In recent months, Israel’s public broadcaster aired several reports on Israel’s massive problem in exporting fruits, particularly to European markets.
The reports, which indicate what the growers themselves describe as a looming “collapse,” unwittingly testify to the importance of the continuing international boycott of Israel.
“They don’t want our mangoes,” a grower tells Kan 11. “In Europe, they talk to us only if they’re missing something. Only then do they buy from us. If they have an alternative, they avoid it.”
Ronen Alfasi says that most of the crops from his sector used to be exported to Asian countries, but mentions the “logistical problem against the Houthis” as the reason for which “all the logistical lines have changed.” Longer and more expensive routes were sought, Alfasi says, with containers arriving after 90 to 100 days late. “And they came with big quality problems,” he described.
The only remaining market that’s available, Alfasi says, is Russia. Even though he’s losing money as a citrus farmer, he’s exporting to Russia just to cover warehouse expenses.
Israeli farmers warn the country’s agricultural export industry is facing a looming “collapse” due to international opposition to the Gaza genocide. Recent reports show the impact of boycotting Israel, and why the Israeli ‘brand’ may never recover.
"yall keep promising me the roman empire is gonna collapse but it never does"
No state lasts forever, least of all an apartheid state with such a resilient resistance movement against it. Israel's only 78 years old—there's plenty of living people older than that. It will fall, because Palestinians aren't going away, and they will continue to want to return.
Hi all, hope this is the right place to put a question like this.
I am looking for a potential roleplaying game to play with my kid (9 years), but there is absolutely no interest for anything fantasy or sci-fi. Just a love of anything animals and recently we discovered Everdell as a cool boardgame for our family. Root is another boardgame that in style would fit our interests.
Does anyone know of any roleplaying game featuring animals having jobs, building communities? Fighting monsters or evil dudes is not completely off the table I think, I am sure I could tone that down myself if necessary. Bonus plus if it features art like the two games I mentioned.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Science and the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) are prioritizing collaboration over competition to advance quantum computer development and the field of quantum information. They are doing this through Open Quantum Design (OQD), a non-profit organization that boasts the world's first open-source, full stack quantum computer.
OQD was co-founded in 2024 by faculty members in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and IQC, Drs. Crystal Senko, Rajibul Islam and Roger Melko, alongside CEO Greg Dick (BSc '93).
The group is helping reshape how quantum research is shared, opening doors for the next generation of quantum scientists, and even seeding new quantum startups.
"We are offering a shared hub where groups can contribute what they're comfortable sharing and, as a non-profit, we can be transparent about real progress without commercial pressures," Senko says.
OQD's stack spans hardware, the electronic and computing layers that run it, and open software. Their quantum computer uses ion-trapping, which involves isolating charged atoms (ions) in a vacuum and manipulating them with lasers and electromagnetic fields. This isolation allows the atoms to act as quantum bits (qubits), storing and processing information with carefully controlled interactions.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Science and the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) are prioritizing collaboration over competition to advance quantum computer development and the field of quantum information.
There was a lot of discussion about the real-world inspiration for the world of Stellar Blade when the hit game came out. While it was set in a post-apocalyptic world, and there were clear real-world inspirations in terms of aesthetics, but the actual references were more vague references to North Africa and the Middle East. This doesn't seem to be the case for Stellar Blade 2, whose development seems to be in full swing. The official @StellarBlade account on X posted a teaser about the upcoming location for its "next title," and it looks as though the game will be set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic China, seemingly with an emphasis on Chongqing city. The city itself, which was identified by u/jamiebaby on Reddit, is known for its multi-layered construction.
Job applications from US academics to Hong Kong surged 55 per cent in 2025, as President Donald Trump’s administration targeted American universities by cutting federal research funding and revoking foreign student visas, according to Times Higher Education.
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.
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.
That's my bad, I was also reading an op-ed in another tab and flipped the words as I wrote them.
Meant to say "some dude's opinion." The Greens have 6 MPs out of 1472 MPs in both houses. They're not exactly driving the policy of the UK with less than 1% of parliament.
They doubled their polling since the last election, now sitting at 14% and while that's not gonna lead them to the No.10, they will likely have weight behind them in the future.
