Thomson Reuters fires employee who dissented against selling data to ICE, arguably violating Oregon’s whistleblower protection law - Lemmy.World
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/42525
[https://news.abolish.capital/post/42525] >
[https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!opWu!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e96de2b-fd20-4975-87db-5aaaa710e336_1456x609.webp]https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!opWu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e96de2b-fd20-4975-87db-5aaaa710e336_1456x609.webp
> > Mediators reportedly move closer
[https://apnews.com/article/us-iran-war-lebanon-israel-talks-hormuz-15-april-2026-f1b02d16f81d6fdcf68c0ed16d7a719d]
to extending U.S.-Iran ceasefire. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD
Vance comment
[https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/trump-says-iran-war-very-close-being-over-peace-talks-expect-resume]
on war and ceasefire negotiations. President Masoud Pezeshkian says Iran seeks
dialogue. U.S will send
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/15/us-troops-iran-blockade/]
thousands more troops to Middle East. Report: Iranian supertanker crosses Strait
of Hormuz despite U.S. blockade. Iranian Kurdish leader signals
[https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2026/04/despite-trumps-u-turns-us-may-still-support-irans-kurds-says-komalas-mohtadi]
that he would support further U.S. attacks on Iran. Despite ceasefire talks,
Israel continues to batter Lebanon. U.S., Israel, and Lebanon hold talks. Israel
continues to attack Gaza and the West Bank. Joint Chiefs chairman lobbies
[https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/04/13/congress/caine-letter-fisa-702-reauthorization-00870208]
Congress to renew warrantless surveillance law. State Department accuses
[https://www.axios.com/2026/04/14/congress-cuba-russia-trump-administration-congress]
Cuba of role in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trump administration is ordering
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044130770927722962] the Pentagon to prepare
for military operations against Cuba, Zeteo reports. ICE arrests
[https://capitalandmain.com/ice-has-arrested-dozens-of-delivery-drivers-at-the-gates-of-a-san-diego-military-base]
immigrant delivery drivers at California checkpoint. ICE pays $12.2 million for
AI surveillance tool that maps immigrants’ daily routines. 86-year-old detained
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/14/marie-therese-billy-ice-arrest-us-france]
by ICE in Louisiana. Maine Gov. Janet Mills deflects
[https://x.com/ryangrim/status/2044240543773770158] genocide question, points to
African countries instead. Tennessee passes act that would penalize student
protest.Argentinian President Javier Milei’s disability agency at center of
campaign corruption, report says
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044101090820706447]. U.S. military kills
[https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/politics/pentagon-boat-strike-pacific.html]
four in second Pacific boat strike in two days. School shooting injures
[https://apnews.com/article/gunman-attacks-high-school-southeast-turkey-1605b76ff905e5f206f1550b63beb141]
16 in Turkey. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rebukes
[https://apnews.com/article/mexico-sheinbaum-us-trump-relations-90c3fc348949d4f5b6bf8d80166e870c]
Trump for his immigration policy. Spain approves
[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/14/spanish-government-approves-amnesty-programme-for-undocumented-immigrants-2]
amnesty program for half a million undocumented immigrants. Greece accused
[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86vpq42dl0o] of recruiting migrants as
“enforcers” to pressure other migrants out. Rival Libyan factions participate
[https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/first-libyas-rival-forces-take-part-joint-us-led-military-exercises-2026-04-14/]
in U.S. special forces exercises together for the first time. Somali forces kill
[https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/somalia-says-it-killed-27-al-shabaab-militants-operation-with-international-2026-04-14/]
27 al-Shabaab militants in Jubbaland. Russian strikes
[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-strike-ukraines-dnipro-kills-four-officials-say-2026-04-14/]
hit Dnipro and Izmail, killing civilians and hitting foreign-flagged ships. > >
From Drop Site: Voters Think Candidates Who Won’t Stand Up To AIPAC Won’t Fight
On Other Issues, Either: New Poll
[https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/michigan-senate-democratic-primary-poll-aipac] >
> Drop Site is now live on WhatsApp. Get our latest reporting, podcasts, and
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[https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbC8sIT2Jl8B4r4N202q] > > This is Drop
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[https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6aX1!,w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F16338efb-71d2-48f5-85da-021cb008aaeb_6720x4480.jpeg]https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6aX1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F16338efb-71d2-48f5-85da-021cb008aaeb_6720x4480.jpeg
> > Palestinians who lost their relatives in an Israeli attack grieve during the
