A massive defense policy bill, revealed by US lawmakers on Sunday, does not include a provision that would have provided broad healthcare coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty members of the military, despite Donald Trump’s pledge to strengthen access to the procedure.

Both the House and Senate previously approved the provision, which was added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as an amendment earlier this year. But Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House and a diehard anti-abortion Republican, worked behind the scenes to strip the provision from the new version of the NDAA, MS NOW reported last week.

Mike Johnson strips military IVF coverage from defense bill – report

House speaker worked behind the scenes to strip provision after it was added as an amendment earlier this year

^{Carter Sherman (The Guardian)}

A new poll suggests that 82% Of British people want Israel to be removed from the Eurovision Song Contest.

The country’s continued involvement with the Song Contest is the subject of controversy, with Russia having been removed following its invasion of Ukraine.

The poll was pieced together by Pablo O’Hana, and utilised a survey sample of 1093, done in a nationally representative manner.

A noted Eurovision fan himself, Pablo O’Hana adds: “Eurovision isn’t just about songs and staging – it’s about values. If Israel is permitted to compete, the people of Britain believe we should walk away. The BBC must find its backbone before walking into that meeting today.”

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/shock-poll-82-of-brits-was-israel-removed-from-eurovision/

A new poll suggests that 82% Of British people want Israel to be removed from the Eurovision Song Contest.

The country’s continued involvement with the Song Contest is the subject of controversy, with Russia having been removed following its invasion of Ukraine.

The poll was pieced together by Pablo O’Hana, and utilised a survey sample of 1093, done in a nationally representative manner.

A noted Eurovision fan himself, Pablo O’Hana adds: “Eurovision isn’t just about songs and staging – it’s about values. If Israel is permitted to compete, the people of Britain believe we should walk away. The BBC must find its backbone before walking into that meeting today.”

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/shock-poll-82-of-brits-was-israel-removed-from-eurovision/

10 januari 2026 kl 11-18, Norra Hamngatan 14 Göteborg

Välkommen på en heldag där vi avslöjar kopplingar mellan svenska aktörer och folkmordet i Palestina. Det finns uppgifter för dig som vill koda, skriva, gräva fram info eller designa. Vi kommer att analysera data, researcha, designa visualiseringar och andra uppgifter som du kan hitta på. Tillsammans tar vi fram underlag för artiklar, material till kampanjer eller publicerar saker direkt.

Det kommer finnas lite öl och pizza, ta gärna med din överblivna glögg eller nåt annat du vill bjuda på.

Vi som ordnar det här är journalist och IT-konsult. Senaste halvåret har vi samlat på oss dokument och data om svenska kopplingar till Israel som vi inte riktigt hinner gå igenom själva. Och vi tror att vi tillsammans kan få fram ännu mer genom att söka i datamängder, begära ut fler handlingar och visualisera data. Både du som har koll på det här och du som vill lära dig mer är välkommen.

Maila anmälan eller frågor senast 7 januari till
palestinahackathon@mailbox.org

State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public “sentiment” surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of “Catahoula Crunch,” prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they’ve been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation.

“Online opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,” said a briefing circulated early Sunday to law enforcement. Earlier bulletins noted “a combination of groups urging the public to record ICE and Border Patrol” as well as “additional locations where agents can find immigrants.”

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-new-orleans-online-monitoring-b2c300245ea4ffbef335502245760a1d

https://www.mooreslawisdead.com/post/sam-altman-s-dirty-dram-deal

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1232…

Photo: Eurokinissi

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has taken a clear, decisive position in support of the escalating struggle of poor farmers across the country.

With a series of on-site visits to the roadblocks in Larissa, Karditsa, Trikala, Tirnavos and other areas, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, conveyed the Party’s full solidarity and its commitment to stand at the side of those fighting for their survival.

During his meetings with farmers, Koutsoumbas underlined that the government bears full responsibility for the explosive situation in the countryside. It refuses to address the just demands of small farmers because it is structurally committed to the interests of big capital—large agricultural businesses, exporters, energy monopolies, shipowners, and all those who profit from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. As he stressed, the government subsidises industrial groups and big exporters, guarantees tax exemptions to shipowners, supports companies in renewable energy sources, and even allows them to charge exorbitant prices, while farmers are forced to pay out of pocket for their essentials.

In this framework, even the most elementary measures for farmers—such as reducing production costs, securing fair prices, or establishing real protective mechanisms—are dismissed as “fiscal impossibilities,” while billions are channelled to capitalist groups. The recent example of forcing livestock breeders to destroy their animals instead of ensuring vaccinations demonstrates, once more, that state policy sacrifices small producers for the benefit of monopoly interests.

