by Adam Johnson | Jan 14, 2026 | Article, Iran, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Trump, Venezuela
The Trump White House took time out this weekend from openly mocking and threatening Venezuela, and justifying US immigration forces executing an unarmed American woman while ordering the FBI to investigate her widow, to, once again, feign concern for human rights in Iran. And, once again, US media dutifully lined up to repeat this clearly absurd motivation as genuine without any an ounce of critical reporting, context, or pushback.
Almost every major outlet has taken Trump’s alleged motivation for potentially bombing Iran of defending Iranian demonstrators at face value:
Wall Street Journal (1/11/26): “…a sign the president is considering reprimanding the regime for its crackdown on demonstrators as he has repeatedly threatened.”
New York Times (1/10/26): “Mr. Trump has not made a final decision [to bomb Iran], but the officials said he was seriously considering authorizing a strike in response to the Iranian regime’s efforts to suppress demonstrations set off by widespread economic grievances.’
New York Times (1/13/26): “…the Trump administration is simultaneously considering a range of measures, including possible military strikes, to try to prevent further killings of protesters.”
CNN (1/11/26): “President Donald Trump is weighing a series of potential military options in Iran following deadly protests in the country, two US officials told CNN, as he considers following through on his recent threats to strike the Iranian regime should it use lethal force against civilians.”
Washington Post (1/11/26): “The Trump administration is considering military options in response to the crackdown…”
Washington Post (1/13/26): “Trump’s escalating rhetoric and the soaring death toll from inside Iran come as the White House said this week that his administration was weighing diplomatic options while considering potential responses [to the
by Sarah Lazare and Amie Stager | Jan 14, 2026 | Article, ICE, Minneapolis, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Reprint, Unions
This story originally appeared in Workday Magazine on Jan. 13, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times.
Unions and community groups gathered in front of the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota this morning to announce a day of “no work, no school, no shopping” on January 23 to oppose the ferocious assault on the state by federal immigration authorities.
“We are facing a tsunami of hate from our own federal government,” Abdikarim Khasim, a Minnesota rideshare driver, told the crowd. “We’re going to shut it down on the 23rd. We’re going to overcome this.”
JaNaé Bates Imari, representative of the church Camphor Memorial UMC., told the crowd that the joint action will be “a day when every single Minnesotan who loves this state—who loves the idea of truth and freedom—will refuse to work, shop and go to school. We are asking every single person, every family member, every teacher, every bus driver, every childcare worker, to come together, to be in community, to stand with one another.”
“What we have witnessed, what we have all gone through, is not normal,” she added. “We have seen through several videos the murder of one of our own, Renee Good. We have witnessed violence, over and over again. Families being ripped apart, loved ones being torn from their hospital beds, from their workplaces, homes. Violence is no longer a threat but a reality that surrounds us.”
Major labor unions in Minnesota are supporting the call, including Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005, SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, CWA Local 7250, and St.
by Stephen Prager | Jan 14, 2026 | Article, ICE, Minneapolis, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Jan. 13, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents deployed to Minnesota are pulling many nonwhite residents aside and asking them to prove their citizenship, according to several reports and multiple videos posted to social media this week amid the Trump administration’s surge of immigration agents to Minneapolis.
There is no federal law requiring US citizens to carry proof of their citizenship, and immigration agents are barred from carrying out indiscriminate searches unless they have reasonable suspicion to believe that someone is in the country without authorization.
And yet, one video, posted on Sunday by a Somali resident of Minneapolis, a US citizen named Nimco Omar, shows a group of agents accosting her and asking her to show her identification as part of what they said was a “citizen check.”
View this post on Instagram
Omar said she was on a walk when masked agents who “looked like soldiers” approached her and began questioning her.
The video shows one of the agents asking Omar, “Do you have an ID on you, ma’am?”
She replied: “I don’t need an ID to walk around in my city. This is my city.”
“OK, do you have some ID, then, please?” the officer asked. “If not, we’re going to put you in the vehicle, and we’re going to ID you.”
Omar responded: “I am a US citizen. I don’t need to carry around an ID in my home. This is my home.”
After being repeatedly asked, “Where were you born?” Omar replied simply, “Minneapolis is my home.”