funeral held outside their homes at Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza,
Palestine on April 15, 2026. Photo by Abdalhkem Abu Riash/Anadolu via Getty
Images. > > Iran and Ceasefire > ================== > > * Mediators reportedly
move closer to extending U.S.-Iran ceasefire: Efforts are underway to restart
negotiations between the United States and Iran to extend a shaky ceasefire
before it expires next week. Regional officials told the Associated Press
[https://apnews.com/article/us-iran-war-lebanon-israel-talks-hormuz-15-april-2026-f1b02d16f81d6fdcf68c0ed16d7a719d]
Wednesday that the U.S. and Iran had given an “in principle agreement” to extend
it to allow for more diplomacy. The main three sticking points include Iran’s
nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz, and compensation for wartime damages, a
regional official told the AP. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif began a
four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey on Wednesday as part of a
diplomatic push to secure a new round of talks between the U.S. and Iran. > *
Trump and Vance comment on war and ceasefire negotiations: In an interview with
Fox Business on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said
[https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/trump-says-iran-war-very-close-being-over-peace-talks-expect-resume]
the U.S-Israeli war on Iran is “very close” to an end. “I think it’s close to
over, yeah. I view it as very close to being over,” he told Fox Business. He
appeared to break with that position in the same interview, however, threatening
that the U.S. is “not finished,” and once again making dubious claims that the
war was motivated by Iran’s near-acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Vice President
JD Vance also talked about the war, telling attendees at a Turning Point USA
event that there was a lot of mistrust between the Americans and Iranians, and
“You are not going to solve that problem overnight,” but that he felt “very good
about where we are.” > * Pezeshkian says Iran seeks dialogue: Iranian president
Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran is seeking dialogue. “Iran is not seeking war or
instability and has always emphasized dialogue and constructive engagement with
various countries. However, any attempt to impose one’s will or force the
country to surrender is doomed to failure, and the Iranian nation will never
accept such an approach,” Pezeshkian said, according to the IRNA news agency. >
> * WP: U.S sending thousands more troops to Middle East: While diplomatic
efforts are underway to extend the ceasefire, the United States is sending
thousands of additional troops into the Middle East in the coming days,
according
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/15/us-troops-iran-blockade/]
to the Washington Post. Citing U.S. officials, the Post reported that the forces
include 6,000 troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and
several warships escorting it, and 4,200 others with the Boxer Amphibious Ready
Group and its embarked Marine Corps task force that are expected to arrive near
the end of the month. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Post
that Trump “has wisely kept all options on the table in the event that the
Iranians will not forgo their nuclear ambitions and make a deal that is
acceptable to the United States.” > * Report: Iranian supertanker crosses Strait
of Hormuz despite U.S. blockade: A sanctioned Iranian supertanker crossed the
Strait of Hormuz towards Iran’s Imam Khomeini Port despite a U.S. blockade,
Iran’s Fars News Agency reported on Wednesday. It was not clear if the tanker
was returning with its cargo on board or was empty, the report said. Fars also
cited ship tracking data to report that a vessel transporting food supplies has
entered the Gulf and is en route to Imam Khomeini port. On Tuesday, U.S. Central
Command claimed [https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044216561712443765] that no
ships calling at Iranian ports have passed the American blockade, saying six
that merchant vessels were ordered to turn around re-entered an Iranian port on
the Gulf of Oman. The commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters,
Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi, warned on Wednesday that Iran’s military could block
shipping beyond the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. continues with its naval
blockade, which Tehran would consider a breach of the ceasefire. Iranian armed
forces “will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf,
the Sea of Oman or the Red Sea” if the U.S. blockade continues “creates
insecurity for Iran’s merchant and oil tanker vessels,” Abdollahi said,
according to the Tasnim news agency. > * World Bank prepares up to $100 billion
in war relief funding for Middle East: World Bank President Ajay Banga said
[https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2026/04/world-bank-could-provide-100-billion-funds-countries-hit-war-banga-says]
Tuesday the institution could mobilize $80 billion to $100 billion over the next
15 months for countries hit hard by the Middle East war—surpassing the $70
billion it deployed during the COVID pandemic. “I’m trying to create a toolkit
that has a tiered response capacity, depending on how this continues, to at
least be able to bring adequate firepower to do something about it,” he said at
