Newly released body camera footage further undermines the Trump administration’s efforts to falsely portray Marimar Martinez—who was shot multiple times by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum in October—as a “domestic terrorist.” Federal prosecutors shared three videos on Tuesday evening after a federal judge ruled last week that the footage and other evidence could be made public.

The videos released on Tuesday shed further light on why prosecutors dropped charges against Martinez rather than try to bring a case against her to trial.

The newly released evidence is also part of a pattern. It is one of many examples of DHS immigration agents lying and providing false information to justify shootings and other uses of excessive force against US citizens and immigrants. These claims have collapsed again and again once DHS is forced to defend them in court.

Martinez’s case follows this pattern. DHS initially claimed their force was justified because Border Patrol agents “were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles.” Once in court, evidence showed something much different. Like in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, DHS might have gotten away with its false claims about Martinez were it not for the video evidence that contradicted its account.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QDN2LZ7WcDM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LTnOPKm9WR8&pp=0gcJCUABo7VqN5tD

The Republican-controlled US House on Wednesday passed a new version of the SAVE Act, a sweeping voter restriction bill that would require people to show citizenship documents to register to vote and strict forms of photo ID to cast a ballot, potentially disenfranchising tens of millions of Americans.

The House passage of the new bill, now called the SAVE America Act, comes roughly a week after President Trump called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting” and “take over the voting in at least 15 places.” While the latest iteration of the SAVE Act does not usurp state and local election administration in precisely that way, it would still massively federalize new restrictions on voting that Trump and his allies have pushed for years.

The centerpiece of the bill remains a requirement that voters show proof of US citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote. Nine percent of American citizens, roughly 21 million people, don’t have ready access to citizenship documents, according to a study by the Brennan Center and other voting rights groups.

That likely understates the number of Americans who could be burdened by the bill, since most people do not carry around citizenship documents with them. Half of Americans, roughly 146 million people, do not have a passport. And 69 million women who took their partner’s last name and do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name could find it much harder to register to vote under the bill.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7181724

Archived link

Reflecting on the preliminary agreement between Canada and China to address economic and trade issues, China’s ambassador to Canada Wang Di says that we “should advance co-ordination across all sectors … In a spirit of mutual understanding and friendly consultation.”

Canadians should hear the pitch politely — and then read the fine print.

“Co-ordination” and “friendly consultation” sound perfectly amicable. They suggest predictable rules, neutral tribunals and commerce insulated from politics. But Beijing’s operating assumption is different. For Beijing, increased trade is not a destination. It is leverage — banked for the next dispute.

...

Beijing’s ambassador is asking Canadians to imagine a version of China that behaves like a normal trading partner. The record suggests caution.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s report on the Chinese Communist Party’s coercive diplomacy tracked 152 cases over a decade and notes Canada among the more frequently targeted countries. The pattern is familiar: pressure is applied, the political link is denied and the target is invited back into the warm light of “good relations” if it makes the right gestures.

Canadians don’t need to look far for what this feels like in practice. When relationships sour, the pain is rarely spread evenly across the economy. It lands where it can generate domestic pressure — farmers, exporters, universities or a single marquee firm that can be singled out and made an example.

...

China is simply not built to uphold international agreements in the ways Western nations still too often expect. Its party state can fuse economic policy, internal security and propaganda in a single campaign. Beijing treats narratives and markets as connected instruments of national power.

...

We [Canada] need selective engagement and hard guardrails. Keep channels open for consular cases and narrow commercial issues, while tightening rules on critical minerals, sensitive data, advanced research and dual use technology. If Beijing wants deeper access, it can start by proving reciprocity and predictability.

Then we need strategic coalitions before concessions. Carney’s “variable geometry” is applicable: build resilience with like minded partners first — Japan, the EU, Korea, Australia — then engage China from a position where “no” is credible and costs are shareable.

...

Finally, we [Canada] need to view domestic national security resilience as part of our broader economic policy. Transparency rules, foreign interference defences and research security are not side issues. They are the entry fee for doing business in a world where economics and politics are braided together.

...

Today’s game is some more Alan Wake II. I already made it through the hotel today. I always forget how fast this game goes by. It definitely is a good length, but damn does it leave me wanting more.

