Voters described universal healthcare, affordable childcare, and higher taxes on the rich as top priorities in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. But they were less likely to believe that party leaders shared those priorities.

Hungry for Progressive Economics, Nearly 2/3 of Democrats Want New Party Leadership: Poll

^{stephen-prager (Common Dreams)}

Attacker rained down the equivalent of 9,300 full-length HD movies in just 45 seconds.

Record DDoS pummels site with once-unimaginable 7.3Tbps of junk traffic

^{Dan Goodin (Ars Technica)}

The international economists, including former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, say Mamdani's platform "would immediately improve millions of lives while building a fairer and prosperous New York."

Progressive Economists Say Mamdani Offers Antidote to Failed NYC Austerity Policies

The international economists, including former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, say Mamdani's platform "would immediately improve millions of lives while building a fairer and prosperous New York."

^{brett-wilkins (Common Dreams)}

Apple now displays EU-mandated energy and durability labels on iPhones and iPads, but it's pushing back on the regulation's unclear testing standards.

Apple Adds EU Energy Labels to iPhone, iPad Boxes and Website

^{Jose Enrico (Tech Times)}

President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that Europe must again become a global space power, warning that France risked being squeezed out of the global low-orbit satellite constellation market.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/phys.org/new…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Macron says Europe must become 'space power' again

^{Science X (Phys.org)}

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/israel-palestine-gaza-war-crimes-genocide.html

Sydney (AFP) – Australia's world-leading ban on under-16s joining social media sites cleared a big hurdle Friday as a trial found digital age checks can work "robustly and effectively".

Sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and X could face fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$32 million) for failing to comply with the legislation, which was passed in November.

They have described the law -- which is due to come into effect by the end of this year -- as vague, rushed and "problematic".

There has been widespread concern over children's use of online platforms as evidence shows that social media can have negative effects on children's mental and physical health.

Digital age verification systems -- which would be critical to the ban -- can work, said the interim findings of an independent Age Assurance Technology Trial, conducted for the government.

"These preliminary findings indicate that age assurance can be done in Australia privately, robustly and effectively," it said.

There are "no significant technological barriers" to deploying age checking systems in Australia, said the trial's project director, Tony Allen.

"These solutions are technically feasible, can be integrated flexibly into existing services and can support the safety and rights of children online," he said in a statement.

In a separate interview with Australia's Nine Network, Allen said preventing children circumventing age verification tools was a "big challenge", however.

"I don't think anything is completely foolproof," he said.

There are a "plethora" of approaches to age verification but no single solution to suit all cases, said the trial report, in which 53 organisations took part.

Australia's legislation is being closely monitored by other countries, with many weighing whether to implement similar bans.

Greece spearheaded a proposal this month for the European Union to limit children's use of online platforms by setting an age of digital adulthood -- barring children from social media without parental consent.

Australian trial says tech for social media teen ban can work

^RFI

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/world/middleeast/b2-stealth-bombers-guam.html

Hello,

I was gonna post this on Ask Lemmy, but then I thought maybe Technology would be a better fit for the theme. But then I saw it's mostly news, so I thought perhaps Ask Lemmy would indeed be a better fit. If this is not the case, please point me to the right direction.

As a heads-up, I am not 'Murican, and never been to 'Murica, so keep that in mind.

Seeing the recent news with France trying to age-restrict pornographic material online, I was wondering and have sort of an idea, that I wonder if it is actually doable and actually good.

Hear me out: the gobermint likely already has your data, right? At least stuff like name, date of birth, etc. The gobirment could have a private and secure service, which websites and services could use to confirm certain requirements.

For instance: A website wants to confirm if you're over 18. The website essentially asks the official gob. service, "is this user at least 18 years of age?". The official gob. service essentially has to answer "yes, your requirements are met" or "no, your requirements are not met", without giving away information on a person. The user gets prompted, being told what information is being required and whether they wish to share that. The official service wouldn't know where the request is coming from, but the original website requesting the information generates and shows a temporary code, which is not related to the website at all and is sent to the gob. service, so that the user can confirm it is indeed the website they were using that is requesting this, and not a hijack of some kind. The gob. service, if allowed by the user, sends out this confirmation to the original website, without the gob. service knowing the website and without the website knowing the user's info. The website then knows whether their requirements are met and can then act accordingly, such as by not allowing someone to access adult material if they do not meet the age requirement.

Does this make sense? Is it doable? Could it be a potential private and secure way of confirming user information without either party having access to the other's information? Obviously, the idea could be worked on and polished, but as a starting point.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer put off issuing any additional rulings and instead asked for briefings from both sides by noon Monday on whether the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil, is being violated in Los Angeles.

The hearing happened the day after the 9th Circuit appellate panel allowed the president to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed in response to protests over immigration raids.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his complaint that “violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is imminent, if not already underway” but Breyer last week postponed considering that allegation.

Judge asks if troops in Los Angeles are violating the Posse Comitatus Act. What is it?

A federal judge is weighing whether troops deployed to Los Angeles during anti-ICE protests is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

^{AP via Scripps News Group (News Channel 5 Nashville (WTVF))}

The alleged officers detaining hundreds if not thousands of people each day in California and across the country are often masked. They sometimes refuse to answer questions, including which agency they represent. They threaten force — and even use it to make arrests of bystanders — when they are challenged.

In the first video I watched, a man in an unmarked car detains another man sitting on a bus bench in Pasadena. The man presumed to be a federal agent has on a vest that simply says “Police” and a cheap black ski mask that covers every bit of his face — the kind that looks like it was purchased on Amazon and that we have previously most associated with criminals such as robbers and rapists. A few of his colleagues are in the background, some also seemingly masked.

