Local law enforcement faces public criticism of biometric surveillance plans

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin is calling on the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to reconsider plans to adopt the use of facial recognition technology. Like the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), the sheriff’s office is considering acquiring facial recognition technology from the company Biometrica. The company has offered MPD free access in exchange for 2.5 million images, jail records, and other related data of people who have passed through Milwaukee’s criminal justice system, including many who presumably haven’t been convicted of a crime.

“Given all the public opposition we’ve seen to the Milwaukee Police Department’s push to expand their use of facial recognition, the news of the Sheriffs office’s interest in acquiring this technology is deeply concerning,” Amanda Merkwae, advocacy director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, wrote in a statement for an ACLU press release. “Law enforcement’s use of facial recognition software poses a number of serious threats to civil rights and civil liberties, making it dangerous both when it fails and when it functions.”

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/06/26/facial-recognition-technology-stirs-more-controversy-in-milwaukee/

We all know the feeling: having spent a little too much time on our phones, scrolling aimlessly and without purpose. But what exactly are we dissatisfied with when we talk about “too much screen time”? And why is it so difficult to do something about it?

A new research project from the University of Copenhagen has investigated precisely these questions – and the answers are both surprising and thought-provoking.

Screen time: Passive and solitary use makes us most dissatisfied

What lies behind our dissatisfaction with our screen use – and why does the dissatisfaction rarely lead to action? A new Danish study sheds light on this.

^{Media team}

https://apnews.com/article/mortgages-crypto-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-housing-285fad5490a59c3476f7908f444e9fe9

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman is more popular among Pennsylvania Republicans than fellow Democrats, according to a new poll of state voters.

Susquehanna Polling and Research president James Lee told PennLive Tuesday that Fetterman’s overall approval rating among state voters is a “mediocre” 41%, compared to 37% who disapprove of him.

However, the eyebrow-raising result that 45% of Republicans approve of Fetterman while just 40% of Democrats do will surely get political tongues wagging from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has won the backing of a judge in a copyright lawsuit brought by a group of authors, in the second legal victory for the US artificial intelligence industry this week.

The writers, who included Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, had argued that the Facebook owner had breached copyright law by using their books without permission to train its AI system.

The ruling follows a decision on Monday that Anthropic, another major player in the AI field, had not infringed authors’ copyright.

The US district judge Vince Chhabria, in San Francisco, said in his decision on the Meta case that the authors had not presented enough evidence that the technology company’s AI would dilute the market for their work to show that its conduct was illegal under US copyright law.

Meta wins AI copyright lawsuit as US judge rules against authors

Writers accused Facebook owner of breach over using books without permission to train its AI system

^{Dan Milmo (The Guardian)}

cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/32848147

Pro

2025-06-25 10:37:55

Fairphone announces the €599 Fairphone 6, with a 6.31" 120Hz LTPO OLED display, a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip, and enhanced modularity with 12 swappable parts

Switch to fair. Switch to The Fairphone (Gen. 6).

Future-proof. Long-lasting. Modular design inside and out. Switch to The Fairphone (Gen. 6). It's two phones in one. For a more mindful you.

^Fairphone

"The reconciliation bill that Republicans are attempting to ram through the Senate this week would be a death sentence for working-class and low-income Americans," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

GOP Bill Would Strip Healthcare From 19 People for Every Millionaire Getting a Tax Cut: Sanders Report

^{jake-johnson (Common Dreams)}

Zohran Mamdani's victory over Cuomo in NYC's mayoral primary has sparked a progressive movement demanding change in the Democratic Party. Will this seismic shift lead to more insurgent candidates challenging establishment lawmakers? The time for change is now. #ProgressiveRevolt #Mamdani

After Mamdani Victory, Progressives Call for Primary Challenges to Democratic Establishment

"The establishment has never been more weak than they are now," one advocate told potential progressive candidates. "You need to run."

^{julia-conley (Common Dreams)}

Gaza City’s main high street has been destroyed but Palestinian memories of life before the ongoing Israeli assault survive. As those in Gaza face bombing, starvation and miserable living conditions, here’s how they try to hold both the past and the present in their minds

Archived version: archive.is/20250626125624/theg…

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.

A street in Gaza, a map of dreams, and the people desperate to live

^{Ana Lucía González Paz (The Guardian)}

The European Union’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, has declared rearmament the bloc’s emergency priority. While military spending soars to new heights, working people face a fresh era of austerity.

Ursula von der Leyen Is Waging War on Workers

^jacobin.com

"Governments should heed widespread demands to tax the rich—and match it with a vision to build public goods from healthcare to energy," said the executive director of Oxfam International.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/commondreams…

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.

Wealth of Global 1% Has Skyrocketed by Over $33 Trillion Since 2015: Report

^{jake-johnson (Common Dreams)}

Sorella di Perfezione - Giuseppe Iannozzi - LFA Publisher. INFORMAZIONI UTILI PER L'ACQUISTO ON LINE.

facebook.com/share/v/1CKXjWGZ3…

Protests against Trump’s immigration policies sprung up in a variety of cities and towns over the weekend.

