Getting rid of techofascist services
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AOC: Schumer, Jeffries Setting a Bad Example by Not Backing Mamdani | Common Dreams
Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested Thursday that the top congressional Democrats—and anyone else in the party refusing to support New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani—are setting a troubling precedent.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, both US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are New York Democrats. Unlike the "Squad" member, who endorsed Mamdani—a democratic socialist currently serving in the state Assembly—before he beat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the party's June primary, Schumer and Jeffries have continued to withhold support from their own party's nominee.
AOC: Schumer, Jeffries Setting a Bad Example by Not Backing Mamdani
"We use our primaries to settle our differences, and once we have a nominee, we rally behind that nominee," the New York Democrat said as the NYC mayoral election nears.jessica-corbett (Common Dreams)
Israeli arms manufacturer closes UK facility targeted by Palestine Action
Israeli arms manufacturer closes UK facility targeted by Palestine Action
Exclusive: Elbit Systems UK Bristol site was subject of protest days before direct action group was proscribedHaroon Siddique (The Guardian)
Any fake location app that fakes travelling too?
play.google.com/store/apps/det…
It gets the job done, but it's proprietary — is there any open-source equivalent of that?
Location Changer - Fake GPS - Apps on Google Play
Change your location to any place on Earth with this simple GPS emulator app!play.google.com
GitHub - mcastillof/FakeTraveler: Fake where your phone is located (Mock location for Android).
Fake where your phone is located (Mock location for Android). - mcastillof/FakeTravelerGitHub
This Week in Plasma: more app permission configuration; pre-Akademy edition!
Welcome to a new issue of This Week in Plasma!
This week, KDE contributors from around the world are traveling to Akademy, KDE’s annual conference. I myself am on a train right now as I write these words (though hopefully not still there when you read them), on my way to meet with fellow KDE people for a week of working, planning, and social bond strengthening! Expect a light report next Saturday, or none at all.
Nevertheless, this week, folks managed to be productive anyway. We’ve got a new feature, some UI improvements, bug fixes, efficiency Improvements… the works!
Notable New Features
Plasma 6.5.0
The “Flatpak Permissions” page in System Settings has grown into a more general “Application Permissions” page by additonally letting you configure settings related to the XDG portal system, such as taking screenshots, accepting remote control requests, and more! (David Redondo, link)
Implemented support for the XDG Wallpaper portal, which allows portal-using apps to requests to change the desktop and lock screen wallpaper. (David Redondo, link)
Notable UI Improvements
Plasma 6.5.0
The focus stealing prevention settings on System Settings’ Window Behavior page now do sensible things on Wayland. At one end, “Extreme” requires a valid activation token for every focus request. On the other end, “None” ignores them completely, allowing every activated window to immediately take focus. The default setting is “Low”, which should result in fewer failed activations now, while still not letting apps go nuts and steal focus all the time. (Xaver Hugl, link 1 and link 2)
System Settings’ Day/Night Cycle page (which is where the Night Light timing settings moved to) now lets you enter times in AM/PM style, if that’s what the rest of your system shows and uses. (Vlad Zahorodnii, link)
You’re no longer required to manually create a remote desktop account for remote-desktop purposes; now your existing user account works as expected, and you can just supply its credentials to the client app. (David Edmundson, link)
Discover is now more verbose about what it’s doing while fetching updates, so it doesn’t seem stuck and you can tell which source is being slow and gumming up the works. (Aleix Pol Gonzelez, link)
Improved keyboard navigation in the Kicker Application Menu widget when no apps are marked as favorites. (Christoph Wolk, link)
The monospace font you choose on System Settings’ Fonts page is now synced to GTK apps. (Reilly Brogan, link)
System Settings’ Tablet page now warns you if you try to use it to configure a tablet that’s being managed by a custom user-space tablet driver, because these can conflict and produce odd results. (Joshua Goins, link)
