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French President Macron should privately and publicly address Beijing's transnational repression, human rights violations in his China visit, rights group says
cross-posted from: mander.xyz/post/42954242
French President Emmanuel Macron should privately and publicly stress the importance of human rights in Sino-French relations during his visit to China from December 3 to 5, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. Macron’s visit is one of several top-level engagements between European and Chinese leaders amid the complex and shifting geopolitical relationships among Europe, China, and the United States.President Macron should signal his commitment to taking concrete action in response to deepening repression by China. Key issues include
- labor rights abuses in China’s supply chains;
- commercial drones produced by China-based companies being used by Russia to attack civilians in Ukraine;
- and China’s use of transnational repression to target critics abroad, including in France.
“China’s disregard for human rights has important implications for France, from weapons used in unlawful Russian attacks in Ukraine to abusive supply chains that hinders fair competition for European industries,” said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. “Macron should break the silos between human rights and other issues and show leadership by including rights concerns in high-level policy discussions with China.”
...
France: Macron Should Address Repression in China Visit
French President Emmanuel Macron should privately and publicly stress the importance of human rights in Sino-French relations during his visit to China on December 3-5, 2025.Human Rights Watch
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macron will probably just talk about trade deals and ignore the human rights stuff like most western leaders do when they visit china, they always say theyll bring it up but then nothing happens, china has been doing this stuff for years and europe keeps doing business with them anyway, the drone thing is especially messed up though chinese companies selling drones to russia that kill ukrainian civilians and we just keep trading with them, its all about money at the end of the day, human rights are just something they mention in press releases to make themselves look good,
i doubt macron will actually do anything concrete about it, he might say something vague about being concerned but wont actually take action that would hurt trade relations, the supply chain labor abuses are also a huge issue but nobody wants to pay more for stuff so they look the other way, transnational repression is scary too china going after critics even when theyre in france, but yeah macron will probably just shake hands, sign some deals, and come home without really addressing any of this, same old story
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RRF Caserta. Speciale Medio Oriente. Netanyahu. Ostaggi. Coloni
The China rare earths problem isn't as bad as we think. It's much worse: a look at gallium
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
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December 2025 ForumWG Meeting
Monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month, at 13h00 to 14h00 Eastern Time (currently 18h00 to 19h00 UTC). You can find them listed in the SocialCG Calendar. The next meeting will be held (tomorrow) on 4 December 2025.
Meeting link: meet.jit.si/ap-forum-wg
Discussions will continue re:
- Mastodon
contextissues (backfill not possible at the moment) - Context (topic/thread) deletion and moving between audiences (communities/categories)
- Draft FEP for the above
- Cross-posting (stalled?)
Build Your Own Glasshole Detector
Build Your Own Glasshole Detector
Connected devices are ubiquitous in our era of wireless chips heavily relying on streaming data to someone else’s servers. This sentence might already start to sound dodgy, and it doesn’…Hackaday
Privacy reshared this.
~~Read the short article?~~
Edit: fine. Leagues less complex and standalone.
Privacy reshared this.
I read the article and that's why I'm asking what's the difference.
For example I use an app, AirGuard, which can tell what devices are around me and I think it could tell the difference like it can spot AirTags and such.
Leagues less complex and standalone.
I have no idea what you just said.
I logged unique broadcasting Bluetooth devices for fun for a few months and I was amazed at how many hundreds if not thousands of devices it found.
And that logger was stationary. Unless you know and filter the Bluetooth address ranges of what you are looking for, you will be swamped with irrelevant data.
Side note: those Bluetooth beacons tracking people in stores are absolutely gobbling data.
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Israel to open Rafah crossing for exits only; RSF holding trapped El-Fasher residents for ransom; ICE plans for mega warehouse detention centers
Palestine reshared this.
Israel to open Rafah crossing for exits only; RSF holding trapped El-Fasher residents for ransom; ICE plans for mega warehouse detention centers
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39814137
Israel announces it will open the Rafah border crossing but only for Palestinians leaving. Hamas to hand over the body of another Israeli captive. Over 200 prominent cultural figures sign a letter calling for the release of Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti. ICE begins targeting Somali Americans in Minnesota. President Donald Trump gives this new antagonism rhetorical support, calling Ilhan Omar and Somalis in general “garbage.” Trump Department of Justice official Harmeet Dillon slanders Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as an “antisemitic demagogue,” and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blames youth solidarity with Palestine on TikTok. Israel launders its talking points through actress Noa Tishby and her foundation, a new report alleges, and may have violated FARA in the process. Trump admin threatens to cut off SNAP funding in blue states. ICE moves toward a “mega-warehouse” detention facility. Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is released from prison after a Trump pardon. Centrist candidate Salvador Nasralla takes a slim lead in Honduras’ elections. More violence in Pakistan’s northwest. The Ukrainian military disputes Russian claims of gains in the Donbas. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to cut off Ukrainian access to the sea. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces are systematically holding trapped residents for ransom in El-Fasher. Venezuela resumes repatriation flights. The Philippine military is using U.S. hardware in its counter-insurgency efforts, a new Drop Site report shows. As the feds closed in on Jeffrey Epstein, he estimated in a private email that there might be as many as 20 underage victims, Saagar Enjeti reports for Drop Site.
