A.I. data centers, the engines that train and run A.I. systems, in or near Black communities or other cultural landmarks, such as historic Black cemeteries, creating harmful environmental impacts, the question becomes, how can Black people adopt A.I. responsibly? 

“We don’t want to do things in a way that’s harmful to our people and harmful to the community, and so we must bring stakeholders together,” Dr. Harris said. White House representatives from the Department of Agriculture and the government’s A.I. center presented at the conference, along with the Democratic and Republican candidates for Georgia governor.

“We need to be in the middle to figure out how do we solve potential problems but at the same time not lose out on the opportunities,” Dr. Harris added.

“Regardless of who’s in office, Black businesses are at the table, and it’s not about parties anymore. It’s about how do we advocate properly for our communities so that we are a part of the process, that we’re at the table and not just on the menu.”

During her talk, Dr. Washington brought up zero net water usage and the use of renewable energy like solar in order to power data centers. She also encouraged transparency around data centers.

Mayor Emeritus Ford shared with The Final Call that it is the responsibility of mayors to ensure data centers are built in areas where they do not become detriments to the community.

“Our environment is important. Being able to get electrical services at a reasonable rate is important for our citizens, and we’re not going to have that threatened by a data center.

So, mayors are intelligent enough to make sure that before we approve a data center for our area, for our cities, we go through all the necessary things to make sure it’s a benefit, not a detriment, to make sure it doesn’t take up all the electrical power,” he said.

There are serious concerns about the use of A.I. an its impact on Black people and communities which The Final Call has covered in several editions. (See The Final Call, Vol. 44 No. 16 and Vol. 45 No. 35)

Conference takeaways

Other topics addressed at the conference on Aug. 21 and 22 included buyer supplier readiness, the role of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and turning prospects into clients.

The U.S. Africa Trade Desk hosted the Pan-American Global Business, Investment and Trade Summit. During the session, Dr. Alveda King, niece of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., emphasized the need for Black land ownership.

“Your land is one of the most valuable things you could hold on to,” she said.

The conference ended with the Booker T. Washington National Awards Gala.

Mayor Emeritus Ford emphasized to The Final Call that the conference is not about talk but about action.

“We go to a lot of conferences, and people come together and hear a lot of speeches. They have a lot of receptions and meeting other people, but that’s it. This is a working session. This is a business session,” he said.

“We are concerned about action and getting things done. So, we want people to take away from this conference the ability to understand the A.I. process and have the ability to take what they learn here back and put it into effect.”

As next steps, the partners in the National Alliance for Black Business are continuing to form relationships overseas. The World Conference of Mayors is focused on building bridges with countries in South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

“We live in a global world,” Mayor Emeritus Ford said. “Mayors now must be global. They must be international. They must be able to deal with the whole world.”

The long-term goal for Black business and economics? Dr. Harris voiced the following concluding words to The Final Call: “We want all people of Black descent all over the world to own and control their own destinies, to build enterprise, develop enterprise, and most importantly, as Booker T. Washington would say, become captains of industry.” The question is however, is A.I. the way to achieve this?

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According to several media outlets, Ms. Michel spent six months in jail on misdemeanor charges that were ultimately dismissed. She was then immediately taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Transported more than 20 miles from her community and released alone in Pittsburgh despite mental-health challenges and language barriers. She subsequently spent at least a day at a bus shelter in subfreezing temperatures and died of hypothermia.

Though the homicide classification does not establish criminal responsibility, Ms. Michel’s family and immigration advocates have raised questions about whether the actions of government authorities contributed to a death that could have been prevented.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance, an organization focused on issues related to Black immigrants, released a statement in March urging Congress, the Department of Justice and independent watchdog bodies to investigate Ms. Michel’s death and the role of ICE supervision programs, review detention conditions and medical care in ICE facilities and increase transparency and reporting regarding deaths in immigration custody.

“Too many immigrants—including Haitian nationals—have died in the custody or supervision of federal immigration authorities,” Guerline Jozef, the organization’s executive director, said in the statement.

“We are calling for a transparent, independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Daphy Michel’s death. Migrants seeking protection should never face neglect, abandonment, or preventable harm while under government supervision.”

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) released a statement in June following the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s homicide designation.

“Daphy Michel was a human being. She happened to be born on the other side of a border, but she was no less worthy of care, safety, and dignity. That should not have been a death sentence.

Daphy’s death was preventable and is the result of a violent system that cages people, surveils them, abandons them, dehumanizes them in life, and smears them in death to escape accountability. She deserved care, shelter, language access, and medical support,” Rep. Lee said. 

“ICE and every agency that failed her must answer for this. And now, as more people die in and around ICE custody, their answer is not transparency, accountability, or care, but to stop reporting the deaths of recently released detainees altogether,” she added. “We must abolish ICE and build systems rooted in equity and basic human dignity.”

In early June, about three months after Ms. Michel’s death, acting ICE director David Venturella rescinded a 2021 Biden-era policy requiring ICE to report and investigate deaths occurring within 30 days of a detainee’s release.

Ms. Michel was born in Aquin, Haiti, and entered the U.S. in 2022. According to Atty. Murphy, she was granted humanitarian parole and had a pending asylum case, The Associated Press reported. She lived in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, more than 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. 

Ms. Michel was arrested in September 2025 following what witnesses described as a mental-health crisis. She faced misdemeanor charges related to allegedly threatening people while experiencing psychiatric problems.

