1
Pravda (formerly lefty_news)
113 readers
223 users here now
founded 4 weeks ago
MODERATORS
2
Hand in hand with the billionaire-owned mainstream media, the U.S. government is spreading dangerous lies to justify a military invasion of Venezuela with our tax dollars.
From Liberation News – The Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation via This RSS Feed.
3
4
3
Mercenary firm which ran deadly armed GHF ‘aid’ points in Gaza is recruiting again
(www.thecanary.co)
6
5
Israel kills 33 Gazans in a single night. It’s part of a new deadly status quo, Palestinians say.
(mondoweiss.net)
On Wednesday, Israel killed 33 Palestinians, including 12 children, in its latest violations of the Gaza ceasefire. Those killed include Palestinian families trying to return home and others caught in Israeli attempts to assassinate Hamas leaders.
From Mondoweiss via This RSS Feed.
8
9
10
4
Secret ‘Mass Surveillance Network’ by Border Patrol Tracks 'Suspicious' Driving Patterns of Americans
(www.commondreams.org)
The Associated Press has exposed what it describes as a "mass surveillance network" being run by the US Border Patrol that is increasingly ensnaring US drivers who have committed no crimes.
In a report published on Thursday, the AP revealed that the Border Patrol has been using a "predictive intelligence program" that surveils and flags drivers as suspicious based solely on "where they came from, where they were going, and which route they took."
The Border Patrol then passes this information on to local law enforcement officials, who will then pull over the targeted vehicles based on flimsy pretexts such as minor speed-limit violations, having tinted windows, and even having "a dangling air freshener" that purportedly obstructs drivers' views.
From there, the drivers are subjected to aggressive questioning and vehicle searches that in some cases have resulted in arrests despite no evidence of criminal behavior on the part of the drivers.
To illustrate this, the AP told the story of Lorenzo Gutierrez Lugo, a truck driver whose work entails "transporting furniture, clothing, and other belongings to families in Mexico" across the US border.
After Gutierrez Lugo's driving routes got him flagged by the surveillance system, he was pulled over in southern Texas by local law enforcement officials, who proceeded to search his vehicle for contraband.
Although officials found no illicit goods in his truck, they nonetheless arrested him on suspicion of money laundering because he was in possession of thousands of dollars in cash. However, Luis Barrios, who owns the trucking company that employed Gutierrez Lugo, explained to the AP that customers who receive deliveries often pay drivers directly in cash.
Although no criminal charges were ultimately brought against Gutierrez Lugo, Barrios nonetheless said that his company had to spend $20,000 in legal fees to both clear his driver's name and to return company property that had been impounded by police.
The AP notes that operations such as this are symbolic of "the quiet transformation of [the US Border Patrol's] parent agency, US Customs and Border Protection, into something more akin to a domestic intelligence operation."
Former law enforcement officials also tell the AP that the Border Patrol has gone to great lengths to keep its mass surveillance program a secret by trying to ensure that it is never mentioned in court documents and police reports. In fact, the Border Patrol in some cases has even dropped criminal cases against suspects for fear that details about the mass surveillance program would be revealed at trial.
In a post on X, journalist Mike LaSusa remarked that this Border Patrol program represents "another example of powerful, invasive, mass surveillance tech being wielded by US immigration authorities." He added that "so much about these programs is hidden from the public, making it difficult to know whether they keep Americans safe or violate privacy protections."
The program has been increasingly expanding from the border regions of the US into the interior of the country as well, and it discovered that US Customs and Border Protection "has placed at least four cameras in the greater Phoenix area over the years, one of which was more than 120 miles (193 kilometers) from the Mexican frontier, beyond the agency’s usual jurisdiction of 100 miles (161 kilometers) from a land or sea border."
Additionally, the AP found that the program is "impacting residents of big metropolitan areas and people driving to and from large cities such as Chicago and Detroit, as well as from Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Houston to and from the Mexican border region."
Nicole Ozer, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law San Francisco, told the AP that US Customs and Border Protection is engaging in "dragnet surveillance of Americans on the streets, on the highways, in their cities, in their communities" while "collecting mass amounts of information about who people are, where they go, what they do, and who they know."
