https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldenziel/2025/08/31/42-percent-of-the-world-is-buying-chinas-anti-us-narrative/

A short while ago, I saw a blog post from someone about modernizing their shell. Unfortunately, I lost the blog post, but there was some really good stuff in there. Just mentioning this in case someone knows what I'm talking about.

One tweak I remember they mentioned was about fixing programs that have broken formatting. It prevents scenarios like

user@hostname:~$ echo "hi"
hiuser@hostname:-~$

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/disney-pay-10-million-settle-ftc-allegations-company-enabled-unlawful-collection-childrens-personal

Doctors are hailing a new pill for patients with high blood pressure resistant to existing medication as a “gamechanger” and a “triumph of science”.

Globally, more than 1.3 billion people have hypertension. In half of them, their high blood pressure is uncontrolled or resistant to existing treatments. They face a much higher risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and early death.

Now a blockbuster new drug – baxdrostat – has been shown in trials to significantly lower blood pressure in those people whose levels remain dangerously high despite taking several medicines.

The results of the BaxHTN study, which involved 796 patients from 214 clinics worldwide, showed that after 12 weeks, patients taking baxdrostat saw their blood pressure fall by about 9-10 mmHg (millimetres of mercury, the unit of measurement of blood pressure) more than placebo – a reduction large enough to cut cardiovascular risk.

New drug hailed as ‘gamechanger’ in tackling stubbornly high blood pressure

Trials of baxdrostat have produced ‘exciting’ results for people whose hypertension has proved difficult to control

^{Andrew Gregory (The Guardian)}

As China prepares to host the annual SCO summit starting Sunday, it is expecting a fuller house than ever of leaders from the region and beyond. Modi will visit China for the first time since 2018, amid a rapprochement that began late last year but has been propelled further by United States President Donald Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods, which have forced New Delhi to seek stronger partnerships with Beijing and other players in Eurasia.

At a time when much of the world is grappling with the chaos unleashed by Trump’s tariffs and threats, analysts expect the SCO conclave to serve as a platform for Xi to project his country as a stabilising force, capable of uniting the Global South to counterbalance the West, particularly the US.

China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin told a news conference in Beijing last week that the summit would be “one of China’s most important head-of-state and home-court diplomatic events this year”.

SCO summit in China: Who’s attending, what’s at stake amid Trump tariffs?

China is the host of this year’s SCO Summit, which takes place in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1.

^{Priyanka Shankar (Al Jazeera)}

A judge in Louisiana has ordered the return of electronics belonging to an ex-Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to obscenity for being caught having sex with two dominatrices atop a church altar while still belonging to the clergy in 2020.

However, the judge also told authorities to erase all data from the devices and storage media as a precaution against videos taken of the tryst from becoming public.

The ruling from state court judge Ellen Creel came in the case centering on Travis Clark as well as dominatrices whose professional names are Lady Vi (also known as Satanatrix) and Empress Ming. The videos in question have been under indefinite court seal ever since the trio’s encounter made international news headlines in 2020.

Louisiana judge orders return of devices to ex-priest caught having sex on church altar

Former Roman Catholic priest and two dominatrices were evidently recording sexual videos in the church in 2020

^{Ramon Antonio Vargas (The Guardian)}

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60643878/175/trump-v-youtube-llc/

Recently in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organization, has found itself at the center of a moral and political controversy that demands scrutiny. In August 2025, Peter Berkowitz, a pro-Israel academic affiliated with the Hoover Institution, was invited to lecture at NU’s National Leadership Academy in Jakarta.

The Berkowitz invitation in 2025 intensifies concern. His writings, including Israel and the Struggle over the International Laws of War (2012), explicitly defend Israel’s attacks, including critiques of UN investigations like the Goldstone Report. Hosting him at NU’s premier leadership academy, in the midst of ongoing atrocities, signals tacit endorsement. NU’s language of pluralism and tolerance rings hollow when it amplifies voices justifying mass violence.

Defenders argue that these engagements are intellectual exercises or dialogue. Pro-Israel activist Monique Rijkers, founder of Indonesia’s Hadassah Foundation, praised the 2024 trip as a way to understand Israel’s perspective. NU scholars have framed these encounters as opportunities for interfaith learning. But context matters. When interlocutors defend killings of civilians, dialogue becomes a moral hazard. It is no longer academic curiosity—it is ethical compromise.

NU’s repeated apologies are not just inadequate—they are morally hollow. For decades, this organization has prided itself on defending the oppressed and upholding ethical leadership. Yet time and again, it has granted legitimacy to those who defend mass murder. This is not dialogue. This is betrayal. Engagement with perpetrators of atrocities is not pluralism—it is complicity, and history will remember it as such.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250830-exposing-indonesias-largest-muslim-organisation-nahdlatul-ulama-and-its-troubling-ties-to-israel/

cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/41246302

We're having an event for Software Freedom Day. It is a world-wide event, and we are having one right here at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

September 20th, 2025 from 11am-4pm

We'll have talks about what free software is, and why it's important for everyone. What kind of software is available for your existing computer, and how you can use Free Software to use your computer past the date that the manufacturer wants to keep updating it. There will be a talk on self hosting, so that you can run services that reduce or replace your reliance on outside big tech companies, and keep better control of your data. Talks about Wikipedia and Open Source are proposed. There will also be a talk on Social Networking with free software called "Mastodon and the Fediverse" that will show how you can network with people without giving your data to big tech, and without the algorithms that don't work in your best interest.

Here a link for more information:

softwarefreedom.neocities.org/

We'll be happy to discuss any details.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/polls-show-more-than-half-of-french-want-bayrou-out-macron-to-resign/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/climate/climate-grants-frozen.html?unlocked_article_code=1.i08.vvsj.l83c-_f0R9rL

I give up.... Privacy is a fool's game and it's a losing one at that. We are slowly entering a world where more and more requirements are made on people to own a regular non-hipster cell phone. There are places you can't even buy parking or look at a restaurant menu without having a proper cell phone.

Maybe the answer is not to flash some obscure on life support operating system on your Google pixel but rather.. maybe the answer is to work within the system and simply adjust privacy controls as allotted?