Atty. Murphy shared that she spent six months in Washington County Jail while awaiting a preliminary hearing and underwent multiple psychiatric evaluations, according to the AP. In late February, a judge dismissed the criminal charges. 

Rather than returning home after the charges were dismissed, Ms. Michel was taken into ICE custody. ICE officials placed an electronic ankle monitor on her and transported her to Pittsburgh. Her family reportedly expected to be contacted upon her release to arrange for someone to pick her up, but that call never came. 

Instead, she ended up at a Pittsburgh bus shelter, where surveillance footage from Pittsburgh Regional Transit, obtained by Pittsburgh’s Public Source, a local news outlet, showed her spending at least 24 hours in largely subfreezing temperatures. She was found unresponsive on March 2 and later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Her family and their attorney said she was wearing clothing appropriate for September and was inadequately dressed for winter weather. Temperatures were in the low 20s on the morning of March 2.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner described Ms. Michel as a vulnerable adult with untreated severe mental-health problems and a significant language barrier when she was released. The medical examiner’s office determined her cause of death was hypothermia and classified the manner of death as homicide, meaning her death was caused by the actions of another individual.

On social media, immigration advocates accused ICE of contributing to Ms. Michel’s death. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded in a post on X: “ICE had NOTHING to do with this woman’s death. She passed away THREE days after ICE encountered her.”

The DHS stated that Ms. Michel was released on Feb. 27 “with all of her belongings, including a fully charged phone, in sunny weather in the middle of Pittsburgh, where public transport is readily available.”  

The family attorney disputes elements of the government’s account, noting that although Ms. Michel had a cellphone, its service expired during the six months she was incarcerated.

Ms. Michel leaves behind her parents, three sisters and two brothers. She died before she could attend her immigration hearing, which had been scheduled two weeks after her death. 

In addition to the family’s lawsuit, Pittsburgh detectives are investigating Ms. Michel’s death.

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Americans’ financial well-being was broadly stable in 2025, but the financial well-being of Black adults deteriorated from 2024 to 2025, according to a report published earlier this year by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Overall, while 73% of adults reported they were doing okay financially or living comfortably, Black financial well-being fell from 65% to 60%.

The report pointed to rising layoffs and financial harms from inflation as evidence of worsening financial circumstances. It also documented disparities in difficulty paying bills, food insecurity, banking, credit, debt and homeownership.

The report details:

• 64% of Black adults considered price increases a major concern, up six percentage points from 2024 to 2025;
• 13% experienced a layoff, up three percentage points from 10% in 2024;
• 32% did not pay all their bills in full in the month prior to the survey, more than three times the rate of White adults and twice the national rate;
• 15% said their families sometimes or often did not have enough to eat, up three percentage points from 2024;
• 13% were unbanked, and of those who had bank accounts, 25% paid an overdraft fee during the previous year;
• 54% of Black credit applicants were denied or received less credit than requested, more than twice the rate for White applicants;
• 72% of Black credit-card holders carried a balance at least once during the previous year;
• 28% had outstanding student loans, and Black adults were twice as likely as White adults to have student-loan debt; and only 44% owned their homes.

Black wealth and economics in the U.S. has always been a complicated story intertwined with discriminatory systems designed to work against Black people. However, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, pinpointed the way out of this economic and financial hardship.

In His book, “Message to the Blackman in America,” published in 1965, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad outlined an economic program for Black people.

The program, found on pages 195-196, explains Black wage earners to save just five cents a day to go into a national treasury. From there, Black people, collectively, could buy farmland and produce their own food, He wrote.

“You can raise enough cattle, sheep, cows and chickens by the thousands if you try our program. We could cut down on our clothing bills,” he added. “Purchase real estate, buy farm and timberland. Convert the timber into lumber and build homes for yourselves as the White man is doing.”

He advised Black people to get clay land and start making their own bricks. Then, build brick homes “and sell them to your people at a very reasonable price.” Take the cotton to the mills and convert it to lint, and take the lint to the mills and convert it to cloth, he said.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, has since urged Black people to take another look at the program of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

“At a time of great crisis, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad outlined in the Muhammad Speaks newspaper a ‘Plan’  that sought to address the economic plight of Black people in the United States.

It was presented at that time as an ‘Economic Savings Program,’ or a ‘3-Year Savings Plan’—and it was the greatest effort in the history of Black people in America to:  1) break our harmful spending habits; 2) pool our earnings; and 3) redirect our wealth in ways that would lead to self-sufficiency in America,” Minister Farrakhan said in Part 30 of his 2013 lecture series, “The Time and What Must be Done,” titled, “Muhammad’s Economic Blueprint: Ending Poverty & Want.”

“The Program called on not only Muslims, but all Black wage earners—the poor, the middle class, and the wealthy—to make affordable contributions, on a regular basis, into a single national treasury,” he added.

“But why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad give us this Plan 48 [now 61] years ago? He warned us that 100% inflation would come to America, totally destroying the value of the dollar. 

He wrote that a financial crash was on the way more severe than The Stock Market Crash of 1929 (a.k.a. ‘Black Tuesday’).  And, He wrote that America would experience a loss of wealth so severe that it would force the descendants of slaves to finally get up and do something for themselves economically.”

Minister Farrakhan then went into the statistics on the dire condition of Black life in America, including foreclosure rates, unemployment rates, incarceration rates, homicide rates, high school dropout rates and poverty rates. 