Frameworks 6.18
Improved the visuals of how toolbars load themselves in various Kirigami-using apps and System Settings pages. (Marco Martin, link)
Notable Bug Fixes
Plasma 6.4.5
Improved the reliability with which screen settings are chosen and restored. (Xaver Hugl, link)
Plasma 6.5.0
The Night Light feature no longer somewhat distorts the colors in screenshots and screen recordings. (Xaver Hugl, link)
Fixed an issue in KWin that caused dragging-and-dropping items in Firefox’s bookmarks sub-menus to not work properly. (Vlad Zahorodnii, link 1 and link 2)
Fixed an issue in KWin’s Zoom effect that caused the cursor to use the wrong shape when it passed over a zoomed-in area of an XWayland-using app that would normally use a different cursor shape. (Xaver Hugl, link)
Frameworks 6.18
Fixed a case where various Kirigami-using apps and System Settings pages could crash under certain circumstances. (Nicolas Fella, link)
Fixed an issue in draggable list items throughout Kirigami-using apps and System Settings pages that prevented them from being dragged upwards in a way that would require scrolling the view. (M. Sadık Uğursoy, link)
Fixed an issue that prevented the “File already exists!” dialog from appearing when you try to rename a file on the desktop to have the same name as another file there. (Pan Zhang, link)
Other bug information of note:
- 4 very high priority Plasma bugs (same as last week). Current list of bugs
- 26 15-minute Plasma bugs (same as last week). Current list of bugs
Notable in Performance & Technical
Plasma 6.5.0
Added support for “Underlays”, which promise to improve efficiency in GPUs that support it. (Xaver Hugl, link)
Made KWin’s blur effect per-view, which looks better when screencasting. (Xaver Hugl, link)
How You Can Help
KDE has become important in the world, and your time and contributions have helped us get there. As we grow, we need your support to keep KDE sustainable.
You can help KDE by becoming an active community member and getting involved somehow. Each contributor makes a huge difference in KDE — you are not a number or a cog in a machine! You don’t have to be a programmer, either; many other opportunities exist, too.
You can also help us by making a donation! A monetary contribution of any size will help us cover operational costs, salaries, travel expenses for contributors, and in general just keep KDE bringing Free Software to the world.
To get a new Plasma feature or a bugfix mentioned here, feel free to push a commit to the relevant merge request on invent.kde.org.
KDE Akademy 2025
Akademy is the annual world summit of KDE, one of the largest Free Software communities in the world. It is a free, non-commercial event organized by the KDE Community.Akademy
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Hamas to Trump: We Are Ready to Release All Israeli Captives in Comprehensive Ceasefire Deal
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35743765
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Sep 04, 2025
Hamas to Trump: We Are Ready to Release All Israeli Captives in Comprehensive Ceasefire Deal
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Sep 04, 2025Hamas to Trump: We Are Ready to Release All Israeli Captives in Comprehensive Ceasefire Deal
Three weeks ago, Hamas agreed to a U.S.-Israeli-drafted ceasefire, but its offer was ignored. Now, the movement says it will accept a comprehensive deal in a renewed bid to end the genocide.Jeremy Scahill (Drop Site News)
Hamas to Trump: We Are Ready to Release All Israeli Captives in Comprehensive Ceasefire Deal
Sep 04, 2025
Hamas to Trump: We Are Ready to Release All Israeli Captives in Comprehensive Ceasefire Deal
Three weeks ago, Hamas agreed to a U.S.-Israeli-drafted ceasefire, but its offer was ignored. Now, the movement says it will accept a comprehensive deal in a renewed bid to end the genocide.Jeremy Scahill (Drop Site News)
Israel says it is opening “gates of Hell” as it demolishes high-rise in Gaza City, Hamas posts new video of Israeli captives as it calls on Trump to force a deal
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35743609
Israel says it is opening “gates of Hell” as it demolishes high-rise in Gaza City, Hamas posts new video of Israeli captives as it calls on Trump to force a deal
I'm guessing the news site won't provide the original video, but let me check.
Edit: My expectations were correct.
I'm pretty cool with being forgotten most of the time, especially in general "stir the pot to make people fight over stupid shit instead of building guillotines for the real problem" kinds of stuff.