The agent then told her: “We’re doing an immigration check. We’re doing a
by Maximillian Alvarez | Jan 13, 2026 | baltimore, Economy, Economy and Inequality, Politics and Movements: US, video
As the unaffordability crisis deepens across the US, poor and working-class residents are struggling to pay for rent and food along with exorbitant monthly utility bills charged by gas and electric monopolies that control local power grids. In Baltimore, MD, local residents’ inability to pay skyrocketing utility bills from energy giant Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) has sparked a grassroots “public power” campaign to establish a publicly owned energy alternative. In this on-the-ground report, TRNN takes you to the front lines of a Dec. 20 Public Power rally held in downtown Baltimore.
Additional links/info:
Baltimore Public Power campaign Instagram
Aaron Wright, Baltimore Beat, “BGE and DPW rate increases create financial woes for city residents”
Credits:
Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Maximillian Alvarez, David Hebden
Transparency disclaimer: Maximillian Alvarez’s spouse is a volunteer participant in the Baltimore Public Power campaign.
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Rev. Annie Chambers: Last week I went into a home and a lady had an infant that we had to get out of her house because her utilities was cut off and she had no way to keep that baby warm. Along with four other children.
Mark Conway: We had folks who were deciding between their rent and their energy bill. We had folks who were deciding between their medication and their energy bill. We had a senior roll her oxygen tank up and tell us that she was unable to refill her oxygen tank because of her energy bill.
Bobby LaPin: Last night, more than 250,000 Maryland children went to bed freezing and this morning they woke up freezing. But BG&E, but BG&E, they made $2.4 billion last year.
Taylor Smith-Hams:
by Marc Steiner | Jan 13, 2026 | Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Marc Steiner Show, Venezuela
Marc Steiner speaks with Geo Maher, abolitionist scholar and author of We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution, about the untenable goals behind President Trump’s invasion of Venezuela, and what the US bid to reassert imperial dominance in the Western hemisphere reveals about its declining place on the global stage.
Additional links/info:
Geo Maher Facebook page and Instagram
Geo Maher, Duke University Press, “We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution”
Geo Maher, Verso Books, “Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela”
Mike Fox, Under the Shadow / The Real News Network, “The Americas will never be the same”
Credits:
Production: Cameron Granadino
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Marc Steiner: Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us. As we begin this conversation, Trump is meeting with all executives from 17 companies. Secretary of State Rubio, Energy Secretary Wright, and Interior Secretary Bergen are looking at a hundred billion dollar investment as US and private corporations are about to seize the oil and the wealth of Venezuela. And as we air, we all know that the Venezuela president, Nicholas Madoro and First 80 Flores have been kidnapped and imprisoned by the United States. So to parse us out today, we’re talking with Geo Maher, who’s an abolitionist, educator, organizer, and writer based in Philadelphia. He’s taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Vassar, Drexel, San Quentin State Prison, and the Venezueela School of Planning in Karacas. He spent a lot of time in Venezuela, he’s taught there and in Mexico.
He’s the author of five books,
by Maximillian Alvarez | Jan 12, 2026 | baltimore, ICE, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, video
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Speaker 1:
Tonight we’re out marching against ICE injustice for Renee Goode and all those who have been unjustly killed and undustly detained. We stand with our neighbors and we stand with one another knowing that the people united will never be defeated. I stand for my friends in Minnesota who are out protesting there and knowing friends that are all around the country speaking out. We can do more than we are doing now. And this is just the bare minimum.
Speaker 2:
We are currently marching through downtown Baltimore. There’s hundreds of us and the police have barricaded the streets to prevent traffic from coming through because we are here to demand justice for Renee Goode and demand that ICE never do what they did to her to anyone else ever again.
Speaker 3:
Well, what happened yesterday in Minneneapolis was disgusting. The Trump administration has this goon squat ice that is out after our own citizens. That’s insane. We’re at war with the Trump administration. So I’m protesting the actions of Trump and the actions of ICE. And I’ll be out here until Trump’s gone. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:
So we’re marching in Baltimore against the Nazi occupation of ICE in America, stealing our neighbors, taking away vital community members that we really need and love very much. Get your neighbors organized, get your friends organized. Teach even your non-political friends about how important this is and just ways to protect each other because we outnumber the fascist completely. And if we
