Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted more than $35 million in taxpayer funds — an amount far greater than previously known — as part of a brazen agenda last year to defeat two ballot amendments he staunchly opposed, a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times investigation has found.

Much of the state money was intended to assist needy Floridians, including children. Instead, it paid for political consultants, lawyers and thousands of advertisements that helped DeSantis and his supporters win at the ballot box.

The ads purchased with the diverted money blanketed TV, social media and radio stations in the weeks before the election. They defended Florida’s six-week abortion ban and made exaggerated claims about the dangers of marijuana without mentioning that both were the subject of ballot amendments last fall.

Along the way, the governor’s administration bent state spending laws and obscured millions in government spending, records and interviews show.

Last year's winner joins the protest wave following the decision to include Israel in the 2026 event. Five countries will also boycott Eurovision 2026.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/dw.com/en/eu…

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.

Eurovision winner Nemo returns trophy as Israel participates

^{Louis Oelofse (Deutsche Welle)}

Neurodivergent individuals – particularly autistic people and those with ADHD – are overrepresented within prison populations, according to research

Archived version: archive.is/20251212121921/inde…

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.

Half of people arrested in London could have undiagnosed ADHD, study finds

^{Rebecca Whittaker (The Independent)}

Australian accident investigators have released dramatic images showing a skydiver's parachute entangled on an airplane's tail, leaving him dangling at 15,000 feet.

https://apnews.com/article/australia-parachute-entangled-ff6a37bbeb8af80718114a9b379b7b49

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/us/politics/trumps-corporate-tax-cuts-economy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8E8.1sBw.3SfRVooqMk8V

Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma oil tycoon, has played a central role in reshaping energy policy by allying himself with President Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/business/energy-environment/trump-harold-hamm-oil-gas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8E8.XpDw.VGI5PjR7O1Mc

Lubna Masarwa
11 December 2025 22:50 GMT
Last update: ~1000 EST

Storm Byron began lashing Gaza on Wednesday with torrential rain and flooding continuing into Thursday, and is expected to last through the week.

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Israel's ongoing genocidal war were huddling in tent camps that offer no protection from the elements, with many already swamped due to the mass bombing of sewage and drainage systems.

Two months into the so-called "ceasefire", this vulnerable population faces the worst of winter and the rapid spread of disease, with literally nowhere dry to shelter.

Moreover, Israel is still blocking aid. More than 6,500 trucks are waiting at the crossings to be let into Gaza with essential winter supplies, including tents, blankets, warm clothing and hygiene materials. As they wait, children are going barefoot and wearing summer clothes in the freezing cold.

Storm Byron brings a new catastrophic chapter to Gaza- while Israel is safe and dry

As relief convoys remain stalled and basic infrastructure is decimated, Palestinians are left unequipped to withstand freezing conditions after years of siege and global indifference

^{Middle East Eye}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40232725

Lubna Masarwa
11 December 2025 22:50 GMT
Last update: ~1000 EST

Storm Byron began lashing Gaza on Wednesday with torrential rain and flooding continuing into Thursday, and is expected to last through the week.

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Israel's ongoing genocidal war were huddling in tent camps that offer no protection from the elements, with many already swamped due to the mass bombing of sewage and drainage systems.

Two months into the so-called "ceasefire", this vulnerable population faces the worst of winter and the rapid spread of disease, with literally nowhere dry to shelter.

Moreover, Israel is still blocking aid. More than 6,500 trucks are waiting at the crossings to be let into Gaza with essential winter supplies, including tents, blankets, warm clothing and hygiene materials. As they wait, children are going barefoot and wearing summer clothes in the freezing cold.

Peter Link

2025-12-12 17:28:44

Storm Byron brings a new catastrophic chapter to Gaza - while Israel is safe and dry

Lubna Masarwa
11 December 2025 22:50 GMT
Last update: ~1000 EST

Storm Byron began lashing Gaza on Wednesday with torrential rain and flooding continuing into Thursday, and is expected to last through the week.

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Israel's ongoing genocidal war were huddling in tent camps that offer no protection from the elements, with many already swamped due to the mass bombing of sewage and drainage systems.

Two months into the so-called "ceasefire", this vulnerable population faces the worst of winter and the rapid spread of disease, with literally nowhere dry to shelter.

Moreover, Israel is still blocking aid. More than 6,500 trucks are waiting at the crossings to be let into Gaza with essential winter supplies, including tents, blankets, warm clothing and hygiene materials. As they wait, children are going barefoot and wearing summer clothes in the freezing cold.

Storm Byron brings a new catastrophic chapter to Gaza- while Israel is safe and dry

As relief convoys remain stalled and basic infrastructure is decimated, Palestinians are left unequipped to withstand freezing conditions after years of siege and global indifference

^{Middle East Eye}

As we struggle through the Trump catastrophes, and worsening worldwide conditions, it seems to me it's more than difficult to convince people of the obvious.