Minister Farrakhan concluded with words from His teacher from pages 56-57 of “Message to the Blackman”: “As a people, we must become producers and not remain consumers and employees. We must be able to extract raw materials from the earth and manufacture them into something useful for ourselves! This would create jobs in production.

We must remember that without land there is no production; [and] the surplus of what we produce we would sell. This would [help] develop a field of commerce and trade as other free and independent people whose population is less than that of [our] so-called Negroes who are dependent in America.”

“The future is in our hands,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said. “You don’t have to beat up on other people, you just have to do right by yourself!”

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Xandria Harris, a 30-year-old mother of four, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and child endangerment for her alleged role in a December 2021 incident that left one police officer dead and another severely wounded.

Her then-boyfriend, Darius Sullivan, allegedly fatally shot Bradley, Ill., Police Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic and severely wounded Sergeant Tyler Bailey during a confrontation in a hotel room.

Prosecutors shared that the incident began after a Comfort Inn employee called police about dogs left inside a vehicle in freezing temperatures, according to local news outlets. After responding, officers determined Mr. Sullivan was wanted on outstanding warrants.

They knocked on the door of the hotel room occupied by Ms. Harris and Mr. Sullivan. According to prosecutors, while Ms. Harris spoke to the officers at the hotel room door, her boyfriend came from around the room and reportedly shot Sgt. Bailey, local news outlets reported. He then reportedly chased Sgt. Rittmanic down the hallway, and allegedly disarmed her and fatally shot her.

Prosecutors accused Ms. Harris of aiding and abetting the crime, alleging that she delayed opening the hotel-room door while Mr. Sullivan prepared his weapon, assisted him during his struggle with Sgt. Rittmanic and later attempted to help him escape.

However, Ms. Harris’ attorney, Cierra Norris, argued that Mr. Sullivan “controlled and conditioned” her and that she lacked criminal intent, local news outlets reported.

Civil rights activist John C. Barnett, founder of the organization True Healing Under God, held a news conference in support of Ms. Harris on Aug. 7. During the news conference, he highlighted the case’s complexities, including concerns about jury selection.

The length of time between the incident and the trial and other issues reported attempts of silencing of Ms. Harris’ mother and attorney. On the opening day of the trial, prosecutors accused Atty. Norris of potentially violating a judge’s gag order by discussing the case with others.

Several of Ms. Harris’ family, friends and supporters spoke at the news conference.

“She’s a loving mother, a mother of four kids that needs to come home,” Anne Boyd, Ms. Harris’ aunt, said.

“I feel like I shouldn’t be here because I know my daughter’s innocent from the beginning. I knew my daughter was innocent, and I feel like I shouldn’t be here. And I feel like it’s unfair what she’s going through,” Gloria Harris-Boyd, Ms. Harris’ mother, said.

“And for me to be her mother, and for them to kick me out the court, who don’t want their mother there? I’m there to support my daughter, so I have to sit outside the courtroom and just pray for my daughter because I can’t be in there.”

Ms. Harris-Boyd also described to ABC7 Chicago how the case has affected Ms. Harris’ children. “They miss their mom. And it’s very hard because she’s trying to do the best she can over the phone to like make sure they do their homework, calling them. It’s very hard because she has not had no physical contact with them,” she said.

Mr. Sullivan was convicted of murder and attempted murder in September 2024 and was later sentenced to mandatory life in prison, along with an additional 80 years.

Ms. Harris could also face a lengthy prison sentence if convicted. The trial is expected to conclude on Aug. 21. Mr. Barnett told The Final Call that he is preparing for another rally outside the Kankakee County Courthouse on Aug. 20, one day before the trial’s expected conclusion.

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His student, helper and National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, has continued warning America to repent lest she faces the Wrath of Allah (God).

“God will take America down in 12 hours by the clock. You have no power with The God I serve.  See if you can stop the tornadoes; they’re coming more and more … .

Rain coming like you’ve never seen it before. All of a sudden a flash flood, and people, you see their cars going down under water,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said in a May 2016 interview on The Breakfast Club. 

“You’ve got hail coming out of the sky the size of a baseball; and soon, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, you’ll see them coming out of the sky like blocks of ice. 

You’ve got fire going on North of our border in Canada, 1,600-and-some-odd square miles burning. They’ve never seen a fire like that,” Minister Farrakhan added. “You are dealing with a God and The Forces of Nature … . You can’t stop that.”

Several Western states are either battling wildfires or recovering from them amid dangerous heat, low humidity, gusty winds and ongoing drought. An unusually active wildfire season intensified across states stretching from Washington to Colorado.

Three fires in Spokane, Washington, burned more than 10,000 acres and damaged more than 900 homes and structures. More than 60,000 people were forced to evacuate. 

“This is by far and large the worst one we’ve ever been on,” Steve Moyer, a firefighter with the Moses Lake Fire Department in Washington state, said to Seattle’s NPR station. “I mean, you’re in a neighborhood right now and there isn’t a single house standing.”

“It’s apocalyptic,” he added. Authorities said all three fires were believed to be caused by humans, though only one had been identified as deliberately set.  Aaron Farinacci, 37, was arrested and charged with first-degree arson for deliberately starting one of the Spokane fires.

Even as firefighters from across the country worked to contain the fires, officials warned that another round of hot, windy weather could reignite active fire behavior.

