by Ross Domoney and Nadia Péridot | Jul 17, 2026 | Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Syria, video, Yemen
Israel’s recent attacks on Lebanon and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are part of a long history of military aggression and occupation. But the Zionist project of creating a “Greater Israel” in the region has reached new heights, with senior government officials openly advocating territorial expansion into sovereign nations like Lebanon.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Palestinian refugee camps of Shatila and Bourj al-Barajneh have been a home to generations of Palestinians displaced during the 1948 Nakba. Residents of these camps have endured decades of violence, while holding onto the dream of one day returning to their stolen homeland.
TRNN was granted exclusive access to the Shatila and Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camps. In this on-the-ground report, we take you inside the camps in the midst of the latest conflict, and we speak to residents about their lives, resistance, and dreams of returning home.
Credits:
Filmed, directed and edited by Ross Domoney
Produced by TRNN, Antonis Vradis, and Shadowgraph Media
Voiceover and Script writing by Nadia Péridot
Local Production by Mohamad Hanoun
Translation by Siham Shamalakh
Graphics by Jack Lafone-hill
Transcript
A transcript will be provided when ready
by Maximillian Alvarez | Jul 16, 2026 | Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, video
Time is running out to save the life of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was abducted by Israel’s military and has been held for over 18 months in Israeli detention without charge. Dr. Abu Safiya’s lawyers report that he has suffered extreme torture and medical neglect and that his life is in mortal danger, but Israel has repeatedly ignored international calls to free him. We speak about the current condition of Dr. Abu Safiya and international efforts to free him with Dr. Nidal Jboor and Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, cofounders of Doctors Against Genocide.
Additional links/info:
Doctors Against Genocide website and Instagram
Amnesty International: “Emergency Leahy Appeal: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s Life at Imminent Risk in Israeli Detention”
Credits:
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Studio Production / Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Time is running out to save the life of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital who was abducted by Israel’s military and has been held for over 18 months in Israeli detention without charge and was last seen showing visible signs of extreme torture and medical neglect. His family has issued this plea to people of conscience around the world. Take a listen.
Speaker 2:
My father was unable to breathe. My father was unable to speak. His face was disfigured from the marks of torture and pain, especially after the last court session held in Jerusalem at the Supreme Court. We still call out plead and appeal and beg to all the free people of the world and to everyone with an atom of humanity in
by Michael Fox | Jul 16, 2026 | big tech, free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, The Battle for Free Speech
Disinformation is impacting our lives. Much of it is being pushed by unregulated Silicon Valley tech companies and their billionaire owners. But people in Europe are pushing back.
In this episode, Michael Fox goes to Spain, to look at how members of the Spanish far right have been inspired by Charlie Kirk. Then we look at grassroots organizing against Big Tech in Ireland, media education initiatives in Finland, and European measures regulating Big Tech.
“This has now been a topic of discussion very much in Europe,” says Finnish educator Saara Salomaa. “Should we actually trust any US tech companies, or should we try to get rid of US tech companies as soon as possible?”
Michael is joined in the episode by Laura Flanders. She is the host of Laura Flanders and Friends on public television — formerly known as the Laura Flanders show.
The Battle for Free Speech Podcast is a production of The Real News Network.
Hosted by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner. Theme music by Michael Fox, Jordan Klein and Daniel Nuñez. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound. Production and Sound Design by Michael Fox and Stephen Frank. Editorial support by Kayla Rivara. Research by Ben Schweiger.
Guests
Sergio Villanueva
Jude Farrell
Saara Salomaa
Iva Nenadic
Many thanks, also, to Ilona Taimela for taking the time to speak with me about media education in Finland.
Resources
Here is a link to TikTok about the Puchaina Avocado videos.
Follow The Battle For Free Speech on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.Support Michael Fox’s reporting at patreon.com/mfox. Never miss an episode — sign up for The Real News newsletter at therealnews.com.
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Michael Fox: Hi folks. Just a quick heads up before we get started. There are a few
by Brad Reed | Jul 14, 2026 | Article, Oil, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump, Venezuela
by Michael Fox | Jul 9, 2026 | brazil, free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech
This is really a tale of two countries: the United States and Brazil. In both countries, far-right presidents come to power — Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. In both those countries, the presidents spent several years unraveling democratic institutions and public policy. Both presidents then ran for reelection. Both presidents lied about their country’s voting systems in order to undermine the elections and whip up their base.
Both those presidents lost their reelections — Trump in 2020. Bolsonaro in 2022. They both claimed fraud and tried to carry out a coup to stay in power.
But that is where these two paths diverged. In the United States, President Donald Trump continued to peddle his lies about the elections. He created his own social media platform and he used it to push his agenda. He was reelected in 2024 and returned to power. In Brazil, however, the country’s Supreme Electoral Court blocked former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years, because of the lies he told about the country’s electoral system.
It wasn’t censorship. it was a different interpretation of free speech. One that said the right to free expression must be balanced with the other rights in the country and the country’s democratic system. The United States doesn’t agree. And the Trump administration has been pushing to bend Brazil toward its definition of “free speech.”
In this episode, Michael Fox journeys to Brazil to understand the lengths that the country has gone to fight disinformation.
Michael is joined in the episode by Maximillian Alvarez, editor-in-chief and co-executive director of The Real News Network and the host of the Working People Podcast.
The Battle for Free Speech
by James North | Jul 9, 2026 | Article, Israel, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Mondoweiss on July 08, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
By now, editors at the New York Times and producers at CNN are surely squirming over what to do about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Gazan doctor and hospital director who Israel has locked up for a year and a half without trial, and who says his jailers are trying to kill him.
Worldwide campaigns, by Amnesty International and other human rights groups, have called for Dr. Abu Safiya’s release and global media coverage has been significant. Britain’s flagship newspaper, the Guardian, has naturally already reported about Dr. Abu Safiya. Here is its July 6 headline: “Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israel jail, lawyer says.” Even the Israeli press have reported about him, including covering a demonstration in Tel Aviv on July 6 drawing attention to his case.
But in the American media, there has been a complete blackout about his case and his dire condition.
As of July 7, the New York Times has not mentioned his name a single time since January 2025. The Washington Post did run an Associated Press report, but there was no fanfare on the Post home page and you had to search hard for the article. In the Wall Street Journal so far: nothing. CNN’s website did have a short video report, but it apparently never appeared on the network’s U.S. outlet. Dr. Abu Safiya is also missing on MS Now, supposedly the most progressive cable network.
As this site and other alternative media have regularly reported, Dr. Abu Safiya, a pediatrician who was the administrator of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza, turned himself in to the Israeli army on December 27, 2024. There
