Justice Department leadership is prepared to use its rule-making authority to declare transgender people as mentally ill and deprive them of their Second Amendment right to possess firearms, according to two Justice officials who shared internal discussions with CNN.

Deliberations at the highest levels of the DOJ follow the recent mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, an attack police say was carried out by a 23-year-old former student at the church’s school who may have been a transgender person or a de-transitioned individual. Two children were killed in the attack, and 21 others were injured.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/09/doj-plans-to-label-trans-americans-as-mentally-defective-to-take-away-their/

Amazon's strict return-to-office policy and relocation demands are hindering recruitment, affecting its ability to attract top tech talent.

Archived version: archive.is/20250904101836/busi…

Amazon's RTO policy is costing it top tech talent: internal document

^{Eugene Kim (Business Insider)}

Lives erased in the Caribbean, wrapped in a White House video and sold as victory

They blew up a boat far offshore, killed eleven people, and called it justice

^{Mitch Jackson (Uncensored Objection. Cross-examining political BS.)}

For years, I relied on Spotify like millions of others. The convenience was undeniable stream anything, anywhere, discover new music through algorithms, and share playlists with friends. But over time, several issues became impossible to ignore: artists getting paid fractions of pennies per stream, fake Artists and ghost Tracks, AI music and impersonation, creepy age verification complicity and the fact that despite paying monthly, I never actually owned anything. So I decided to take back control of my music experience. Here's how I built my own self-hosted music streaming setup that gives me everything Spotify offered and more.

Why I Ditched Spotify, and How I Set Up My Own Music Stack

{/ truncate /}

^{James Ambrose (leshicodes.github.io)}

Sensitive content Clicca per aprire/chiudere

Researchers from UC Berkeley, Ajou University, and Georgia Tech unveiled Rhagobot in 2025, a tiny aquatic robot inspired by water striders of the genus Rhagovelia¹. The robot features self-deploying fan-like structures on its legs that harness surface tension for propulsion, mimicking the insects' ability to move rapidly across water surfaces².

The 8 cm long robot weighs just 0.2 grams and uses passive fan mechanisms that unfurl in 0.01 seconds without requiring muscle power³. These fans, measuring 10 by 5 mm, enable the robot to achieve speeds of two body lengths per second and execute 90-degree turns in under half a second⁴.

According to Professor Je-Sung Koh from Ajou University, "Our robotic fans self-morph using nothing but water surface forces and flexible geometry, just like their biological counterparts. It is a form of mechanical intelligence refined by nature through millions of years of evolution"⁵.

The breakthrough came from studying the water striders' fan architecture using electron microscopy, which revealed that surface tension alone powers the fan deployment - contrary to previous assumptions about muscle activation⁴. This passive mechanism reduces power consumption compared to motorized alternatives, making it promising for environmental monitoring and search-and-rescue applications³.

1. WebProNews - UC Berkeley's Rhagobot: Water Strider Robot Harnesses Surface Tension for Speed ↩︎
2. Heise - Inspired by water striders: self-unfolding fans make the 'Rhagobot' agile ↩︎
3. Future Tech on Instagram ↩︎ ↩︎
4. New Atlas - Robotic water strider rows itself forward by fanning feathery feet ↩︎ ↩︎
5. Heise - Inspired by water striders: self-unfolding fans make the 'Rhagobot' agile ↩︎

Robotic water strider rows itself forward by fanning feathery feet

Although we've seen many robotic water striders over the years, scientists are still finding new aspects of the insects to replicate. Recently, for instance, researchers created a strider-bot that zips across the water's surface via fans on its feet.

^{Ben Coxworth (New Atlas)}

German giant takes aim at US hyperscaler dominance as some EU customers fret amid Trump 2.0 rhetoric

SAP splashes €20B on Euro sovereign cloud push

: German giant takes aim at US hyperscaler dominance as some EU customers fret amid Trump 2.0 rhetoric

^{Lindsay Clark (The Register)}

cross-posted from: slrpnk.net/post/27075196

On Tuesday 16 September, a Guardian panel of experts will be looking to answer questions about the forces driving the pushback against a greener world.

We want to hear from our readers globally as not everyone can make the live event. Send in your climate crisis questions and we will put a selection of them to our panel on the day.

Send in your questions for the Guardian’s climate assembly panel

We would like to hear your questions about the climate crisis and we will put a selection of them to our panel

^{Guardian community team (The Guardian)}

The Swiss have unveiled Apertus, a fully open-source, multilingual LLM built with transparency, inclusiveness, and compliance at its core.

