by Gabriela Soto | Jun 30, 2026 | Article, ICE, immigration, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Reprint
This article was originally published by Truthout on June 29, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
My husband, Martin Soto, was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this February when he left our home at night to buy diapers for our 11-month-old son.
Martin — who is a loving father, husband, son, church member, worker, and neighbor in the town of Kearny, New Jersey, where we live — was then jailed for four months at Delaney Hall, the ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey. Privately run by GEO Group, a for-profit prison company, Delaney Hall has quickly developed a reputation for medical neglect, rotten food, and abusive staff.
Then, in apparent retaliation for his participation in the hunger strike at Delaney Hall, and for my decision to speak out publicly about what he has experienced, he was transferred this May to Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he continues to be jailed.
When my husband arrived at Delaney Hall in February, he weighed 168 pounds. Now he weighs 117 pounds.
During the almost five months that Martin has wasted away in ICE custody, he has missed our daughter’s fourth birthday, our son’s first birthday, our wedding anniversary, his own 30th birthday, my birthday, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. ICE’s cruel decision has left me — pregnant with our third child on the way — suddenly forced to fend for our two young children and myself alone.
Martin has committed no harm. He is married to me, a U.S. citizen, and he has an asylum case pending for 2028. ICE has the power to release my husband right
by Marc Steiner | Jun 30, 2026 | Honduras, Israel, Latin America, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Marc Steiner Show
Leaked audio recordings between powerful right-wing figures in Latin America have revealed a massive and shocking conspiracy—involving the United States and Israel—to forge an international political network with the expressed purpose of undermining leftist leaders in the region. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Latin-America-based journalist and TRNN correspondent Michael Fox about “HondurasGate,” what the scandal tells us about the machinations of the international far right today, and how those machinations fit into the long, violent history of US imperialism in Latin America.
Editor’s Note: This episode was recorded before the 2026 presidential elections in Colombia, which resulted in right-wing candidate and Trump ally Abelardo de la Espriella becoming the country’s next president.
Additional links/info:
Michael Fox, Under the Shadow / TRNN, “HondurasGate: Leaks reveal the far-right plan to undermine Latin America’s left”
José Luis Granados Ceja, DropSite, “Hondurasgate: Key leaked audio files, revealing U.S. intervention in Honduras, found authentic ‘with moderate confidence’”
Michael Fox, Under the Shadow / TRNN, “U.S.S. Honduras | Under the Shadow S1E6”
Michael Fox, Under the Shadow / TRNN, “Honduras, 2009. La Resistencia. | Under the Shadow S1E7 Part 1”
Michael Fox, Under the Shadow / TRNN, “Honduras, 2009. Legacy of a coup. | Under the Shadow S1E7 Part 2”
Credits:
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
Audio Post-Production: David Hebden, Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. Great to have you all with us as usual. My guest today is Miguel Zoro, otherwise known as Mike Fox, who is just … I had
by Jaclynn Ashly | Jun 29, 2026 | Article, Climate Crisis, Environment, Politics and Movements: International
Max hears the plane before anyone else.
A low hum threads through the morning air above the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya’s central highlands. As it grows louder — a small propeller drifting in from Mount Kenya — Max is already moving.
He snatches a dry branch, paces the electric fence, and begins shouting — ah-ah-ah — his cries rising into a scream at the sky. He swings his arm and sends the stick flying upward. His hair bristles along his spine.
“It’s because of the plane,” says Stephen Mukundi, the sanctuary’s head caregiver. “He is remembering Burundi during the civil war.”
An view of Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, set on the southeastern edge of the 360-square-kilometer Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia County — the only refuge of its kind in Kenya. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly.
A caregiver hands food through the fence at Sweetwaters. The sanctuary’s caregivers live on-site around the clock, learning each chimpanzee’s temperament so closely that they decide every evening who can safely sleep beside whom. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly.
Stephen Mukundi, the sanctuary’s head caregiver, walks the perimeter of the enclosure. He arrived at Ol Pejeta in 1996 and has known most of the chimpanzees here since they were infants — a second family, he says, that he has watched go from trauma to becoming chimpanzees again. Photo by Jaclynn Ashly.
Max was born in Burundi in 1988. Captured as an infant — his mother presumed killed — he spent his early years with a French film crew before being confiscated in 1990 at around two years old, and transferred to the Jane Goodall Institute’s rescue center in Bujumbura.
