Public documents show the Department of Homeland Security has contracted to purchase a pair of top-of-the-line Gulfstream jets for the secretary and other top officials.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/politics/kristi-noem-dhs-gulfstream.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uU8.CX6d.T7gqWj6eH3_X

Trump has succeeded where Biden failed in bringing some measure of peace to the region. The risk to Democrats is not so much that Trump will woo more Democratic constituents to the Republican Party — Trump’s authoritarian tendencies at home and his vile persecution of all perceived political enemies largely foreclose that possibility. The risk, rather, is that Americans who care about peacemaking abroad will find themselves increasingly alienated from both parties. Trump’s successful diplomatic efforts have put the lie to the idea that there was nothing Biden and the Democrats could have done to end the massacre in Gaza, seriously undermining any claim that Democrats might make as the party of peace.

Some Democrats seem to understand what a dire bind the party has put itself in. Representative Ro Khanna, for example, recently sounded the alarm about Democrats ceding the “anti-war” mantle to Republicans and Trump. Others, like Representative Delia Ramirez, have put this opposition to war-making into legislation, authoring the aforementioned Block the Bombs Act.

But, for the Democrats to truly turn the ship around, many more elected representatives will have to follow in the footsteps of Khanna and Ramirez. If the party cannot quickly change its tune on war and peace, it may risk ceding this policy terrain to the Republican Party well into the future.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democrats-have-let-republicans-become-the-peace-party/

Most of the bodies of the more than 100 dead Palestinians Israel released remain unidentified.

They were sent back to Gaza with numbers instead of their names, leaving family members of missing Palestinians to pore desperately through pictures of the bodies, hoping to spot their loved ones.

One thing is clear from the marks left on these bodies, and the blindfolds and handcuffs still on some of them: They had been tortured before their deaths, possibly executed.

What we know about the torture, abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israel

Testimonies from released Palestinian prisoners, as well as the bodies handed over, highlight alleged Israeli abuse.

^{Abubakr Al-Shamahi (Al Jazeera)}

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Saturday that it had received 15 remains from the Red Cross that had been held in Israeli custody.

This brings the total number of Palestinian bodies handed over by Israel to the besieged enclave to 135.

As with previous batches, some of the bodies show signs of torture.

So far, seven have been identified by their families.

Gaza receives total of 135 Palestinian bodies held in Israeli custody

^{Middle East Eye}

Data from the government media office in the blockaded strip revealed that Israel has arrested 362 medical personnel during the two-year genocidal war on Gaza.

Meanwhile, at least 1,670 medical personnel have been killed by Israel since October 2023.

Families of medical personnel from Gaza detained by Israel demand their release

^{Middle East Eye}

cross-posted from: piefed.ca/post/133958

Note: I'm not affiliated with Jolla.

Next gen Jolla Phone

Hi there, As noted in the previous community meeting, we’d like to define the next gen Jolla Phone together with the community.

^{Sailfish OS Forum}

After so many hard days living in a torn tent in the South, finally returning to Gaza City felt like a small miracle. Just getting back, seeing familiar streets, hearing familiar sounds, it brought us a happiness we didn’t think we’d feel again so soon.

For a moment, we allowed ourselves to hope that the suffering was over. That maybe, just maybe, the worst had passed. But reality hit quickly. The ceasefire stops the bombs, yes but it doesn’t magically fix homes, livelihoods, or daily life.

I see people abroad thinking that with the announcement of the ceasefire, everything is fine for us. We hope that it brings peace. We want it to. But that is not the case. Life is still incredibly hard. Our house in the North is destroyed. Our kitchen is gone. Even small things like cooking, buying food, affording basic necessities remain impossible for many families like mine.

I swear to God that we walk through markets, staring at fruits and vegetables we can’t afford. We see life moving around us, and it feels surreal like the world has moved forward, but we’re still trying to catch up.

Even with the ceasefire, the struggle continues. Every family is starting over from nothing. Every day is a fight to survive, to rebuild, to find a moment of peace amid ruins.

If you want to help, even a little goes a long way. Even a small donation is doing us a big favor. And spreading our story, sharing, or simply refusing to forget us makes a difference.

