Feb. 3, 2026 marked the three-year anniversary of the Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical disaster in East Palestine, OH—one of the worst industrial disasters in US history. Over the last three years, residents have been exploited and abandoned by Norfolk Southern, the government, opportunistic politicians, sensationalist media outlets, and self-serving attorneys. On the three-year anniversary of the day that changed their small-town lives forever, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez was on the ground in East Palestine speaking with residents about their lives and needs today. Here is what they said... 

Additional links/info: 

• Ohio Valley Derailment Mutual Aid Facebook page and fundraiser 
• Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition (CICC) website 
• Golomb Research Group (UCSD) website and East Palestine Health Effects Study website 
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “America’s toxic future looks like East Palestine, Ohio, today” (click for a full list of all of Max’s East Palestine reporting for TRNN over the last three years)

Featured Music: 

• Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song

Credits: 

• Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor 

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Hospitals in Gaza have been destroyed, medical supplies blocked, and doctors killed or detained—leaving children amputated without anesthesia, patients dying from infections, and families facing starvation and freezing conditions. Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, Dr. Nidal Jboor, and Dr. Maysa Hawwash, founders of Doctors Against Genocide, explain what’s happening inside Gaza and the West Bank, why silence from governments and medical institutions is enabling mass death, and how doctors are organizing globally to end genocide.

Host: Marc Steiner
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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Over the last two decades, Vladimir Putin has transformed his government in Russia from a managed democracy into an authoritarian regime. Many now view it as neofascist. Abroad, it has launched war after war to rebuild Russia’s former empire, while, at home, it has crushed the democracy movement, repressed all protests against Putin’s imperialist war in Ukraine, and jailed thousands of political prisoners. Two Russian dissidents, Ksenia Kagarlitskaya and Ilya Budraitskis join Ashley Smith in this episode of Solidarity Without Exception.

Resource links:

• Freedom Zone: https://www.futurerussia.ch/en/freedom-zone
• Posle Media: https://www.posle.media/?page_id=136&lang=en
• Ilya Budraitskis, Dissidents Among Dissidents, https://www.versobooks.com/products/913-dissidents-among-dissidents

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It’s been three years since a Norfolk Southern “bomb train” carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the small town of East Palestine, Ohio, on the night of Feb. 3, 2023. Three days later, Norfolk Southern pressured local authorities to make the disastrous and completely unnecessary decision to vent five giant carloads of vinyl chloride into a ditch and set the contents on fire, releasing a massive chemical plume into the air, exposing residents in East Palestine and the surrounding areas to deadly toxins in one of the worst industrial disasters in US history. Three years later, residents are still getting sick, many have been financially ruined, they have been abandoned by their government and Norfolk Southern, and forgotten by the public. And, as Katya Schwenk details in a blockbuster new report for The Lever, residents are still waiting for the restitution they were promised from the $600 million settlement that Norfolk Southern agreed to pay to resolve residents’ class-action lawsuit over the derailment.

Guest:

• Katya Schwenk is a journalist based in Phoenix, AZ, and a reporter for The Lever. Her reporting and essays have appeared in The Intercept, the Baffler, the American Prospect, and elsewhere.

Additional links/info: 

• Katya Schwenk, The Lever / The Real News Network, “Three years later, life in East Palestine, Ohio, is still derailed”
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “America’s toxic future looks like East Palestine, Ohio, today”

Credits:

• Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich

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Judge Brian Jackson of the U.S. District Court has certified a class action lawsuit against Angola Prison on behalf of men forced to perform punitive farm labor under unconstitutional conditions and in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under this ruling, the court certified two specific groups: a primary class encompassing all persons currently or potentially assigned to the Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) Farm Line, and a specialized subclass for those with disabilities assigned to the same labor. In his findings, Judge Jackson noted that nearly every individual arriving at the facility is assigned to the Farm Line upon entry, with the majority remaining at risk of reassignment as a disciplinary measure.