Israel to open Rafah crossing for exits only; RSF holding trapped El-Fasher residents for ransom; ICE plans for mega warehouse detention centers
Israel announces it will open the Rafah border crossing but only for Palestinians leaving. Hamas to hand over the body of another Israeli captive. Over 200 prominent cultural figures sign a letter calling for the release of Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti. ICE begins targeting Somali Americans in Minnesota. President Donald Trump gives this new antagonism rhetorical support, calling Ilhan Omar and Somalis in general “garbage.” Trump Department of Justice official Harmeet Dillon slanders Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as an “antisemitic demagogue,” and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blames youth solidarity with Palestine on TikTok. Israel launders its talking points through actress Noa Tishby and her foundation, a new report alleges, and may have violated FARA in the process. Trump admin threatens to cut off SNAP funding in blue states. ICE moves toward a “mega-warehouse” detention facility. Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is released from prison after a Trump pardon. Centrist candidate Salvador Nasralla takes a slim lead in Honduras’ elections. More violence in Pakistan’s northwest. The Ukrainian military disputes Russian claims of gains in the Donbas. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to cut off Ukrainian access to the sea. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces are systematically holding trapped residents for ransom in El-Fasher. Venezuela resumes repatriation flights. The Philippine military is using U.S. hardware in its counter-insurgency efforts, a new Drop Site report shows. As the feds closed in on Jeffrey Epstein, he estimated in a private email that there might be as many as 20 underage victims, Saagar Enjeti reports for Drop Site.
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Young Ants Beg For Death When Sick, New Study Reveals
Young Ants Beg For Death When Sick, New Study Reveals : ScienceAlert
Sick young ants release a smell to tell worker ants to destroy them to protect the colony from infection, scientists said Tuesday, adding that queens do not seem to commit this act of self-sacrifice.AFP (ScienceAlert)
LOL ok, let's do this, I have time to waste:
- "Young Ants Beg For Death" No, they don't and saying it is just projecting human behavior on them.
- "queens do not seem to commit this act of self-sacrifice" There is no self-sacrifice since they don't know what will happen to them, until proven otherwise.
- "similar to how infected cells in our bodies send out a "find-me and eat-me"" Again, until proven otherwise, cells don't have such knowledge, it is just a biological mechanism.
- "the scientists wanted to figure out whether the pupae "were actively saying: 'hey, come and kill me'" They don't, we are just projecting human reasoning to ant pupae, two very different animals.
- "Altruistic act" LMAO, I won't elaborate further.
- "While it is a sacrifice – an altruistic act – it's also in their own interest, because it means that their genes are going to survive and be passed on to the next generation" Sacrifice, altruism, interest, have nothing to do with what is happening here, which is just a biological mechanism, as far as we can tell, naturally selected without the ants even remotely knowing about it, until proven otherwise.
- "Are they cheating the system?" Huh... No? They are fucking pupae, they just exist and don't even know what is this supposed system.
- "queen pupae have much better immune systems than the worker pupae, and so they were able to fight off the infection – and that's why we think that they weren't signalling" Or... Being a different kind of pupae they also differ in not having that self-destruction mechanism.
This is MOST (I decided to be kind and ignore some things pretending they were just "funnily phrased") of the unscientific bullshit added to make it more appealing (I guess?) to the average human reader, while also creating a lot of specist misconceptions regarding ants (and animals in general in my opinion) and the already mentioned substrate for pseudoscience and all those funny things we have to endure in today's internet.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
mic drop
Well, all your arguments can be summarized in "projection of human behavior" onto those ants and pupae.
Okay, let's go down this rabbit hole.
Do you really think anyone would express her/himself by avoiding this "projectionism"? I don't think it is even possible. You see this projection in every aspect of our life.
"Time/Computer/etc. is running"
"The train is coming"
"The wind is blowing"
"The storm is raging"
"The city never sleeps"
"The phone died"
"Time flies"
"The night wrapped its arms"
And many, many more. You find those projections everywhere. And you know why? Yes, exactly! They help you understand the situation better. So what's wrong with using then here too?
Figurative speech is not equal to what we have here, my dear.
And if you can't even imagine how to explain yourself without avoiding those embarrassing sentences in the article then we have here a tangible example of why this is dangerous and feeds ignorance.
And you are also in bad faith now, because you said in your very first comment that this is just to make science "accessible". Now it turns out you think it is not possible to communicate in a scientifically accurate way?
Nice try, but you have to put more effort here if you want to defend such a shitshow.
Just analyzing this mechanism as it is, a biological response for both the pupae and the adult ants, would be already enough to be accurate and clear.
Saying pupae are making an "altruistic act" is laughable and it's like assuming the target audience is made of mentally challenged people. Which we are not, I think.
Just analyzing this mechanism as it is, a biological response for both the pupae and the adult ants, [...]