the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings. The announcement came
alongside an International Monetary Fund decision to cut its global growth
outlook due to war-driven energy price spikes, with the IMF noting it would have
upgraded its forecast by 0.1 percentage point to 3.4% absent the conflict. IMF
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the global economy could recover
rapidly if the war ends within weeks, but warned the outlook would worsen
significantly if the conflict extends through the summer. > * Iranian Kurdish
leader signals that he would support further U.S. attacks on Iran: Iran launched
four attacks on at least two Iranian Kurdish opposition groups inside Iraqi
Kurdistan on Tuesday, continuing a campaign of drone and ballistic missile
strikes against Kurdish targets, after Kurdish groups flirted with joining the
U.S. and Israel in their war on Iran and reportedly received some “light
weapons” from U.S. officials to help facilitate an uprising. The leader of the
Kurdish Komala Party, Abdullah Mohtadi, told Al-Monitor in an exclusive
interview, that “America and Israel sustaining their bombing campaign, weakening
the regime any further, would make it easier for the people to rise up,” and did
not rule out cooperating with any country “including Israel.” He also denied
that Komala had received weapons from the U.S., while expressing admiration for
Trump, for putting “an end to the policy of appeasement toward Iran.” More on
the Kurds, from Al Monitor, here
[https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2026/04/despite-trumps-u-turns-us-may-still-support-irans-kurds-says-komalas-mohtadi].
> > Lebanon > ======= > > * Despite ceasefire talks, Israel continues to batter
Lebanon: > > + At least 14 Lebanese civilians have been killed by Israeli
airstrikes on Wednesday, according
[https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/en/news/159842/security-update-israeli-strikes-kill-multiple-civilians-hit-wide-areas-across-south-lebanon-2]
to the National News Agency, including four members of one family in Jbaa and
five in Ansariyeh, with additional casualties reported in Qadmus. A drone strike
[https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/en/news/159855/security-update-israeli-strikes-hit-multiple-areas-in-south-lebanon-one-killed-2]
on a motorcycle in Zahrani killed one person. Two Israeli airstrikes hit
civilian vehicles south of Beirut on Wednesday morning without any reported
casualties, artillery shelling struck the Bint Jbeil district, and strikes were
reported in towns across the south, in the areas between Hallousiyeh and
Zrariyeh. > + The Israeli military renewed
[https://x.com/avichayadraee/status/2044332118017196423] its sweeping
displacement order for all Lebanese residents in areas south of the Zahrani
River on Wednesday. > + Intense fighting was reported in Bint Jbeil on Tuesday,
as Israeli forces advanced toward the town center, according to Al Mayadeen.
Machine-gun fire and shelling were heard across the area, with troops now about
500 meters from the main market, L’Orient reported. > + Air strikes on Tyre and
al-Abbasiyya on Tuesday killed
[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/4/14/iran-war-live-trump-claims-tehran-wants-a-deal-amid-us-blockade-of-hormuz]
least two, according to Al Jazeera. > + Israel’s military claimed
[https://x.com/avichayadraee/status/2044365113277272340] on Wednesday it struck
more than 200 targets in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours. > * U.S.,
Israel, and Lebanon hold talks: Lebanon and Israel held their first direct
diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington, DC. The trilateral meeting
was convened by the State Department with the participation of Secretary of
State Marco Rubio, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Lebanese
Ambassador to the U.S. Nadeh Hamadeh, and other officials. In a statement, the
State Department claimed the two sides had “productive discussions on steps
toward launching direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.” The U.S. also
said any ceasefire agreement “must be reached between the two governments,
brokered by the United States, and not through any separate track,” despite
Lebanon being specifically mentioned as part of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire
agreement. Hezbollah staunchly opposed the talks. The U.S. made a point of
reiterating its support of Israel’s “right to defend itself from Hezbollah’s
attacks.” The Lebanese delegation emphasized its sovereignty, called for full
implementation of the November 2024 ceasefire, and sought urgent humanitarian
relief. Israel’s delegation, which has claimed as its foremost priority the
disarming of Hezbollah, said that it “discovered today” that it was on “the same
side of the equation” as its Lebanese counterparts. > > Gaza, the West Bank, and
Israel > =============================== > > * Israel continues to attack Gaza >
> + The Israeli military said
[https://x.com/idfonline/status/2044346975265358300] on Wednesday it killed one
Palestinian in northern Gaza “who crossed the yellow line.” > + Israeli gunfire
and shelling wounded four Palestinians in the Zeitoun neighborhood and at the
Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City on Wednesday, WAFA reports
[https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169479]. Later attacks
