Morocco’s government promised major improvements to healthcare, education and youth participation in politics on Sunday, in a direct response to a wave of Gen Z–driven protests sparked by public anger over inequality and corruption. The pledges mark the first concrete reforms since the demonstrations erupted last month.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/france24.com…

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.

Morocco vows social reforms after youth-led protests shake government

^{FRANCE 24}

Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren have asked EA CEO Andrew Wilson to answer questions regarding the deal…

US senators voice concerns over ‘foreign influence and national security risks’ in Saudi-funded EA acquisition

^{Chris Scullion (Video Games Chronicle)}

Chandler Langevin faced censure from Palm Bay council and calls to resign from series of posts condemned as ‘vile’

Florida politician faces backlash over calls for mass deportation of Indians

^{Marina Dunbar (The Guardian)}

The urinals are 2.7 times faster to use than conventional portable toilets

Women’s urinals to be at more UK events after £1m funding boost

^{Rod Minchin (The Independent)}

X is making changes to better serve link-based posts and keep you in the app.

X is changing how it handles links to try and keep you in the app

^{Terrence O'Brien (The Verge)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/37580499

A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea across the rivals' heavily fortified border on Sunday, South Korea's military said.

The military took custody of the soldier who crossed the central portion of the land border, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said the soldier expressed a desire to resettle in South Korea.

It was the first reported defection by a North Korean soldier since a North Korean staff sergeant fled to South Korea via the border's eastern section in August 2024.

North Korean soldier defects to South Korea across the rivals' heavily fortified border

A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone​ on Sunday, South Korea's military said.

^{CBS News}

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-tariffs-reciprocal-exemptions-e36f1216

Parliament is under mounting pressure to examine what the royal family knew about Prince Andrew’s links to Jeffrey Epstein and introduce a mechanism to strip him of his titles.

There were calls on Sunday night for Andrew to face a police investigation and for ancient rules barring parliament from freely scrutinising royals and formally removing their titles to be revisited.

The Metropolitan police confirmed they were looking into claims that Andrew asked his Met bodyguard to dig up information on Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of sexual assault, hours before the bombshell picture of them was published in 2011.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said leaked emails suggesting Andrew passed his close protection officer Giuffre’s date of birth and US social security number were “deeply concerning”.

MPs urged to confront royal family over Prince Andrew’s Epstein links

Calls grow for parliamentary rule changes to strip Andrew of titles and ask questions of royals

^{Eleni Courea (The Guardian)}

Parliament is under mounting pressure to examine what the royal family knew about Prince Andrew’s links to Jeffrey Epstein and introduce a mechanism to strip him of his titles.

There were calls on Sunday night for Andrew to face a police investigation and for ancient rules barring parliament from freely scrutinising royals and formally removing their titles to be revisited.

The Metropolitan police confirmed they were looking into claims that Andrew asked his Met bodyguard to dig up information on Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of sexual assault, hours before the bombshell picture of them was published in 2011.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said leaked emails suggesting Andrew passed his close protection officer Giuffre’s date of birth and US social security number were “deeply concerning”.

MPs urged to confront royal family over Prince Andrew’s Epstein links

Calls grow for parliamentary rule changes to strip Andrew of titles and ask questions of royals

^{Eleni Courea (The Guardian)}

Earlier in his speech, Hasan extended an olive branch to members of the Republican Party who may feel disillusioned with the current administration. “And you know, they say we don’t reach out to the other side, we don’t reach out to conservatives or Republicans, that we’re in an echo chamber,” he said. “Well, let me say to every Republican and conservative watching, aren’t you the ones who said no more big government, no tyranny in America? So if you believe that, what are you doing defending masked federal agents in unmarked cars, bundling people off of the streets, including American citizens, and disappearing them? How are you okay with that? And if you’re not okay with it, then come over to our side.”

Hasan clarified that “our side” is “the small-d Democrats, not the big D Democrats, not the Democratic Party, those of us who are from all parties and none, but those of us who care about saving America so that we can get to our 250th birthday and still be free when we reach 250 years.”