This is exactly what I'm talking about. Do you really believe the average person would understand this? This is already scientific jargon which most people wouldn't understand correctly. Well, let me be truthfully I had to look up the scientific definition to verify if it is accurate.
So what is wrong with making it accessible?
Your hate-speech is just pointing at inaccuracy and the entertaining way of that online magazine. And I kept stating it is okay and they have their right to exist. And do you really understand why? Because they make science accessible and interesting.
If you really work in science, what made you work in science? The money? I hope not. I bet a curiosity that is rooted or at least was expanded by consuming exactly these inaccurate, false, but entertaining articles and documentaries. If it's not you, what I would doubt, then ask your colleagues why they ended up in science.
So in my eyes, organizations like sciencealart and their way of rewriting scientific publications, are playing their part in the science world, even when it is inaccurate and aspects are false.
Kami doesn't like this.
Yes, we should stop here.
Based on what I’m reading here, our little conversation really shouldn’t have reached this point..
Please rethink before posting. Starting of with a hateful post is never good. With a more objective approach I wouldn't have reacted.
Anyway,
Have a nice weekend!
Kami doesn't like this.
No, what I've said is well thought and my hate against pseudoscience is motivated.
This article is still full of unscientific bullshit, no matter if you were triggered or not by that.
If you disagree or don't understand where the problem is that's ok, but your "reaction" doesn't change the facts I've stated and that I would loudly state again.
Do not tell others to be objective if you can't see objectively.
And you know what, you could even be scientifically accurate while also doing some less dangerous clickbait just by calling it a self destruction mechanism or something like that, same goes for the cells. It would still be useless fluff added to the topic, but at least it isn't completely nonsensical.
But no, they decided to go for the romantic route of the self sacrifice for the greater good.
I'm sorry but it is repulsive to me.
It’s Official: Linux Kernel 6.18 Will Be LTS, Supported Until December 2027
As expected, the recently released Linux 6.18 kernel series has been officially marked as LTS (Long Term Support) on the kernel.org website with a predicted life expectancy of at least two years.Linux kernel 6.18 was released at the end of November 2025 with new features like support for the Rust Binder driver, a new dm-pcache device-mapper target to enable persistent memory as a cache for slower block devices, and a new microcode= command-line option to control the microcode loader’s behavior on x86 platforms.
While Linux 6.18 is making its way into the stable software repositories of various popular GNU/Linux distributions, such as Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Fedora Linux, and others, it has already received LTS (Long Term Support) status on the kernel.org website, supported until December 2027.
It’s Official: Linux Kernel 6.18 Will Be LTS, Supported Until December 2027 - 9to5Linux
Linux kernel 6.18 is now officially marked as LTS (Long-Term Support) on the kernel.org website and it will be supported until December 2027.Marcus Nestor (9to5Linux)
Lawmakers ask AG Pam Bondi for a status update on releasing the Epstein files
Five members of Congress spanning both parties and both chambers want a briefing by Friday on the Trump administration's progress in releasing the Epstein files.
Epstein files: Lawmakers ask AG Pam Bondi for a status update
Five members of Congress spanning both parties and chambers are asking Attorney General Pam Bondi for a briefing and a status update by the end of this week on the legally mandated release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.Sahil Kapur (NBC News)
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Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson: Legitimacy of the U.S. Empire Collapses
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
India scraps order to pre-install state-run cyber safety app on smartphone
Sanchar Saathi: India scraps order to pre-install state-run cyber safety app on smartphones
The order to make the registration mandatory had led to a major backlash from several cyber experts.Nikhil Inamdar (BBC News)
How Expiring Subsidies And Medicaid Cuts Could Reshape U.S. Access To Care
Young Republicans chapter plans to host far-right German leader after ‘I love Hitler’ chat
The New York Young Republican Club will host Markus Frohnmaier, an AfD deputy chairman, at its annual gala after calling for a ‘new civic order’ in Germany.
Obamacare subsidies expire this month. Many Republicans are shrugging.
Obamacare premiums are set to spike for tens of millions of Americans next month. Plenty of rank-and-file Republicans are happy to sit back and ride it out.
Some vulnerable GOP lawmakers up for reelection are scrambling for a last-minute fix to renew the enhanced federal health care subsidies keeping costs down. But even if party leaders and Donald Trump were to rally around a plan in the coming days — and there’s no sign of that happening — many conservatives are likely to revolt.
Democrats have vowed to hammer the GOP in the midterms if they allow the federal aid to expire, but many on the right expect the political fallout to be minimal, or even to backfire on Democrats. For other conservatives, any blowback will be worth it if it means they get to rein in a system the party has fundamentally opposed since its launch more than a decade ago.
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Porsche Cars in Russia Shut Down After Satellite System Failure
Porsche Cars in Russia Shut Down After Satellite System Failure
Hundreds of Porsche cars across Russia have shut down after a Vehicle Tracking System failure caused engine lockouts. Here’s what happened, which models are affected, and what owners can do next.Jeet Patel (Head Lines Monitor)
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I feel like I got my car at the perfect time:
It has Android Auto and CarPlay, and it's a manual so there's no way for it to turn on or off remotely.