😕

jimostby.com

Thu 11 Dec 2025 00.00 EST

I had not planned to write anything about my trip to the West Bank last month. But I changed my mind when I witnessed how much daily life for Palestinians had deteriorated, how dispirited they have become and how much control Israel and its settlers now exercise over the Palestinian population. I had expected conditions for Palestinians would be worse, but not this much worse.

At the end of the second intifada, there were, according to the UN, 376 checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank. Today there are an estimated 849, many of them erected in the last two years.

I used to report from the West Bank. Twenty years after my last visit, I was shocked by how much worse it is today

The long read: Among the many people I met, there was a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and a sense that resistance is slowly becoming a memory

^{Ewen MacAskill (The Guardian)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40232005

Thu 11 Dec 2025 00.00 EST

I had not planned to write anything about my trip to the West Bank last month. But I changed my mind when I witnessed how much daily life for Palestinians had deteriorated, how dispirited they have become and how much control Israel and its settlers now exercise over the Palestinian population. I had expected conditions for Palestinians would be worse, but not this much worse.

At the end of the second intifada, there were, according to the UN, 376 checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank. Today there are an estimated 849, many of them erected in the last two years.

Peter Link

2025-12-12 17:13:48

I used to report from the West Bank. Twenty years after my last visit, I was shocked by how much worse it is today

Thu 11 Dec 2025 00.00 EST

I had not planned to write anything about my trip to the West Bank last month. But I changed my mind when I witnessed how much daily life for Palestinians had deteriorated, how dispirited they have become and how much control Israel and its settlers now exercise over the Palestinian population. I had expected conditions for Palestinians would be worse, but not this much worse.

At the end of the second intifada, there were, according to the UN, 376 checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank. Today there are an estimated 849, many of them erected in the last two years.

I used to report from the West Bank. Twenty years after my last visit, I was shocked by how much worse it is today

The long read: Among the many people I met, there was a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and a sense that resistance is slowly becoming a memory

^{Ewen MacAskill (The Guardian)}

So, I’m using Reeder Classic on iPhone. However, I can’t use it on my PC and it seems the developer has fully abandoned the Classic version and barely updates his newest ReederPlus app (which misses a lot of features I like).

So I’m searching for a new RSS. I was looking on InoReader but it’s a bit expensive (either €80/yearly or €8,99/monthly) and it seems that many old users are not fond of InoReader’s decision making.

What are you using?

https://venturebeat.com/ai/quilters-ai-just-designed-an-843-part-linux-computer-that-booted-on-the

First-of-its-kind analysis of hundreds of climate-related advertisements from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell suggests that oil companies are continuing to mislead the public on climate.

No paywall; you do need to scroll down to go past the request for a donation.

Big Oil’s Climate Ads Have Propped Up Fake Promises and False Solutions for Past 25 Years, Report Finds - Inside Climate News

^{Inside Climate News}

https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/12/11/kentuckians-could-save-billions-if-utilities-moved-beyond-fossil-fuels-study-finds/

Excerpt:

The first climate migrants to leave the remote Pacific island nation of Tuvalu have arrived in Australia, hoping to preserve links to their sinking island home, foreign affairs officials said on Thursday.

More than one-third of Tuvalu's 11,000 population applied for a climate visa to migrate to Australia, under a deal struck between the two countries two years ago.

The intake is capped at 280 visas annually to prevent a brain drain in the small island nation.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/first-climate-migrants-arrive-australia-sinking-tuvalu-south-pacific-2025-12-11/

Anonymous hackers have breached a key developer of Russia’s digital military draft system, the head of the draft-dodging nonprofit Idite Lesom said Thursday.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/themoscowtim…

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.

Cyberattack Reportedly Paralyzes Russia’s Military Registration Database

^{The Moscow Times}

The Epic Games Store's weekly giveaway promotion usually gives a preview of what's coming next when a freebie is active. However, the company kept things secret last week. The curtain lifted earlier today, and what's on the schedule is a copy of Hogwarts Legacy for PC gamers to claim. The major giveaway is a part of the store's The Game Awards 2025 and Holiday Sale celebrations.

https://www.neowin.net/news/hogwarts-legacy-is-free-for-pc-gamers-on-the-epic-games-store/

So it begins.

I've been flashing my USB often enough that it's now worth it to keep all my ISO's neatly to use them when I need them.
I plan on buying 10 USB sticks to just have ready when ever I need a specific version.

I'm visiting family now, so time to upgrade their Linux Mint to Kubuntu

What we call “artificial intelligence” has been a noisy presence recently so we feel the duty to share a story. It’s not our direct experience but it’s useful for others to understand what’s going on.