“More dry, windy weather is going to make things harder for our firefighters this weekend. Everyone in Washington needs to be smart and safe. Don’t be the spark that sets off another catastrophe,” Dave Upthegrove, Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands, said in a social media post.

Oregon was another fire hotspot. Several fires raged simultaneously across the state, leading to evacuations and unhealthy air quality, according to local news outlets. Officials closed one of the state’s highways because of the Grasshopper Fire, which burned more than 43,000 acres and remained at 23% containment on Aug. 7.

Another fire, the Wrights Spring Fire, which started Aug. 5, grew to nearly 9,000 acres by Aug. 7 and remained at 0% containment.

The Big Grass Fire grew into one of the largest wildfires in Oregon’s history. Flames scorched more than 442,000 acres and crossed into Idaho. By Aug. 7 afternoon, the fire was 39% contained. NASA satellite imagery showed widespread smoke stretching across Oregon, Washington and into British Columbia. 

In Utah, the Widemouth 2 Fire became one of the state’s largest fires this fire season. It burned more than 106,000 acres and was 19% contained on Aug. 7.  A firefighting helicopter crashed while working the fire, and the blaze continued growing despite hundreds of firefighters working to suppress it. So far in the 2026 fire season, 794 fires have burned nearly half a million acres in the state.

North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong declared a statewide fire emergency on Aug. 7, as moderate and extreme drought spread across the state amid hot and dry conditions.

“In just a few months we’ve seen ground conditions shift from lush green to tinder dry across large portions of our state, and we need to be prepared for a potentially intense wildfire season this fall,” Gov. Armstrong said.

Northern California’s Gann Fire was another major fire. The fire rapidly spread through dry grass and brush, burning more than 10,000 acres. The fire injured a firefighter and destroyed 18 structures. One person was found dead in a home destroyed by the fire. Residents received evacuation orders and warnings, and schools closed due to the smoke. More than 3,000 personnel were assigned.

Herbert Wayne Smith, 65, was arrested on suspicion of recklessly causing the fire by operating spark-producing equipment without clearing nearby flammable vegetation as required.

Fires expanded near the Pioneer Mountains in Montana, and fire watches were issued for parts of Montana and Wyoming. Though few fires were reported in Wyoming, parts of the state did experience heavy smoke from fires in the Pacific Northwest, reducing visibility and degrading air quality.

Mandatory evacuation orders were issued near Lake City, Colorado, as firefighters battled the Elk Fire.

On Aug. 6, firefighters were actively working to contain 95 large fires across the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 30,000 personnel were assigned to incidents nationwide. Up to that point in 2026, firefighters had responded to 45,502 wildfires burning more than 5.6 million acres.

The center predicted that a “hot, dry and unstable air mass” would continue to build across the West. Year-to-date wildfire activity remained above the recent 10-year average for both fire numbers and acres burned, according to the fire center.

Forecasters warned that extreme heat and strong winds will keep much of the West at elevated wildfire risk even as heavy rain and flooding threaten parts of the eastern U.S. Parts of the eastern and central United States have experienced repeated rounds of thunderstorms, including localized flash flooding and heavy rainfall.

These weather events are prophesied to continue.

“God is destroying America by degrees with The Forces of Nature, which you have no power against,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned in his 2016 message. “The Death Angel is in America as we speak—these natural disasters are going to increase.”

But, he said, there’s a way out for America. “Let the Black man go and give us justice, and these things that are whipping you today will start diminishing, and you will get a longer period of time,” he said to America’s political leaders.

“Let us go and give us some of this territory that we can call our own; and give us the billions of dollars that we can get started with land and with tractors and the things that will make us an independent nation. You could do that, if you would.  You don’t have a lot of time. And if you think I’m crazy, keep going the way you’re going and watch what God does.”

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Gain-of-function research refers to experiments that intentionally alter an organism or pathogen to give it new or enhanced biological properties.

Dr. Fauci served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1984 to 2022 and as President Biden’s chief medical advisor from 2021 to 2022.

According to multiple sources, including Worldometers.info, approximately 1.2 million Americans died from the virus during the pandemic. Dr. Fauci was pressed for answers during the hearings.

Republican senators, led by Committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), grilled Dr. Fauci on his research in Wuhan and his response to COVID-19. They accused him of funding research that they alleged may have led to a laboratory origin of COVID-19, improperly handling federal records and resources and concealing information about vaccine-related adverse effects.

Dr. Fauci refused to answer all questions posed by the Senate during the nearly three-hour hearing, stating that on the advice of his attorneys, he was exercising his constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment, which protects people against self-incrimination.

Senate Republicans criticized his refusal to testify. Senate Democrats argued that the hearing was a political exercise, stating that Dr. Fauci had already testified before Congress numerous times. One of Dr. Fauci’s attorneys attempted to intervene during questions, leading Sen. Paul to order security to remove the attorney from the room.

Sen. Paul also announced plans for the committee to consider holding Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions.

Questions asked during the hearing directed to Dr. Fauci pertained to: gain-of-function research; Dr. Fauci’s private communications and federal recordkeeping; why NIH-funded research involved the Wuhan Institute of Virology; laboratory safety oversight and NIH oversight of Chinese laboratories; vaccine safety and suppression of alternative COVID-19 treatments.