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.
Seriously, what the fuck is going on with fabs right now?
Micron has found a way to add new DRAM manufacturing capacity in a hurry by acquiring a chipmaking campus from Taiwanese outfit Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC).
The two companies announced the deal last weekend. Micron’s version of events says it’s signed a letter of intent to acquire Powerchip’s entire P5 site in Tongluo, Taiwan, for total cash consideration of US$1.8 billion.
Forse lo sapete già, ma per me è stata una novità e non ho trovato il nome nello storico qui.
C'è anche un'istanza italiana: giretti.gatti.ninja/ , abbastanza modesta come numeri: un utente regolare a Fondi (il sud assoluto dell'utenza dell'app) e una ventina di percorsi nell'Appennino settentrionale.
There may be a reason why that ol' "Facebook is listening to you talk" conspiracy theory refuses to die - and not just because Facebook's ad technology
If you listen to electronic music you probably know what I’m talking about even without knowing it by name. It’s the sound in breakdowns where nothing really changes about the patterns or the music being played, but the sparkle and definition goes away and all you can really hear is the baseline and kick drums. The high hats are still playing and “in the mix”, their high pitched sound is just being filtered out electronically when the person playing turns a knob.
In everyday life it’s the sound of music through a closed door or rolls up window, muffled and low pitched. When the person opens their door or rolls down the window suddenly you hear more than the subs.
Waves propagating through a medium follow the inverse square law so the more dense or thick the “door” that sound has to go through, the quieter the blocked frequencies on the other side will be.
Since ultrasonic waves will be higher in frequency than audible ones, they’ll be scattered and absorbed much more readily than low frequency ones. Something that will absorb them well would be a flexible damping layer between the microphone and air, like the material of a disposable glove stuck over the top of the microphone hole.
This solution is better than a software one, because instead of relying on your software to correctly intercept and filter input from the microphone, you’re preventing it from ever reaching the mic in the first place!
Now you still need to be worried about solid objects. They can transmit sounds just like the air and are even better at high frequencies! Someone could have an ultrasonic exciter mounted on the bottoms of a table and vibrate your phones mic directly through its own chassis! So maybe stick your whole phone in the glove instead of just cutting out a little diaphragm for the chassis mic hole.
if you can't trust your phone with not emitting beacon sounds all the time, that's a problem. not with you, but with the phone.
I don't know if google mobile services does it, butbother apps, including pre-installed ones could also do that. your best bet may be a relatively popular custom android rom, without google services but microg is fine), or banishing the "consumer" and mainstream social apps to the work profile on your phone, which you set up to automatically kill its apps when not in use.
Any hidden screws or seams to pry? Is there alternative firmware for it?
If not, I'd imagine your only options would be physically crippling the bluetooth module, porting something like OpenWrt to it, or getting a router that doesn't force Bluetooth on you.
Airtel provides great service, but they are terrible at such things. They won't let me disable the WiFi, even though I am in bridge mode and am using my own router. In their UI the options are greyed out. Their "engineers" don't know anything other than wiring stuff. Half of them say they allow port forwarding, while other half says they don't allow it for security reasons.
If it is possible for you, get a business connection, rather than a residential one.
Airtel is the market leader in the broadband internet service space. Airtel utilizes routers (GPON/ONU + router) from various brands, which vary depending on the location and commercial arrangements.
T-Mobile fiber came too my neighborhood and I couldn't get off Fucking Comcast fast enough. Þe T-Mobile tech gave me a router and I said, no þanks, got my own, I'm good. He responded þat he had to give me þe router, wheþer or not I used it was up to me.
So now I have a brand new router, unopened in a box, sitting and waiting to be e-waste. I'll probably donate it to Goodwill or someþing.
I only voted for Obama once. The first time, I voted for John McCain. What a brainwashed fool I was. What a brainwashed fool I still am; for some reason, I believe that a magical someone is gonna save us all.
The world wouldn't allow us to commit such atrocities, right?
It has taken too long, much too long, but a citizens resistance is coming. Some of actually realize the system is broken beyond repair and cannot count on leadership to do anything.