The KKE places this entire confrontation within a broader class context. The struggle of the poor farmers concerns not only those who work the land in Thessaly or Macedonia; it affects workers, employees, and the popular strata across the country. High food prices—driven not by farmers but by wholesalers, middlemen, and state taxation—burden working-class households daily. The same political forces that crush farmers are those that attack labour rights, public services, wages, and social provisions.

For this reason, the KKE calls on the working class to actively support the farmers’ mobilisations. It denounces efforts by the government and the mass media to divide workers and farmers or to present the struggling rural poor as an obstacle to society. Such divisive tactics, alongside the deployment of riot police, chemicals, and arrests, aim to wear down the movement. The KKE demands the lifting of all repressive measures, the release of all detained demonstrators, and the immediate withdrawal of police forces from the roadblocks.

In his interventions, Koutsoumbas also linked the farmers’ struggle with Greece’s deeper political commitments to NATO and EU militarism. He pointed to the transformation of regions like Thessaly—especially Larissa—into strategic hubs for U.S. military drones and operations extending from the Balkans and Black Sea to the Middle East and the Red Sea. While the government spends more than €30 billion on armaments for NATO missions, it claims a lack of resources for essential support to farmers and workers. The KKE exposes this contradiction as proof that the state serves imperialist designs rather than the needs of the people.

Against this backdrop, the Party promotes a clear political perspective: no sustainable solution for poor farmers can be found within the current framework of capitalist development, EU policies, and market competition. Partial adjustments or temporary subsidies cannot reverse the relentless concentration of land and production in the hands of agribusiness. The KKE argues that the only real alternative is a radical shift—a people’s economy based on social ownership, central planning, and cooperatives of small producers integrated into a unified plan for food production, infrastructure, and supply. Such a system can guarantee low-cost inputs, stable and fair prices, rational use of resources, and the elimination of parasitic intermediaries.

The Party thus calls for escalation of the people’s struggle, not only to defend the urgent demands of the farmers but to build the political and social alliance capable of confronting monopoly power, breaking with the EU and NATO, and paving the way for workers’ and people’s power.

The KKE’s presence at the roadblocks, its intervention in Parliament, and its continuous activity across unions, associations, and popular organisations highlight a consistent line: the battle of the poor farmers is a battle of the entire working people. The Party urges both workers and farmers to strengthen their unity, reject any attempt at division, and continue the fight with confidence, determination, and a clear orientation toward the real solution—popular power and a socialist reconstruction of agriculture and the economy as a whole.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM©

---

From In Defense of Communism via This RSS Feed.

In Defense of Communism

Greek farmers rise up and the KKE stands by their side | In Defense of Communism

^{www.idcommunism.com}

https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-has-a-problem-nobody-wants-to-buy-or-use-its-shoddy-ai

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/health/obamacare-deductibles-premiums-health-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7E8.MX5L.8a20Q_vHDti9

This is a frontend for the asknostr hashtag on nostr, a more decentralized fediverse alternative.

More questions are needed, if you can help. You can sign up instantly with no email address or anything, but it's hard for the user base to grow, because the questions are usually too focused on a small (honestly cultish) number of topics. I find that odd when anyone can ask anything.

The website has content filters to remove spam and stuff from its own display, but the nostr protocol is open source, and you can self host your own backups of removed posts and display them on your own website without losing any data. I also haven't heard of anyone getting a "ban" where all their past posts are filtered at once / they have to stop posting.

As someone who constantly gets banned from places like asklemmy for being a radical communist or whatever, it's especially important to me that there are no bans here, because it means I don't have to worry about admins repeatedly wiping out time I invest in helping people with answers to their questions.

Note: asknostr.site is still early in development and kinda buggy. Remember you can also post to it through the asknostr hashtag from other nostr apps if you want.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos met with Donald Trump to try and win him over ahead of the bidding war for Warner Bros.

Netflix CEO made a visit to the White House before buying Warner Bros.

^{Terrence O'Brien (The Verge)}

His House is a modern horror masterpiece that’s better than your average “haunted by trauma” fare.

You need to watch the modern horror masterpiece, His House

^{Terrence O'Brien (The Verge)}

The Apache Software Foundation discovered a serious security flaw in Apache Tika, a widely used open source tool for analyzing and extracting metadata from files. The vulnerability has the maximum CVSS score of 10.0 and could enable exploitation if systems are not fully updated.