Guest:

• Samantha Pourciau is a Senior Staff Attorney at The Promise of Justice Initiative based out of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Credits:

• Host: Mansa Musa
• Producer / Videographer / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino 

Resource links:

• https://promiseofjustice.org/news/incarcerated-farm-line-workers-win-class-certification
• https://therealnews.com/prisoners-sue-over-inhumane-conditions-on-angolas-brutal-farm-line
• https://therealnews.com/prison-farms-and-agricarceral-slave-labor
• https://therealnews.com/louisiana-still-imprisons-people-convicted-by-jim-crow-juries 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

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On January 3, 2026, the United States invaded Venezuela and kidnapped president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. It was the first U.S. invasion of a Latin American country since the 1989 invasion of Panama. 

The United States fired missiles and bombs that blew out windows and hit residential apartment blocks. Helicopters. Explosions. Firebombs. They cut electricity. They destroyed a medical supplies warehouse. Testimonies say helicopters fired on innocent people. They traumatized thousands, if not, millions of Venezuelans.

The aftermath for everyday Venezuelans has been completely ignored. The voices of those on the ground — the voices of the victims — have been largely silenced in the international press and then forgotten as the news cycle hurtles on and our attention shifts elsewhere — to Greenland, Minneapolis, Iran, Gaza, or whatever Trump happens to be blustering about on social media.

So today, we’re heading to Caracas to speak to people who experienced the invasion first hand, whether sheltered in place in their homes or running for their lives in the streets of their city. We’ll hear their stories of Trump’s “impressive” attack, their messages for the U.S., and how they’ve promised to resist the ongoing attack on their sovereignty.

Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present. Season 2 responds in real time to the Trump administration’s onslaught on Latin America.

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Theme music by Michael Fox’s band, Monte Perdido. Monte Perdido's 2024 album Ofrenda is available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to music. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions. All of the ambient sound of the invasion in this episode was taken from cell phone videos filmed and posted on social media or shared over WhatsApp on January 3rd, during the pre-dawn U.S. invasion.

Script editing by Heather Gies.
Hosted, written, produced, mixed and edited by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.
Translator and freelance journalist Coromoto Jaraba Pineda helped with reporting for this episode. You can find her on Facebook and Instagram.
Many thanks to Ricardo Vaz and Jessica dos Santos.

Resources: 

Today’s episode features filmmaker Angel Palacios. Below are some links to his documentary films:

• Puente Llaguno: Claves de Una Massacre (en Español)
• Llaguno Bridge: Keys to a Massacre (in English)
• Angel’s film series InjerenCIA: The Silent Invasion (en Español)

Check out the previous Under the Shadow episodes on the U.S. invasion of Venezuela:

• Episode 2: The Americas will never be the same
• Episode 3: Hands Off Latin America
• Episode 4: Debunking the US narrative on Venezuela

Under the Shadow

• You can check out the first season of Under the Shadow by clicking here
• The Beginning: Monroe And Migration | Under The Shadow, Episode 1
• Panama. Us Invasion. | Under The Shadow, Episode 13
• The Legacy Of Monroe | Under The Shadow, bonus Episode 4 
• Michael Fox’s recent reporting on the boat strikes and the ramp-up for war in Venezuela: 
  • With the Strike on a “Drug-Carrying Boat,” Trump Returns to a Dangerous US Policy for Latin America
  • Caribbean Leaders Call for Unified Latin American Resistance to US Attacks
  • Trump’s Monroe Doctrine 2.0 Outlines Imperial Intentions for Latin America

• NACLA’s Curated Guide to the US Attack on Venezuela 
• Truthout’s ongoing reporting on War and Peace and the US invasion of Venezuela
• Visit TRNN for all of The Real News’s coverage on this and so much more

Support Under the ShadowPlease 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.

You can check out Michael’s recent episode of Stories of Resistance about the protests against US intervention in Venezuela.


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Hundreds of union nurses, federal workers, and local residents gathered outside the Veterans Affairs central office building in Washington, DC, on Jan. 28, to hold a vigil for Alex Pretti and all who have been killed by ICE. The vigil was one of many events organized or co-sponsored by National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses, which has forcefully called for ICE to be abolished in the wake of Pretti’s killing. We speak with attendees of the vigil in this on-the-ground edition of Working People.  