. . . In a rousing speech, Nye evoked the very history that birthed the United States. “Our government is based on ideas embodied in a constitution among other remarkable features that guarantees our freedom to speak as we’re doing here today,” Nye said. “Rather than doing one monarch’s bidding, we have agreed to form a democracy, to work together, and to follow the laws that derive from it. No thrones, no crowns, no kings.”

Nye returned to that history later in his deliverance. “In 1776, our ancestors had had enough. They declared independence from a king by means of a document stored safely right over there on Constitution Avenue in the National Archives. Although it was conceived 249 years ago, the Declaration of Independence describes a train of abuses connected with an absolute authority, a king with absolute power. No thrones. No crowns. No kings,” he said.

“Their king had refused to honor the law. Their king had refused to let lawmakers be elected. The king had made court judges dependent on his will. They cited the king sending quote swarms of officers to harass our people. Their language referred to quote cruelty and faithlessness scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous of ages. Their king was trying to quote render the military independent and superior to civil power. Our founders even censured King George for cutting off trade with all parts of the world. Did these actions sound familiar?”

. . . Sanders later lashed out against Trump allies Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg “and the other multi-billionaires who were sitting right behind Trump when he was inaugurated.”

“Yes, I am talking about the insanity of one person, Mr. Musk, owning more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households. I am talking about the incredible injustice of the top 1% in America, now owning more wealth than the bottom 93%,” Sanders said. “I am talking about the richest people in America becoming much, much richer, while 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, struggling every day to pay their rented mortgages, pay for childcare and education, pay for their healthcare, and pay for their health care.”

Bernie Sanders, Mehdi Hasan, Bill Nye and More Speak at 'No Kings' Rallies

More than 2,500 No Kings protests against the Trump administration kicked off across the United States (and in several European capitals) on Saturday, with millions of people expected to march at rallies attended by politicians, celebrities, media fi…

^{Stephanie Kaloi (TheWrap)}

Donald Trump urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending its war in a volatile White House meeting on Friday, warning that Vladimir Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree.

The meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents descended many times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”, people familiar with the matter said.

They added that the US president tossed aside maps of the frontline in Ukraine, insisted Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region to Putin, and repeatedly echoed talking points the Russian leader had made in their call a day earlier.

Though Trump later endorsed a freeze of the current front lines, the acrimonious meeting appeared to reflect the capricious nature of the US president’s position on the war and his willingness to endorse Putin’s maximalist demands.

The meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy came amid a fresh push by the US president to end Russia’s war following the ceasefire secured between Israel and Hamas.

Zelenskyy and his team went to the White House hoping to persuade Trump to supply them with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, but the US president ultimately declined to do so.

The tense meeting echoed a similarly fractious encounter at the White House in February, in which Trump and Vice-President JD Vance lambasted Zelenskyy for what they characterised as a lack of gratitude towards the US.

During Friday’s meeting, Trump appeared to have adopted many of Putin’s talking points verbatim, even when they contradicted his own recent statements about Russia’s weaknesses, said European officials briefed on the meeting.

According to a European official with knowledge of the meeting, Trump told Zelenskyy that Putin had told him the conflict was a “special operation, not even a war”, adding that the Ukrainian leader needed to cut a deal or face destruction.

The official said that Trump told Zelenskyy he was losing the war, warning: “If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you.”

At one point in the meeting, the US president threw Ukraine’s maps of the battlefield to one side, the official familiar with the encounter said. According to the official, Trump said he was “sick” of seeing the map of the frontline of Ukraine again and again.

“This red line, I don’t even know where this is. I’ve never been there,” Trump said, according to the official.

Trump also said that Russia’s economy is “doing great”, the official said, in a sharp contrast to his recent public remarks in which he urged Putin to negotiate because his “economy is going to collapse”.

The White House and the Ukrainian president’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he was confident about securing an end to the conflict, and added that Putin is “going to take something, he’s won certain property”.

Putin made a new offer to Trump on Thursday under which Ukraine would surrender the parts of the eastern Donbas region under its control in exchange for some small areas of the two southern frontline regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The Russian proposal marks a small concession from that made during Putin’s last meeting with Trump in Alaska in August, where he said he would agree to freeze the line of contact elsewhere on the frontline if Ukraine surrendered the Donbas.