Thank you for standing with us. For refusing to turn away. For reminding us that even after the hardest days, people care.

My account will always be the voice of the unheard people in Gaza. 🫂❤️

https://www.gofundme.com/f/Two-Brothers-Fighting-to-Save-Their-Family-in-Gaza

https://search-europe.org/

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/17/lawmaker-resigns-after-involvement-in-racist-chat-00614823

Top White House officials told a reporter, “Your mom,” when asked who picked the location for Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Trump announced Thursday that he will soon meet with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine. The choice has raised questions, because Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court. However, Hungary appears unlikely to cooperate with the warrant and is in the process of leaving the court, the Associated Press reports.

When HuffPost asked the White House who chose the location for the meeting, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied, “Your mom did.” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also followed up with, “Your mom,” the outlet reports.

White House’s Karoline Leavitt and Stephen Cheung say ‘Your mom’ when asked who suggested Hungary for Putin-Trump meeting

Trump said he will meet with the Kremlin leader in Budapest to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine

^{Katie Hawkinson (The Independent)}

cross-posted from: swg-empire.de/post/4845931

I've had multiple reads fail on a fairly new drive.

I did a smartctl -t long /dev/sdb but after checking back a few minutes later smartctl -a /dev/sdb showed that no tests were running and that the previous test had "the read element of the test failed".

I did smartctl -t offline /dev/sdb next and after that was done smartctl -x /dev/sdb showed about 1500 errors but it also reported SMART as PASSED.

Here is the output of smartctl -x /dev/sdb: pastebin.com/09rNZZfD

How should I interpret these results? Was my assumption that the long test was done wrong? Should I replace the drive? Or might something else be wrong, like the SATA connection?

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he commuted the prison term of George Santos, the disgraced New York Republican who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for a litany of crimes after he was expelled from the House over accusations that he stole money from campaign donors.

Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social on Friday, saying he had signed a commutation to release Santos from prison immediately.

"George Santos was somewhat of a 'rogue,' but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren't forced to serve seven years in prison," Trump wrote.

The video has bewildered those who watched it online, given that the quote itself is real and on the record for Punchbowl News. In the original interview, Schumer explained that Democrats had prepared their healthcare-focused shutdown strategy well in advance, adding: “Their whole theory was – threaten us, bamboozle us and we would submit in a day or two.”

Yet rather than simply quote Schumer’s words, the NRSC, the campaign arm responsible for electing Republican senators and chaired by Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator, chose to manufacture synthetic video of him speaking.

“Schumer thinks playing with Americans’ livelihoods is just a game,” the narrator says over the deepfake imagery. The advertisement goes on to feature other discussion on the shutdown, accusing Democrats of “loving” the political standoff.

In a response on X, Joanna Rodriguez, the NRSC communications director, said: “AI is here and not going anywhere. Adapt & win or pearl clutch & lose.”

I suppose it's easy enough to misspell "gerrymander" as "adapt[ation]." but at least we agree that AI isn't going anywhere.

As to the voiceover, all I'm reading is what a pussy Schumer is for only going after subjects' livelihoods, when he could also be

Republicans use deepfake video of Chuck Schumer in new attack ad

It is not the party’s first foray into the dystopian territory, with Trump having posted AI videos of his own

^{Joseph Gedeon (The Guardian)}

https://www.techspot.com/news/109906-logitech-ceo-hanneke-faber-wants-ai-agent-every.html

Starting today, all paying Tuta users can request 25% off their first year of Ente’s encrypted photo storage so you can not only keep your emails and calendars private, but also your photos.

Ente provides end-to-end encrypted photo storage, ensuring that only you hold the keys to your data. Ente doesn’t mine your data and doesn’t show you ads.

We at Tuta are thrilled to have teamed up with Ente to build privacy-first tools that are both secure and beautifully easy to use. Whether you’re backing up precious personal pictures or need to sync images from one device to another, Ente makes sure your content stays yours - and only yours.

(cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55755024)

Building a private internet together: Tuta & Ente partnership | Tuta

As a paying Tuta customer, you can now get a 25% discount for the first year on Ente.

^Tuta

https://apnews.com/article/trump-bluesky-social-media-fa4c32d9150250548a705b490530767c