JOHANNESBURG, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela's grandson has said Palestinians' lives under Israeli occupation are worse than anything Black South Africans experienced under apartheid, and urged the global community to come to their aid.

Mandla Mandela, 51, spoke to Reuters on Wednesday evening at Johannesburg Airport, where he was boarding a flight to Tunisia to join a flotilla aiming to deliver food and humanitarian supplies to Gaza despite an Israeli naval blockade.

"Many of us that have visited the occupied territories in Palestine have only come back with one conclusion: that the Palestinians are experiencing a far worse form of apartheid than we ever experienced," Mandela said. "We believe that the global community has to continue supporting the Palestinians, just as they stood side-by-side with us."

~~Israel rejects comparisons between the lives of Palestinians who have lived under occupation or economic blockade for more than half a century and the apartheid era in South Africa, when the Black majority was ruled by a repressive white minority government.~~

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/mandelas-grandson-says-palestinians-plight-is-worse-than-apartheid-2025-09-04/

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)}

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)}

Recent AOSP news had me in shambles.

But I like my stupid games like clash of clans and royale.

My entourage has a lot of gamers. When we want to play together but don't have access to our computers, we can take out out phones and play a quick game of clash or some other stuff and I'd like to keep doing this.

I'm already a fanboy of Fedora & KDE which I'm running on both my personal and workplace machine. I'd like to also "clean" my phones.

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, faced the Senate finance committee in a tense and combative hearing on Thursday, during which lawmakers questioned his remarks expressing vaccine skepticism, claims that the scientific community is deeply politicized and the ongoing turmoil plaguing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a hearing lasting more than three hours and ostensibly about the Trump administration’s healthcare agenda, Kennedy defended his leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), claiming that his time at the agency will be focused on “unbiased, politics-free, transparent, evidence-based science in the public interest”.

Senate Democrats on the committee began the hearing calling for Kennedy’s resignation. “Robert Kennedy’s primary interest is taking vaccines away from Americans,” ranking member Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, said in his opening remarks. “People are hurt by his reckless disregard for science and the truth in this effort. I hope the very least, Robert Kennedy has the decency to tell the truth this morning.”

RFK Jr accused of ‘reckless disregard for science and the truth’ in Senate hearing

Health secretary defends his leadership as Democrats attack his vaccine policy and demand his resignation

^{Shrai Popat (The Guardian)}

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, faced the Senate finance committee in a tense and combative hearing on Thursday, during which lawmakers questioned his remarks expressing vaccine skepticism, claims that the scientific community is deeply politicized and the ongoing turmoil plaguing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a hearing lasting more than three hours and ostensibly about the Trump administration’s healthcare agenda, Kennedy defended his leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), claiming that his time at the agency will be focused on “unbiased, politics-free, transparent, evidence-based science in the public interest”.

Senate Democrats on the committee began the hearing calling for Kennedy’s resignation. “Robert Kennedy’s primary interest is taking vaccines away from Americans,” ranking member Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, said in his opening remarks. “People are hurt by his reckless disregard for science and the truth in this effort. I hope the very least, Robert Kennedy has the decency to tell the truth this morning.”

RFK Jr accused of ‘reckless disregard for science and the truth’ in Senate hearing

Health secretary defends his leadership as Democrats attack his vaccine policy and demand his resignation

^{Shrai Popat (The Guardian)}

The start of demolition work on an iconic Tunisian hotel has sparked strong opposition from citizens, architects, NGOs and heritage experts in the North African country and around the world.

Hotel du Lac, located in the capital Tunis, was built in 1973 by Italian architect Raffaele Contigiani.

It is considered a masterpiece of Brutalism, an architectural style that emerged in the middle of the 20th century and is characterised by monumental, unadorned forms magnifying the use of industrial materials with a functionalist aesthetic and social message.

Recognisable by its inverted pyramid structure, the hotel is said to have inspired the creators of the cult film saga Star Wars - some scenes of which were filmed in Tunisia - for the design of a spaceship.

