by Jessica Corbett | Dec 10, 2025 | Amazon, Article, Climate Crisis, Economy and Inequality, Ecuador, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Dec. 09, 2025. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
A US advocacy group, American human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, and the group in Ecuador behind a historic legal battle against Chevron over its dumping of toxic waste in the Amazon rainforest are condemning the Ecuadorian government’s plans to pay the oil giant hundreds of millions of dollars due to an arbitration ruling.
In response to the legal fight in Ecuador that led to a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron—which bought Texaco—the fossil fuel company turned to the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, suing the South American country in the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. As part of the latter case, Ecuadorian Attorney General Diana Salazar Méndez’s office announced Monday that the government would pay the US company only around $220 million, rather than the over $3 billion Chevron sought.
While Chevron said in a statement that it was “pleased with the resolution of this matter” and claimed the decision “strengthened the rule of law globally,” and Salazar Méndez’s office celebrated the dramatically lower figure, and the Union of Peoples Affected by Chevron-Texaco (UDAPT)—the group that began the case against oil company in 1993—pushed back against the government’s framing of the reduction “as if it was a success and an economic achievement.”
“The reality is it is a defeat for justice,” UDAPT argued in a Tuesday statement. “For 32 years, UDAPT has documented pollution, environmental crime, and lives broken by Chevron, proving what should be obvious: Communities have not recovered, health has not been restored, clean water has not returned, and the territories that sustain life remain contaminated. A debt is not owed to Chevron. A debt is owed to the Amazonian families still waiting for
by Marc Steiner | Dec 9, 2025 | Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Marc Steiner Show
Out of the rubble of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, a grassroots movement of Jewish and Palestinian citizens inside Israel has emerged to forcefully reject a future of endless war and occupation. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Alon-Lee Green, national co-director of Standing Together, explains how their movement is confronting state repression, settler violence, and rising fascism while working to build a new Jewish-Palestinian majority in Israel.
Guest:
Alon-Lee Green is the national co-director of Standing Together, a progressive Jewish-Arab grassroots movement that aims “to build a new majority within Israeli society that supports peace, equality, and social and environmental justice.” Green has organized numerous campaigns against the recent wars between Israel and Palestine, and for a just peace and equality and social justice in Israel.
Additional links/info:
Standing Together website, Facebook page, and Instagram
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, “‘The pain is a mutual pain,’ say Israeli Jewish and Arab activists”
Credits:
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Studio Production: David Hebden
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
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 with one of the founders and leaders of Stand Together, an organization of Israelis and Palestinians in Israel calling for an end to the war in Gaza, an end to the occupation and to the end of oppression Palestinians. On this very moment, over 70,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children have been killed in Gaza. 90% of Gaan have been displaced. It’s a war of annihilation. Standing together was founded by Alan the
by Michael Fox | Dec 8, 2025 | Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Stories of Resistance, Venezuela
On Dec. 6, people across the United States marched. They protested. They carried banners: No war on Venezuela. No blood for oil. US hands off Venezuela. They chanted and waved Venezuelan flags.
Trump says he’s coming to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He’s promised it’s only a matter of time. The United States has amassed the largest military buildup in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
But according to a recent CBS poll, 70% of Americans are opposed to US military action in Venezuela. And over the weekend, those voices were loud. Marches against US military intervention. Against the ongoing US boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. Against Trump rhetoric that claims to applaud peace, while carrying out and threatening violence at home and abroad—violence against Venezuela.
BIG NEWS! This podcast has won Gold in this year’s Signal Awards for best history podcast! It’s a huge honor. Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported.
And please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or wherever you listen. And please take a moment to rate and review the podcast. A little help goes a long way.
The Real News’s legendary host Marc Steiner has also been in the running for best episode host. And he also won a Gold Signal Award. We are so excited. You can listen and subscribe to the Marc Steiner Show here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Please consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews.
Written and produced by Michael Fox.