But it’s going to be long and sloppy. A lot of good people are going to lose their lives standing up to the world’s biggest military on home soil.
Making it seem so complicated is part of the calculated effort to reduce resistance. I invite folks to study how domestic resistance to the US invasion of Vietnam helped end US involvement.
I know it wasn't bloodless but a good solid first step is not feeding your (collective your) babies to the war machine and making involvement in the military industrial complex an unforgivable social sin.
Whenever i encounter the "we cant revolt, theyll shoot us" argument from americans i always think to myself "so youd rather they shoot someone else in a different country then? Right"
Its clear subconsciously at least they think theyre superior and value their own lives above other nation's peoples.
Literally just be mean to a military recruiter. Hell just point and laugh or roll your eyes. Pull your kids from cadets. Shun ROTC participants. Refuse sponsorships from military contractors. Don't take internships at them. Tell them they can't have a float at your local parade.
All this talk about revolt and it doesn't really feel like most folks have even considered how impactful being mildly annoying can be.
This is unironically the big moral dilemma presented by so much western entertainment media it's nauseating. "Would you pRoTeCt yOuR FaMiLy even if it meant the world/everyone else would die?" and the correct moral position, after much soul searching and garment rending is usually presented as: "Yes, fuck the world, you gotta protect you and your own above literally ALL else." And it's always so contrived, with such manufactured scenarios to ignore the fact that in the vast majority of both real and imagined cases, the better option for the world is also going to be the better option for your family. But constantly pitting the individual and their immediate family's interests over the well being of the community and society is fundamentally necessary to maintain the capitalist mode, so they gotta keep reinforcing that false dichotomy as some kind of universal conundrum that is best answered by being as self centered as possible "for your family."
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
Rutte can't keep Trumps tiny dick out of his mouth. The vassal sell-out leaders of Europe will want back in the moment there is a more acceptable imperialist warmonger in the white house. And obviously the US would also like to continue their NATO protection racket.
It may not be the most tasteful comment, would it have been removed if I used fellating? Honest question, freedom of expression is important (even if not absolute) but censorship for this metaphor when he wouldn't even read it is a bit much IMO
Militarize? We already spend more on the military than the next 9 countries combined. And we have 5 different wars going on right now that nobody can even name without googling.
In 2024, [Ahmad-Reza Radan, Iran’s police chief and a vocal supporter of employing force against protesters] visited China and signed a “memorandum on law enforcement cooperation” with China’s minister of public security, Wang XiaoHong, pledging to “upgrade law enforcement and security cooperation” and “strengthen practical collaboration in areas such as counterterrorism” to contribute to regional stability, according to China’s Xinhua state news agency. Neither Xinhua nor IRNA, Iran’s own state news agency, released the memorandum’s full text.
[...]
The People’s Public Security University of China, the country’s top police academy, has run “Advanced Iranian Police Officers Training Programs” since 2015, organized by China’s Ministry of Public Security, according to Chinese school materials and state media reports reviewed by Kharon. Such Iranian cooperation appears to have deepened since, and in 2018, Iran’s National Police University signed a formal agreement institutionalizing more exchange and training programs.
The relationship remains active. On December 25, 2025, just days before Iran’s protests erupted, its ambassador to China visited the People’s Public Security University, pledging to continue “pragmatic cooperation in law enforcement and security,” according to a school press release.
[...]
Tiandy Technologies, a Chinese provider of video surveillance tech, has built deep roots in Iran—and in China’s security establishment.
Its equipment, which flows through sales agents into a country where surveillance technology has reportedly been used to monitor the protests and track dissidents, offers one link between China’s security industry and Tehran’s monitoring capabilities.
[...]
Tiandy Technologies says on its website that it has worked in China's public security sector for more than 20 years, serving clients including the Ministry of Public Security, which awarded it a first-class science and technology award in 2018.
[...]
Tiandy Center is a subsidiary of Iran-based Ati Negar Basir Elektronik Company and a self-described “distributor of Tiandy Products.” An archived version of its website from July 2025 listed 18 offices across Iran and advertised that if a company becomes a Tiandy representative in Iran, it can also represent other Chinese video-surveillance brands, including Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. The U.S. added both those companies to the Entity List in 2019, citing their roles in China’s repression and “high-technology surveillance” of minorities, and it later designated both as companies in China’s military industrial complex.
Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar Company is another distributor of Tiandy products in Iran. According to an archived version of its website from last month, the company listed Iranian government entities as its customers, including the Iran Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the national traffic police. In addition to Tiandy products, Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar also said it was a representative for Hangzhou Hikvision and Zhejiang Dahua.
[...]
In response to Iran’s protests and crackdown, China has staked out a clear public position: for its security and trading partner’s “stability” and against U.S. intervention.
“We hope the Iranian government and people will overcome the current difficulties and uphold stability in the country,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said at a press briefing Wednesday. China opposes, she added, “external interference in other countries’ internal affairs.”
Beijing has trained Iranian police for years as part of a deep security partnership, and U.S.-blacklisted video-surveillance companies in China have supplied Iran’s security apparatus extensively, a Kharon review shows.
“We hope the Iranian government and people will overcome the current difficulties and uphold stability in the country,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said at a press briefing Wednesday. China opposes, she added, “external interference in other countries’ internal affairs.”
Also, every fucking sane person opposes foreign interferance in sovereign countries affairs. I oppose: - US -> Venezuela - Russia -> Ukraine - China -> Taiwan - China -> India - India -> Pakistan - Israel -> Palestine - Israel -> Iran - US -> Iran - US -> Greenland
Through police exchange programs, local and federal officials travel to Israel for training that advocates say further militarizes the police and exacerbates harm to marginalized communities.
Yes, this is very bad, as China helps the Iranian regime to suppress its citizens. The estimates how many of Iranians have been killed vary, but even the lowest numbers are in the thousands. China is contributing to that by providing the same technology that it uses in Xinjiang and other regions to suppress the population.
I could continue almost endlessly with such reports, all of them, of course, very reliable, but I guess it woudn't bear fruit here.
What makes this whataboutism to defend China and authoritarian regimes - because this is how your comment can only be interpreted - is not the whataboutism itself as such is widespread on Lemmy. This time it comes from a moderator, though. It's amazing how many admins and mods here in the Lemmyverse. There are 'soft' versions of the grad and bear communities where violence against civilians is literally celebrated, as another study on left-wing extremism in from last year showed.
Our findings reveal a substantial increase in user activity and toxicity levels following the migration from the [subreddits] r/GenZedong and r/GenZhou to lemmygrad .ml. We also identify posts that support authoritarian regimes, endorse the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and feature anti-Zionist and antisemitic content. Overall, our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of political extremism ...
We all have different opinions, and that's good for a lively discussion. But in these communities they are literally cheering the death and the violence against innocent people such as Ukrainian civilians. If you don't believe me or the study, please feel free to visit their communities and read their post and comment yourself.
You don't need to convince me that Iran's or China's supression of their people is bad. From supression of speech to repressive woman rights and various human right abuses. I wholeheartedly oppose that. I'm against all authoritarian regimes, but it's not up-to foreign countries, but people of those countries to overthrow them if they desire. In accordance with international law we have no right impose our beliefs on them.
Me agreeing with China stating that international law should be followed is not in defense of China, but the aforementioned international law.
Also, the economic crisis in Iran is mostly created by Western sanctions, so if we really cared about Iranians, we would stop that.
All comments I post are my own and have no bearing on my actions as a moderator. If I comment as a moderator that comment will be featured or highlighted (different clients uses different terminology). If you feel like I broken my own community rules, feel free to report that comment or post and I will leave it to instance administrators to resolve.
Also, the economic crisis in Iran is mostly created by Western sanctions, so if we really cared about Iranians, we would stop that.
Yes, the Western sanctions hurt the Iranian society, and I am all in for ending this. I have not looked myself into the data and my knowledge of the Iranian economy is very limited, but what I hear and read from those who do is that ordinary citizens in Iran wouldn't benefit much from the country's wealth even if sanctions were lifted. This is one reason why people demand a regime change.