Two armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham on Thursday, according to multiple Defense Department officials who described the action as a "show of force."

The Dunham, an Aegis guided-missile destroyer, is among a flotilla of U.S. warships dispatched to the region in recent weeks that the Pentagon says have been deployed to target criminal organizations and narco-terrorism.

CBS News was unable to determine what actions the USS Jason Dunham took, if any, in response to the flyover.

Following the publication of CBS News' story, the Defense Department confirmed in a statement on X that two Venezuelan aircraft "flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters."

Venezuelan fighter jets flew over U.S. Navy ship in "show of force"

Two armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham on Thursday, multiple defense officials told CBS News — amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

^{James LaPorta (CBS News)}

Bari Weiss has been making the world worse for a long time.

Twenty years ago, as a student at Columbia, she led a racist smear campaign against Arab professors who had the audacity to criticize Israel. As a New York Times columnist, she constantly hawked right-wing bile while posing as a liberal who was just tired of all the extremism and censorship on the left—a tedious bait-and-switch that nevertheless sent her media profile soaring. And, as founder and editor of The Free Press, she has pushed genocide denial, transphobia, and the freedom to make Nazi salutes.

If we lived in a less terrible time and place, Weiss would be dismissed as a crank and a bigot, and never heard from again. But we live in the waking nightmare that is the United States in 2025. So instead Weiss is being rewarded with a prize that even she must think is kind of wild.

That prize? CBS News.

The person handing this gift to Weiss is David Ellison, the billionaire nepo baby who just merged CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, with his company, Skydance Media. Ellison, Puck’s Dylan Byers reported on Wednesday, is paying somewhere between $100 million and $200 million to buy The Free Press and install Weiss somewhere at the top of the network.

Vile Grifters Are Taking Over Establishment Media | The Nation

Paramount is reportedly set to pay between $100 million and $200 million for The Free Press and will install Bari Weiss at the top of CBS News.

^{The Nation}

Bari Weiss has been making the world worse for a long time.

Twenty years ago, as a student at Columbia, she led a racist smear campaign against Arab professors who had the audacity to criticize Israel. As a New York Times columnist, she constantly hawked right-wing bile while posing as a liberal who was just tired of all the extremism and censorship on the left—a tedious bait-and-switch that nevertheless sent her media profile soaring. And, as founder and editor of The Free Press, she has pushed genocide denial, transphobia, and the freedom to make Nazi salutes.

If we lived in a less terrible time and place, Weiss would be dismissed as a crank and a bigot, and never heard from again. But we live in the waking nightmare that is the United States in 2025. So instead Weiss is being rewarded with a prize that even she must think is kind of wild.

That prize? CBS News.

The person handing this gift to Weiss is David Ellison, the billionaire nepo baby who just merged CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, with his company, Skydance Media. Ellison, Puck’s Dylan Byers reported on Wednesday, is paying somewhere between $100 million and $200 million to buy The Free Press and install Weiss somewhere at the top of the network.

Vile Grifters Are Taking Over Establishment Media | The Nation

Paramount is reportedly set to pay between $100 million and $200 million for The Free Press and will install Bari Weiss at the top of CBS News.

^{The Nation}

I am trying to set up a simple home server with some old hardware, and since power is pretty expensive here I am trying to enable WoL so that I can turn it on whenever I need it, and automatically shut it down after a short time of inactivity.

I enabled WoL ("Power On By PME") in my BIOS, which then allowed me to enable WoL in my network device drivers using nmcli. It now reliably shows mode g selected after reboot, as reported by ethtool. I installed gWakeOnLan on another device to try waking my server, but to no avail.

When my server is shut down, the ethernet LEDs are still blinking, so I suppose the network device successfully stays turned on after shutdown. However, when I use netcat on my server to check that the magic packets get there, I can't see any output after sending the packets using gWakeOnLan. I tried both ports 9 and 40000.