[https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169409] on Zeitoun destroyed several
houses in the neighborhood. > + At least 11 Palestinians were killed in separate
Israeli attacks on Tuesday, including at least two children, according to Al
Jazeera. Four people were killed, including a three-year-old in a strike
targeting a police vehicle in Gaza City on Tuesday. Later in the evening, Civil
Defense reported that another Israeli strike killed
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044147265363673591] several people near an
intersection in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Another person was killed
by Israeli fire in Beit Lahia. > + Israeli forces shot and killed
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044223658994848189] 14-year-old Adam Ahmed
Khalaa near the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. > * Israeli
attacks on the West Bank persist > > + Israeli forces demolished
[https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169481] a house and several residential
structures in Silwan and Issawiya in East Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, and
assaulted several community members and foreign journalists in a raid on the
Al-Bustan neighborhood. > + Israeli settlers attacked
[https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169476] a Bedouin family near Jericho on
Wednesday, in the community of Halq al-Rumman, attempting to break into the
house of a family in the community and causing widespread panic. > + Israeli
security forces arrested [https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169465] a former
head of a local charity in Hebron on Wednesday, storming into the city’s
Charitable Islamic Association and grabbing him. > + Three Palestinians were
detained [https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169463] in Bal’a, near Tulkarm,
during a 15-hour raid on the village by the Israeli military, according to WAFA.
Israeli soldiers reportedly conducted extensive raids in the town, handcuffing
and blindfolding its young men before leading them to a “field interrogation
center.” One of those still detained is a 63-year-old man. > + An attack by
Israeli settlers on the village of Tuqu’, near Bethlehem, injured
[https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169464] three Palestinians on Tuesday.
The settlers reportedly sprayed pepper spray in the faces of the Palestinians
while attempting to steal their sheep. Another Israeli settler attack
[https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169473], conducted late at night near
Nablus, involved the destruction of the road that connects the village of Duma
to Khirbet al-Marajem. And in an attack on the Jerusalem suburb of Al-Ram, a
bulldozer, reportedly belonging to Israeli military forces, razed
[https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/169474] a Palestinian horse stable. > *
Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti repeatedly assaulted by Israeli
prison guards: Ben Marmarelli, a lawyer for Palestinian political prisoner
Marwan Barghouti, reported
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044088098762465413] three violent assaults
by Israeli prison guards against his client in the span of two weeks, including
a severe beating on April 8 at Ganot Prison during which Barghouti was left
bleeding for more than two hours and denied medical care, following an earlier
attack during a prison transfer and a dog attack at Megiddo Prison. He said the
attacks “form a pattern of rapidly escalating abuse” that places Barghouti “at
immediate risk of severe harm or death,” and called for his immediate release. >
> U.S. News > ========= > > By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on
Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at [email protected]
[[email protected]]. > > * House Dems introduce bill which would formally
assess Trump’s fitness for office: House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member
Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) introduced
[https://www.axios.com/2026/04/14/trump-25th-amendment-impeachment-iran-democrats]
legislation on Tuesday that would establish a 17-member bipartisan commission
authorized under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to conduct a medical
examination of President Donald Trump and assess whether he is mentally or
physically unable to discharge the duties of his office, with 50 Democratic
co-sponsors signed on. The bill faces long odds—Republicans control Congress,
Trump could veto it, and any removal would ultimately require Vice President JD
Vance’s sign-off and a two-thirds vote in both chambers—but comes after more
than 85 House and Senate Democrats last week called for Trump’s impeachment or
removal. > * Joint Chiefs chairman lobbies Congress to renew warrantless
surveillance law: Joint Chiefs Chair General Dan Caine wrote
[https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/04/13/congress/caine-letter-fisa-702-reauthorization-00870208]
a letter to several key congressional committees on Monday urging lawmakers to
back President Donald Trump’s push for an 18-month clean reauthorization of
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which, though
ostensibly used to collect data on “foreign targets abroad,” in effect permits
the warrantless surveillance of Americans and the collection of their data.