Decided to look into the yellow counties in Montana because I was shocked if they could even be 49%. Petroleum County (a truly American name) in Montana has 228 occupied households and seemingly no public transportation. However, 58.2% of the county is employed in mining.
So my best guess is a company bus that comes around and picks up everybody? It seems like the bulk of the remainder are farmers, which would mean they don't "need" to drive anywhere. Although they do drive constantly across their property as part of the work, which feels like cheating.
Let’s recognize the significance of this historic move. Schedule III is overdue, and it will matter for patients, researchers and businesses that have shouldered an absurd tax burden for too long. But we cannot let a single Oval Office photo op stand in for justice.
If this rescheduling is to mean anything, it must be the beginning of a second wave of reform, not the end of the story. Until the last nonviolent cannabis prisoner is free —and until a weed charge no longer shadows a person’s life—the war on pot isn’t over. It’s just wearing a better suit.
Let’s recognize the significance of this historic move. Schedule III is overdue, and it will matter for patients, researchers and businesses that have shouldered an absurd tax burden for too long. But we cannot let a single Oval Office photo op stand in for justice.
If this rescheduling is to mean anything, it must be the beginning of a second wave of reform, not the end of the story. Until the last nonviolent cannabis prisoner is free —and until a weed charge no longer shadows a person’s life—the war on pot isn’t over. It’s just wearing a better suit.
The US-backed Kurdish militia has accused Washington’s military coalition of ignoring SDF calls for assistance amid a Syrian army assault on the north
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on 19 January that Damascus has continued to attack its positions across northern Syria despite the US-backed ceasefire reached a day earlier, warning that attacks are targeting the vicinity of SDF-run prisons holding tens of thousands of jailed ISIS militants.
“Since the early hours of this morning, Al-Shaddadi Prison, which holds thousands of detainees from the terrorist organization ISIS, has been subjected to repeated attacks carried out by factions affiliated with Damascus. Fighters of the SDF confronted these attacks and succeeded in repelling them several times, resulting in the martyrdom of dozens of our fighters and the injury of others, in an effort to prevent a serious security catastrophe,” it said.
“Al-Shaddadi Prison is located approximately two kilometers from the US International Coalition base in the area. The US base did not intervene, despite repeated calls for intervention … Al-Shaddadi Prison has currently fallen outside the control of our forces,” it added.
“Despite the declared ceasefire agreement and the official statements issued in this regard, factions affiliated with the Damascus government continue their attacks on our forces in Ain Issa, Al-Shaddadi, and Raqqa,” the Kurdish group said earlier.
The group had also warned that the vicinity of Al-Aqtan Prison in Raqqa is also witnessing “fierce clashes” between SDF fighters and forces affiliated with the Syrian state.
While true, this is only half of the picture. Exporters "pay" through the products they can't sell, because demand is shrinking. While most exporters can't lower their prices much without making a loss this directly benefits low production cost countries like China.
In the end it's a quadruple Eigentor (the German word for own goal) because you weaken your own country and your economic partners, isolate yourself on the global market and strengthen your enemies. Good job, America.
If you implement tariffs without propping up national industries to compensate for the reduced imports, you're damaging yourself at least as much as the countries you're applying tariffs to.
But he doesn't care, because Americans keep taking this laying down, so he and his friends can keep lining their pockets as much as they like.
Kathmandu, January 19, 2026: Various communist and left parties organized a rally and mass meeting in the Kathmandu Valley today, boycotting the upcoming elections and demanding an independent people’s government and a people’s constitution.
The rally, led by the Central Joint Struggle Committee and supported by the Scientific Socialist Communist Party, Revolutionary Communist Party of Nepal, CPN (Bahumat), CPN (Janapakshya), Nepal Communist Party Socialist Communist Party, and other groups, began from Sundhara and concluded at Shantibatika, where it turned into a mass gathering.
Participants expressed dissatisfaction with the current political system and called for the protection of a people-oriented constitution. They also demanded the safeguarding of democratic rights, stating that the existing system has failed to address public concerns.
The organizers reiterated their stance of rejecting the electoral process and urged citizens to support their movement for systemic political change.
Israel now finds itself alongside Russia in the “alliance of the boycotted,” Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan 11, said.
