Techno-fascism: privacy advocates decry fusion of Big Tech and government surveillance (Part 2)

“I don't know how this happened,” said host Ted Rall on Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program as a renewed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act seemed poised to pass Congress, granting the National Security Agency unprecedented spying powers without judicial oversight.

“We had civil libertarians both on the left and on the right in Congress who were going to block this. It looked like it was going to die. Even former President Trump, the head of the GOP, was against it,” Rall clarified.

The renewed FISA law narrowly passed the House earlier this week. The legislation was initially deadlocked 212-212, but House Speaker Mike Johnson cast a rare tie-breaking vote in favor of the law. Johnson had previously expressed opposition to the renewal of the act, which has been met with opposition from conservative Republicans.

“These are not exactly the people who are going to be worried about individual privacy, the tech giants,” said privacy advocate Tyler Nixon, noting that social media companies have proven willing to share user data in return for favorable legislation from Congress.

“The definition of fascism is the merger, frankly, of corporate or concentrated wealth interests with the state and this FISA law and the way they've used these intelligence surveillance powers through these tech companies… just indicates to me that we're closer and closer with each one of these expansions to what is you can't tell the difference,” he warned. “You can't tell where the government censors end and your Twitter or whoever begins.”

“I think our Congress is very much captured by the national security police state, and they manipulate and control these people one way or another… It's unfortunate because we have totally lost control of even our own elected representatives,” Nixon emphasized.

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❗️ Israel launched a missile strike on a facility in Iran, ABC reported citing a US official. The report does not specify what target was hit or the extent of the damage.

Iranian media reported explosions near Isfahan airport, Reuters reports.

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❗️ Iranian air defenses have been repelling air strikes in several Iranian regions, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.

Photo from ABC News

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❗️ Three explosions heard in Iran's Isfahan; air defense forces may have repelled small drones flying over - Iranian Fars news agency reported.

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❗️ Israel on Friday notified the US of its intention to retaliate against Iran within 24 to 48 hours, Bloomberg reported.

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❗️ Air raid sirens were activated in the north of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

"Sirens sounded in northern Israel," the IDF said on Telegram.

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❗️ So far, there have been no reports of a large explosion or a rocket strike in Isfahan, Iranian Tasnim news agency reported citing sources.

Due to the high level of sensitivity, the defense has fired shots around the Isfahan Air Base, but until this moment, only the possibility of the micro-bird issue is raised, although this issue has not been confirmed, the agency said.

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❗️ Iran's nuclear facilities in Isfahan are absolutely safe, Iranian Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported.

"The nuclear facility in Isfahan is completely safe. The report of some foreign media about the incident in this facility is incorrect," Fars news agency said.

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Iranian media published footage of a calm situation near Isfahan.

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Israel launched a "limited" strike against Iran as a retaliation for the April 13 attack, Fox News reported, citing a source.

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Sounds of explosions in Tabriz is due to the work of air defense systems, Tasnim news agency reported.

Tabriz air defense forces fired shots this morning after detecting a suspicious object in southwest Tabriz around 4:50 am (4:20 Moscow time). The city of Tabriz is located to the noth-east from Tehran.

"At present, no damage has been caused to Tabriz's sensitive centers, no explosions have occurred and the city is calm," the agency reported citing a source.

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The US did not support Israel's retaliatory strike on Iran, CNN reported citing a source in the US administration.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that Israel launched a missile strike on a facility on Iranian territory.

"We did not approve the retaliation," the official told the TV channel.

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Iranian media demonstrates a calm situation in Isfahan.

According to several media reports, 1.5 hours ago Iranian air defenses fired shots due to the detection of small flying objects.

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Air defense systems in several provinces of Iran on Friday were firing shots in response to the approach of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Iranian state news agency IRIB reported, citing sources.

The report said a loud explosion heard in several provinces of Iran was caused by the activation of air defense systems to intercept several small unidentified UAVs.

The report also said that air defenses shot down several drones over the Isfahan province in central Iran.

Earlier on Friday, Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Iran's air defense systems were activated in several provinces of the country.

IRNA also reported that air defenses in northwestern Iran were triggered by the approach of an unidentified flying object. Following reports of explosions heard west of the city of Tebriz and near Vadi-e Rahmat, IRNA reported that Tebriz's air defenses fired at the unknown object.

There were no explosions in the city and the situation in Tebriz is calm, the report said.

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Key statements by Nikolayev underground coordinator Sergey Lebedev:

▪️Russian forces struck Ukrainian Dnepropetrovsk: two strikes were carried out on the Southern Machine-Building Plant, where heavy machinery was repaired and drones were produced.

▪️The third strike was in the direction of the Aviatorskoye settlement in the suburbs of Dnepropetrovsk near the airport.

▪️Another strike was carried out in the town of Sinelnikovo in the Dnepropetrovsk region, where a substation responsible for the railway junction and an oil depot for refueling diesel and maneuvering locomotives are located.

▪️Russian forces also hit the Odessa region, three strikes were recorded: "one on the village of Zatoka and somewhere else. Details will be available later". In Krivoy Rog, two strikes were recorded: "the details will also be available later.

▪️The Russian troops hit a chemical plant specializing in the production of solid rocket fuel, and in the direction of a military unit of the National Guard of Ukraine in Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk region.

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Leaked NYT style guide reveals biased reporting on the Palestine-Israel conflict (Part 1)

A shocking internal style guide from The New York Times was leaked this week, revealing the depth of the controversial newspaper’s bias regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict.

“I’ve closely monitored the paper’s slanted coverage for more than a decade, and I admit to being stunned by this,” wrote Mondoweiss editor James North. “Arguably the worst example of bias is the Times’s directive that its reports should ‘avoid’ using the phrase ‘occupied territory’ when describing Palestinian land.”

“The New York Times has for years been trying to define the occupation as something else,” noted activist and author Robert Fantina on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program. “Sometimes they call it 'disputed territory' or other kinds of language… The United Nations has said it's still considered occupied. So there's no question about it, the legal term is ‘occupation.’”

UN officials have long criticized Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, which has led Tel Aviv to frequently criticize the organization, even though the country owes its creation to a 1948 act of the international body. Recently the Israeli government alleged that several members of UNRWA, the UN organization responsible for aid to Palestinian refugees, were involved in Hamas’ October 7 uprising last year.

US intelligence found no evidence for the claim, and it later emerged the Israeli military had reportedly tortured UNRWA employees to extract false confessions.

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