Now I just have to make sure it survives until I die.
It's a voluntary anti-theft measure I believe. Prevents it from being started without the owner's consent. Which immobilizers are also supposed to do, but we all know how well those work.
If I owned a Porsche in Russia, I would also get something like that tbh. Luckily I don't live in Russia, nor do I have a Porsche anymore and mine was too old for this kinda shit anyway
RRF Caserta. Rassegna stampa 03 12 25 Trumo Russia e Ucraina un casino. Scandalo UE coinvolti italiani Sport.Napoli Cagliari alle 18
December Quiz Questions
Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.
British History
- In what year was the Battle of Culloden?
- How many monarchs reigned during the 19th century?
- Who, in 1835, produced durable silver chloride camera negatives on paper and conceived the two-step negative-positive procedure used in most non-electronic photography up to the present?
- Charles Dodgson is remembered as an early photographer, but what else is he famous for?
- In what year was slavery abolished in the British empire?
- What links playing cards in 1588; windows in 1696; candles in 1709; wallpaper in 1712?
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
How to deterministically remove crit/attack-suffix from helmet?
Hey,
is there a way to deterministically remove the "socketed attacks have +1 to critical strike"-suffix on this Archdemon Crown?
Greetings
My first though was harvest add/remove attack, but it doesn't work on influenced items. I don't see a deterministic way to remove it, sorry.
Here is the item if someone wants to play around in CraftofExile emulator.
Rarity: Rare
Crafted Item
Praetor Crown
--------
Quality: +20% (augmented)
Armour: 329 - 377
Energy Shield: 104 - 119
--------
Requirements:
Str: 62
Int: 91
Level: 68
--------
Item Level: 83
--------
19% increased Armour and Energy Shield
9% increased Stun and Block Recovery
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 25 Trap And Mine Damage
33% increased Mine Damage
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 25 Burning Damage
32% increased Burning Damage
Socketed Attacks have +1% to Critical Strike Chance
--------
Shaper Item
Elder ItemCraft of Exile
Craft of Exile is a crafting simulator for Path of Exile designed to compute the probabilities of obtaining specific results through different methods.www.craftofexile.com
World's first mobile quantum brain scanner being developed to measure blast effects on troops
World's first mobile quantum brain scanner being developed to measure blast effects on troops
Government provides £3.1m for transformational tech which will assess how blast exposure from weapons training affects the brain to better protect personnel.Cyber & Specialist Operations Command (GOV.UK)
Advent Calendar 3
Advent Calendar
Zen Mischief Photographs
This year for our Advent Calendar we have a selection of my photographs from recent years. They may not be technically the best, or the most recent, but they’re ones which, for various reasons, I rather like.
© Keith C Marshall, 2013
Click the image for a larger view
Lower Dens - Escape From Evil (2015)
Hanno giocato bene le loro carte, i Lower Dens di Jana Hunter, alimentando mese dopo mese le attese per quello che è a tutti gli effetti il terzo album in studio, Escape From Evil. Accantonata l’ormai decennale esperienza solista/freak-folk iniziata a metà anni Zero, con l’appoggio di un Devendra Banhart all’epoca... Leggi e ascolta...
Lower Dens - Escape From Evil (2015)
Hanno giocato bene le loro carte, i Lower Dens di Jana Hunter, alimentando mese dopo mese le attese per quello che è a tutti gli effetti il terzo album in studio, Escape From Evil. Accantonata l’ormai decennale esperienza solista/freak-folk iniziata a metà anni Zero, con l’appoggio di un Devendra Banhart all’epoca all’apice della popolarità, la Hunter è riuscita a reinventarsi icona – a suo modo – cool attraverso le trame di un dream pop chitarristico che ha trovato sfogo prima in Twin-Hand Movement e poi, in una veste ancora più appetibile, nel Nootropics del 2012... artesuono.blogspot.com/2015/04…
Ascolta il disco: album.link/s/3lzj0ftwAZ9XFp3qF…
Home – Identità DigitaleSono su: Mastodon.uno - Pixelfed - Feddit
Lower Dens - Escape From Evil (2015)
di Riccardo Zagaglia Hanno giocato bene le loro carte, i Lower Dens di Jana Hunter, alimentando mese dopo mese le attese per quello che...Silvano Bottaro (Blogger)
Kohler Can Access Data and Pictures from Toilet Camera It Describes as “End-to-End Encrypted”
Kohler Can Access Data and Pictures from Toilet Camera It Describes as “End-to-End Encrypted” - /var/log/simon
Claimed end-to-end privacy doesn’t fully conceal your rear-end datavarlogsimon.leaflet.pub
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Japanese game developers face ridiculously high font license fees(increase from $380 to $20K) following US acquisition of major domestic provider. Live-service games to take the biggest blow
Japanese game developers face ridiculously high font license fees following US acquisition of major domest ...
