MT
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madiha.bsky.social
MT
@madiha.bsky.social
Antifascist. Asst Prof @ Yale. Personal acct. Writing book on digital war, drones, & empire w/ view from the Global South. Former journo & filmmaker. Interests: tech, militarism, anticolonial, anti-imperial praxis, transnatl solidarities.Free Palestine! 🇵🇸
Reposted by MT
⚠️ Eighteen people in Texas remain in jail after being accused of “providing material support for terrorism” for participating in an anti-ICE protest.

The case is intended to set a precedent criminalizing protest.

Jury selection begins for a trial involving nine of the defendants on February 17th.
Pay attention to the Prairieland case.

By saddling the defendants with indiscriminate charges, holding them without bail, and isolating them from lawyers and the public, prosecutors are attempting to terrorize them into signing guilty pleas in order to set a precedent criminalizing dissent itself.
The Road to Prairieland
The crackdown on anti-ICE activists in Texas reflects a pattern of intensifying repression all around the country.
crimethinc.com
February 16, 2026 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by MT
Meta is putting a "Name Tag" feature in Ray-Bans - facial recognition through the glasses' camera. You look at someone, AI tells you who they are.
In an internal document, the company wrote that the timing is good because civil society groups are busy with politics and won't cause problems.
February 14, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by MT
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.

The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.

But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
February 13, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by MT
Couple things that are not covered in the NYT story. Officer Dipshit’s previous work and driving history. He was fired in Tucson, worked as a mall cop and had a suspended WA driver’s license at the time he murdered a woman with his car.

publicola.com/2024/06/14/a...
Another Death at SCORE Jail, Officer In Deadly Collision Didn't Have Valid Washington Driver's License - PubliCola
1. Another person held in custody at the South Correctional Entity (SCORE) jail in Des Moines has died,  the King…
publicola.com
February 13, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by MT
end qualified immunity and make cops carry personal liability insurance
"'She is dead,'" Officer Auderer told Officer Solan, before bursting out laughing.

"'No, it’s a regular person,' Officer Auderer said, adding: 'Yeah, just write a check — $11,000. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.'"
Seattle to Pay $29 Million to Family of Woman Fatally Struck by Police S.U.V.
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by MT
Interestingly, MDSO says GeoSpy has not led to any arrests, or really any "significant investigative breakthroughs." So despite the hype, it might not be all that useful www.404media.co/cops-are-buy...
February 13, 2026 at 4:47 PM
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March 24 - Book Panel on The Future That Was @ Columbia University Law School, in conversation with Adom Getachew, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Camille Robcis

March 26 - Princeton's Labyrinth Book Store, in conversation with Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Lorgia Garcia-Pena @laprofelgp.bsky.social
February 13, 2026 at 3:11 PM
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Lucky for these generous invitations to speak on my new book and the crisis of gender now:

March 3 - The Ann L. Harper Lecture at Georgia State U: "Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism"

March 19 - The Anne Firor Scott Lecture at Duke U: "Gender History in the Time of Gender Ideology"
February 13, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by MT
"Palestinian witnesses have reported that some prisoners were alive at the time they were taken for organ extraction. In one batch of bodies, the organs removed were those commonly transplanted: heart, liver, lungs... Here, the surgeon acts as—is—a soldier."

I'm honestly speechless.
February 11, 2026 at 5:45 PM
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When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts
Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...
www.reuters.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by MT
It is absolutely outrageous that Moderna’s flu vaccine was met with a “refusal-to-file” even after their approved their protocol with FDA and carried out the trial as agreed. This vaccine works better in older adults than the current flu vaccines.

apnews.com/article/mode...
Moderna says FDA refuses its application for new mRNA flu vaccine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is refusing to consider Moderna’s application for a new flu vaccine made with mRNA technology.
apnews.com
February 11, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by MT
A general reminder that video doorbells like Ring can hear us—up to 20-25 feet away— even when we *can't* see them:
www.fastcompany.com/90747119/vid...
February 11, 2026 at 1:46 AM
Reposted by MT
"Experts and witnesses attributed this phenomenon to Israel’s systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius [6,332 degrees Fahrenheit]."
“Four of my children just evaporated,” Badran said, holding back tears. “I looked for them a million times. Not a piece was left. Where did they go?”

There are no words to adequately describe the evil here.
Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate
US-made thermal weapons burning at 3,500C caused 2,842 people to "evaporate" in Gaza, Al Jazeera investigation finds.
www.aljazeera.com
February 11, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by MT
Not at all the point, but palantir leadership refers to the company’s workers as “hobbits.”
Palantir CEO Alex Karp Recorded a Video About ICE for His Employees
In a video shared with Palantir employees, Alex Karp did not explain how ICE is utilizing the company’s products. Instead, workers were told they can sign NDAs if they want detailed information.
www.wired.com
February 10, 2026 at 8:58 PM
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NEW: Leqaa Kordia — who’s been in ICE detention for nearly a year, since ICE took her the same week as Mahmoud Khalil — has been hospitalized after having a seizure.

Her whereabouts & health are now unknown.

The Trump admin alleges she supports Hamas because…she sent money to help family in Gaza.
February 8, 2026 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by MT
Read this til the end. Note the very last speech recorded here. No loose reference to “Nazis” but a very specific reference to them: ICE bought a building the size of seven football fields in Surprise, Arizona, outside Phoenix, for $70 million.

Officials said: /1
It’s hard to put into perspective how truly massive the warehouse is that was recently sold by the Rockefeller Group to the Department of Homeland Security for $70 million to build a concentration camp in Surprise, AZ. Across the street is a huge neighborhood and a school. It’s 400,000-square-feet.
February 8, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by MT
Concentration camps:

“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick."
Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO
“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...
lataco.com
February 8, 2026 at 2:24 AM
Reposted by MT
ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”

What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.
February 7, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by MT
Don't worry, most of them will just "post through it" and come out the other side unscathed.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Epstein files reveal deeper ties to scientists than previously known
Latest batch of documents show researchers consulting the financier and sex offender on publications, visas and more.
www.nature.com
February 7, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by MT
AWFUL news tonight. This blesses the “mandatory” detention in the 5th Circuit without bond (and little chance at habeas) of every undocumented immigrant who originally entered across the border, no matter how many decades in the past.

It will fuel ICE’s push to transfer people to Texas immediately.
BREAKING: A 5th Circuit panel has backed ICE's mass detention policy, a decision that clears the way for the administration to lock up people who are in immigration proceedings

It's a 2-1 ruling
Majority: Jones (Reagan), Duncan (Trump)
Minority: Douglas (Obama)

s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
February 7, 2026 at 3:20 AM
Reposted by MT
If you want to explore whether a company you buy from works with DHS/ICE, there is a real simple website to do that! www.usaspending.gov/search
February 6, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by MT
They’re trying to run the Kilmar Abrego Garcia playbook with a five year old boy in a bunny hat because nobody can find peace if they embarrass the Trump administration publicly. Normal people didn’t like it with Garcia and they really aren’t going to like it for Liam.
February 6, 2026 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by MT
They're Abrego-Garcia-ing a child -- punishing him because his very existence is inconvenient to them. It's gutter bigotry and petulant sadism all the way down.
February 6, 2026 at 1:29 PM