When the Burundian civil war
by Michael Fox | Jun 26, 2026 | Article, Economy and Inequality, Opinion, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Trump, Venezuela
The images are harrowing: whole neighborhood blocks in rubble. Buildings collapsed. Rescue workers climbing over mountains of concrete debris fighting to find the survivors, working through the night.
A country already in crisis and shock after the Jan. 3 US invasion has been hit with another catastrophe.
A pair of back-to-back earthquakes hit Venezuela at 6:04PM local time on Wednesday, June 24. The first registered 7.2. The second struck just 38 seconds later. It was a magnitude of 7.5.
The epicenter of the quake was roughly 100 miles west of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, but was felt as far away as Colombia and Manaus, Brazil. Reports say it was the largest earthquake to hit the country in more than a century.
Videos taken during the earthquakes show buildings rocking, the concourse of the country’s main airport shaking and crumbling as people run. The airport is now closed.
As of Friday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 920 people, with more than 3,300 people injured. Reports say the death count could rise to anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 people.
More than 200 aftershocks have rumbled through Caracas. Many people slept outside in the streets Wednesday night for fear of the aftershocks and the structural integrity of their buildings.
The country is in a state of emergency.
La Guaira, the coastal city just north of Caracas where Venezuela’s main airport is located, has been devastated. It has been declared a “disaster zone” because of the number of buildings knocked to the ground.
#Venezuela | La Guaira suffered huge damage after a series of strong earthquakes on June 24.Aerial images taken on June 25 reveal a high level of destruction in many
by Maximillian Alvarez | Jun 26, 2026 | Gaza, Israel, labor, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Working People
At the 39th Constitutional Convention of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in Detroit, Michigan, union delegates debated and affirmed the aggressive direction the UAW has taken under current President Shawn Fain, supporting pushes to increase shop-floor militancy, support new organizing efforts, and take stronger stances on the political crises working people face today. Among the major developments to come out of the UAW Constitutional Convention was a historic vote to divest the union from Israel bonds, which provide financial support to Israel’s government as it continues to wage a US-backed campaign of genocidal violence and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians. In this episode, we break down this historic vote and what it means for union members with a panel of rank-and-file workers and members of Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), a left-wing caucus within the UAW.
Panelists include: Andrew Bergman, a worker at General Motors in Detroit, Michigan, a member of UAW Local 22, and co-chair of UAWD; Navruz Baum, a paralegal in New York, a member of UAW Local 2325, and a member of the UAWD Steering Committee; Margie Thornton, an attorney in Colorado, a member of UAW Local 2320, and a member of the UAWD Steering Committee; and Mike Davis, an auto parts worker in Ohio, a member of UAW Local 2021, and a member of UAWD.
Additional links/info:
Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) website, member platform, and donation page
Navruz Baum, Daily Struggle, “UAW divests from Israel bonds”
Dan DiMaggio & Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes, “Auto worker delegates back union’s fighting direction at UAW Convention”
Shireen Akram-Boshar, Truthout, “United Auto Workers vote to divest from Israel in historic victory”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working
by Maximillian Alvarez | Jun 24, 2026 | FBI, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Working People
On June 10, early in the morning, FBI agents raided the homes of individuals involved in Palestine solidarity activism at the University of Michigan. As Yarden Katz and Stephen M. Ward report in Mondoweiss, “with help from local and state police departments, including the University of Michigan Police, the raids unfolded simultaneously in Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin…The case is now known as the Michigan Eight. The Justice Department indicted the eight defendants—five of whom are current or former students at the University of Michigan, and one of whom was a University employee—on multiple counts of severe charges, including “Conspiracy to Transmit Threats in Interstate and Foreign Commerce.” The defendants, all in their twenties, now potentially face decades in prison.”
In this installment of our ongoing series “Police State University,” we speak with Kevin Zheng, a member-organizer and secretary of the Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Michigan, and Grace Viscito, a restaurant worker and former graduate student at the University of Michigan.
Additional links/info:
Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) website, Instagram, Facebook page, and X page
Legal Fund of Michigan Students for Palestine
Yarden Katz & Stephen M. Ward, Mondoweiss, “Inside the case against the ‘Michigan 8’: Palestine activism recast as antisemitic terror”
Alexa Cheaney, The Michigan Daily, “The Daily breaks down the indictment against eight pro-Palestine activists”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Campus life is unrecognizable in the Trump era: ‘There’s so many cops everywhere’”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘The raids happened Wednesday, finals started Thursday’: FBI agents raid homes of pro-Palestine students at University of Michigan”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript
