Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids, offer false medical info
Great. Now Facebook wants an AI Epstein 🙁
Honestly... I can't think of a single good thing Zuckerberg has ever brought to the world.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/meta-ai-chatbot-guidelines/
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Gooning For Apartheid: How Israel Uses Sex to Whitewash Genocide
Gooning For Apartheid: How Israel Uses Sex to Whitewash Genocide
Amid an ongoing assault on its neighbors, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is attempting to improve its image by posting highly sexually suggestive content featuring its soldiers, changing the prev…The New Dark Age
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Trust us bro
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As a person working in a field close to data engineering this sounds like they're actually honest about the process.
Tldr: it's not possible to "just delete" everything at once, even though we'd love to be able to.
There's so many layers of where information is stored, and such insane amounts of data in their data platform. so running a clean up job to delete a single persons data in oltp databases, data lakes, dwh's, backups, etc, would both be expensive and inefficient. Instead what they then do is to do it in stages: flip a flag somewhere (is_deleted = true) which lets it be removed from view initially, and then running periodic clean-up jobs.
This is any company, government, or other organisation with +80 employees. The two other alternatives are
- Have all data in Excel with no data governance, robust procedures, or trust in data, as the organisation grows in size
- Use only external tools (which in turn are owned by organisations that work like I described in my parent comment)
I'd love to hear of there's other ways of doing this stuff that actually works, but so far I just haven't experienced it in my career yet.
Aha I misunderstood, thanks for clarifying.
Actually for this specific context, there's an easy solution: I reckon for llms self-hosting would be the way to go, if your hardware supports it. I've heard a lot of the smaller models have gotten a lot more powerful over the last year.
Cassandra is a database designed to make data as available as possible at the cost of possible inconsistency
When a data is deleted from Cassandra it's replaced by a marker named 'tombstone'
However backups, deep backups, and copies made on purpose for governments may exist
Law and advertisers mandate some data not being deletable
Turns out that Ghislaine Maxwell's father who invented the paywall model for research papers.
The Biggest Scandal in Science
Why should the public pay twice, even three times, to see the research it funded?Rohin Francis, MBBS (MedpageToday)
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Advice For The Unfortunate Windows User?
Long story short here: I tried making Linux my main OS on my PC. I had it dual booted with Win 11 on a separate SSD. Win 11 was going to be solely for work purposes since it was crucial.
However I noticed that I had begun to migrate slowly back to Win 11 because I'm a gamer and Linux just doesn't get along with my graphics card, so games are almost impossible to play well.
I've succumbed to the idea that my PC will just solely run on Win 11. (I do use Linux on a laptop tho). So I got some debloat tools to shut off most of Microsoft's annoying spy shit and manually uninstalled the rest like Cortana. I also have pihole running on my raspi5 so my PC is connected to that, plus I use ProtonVPN. I use Firefox with plugins like ublock, privacy badger, etc.
I want to try to make Windows as private and away from Microsoft's prying eyes as much as possible. Got any other recommendations?
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Ameliorated.io
If you're gong to stick with windows that is a really good way to do it, and super simple to install.
What Does Alaska Summit Mean for Ukraine?
Ukraine Braces for Outcomes of Putin-Trump Alaska Negotiations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that "the time has come to end the war" as tensions mount in Kyiv ahead of the high-stakes U.S.-Russia summit in AlaskaPetr Ermilin (Pravda English)
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Ukraine hits residential district in Russian city ahead of summit
Ukraine hits residential district in Russian city ahead of summit (PHOTOS)
One person was killed and three more injured in an attack on two apartment blocks in the city of Donetsk, according to local officialsRT
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French MEP questioned by police for praising Palestine 'struggle'
French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Emma Fourreau was questioned by the Caen judicial police on Wednesday as part of an investigation into "apology for terrorism", French media reported.
Fourreau, who is a member of the left-wing La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI) party, is under investigation for her comments welcoming the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese pro-Palestine activist imprisoned for over 40 years in France.
"FINALLY! After 41 years in prison, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah will be released on 25 July. He was the oldest political prisoner, and France should be ashamed for keeping him locked up for so long. Long live his struggle, long live Palestine!" she wrote on X on 17 July.
The 25-year-old elected official said the investigation was launched by the prosecutor's office after reports of her post were sent via Pharos, the public platform for reporting illegal online content.
As per the French criminal code, "apology for terrorism" is defined as "directly inciting acts of terrorism or publicly condoning such acts". Rights defenders say that France's "apology for terrorism" law is being used to criminalise Palestine solidarity.
Zebra Crossing: An easy-to-use digital safety checklist
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/35752925
GitHub Repo.
Zebra Crossing: An easy-to-use digital safety checklist
GitHub - narwhalacademy/zebra-crossing: Zebra Crossing: an easy-to-use digital safety checklist
Zebra Crossing: an easy-to-use digital safety checklist - narwhalacademy/zebra-crossingGitHub
Quantum alternative to GPS navigation will be tested on US military spaceplane
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/35701350
Quantum alternative to GPS navigation will be tested on US military spaceplane
Quantum alternative to GPS navigation will be tested on US military spaceplane
The experimental sensor could be groundbreaking.The Conversation
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It's not really an alternative to GPS. It has no idea where on earth you are, it simply accurately tracks your motion through the world but it has no idea where that motion is occurring, you have to start off with a known starting point, then it tracks your motion to work out your current location. But it is only as accurate as the accuracy of the starting point, if that's off by 400 m then so will be the result.
It's basically a very good inertial navigation system, plus this isn't the first time it's been tested it's been tested on ships and planes before.
It's not going to replace GPS for commercial purposes because there's very few scenarios where you don't have a GPS up link. But it'll be useful is in situations where that's not possible like on submarines or yeah in space. It isn't like your car is ever going to use this though.
Study Finds That School-Based Online Surveillance Companies Monitor Students 24/7
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/35701835
Study Finds That School-Based Online Surveillance Companies Monitor Students 24/7
Study Finds That School-Based Online Surveillance Companies Monitor Students 24/7
Recent study at UC San Diego is the first detailed assessment of companies offering school-based online surveillance services such as social media monitoring, student communications monitoring and online activity monitoring to middle and high schools…today.ucsd.edu
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Wow, where do I start with how insane this is?
Those aren't 'services', those are personal privacy intrusions. For PROFIT. There is no way this could happen without the school's cooperation. AFTER they got the parent's permission, that's not good enough. They ought not only to have that permission (not to mention spelling it out for each student), but also know exactly what data is gathered, every place it is sent to, what privacy protections are in place, and what is done with it once it's "evaluated", In detail, per student, 24/7.
"student communications monitoring" 24-7 and/or outside of school is SPYING. There is NO legal OR educational OR ethical mandate for this collecting.
If the kids don't know about unknown adults prying into their personal lives, AND KEEPING RECORDS ABOUT IT, that's not necessarily their fault. If the parents don't know about it, that's the school's fault for not getting their knowing permission. AND guarantee their physical and mental safety. (Which is impossible, because as we hear about all the time, hospitals, banks, companies, etc. are constantly leaking personal information or getting hit by ransomware attacks.
If I was the parent of one of those students and wasn't told about it, I'd sue that school into a coma.
Israeli unit tasked with smearing Gaza journalists as Hamas fighters – report
A special unit in Israel’s military was tasked with identifying reporters it could smear as undercover Hamas fighters, to target them and to blunt international outrage over the killing of media workers, the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine reports.
The “legitimisation cell” was set up after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack to gather information that could bolster Israel’s image and shore up diplomatic and military support from key allies, the report said, citing three intelligence sources.
According to the report, in at least one case the unit misrepresented information in order to falsely describe a journalist as a militant, a designation that in Gaza is in effect a death sentence. The label was reversed before the man was attacked, one of the sources said.
Earlier this week, Israel killed the Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and three colleagues in their makeshift newsroom, after claiming Sharif was a Hamas commander. The killings focused global attention on the extreme dangers faced by Palestinian journalists in Gaza and Israel’s efforts to manipulate media coverage of the war.
Foreign reporters have been barred from entering Gaza apart from a few brief and tightly controlled trips with the Israeli military, who impose restrictions including a ban on speaking to Palestinians.
Palestinian journalists reporting from the ground are the most at risk in the world, with more than 180 killed by Israeli attacks in less than two years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel carried out 26 targeted killings of journalists in that period, the CPJ said, describing them as murders.
Israel has produced an unconvincing dossier of unverified evidence on Sharif’s purported Hamas links, and failed to address how he would have juggled a military command role with regular broadcast duties in one of the most heavily surveilled places on Earth. Israel did not attempt to justify killing his three colleagues.
Israeli unit tasked with smearing Gaza journalists as Hamas fighters – report
Israeli-Palestinian magazine says IDF ‘legitimisation cell’ set up to blunt global outrage over killing of media staffEmma Graham-Harrison (The Guardian)
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finishing torrents and seeding question
ok, i'll start grabbing the descriptive files too thanks!
i think the torrents i'm seeding that have very few seeds besides me are just a couple of movies without extra files so it should be fine for now but i'll take that into mind for the future.
this is true if you manually delete the txt file.
however, just unchecking it in the client doesn't result in a broken seeder - at least transmission-gtk 4 will write the "file.txt" even if you didn't check its box, or transmission will create a (sparse) "file.txt.part" file if there's additional pieces to the "file.txt" that you didn't download.
I would expect other clients to behave similarly.
A torrent software that breaks your big/video file sharing while calling it complete seems somewhat questionable, not following a good practice, for the reasons you said.
qBittorrent stores the partial file data of deselected files as generic files. Given that only with it the download and a recheck marks the big file complete, without it a recheck considers the big file unfinished (and if partial files are renamed it is despite being complete as a file), I presume it will also send out the block that is partially that file and another to other peers too.
If the other file is fully in the partial block qBittorrent even creates the files despite not having been selected for downloading.
Fun fact, you probably download the file anyway because it's smaller than one of the torrent blocks. That block contains info from a file you do want, so you download the whole block. Your torrent client just puts that file in a different place.
So ultimately it doesn't make a difference, except to show you the file. If you don't actually look at the files that often, I'd leave that file checked just to make it less complicated.
Israeli army unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas
Israeli army unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas
Treating the media as a battlefield, a secretive intelligence squad scoured Gaza for material to bolster Israeli hasbara — including questionable claims that would justify the killing of Palestinian reporters.Amos Brison (+972 Magazine)
Microsoft launches inquiry into claims Israel used its tech for mass surveillance of Palestinians
Microsoft launches inquiry into claims Israel used its tech for mass surveillance of Palestinians
Company says use of its cloud technology to store millions of intercepted calls would breach terms of serviceHarry Davies (The Guardian)
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It turns out that they did do that, we knew all along, and we're ok with it.
- Microsoft
New Documents Show First Trump DOJ Worked With Congress to Amend Section 230 that protects users’ online speech by protecting the online intermediaries we all rely on to communicate
New Documents Show First Trump DOJ Worked With Congress to Amend Section 230
In the wake of rolling out its own proposal to significantly limit a key law protecting internet users’ speech in the summer of 2020, the Department of Justice under the first Trump administration actively worked with lawmakers to support further eff…Electronic Frontier Foundation
AI experts return from China stunned: The U.S. grid is so weak, the race may already be over
AI experts return from China stunned: The U.S. grid is so weak, the race may already be over
China is “set up to hit grand slams,” longtime Chinese energy expert David Fishman told Fortune. “The U.S., at best, can get on base.”Eva Roytburg (Fortune)
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I don't really give a shit about the AI race and I genuinely hope that we lose it, because I feel like being a winner in that "industry" is inherently unsustainable.
The AI hype is so infuriatingly frustrating.
Chinese infrastructure and manufacturing lead is real. You don't need to believe any propaganda, just travel and observe.
The asterisks are not about their usecase but political.
Chinese infrastructure and manufacturing lead is real.
And if you ignore the theory of comparative advantage, not only is it real, but it also matters. Otherwise, not.
I also run a consistent payment deficit with my barber. Should that be corrected?
No need to discuss defecit. That's a totally unrelated item. My statement was purely about their infra and manufacturing lead in multiple sectors.
Imagine you are a top student and some other student suddenly gets better marks than you in multiple subjects. You do need to introspect and see where you can improve (Or if you even care about those subjects).
If you don't care about infra and manufacturing, no need to sweat
We've been hearing about this decades.
Yes, you've been hearind that for decades, just like climate change: if you wait for an abrupt treshold with a clear before/after cut , you're going to wait for a while.
China has developed an advanced high speed trains network. You have no idea how much US looks backward on that.
China still opens coal burning power plants, jut also a very large number of renewable and nuclear power plants. They're serious about electrification.
They took the lead in scientific publication.
US needs to put up tariffs to protect its car makers from being wiped out by Chinese ones. Western car makers rely more and more on Chinese batteries suppliers.
All the signs are there. You just need to ackowledge them.
People underestimate just how corrupt, dysfunctional, and incompetent the Chinese system is under the CCP.
As compared to what? In the US, corruption is legal, it's called campaign donation and SuperPAC. At this stage, elections pick which pack of oligarchs will rule: GOP donators or Dems donators.
If the system is so much better, where are the high speed trains, advanced power grid, decarbonation plan, school that can get high potentials to the top, decent healthcare system?
Where are the fruits of this less corrupt dysfunctional and incompetent system?
China's isolation give it the illusion that it's better, but in reality, it's even worse.
Alother delusion from local US news. China is not that isolated, they have developed deep relations with a number of countries in Africa and middle east, and they're a privileged trade partner with many more. Worse even: with the current US policy of tariffs, several countries that were reluctant to have deeper ties with China are pushed in their arms.
Every major Chinese achievement from their mass transit system to their big corporations to their economic growth to them pulling ahead technologically to so many more, all come with big asterisks attached that make them much more questionable.
Meaning what? Their high speed trains are absolutely working. In large cities, half of the cars in the street are electric cars, majority from domestic brands and a few Tesla. They have very advanced and very cheap mass transit networks.
As I was saying: it's just like global warming: if you sit and wait claiming it's not really happening and/or not that bad, you're totally unprepared when disasters hit you.
The only thing I will agree with you here is their emonomy is not half as great as they want to claim. The estate market has been in a free fall in all but the big 4 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guandong, Shenzhen).
But if the US wants to be the first power of the rest of the 21st century world, they need to wake up!
This is the dawn of the new Chinese century. I have no doubt in 20 more years China will be in an even stronger position as the USA continues to decline.
We, the USA, could do all the stuff that would make us competitive. That would require more socialism, more taxing of billionaires, more spending in green energy, education, transportation, healthcare becoming affordable and an actual human right for all in our borders, a real plan to transition off fossil fuels and shore up our domestic energy production and electric grid.
Idk more than that of course but that's the elevator pitch.
We won't do it though because corrupt capitalism and the oligarchy.
Maybe we will if at some point enough of us are struggling but we're pretty fat and have plenty of entertainment to distract us even if we are being fucked. So ... Yeah ... Desperately hoping I'm wrong about most of my predictions, devastated as I keep seeing them come true.
This is the dawn of the new Chinese century.
Betting on a totalitarian kleptocracy saving the world is as unwise as betting in the 1980s that already overworked Japanese wage slaves could be overworked even further.
I didn't say they were going to save the world, no more than the USA did or any nation state turned empire.
I do think China will eclipse America when it comes to being in a position of strong global leadership and the hegemonic power on the world stage. The USA seems to be shirking our duties, reshaping and destroying our society's moral fabric, racing towards worse and worse education results and hellbent on making sure our healthcare is broken and our people are fat and dumb.
It's not a winning recipe, even with a military that can dominate.
Every country has its problems and its demons, China is no different and certainly their problems are complex and grand. As far as greater or lesser evils - I'd put the USA and China about on par for all the fucked up stuff we have done the past hundred years and keep doing now.
I'd love to at least visit China sometime - honestly there's so much fascinating history and getting to see a different approach to community building and infrastructure planning would be neat.
Where can i find reference book on pharmacy?
I'm looking for reference books like Vogel's and remington and for my course.
Does someone know a good place to find them?
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Zebra Crossing: An easy-to-use digital safety checklist
Zebra Crossing: An easy-to-use digital safety checklist
An easy-to-use digital safety checklistzebracrossing.narwhalacademy.org
Display Next Hackfest 2025
Display Next Hackfest 2025
A few weeks ago, a bunch of display driver and compositor developers met once again for the third iteration of the Display Next Hackfest. The tradition was started by Red Hat, followed by Igalia (thanks Melissa), and now AMD (thanks Harry).swick's blog
China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card
MicroSD cards are tiny but slow; the M.2 storage sticks in your PC are blazing fast but bigger and fully enclosed. Now, a new type of SSD out of China could be the best of both worlds — and it’s already set to appear in two cutting-edge gaming portables.Chinese storage manufacturer Biwin is calling it the “Mini SSD,” though another manufacturer refers to it as the “1517”; it measures just 15mm x 17mm x 1.4mm thick, smaller than a U.S. penny and just slightly larger than MicroSD. Despite that, it offers maximum sequential read speeds of 3,700 megabytes per second (or 3,400MB/s writes) over a PCIe 4x2 connection, and offers 512GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities.
I suspect this will go over about as well as Samsung's UFS cards.
So, now we have yet another competing standard for removable storage.
China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card
Chinese storage manufacturer Biwin is launching the “Mini SSD,” and it measures just 15mm x 17mm x 1.4mm thick, smaller than a U.S. penny.Sean Hollister (The Verge)
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How to validate a large torrented file is clean?
How do you validate that what you torrented is clean/no malware/spyware? Specifically, I torrented two things:
- Astute Graphics Plug-ins Elite Bundle 3.9.1.7z from teamos. It is 678MB so I can't upload to Virustotal
- Master Collection 2025 from uztracker (which is listed on monkrus's website's list of trackers). *It is 37.5GB so I can't upload to Virustotal.
I'm not sure what I should to do to be honest.
Edit: Would splitting the 37.5GB file into 650MB pieces and then scanning with virustotal help? Not sure if downloaded files need to be whole for it to work properly.
This is the results from virustotal (I could only scan 4 files in the master collection without running the iso)
Thank you.
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It it incredibly difficult to vet with 100% certainty that a binary you run it safe. If you have the source code, its so much easier. As others have said, the best way in piracy to be safe is downloading from a reputable source. Monkrus is pretty good. I am assuming you're referring to the Adobe master collection? If so, GenP is excellent (and open source).
If you are on windows, one thing you can do is run any programs in sandboxie and see what it writes to the disc. If it tries to edit things that it shouldn't like the registry or parts of the os that would be a red flag.
You could also setup firewall rules to block the application from accessing the internet. I am on macOS so I use a program called little snitch (lulu by objective see is also good). I am not familiar with the windows side of things. But essentially what I do is block the program and any processes it starts.
If you want to learn more about malware, objective-see.org/ is a great resource. It's macOS focused however but I've learned a ton from it. In particular their book on mac malware teaches a lot of analysis techniques.
The Objective-See Foundation
A non-profit foundation, focusing on macOS security.The Objective-See Foundation
Under the hood (not de's or gui) what REALLY separates linux from windows?
Is it just / ?
I kid. But really, besides "its all a file", if you take away the gui, is the only difference the syntax ? How libraries interact? How disks are mounted ?
If we stripped all ms's junk out and made windows open source, would we still prefer linux?
When you get to a very basic level, is one of them more efficiently coded?
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Yes we would still prefer Linux.
Windows is just a single object without any modularity. With Linux by itself is of course just a barebones kernal waiting to be added to. You can choose which gnu libraries to use you can chose which package manager to use you can chose which desktop environment to use (or ommit it entirely.) Windows doesn't have that option.
As well since the source code for linux has been open for over 30 years people know how it works, it would take ages for people to study windows and actually figure out how to do anything with it.
Up until 95, Windows was mostly a desktop environment for DOS. From 95 to ME, Windows was an OS that used DOS as its bootloader. Not sure how to put it, but it was simplistic and fundamentally different from Linux.
The thing with NT-based Windows (including modern editions) is that the underlying system is joined at the hip with the GUI. Whereas Linux with your choice of coreutils is a perfectly capable OS without the GUI, many features of Windows are only accessible through the GUI.
Given enough time and resources, pretty much anything exclusive to Windows could be ported to Linux and vice versa. A lot of the difference just comes down to history and the ensuing conventions, workflows, and file hierarchies.
Even if we stripped out all the cruft and spaghetti code from Windows, there would be lots of nasty idiosyncrasies in its design, informed by its OS/2 and VMS (see Dave Cutler) heritage, profit maximization, revolving door of devs and interns, and years of bending over backwards to accommodate legacy programs.
Snap History
Ciao a tutti! Vorrei consigliare questa applicazione molto carina, fatta da alcuni studenti e alcuni insegnanti universitari offre ogni giorno un piccolo aneddoto storico, con le fonti per approfondire.Usa solo cookie tecnici e non chiede nulla per accedere, niente indirizzi mail,nomi utenti o cose superflue.
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President Trump’s War on “Woke AI” Is a Civil Liberties Nightmare
President Trump’s War on “Woke AI” Is a Civil Liberties Nightmare
The White House’s recently-unveiled “AI Action Plan” wages war on so-called “woke AI”—including large language models (LLMs) that provide information inconsistent with the administration’s views on climate change, gender, and other issues.Electronic Frontier Foundation
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You need to nerd out!!
0100 Solar panels: Most efficient self-sustained energy source
0200 Decentralization: The process by which the activities are distributed away from a central authority
0400_1another_: CONNECTING WITH LANOTHER THRU 1 OF 1
UPCYCLED CLOTHING (O)
0500 CDC: Hacktivism, free and open source software and encryption
0600 Gardening: Wether guerilla or not it beautifies the places and combats global warming
0700 shebuildsrobots: o
Fashioneering (O)
0800 Collaboration: Globally or locally cooperation always wins over competition
1000 Instructables: Collection of DIY projects empowering makers
1100 Hydroponics: horticulture which involves growing plants without soil in an artificial environment.
"smartprinters"
(O) = page on instagram
simply doing my duty o7
cross-posted from: lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/3035874…
do it for the yuritranscription: like for yuri, share for yuri, comment for yuri ignore for straight
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The CIA Trained Fulgencio Batista’s Torturers in Cuba
Fulgencio Batista’s Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities had a blood-spattered record of torture and political killings before the 1959 revolution. Declassified files show how the CIA nurtured the bureau and its repressive techniques.
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reason.com/2025/08/12/how-elit…
They never stopped training torturers.
How Fort Bragg special operations troops created a drug cartel
A bizarre criminal conspiracy in the ranks of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command at a military base in North Carolina.Matthew Petti (Reason.com)
Friday, August 15, 2025
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The Kyiv Independent [unofficial]
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Russia’s war against Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers in Kherson, Ukraine, on Aug. 8, 2025. (Fermin Torrano / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Trump says Putin ready to make a peace deal with Ukraine. “I believe now he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to,” U.S. President Donald Trump said.
Putin to present Trump with ‘historical materials‘ framing Ukraine as artificial state, Kyiv claims. The package includes geographical maps intended to justify Russia’s territorial claims and ongoing military aggression, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation claimed.
Anchorage security ramps up before Trump-Putin talks on Ukraine’s future, Bloomberg reports. Security arrangements follow strict reciprocity protocols, with each side matching the other’s personnel and resources — from motorcade composition to the number of translators and secure waiting rooms.
Russia unveils delegation for Putin-Trump Alaska meeting, expects no agreement signed. The Russian delegation will include Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Russian Direct Investment Fund head Kirill Dmitriev.
Russia may be preparing to test nuclear-powered missile ahead of Trump talks, Reuters reports. Planet Labs imagery showed stacks of shipping containers, cranes, and a helicopter at the launch site, as well as two radar-equipped aircraft parked at Rogachevo military airfield since mid-July, Reuters reported.
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84 Ukrainians return from Russian captivity in latest prisoner swap — some held since 2014. Ukraine has secured the return of 84 soldiers and civilians from Russian captivity in a fresh prisoner swap with Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Aug. 14.
Drone reportedly hits apartment building in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, officials say 13 injured. Residents heard the sound of an incoming drone before an explosion, Telegram channels reported. The blast occurred in the city center near Voroshilovsky Avenue, according to the independent Russian Telegram channel Astra.
Ukrainian drone strike sets fire to Russia’s Volgograd oil refinery, Kyiv confirms.
The facility processes over 15 million metric tons of oil every year, amounting to 5.6% of Russia’s refining capacity, the Ukrainian military said.
Russian Su-30SM fighter jet likely down near Snake Island, Ukrainian Navy says.
The twin-engine, two-seat aircraft – designed for both air superiority and ground attack – crashed for unknown reasons, the Ukrainian Navy said.
Zelensky meets Starmer in UK day before Trump-Putin summit. President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the latter’s residence in Downing Street on Aug. 14, Sky News reported, citing Starmer’s office.
Read our exclusives
Ukraine war latest: Trump says Putin ready to make a peace deal with Ukraine
The talks in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Trump returned to office and Putin’s first visit to the U.S. in a decade.
Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
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Trump doesn’t have enough leverage to stop Russia, Ukrainian soldiers say ahead of Alaska talks
The U.S. and Russian leaders are set to meet in Alaska on Aug. 15, with Trump saying the talks could involve some “swapping” of territories between Ukraine and Russia.
Photo: Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images
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Can Trump offer Ukraine’s minerals to Putin? Not without unraveling the global legal order, experts warn
President Donald Trump is reportedly considering offering Moscow access to Ukraine’s natural minerals in the Russian-occupied territories, a move Ukrainians say would be illegal and damaging to Washington’s reputation.
Photo: Pierre Crom / Getty Images
Learn more
Ukrainian soldiers on fighting to reclaim their homes from Russia
For Ukrainian soldiers born and raised on lands occupied by Russia, the fight for their home is deeply personal.
So much so that some say their decision to serve was driven by a desire for revenge as by a sense of civic duty and justice.
Photo: Oleg Pereverzev/NurPhoto via Getty Images
We choose to stay in Ukraine — to bring the world the truth about Russia’s brutal war.
If you think the truth matters — here’s your chance to stand for it.
Human cost of Russia’s war
July saw highest civilian casualties in Ukraine since 2022, UN says ahead of Trump-Putin summit. “Only the first three months after the Russian Federation launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine saw more killed and injured than in this past month,” said Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine.
Russian attacks kill at least 8, injure 18 across Ukraine over past day. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 45 Shahed-type drones, other UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), and two S-300/400 missiles overnight from several directions.
Alaska talks
From ‘war criminal’ to US guest — Trump invites Putin out of isolation
After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, Putin limited travel largely to close allies and regional partners, Iran, China, and North Korea, avoiding Western capitals entirely.
Photo: Contributor / Getty Images
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Trump may entertain Russia’s ‘land swap’ plan, but Ukraine won’t
Various media outlets reported that Moscow had proposed Ukraine’s handover of the remaining part of its eastern Donetsk Oblast in exchange for a ceasefire.
Photo: Pierre Crom / Getty Images
International response
US sanctions Russian crypto exchange over cybercrime — day before Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. The U.S. Treasury Department has re-designated the Russian-linked cryptocurrency exchange Garantex Europe OU, accusing it of directly enabling ransomware gangs and other cybercriminals by processing over $100 million in illicit transactions since 2019.
Trump prefers talks over new Russia sanctions but has ‘many measures’ ready, White House says. “What comes after that meeting is up to President Trump,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News. “He wants to sit down and look the Russian president in the eyes and see what progress can be made.”
India shifts oil purchases away from Russia before Trump-Putin Alaska meeting, Bloomberg reports. This week, state companies Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. secured supplies from the United States, Brazil, and Middle Eastern producers for September-October delivery, Bloomberg reported.
Japan says Russian military obtained banned machine tools via Chinese firms.
Japanese authorities found that over 300 precision machine tools made by Tsugami Corp., sold to seven Chinese firms, had gone missing and were later used by Russia to produce weapons components.
In other news
Poland detains Ukrainian teen accused of vandalizing monuments on Russia’s behalf. According to Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, the teenager vandalized monuments of victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and defaced buildings with anti-Polish slogans on behalf of foreign powers.