Additional links/info: 

• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘A hero’: Nurses, federal workers honor Alex Pretti (Documentary Report)”
• Maximillian Alvarez Working People / The Real News Network, “Largest nurses union calls to abolish ICE after Alex Pretti killing: ‘They messed with the wrong profession’”
• National Nurses United: “Week of action in honor of Alex Pretti, RN and all others killed by ICE”
• National Nurses United press release (1/24/26): “National Nurses United outraged by murder of VA registered nurse by immigration agents, demand abolition of ICE”
• National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United website, Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Instagram

Credits:

• Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

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Non-unanimous jury verdicts were a Jim Crow–era policy designed to silence Black jurors and secure convictions even when the state failed to prove its case. In 2026, over 1,000 people remain imprisoned in Louisiana after being convicted by non-unanimous juries. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa speaks with Erica Navalance, Associate Director of Strategic Criminal Litigation at the Promise of Justice Initiative, about the case of Lloyd Gray and why the state of Louisiana continues to uphold unconstitutional convictions.

Guest:

• Erica Navalance has worked with both Capital Appeals Project and Promise of Justice Initiative (PIJ) since 2015, but joined PJI full time in 2021 as a senior staff attorney for the Strategic Defense Litigation project, focusing on combatting excessive sentences, capital punishment, and other injustices in the criminal system.

Additional links/info:

• Richard A. Webster, Verite News / ProPublica, What one man’s 45-year-old case tells us about the “Jim Crow juries” haunting Louisiana
• Promise of Justice Initiative, Swastika found on DA file introduced into court, judge grants hearing for PJI client incarcerated for 45 Years

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

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On Friday, Jan. 23, around 50,000 people in Minneapolis, MN, engaged in a historic mass strike and day of protest to demand an end to ICE terror and President Trump’s federal siege of Minnesota. Then, on Saturday, Jan. 24, an ICE agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, volunteer ICE observer and a registered union nurse who worked for the Veterans Health Administration. In this episode, we speak with Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse inn Minnesota and a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the US, which is now forcefully calling for the abolition of ICE. 

Additional links/info: 

• National Nurses United: “Week of action in honor of Alex Pretti, RN and all others killed by ICE”
• National Nurses United press release (1/24/26): “National Nurses United outraged by murder of VA registered nurse by immigration agents, demand abolition of ICE”
• National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United website, Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Instagram
• Devon Lum & Haley Willis, The New York Times, “Videos show moments in which agents killed a man in Minneapolis”
• Thomas Birmingham & Ari Bloomekatz, In These Times, “A staggering number of Minnesotans took to the streets Friday to demand ICE leave. The next day, ICE responded by killing another resident”
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Trump plans massive military parade while cutting veteran jobs, benefits, & healthcare”
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Trump cuts leave VA hospital nurses and veteran patients in a crisis”

Credits:

• Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
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The Third Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Trump administration a victory this month in its ongoing attempt to deport Syrian-born Palestinian activist, husband, father, and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil remains in the country for now and the legal battle is far from over, but the future of free speech in the US hangs in the balance. This week on The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Amy Greer, an associate attorney at Dratel & Lewis and a member of Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team, about the status of Khalil’s case.

Guest:

• Amy Greer is an associate attorney at Dratel & Lewis, and a member of Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team. Greer is a lawyer and archivist by training, and an advocate and storyteller by nature. As an attorney at Dratel & Lewis, she works on a variety of cases, including international extradition, RICO, terrorism, and drug trafficking. She previously served as an assistant public defender on a remote island in Alaska, defending people charged with misdemeanors, and as a research and writing attorney on capital habeas cases with clients who have been sentenced to death.

Additional links/info:

• ACLU Press Release (1/15/26): “Appeals court in Mahmoud Khalil’s case decides federal court lacks jurisdiction until immigration court proceedings complete”
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘Call Amy!’: Lawyer for Mahmoud Khalil reveals how he won his freedom”

Credits:

• Production: David Hebden
• Post-Production: Stephen Frank

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
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