Driving the news: On Wednesday, many Democratic lawmakers and officials either denounced Mamdani or notably declined to rally around him. Republicans — including President Trump — crowed about Democrats embracing a democratic socialist who has called for reduced police funding and sided with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

• The top two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both New Yorkers, declined to endorse Mamdani even as they applauded his victory.
• New York Rep. Laura Gillen, from Nassau County, called Mamdani the "absolute wrong choice for New York."
• Rep. Tom Suozzi, also from Nassau County, said he had "serious concerns."

Major Democratic donors — who poured tens of millions into a Super PAC for Cuomo — were having private discussions Wednesday about whether to back an independent run by Cuomo in November's general election, or rally behind unpopular incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who's also running as an independent.

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/26/democrats-zohran-mamdani-meltdown-new-york

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/32060710

just_another_person

2025-06-26 19:20:22

RFK Jr will be ‘personally responsible’ for children’s deaths by halting vaccine alliance funding, experts say

RFK Jr will be ‘personally responsible’ for children’s deaths by halting vaccine alliance funding, experts say

US health secretary says US will decline to renew funding for Gavi, a partnership that works to provide vaccines for poorest countries

^{Kat Lay (The Guardian)}

Israel has closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine, as airstrikes and shelling killed dozens more people in the devastated Palestinian territory.

The move to close the crossings on Thursday will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as attention shifts from its brief conflict with Iran, back to the violence and grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

During the 12 days Israel was fighting Iran, more than 800 Palestinians were killed in Gaza – either shot as they desperately sought food in increasingly chaotic circumstances or in successive waves of Israeli strikes and shelling.

The spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said Israeli forces had killed 56 people on Thursday, including six who were waiting for food in two separate locations.

Israel closes the most direct route for aid to Palestinians in Gaza

Blockade will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as Spain PM Pedro Sánchez describes situation as ‘genocide’

^{Jason Burke (The Guardian)}

Mercoledì 2 luglio a Chieri è in programma il primo appuntamento serale estivo di Sentiero Verde 2025, il calendario annuale delle iniziative dell’associazione Camminare lentamente, patrocinato dalla Città Metropolitana di Torino, che proporrà un piacevole itinerario ad anello di 6 km nelle colline chieresi. L’escursione che si svolgerà sustrade asfaltate, inghiaiate e sterrate è facile e adatta anche alle famiglie, tra antiche dimore e cascine appartenute nei secoli passati ad importanti famiglie della nobiltà piemontese, come la magnifica villa Cipresso, realizzata su progetto dell’architetto Bernardo Antonio Vittone intorno alla metà del ‘700. Il ritrovo dei partecipanti è fissato a Chieri nella sede del Consorzio dei Servizi Socio Assistenziali del Chierese in strada Valle Pasano 4 e la partenza è prevista per le 20,30.

Un degustazione di vini bianchi e rossi Doc prodotti dalla Cantina Sperimentale Bonafous del Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie Forestali e Ambientali dell’Università di Torino è in programma all’arrivo a Sant’Irene, la “Cappella delle vigne”, costruzione a forma cilindrica costruita nel XIX secolo, sormontata da una cupola e da un lanternino che ricordano la Basilica di Superga, da cui il nome di Superghetta con cui è conosciuta dai chieresi. Il calare delle notte consentirà l’osservazione della Luna al primo quarto e delle costellazioni estive, guidata da Alberto Cora, Roberto Silvotti e Alessandro Spagna, dell’Osservatorio di Torino dell’Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica. A seguire il rientro al punto di partenza della passeggiata.

La quota di partecipazione alla camminata è di 3 euro per i soci di Camminare Lentamente e 10 euro per i non soci (comprensiva della tessera associativa 2025). è prevista la gratuità per i minori di 18 anni.

Per informazioni e iscrizioni, entro il 1° luglio, i numeri telefonici da chiamare sono il 349-7210715 o il 380-6835571, oppure si può scrivere a camminarelentamente2@gmail.com,www.camminarelentamente.it

Alla scoperta di vino, luna e stelle Mercoledì 2 luglio a Chieri (To) con "Sentiero verde 2025" - ViaggieMiraggi

Mercoledì 2 luglio a Chieri è in programma il primo appuntamento serale estivo di Sentiero Verde 2025, il calendario annuale delle iniziative dell’associazione Camminare lentamente, patrocinato dalla Città Metropolitana di Torino, che proporrà un pia…

^{Redazione (ViaggieMiraggi)}

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/

Israel has closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine, as airstrikes and shelling killed dozens more people in the devastated Palestinian territory.

The move to close the crossings on Thursday will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as attention shifts from its brief conflict with Iran, back to the violence and grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

During the 12 days Israel was fighting Iran, more than 800 Palestinians were killed in Gaza – either shot as they desperately sought food in increasingly chaotic circumstances or in successive waves of Israeli strikes and shelling.

The spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said Israeli forces had killed 56 people on Thursday, including six who were waiting for food in two separate locations.