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Republicans who backed Trump’s anti-environment bill have accepted over $105m from big oil
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes billions of dollars in giveaways to fossil fuel companies and their executives
US | Babysitter who provided young girls to her boyfriend for sexual assault sentenced to 100 years in prison
Brittney Lyon provided her boyfriend Samuel Cabrera girls as young as three to drug, bind and abuse in exchange for going on dates, prosecutors say
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Fracne | Emmanuel Macron decries ‘antisemitic hatred’ after memorial tree cut down
French president vows to punish those who felled tree planted in memory of Jewish man tortured to death in 2006
Archived version: archive.is/newest/theguardian.…
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.
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120,000 Ukrainians in US at risk of deportation as Biden-era program lapses, WSJ reports
The issue concerns refugees who have lived in the country since Aug. 16, 2023, under the Uniting for Ukraine program, devised by the Biden administration to allow Ukrainians to stay in the country on humanitarian parole.
Archived version: archive.is/newest/kyivindepend…
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.
US Government agency drops Grok after MechaHitler backlash, report says
US government agency drops Grok after MechaHitler backlash, report says
It appears Grok’s antisemitic rants stopped it from becoming feds’ go-to chatbot.Ashley Belanger (Ars Technica)
riempimento della squachiavanza porta la morte ad essere dischica… (Sharkey prende troppo spazio ed è un problema)
È doloroso trovarmi qui ad ammetterlo a me stessa ma, ancora una volta, scopro che i miei piani di dominazione del mondo sono stati troppo ambiziosi; almeno per ora, in questa fase più iniziale. Ovviamente tutto bene col mio codice, anche se è ancora nelle fasi iniziali… i problemi inaspettati sono piuttosto arrivati con Sharkey, […]
octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…
riempimento della squachiavanza porta la morte ad essere dischica… (Sharkey prende troppo spazio ed è un problema)
È doloroso trovarmi qui ad ammetterlo a me stessa ma, ancora una volta, scopro che i miei piani di dominazione del mondo sono stati troppo ambiziosi; almeno per ora, in questa fase più iniziale. Ovviamente tutto bene col mio codice, anche se è ancora nelle fasi iniziali… i problemi inaspettati sono piuttosto arrivati con Sharkey, che nell’arco di una settimana mi avrà sequestrato almeno 1 GB di disco col suo database di merda, e non penso di dover spiegare quali calcoli fare per capire che una situazione del genere è insostenibile. Quindi, ho dovuto per il momento abbassare il tiro, prima che il disco del server mi si riempia in misura da costringermi a levare tutto quanto… 😖
Il problema è sostanzialmente una combinazione di 3 fattori: la mole di dati in ingresso generata da migliaia di utenti di migliaia di istanze ogni giorno è gigantesca (e il mio server non ha problemi a processarla, ma ecco, sono troppi miliardi di byte), il database è strutturato di merda (con troppi dati derivati che occupano inutilmente spazio, nonché francamente colonne inutili)… e, soprattutto, il software non ha alcun meccanismo per cancellare dati vecchi, quindi per ripulire periodicamente le note di utenti di istanze terze, o comunque quei dati che sono riottenibili. E per Misskey è da anni che la gente chiede aiuto per questo problema, ma la richiesta continua a naufragare, si vedano #13157 e linkate… e per Sharkey ugualmente è da un po’ di tempo che si parla di questo schifo, ma, forse, il fato per una buona volta mi vuole bene: 3 settimane fa in #1017 qualcuno sembra aver preso interesse a lavorarci… 😨Comunque sia, il problema per me è ora, e quindi ho come minimo dovuto disattivare i relay, che sono dei cosi che si aggiungono per far scambiare i messaggi tra la propria istanza ed altre pur senza avere relazioni di follow con migliaia di utenti (…perché non so chi cavolo seguire io, e a me pochi mi cagano), e così l’influsso di note e allegati è passato da decine di migliaia al giorno a poche decine e basta al giorno, che è persino meno di quanto ho sulla Spacc BBS… Ma questo quindi significa direttamente che, per il momento, non avrò un flusso costante estremamente sparso e variegato di conversazioni che posso passare all’intelligenza artificiale per farla funzionare in modo completamente autonomo e a dir poco extracircostanziale. (Non che io avessi finito di scrivere il codice per questa parte, eh, ma prima o poi quello sarà pronto… e i dati allora mancheranno.) 💨
Avrei quasi la mezza idea di, pur non sapendo se questa mossa potrebbe in parte rompere l’applicazione (ma, come si suol dire, cip ciop fa l’uccellino, YOLO fa il cormorano… e in ogni caso farei un backup prima), creare uno script per fare in modo grezzo la pulizia del database… ma purtroppo non è affatto una stronzata filtrare tutto per cancellare solo i dati effettivamente ridondanti, ossia le note solo da server terzi (e fin qui ok) che non hanno relazioni internamente alla mia istanza (niente reazioni o commenti o boost da parte dei miei utenti, non sono salvate tra i preferiti, e così via), e poi cancellare anche i file a queste associati dall’altra tabella (aiuto!!!). E oltre alle note, che sono rogne, e agli allegati, che invece mi fanno proprio incazzare visto quanto occupano pur essendo solo metadati (il contenuto dei file non viene scaricato!), volendo pulire pure gli utenti è la fine… 😭
Vabbè, viste le parole (…poco attendibili?) di quella persona sconosciuta di cui sopra, però, mi conviene evitare di sbattermi, e piuttosto semplicemente pregare affinché tale promessa si trasformi in codice… al più presto. Se la mia speranza (e i miei bot potentissimi…) proprio deve morire, allora lo farà solo dopo la mia istanza, non prima!!! 😾
#1017 #database #Misskey #server #Sharkey #spazio #storage
Database Retention/Purge Policies (#1017) · Issues · TransFem.org / Sharkey · GitLab
What feature would you like implemented? The problem After running an instance...GitLab
Can’t pay, won’t pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy
Can’t pay, won’t pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy
As subscription costs rise and choice diminishes on legal sites, film and TV fans are turning to VPNs and illicit streamers, with Sweden – home of both Spotify and The Pirate Bay – leading the wayGuardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
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It's not just a pricing issue. It's an ownership issue.