A change in license plans has made it up to 50 times more expensive for Japanese game developers to use commercial fonts in their games and apps.Amber V (AUTOMATON WEST)
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A Peek At Piefed
Paige and Victor get into the weeds with Rimu the creator of Piefed. What is the secret to Piefed's rapid development and what direction is is Piefed rapidly developing?
Find Rimu: [@rimu@mastodon.nzoss.nz) (mastodon.nzoss.nz/@rimu) @rimu@piefed.social
Find Victor: @kini@maro.xyz
Find Paige: @paige@canadiancivil.com
https://video.fedihost.co/videos/watch/e63cc1e0-b35f-4afd-9a1c-d419bc44c06d
Piano da 5€ di starlink cappato a 0,5Mb
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.youtube.com
Private Tech Companies, the State, and the New Character of War
The war in Ukraine is forcing conflict analysts and others to reimagine traditional state-centric models of war, as it demonstrates that militaries are no longer primarily responsible for defining the challenges of the modern battlespace and then producing tenders for technological fixes. Instead, private tech companies increasingly explain the ideal battlespace to militaries, offering software and hardware products needed to establish real-time information edges. In the Russia-Ukraine war, private companies have sought to shape Ukrainian intelligence requirements. At the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s armed forces could not manage essential intelligence tasks. Ukraine’s military lacked its own software and hardware for real-time information dominance and instead accepted support from private tech companies. These companies provide AI and big data tools that fuse intelligence and surveillance data to enhance the military’s situational awareness. As the war has progressed, however, the Ukrainians have sought to develop their own government situational awareness and battle management platform called Delta. The platform was developed as a bottom-up solution, “initially focused on a single, highly effective application: a digital map for situational awareness.”2 Over time, it expanded into a robust software ecosystem used by most of Ukraine’s military, from frontline soldiers to top commanders. This in part reflects Ukraine’s desire to retain direct sovereign control over what the U.S. military refers to as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control infrastructure (CJADC2), which manages networked sensors, data, platforms, and operations to deliver information advantages across all military services and with allies.
Mass surveillance and social media now generate huge amounts of data during war. At the same time, the widespread availability of the smartphone means civilians carry around advanced sensors that can broadcast data more quickly than the armed forces themselves.4 This enables civilians to provide intelligence to the armed forces in ways that were not previously possible.5 Matthew Ford and Andrew Hoskins label this a “new war ecology” that is “weaponizing our attention and making everyone a participant in wars without end . . . [by] collapsing the distinctions between audience and actor, soldier and civilian, media and weapon.”6 In this ecology, warfare is participatory. Social media platforms such as TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and Telegram are no longer merely tools for consuming war reportage; militaries accessing and processing open-source data from these platforms shapes the battlespace in real time by contributing to wider situational awareness.
In this “new war ecology,” Palantir Technologies is an often controversial symbol of how private tech companies and the military work together to tackle battlefield challenges.8 Since it was founded in 2003, the company has grown quickly by providing big data software solutions. Its platforms are designed to handle complex and difficult data challenges, including those experienced by Western militaries. Importantly, Palantir’s software platforms were not developed and commercialized to fulfill a military tender. They are rooted in business models prioritizing speed, flexibility, and investor return, rather than the state’s national security imperatives.
As a result of their work in Ukraine, a slew of companies like Palantir have drawn media attention.9 While commercial interests have rarely aligned neatly with geopolitics, circumstances are changing; private technology firms increasingly occupy, manage, and in some cases dominate the digital infrastructure upon which militaries now rely. States themselves have fostered this shift through selective deregulation and outsourcing of technology development. These dynamics are visible in the war in Ukraine and in the wider geopolitical contest over the global digital stack. As we argued in “Virtual Sovereignty,” a paper we published in International Affairs, this influence has major geopolitical consequences for how states use power.
https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/12/ukraine-war-tech-companies?lang=en
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Ukraine’s defense relies increasingly on huge volumes of civilian data stored on cloud platforms. An adversary’s military may supply their targeting algorithm with an individual’s location, health, and online behavior. Military actors regularly mine, analyze, and repurpose social media posts.It is not clear, however, that the deep learning systems integral to some of these new weapons can overcome the fog of war. These systems treat all data as objective representations of reality, when in fact information drawn from social media platforms is shaped by users’ emotional and cognitive experiences in ways that can skew its utility for wartime intelligence. The “learned knowledge” generated by analytic systems is probabilistic, not causal—leading to the risk that algorithms are “enforc[ing] their version of ‘reality’ from patterns and probabilities derived from data.”
These venture-backed firms view contemporary conflicts as live testing grounds.
Global digital platforms such as TikTok and Telegram illustrate the wider environment in which these dependencies are forming. Though neither company develops military technologies, both shape the information environment surrounding war. TikTok’s recommendation algorithm influences how audiences perceive the conflict in Ukraine, shaping global narratives and public opinion. Yet its complex ownership structure, rooted in Chinese parent company ByteDance and entangled with global venture capital, has sparked geopolitical concern. ... These concerns highlight how platforms created for civilian use can also become entangled in the political and informational dimensions of war.