Speaking of the Hotel, while in room 666 I had noticed the furniture in there (as in the stuff in the shadows) is all Pitch Black. With how much detail the game has I have to imagine this is intentional, but intentional or not this is still really cool to get a glimpse at.

Final thing I noticed, but Max Payne dies with his right side facing Alan and the light, while the right faces the shadow. I think it’s intentional camera work. And I think it’s a cool detail, since Alan is meant to represent the light.

That’s really all though. I could talk more about the Art pieces in the hotel. But I’ve done that in the past. I did noticed they’re all kind of surface level, referring to water, dreaming, or writing. Which I thought lent to a dream like quality to them. The kind of random shallow shit your brain might come up with while dreaming.

Anyways, thats the last thing I’m gonna touch on. I swear. I have some cool ideas for photos with the theater so I’m excited to do those next time I play.

The Washoe Tribe has purchased more than 10,000 acres of land near Lake Tahoe for conservation in one of the largest tribal land returns in California history.

The sprawling property, located 20 miles north of Reno, Nevada, stretches from the Great Basin through the Sierra Nevada and encompasses sagebrush scrublands and juniper and pine forests.

It marks a key development for the tribe, which was forcibly removed from its lands and saw its individual allotments stolen, said the tribe’s chairperson, Serrell Smokey.

“We were told we could no longer use the land for resources or ceremony. Since that time, the land has been calling us back, and we are answering that call,” Smokey said in a statement. “This land purchase is good medicine for our people. This is a small start to healing from generations of historical trauma, and the benefits will go on for many generations to come.”

En 20-årig kvinde, omtalt som K.G.M., er hovedperson i en principiel retssag i Californien mod Meta (Instagram) og Google (YouTube). På vegne af tusindvis af unge sagsøgere hævder hun, at sociale medier bevidst er designet til at gøre børn afhængige og har forårsaget alvorlig psykisk mistrivsel, herunder angst og depression. Sagen omtales som sociale mediers “Big Tobacco Moment”, med reference til tobaksdommen i 1998, hvor producenter blev dømt for sundhedsskader.

Sagsøgerne argumenterer for, at funktioner som infinite scroll og skønhedsfiltre fastholder unge og skader deres selvbillede og mentale helbred. De peger også på interne dokumenter fra techvirksomhederne, der antyder, at ledelsen kendte til risiciene. Eksperter vurderer, at sagen kan få stor principiel betydning, fordi der endnu ikke findes retspraksis om platformenes ansvar og eventuelle omsorgspligt over for børn.

Meta og Google afviser anklagerne og fremhæver, at K.G.M. havde psykiske problemer før sin brug af sociale medier, blandt andet på grund af en belastet opvækst. De mener derfor, at der ikke kan påvises en direkte årsagssammenhæng. Google understreger desuden, at YouTube primært er en underholdningsplatform og har indført tiltag for at beskytte unge brugere.

Sagens udfald kan få betydning for den internationale regulering af sociale medier, også i Europa, hvor der allerede arbejdes på at skærpe techvirksomheders ansvar over for børn og unge.

https://github.com/mratmeyer/rsslookup

RSS Lookup is a free, open-source tool designed to find the RSS feed associated with any URL. Simply paste the website's address, and RSS Lookup will scan the site's HTML and check common feed path conventions to give you the best chance at finding feeds on the site.

Check out the live tool: www.rsslookup.com

Source (Via Xcancel)

• Release Date: June 5th
• Price: TBA
• Link: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10005976/
• Description: On June 5th, enter the Colony in Gothic 1 Remake on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Locked inside a prison with no escape, the laws are simple. Obedience is demanded. Hierarchy is enforced. And power rules all.

An unforgiving world awaits beneath the barrier. Will you shape it – or be consumed by it?

From In These Times via this RSS feed

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Marni Panas, a trans activist based in Edmonton, says her heart broke when she saw news of Tuesday's mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., that left nine people dead, including the suspect, and 27 injured.

Later, when rumours started to percolate that the suspect in the shooting was a transgender woman, Panas watched what she says has become a predictable pattern emerge online. Within minutes, she says some people began to leverage the tragedy to "advance hate" against the trans community.

Tara Armstrong, an Independent MLA who represents Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream, made several social media posts Wednesday about what she called transgender ideology, saying it is "radicalizing youth, and unlocking violent impulses."

"There is an epidemic of transgender violence spreading across the West," she wrote on X.