Too many of the things we buy are not ours.
Yesterday I saw the article about VW cars which need a subscription to use the built-in capabilities. The car you bought doesn't belong to you.
Un’estate di tragedie: perché tanti bimbi muoiono in acqua?
Fallout - Stagione 2: svelati poster e periodo di uscita dei nuovi episodi
A pochi mesi dalla fine delle riprese del prossimo capitolo della serie, IGN ha ora pubblicato il primo poster della seconda stagione di Fallout. L’immagine chiave offre un assaggio del ritorno di Lucy, Maximus e del Ghoul mentre attraversano la Zona Contaminata alla ricerca del padre di lei a New Vegas, con il cartello della città e la città stessa visibili sullo sfondo. L’annuncio è stato accompagnato dalla notizia che la seconda stagione uscirà a dicembre.
Articolo completo su cinefilos.it
Fallout - Stagione 2: svelati poster e periodo di uscita dei nuovi episodi - Cinefilos.it
Svelati il primo poster e il periodo di uscita della seconda stagione di Fallout, la popolare serie di Prime Video.Gianmaria Cataldo (Cinefilos.it)
Reddit blocking web search
I noticed today, having searched about TOR nodes possibly being run by government departments in a browser, I got this message, " Your request has been blocked by network security. Please try to login with your Reddit account. " I didn't login in the app!
Haven't come across that before. Has anyone else seen i?
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Christian Horner fuori da ogni ruolo in Red Bull: ora è ufficiale
quotidianomotori.com/formula-1…
Christian Horner fuori da ogni ruolo in Red Bull: ora è ufficiale - Quotidiano Motori
Christian Horner è stato rimosso da ogni ruolo di Red Bull. Al suo posto entra Stefan Salzer, nuovo direttore ufficiale del team.Mario Roth (Quotidiano Motori)
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L'importance de la veille technologique IT
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 3x06 "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail"
Written by: David Reed & Bill Wolkoff
Directed by: Valerie Weiss
Writers' Room: "We need a name for a mineral these scavengers could be looking for."
"Uh… (glances at Italian takeout) aldentium!"
Re: Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 3x06 "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail"
Thanks I'd rather my beer stay analogue
What’s next you tech bro wankers, is AI going to drink the pint for me?
… just when you thought they couldn’t force AI into any more things. The epitome of a solution in search of a problem
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Israeli airstrikes on Tehran killed inmates in ‘apparent war crime’ – report
Israeli airstrikes on Tehran killed inmates in ‘apparent war crime’ – report
Human Rights Watch also finds that Iran abused survivors of June attack, which killed 80 peopleDeepa Parent (The Guardian)
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SatansMaggotyCumFart
in reply to NightOwl • • •Thoath
in reply to SatansMaggotyCumFart • • •ORbituary
in reply to SatansMaggotyCumFart • • •This has been a thing for a while. Hers looks wonky, but when done right, it actually looks good.
Either way, all of this depraved and disgusting.
تحريرها كلها ممكن
in reply to NightOwl • • •if it is depraved and you can imagine it, Israel is doing it. What a curse its existence is.
0t79JeIfK01RHyzo
in reply to NightOwl • • •0t79JeIfK01RHyzo
in reply to 0t79JeIfK01RHyzo • • •0t79JeIfK01RHyzo
in reply to 0t79JeIfK01RHyzo • • •TikTok - Make Your Day
www.tiktok.comdan69
in reply to NightOwl • • •