“These surveillance systems do not make communities safer," Ozer emphasized.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
11
12
13
14
15
2
Amid Reform data breach row, ex-schoolmates reveal young Farage’s horrific racism
(www.thecanary.co)
16
17
18
5
19
20
25
'How Many More Have to Die?' Asks Democrat as Another Texas Woman's Death Blamed on Abortion Ban
(www.commondreams.org)
After new reporting detailed the latest known woman who died because doctors would not provide her with abortion care under Texas' ban, the Democratic lawmaker who authored the Women's Health Protection Act condemned Republicans in Congress for refusing to "protect women’s basic freedom to survive their own pregnancies."
"It would take only six Republicans in the House to join with us and pass this vital legislation to restore bodily autonomy to every person in this country, regardless of their state or zip code," said Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), whose bill would create a new legal protection for the right to provide and obtain abortion care.
Chu's call came as ProPublica reported on the death of Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old pregnant mother of a teenage son who asked doctors to terminate her pregnancy in October 2024 after she experienced seizures and feared she would develop preeclampsia, a life-threatening complication that had led to the stillbirth of her twins a few years earlier.
“Wouldn’t you think it would be better for me to not have the baby?” Walker asked doctors at Methodist Hospital Northeast in San Antonio.
The medical staff assured her there was nothing wrong with her pregnancy and blamed her symptoms on pre-existing conditions including diabetes and high blood pressure—but more than a dozen OB/GYNs reviewed her case and told ProPublica doctors had not followed standard medical practice, which would have been to advise Walker early on in the pregnancy that her health conditions could lead to complications and "to offer termination at any point if she wanted."
Had doctors done do, all of the medical experts said, Walker would not have died at 20 weeks pregnant on her 14-year-old son's birthday last December.
"Her death was preventable, and it was caused by a law written by Republicans to control women’s bodies, no matter the consequences. This is the disgraceful reality of Republican abortion bans that criminalize care and sacrifice women’s lives," said Chu.
Walker found out she was five weeks pregnant in September 2024 after experiencing a seizure. Doctors also noted she had "hypertension at levels so high that it reduces circulation to major organs and can cause a heart attack or stroke," which put her at increased risk for preeclampsia.
But instead of warning Walker of the risks, the medical staff sent her home, where she continued having seizures through her first trimester and her fiance and aunt took turns watching over her.
Texas law prohibits medical providers from "aiding and abetting" abortion care, with doctors facing the loss of their medical license and up to 99 years in prison if they provide an abortion. Abortions are ostensibly permitted in cases when a pregnant person's life or major body function is at risk—but Walker's case demonstrates how medical exceptions within abortion bans often do nothing to ensure a dangerous pregnancy can be terminated to protect a woman's life.
At least one of the more than 90 doctors—including 21 OB/GYNs—who became involved in Walker's care last year, when she was repeatedly hospitalized, acknowledged in a case file that she was at "high risk of clinical deterioration and/or death."
But none of them ever talked to her about terminating the pregnancy.
As Walker's pregnancy progressed, she developed a blood clot in her leg that didn't respond to anticoagulation medicine, and her seizures and high blood pressure remained uncontrolled.
She was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 20 weeks pregnant on December 27—but doctors did not even label her condition as "severe" in her files, let alone provide her with the standard care for the condition at that point in pregnancy, which is an abortion.
Instead, they gave her more blood pressure medication and sent her home, where her son, JJ, found her dead days later.
Author and abortion rights advocate Jessica Valenti said Republicans would likely respond to the news of Walker's death—as they have in the cases of other women who have died after being unable to get abortions in states that ban them—with claims that doctors were legally allowed to "intervene" or "treat" Walker.
"They won't say she could have had an abortion because they don’t believe in life-saving abortions," she said.
— (@)
This year, in the months after Walker's death and following outrage over numerous similar cases, Texas lawmakers passed a law that Republicans claim would make it easier for women to obtain abortions in cases where they face life-threatening conditions in pregnancy; their conditions no longer need to put them in "imminent" danger for them to obtain care.
But doctors told ProPublica that hospitals in Texas are still likely to avoid providing abortions in cases like Walker's, even under the new statute.
“How many more women have to needlessly suffer?" asked Chu. "How many more have to die? How many more children have to grow up without their mother? How many more parents have to lose their adult daughters before Republicans in Congress finally do what’s right and protect women’s basic freedom to survive their own pregnancies?"
"This doesn't have to be our reality," she added.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
21
22
7
23
6
Keir Starmer gets utterly ratioed on social media after claiming he’s working class
(www.thecanary.co)
24
25
view more: next ›