Switzerland Launches Apertus A Public, Open-Source AI Model Built for Privacy

^{Amar Ćemanović (CyberInsider)}

When it comes to investment in death and destruction abroad, the money is always found, says the Wages Not Weapons campaign

Wages Not Weapons: trade unions pile pressure on TUC & Labour

^{Ed Sykes (The Canary)}

As her populist opponent attacks her ties to Wall Street, Rolling Stone has revealed that Maine Sen. Susan Collins got a $2 million donation from a private equity billionaire the day before making a key vote to advance Trump's Big Beautiful Bill.

Susan Collins Advanced Trump Tax Bill After Receiving $2 Million from Private Equity Billionaire

The five-term Maine senator's populist opponent has seized on her ties to Wall Street, saying: "I don't think private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs to get by."

^{stephen-prager (Common Dreams)}

Marine accused of slipping abortion pills into his ex’s drink claims she made the whole thing up.

Texas lawsuit over cocoa “laced” with abortion drug gets even wilder

^{Mother Jones}

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxine Prévot has told Euronews that the EU's foreign policy is "collapsing" due to member states' inability to sanction Israel.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/euronews.com…

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.

Belgian Foreign Minister: EU credibility on the line over Gaza

^{Shona Murray (Euronews.com)}

cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36914853

Pro

2025-09-05 10:17:42

China-aligned crew poisons Windows servers to manipulate Google results

GhostRedirector poisons Windows servers: Backdoors with a side of Potatoes

ESET researchers have identified a new threat actor targeting Windows servers with a passive C++ backdoor and a malicious IIS module that manipulates Google search results.

^{www.welivesecurity.com}

cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36914853

Pro

2025-09-05 10:17:42

China-aligned crew poisons Windows servers to manipulate Google results

GhostRedirector poisons Windows servers: Backdoors with a side of Potatoes

ESET researchers have identified a new threat actor targeting Windows servers with a passive C++ backdoor and a malicious IIS module that manipulates Google search results.

^{www.welivesecurity.com}

You don’t often see blackmail victims extending offers to their blackmailers to sit down and discuss political issues, but that’s what happened when CBS — who recently paid off Trump to settle a lawsuit the broadcaster could have won — invited Kristi Noem to talk out of her perfectly coiffed ass for most of an hour last Sunday.

Kristi Noem Gets Mad About CBS Not Broadcasting Her Bullshit About Kilmar Abrego Garcia

You don’t often see blackmail victims extending offers to their blackmailers to sit down and discuss political issues, but that’s what happened when CBS — who recently paid off Tr…

^Techdirt

::: spoiler Comments
- Reddit.
:::

Sam Altman X/Twitter Post.

::: spoiler Who is Sam Altman

Samuel Harris Gibstine Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019. He is considered one of the leading figures of the AI boom.

Altman dropped out of Stanford University after two years and founded Loopt, a mobile social networking service, raising more than $30 million in venture capital. In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, and was its president from 2014 to 2019. In 2019, he became CEO of OpenAI and oversaw the successful launch of ChatGPT in 2022. He was ousted from the role by the company's board in 2023 due to a lack of confidence in his leadership, but was reinstated five days later following significant backlash from employees and investors, after which a new board was formed. He has served as chairman of clean energy companies Helion Energy and Oklo (until April 2025). Altman's net worth was estimated at $1.8 billion as of July 2025.
:::

I first wrote about Farahi’s case in 2009, when it was one of the earliest public examples of the FBI using immigration to recruit Muslim informants. At the time, the FBI denied the practice outright. As other journalists uncovered similar cases, the FBI continued to deny.

Farahi’s fight with the government began in November 2004. As he walked home from evening prayers in North Miami Beach, he saw two men waiting outside his apartment. They introduced themselves as FBI agents.

The country was still in the grip of post-9/11 panic, and the agents wanted information about two men who had attended Farahi’s mosque: José Padilla, the so-called “dirty bomber” accused of plotting to set off a crude radioactive device, and Adnan El Shukrijumah, a Saudi national who became a high-ranking member of Al Qaeda after leaving the U.S.

Farahi said he’d talk, but only in the open. He wanted his congregation to know why he was speaking to the FBI. The federal agents wanted something very different: secrecy. “I can’t,” he told them. To him, becoming an informant would have meant betraying his faith community. “People trust you as a religious figure, and you’re trying to kind of deceive them,” Farahi said to me years ago, when I first asked him about his encounter with the FBI. “That’s where the problem is.”

Years later, FBI agent Terry Albury leaked internal documents to The Intercept, confirming what Farahi’s case had suggested: using immigration as leverage wasn’t a rogue practice, but rather had been codified in the pages of the FBI’s internal policy manuals.

FBI agents were even tasked under official policy with helping deport informants who were “no longer suitable for use” — an acknowledgment that the policy goal wasn’t transactional so much as coercive.

This Imam Refused to Be an FBI Informant. Now ICE Wants to Deport Him.