I am using a router that was provided to me by my network provider, maybe I need to enable/unblock something there? No idea what it would be, though.

Any ideas on how to track this issue further down?

Edit: I am now using wol instead of gWakeOnLan. this command worked for me:

wol -p 9 -i 192.168.2.255 <server-mac-address>.

I got the IP from ip address :

inet 192.168.2.31/24 brd 192.168.2.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eno1

I'd like having a little GUI but apparently it's not possible to configure the IP in gWakeOnLan like this. I tried setting it to 'internet' mode (to allow me to enter my IP) but that didn't work. Oh well, a little script to double-click is fine, too, haha

https://www.visiontimes.com/2025/07/24/japans-2025-defense-white-paper-names-china-greatest-strategic-challenge.html

I feel global political oppression or global wars usually produce great music but Macklemore might be the peak.

Nothing against him, some of his songs are good, but I expected real rage inducing stuff with everything going on. Or is this just the state of music as a whole?

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35702237

Julia Conley
Sep 02, 2025

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the conflict in Gaza that's killed more than 63,000 Palestinians and starved hundreds of people "complicated," while Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) last week accused a Jewish comedian of "justifying antisemitism" for noting that more than 80% of people killed by the Israel Defense Forces were civilians. Both responses garnered condemnation from Palestinian rights advocates and progressive commentators.

But on Monday—before a packed house of more than 6,500 in Portland—Platner took a much different approach.

"Our taxpayer dollars can build schools and hospitals in America, not bombs to destroy them in Gaza," said Platner, leading the audience to stand up and applaud for a full 30 seconds.

Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer who is challenging Collins—a vehement supporter of Israel—has previously spoken about Gaza in an interview for Zeteo, calling Israel's US-backed attack on the territory "the moral test of our time."

He repeated his message on social media Tuesday, saying: "It's not complicated: Not one more taxpayer dollar for genocide."

The Biggest Applause Line From Graham Platner's Labor Day Speech Was About Ending US Bombs in Gaza

And the second biggest was about naming the enemy which his Senate campaign will seek to target: "the oligarchy."

^{julia-conley (Common Dreams)}

Julia Conley
Sep 02, 2025

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the conflict in Gaza that's killed more than 63,000 Palestinians and starved hundreds of people "complicated," while Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) last week accused a Jewish comedian of "justifying antisemitism" for noting that more than 80% of people killed by the Israel Defense Forces were civilians. Both responses garnered condemnation from Palestinian rights advocates and progressive commentators.

But on Monday—before a packed house of more than 6,500 in Portland—Platner took a much different approach.

"Our taxpayer dollars can build schools and hospitals in America, not bombs to destroy them in Gaza," said Platner, leading the audience to stand up and applaud for a full 30 seconds.

Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer who is challenging Collins—a vehement supporter of Israel—has previously spoken about Gaza in an interview for Zeteo, calling Israel's US-backed attack on the territory "the moral test of our time."

He repeated his message on social media Tuesday, saying: "It's not complicated: Not one more taxpayer dollar for genocide."

The Biggest Applause Line From Graham Platner's Labor Day Speech Was About Ending US Bombs in Gaza

And the second biggest was about naming the enemy which his Senate campaign will seek to target: "the oligarchy."

^{julia-conley (Common Dreams)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35701610

Drop Site Daily: Sept 4, 2025

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military across Gaza since dawn today. Israel has killed 84 Palestinians and injured 338 in the past 24 hours. Three more Palestinians have died from famine; this brings the total of famine deaths to 370, including 131 children. The Israeli military warns that it will impose direct martial rule over the entire Gaza Strip. Marco Rubio signals an assent to further West Bank annexations. A federal judge reverses Trump’s defunding of Harvard research, calling it an “unconstitutional retaliation.” Israel strikes a construction equipment repair warehouse in southern Lebanon, again violating the ceasefire. Rubio met with Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and defended the recent U.S. missile strike on a Venezuelan vessel. Iraqi officials claim to have busted a global Islamic State “financing network.”