Regarding vaccine-related injuries and adverse effects, the senators brought up more than 1.6 million submitted reports from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (published weekly on page 8 of The Final Call), including more than 39,000 reports involving deaths. They also referenced individuals who reported suffering serious injuries after receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

In his July 4, 2020, message, titled “The Criterion,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warned Black people not to take the vaccine. Regardless of the physical origins of COVID-19, he described the virus as a “pestilence from heaven.”

“Don’t take the vaccines. There are 14 therapies that are in the world today that we can use to fight against the COVID virus. America, you won’t solve it. The scientists of the world, you won’t solve it,” he said. “I want to tell you what will solve it. This virus is a pestilence from heaven so scholarship from hell can’t deal with a pestilence that came from heaven.”

—Anisah Muhammad, Staff Writer

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Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to a construction job with his brother and two others on July 7 in Houston when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in unmarked vehicles pursued his car. They pulled him over and fatally shot him through a passenger window.

Just six days later, on July 13, an ICE agent fatally shot Colombian immigrant Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 25, in Biddeford, Maine, while attempting to stop his vehicle.

Neither man was an intended target of the immigration operations. Protesters connected the shootings to the January deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens who were fatally shot during a federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

Mr. Araujo, who lived and worked in the U.S. for 35 years, was a husband and the father of three children who are U.S. citizens. His sons have been outspoken in the weeks following his death.

During a congressional forum on July 24, his son Salgado Araujo Jr. asked listeners to put themselves in his and his brother’s shoes.

“I want you in your mind to think of a loved one—your brother, your father, your cousin, a beloved coworker. Picture their face and silently say their first and last name. Picture that loved one’s face pinned to the ground in pain and yelling out in desperate need of help.

Picture the anger and helplessness of watching that person bleed out through a video on your phone,” he said. “What would you do after? How would you cope with the feeling of losing your protector, your role model, your mother’s loving partner, your grandmother’s little boy?”

His other son, Ronaldo Salgado, delivered a statement to the Houston City Council on July 28 demanding a full, independent and transparent investigation and justice for his father.

In a wave of protests in cities across the country, including a nationwide day of action on July 25, activists and organizers demanded independent investigations, release of video evidence, identification of the officers involved, greater disclosure of disciplinary records, restrictions on immigration-based vehicle stops and an end to local police cooperation with ICE. 

In Portland, Maine, a road sign was hacked to display the message, “No More ICE Killings.” Three “ICE Out of Maine” laws went into effect on July 29.

The two deaths resemble a pattern that has become all too familiar: agents, sometimes in unmarked cars, approach or box in a vehicle; the driver attempts to move or escape, and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) claims the vehicle posed a deadly threat.

In some previous cases, video or witness accounts have contradicted the government’s initial description. In the Houston and Maine cases, federal authorities have not publicly released evidence indicating that either driver posed an imminent threat.

Advocates also condemned the death of Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, 28, a Mexican man who visited the U.S. on a valid tourist visa. He was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while running from federal immigration officers in Florida on July 14. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.

In a July 14 statement, Mexico’s government announced plans to take legal action in response to the deaths of Mexican nationals in ICE custody or immigration-enforcement operations.

The statement said the Mexican Embassy would submit complaints to the U.S. Justice Department and relevant state prosecutors and that the government had begun sending what it called cease-and-desist letters to detention facilities where Mexican nationals had died.

After the two July shootings, administration officials reportedly ordered ICE to suspend most vehicle stops. President Donald Trump then publicly reversed course and said the stops must continue. 

The two shootings came amid rapid ICE expansion. In June, ICE arrested more than 43,000 people, the highest monthly total of President Trump’s second term, according to ICE data analyzed by The Guardian. The detained population reached more than 65,700 by July 11. 

Congress provided approximately $70 billion in additional funding for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including money for enforcement, detention, staffing and related operations.

News reports, lawmakers and former officials have raised concerns that ICE’s rapid hiring campaign comes at the expense of sufficient background checks and training. 

Mr. Guerrero was a husband and the father of a young daughter. The Maine Attorney General’s Office is conducting a state investigation. The Colombian Embassy is also monitoring the case.

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The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, has pointed out that the current public school system in America is not beneficial for Black children.

“Elijah Muhammad taught us if a man won’t treat you right, what would make you think that man would teach you right? In the public schools, the enemy wants to make us better tools of service for him,” Minister Farrakhan said during his Holy Day of Atonement 2018 address in Detroit.

In his book, “A Torchlight for America,” published in 1993, he further stated, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that education is the torchlight of civilization. If the educational system is declining, this is a sign that the whole of the civilization will follow into a state of decline.”

More than 30 years after his book was published, public schools in the U.S. are in a crisis. Nearly 1,200 public schools closed during the 2025-2026 school year, according to newly released data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This was the fourth consecutive annual increase in school closures. In comparison, 755 public schools closed in 2021-2022.

While the number of majority-Black public schools that closed has not been calculated, researchers have documented that majority-Black public schools are disproportionately likely to close compared with schools serving other student populations.

Racial inequities in public school closures

In a 2023 study, researchers Dr. Danielle Greene-Bell and Dr. Francis Alvin Pearman examined racial inequity in school-closure patterns in California and across the country.

They looked at public school closures from 2000 through 2018 and found that majority-Black schools represented about 10% of U.S. public schools but were more than three times as likely to close as schools with other racial compositions. Differences in enrollment, achievement, school size, poverty, location and other measurable characteristics did not fully explain the gap. 