It’s hard to trace a single party that is responsible for Israel’s export problems, but Europe is a big part of the story.
“They don’t want our mangoes,” a grower tells Kan 11. “In Europe, they talk to us only if they’re missing something. Only then do they buy from us. If they have an alternative, they avoid [buying from us].”
Another part of the story is Yemen’s Ansar Allah (commonly known as “the Houthis”). Their blockade of the Red Sea in the south (despite their May agreement with the U.S., which did not desist from threatening Israel), has forced shipping companies to use longer and more expensive routes. This has also compromised the Asian market.
But despite the lack of a single, clear factor, Israel’s genocide in Gaza remains one clear common cause arching across the various elements. Israelis simultaneously deny and declare their support for it, as evidenced by a major poll last year showing that a vast majority of Israelis believe [that] there are “no innocents in Gaza.”
Due to national self-righteousness and the sense of entitlement to commit genocide under the pretext of “self-defense,” the dire consequences at first hit the Israeli collective ego. We see farmers cry, and the national sympathy naturally goes to the citrus and mango growers — even as one of them, a retired general, tells everyone how he is “done with” the Palestinians.
In other words, the Israeli backlash against the global boycott implicitly adds to the hatred of Palestinians, despising those who don’t stand with Israel.
But what’s actually taking a hit in Israel isn’t one economic sector or the other — it’s the Israeli brand, and it may not recover.
Ironically, the best representation of that brand are the “Jaffa oranges,” which have virtually disappeared from the international market — a brand that in and of itself is a representation of Israel’s settler colonial expropriation of Palestinian culture.
Let us have a look at two main media reports, one about citrus and the other about mangos, which make up two major Israeli agricultural exports.
The worst examples are when bots can get through the "ban" just by paying a monthly fee.
So-called "AI filters"
An increasing number of websites lately are claiming to ban AI-generated content. This is a lie deeply tied to other lies.
Building on a well-known lie: that they can tell what is and isn't generated by a chat bot, when every "detector tool" has been proven unreliable, and sometimes we humans can also only guess.
Helping slip a bigger lie past you: that today's "AI algorithms" are "more AI" than the algorithms a few years ago. The lie that machine learning has just changed at the fundamental level, that suddenly it can truly understand. The lie that this is the cusp of AGI - Artificial General Intelligence.
Supporting future lying opportunities:
To pretend a person is a bot, because the authorities don't like the person
To pretend a bot is a person, because the authorities like the bot (or it pays the monthly fee)
To pretend bots have become "intelligent" enough to outsmart everyone and break "AI filters" (yet another reframing of gullible people being tricked by liars with a shiny object)
Perhaps later - when bots are truly smart enough to reliably outsmart these filters - to pretend it's nothing new, it was the bots doing it the whole time, don't look beind the curtain at the humans who helped
And perhaps - with luck - to suggest you should give up on the internet, give up on organizing for a better future, give up on artistry, just give up on everything, because we have no options that work anymore
The solution: Web of Trust
You want to show up in "verified human" feeds, but you don't know anyone in real life that uses a web of trust app, so nobody in the network has verified you're a human.
You ask any verified human to meet up with you for lunch. After confirming you exist, they give your account the "verified human" tag too.
They will now see your posts in their "tagged human by me" feed.
Their followers will see your posts in the "tagged human by me and others I follow" feed.
And their followers will see your posts in the "tagged human by me, others I follow, and others they follow" feed...
And so on.
I've heard everyone is generally a maximum 6 degrees of separation from everyone else on Earth, so this could be a more robust solution than you'd think.
The tag should have a timestamp on it. You'd want to renew it, because the older it gets, the less people trust it.
This doesn't hit the same goalposts, of course.
If your goal is to avoid thinking, and just be told lies that sound good to you, this isn't as good as a weak "AI filter."
If your goal is to scroll through a feed where none of the creators used any software "smarter" than you'd want, this isn't as good as an imaginary strong "AI filter" that doesn't exist.
But if your goal is to survive, while others are trying to drive the planet to extinction...
If your goal is to be able to tell the truth and not be drowned out by liars...
If your goal is to be able to hold the liars accountable, when they do drown out honest statements...