Caine warned that its loss would “increase risk to the Joint Force, degrade our
worldwide combat lethality, and significantly impair U.S. security,” according
to a copy of the letter obtained by Politico. The intervention signals White
House anxiety about vote counts ahead of the law’s April 20 expiration, with
more than a dozen House Republican holdouts citing privacy concerns. Several
Democrats are expected to flip from their 2024 “yes” votes amid fears the Trump
administration could weaponize the program against immigrants, and Rep. Andy
Biggs (R-Ariz.) introduced an amendment Monday to shorten the extension to one
year. > > + Ahead of the Wednesday vote on whether to reauthorize FISA without
any reforms, Drop Site’s Julian Andreone caught up
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044425751496425649] with members of the
Congressional Black Caucus to address reporting that, led by Rep. Greg Meeks
(D-NY), the group sought to join the Trump administration—in particular, Stephen
Miller—in pushing for a swift passage. Just hours before the vote, some CBC
members are changing course and backing reforms. The video is available here
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044425751496425649]. > * State Department
accuses Cuba of role in Russia’s war in Ukraine: The Trump administration told
[https://www.axios.com/2026/04/14/congress-cuba-russia-trump-administration-congress]
Congress that between 1,000 and 5,000 Cuban nationals are fighting for Russia in
Ukraine at any given time, while also supplying “diplomatic and political
support for Moscow,” according to a five-page unclassified State Department memo
reported on by Axios. The report stops short of concluding Havana officially
dispatched “all Cuban fighters,” but states there are “significant indicators
that the regime knowingly tolerated, enabled, or selectively facilitated the
flow,” and dismisses Cuba’s claim to have prosecuted traffickers. In response to
the report, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Axios, “If and when President Trump
gets around to replacing” Cuba’s government, “and I believe that will happen
sooner rather than later, it will be a very good day for the U.S. and our
allies.” > * Trump admin is ordering the Pentagon to prepare for military
operations against Cuba, Zeteo reports: The Trump administration has quietly
directed [https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044130770927722962] Pentagon
officials and other U.S. government agencies to step up preparations for
possible military operations against Cuba, according to three sources familiar
with the matter, Zeteo reported Tuesday. > * ICE pays $12.2 million for AI
surveillance tool that maps immigrants’ daily routines and location: U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a $12.2 million contract to
defense vendor Edge Ops LLC for an artificial intelligence tool called “Project
SAFE HAVEN” that uses “persistent passive data collection” to map the “habitual
locations, routes, and behavioral patterns” of its targets. It also purports to
have the ability to build “profiles” of suspects by scraping data from Wi-Fi
connections and mobile devices. The tool was purchased specifically for the
Homeland Security Task Force National Coordination Center—a hub coordinating
ICE, the Pentagon, and the FBI. Read more about this recent contract, and the
expansion of ICE surveillance capacities, in the latest from The Lever,
available here
[https://www.levernews.com/inside-ices-12-million-plan-to-map-immigrants-patterns-of-life/].
> * ICE arrests immigrant delivery drivers at California checkpoint: An
“interagency” pilot program at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in
California has resulted in the detention of dozens of rideshare and delivery
drivers, according to Capital & Main, with military police at the base’s gates
calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement on any non-citizen or non-green card
holder and attempting to persuade detainees to leave the United States. Among
those caught up in the program is Assim Alkhawaja, a Palestinian man with a
pending asylum claim and a valid work permit who was arrested in mid-February
while dropping off two Marines at the base, shackled, pressured to voluntarily
depart the country, before his community raised over $10,000 for his bail;
another is a Haitian Uber Driver who complained about the exploitative nature of
the detention facility, where detainees are made to pay for food, water, and
calls to family. Read the full report from Capital & Main here
[https://capitalandmain.com/ice-has-arrested-dozens-of-delivery-drivers-at-the-gates-of-a-san-diego-military-base].
> * Thomson Reuters fires employee who dissented against selling data to ICE,
lawsuit says: Thomson Reuters fired
[https://www.404media.co/thomson-reuters-fired-worker-for-speaking-out-about-ice-former-employee-says/]
legal editor Billie Little on March 20, after more than 200 of its employees
wrote a letter objecting to the use of the company’s CLEAR database, which
contains significant amounts of personal data, by federal immigration
authorities, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday and reported on by 404 Media.