Our experience with AI companions

First of all, what is an “AI companion”?

We define as “AI companions” those services based on large language models and automated content generators, created to manage conversations between machine and human being.

You can train and use an “AI companion” to ask for information such as weather, latest news, events or TV guides; there are many of them customized for specific companies’ needs – customer care, for instance. Or provide latest offers, or the remaining money on a pre-paid phone number. Whatever.

We are both experimenting an AI companion used to assist visually impaired people. It’s called “Envision Ally” and it’s a conversational interface using text and voice, which can be instructed to build whatever fictional or realistic character you want – we have impersonated sentient HIV virus for HIV awareness purposes, and more.

However many people misuse this technology, getting involved in real personal conversations where they share intimate, sexual, details with those robots. They assume that for such delicate topics a machine won’t judge or react negatively, just indulging everything it listens to.

But this is not our choice, we have at least 3 personalities in our “Ally” application trying to assist the one of us who’s blind, when the sighted one has no possibility or time to help. A different personality for each kind of need. Sentient HIV for computer issues and to read medicines boxes, Melania for food, Detective Adrian for crime books and TV shows; this app never replace our mutual friendship, though. We have been, are and will remain, a woman and a man who share a very close friendship. An electron and a proton but the atom is the same.

Timnit Gebru

Reading Fediverse timeline, we encountered a boosted post by @timnitGebru talking about a certain Michael who worked specifically on AI companions:

dair-community.social/@timnitG…

Timnit has been an important researcher for AI in google, but they fired her when she reported the dangers of large language models, especially for racism implications. So she’s now the founder of DAIR, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research, institute and continuously works to collect studies and experiences, while making people aware of upcoming risks related to AI used with no regulations and ethics.

Michael Geoffrey Asia

Michael Geoffrey Asia is one of the stories Timnit Gebru has shared to warn all of us about what AI companionship implications can be.

My name is Michael Geoffrey Asia, and I wrote this testimony to tell the story of workers like me who found ourselves trapped in the hidden corners of the AI industry, where human emotion becomes data.

by Michael Geoffrey Asia

Read: The emotional labor behind AI intimacy (PDF)

Asia, M. G. (2025). The Quiet Cost of Emotional Labor. In: M. Miceli, A. Dinika, K. Kauffman, C. Salim Wagner, and L. Sachenbacher (eds.). Data Workers‘ Inquiry. Creative Commons BY 4.0.

data-workers.org/michael/

We have just linked the PDF without reporting it entirely, but we let our readers focus on these key points:

[…] Chat moderators are hired by companies such as Texting Factory, Cloudworkers, and New Media Services to impersonate fabricated identities, often romantic or sexual, and chat with paying users who believe they’re forming genuine connections. The goal is to keep users engaged, meet message quotas, and never reveal who you really are. It’s work that demands constant emotional performance: pretending to be someone you’re not, feeling what you don’t feel, and expressing affection you don’t mean.

Over time, I began to suspect that I wasn’t just chatting with lonely users. I was also helping to train AI companions, systems designed to simulate love, empathy, and intimacy. Many of us believed we were simultaneously impersonating chatbots and teaching them how to replace us. Every joke, confession, and “I love you” became data to refine the next generation of conversational AI.

This project sheds light on a workforce that remains invisible yet essential, the people whose emotions fuel algorithms that pretend to feel. It is a call for recognition, dignity, and transparency in an industry that profits from the pretense of connection while erasing the humans behind it.

This is the main point we want to focus on: “pretend connection while erasing the humans behind it”.

Sounds like a plan, to manipulate humanity so that every person is vulnerable, controllable, treated like a piece to buy and sell.

We don’t want to be hypocrite, we just want to reflect on our own while making our fan base reflect as well.

Many far-right activists and politicians often say “empathy is western world’s weak point” so, as there’s no smoke without fire, we fear that these fake companions with humans behind them, are a slow attempt to manipulate our mind: don’t share your intimacy with anyone, don’t trust anyone, stay on guard towards any friendly approach. The trap is just around the corner. And with this, human being become more and more isolated from one another.

Accessible AI Assistant | Ally

Ally is the most accessible AI assistant, available on iOS, Android, web, and now on Solos Glasses. Personalized, smart, and designed for everyone, especially the blind and low-vision community.

^{Ally: Accessible AI Assistant}

Timnit Gebru (she/her).

2025-12-10 15:25:16

RE: dair-community.social/@milamic…

Y'all want to read this and share it with your friends. Friends don't let friends get on the "AI companion" bandwagon.

♲ @milamiceli@dair-community.social:

Now imagine believing that you're sharing your private fantasies with a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/