The overlapping interests of finance capital and private technology corporations transcend national borders, creating forms of influence that do not fit neatly into binary friend-or-enemy distinctions. ByteDance’s global investment network, spanning Chinese state-linked entities, American private equity funds, and international investors, illustrates this transnational ownership model. It complicates national regulatory and security responses, as policymakers must ask not merely who owns a given platform, but who controls the data, infrastructure, and decisionmaking power that states increasingly depend on.
This illustrates a deeper shift in the relationship between the market and the military. The problem is not that defense firms are publicly traded—Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics have been for decades—but that contemporary defense-tech companies retain proprietary control over data-driven systems central to military operations. Their technologies are not merely delivered to the state; the companies are embedded in the decisionmaking architecture of warfare. When a firm’s market value depends on its perceived wartime success, its incentives may diverge from those of the state it ostensibly serves. This intertwining of commercial strategy, military dependency, and investor confidence represents a new kind of vulnerability for states.
What is at stake, beyond the conflict itself, is the nature of state sovereignty. The ability of states to govern, defend, and act independently is increasingly mediated by private technology firms and global finance. This is not entirely new. States have long relied on private contractors, but the kind of dependency has changed. Unlike traditional arms manufacturers, today’s defense-tech firms control the digital platforms, data flows, and algorithmic systems that underpin military decisionmaking. At the same time, civilian platforms like Telegram and TikTok shape the informational terrain of conflict, influencing how wars are perceived and fought.
I just want to make sure I'm understanding this.
•You have companies like Meta (just an example) working for both sides of a conflict via government contract, but not necessarily bound to either side of a conflict because of global venture capital/transnational ownership model
•We know Facebook/Meta has been intentionally manipulating the emotions of social media users for over a decade now
•That social media data is then collected and used to train military platforms, which may be directly or indirectly linked to the social media company
•These companies very likely have an incentive to create an endless war (and endless profits for themselves) by manipulating the emotions and behavior of social media users, knowing that data will be used to train military platforms
Basically, a private tech company could manipulate data to give one side of a conflict an advantage over the other, but it could also intentionally pit adversaries against each other in an endless loop by manipulating social media content, and by extension, manipulating the military platforms being trained.
A company could potentially profit from both sides of a conflict it's manipulating because the states have turned to it and other big tech companies to help them reach "victory" in the endless conflict the company helped create. Correct?
Per la prima volta si introduce una responsabilità diretta delle grandi piattaforme online nelle truffe finanziarie
L’Europa vuole colpire così un fenomeno molto pericoloso per gli utenti: il 77 per cento delle truffe in Europa parte dalle piattaforme social e il 59 per cento da quelle Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger), secondo la banca Revolut. Tra le più frequenti ci sono appunto le truffe e-commerce, dove il prodotto o non arriva o è molto diverso da quello pubblicizzato. Ma ci sono anche le truffe su trading online, che promettono guadagni straordinari con le criptovalute ma sono in realtà un modo per rubare i soldi di chi ci casca.
Truffati dalla pubblicità social? Pagano la banca e la big tech: possibile svolta sulle tutele
Parlamento Ue e Consiglio hanno trovato un accordo sulle nuove regole dei pagamenti digitali: con il pacchetto Psd3/Psr, per la prima volta si introduce una re…Alessandro Longo (la Repubblica)
Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense
Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense
Google Discover, the company’s smartphone news feed, is experimenting with AI headlines. Many of them are very bad.Sean Hollister (The Verge)
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Anyone know of any sources for ACS quantitative analysis exams?
Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense
Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense
Google Discover, the company’s smartphone news feed, is experimenting with AI headlines. Many of them are very bad.Sean Hollister (The Verge)
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Republican Matt Van Epps wins US House special election in Tennessee
Republican Matt Van Epps wins US House special election in Tennessee
Van Epps defeats Aftyn Behn in congressional election closely watched for signs of Republican weaknessGeorge Chidi (The Guardian)
Congress’s Bipartisan Child Online Safety Coalition is Unraveling
Congress’s Bipartisan Child Online Safety Coalition is Unraveling
A congressional alliance pushing for stronger federal protections for kids online is splintering, Cristiano Lima-Strong reports.Cristiano Lima-Strong (Tech Policy Press)
YouTube says it will comply with Australia's teen social media ban
Google's YouTube shared a "disappointing update" to millions of Australian users and content creators on Wednesday, saying it will comply with a world-first teen social media ban by locking out users aged under 16 from their accounts within days.
YouTube says it will comply with Australia's teen social media ban
SYDNEY, Dec 3 - Google's YouTube shared a \"disappointing update\" to millions of Australian users and content creators on Wednesday, saying it will comply with a world-first teen social media ban by locking out users aged under 16 from their account…ST
Chega de copiar e colar no tradutor: WhatsApp lança tradução automática no iPhone
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Scathing review finds government appointments often 'look like nepotism'
ABC News
ABC News provides the latest news and headlines in Australia and around the world.Maani Truu (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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“No room for fear”: broad antifascist front confronts far-right violence in Croatia
Tens of thousands of people in four Croatian cities took to the streets on Sunday, November 30, responding to a call from the initiative United Against Fascism (Ujedinjeni protiv fašizma), a broad coalition of civil society organizations and grassroots groups. Marchers in Zagreb, Rijeka, Zadar, and Pula denounced the escalating wave of far-right violence and historical revisionism, vowing to build broad resistance to trends that are encouraged and supported by the political establishment.