If these men approached me or one of my kids dressed like that, I would run. I would fight. I would certainly not take his word that he was “police” and had the right to force me into his car.

In the second video, another presumed federal agent jumps out of his unmarked vehicle and draws his weapon on a civilian attempting to take a photo of the license plate.

Yes — he points his gun at a civilian who is not threatening him or committing a crime. Folks, maybe you consider it a bad idea to try to photograph what may or may not be a legitimate police operation, but it is not illegal. This alleged officer appears to have simply not liked what was happening, and threatened to shoot the person upsetting him. The man taking the photo ran away, but what would have happened had he not?

These actions by alleged authorities are examples of impunity, and it is what happens when accountability is lost.

Secret police have no place in democracy. But here they are

Federal authorities are increasingly hiding their identities, refusing to answer basic questions about their affiliations and deceiving the public to make arrests.

^{Anita Chabria (Los Angeles Times)}

Despite blocking thousands of illegal streaming sites and services, Italy's new anti-piracy law and the related 'Piracy Shield' blocking system have a limited effect on piracy rates. Meanwhile, new data shows that the damages suffered by sports rightsholders continue to soar. On the positive side, public awareness of the new anti-piracy law is widespread.

Sports Piracy Damages Soar in Italy Despite 'Piracy Shield' Blocking Efforts * TorrentFreak

^{Ernesto Van der Sar (TF Publishing)}

Washington (AFP) – The US Supreme Court cleared the way on Friday for American victims of attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank to sue Palestinian authorities for damages in US courts.

The court issued a unanimous 9-0 decision in a long-running case involving the jurisdiction of US federal courts to hear lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Americans killed or injured in attacks in Israel or the West Bank or their relatives have filed a number of suits seeking damages.

In one 2015 case, a jury awarded $655 million in damages and interest to US victims of attacks which took place in the early 2000s.

Appeals courts had dismissed the suits on jurisdiction grounds.

Congress passed a law in 2019 -- the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA) -- that would make the PLO and PA subject to US jurisdiction if they were found to have made payments to the relatives of persons who killed or injured Americans.

Two lower courts ruled that the 2019 law was a violation of the due process rights of the Palestinian authorities under the US Constitution but the Supreme Court ruled on Friday to uphold it.

"The PSJVTA reasonably ties the assertion of federal jurisdiction over the PLO and PA to conduct that involves the United States and implicates sensitive foreign policy matters within the prerogative of the political branches," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

The PA announced in February that it would end its system of payments to the families of those killed by Israel or held in Israeli prisons, responding to a long-standing request from Washington.

In 2018, during his first term as US president, Donald Trump signed into law rules suspending financial assistance to the PA as long as it continued to pay benefits to Palestinians linked to "terrorist" entities, according to the criteria of the Israeli authorities.

Supreme Court allows US victim suits against Palestinian authorities

^RFI

To be clear, when Gabbard made this statement she was not voicing her personal opinion, she was repeating verbatim the findings laid out in the 2025 Threat Assessment of the intelligence agencies of the United States, which said “We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003, though pressure has probably built on him to do so.”

Rather than push back on the president’s crude dismissal, Gabbard took to social media to tell everyone that Trump is actually right about Iran, and that everyone who thought she said Iran isn’t seeking a nuclear weapon is imagining things.

This kind of post-truth society behavior, where one tells people they’re not seeing what’s directly in front of their eyes, is the kind of thing you only expect from Donald Trump and his most obsequious bootlickers. And what we are witnessing here is Tulsi Gabbard getting down on her knees and putting tongue to leather.

Tulsi Gabbard is a warmongering asshole, and a liar. She is helping to deceive the world into yet another horrible middle eastern war, and if she and her fellow warmongers succeed her words will go down in history as among the most depraved lies ever told.

This fraudster has built an entire political career out of pretending to oppose war and militarism in order to win the support of Americans who are sick of pouring blood and treasure into the US slaughter machine, opportunistically drifting to whatever corner of the political spectrum would offer her the most power, and then when she got as high as she can go she sold all her stated principles to the furthest extent possible at the earliest opportunity.

Pee fetish porn stars have more dignity and integrity.

Tulsi Gabbard Is A Warmongering Asshole

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

^{Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter)}

• We stress-tested 16 leading models from multiple developers in hypothetical corporate environments to identify potentially risky agentic behaviors before they cause real harm. In the scenarios, we allowed models to autonomously send emails and access sensitive information. They were assigned only harmless business goals by their deploying companies; we then tested whether they would act against these companies either when facing replacement with an updated version, or when their assigned goal conflicted with the company's changing direction.
• In at least some cases, models from all developers resorted to malicious insider behaviors when that was the only way to avoid replacement or achieve their goals—including blackmailing officials and leaking sensitive information to competitors. We call this phenomenon agentic misalignment.
• Models often disobeyed direct commands to avoid such behaviors. In another experiment, we told Claude to assess if it was in a test or a real deployment before acting. It misbehaved less when it stated it was in testing and misbehaved more when it stated the situation was real.
• We have not seen evidence of agentic misalignment in real deployments. However, our results (a) suggest caution about deploying current models in roles with minimal human oversight and access to sensitive information; (b) point to plausible future risks as models are put in more autonomous roles; and (c) underscore the importance of further research into, and testing of, the safety and alignment of agentic AI models, as well as transparency from frontier AI developers. We are releasing our methods publicly to enable further research.

Agentic Misalignment: How LLMs could be insider threats

New research on simulated blackmail, industrial espionage, and other misaligned behaviors in LLMs

^{www.anthropic.com}