Resources:
Links to some of my
by Michael Fox | Dec 5, 2025 | Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Stories of Resistance
In the 1980s, the United States wreaked havoc in Central America. Backing authoritarian dictatorships. Fueling massacres and violence. Funding, training, and organizing the Contras, a paramilitary organization created to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The US government was spending billions on its interventionist policies across Central America in the name of fighting so-called communism.
But people pushed back across Central America. And they also responded in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets against US intervention in the region. It was the Central American solidarity movement.
BIG NEWS! This podcast has won Gold in this year’s Signal Awards for best history podcast! It’s a huge honor. Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported.
And please consider signing up for the Stories of Resistance podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, or wherever you listen. And please take a moment to rate and review the podcast. A little help goes a long way.
The Real News’s legendary host Marc Steiner has also been in the running for best episode host. And he also won a Gold Signal Award. We are so excited. You can listen and subscribe to the Marc Steiner Show here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Please consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews.
Written and produced by Michael Fox.
Resources:
Under the Shadow podcast
Nicaragua, 1980s. Revolution | Under the Shadow, Episode 10, Part 1
Some clips of this episode of Stories of Resistance were taken from Episode 10, Part 2: Nicaragua, 1980s. Contra War | Under the Shadow, Episode
by Adam Johnson | Dec 5, 2025 | Article, Media Criticism, Opinion, Politics and Movements: US, The Cultural Front
Consistent with the United States’ continued slide into an economy powered almost entirely by LLM slop, financialization, and ever-pervasive exploitative gambling, “prediction market app” Kalshi “entered into an official partnership” with CNN this week to bring their “data to CNN’s journalism across its television, digital and social channels.” Soon, CNN will run live odds on world events where its viewers can gamble on them in real time on their smart phones. The “data” (see: betting markets) will, according to Axios, “be featured on CNN’s air through a real-time data ticker and can be referenced across CNN’s platforms when journalists discuss news predictions. The partnership will include prediction market content related to politics, news, culture and weather. The integration will be championed by CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, who will tap into real-time insights from Kalshi in his reporting on air, both via linear TV and CNN’s new streaming subscription service.”
The day after this story broke, Wall Street news network CNBC announced a similar “exclusive partnership” with Kalshi, marking a grim turn for TV news. “Starting in 2026, CNBC will incorporate exclusive Kalshi predictions market data [see: betting props] into its programs,” the press release read. What are these events that viewers will be able to bet on? Some are seemingly harmless enough: who will win an upcoming election, the weather in Chicago, the federal government’s jobs numbers, or what will be said on Kroger’s next earnings call. But many offerings are on life and death issues that will, as a matter of course, reduce these issues to just another chip on a roulette table for Western audiences increasingly isolated
by Alexis Goldstein | Dec 3, 2025 | Article, baltimore, Economy and Inequality, New York, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story was originally published on Truthout on Dec. 01, 2025. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic downturn, many people couldn’t pay their transportation costs, and often didn’t. In New York City in 2021, some 21 percent of bus riders did not pay the fare, a figure that grew to 48 percent in 2024. Some local governments, including New York City, responded with reduced or free fare programs. From 2023 to 2024, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) ran a zero-fare bus pilot that served around 43,000 riders. The pilot, championed by then-assembly member Zohran Mamdani, offered free trips on one bus in each borough.
To expand this small pilot to universal zero-fare buses throughout New York City is a tall task, with a total 2024 bus ridership of 409 million and 6,300 buses. As mayor-elect Mamdani and his administration look to grow zero-fare buses in New York, they have a stellar example just a few hours south of New York, in Maryland.
The largest free bus program in Maryland by ridership is in Montgomery County, a suburb north of Washington, D.C.
Montgomery County first made its “Ride On” buses free to all riders under 18 in 2019. Then on June 29, 2025, it made all of its buses fare-free for all passengers. The system has a fleet of nearly 400 buses, 80 routes, and provided 19.2 million rides in the 2025 fiscal year. In the three months since free fares were instituted, ridership has increased by 5.4 percent. Phil McLaughlin, General Manager of Transit Services for Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), said an estimated 1 percent to 2 percent of