Dr. Greene-Bell, chief engagement officer at Richmond Public Schools, started her research into public school closures at a majority-Black high school in Oakland, California, where she noticed anxiety around the school possibly closing.

“People, when I would ask about it, would say, ‘Well, you know, we’re one of the only majority-Black schools. You know they love to close down Black schools,” she said to The Final Call.

From there, she pulled data from the NCES and worked with her professor at the time, Dr. Pearman of Stanford University, to demonstrate scientifically that “majority-Black schools across the nation are more likely to be closed.”

“If you have two schools that are essentially identical, and the only difference is one is majority-Black and one is any other racialized composition, the majority-Black school will be the one that is more likely to be closed,” she said.

In the paper, the researchers argue against those who attempt to dismiss anti-Black racism as one of the reasons for Black public school closures.

“What I say instead is while I can’t say for certain, scientifically, that it’s anti-Black racism, we also can’t say that it’s not,” Dr. Greene-Bell said. She gave the example of a school that was closed in Virginia because it was built on a landfill.

“The reason people will say, ‘It’s not because the kids there are Black. It’s because it was built on the landfill, and it is toxic to the children. It’s actually better for the Black children that their school gets closed.’

But actually, when you think about it, why would a school be allowed to have been built on a landfill, and would a school have been able to be built on a landfill if it had been built for any other children other than those who are Black?” she questioned.  

A March 2026 analysis added another layer to Black school closures: the language used to justify closures. It argues that districts often frame decisions through technical terms such as “right-sizing,” “portfolio management,” or “efficiency optimization,” while failing to acknowledge priorities expressed by Black residents.

Black communities in different parts of the country are currently being challenged with school closures. In metro-Atlanta, the DeKalb County School District announced in February its consideration of closing 27 schools, citing a decline in student enrollment. DeKalb County is 51% Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

A local news outlet in San Jose, California, reported in February that the local school district’s “choice to close up to nine elementary schools this year will disproportionately impact Black and Latino students.”

East Arcadia School, a majority-Black school in North Carolina, had its last day of classes on June 4 before being closed for good. Board members cited declining enrollment, financial issues and staffing challenges, according to The Assembly, a media outlet in North Carolina.

The outlet reported that 11 public schools with majority-Black student populations closed in North Carolina this year and that 73% of the state’s traditional public schools that closed between 2011 and 2025 disproportionately impacted non-White students.

In July, parents in Pittsburgh filed a civil rights complaint alleging that approved school closures discriminated against Black students. On May 27, the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors approved a plan to permanently close nine school buildings and 12 schools, reconfigure 10 schools and terminate magnet programs.

“The Plan disproportionately burdens Black students by causing them to lose the unique educational resources provided at their schools, failing to explain how those resources will be provided at reassigned schools, and disproportionately requiring Black students to absorb the disruption, transportation, and academic costs of transitioning to a new school,” the complaint says.

What happens to Black communities when majority-Black schools close? Dr. Greene-Bell said the neighborhood is more likely to be gentrified.

“In some places, schools are community hubs. They provide community resources. They provide grounding. They offer historicity to the area,” she said. “People talk about those schools as if they are part of their identity.”

“For the children inside of those schools, you have to think about what it means to be moved from your norm, a place where maybe you have strong relationships with your teachers, strong relationships with your friends, and school might be the only consistent thing for you in your life,” she added. 

Taking control of our own education

As public schools close, advocates of homeschooling and independent Black education said they have seen upticks in Black parents looking to other options. In fact, that may be one of the reasons for declining enrollment in public schools, they said.

“What we’re finding is that there are a lot of students that are leaving public schools for charter schools, for private schools. Homeschooling has also taken a surge in the last 20 years or so, but certainly since COVID, and so a lot of people are pulling their children out of public school,” Baye Kemit, president of the Council of Independent Black Institutions, said to The Final Call. 

Joyce Burges, co-founder of the National Black Home Educators, said more Black people are choosing to homeschool their children for a variety of reasons, including family togetherness, spending one-on-one time teaching their children, tending to children with developmental challenges and keeping their children safe and secure.

“Children learn better face-to-face. You can’t beat one-on-one instruction,” she said to The Final Call. “A parent can pour into a child academically, because that child is right there, and they’re giving that child one-on-one attention.

Especially a parent who really desires for their children to learn to read, learn to do basic mathematics, on and on, how to write, a parent can spend that time one-on-one with that child and know that that child is getting exactly what they need.” 

She started homeschooling her children in 1990. Now, her children are homeschooling their children. “When I look at the children and how they are raising their kids, I see that homeschooling benefited our family greatly. That is proof to me that homeschooling worked for our family,” she said.

Mr. Kemit and his wife founded two Black/African-centered schools in Trenton, New Jersey, and Atlanta. 

“Independent Black schools protect the Black child. Independent Black schools are created as a complement to the Black family,” he said. Mr. Kemit said their goal is to look at how this type of education is going to better our families, our communities and our people.

“We’re not just necessarily trying to have our children pass a test. We’re not necessarily trying to make them good workers for someone else’s corporation. We’re trying to make them think in a way that is going to create a nation of self-sufficiency for Black people,” he added.

He shared that historically, as early as the 1790s, from abolitionist Prince Hall in Boston to the Nation of Islam, Black people have always sought to educate their own children in the U.S., recognizing education as essential to freedom and self-determination. 