Apache warns of critical vulnerability in Tika toolkit - Techzine Global

Apache reports a security flaw in Apache Tika, an open source tool for analyzing and extracting metadata from files.

^{Mels Dees (Techzine)}

Juan Orlando Hernández thanked the Lord for being ‘a free man’ and then Trump for ‘changing my life’

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.

Ex-Honduran president thanks God – and Trump – for drug-trafficking pardon

^{Ramon Antonio Vargas (The Guardian)}

STC troops now control all eight governorates, a major setback for Emirates’ regional rival Saudi Arabia

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.

Seizure of South Yemen by UAE-backed forces could lead to independence claim

^{Patrick Wintour (The Guardian)}

Berlin (AFP) – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz heads to Israel on Saturday for his first visit since taking office, aiming to reaffirm traditionally solid ties that were shaken during the Gaza war.

Merz, after stopping in Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II, is set to fly on to Israel in the evening before meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday.

The German leader is also expected to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

Given the dark legacy of Nazi Germany's industrial-scale murder of Jews, German leaders have long seen unflinching support for Israel as a bedrock of the country's foreign policy.

In a speech in September celebrating the reopening of Munich's synagogue, which was severely damaged by the Nazis, Merz visibly struggled to hold back tears, his voice breaking.

But Israeli-German ties were shaken during the Gaza war [...].

Merz, who took power in May this year, has repeatedly criticised Israel's relentless military campaign, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

In August, he also moved to restrict sales of weapons for use in Gaza.

Since a fragile US-backed ceasefire and hostage deal ended full-scale fighting, Germany has lifted those export restrictions.

Despite the ceasefire deal, more than 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health authorities, as well as three Israeli soldiers.

The UN also warns that Israel is still not allowing enough aid into Gaza.

Before leaving Berlin on Saturday morning, Merz spoke with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmud Abbas.

A spokesman said Merz underscored German support for a two-state solution but urged Abbas to push through "urgently necessary reforms" of the PA in order to play a "constructive role" in the postwar order.

After the recent strains, Israel expects a "signal of continued support" from Merz, said Michael Rimmel, head of the Jerusalem office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, affiliated with Merz's centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU).

German-Israeli relations have been strained over the past two years but remain "better than many people think", Rimmel told AFP.

But he said Berlin has little discernible influence on Netanyahu's government, which has pushed on with West Bank settlements despite protests from Berlin and elsewhere, and dismissed calls for a two-state solution.

"Certainly, President Trump and the Americans have greater influence," said Rimmel, noting that the US president was able to pressure Netanyahu into the Gaza ceasefire.

Gil Shohat, head of the Tel Aviv office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is affiliated with Germany's far-left Die Linke party, sharply criticised Merz for making the trip.

Shohat argued that Merz is effectively offering political support to Netanyahu and Israel's hard-right government.

"Netanyahu is a wanted war criminal and is under suspicion of corruption," said Shohat. "Going there now and legitimising him is a fatal sign of normalisation in a situation that must not be normalised."

Although Merz's public criticism of Israel was unusual for a German leader, it was measured by international standards.

Merz recently offered Israel full-throated support as European broadcasters weighed whether to exclude the country from the annual Eurovision Song Contest, calling such a possibility "scandalous".

The decision to include Israel in the upcoming Eurovision event, reached on Thursday, was warmly welcomed in Berlin even as it prompted boycotts from Spain, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Still, despite the close ties, German officials have said there are currently no plans to invite Netanyahu -- who faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes in Gaza from the International Criminal Court (ICC) -- to Berlin.

Merz, not long after his party's election victory in February, vowed to invite the Israeli leader and told him in a phone call that he would not be arrested.

Any tensions in German-Israeli relations have also not disrupted key military ties. Germany last week put into operation the first phase of the Israeli-made Arrow missile defence shield.

The $4.5 billion deal was reportedly the largest arms export agreement in Israeli history, and Berlin has also turned to Israeli firms for help in drone defence.

The German-Israeli Society -- which said Merz's visit must aim to "repair the damaged German-Israeli relations" -- also pointed out that defence ties "have long since reversed".

"Israel is no longer dependent on German technology, but rather German defence depends on Israeli technology."

From the playbook of no shit sherlock.

Of course that's not what ineffective democratic leadership will do.

https://apnews.com/article/governors-democrats-affordability-2026-midterms-trump-1dfe3d853f29bb392764203601e4c2d1