Peter Link

2025-09-05 04:21:14

Israel intensifies attack on Gaza City, Rubio hints at U.S. approval for West Bank annexation, Judge overturns Trump administration's Harvard funding freeze

Drop Site Daily: Sept 4, 2025

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military across Gaza since dawn today. Israel has killed 84 Palestinians and injured 338 in the past 24 hours. Three more Palestinians have died from famine; this brings the total of famine deaths to 370, including 131 children. The Israeli military warns that it will impose direct martial rule over the entire Gaza Strip. Marco Rubio signals an assent to further West Bank annexations. A federal judge reverses Trump’s defunding of Harvard research, calling it an “unconstitutional retaliation.” Israel strikes a construction equipment repair warehouse in southern Lebanon, again violating the ceasefire. Rubio met with Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and defended the recent U.S. missile strike on a Venezuelan vessel. Iraqi officials claim to have busted a global Islamic State “financing network.”

Israel intensifies attack on Gaza City, Rubio hints at U.S. approval for West Bank annexation, Judge overturns Trump administration's Harvard funding freeze

Drop Site Daily: September 4, 2025

^{Drop Site News}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35701610

Drop Site Daily: Sept 4, 2025

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military across Gaza since dawn today. Israel has killed 84 Palestinians and injured 338 in the past 24 hours. Three more Palestinians have died from famine; this brings the total of famine deaths to 370, including 131 children. The Israeli military warns that it will impose direct martial rule over the entire Gaza Strip. Marco Rubio signals an assent to further West Bank annexations. A federal judge reverses Trump’s defunding of Harvard research, calling it an “unconstitutional retaliation.” Israel strikes a construction equipment repair warehouse in southern Lebanon, again violating the ceasefire. Rubio met with Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and defended the recent U.S. missile strike on a Venezuelan vessel. Iraqi officials claim to have busted a global Islamic State “financing network.”

Peter Link

2025-09-05 04:21:14

Israel intensifies attack on Gaza City, Rubio hints at U.S. approval for West Bank annexation, Judge overturns Trump administration's Harvard funding freeze

Drop Site Daily: Sept 4, 2025

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military across Gaza since dawn today. Israel has killed 84 Palestinians and injured 338 in the past 24 hours. Three more Palestinians have died from famine; this brings the total of famine deaths to 370, including 131 children. The Israeli military warns that it will impose direct martial rule over the entire Gaza Strip. Marco Rubio signals an assent to further West Bank annexations. A federal judge reverses Trump’s defunding of Harvard research, calling it an “unconstitutional retaliation.” Israel strikes a construction equipment repair warehouse in southern Lebanon, again violating the ceasefire. Rubio met with Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and defended the recent U.S. missile strike on a Venezuelan vessel. Iraqi officials claim to have busted a global Islamic State “financing network.”

Israel intensifies attack on Gaza City, Rubio hints at U.S. approval for West Bank annexation, Judge overturns Trump administration's Harvard funding freeze

Drop Site Daily: September 4, 2025

^{Drop Site News}

Drop Site Daily: Sept 4, 2025

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military across Gaza since dawn today. Israel has killed 84 Palestinians and injured 338 in the past 24 hours. Three more Palestinians have died from famine; this brings the total of famine deaths to 370, including 131 children. The Israeli military warns that it will impose direct martial rule over the entire Gaza Strip. Marco Rubio signals an assent to further West Bank annexations. A federal judge reverses Trump’s defunding of Harvard research, calling it an “unconstitutional retaliation.” Israel strikes a construction equipment repair warehouse in southern Lebanon, again violating the ceasefire. Rubio met with Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and defended the recent U.S. missile strike on a Venezuelan vessel. Iraqi officials claim to have busted a global Islamic State “financing network.”

Israel intensifies attack on Gaza City, Rubio hints at U.S. approval for West Bank annexation, Judge overturns Trump administration's Harvard funding freeze

Drop Site Daily: September 4, 2025

^{Drop Site News}