“The first thing that we talked about when we came out of enslavement is that we need land, we need families and we need schooling,” he said. “It was always this push for education all throughout all of our movements, through our challenges here in America.

We are not in any situation today that we have not ever been in. We’ve been in the same situation for [400] years in this country. And until Black people understand that the government, that the state, is not going to educate your children in the way that is going to save our families, then we’re going to continue to have the problems that we have.”

Today, Black independent schools stand on the shoulders of those who suffered, like the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the early pioneers of the Nation of Islam, who were arrested in Detroit for taking their children out of the public schools to teach and educate them in their own school.

“When we took our children out of the public school, they came to the school and arrested the teachers. Elijah Muhammad went to the jail and said, ‘I am their teacher so if you’re going to arrest them, arrest me too,’” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said in his 2018 Holy Day of Atonement address.

“Today if you have an independent school, somebody paid a price. If you have Afrocentric education, somebody paid a price. If you know how to stand up for your beautiful Black self, somebody paid a price.”

In a 2012 interview with Cliff Kelley on Chicago’s WVON 1690AM radio station, Minister Farrakhan said Black people need to “scrap” that which has proven to be unworthy.

“I know that our children are being given an inferior education; and those who want to control the minds and hearts of the American people have purposely dumbed down the American people. We must change the education in the public schools,” he said. “We have to be concerned about education, the right kind of education, for all American children: Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White!

“America’s education system has failed—but we, The Nation of Islam, have a System that would not only be good for Black people, it would be good for White people! It would be good for all people, because everyone needs a Superior Education in order to master the circumstances that Life presents,” he added.

“While the education model we have is not yet perfect, and we are perfecting our model, we are still a long way from the madness that we see in our public schools.”

He shared the desire for American educators to allow the Nation of Islam to help teach Black students who attend public schools. “We’re not there to teach them hatred of any people, but to get them to fall in love with themselves!” he said. 

“And the more you teach them the richness of their history and The Nature of God that sits deep within them—and the power that they have once they are ‘turned on’: We’ll never have to beg another people again.”

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The autopsy was commissioned by Atty. Crump and his team, who represent Nolan’s family. The independent autopsy was performed on July 10, and the report was completed on July 19. Atty. Crump announced the results at the close of the NAACP national convention in Chicago.

The inconclusive results have raised even more questions in a case that has gained national attention, particularly among Black people.

“Although they were unable to determine the cause of death and could not establish the date of death, that does not establish that a crime didn’t occur,” Houston-based defense attorney Sadiyah Karriem said to The Final Call.

“As an attorney, I view this case through the lens of evidence, not speculation. The autopsy is one piece of the puzzle. Investigators must now continue examining the medical findings together with witness statements, digital evidence, cellphone records, forensic testing and the complete timeline of Nolan’s final hours,” she said.

Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., a board-certified forensic pathologist based in Washington, D.C., and president of the National Medical Association, the oldest and largest organization of Black physicians in the U.S., found red discoloration in the soft tissue at the back of Nolan’s head.

The cause of the discoloration is unknown at this time, and Dr. Mitchell noted that further investigation was needed. The examination reportedly found no fractures or severe deep-tissue injuries.

By the time Nolan’s body arrived for Dr. Mitchell’s examination, after an initial autopsy by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office, it had begun decomposing. Results from the first autopsy have not been released.

Dr. Mitchell reported that Nolan’s throat and internal neck structures had not been received with his body. He believed the original pathologist may have retained them for additional evaluation, which is a common forensic pathology practice.

“He said he would need to have the medical examiner in Mississippi allow him to review the throat. That’s why he said his autopsy is undetermined, pending investigation,” Atty. Crump said.

Nolan, 18, traveled from his hometown of Ocean Springs, Miss., to Horn Island with friends. He was pictured on a boat with three young White men, who returned to the mainland without him, as reported previously by The Final Call.

His phone and keys were returned to the mainland with the group. Details are still murky about what happened to the teen, and his family and friends have reported that Nolan knew how to swim.

In his preliminary opinion, Dr. Mitchell identified several limitations during the second autopsy that created barriers to establishing a definitive cause and manner of death: he did not see the body when it was first recovered; decomposition can obscure the presence or absence of bruises on the skin and he was unable to directly examine the airway and lungs for water and the stomach for gastric contents.

“We have heard from our call center people saying the body wasn’t waterlogged. Well, we need to know those things, but unfortunately, because the body was decomposed and the organs have already been dissected, those are things we can only get from the initial autopsy,” Atty. Crump said.

“We are hopeful that the Mississippi medical examiner would give Dr. Mitchell an opportunity to see their photographs and their observations to the condition of Nolan Wells’ body closer in time to July 4. That is very important, and we have to continue to demand transparency.”

Toxicology results from the initial autopsy are still pending. According to Atty. Crump, Dr. Mitchell could not rule out foul play.

Dr. Mitchell concluded his report with the following questions: What were the circumstances that led to Nolan entering the water? What was the body’s position when it was found? Was there water in the airway?

Is there any evidence of injuries to the internal neck structures? Is there evidence of intracranial hemorrhage (bleeding within the skull)? What was the composition of the stomach contents? What are the toxicology report findings?

“This is only another part of the puzzle, and even though it tells us significant information, we still have more questions than we have answers at this time,” Atty. Crump said.

He shared that there have been conflicting stories. Questions still surround videos documenting a dispute on the island, GPS tracking of the boat Nolan traveled on, and a recent statement from the United Cajun Navy that Nolan was found face down and fully clothed.