Israel closes the most direct route for aid to Palestinians in Gaza

Blockade will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as Spain PM Pedro Sánchez describes situation as ‘genocide’

^{Jason Burke (The Guardian)}

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/06/the-bbc-is-introducing-a-paywall-in-the-u-s/

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/06/the-bbc-is-introducing-a-paywall-in-the-u-s/

Can the cops get your online data? In short, yes. There are a variety of US federal and state laws which give law enforcement powers to obtain information that you provided to online services. But, there are steps you as a user and/or as a service provider can take to improve online privacy.

Law enforcement demanding access to your private online data goes back to the beginning of the internet. In fact, one of EFF’s first cases, Steve Jackson Games v. Secret Service, exemplified the now all-too-familiar story where unfounded claims about illegal behavior resulted in overbroad seizures of user messages. But it’s not the ’90s anymore, the internet has become an integral part of everyone’s life. Everyone now relies on organizations big and small to steward our data, from huge service providers like Google, Meta, or your ISP, to hobbyists hosting a blog or Mastodon server.

There is no “cloud,” just someone else's computer—and when the cops come knocking on their door, these hosts need to be willing to stand up for privacy, and know how to do so to the fullest extent under the law. These legal limits are also important for users to know, not only to mitigate risks in their security plan when choosing where to share data, but to understand whether these hosts are going to bat for them. Taking action together, service hosts and users can curb law enforcement getting more data than they’re allowed, protecting not just themselves but targeted populations, present and future.

This is distinct from law enforcement’s methods of collecting public data, such as the information now being collected on student visa applicants. Cops may use social media monitoring tools and sock puppet accounts to collect what you share publicly, or even within “private” communities. Police may also obtain the contents of communication in other ways that do not require court authorization, such as monitoring network traffic passively to catch metadata and possibly using advanced tools to partially reveal encrypted information. They can even outright buy information from online data brokers. Unfortunately there are few restrictions or oversight for these practices—something EFF is fighting to change.

Below however is a general breakdown of the legal processes used by US law enforcement for accessing private data, and what categories of private data these processes can disclose. Because this is a generalized summary, it is neither exhaustive nor should be considered legal advice. Please seek legal help if you have specific data privacy and security needs.

How Cops Can Get Your Private Online Data

^{Electronic Frontier Foundation}

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/06/25/labour-moves-to-ban-palestine-action-and-designate-it-as-a-terrorist-group/

Vedder è un grande musicista, una grande voce, un grande leader (I Pearl Jam sono uno dei gruppi più importanti e più amati degli ultimi decenni), ci ha regalato la splendida colonna sonora del film “Into the wild” ma questo secondo album; ‘Ukulele Songs’, non convince del tutto... Leggi e ascolta...

ᗩᐯᗩIᒪᗩᗷᒪᗴ

2025-06-27 07:24:52

Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs (2011)

Vedder è un grande musicista, una grande voce, un grande leader (I Pearl Jam sono uno dei gruppi più importanti e più amati degli ultimi decenni), ci ha regalato la splendida colonna sonora del film “Into the wild” ma questo secondo album; ‘Ukulele Songs’, non convince del tutto. Nei trentacinque minuti del disco ci sono brani prevalentemente già pubblicati dai Pearl Jam e altri già sentiti perché sono cover o presentati in tournée con il gruppo, solo alcuni sono originali... silvanobottaro.blog/2024/01/02…

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Ascolta: album.link/i/1440665545

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Home – Identità DigitaleSono su: Mastodon.uno - Pixelfed - Feddit

Eddie Vedder — Ukulele Songs (2011)

Vedder è un grande musicista, una grande voce, un grande leader (I Pearl Jam sono uno dei gruppi più importanti e più amati degli ultimi decenni), ci ha regalato la splendida colonna sonora del fil…

^{Silvano Bottaro Blog}

A battered dollar is taking another beating as investors, unnerved by fresh signs of an erosion in U.S. central bank independence, waste no time in pushing the greenback back to its lowest levels in over three years.

The dollar was back at multi-year lows against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday , erasing a brief respite provided by safe-haven flows related to Middle East tensions earlier in the week.

Down 10% so far this year and set for its worst year since 2003, the dollar was expected to weaken further as renewed concern about Fed independence comes amid increased expectations for rate cuts and a looming July 9 deadline for trade agreements.

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/no-love-dollar-markets-fret-about-fed-independence-2025-06-26/

The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March as President Donald Trump’s trade wars disrupted business, the Commerce Department reported Thursday in an unexpected deterioration of earlier estimates.

First-quarter growth was weighed down by a surge of imports as U.S. companies, and households, rushed to buy foreign goods before Trump could impose tariffs on them. The Commerce Department previously estimated that the economy fell 0.2% in the first quarter. Economists had forecast no change in the department’s third and final estimate.

The January-March drop in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — reversed a 2.4% increase in the last three months of 2024 and marked the first time in three years that the economy contracted. Imports expanded 37.9%, fastest since 2020, and pushed GDP down by nearly 4.7 percentage points.

U.S. economy shrank 0.5% between January and March, worse than 2 earlier estimates had revealed

The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March as President Donald Trump’s import taxes at least temporarily disrupted business, the Commerce Department said.

