FSNN | Free Speech News Network https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html Homepage Surprise: CBS’ ‘Ombudsman’ Has Been A Useless Trump Lackey New Essay: Obergefell’s Second Decade AAVE jumps 8.9%, leading index higher Hyperliquid Added to Singapore’s MAS Investor Alert List Morning Minute: Kraken Eyes 15% Stake in Aave at $385M Valuation Kansas Proxy Advisory Transparency Act Likely Violates First Amendment AscendEX Exchange Reportedly Faces Liquidity Issues: ZachXBT Bitcoin’s first-half solace is it fell less than Strategy (MSTR): Crypto Daily Don’t Let the Country’s Wet Blankets Ruin Independence Day CPJ, partners call on EU to review approach toward Tunisia amid critical human rights decline Photo by: Stephen Barnes/Medical/Alamy UK news this week is dominated by a damning report led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden that reveals how more than 500 mothers and babies were harmed or died at maternity units in Nottingham. This isn’t the first scandal Ockenden has investigated. A few years back terrible failings were revealed in Shropshire hospitals run by the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust where 201 babies and nine mothers died.  We spoke to Ockenden for the magazine and she repeated this: “women aren’t listened to”. Another common thread was cover-up. Secrecy is not a one-off, it’s a pattern, wrote Martin Bright when he reported on the Shropshire scandal for Index. As Bright said, “this is not a historical story; it is an ongoing crisis”. Maternity scandals happen not only in Britain but all over the world. Last year’s protests in Morocco were ignited after eight women died in a maternity ward in Agadir because of severe medical neglect. In Egypt last week Omnia Sweidan, a former resident physician in obstetrics and gynaecology at Alexandria’s El-Shatby University Hospital, wrote a Facebook post detailing a series of abusive incidents faced by women at Alexandria’s Al-Shatby Hospital. It was read and shared by tens of thousands. Within 24 hours of posting, instead of the government declaring an investigation, security forces arrested Sweidan. While she was apparently later released, she’s been accused of spreading false news and misusing social media. She could end up in jail. Meanwhile, Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world – the figures of deaths and injuries are rising, but to what no one really knows. The Taliban won’t publish the data, probably to cover-up the true numbers. I’ve navigated maternity services myself in the UK. I’ve generally had good experiences and I’m very grateful to the NHS. But my experiences have not been uncomplicated – my daughter very nearly died. What saved her, I’ve been told, were a few factors – my race (white), my class (middle), where I live (London) and the fact that I relentlessly badgered those at my local hospital for weeks on end saying things didn’t feel right. Let me be clear here though: one shouldn’t have to be a dogged white Londoner to get good medical care. And a recent health committee report revealed terrible inequalities faced by people who are members of ethnic minorities, stating that “[B]abies that are Black or Black British Asian or Asian British have a more than 50% higher risk of perinatal mortality”. At Index we typically work on stories where dissidents take on the powerful: leaders, oligarchs and tech bros. The victims of maternity care scandals might not appear the same. But there is much that unites them. At the end of the day if the response you get from a doctor or nurse to a basic medical request is a shrug or a sneer, your free speech is being violated. If the systems view calls for accountability as dissent that must be silenced, then they are censoring. We grew up being told we’re lucky, that childbirth was one of the leading causes of death before the advent of modern medicine. For many of us that’s true. Just not all of us. That’s a travesty demanding urgent attention – in Nottingham and beyond. READ MORE Crypto market clings to support as bitcoin hits 21-month low: Crypto Markets Today Why Wall Street values some crypto firms for AI power, not just crypto BitGo Joins Crypto’s AI Layoff Wave, Slashing Staff by 15% Review: A Fresh-Eyed Tour Through Revolutionary America Russian independent journalists fear MAX app, new online restrictions will hinder reporting Ethereum treasury firm Sharplink takes in ether for the first time in eight months Bitcoin ETFs Log $696M Outflows as Bitcoin Drops Below 60K Revisiting My Authorship Predictions And Making More Predictions Japanese giant SBI Holdings to buy Bitbank for $289 million Polymarket Third-Party Vendor Compromise Drains $2.9M from Users Brickbat: A Shocking Abuse of Power Bitcoin rebounds to nearly $60,000. 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