If your goal is to have at least some vague sense of "public opinion" in online discussion, that actually reflects what humans believe, not bots...
Then a "human tag" web of trust is a lot better than nothing.
It won't stop someone from copying and pasting what ChatGPT says, but it should make it harder for them to copy and paste 10 answers across 10 fake faces.
Speaking of fake faces - even though you could use this system for ID verification, you might never need to. People can choose to be anonymous, using stuff like anime profile pictures, only showing their real face to the person who verifies them, never revealing their name or other details. But anime pictures will naturally be treated differently from recognizable individuals in political discussions, making it more difficult for themselves to game the system.
To flood a discussion with lies, racist statements, etc., the people flooding the discussion should have to take some accountability for those lies, racist statements, etc. At least if they want to show up on people's screens and be taken seriously.
A different dark pattern design
You could say the human-tagging web of trust system is "dark pattern design" too.
This design takes advantage of human behavioral patterns, but in a completely different way.
When pathological liars encounter this system, they naturally face certain temptations. Creating cascading webs of false "human tags" to confuse people and waste time. Meanwhile, accusing others of doing it - wasting even more time.
And a more important temptation: echo chambering with others who use these lies the same way. Saying "ah, this person always accuses communists of using false human tags, because we know only bots are communists. I will trust this person."
They can cluster together in a group, filtering everyone else out, calling them bots.
And, if they can't resist these temptations, it will make them just as easy to filter out, for everyone else. Because at the end of the day, these chat bots aren't late-gen Synths from Fallout. Take away the screen, put us face to face, and it's very easy to discern a human from a machine. These liars get nothing to hide behind.
So you see, like strong is the opposite of weak [citation needed], the strong filter's "dark pattern design" is quite different from the weak filter's. Instead of preying on honesty, it preys on the predatory.
Perhaps, someday, systems like this could even change social pressures and incentives to make more people learn to be honest.
Two-thirds majority of Americans say the federal government is intentionally holding back some information about the Epstein case that should be released, while just 16% say the government is making an effort to release all information possible. The remainder say they haven’t heard enough about the case to say.
From first glance, I feel like this post is taken out of context. It might not be implying that we'll fight Trump with voting, but rather Trump has no right to cancel the midterms by dragging us into a war over Greenland because we didn't cancel the election during the Civil War. I could be wrong though, that's just my impression
Ok so when he cancels the midterms, are you going to do something about it or are you going to wag your finger disapprovingly like every other time Trump has broken every single written and unwritten rule you pretend to care about
"he has no right!" He doesn't care about rights, all that matters is who's gonna stop him
Personally, I'm preparing to do things to resist in my personal life like preparing to buy firearms and training with them as well as researching how to obtain gender affirming care by illegal means for my sister's sake.
When it comes to actually defeating the fascists though? Unless we all gather into an organized armed uprising, then all I can do is protest and prepare to defend my loved ones with my life. The best I can do is hide in the shadows waiting for that organized resistance. Once that happens, hopefully I will have practiced with a firearm enough to give my life up to defeat them. If we all fail, then there will be nothing that can stop him considering the entire democratic party are essentially the same thing
The promise of Just the Browser sounds good. Rather than fork one of the big-name browsers, just run a tiny script that turns off all the bits and functions you don't want.
Just the Browser is a new project by developer Corbin Davenport. It aims to fight the rising tide of undesirable browser features such as telemetry, LLM bot features billed as AI, and sponsored content by a clever lateral move. It uses the enterprise management features built into the leading browsers to turn these things off.
The concept is simple and appealing. Enough people want de-enshittified browsers that there are multiple forks of the big names. For Firefox, there are Waterfox and Zen as well as LibreWolf and Floorp, and projects based off much older versions of the codebase such as Pale Moon. Most people, though, tend to use Chrome and there are lots of browsers based on its Chromium upstream too, including Microsoft Edge, the Chinese-owned Opera, and from some of the people behind the original Norwegian Opera browser, Vivaldi.
Hi, I've got a weird issue and figured I'd see if anybody knows how to fix it. I've noticed that most of my steam games that have linux native support just crash immediately when I try to run them. Running with Proton works just fine, but I was wondering if my system might be missing something obvious I need to run linux native games?