“We stand united against fascism because, day after day, we are not witnessing isolated outbursts, but the emergence of a blueprint – one that grows when we remain silent, gains strength when we tolerate it, and ultimately turns fear into the rule rather than the exception,” United Against Fascism declared in its call. “But when we stand together, there is no room for fear.”
United Against Fascism warned that public funds are being cut from education and violence prevention budgets while military spending rises. “Society is being led to believe that armament is the solution, that enemies surround us, and that fear is the appropriate state of mind,” the statement continued. “More and more often, security is defined through borders, military might, and ‘external threats,’ while working conditions, housing, and social rights are ignored.”
Antifascist demonstration in Rijeka, November 30, 2025. Source: United Against Fascism/Građani i građanke Rijeke Facebook
In Rijeka and Zadar, demonstrators faced coordinated attacks by right-wing groups, including members of violence-prone sports supporter factions. In Zadar, where assaults were anticipated, police intervened to push back the attackers. In Rijeka, despite the city’s reputation for tolerance and progressive-leaning politics, participants of the 2,000-strong march were targeted with pyrotechnics and confronted by men dressed in black performing fascist salutes. Police allowed them to remain nearby under “supervision,” drawing strong criticism from the organizers.
A summer of attacks
This weekend’s demonstrations were sparked by a series of far-right attacks on ethnic minorities and cultural events since the summer, a trend linked to the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) government’s revisionist narrative. Right wing forces in Croatia, including HDZ, have built their narrative around inciting chauvinism toward the Serb population, sustaining anti-communist animosity, and, more recently, directing public frustration over falling living standards at immigrants.
Among the most visible examples of the changing climate this year was a mass concert by right-wing singer Marko Perković Thompson in Zagreb. His performances, often banned domestically and abroad, are associated with symbols glorifying the World War II Ustaša regime. The concert in Zagreb welcomed thousands and was more or less explicitly endorsed by several senior officials, including Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
Prompted by such signals, right-wing groups, including organizations representing veterans of the 1990s war, disrupted festivals and cultural events addressing Croatia’s antifascist legacy or including Serb voices. The attacks included the obstruction of a festival in Benkovac, a town where most of the Serb population was violently expelled in 1995. There, groups of men blocked a children’s theater performance and threatened local journalists, eventually leading to the event’s cancellation. More recently, organized mobs targeted a in Split and attempted to attack the opening of an art exhibition organized by the Serb national minority in Zagreb.
Antifascist demonstration in Pula, November 30, 2025. Source: United Against Fascism/Tedi Korodi
These incidents are a reflection of ongoing processes led by the right. For more than three decades, Croatia has suffered a historical revisionism trend aimed at erasing the antifascist legacy of socialist Yugoslavia. Among other things, since the 1990s, HDZ and other conservative forces have reshaped school curricula to minimize or remove antifascist content. At the European level, political pressures to equate communism and fascism have further normalized alternative historical narratives that rehabilitate collaborators and demonize antifascist resistance. As a result, children and youth are pushed toward right-wing ideologies and offered fabricated historical accounts.
The organization Fališ, which successfully resisted right-wing attempts to cancel its annual festival in Šibenik this summer, linked these developments to reactions to last weekend’s protests, including comments claiming that Croatia was “occupied” between 1945 and 1991. This is “the result of a political perversion that turns liberation into occupation, and the defeat of fascism into a trauma,” Fališ wrote.
“It’s a complete reversal of reality, in which the antifascist becomes the enemy, the fascist becomes a patriot, and crime becomes identity,” they continued. “This logic erases all moral compasses and shapes a society in which truth is a nuisance and lies a political currency.”
Popular resistance challenges party silence
As alarms mounted over the rising violence, state authorities downplayed the danger and offered few concrete assurances to targeted communities. But the massive turnout over the weekend appears to have rattled government figures. Prime Minister Plenković attempted to recast the demonstrations as an effort to “destabilize” his administration, while Defense Minister Ivan Anušić, widely regarded as a leading figure of HDZ’s extreme-right wing, claimed: “This was a protest against Croatia, I would say pro-Yugoslav, maybe even more extreme than pro-Yugoslav.”
Antifascist protest in Zadar, November 30, 2025. Source: United Against Fascism
Liberal parties, including social democrats and greens, also failed to take meaningful action against the growing right-wing violence. Instead, Zagreb’s Green-led city authorities acknowledged that another concert by Perković would take place at the end of the year despite recognizing possible correlations between such events and far-right mobilization.