• Hundreds of anti-ICE protesters marched through downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday. “The sound of strumming guitars and chants for change filled the air as downtown Albuquerque was packed with protesters expressing their anger toward the federal government,” reported KRQE TV.
• In Lawrenceville, Georgia, hundreds of people gathered to peacefully protest ICE raids and the arrest of local journalist Mario Guevara, who was taken into ICE custody while covering another Atlanta-area immigration protest a week earlier. Guevara, who is from El Salvador, built a big social media following by documenting immigration raids, and now faces deportation himself. “We see how this is an attempt to stop people from using their First Amendment rights to righteously speak out against these attacks on immigrants,” a protest organizer told WSB TV.
• A spontaneous protest erupted in Pasadena, California, on Saturday, after community members learned that armed officers who drove unmarked vehicles and lacked clear agency identification had detained several people that morning – including four men who were buying tamales from a street cart. Pasadena Now reported that about 200 to 300 people gathered for an evening march and vigil, where Pasadena Mayor Victor M. Gordo and other local officials called for unity and protection of immigrant residents.
• Friends and neighbors of a much-beloved bagel shop manager in Port Washington, Long Island, protested his detention on Saturday. Fernando Mejia, 40, was picked up by ICE agents on June 12, reportedly for overstaying a visa 20 years ago. The protest took place at the Port Washington train station, right across the street from the Schmear Bagel & Cafe where Mejia worked, reported News 12 Long Island.
• Hundreds of angry residents in southeast Los Angeles County faced off against masked men in fatigues Friday evening after federal agents raided a car wash in the city of Bell, the Los Angeles Times reported. “In one video shared with The Times, a protester sprays white paint on a silver SUV and a voice can be heard saying, ‘Get the ... out of here!’ while others jeer. People can be seen hitting the vehicle,” the Times reported. “One woman with a bullhorn hurled obscenities at the agents and President Trump; others waved a Mexican flag and an upside-down U.S. flag, traditionally a symbol of protest or distress.”

Revulsion and resistance to ICE's courthouse arrests grows

Also: Anti-war protests around the nation

^{Dan Froomkin (Heads Up News)}

https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-forces-kill-child-occupied-west-bank

E.g. piefed.social/post/977961

The post is on !Wikipedia@lemmy.world.

Comments (at time of writing) are divided into sections.

1. One with no heading
2. Heading "Comments in Wikipedia@lemmy.world"

Aren't all the comments on !Wikipedia@lemmy.world? Why two sections?

EDIT

piefed.social/u/insomniac_lemo… explained: the recent post is a repost of a link first posted months ago. So the comment sections are:

1. Comments on latest post
2. Comment from the first time that link was posted

Thanks!

Testing and wondering about spoiler formatting and code formatting in posting and commenting on PieFed.

All of the below was written based on trying things out and seeing what it looks like in the Preview window . But experience has shown me that the Preview window isn't always the same as the final result, e.g. the block quote function does not display in the Preview window but does work in the final result.

So please excuse me if any of points 1-6 do not jibe with the final results shown after I click the "Publish" button.

1. Spoiler 1

Ah, so I can do a spoiler on PieFed. (I've gone back to Lemmy when I wanted to do some posts that needed spoiler protection.) Just not with a GUI button, but by inserting the relevant Markdown codes manually at the start and at the end of what you want to hide.

::: spoiler spoiler
SPOILER 1
:::
Great! It works. 😀

2. Showing code for Spoiler 1: Code Block

::: spoiler spoiler  
SPOILER 1  
:::  

Code Block formatting for the spoiler element code does not show the code, instead it just gives the functional spoiler element in a monospaced font 😁

3. Showing code for Spoiler 1: Single Line Code

Single Line Code, both via the GUI button and manually using the backtick key on the keyboard, turns the entire remainder of my post after the first spoiler into an active spoiler element instead of just showing the three lines as code.

But Single Line Code for those three lines does work if I don't have the word spoiler twice in the first line (like the actual manual code for Spoiler 1 has, where the second spoiler is the text that gets displayed right of the arrow and above the hidden part).

::: spoiler
Attempt 1
:::

Just one spoiler in the first line and it works. Two and the whole rest of the post becomes a hidden spoiler.

4. Code Block & Single Line Code: GUI button vs keyboard key

I see I have to be careful using the "backtick" key, as on my keyboard (Spanish - Latin America) it's normally a "dead key" that usually waits for a subsequent letter to put a grave accent over it, like the è in caffè .

I have to press the Space key after the backtick key so that the backtick doesn't just disappear.

<Alt Gr>+<>, then = ``

+<>, then <Space> =

+, then = backtick

5. Showing a backtick in a PieFed post

As can be seen above, I can't find a way to show the typing sequence to get a backtick (had to resort to a third attempt typing out its name in letters: "backtick").

• With code formatting, it goes wrong: the text before first backtick is displayed as pink monospaced code, but the first backtick is not displayed, the rest is normal body text and there are two backticks at the end instead of just one.
• Without code formatting, it goes wrong in a different way: everything after the first backtick is pink monospaced code, no backticks displayed at all anywhere.

6. Spoiler 2 with image

::: spoiler Spoiler
SPOILER 2 with linked image

:::

OK, so I can include a linked (third-party host) image in a spoiler. 😀

I guess I can't do an upload-right-there-in-PieFed image inside a spoiler, as PieFed doesn't (at least, for now) let you upload any image other than one that's the basis of an image post.