The deaths of Black youth under suspicious and questionable circumstances have become a familiar tale for Black people in America. During the July 22 press conference, Atty.

Crump invoked the names of young Black people whose deaths prompted calls for full investigations and greater transparency and accountability: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Stephon Clark, Sandra Bland, Atatiana Jefferson, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice.

He shared that Nolan’s case has brought attention to the tragic deaths of two other young Black men. Daniel Erving, 18, was reported missing on April 13 after he was last seen with two friends near a lake in a Dallas, Texas, suburb. His body was recovered on April 17.

“It is alleged that he ended up accidentally drowning, but his two White friends got his cellphone and threw it away, got his clothes and threw it away, and then went and deleted all of their text messages with him and social media. Sounds familiar?”

Atty. Crump said, “They’ve only been charged with tampering with evidence, and his mother is crying out that they should be charged with murder because if they will lie about his cellphone and his clothes and deleted messages, then they will lie about what really happened to Daniel Erving.”

Tyler Smith, 18, attended a gathering in Lexington, Kentucky. He died from a gunshot wound in the early morning hours of July 4. “He was the only Black person at the house. He somehow ends up shot in the head, dead. Some of the friends got rid of the gun.

The police show up. They tell the police it was an accident; it was an accidental shooting, that they were playing Russian roulette. … The police just took their word for it,” Atty. Crump said.

“Can you imagine in any three of these scenarios had the survivors been young Black men and they were with a young White man and he ended up dead, what kind of investigation would there have been? What kind of interrogation would there have been? Would they have ever been able to see the light of day until those questions were answered?” the attorney questioned.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is leading the investigation into Nolan’s death. The case will be presented to a grand jury after the investigation is complete. Atty. Crump said Dr. Mitchell should be included for the grand jury presentation. Atty. Crump and his team are also conducting an independent investigation.

Rev. Al Sharpton, actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry and former NFL player Terrell Owens are offering a combined $125,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Nolan was laid to rest on July 20. He was remembered for his calm, gentle spirit.

“To lose that light at such a young age, under these circumstances, has been absolutely difficult,” Nolan’s mother, Christine Wonsley, said at the news conference. “The only question that we have is: What happened to our son?”

—Anisah Muhammad, Staff Writer

The post ‘Foul play’ not ruled out in Nolan Wells’ independent autopsy appeared first on Final Call News.

The Muslim-majority country mourned its late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a weeklong state funeral from July 4 to July 9. The 86-year-old leader, along with his 14-month-old granddaughter, eldest daughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law, were killed in an airstrike on Feb. 28, the day the U.S. and Israel initiated a joint war on Iran.

Millions attended the funeral. The ceremonies began in Tehran and included processions through holy cities in Iran and Iraq, including Qom, Najaf and Karbala. The funeral concluded with Supreme Leader Khamenei’s burial at the Imam Reza shrine in the Iranian city of Mashhad, his hometown.

Al Jazeera reported estimates of more than 15 million participants across the funeral processions and at least 12 million people in the streets of the capital on July 6. Iranian state media reported that more than 40 million people attended the weeklong ceremonies. 

Observers have characterized the funeral processions as among the largest in history. The 1969 funeral of Indian politician C.N. Annadurai reportedly drew about 15 million.

And the 1989 funeral of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic and Iran’s first Supreme Leader, reportedly drew more than 10 million. Both funerals were single-day events, in contrast to the multiday processions for Supreme Leader Khamenei spanning five cities in two countries.

“Following the assassination of the supreme leader, the government did not fall but became stronger,” Abas Aslani, senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, told Al Jazeera. “What the U.S. and Israel did backfired. They wanted to bring about regime change in the country, but what actually happened created a rally around the flag.”

Journalist Maryam Bashirpour penned an opinion piece in Press TV, an Iranian state-owned news network, arguing that Supreme Leader Khamenei’s funeral was a “silent referendum”

On the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic and that the scale of public participation contradicted Western portrayals of the Iranian government as lacking mass support. She noted that the funeral demonstrated national unity and represented more than a state ceremony.

Supporters of Iran’s government are now voicing opposition to renewed U.S. strikes following the breakdown of the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with Iran accusing the U.S. of violating the agreement. Against that backdrop, and amid lingering anger over Supreme Leader Khamenei’s killing, Iranian government supporters have responded with public demonstrations.

Demonstrators held a pro-government rally on July 17, displaying banners and signs critical of President Trump, according to photos posted by the news magazine India Today. Roya News based in Jordan, posted a video of the July 17 pro-government rally depicting participants waving flags and carrying images of the late Supreme Leader.

In a July 18 meeting, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with “senior government officials, legal scholars, Justice Minister Amin-Hossein Rahimi and prominent jurist Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad to discuss strategies for documenting war-related damages.

Improving judicial procedures and preparing legal cases concerning war crimes committed by the United States and the Israeli regime,” according to the official website of the Iranian presidency. The president praised the unity among Iran’s three branches of government.

X user Ryan Rozbiani posted an English-language summary of a video from the meeting distributed by Iran’s Student News Network. According to Mr. Rozbiani’s translation, President Pezeshkian said, “I don’t think throughout the revolution we have ever been this aligned with each other.”

Mr. Rozbiani concluded: “Years of sanctions, assassinations, and war were meant to fracture Iran from the inside. They produced the opposite.”

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