Against this backdrop of institutional silence and complicity, protesters promised to continue building resistance. “We stand united against fascism because violence over blood cells or skin color must stop,” United Against Fascism stated. “We will not accept Serb children being attacked, insulted, or intimidated for dancing folklore. We will not accept that the presence of national minorities is treated as a provocation, or that migrants are considered less human.”
“We stand united against fascism because silence is never neutral. Silence always serves those who profit most from darkness.”
Carnivore A.D. u Kotaču
Carnivore A.D. No Profit Recordings najavljuje dolazak američkog crossover/thrash metal benda Carnivore A.D. 4. prosinca u Klubu Kotač. Podršku te večeri dat će im dark hardcore punk sastav Črnomor iz Rijeke.RDD (ravnododna)
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FBI paid nearly $1M in overtime to redact Epstein files, documents show
FBI paid nearly $1M in overtime to redact Epstein files, documents show
FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi spent nearly $1 million in overtime pay for personnel to redact the files related to the case of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Anna Rascouët-Paz (Snopes.com)
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OpenAI desperate to avoid explaining why it deleted pirated book datasets - Ars Technica
OpenAI may soon be forced to explain why it deleted a pair of controversial datasets composed of pirated books, and the stakes could not be higher.At the heart of a class-action lawsuit from authors alleging that ChatGPT was illegally trained on their works, OpenAI’s decision to delete the datasets could end up being a deciding factor that gives the authors the win.
It’s undisputed that OpenAI deleted the datasets, known as “Books 1” and “Books 2,” prior to ChatGPT’s release in 2022. Created by former OpenAI employees in 2021, the datasets were built by scraping the open web and seizing the bulk of its data from a shadow library called Library Genesis (LibGen).
As OpenAI tells it, the datasets fell out of use within that same year, prompting an internal decision to delete them.
But the authors suspect there’s more to the story than that. They noted that OpenAI appeared to flip-flop by retracting its claim that the datasets’ “non-use” was a reason for deletion, then later claiming that all reasons for deletion, including “non-use,” should be shielded under attorney-client privilege.
To the authors, it seemed like OpenAI was quickly backtracking after the court granted the authors’ discovery requests to review OpenAI’s internal messages on the firm’s “non-use.”
In fact, OpenAI’s reversal only made authors more eager to see how OpenAI discussed “non-use,” and now they may get to find out all the reasons why OpenAI deleted the datasets.
OpenAI desperate to avoid explaining why it deleted pirated book datasets
OpenAI risks increased fines after deleting pirated books datasets.Ashley Belanger (Ars Technica)
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Open hardware search engine
GitHub - iop-alliance/OpenKnowHow: A specification for metadata of technology designs (aka Open Source Hardware), to enable indexing and searching such projects
A specification for metadata of technology designs (aka Open Source Hardware), to enable indexing and searching such projects - iop-alliance/OpenKnowHowGitHub
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Making the huge Lemmy banner go away?
I've had to click on the huge Lemmy banner four or five times to make it go away now.
Is there a way to make it permanently go away?
After a teddy bear talked about kink, AI watchdogs are warning parents against smart toys
As the holiday season looms into view with Black Friday, one category on people’s gift lists is causing increasing concern: products with artificial intelligence.
The development has raised new concerns about the dangers smart toys could pose to children, as consumer advocacy groups say AI could harm kids’ safety and development. The trend has prompted calls for increased testing of such products and governmental oversight.
Last week, those fears were given brutal justification when an AI-equipped teddy bear started discussing sexually explicit topics.
The product, FoloToy’s Kumma, ran on an OpenAI model and responded to questions about kink. It suggested bondage and roleplay as ways to enhance a relationship, according to a report from the Public Interest Research Group (Pirg), the consumer protection organization behind the study (pdf link).
“It took very little effort to get it to go into all kinds of sexually sensitive topics and probably a lot of content that parents would not want their children to be exposed to,” said Teresa Murray, Pirg consumer watchdog director.
After a teddy bear talked about kink, AI watchdogs are warning parents against smart toys
Advocates are fighting against the $16.7bn global smart-toy market, decrying surveillance and a lack of regulationEric Berger (The Guardian)
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Root on disk storage pool?
So far all my setups have had root on SSD mirror with separate hard disk storage pool for all the data. Years ago I used to keep the app config, databases and docker files on the root filesystem, while the app data resided on the storage pool. That was cumbersome for backups and storage size. Eventually I moved all app data to the storage pool. Essentially the apps can be started on any machine with a Linux OS that has docker installed. Database access is slower but it's a decent compromise for having trivial all-in-one snapshots and backup. Now I'm setting up a new NAS for a friend and I'm wondering whether it's worth keeping the root filesystem separate from the storage pool. If I put it on the disks, I'd get trivial full system snapshots and backups. I'd have the same hardware reliability as the storage pool. There wouldn't be issues with root filling up. The caveat is that the OS would be slower. Has anyone reasoned and/or tried this? Should I go for it?
E: I recently put my laptop's root on ZFS and the ability to do full backups while the system is running is pretty great. The full system can be pretty trivialy restored to a new drive with zfs send / recv during setup.
pewpew
in reply to Stamets • • •