The latest one I was trying to play was Pyre. I tried looking through the logs, but couldn't find anything obvious to me.
Edit: Whatever it is, it looks like its not something simple, but that is okay because everything seems to work fine with proton anyway. Thanks for the help anyway! 😀
Try starting steam from the terminal. A lot of diagnostic info gets printed to stdout and stderr, which you can scroll through after a crash. Search up anything that looks like a serious error, it might point you in the right direction.
Weirdly enough, it did work that time, but froze the game when I tried to exit. I tried another time and it didn't run the game and gave some errors like:
[___](ERROR: ld.so: object '/REDACTED/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
)
The LD_PRELOAD one is actually harmless and annoyingly spams everyone. Steam tries to preload the 32 and 64 bit overlay library into every process and depends on one or the other failing.
The free assert is bad and likely related to the crash. The stacktrace might be interesting if you want to share it.
The only cause that comes to mind is something like a libc conflict between the game and your graphics driver. That's going to be annoying to diagnose/fix though.
Fixed it on one buddie's computer, he installed the snap version. We fixed it by removing that one and installing Steam via apt. Which version do you have?
Switching to flatpak steam will often fix these weird steam problems.
For actually troubleshooting it, I'm guessing you have an issue with your steam runtime for Linux games. Try running steam with the console command:
STEAM_RUNTIME=0 steam
and see if your games work. Basically by default Steam bundles it's own runtime packages to run Linux games with. Setting steam runtime to 0 as part of the launch will disable this functionality, and use your systems packages instead.
Another thing you could try, you can open game properties and go to the compatibility section. There you can check "force compatibility layer" and try different steam Linux runtimes (if you have them installed).
Currently I prefer Windows versions of games. I understand the people who much rather have a native port, but I've come to view Windows (Wine, Proton) as the Linux Gaming API Layer. When you think of it like that, it doesn't really matter if the game has a native port or not.
Last week I installed a game on Steam (can't remember the title, sorry) that had a Feral native port. It complained about my card not being supported and crashed. I then installed the Proton version and it simply worked.
Even if there is a native port, it probably takes work to keep up with Linux rapidly evolving features than to keep it running on Windows relatively static APIs.
So I thank Microsoft for the Linux Gaming API (and the intrepid Wine devs), I'm sure they didn't intend it to be this way but here we are.
That is already happening. Russian tankers are attacked by Ukraine, Venezuela has just been attacked by the US and Iran is having massive protests. Still the oil price is fairly low right now.
Most of the executive power is held by the prime minister, currently from a party in the opposition. He has been in power since 2017, and today i learned that : (source) It's up to countries to choose their fate(, ideally only through reason and without influence).
Bulgaria joined the euro zone on the 1st of January, 2026
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev was supposed to attend the NATO summit in Washington next week but has suddenly pulled out. Why? Apparently, it's connected to a document that affirms Bulgaria's support for Ukraine.
The United States is a global superpower, and its military trains for war in every domain. During my years as a military educator, I saw American officers wrestle with any number of scenarios designed to challenge their thinking and force them to adapt to surprises. One case we never considered, however, was how to betray and attack our own allies. We did not ask what to do if the president becomes a threatening megalomaniac who tells one of our oldest friends, Norway, that because the Nobel Committee in Oslo refuses to give him a trophy, he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace” and can instead turn his mind toward planning to wage war against NATO.
As my colleague Anne Applebaum wrote today, Donald Trump’s threatening message to the Norwegian prime minister should, in any responsible democracy, force the rest of the U.S. political system to act to control him. The president is talking about an invasion that would require “citizens of a treaty ally,” as she put it, “to become American against their will,” all because he “now genuinely lives in a different reality.” And yet neither Congress nor the sycophants in the White House seem willing to stop him.
LEFT-CENTER BIAS These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal cau…
wicked
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No state lasts forever, least of all an apartheid state with such a resilient resistance movement against it. Israel's only 78 years old—there's plenty of living people older than that. It will fall, because Palestinians aren't going away, and they will continue to want to return.
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