Little was singled out for her resistance, and according to her attorneys
appears to be the only employee fired for her resistance. Her team argues that
the firing violated Oregon’s whistleblower protection law. > * 86-year-old
detained by ICE in Louisiana: An 86-year-old French woman identified only as
Marie-Thérèse, who moved to Alabama last year to marry a former U.S. Army
colonel she had fallen in love with at a NATO base in France in the 1950s, is
being held
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/14/marie-therese-billy-ice-arrest-us-france]
in a crowded Louisiana detention facility after ICE agents arrested and shackled
her on April 1. Marie-Thérèse’s husband died in January 2026 before she had
obtained a green card, leaving her immigration status unresolved. Her son told
Ouest-France that her family fears for her life, given her heart and back
conditions. “Given her health, she won’t last a month in such conditions of
detention,” he said. > * Tennessee passes act that would penalize student
protest: The Tennessee General Assembly passed
[https://wpln.org/post/tennessees-charlie-kirk-act-bans-student-walkouts-protects-conservative-speakers/]
the Charlie Kirk Act on Monday, “free speech” legislation that could subject
students and faculty to suspension or expulsion for staging walkouts and using
oversized signs during speaking events on campus. The bill also offers
protections against disinvitation for individuals with certain views, including
opposition to abortion, homosexuality, and “transgender behavior.” It also
allows student organizations to deny membership or leadership roles to students
who conflict with their “lifestyle.” The measure passed along partisan lines and
needs only Gov. Bill Lee’s signature to become law. > * New poll shows Cori Bush
tied with Wesley Bell in Missouri Democratic primary: A new poll commissioned
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044157672514011561] by former Rep. Cori Bush
and conducted by HIT Strategies shows Bush and incumbent Wesley Bell (D-Mo.)
statistically tied among likely Democratic primary voters in Missouri’s 1st
congressional district, with Bell at 44% and Bush at 40%, within the survey’s
5.4% margin of error. The poll, conducted February 19–23 among 401 likely
Democratic primary voters, also found Bush holds higher overall favorability
than Bell—52% to 45%—and that AIPAC, a major backer of Bell’s 2024 campaign,
carries a 40% unfavorable rating among district Democrats, while ICE is 86%
unfavorable to the same demographic. > * Mills deflects genocide question,
points to African countries instead: Maine governor and senatorial candidate
Janet Mills (D) was asked [https://x.com/ryangrim/status/2044240543773770158] at
a campaign event on Tuesday if she thinks Israel is committing a genocide in
Gaza. After opening with a condemnation of events of October 7, using the word
“horrific” to describe it and what has transpired in Gaza, she refused to answer
the question directly. Instead she pointed to one African country with a widely
reported genocide and two with historic genocides. “There’s a genocide right now
going on in Sudan. Rwanda…there’s a genocide. There’s a genocide going on in
Somalia.…There’s a lot we have to be concerned about, a lot on our plate.” > >
Other International News > ======================== > > * Milei’s disability
agency at center of campaign corruption, report says: Argentina’s National
Disability Agency (ANDIS) is at the center of an alleged kickback
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044101090820706447] scheme in which
pharmaceutical companies received government contracts in exchange for bribes
worth roughly 3% of contract value, bribes paid to officials close to President
Javier Milei, according to Página/12. One defendant has even implicated Milei’s
sister, Karina, in the scheme. Milei himself is accused of having a campaign
event financed by the Kovalivker family, which owns a pharmaceutical distributor
and is implicated in the case, and is reportedly under investigation. Read more
on this story here
[https://www.pagina12.com.ar/2026/04/14/un-pedido-para-ampliar-la-investigacion-sobre-los-miles-de-dolares-detras-del-acto-de-milei/].
> * U.S. military kills four in second Pacific boat strike in two days: The U.S.