Foad Farahi had resisted the FBI since the George W. Bush administration. Under Trump, ICE rounded him up.

^{Trevor Aaronson (The Intercept)}

https://www.axios.com/2025/09/04/epstein-files-ghislaine-maxwell-doj-chief

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/04/white-house-pentagon-department-of-war-00545673

The Sahel country has been experiencing a rift with France and the West since the new government took office on July 26, 2023

Archived version: archive.is/newest/peoplesdispa…

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.

The progressive political action committee Justice Democrats on Thursday threw its support behind Angela Gonzales-Torres, a primary challenger to incumbent Democratic Congressman Jimmy Gomez in California's deep blue 34th District.

Progressive Group Supports Angela Gonzales-Torres' Primary Challenge to AIPAC-Backed Jimmy Gomez

"This is about standing up to corruption, calling out a genocide when we see one, and building a Los Angeles that we can afford," said Angela Gonzales-Torres, the candidate endorsed by Justice Democrats.

^{jessica-corbett (Common Dreams)}

“The goal of sovereignty is to, once and for all, remove the Palestinian state from the agenda,” Smotrich said.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/truthout.org…

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.

Israel’s Smotrich Vows to Annex West Bank: “Maximum Land, Minimum Population”

^{Sharon Zhang (Truthout)}

A new report finds that America's biggest healthcare companies collectively dodged $34 billion worth of taxes since Trump's 2017 tax cuts went into effect. They used that money to pay their shareholders and executives while patient care quality declined.

Healthcare Giants Have Raked in 'Sick Profits' From Trump Tax Cuts While Stiffing Patients: Report

The report found that seven of America's biggest healthcare companies have collectively dodged $34 billion in taxes as a result of Trump's 2017 tax law while making patient care worse.

^{stephen-prager (Common Dreams)}

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday upheld an Illinois law that banned the carrying of firearms on public transit, effectively overturning a lower court decision that found the ban unconstitutional under the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

Case file: media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin…

US appeals court upholds Illinois law banning firearms on public transit

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday upheld an Illinois law that bans the carrying of firearms on public transit, effectively overturning a lower court decision that found the...

^{Morgan Polen | U. Pittsburgh School of Law, US (- JURIST - News)}

Two judges appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by President Donald Trump ruled that the newly established but already notorious immigrant detention center in Florida dubbed Alligator Alcatraz can stay open.

Case file: storage.courtlistener.com/reca…

'Cruelty': US Appeals Court Blocks Order to Shut Down Alligator Alcatraz

"The fact that a facility embedded in so much pain is allowed to reopen is absolutely disheartening!" said Florida Immigrant Coalition's deputy director.

^{jessica-corbett (Common Dreams)}

Mexican exports to the US grew over 8% in the first seven months of the year, compared to 2024, new US Census data shows.

Archived version: archive.is/20250905082402/mexi…

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.

Mexican exports to the US continue to grow

^{MND Staff (Mexico News Daily)}

"They're now using the failed War on Drugs to justify their egregious violation of international law," the Minnesota progressive said of the Trump administration.

Omar, Ramirez Among First in Congress to Decry 'Unconstitutional' Trump Strike on Boat

"They're now using the failed War on Drugs to justify their egregious violation of international law," the Minnesota progressive said of the Trump administration.

^{brett-wilkins (Common Dreams)}

Hopefully, Nova Lake will be worth every cent.

Intel spent so much cash on research and development last year that it outspent Nvidia by 28% and AMD by a whopping 156%

^{Nick Evanson (PC Gamer)}

Le vacanze finiscono, e il ritorno alla routine può sembrare una montagna da scalare. Quella sensazione di** stanchezza,** il sonno sfasato e la bilancia impietosa non sono solo sensazioni, ma i sintomi di un vero e proprio "stress da rientro".

Il tuo corpo ha bisogno di essere riabituato, gradualmente, a ritmi regolari. In questo processo, l'alimentazione gioca un ruolo chiave, ma anche piccoli accorgimenti come l'esercizio fisico leggero e la riscoperta di un sonno di qualità sono essenziali.

Vuoi scoprire come affrontare al meglio questa transizione e tornare a sentirti energico e in salute?

Salute & Benessere: come evitare la ‘’sindrome’’ da ritorno dalle vacanze- Consigli utili per adulti e bambini- Sana alimentazione

Giuliano Marchese, divulgatore Medico Scientifico, da oggi collabora con "NewsmadeinItaly"  curando la rubrica "Benessere & Salute", con report su ricerche, consigli utili ed una corretta informazione per "star bene".

^{www.newsmadeinitaly.it}

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

BlueMonday1984

2025-08-24 23:00:11

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 31st August 2025 - awful.systems

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)