That meeting also ended acrimoniously after Putin rejected Trump’s push for an immediate ceasefire and digressed at length about medieval Ukrainian history, prompting the US to explore ramped-up support for Kyiv, including by supplying Tomahawk missiles.

But ceding the remainder of the Donbas still under Ukrainian control would be a non-starter for Ukraine, as it would hand Moscow territory it has only partially occupied for more than a decade and failed to seize despite its efforts since Putin ordered the invasion in 2022.

Russian forces have struggled to retain the territory in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia that Putin offered in exchange, and have made virtually no progress on the battlefield there since 2022, the year the war began.

“To give [the Donbas] to Russia without a fight is unacceptable for Ukrainian society, and Putin knows that,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

He said that Putin might be pushing the contentious idea “with a purpose to cause division within Ukraine and undermine our unity”.

Merezhko added: “It’s not about getting more territory for Russia, it’s about how to destroy us from within.”

Trump’s belligerent repetition of Putin’s rhetoric on Friday dashed hopes among many of Ukraine’s European allies that he could be convinced to increase support to Kyiv.

That hope had risen after Trump in recent weeks expressed frustration and impatience with the Russian president’s refusal to actively engage in bilateral peace negotiations with Zelenskyy.

Three other European officials briefed on the White House discussions confirmed that Trump had spent much of the meeting lecturing Zelenskyy, repeating Putin’s arguments about the conflict and urging him to accept the Russian proposal.

“Zelenskyy was very negative” following the meeting, according to one of the officials, adding that European leaders were “not optimistic but pragmatic with planning next steps”.

In a statement on Sunday, Zelenskyy said “decisive steps are needed from the United States, Europe, the G20 and G7 countries” to end the war.

Unfortunately, the technology of the future demands a high price. On top of the exorbitant energy cost fueling a return to industrial-era levels of pollution, AI is also propped up by a massive global sweatshop operation, where low-wage workers in underdeveloped countries are tasked with doing the hidden intellectual labor that makes the tech useful.

As reported by Agence France-Presse, workers in long-exploited countries like Kenya, Colombia, and India are becoming increasingly outraged over the miserable labor of AI training. For example, as the wire service notes, for an AI chatbot to generate an autopsy report, contract workers have to sift through thousands of gruesome crime scene images, a gig known as “data labeling.”

Though the work is often done remotely — thus saving on the overhead costs of leasing an office — data labeling isn’t exactly a cushy laptop job. Workers involved in this industrial operation describe grueling hours, few if any workplace protections, and frequent tasks involving violent or grisly content. In theory, it’s not unlike social media content moderation, another digital practice built on exploitative labor in the developing world.

“You have to spend your whole day looking at dead bodies and crime scenes,” Ephantus Kanyugi, a Kenyan data label, told AFP. “Mental health support was not provided.”

I could swear I've seen this movie before.

The AI Industry Is Traumatizing Desperate Contractors in the Developing World for Pennies

AI is propped up by a global sweat shop operation, where exploited workers polish the software for wealthy corporations in the west.

^{Joe Wilkins (Futurism)}

DOWNTOWN — With their city caught in the country’s largest immigration enforcement operation, as many as 250,000 Chicagoans flooded Downtown on Saturday to condemn Donald Trump’s administration as part of the second nationwide No Kings protest.

“We will never surrender!” Illinois governor JB Pritzker said. “Throughout history we have learned that tyranny doesn’t arrive with dramatic proclamations. We learned that it comes wrapped in ‘law and order’ … The reality here in Chicago is this: Black and Brown people are being targeted for the color of their skin. Children are being zip-tied and separated from their families … These people are not abstractions. They pay taxes on their businesses. They work hard — these people are the fabric of our society.”

“They want a rematch of the Civil War,” Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said to the crowd. “But we are here to stand firm, to stand committed — that we will not bend. We will not cower. The attempt to divide and conquer this nation will not prevail, because when the people are united, justice always prevails.”

Johnson closed out his remarks by calling for a general strike.

Chicago’s Massive No Kings March Stretches Two Miles Through Loop

The No Kings rally in Downtown Chicago was just one of many planned for around the Chicago area and the country.

^{Charles Thrush (Block Club Chicago)}