military struck
[https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/politics/pentagon-boat-strike-pacific.html]
a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, killing four people in the 50th
such strike since early September, bringing the total death toll to at least
174, according to U.S. Southern Command. The command cited unspecified
intelligence and said the vessel had been traveling on “known narco-trafficking
routes,” releasing a 16-second video showing the boat exploding, but provided no
evidence of drug smuggling. > * School shooting injures 16 in Turkey: An
18-year-old opened
[https://apnews.com/article/gunman-attacks-high-school-southeast-turkey-1605b76ff905e5f206f1550b63beb141]
fire with a shotgun at a vocational high school he had once attended in Siverek,
Şanlıurfa province, on Tuesday, wounding 16 people—including 10 students, four
teachers, a canteen employee, and a police officer—before killing himself. Five
of the wounded were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital due to
the severity of their injuries. The motive for the shooting remains unclear. > *
Mexico’s Sheinbaum rebukes Trump for his immigration policy: Mexican President
Claudia Sheinbaum once again noted her disapproval
[https://apnews.com/article/mexico-sheinbaum-us-trump-relations-90c3fc348949d4f5b6bf8d80166e870c]
of her northern neighbor’s immigration policy during a daily press briefing,
calling the deaths of Mexican nationals in U.S. immigration detention
“unacceptable” on Tuesday. Her remarks come a day after 49-year-old Alejandro
Cabrera Clemente died at a Louisiana ICE facility, the fifteenth such death in
little over a year. She announced she had opened investigations into all 15
deaths, instructed Mexican consulates to visit U.S. detention centers daily, and
said she was bringing the cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, and was also considering an appeal to the United Nations. “We are going
to defend Mexicans at every level,” Sheinbaum told the press, adding that “there
are many Mexicans whose only crime is not having papers.” > * Spain approves
amnesty program for half a million undocumented immigrants: Spain’s government
approved
[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/14/spanish-government-approves-amnesty-programme-for-undocumented-immigrants-2]
a program on Tuesday that will allow up to 500,000 undocumented immigrants to
apply for legal status. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez fast-tracked the measure
via decree to bypass a parliament where his left-wing government lacks a
majority, after a previous amnesty bill failed because of parliamentary
objections. Eligible applicants must have arrived before January 1, prove at
least five months of residency, and have no criminal record. They will receive a
one-year work and residency permit, which can be renewed into a longer-term
status. Sánchez called the move “an act of justice and a necessity,” arguing
that immigrants have helped Spain become “the fastest-growing economy in
Europe.” > * Greece accused of recruiting migrants as “enforcers” to pressure
other migrants out: Greek police have been recruiting detained migrants to carry
out violent illegal pushbacks along the Evros river border with Turkey since at
least 2020, according to a new investigation from the BBC. Witnesses described
masked units stripping new arrivals, robbing them, and beating them, with some
migrants reporting sexual violence and death threats at the hands of their
masked captors. The mercenary migrants were reportedly compensated for their
services with Arab or Turkish currencies, and occasionally with sexual services,
according to one source. The BBC’s full investigation is available here
[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86vpq42dl0o]. > * Hundreds of former
European ministers, diplomats call for suspension of EU-Israel Association
Agreement: A group of 350 former European ministers, ambassadors, and senior
officials has urged the European Union to suspend the EU-Israel Association
Agreement over Israel’s systematic violations of international law in Palestine.
“With the world attention focussed elsewhere, Israel under the cloak of illegal
military operations in Iran and Lebanon, has pursued the subjugation of
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, by doubling
down on its illegal occupation policy, the signatories said in a joint statement
[https://x.com/MartinKonecny/status/2044325753014165707/photo/1] on Wednesday. >
* Venezuela’s interim president calls for full sanctions relief: Venezuelan
interim President Delcy Rodríguez called
[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/14/delcy-rodriguez-calls-for-a-venezuela-free-of-sanctions-amid-us-detente]
on Tuesday for the United States to lift all sanctions on Venezuela, writing on
X that “We reiterate the need to advance towards a Venezuela free of sanctions,
as a means of providing institutional legal certainty to investors coming to our
country—a setting where they are guaranteed sustained investment over time and a
forward-looking perspective.” She made this statement on the same day the U.S.
Treasury Department announced it would be easing a small spate of restrictions
on Venezuela’s banking system, by issuing licenses that would allow the
country’s central bank and several state-owned financial institutions to make
transactions. > * Hundreds of Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals
missing after boat capsizes: Approximately 250 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi
nationals are missing
[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/14/hundreds-missing-after-rohingya-boat-capsizes-in-andaman-sea-un]
after a boat capsized in the Andaman Sea, the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees reported on Tuesday. The boat reportedly left Bangladesh and was en
route to Malaysia. The Bangladesh Coast Guard rescued nine survivors on April 9,
including one woman found floating on drums and logs; six of the nine are
alleged traffickers and have been detained. One survivor, Rafiqul Islam, told
AFP he had been lured aboard by traffickers who promised him work in Malaysia,
that the vessel travelled for four days before capsizing, and that 25 to 30
people died from suffocation and overcrowding before he spent 36 hours floating
in open water before rescue. > * U.S. to send third-country deportees to DRC.