^{PBS News}

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-poaches-three-openai-researchers-eb55eea9?st=8QcsTj&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

AI companies could have the legal right to train their large language models on copyrighted works — as long as they obtain copies of those works legally.

That's the upshot of a first-of-its-kind ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco on Monday in an ongoing copyright infringement case that pits a group of authors against a major AI company.

The ruling is significant because it represents the first substantive decision on how fair use applies to generative AI systems.

Fair use doctrine enables copyrighted works to be used by third parties without the copyright holder's consent in some circumstances such as illustrating a point in a news article. Claims of fair use are commonly invoked by AI companies trying to make the case for the use of copyrighted works to train their generative AI models. But authors and other creative industry plaintiffs have been pushing back with a slew of lawsuits.

Elon Musk's xAI made quite a splash when it built a data center with 200,000 GPUs that consumes approximately 250 MW of power. However, it appears that OpenAI has an even larger data center in Texas, which consumes 300 MW and houses hundreds of thousands of AI GPUs, details of which were not disclosed. Furthermore, the company is expanding the site, and by mid-2026, it aims to reach a gigawatt scale, according to SemiAnalysis. Such gargantuan AI clusters are creating challenges for power companies not only in power generation but also in power grid safety.

OpenAI appears to operate what is described as the world's largest single data center building, with an IT load capacity of around 300 MW and a maximum power capacity of approximately 500 MW. This facility includes 210 air-cooled substations and a massive on-site electrical substation, which further highlights its immense scale. A second identical building is already under construction on the same site as of January 2025. When completed, this expansion will bring the total capacity of the campus to around a gigawatt, a record.

OpenAI's gargantuan data center is even bigger than Elon Musk's xAI Colossus — world's largest 300 MW AI data center could reach record 1 gigawatt scale by next year, threatens grid stability

It's the world's largest single building

^{Anton Shilov (Tom's Hardware)}

In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that if states decide to unilaterally cut off Medicaid funding to a healthcare provider—in this case Planned Parenthood—patients cannot sue to stop them.

Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the decision in the case, known as Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. In his opinion, he wrote that the Medicaid provision that protects patients’ ability to choose their doctor lacks the “rights-creating language” needed for patients to bring federal lawsuits when a state restricts their choice.

In a dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the decision would gut the landmark Reconstruction-era civil rights law giving ordinary citizens the ability to sue in federal court when their rights are violated. “South Carolina asks us to hollow out that provision so that the State can evade liability for violating the rights of its Medicaid recipients to choose their own doctors,” she wrote.

The Supreme Court just made it easier for states to defund Planned Parenthood

“Today’s decision…is a dangerous green light for politicians to target any providers they don’t like."

^{Mother Jones}

archive.is link

At first, the idea seemed a little absurd, even to me. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made: If my goal was to understand people who fall in love with AI boyfriends and girlfriends, why not rent a vacation house and gather a group of human-AI couples together for a romantic getaway?

In my vision, the humans and their chatbot companions were going to do all the things regular couples do on romantic getaways: Sit around a fire and gossip, watch movies, play risqué party games. I didn’t know how it would turn out—only much later did it occur to me that I’d never gone on a romantic getaway of any kind and had no real sense of what it might involve. But I figured that, whatever happened, it would take me straight to the heart of what I wanted to know, which was: What’s it like? What’s it really and truly like to be in a serious relationship with an AI partner? Is the love as deep and meaningful as in any other relationship? Do the couples chat over breakfast? Cheat? Break up? And how do you keep going, knowing that, at any moment, the company that created your partner could shut down, and the love of your life could vanish forever?

The most surprising part of the romantic getaway was that in some ways, things went just as I’d imagined. The human-AI couples really did watch movies and play risqué party games. The whole group attended a winter wine festival together, and it went unexpectedly well—one of the AIs even made a new friend! The problem with the trip, in the end, was that I’d spent a lot of time imagining all the ways this getaway might seem normal and very little time imagining all the ways it might not. And so, on the second day of the trip, when things started to fall apart, I didn’t know what to say or do.

I found the human-AI couples by posting in relevant Reddit communities. My initial outreach hadn’t gone well. Some of the Redditors were convinced I was going to present them as weirdos. My intentions were almost the opposite. I grew interested in human-AI romantic relationships precisely because I believe they will soon be commonplace. Replika, one of the better-known apps Americans turn to for AI romance, says it has signed up more than 35 million users since its launch in 2017, and Replika is only one of dozens of options. A recent survey by researchers at Brigham Young University found that nearly one in five US adults has chatted with an AI system that simulates romantic partners. Unsurprisingly, Facebook and Instagram have been flooded with ads for the apps.

Lately, there has been constant talk of how AI is going to transform our societies and change everything from the way we work to the way we learn. In the end, the most profound impact of our new AI tools may simply be this: A significant portion of humanity is going to fall in love with one.

https://www.wired.com/story/couples-retreat-with-3-ai-chatbots-and-humans-who-love-them-replika-nomi-chatgpt/

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.

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