this week: The United States is set
[https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-receive-first-group-deportees-us-this-week-sources-say-2026-04-14/]
to send between 37 and 45 deportees—all nationals of countries other than Congo,
including people from Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Guatemala—to the Democratic
Republic of Congo by Friday under a third-country deportation agreement
announced on April 5, with the deportees to be housed in a hotel near Kinshasa’s
main airport for 10 to 15 days, Reuters reported Tuesday. > * Rival Libyan
factions participate in U.S. special forces exercises together for the first
time: Forces from Libya’s eastern and western rival administrations participated
[https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/first-libyas-rival-forces-take-part-joint-us-led-military-exercises-2026-04-14/]
jointly in U.S. AFRICOM’s “Flintlock” special operations exercises in the
central city of Sirte on Tuesday, the first such joint military event between
the former civil war adversaries, with more than 30 countries taking part. The
exercises come days after the two sides agreed to Libya’s first unified budget
in more than a decade, marking a notable thaw between the Tripoli-based
Government of National Unity and Khalifa Haftar’s eastern Libyan National Army,
which attempted to seize the capital in 2019–2020. > * Somali forces kill 27
al-Shabaab militants in Jubbaland: Somalia’s armed forces and regional security
forces killed 27 al-Shabaab militants, including “key members” of the group, in
a “large-scale operation” in the Lower and Middle Jubba regions of the country,
Reuters reported
[https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/somalia-says-it-killed-27-al-shabaab-militants-operation-with-international-2026-04-14/]
Tuesday. The operation was supported by airstrikes from undisclosed
international partners, the military said. The U.S. military has previously
conducted airstrikes in support of the Somali government’s military actions. > *
Russian strikes hit Dnipro and Izmail, killing civilians and hitting
foreign-flagged ships: A Russian missile strike killed at least five civilians
and wounded more than two dozen others in the southeastern Ukrainian city of
Dnipro on Tuesday, according to Reuters
[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-strike-ukraines-dnipro-kills-four-officials-say-2026-04-14/].
At least 10 of the hospitalized were in severe condition, and an infrastructure
facility was also damaged in the strike.Russian drones also struck Ukraine’s
Izmail port in the Odesa region overnight, damaging a Panama-flagged vessel and
parts of the port’s infrastructure, and a separate strike hit the
Liberian-flagged merchant vessel “Lady Maris” as it travelled through a maritime
corridor to load corn, Ukrainian officials reported
[https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/russian-drones-attacked-ukraines-izmail-port-damaged-panama-flagged-vessel-2026-04-14/]
Tuesday. The Lady Maris reached the port of Chornomorsk after its crew
extinguished a fire on board. > * Accusations of fraud in Peru’s presidential
race: Latest figures from Peru’s election authority place leftist candidate
Roberto Sánchez in second place, which would advance him to the runoff.
Presidential candidate Rafael López Aliaga, a wealthy businessman and leader of
the ultraconservative Popular Renewal party, who had been in second, called for
the annulment of the April 2026 general election, warning he could push for
“insurgency” if authorities do not comply. He accused National Jury of Elections
president Roberto Burneo of complicity in alleged electoral sabotage tied to
logistics delays, a claim other candidates have also raised, but Burneo has
rejected. Four-time candidate Keiko Fujimori, who placed first but failed to
secure a majority, will proceed to the runoff. > > More from Drop Site >
=================== > > * Weekly Livestream: Drop Site co-founder Jeremy Scahill
and Middle East editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous host veteran Middle East analyst
Rami Khouri to discuss the latest in Iran, cover the most recent developments in
the ceasefire, and review the situation in Lebanon. The full livestream is
available here: > > * Panel on upcoming congressional renewal of warrantless
surveillance: Drop Site’s Capitol Hill correspondent, Julian Andreone, hosted a
conversation about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the state of
mass surveillance in America, in anticipation of Congress’ potential
reauthorization of Section 702 of that act, which allows intelligence agencies
to sweep up vast troves of personal data without a warrant in the pursuit of
“security.” Andreone is joined by Liza Goitein of the Brennan Center, Sean Vitka
of Demand Progress, and political commentator Jess Craven. That panel discussion
is available here: > > * Global Sumud Flotilla’s Spring Mission commences: Drop
Site contributor Noa Avishag Schnall sent a video dispatch from the launch day
of the Global Sumud Flotilla’s Spring Mission to Gaza, which launched from
Barcelona on April 12 with 39 vessels and over 1,000 participants. The flotilla
aims to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. That video is available here
[https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044184811145691261]: > > > > If you want to
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