But yes, I drank (and do sometimes drink) from garden hoses. It's just tap water delivered with more volume and outdoors.
This is before purified wastewater / greywater used for irrigation.
Washington’s Crypto Pivot Isn’t About Silicon Valley. It’s About Treasuries
Washington’s Crypto Pivot Isn’t About Silicon Valley. It’s About Treasuries
Stablecoins are not just a tool for crypto traders, Pure Crypto co-founder Zach Lindquist argues. They’ve become a uniquely efficient channel for Treasury demand.Zach Lindquist (CoinDesk)
China’s Military Is Now Leading
Beijing Parade: China's Military Has Caught Up to the United States'
Wednesday’s parade proved the regional military balance has irrevocably changed.Sam Roggeveen (Foreign Policy)
LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a "Genocidal, Apartheid Country" Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research
Israel has a long way to go, however, as the research found Europeans in particular “agree with the language of Israel being a genocidal, apartheid country even though it contradicts their opposition to Hamas and Iran.”
Israel’s best tactic to combat this, according to the study, is to foment fear of “Radical Islam” and “Jihadism,” which remain high, the research finds. By highlighting Israeli support for women’s rights and gay rights while elevating concerns that Hamas wants to “destroy all Jews and spread Jihadism,” Israeli support rebounded by an average of over 20 points in each country. “Especially once the situation in Gaza is resolved, the room for growth in all countries is very significant,” the report concludes.
LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a "Genocidal, Apartheid Country" Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research
Mark Penn’s Stagwell was commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to chart a path out of global isolation.Ryan Grim (Drop Site News)
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Middle click mouse to open new window
This was my SO's fav feature in windows, but in mint it closes all windows. Is there any fix? I've looked all over and cant find it. They'd really appreciate this feature as theyre apprehensive about linux already!
Edit: SOLVED. Very easy. Right click on yhe app in the taskbar and select configure. Then you can adjust the middle click function.
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I don't think there is an option for open new window here - i thought id found this solution too 🙁
Edit - I think they must have added this recently!! open new instance is available! solved 😀 thanks!
LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a "Genocidal, Apartheid Country" Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research
Israel has a long way to go, however, as the research found Europeans in particular “agree with the language of Israel being a genocidal, apartheid country even though it contradicts their opposition to Hamas and Iran.”
Israel’s best tactic to combat this, according to the study, is to foment fear of “Radical Islam” and “Jihadism,” which remain high, the research finds. By highlighting Israeli support for women’s rights and gay rights while elevating concerns that Hamas wants to “destroy all Jews and spread Jihadism,” Israeli support rebounded by an average of over 20 points in each country. “Especially once the situation in Gaza is resolved, the room for growth in all countries is very significant,” the report concludes.
LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a "Genocidal, Apartheid Country" Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research
Mark Penn’s Stagwell was commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to chart a path out of global isolation.Ryan Grim (Drop Site News)
LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a "Genocidal, Apartheid Country" Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research
Israel has a long way to go, however, as the research found Europeans in particular “agree with the language of Israel being a genocidal, apartheid country even though it contradicts their opposition to Hamas and Iran.”
Israel’s best tactic to combat this, according to the study, is to foment fear of “Radical Islam” and “Jihadism,” which remain high, the research finds. By highlighting Israeli support for women’s rights and gay rights while elevating concerns that Hamas wants to “destroy all Jews and spread Jihadism,” Israeli support rebounded by an average of over 20 points in each country. “Especially once the situation in Gaza is resolved, the room for growth in all countries is very significant,” the report concludes.
LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a "Genocidal, Apartheid Country" Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research
Mark Penn’s Stagwell was commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to chart a path out of global isolation.Ryan Grim (Drop Site News)
Kodi 22 Alpha arriva l’evoluzione del cuore multimediale
Kodi 22 Alpha arriva l’evoluzione del cuore multimediale
Kodi 22 “Piers” è disponibile in versione alpha con aggiornamento a FFmpeg 7, miglioramenti Blu-ray e PVR, HDRFerramosca Roberto (Linux Easy)
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Why Russia and China are NOT Imperialist: A Marxist-Leninist Assessment of Imperialism’s Development Since 1917
Why Russia and China are NOT Imperialist: A Marxist-Leninist Assessment of Imperialism’s Development Since 1917
Western leftists misapply Lenin’s theory, as today imperialism is embodied solely in US hegemonism, while Russia and China act as anti-imperialist powers resisting it.Carlos L. Garrido (Why Russia and China are NOT Imperialist: A Marxist-Leninist Assessment of Imperialism’s Development Since 1917)
Israel’s Destructive Quest In Gaza
Israel’s Destructive Quest In Gaza
DEAR FRIENDS. IF YOU LIKE THIS TYPE OF CONTENT, SUPPORT SOUTHFRONT WORK: MONERO (XMR): 86yfEHs6pkoDEKCxc6MAnQX8cVHmzhYxMVrNuwKgNmqpWK8dDxjgGnK8PtUNJMA...Anonymous765 (South Front)
[Video] NATO bombs bus of women and children and burns them to a crisp. Then fires at the rescue team.
Sensitive content
IDF is the ones performing the actions not NATO. Yes NATO countries shouldnt be arming them but if they dont they will just get it from China, NK, Russia.
Iregardless of where the weapons come from those countries are not the ones doing the bombing/killing it is Bennies Regime doing it. They are a symptom of the current status quo of making as much money as possible because mostly crazies are in power across the world.
"If NATO does not commit genocide then their opponents will!!".
"If Hitler did not kill the Jews the Soviets would!!" This is you.
Except Isreal is a friend of NATO???
WOW your train of though is messed, did you eat paint chips or lick windows??
U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs in August as labour market continues to cool
U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs in August as labour market continues to cool
Unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, the highest level since 2021, the Labour Department reportsPaul Wiseman (The Globe and Mail)
Lammy to be new deputy PM with Cooper as foreign secretary and Mahmood at Home Office
The cabinet of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer experienced a major reshuffle on Friday after Angela Rayner resigned as UK deputy prime minister.
Rayner stepped down after an independent inquiry found she fell short of the standards expected of government ministers over a tax error on a recent house purchase.
As part of the overhaul, Yvette Cooper was named foreign minister, replacing David Lammy, who will become deputy prime minister and justice minister, Starmer's office said in a statement.
Shabana Mahmood, currently the justice minister, will replace Cooper at the home office — or interior ministry — taking on the role which includes dealing with illegal migration.
UK: Starmer names Lammy new deputy PM in cabinet reshuffle
David Lammy was the foreign minister but has now been earmarked for the role of deputy prime minister after previous incumbent Angela Rayner resigned in the wake of a tax furor.John Silk (Deutsche Welle)
Tesla offers Elon Musk a trillion-dollar pay package
Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire if he hits targets set by Tesla, under a scheme disclosed by the electric car company he runs and in which he is the largest shareholder.
Tesla outlined the terms of the incentive package, unprecedented in corporate history, in a section of its latest stock market update that began: “Yes, you read that correctly.”
Musk, the company said, will have to increase the value of Tesla from just over $1tn now to $8.5tn over 10 years.
If he presides over growth on that scale, the 54-year-old will receive new shares that would push his stake in the company from nearly 16% to well beyond 25%, increasing the fortunes of the world’s richest man to more than $2tn.
Tesla offers Elon Musk a trillion-dollar pay package
CEO will have to increase the value of his electric car company from just over $1tn to $8.5tn over 10 years.Rob Davies (The Guardian)
Tesla offers Elon Musk a trillion-dollar pay package
Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire if he hits targets set by Tesla, under a scheme disclosed by the electric car company he runs and in which he is the largest shareholder.
Tesla outlined the terms of the incentive package, unprecedented in corporate history, in a section of its latest stock market update that began: “Yes, you read that correctly.”
Musk, the company said, will have to increase the value of Tesla from just over $1tn now to $8.5tn over 10 years.
If he presides over growth on that scale, the 54-year-old will receive new shares that would push his stake in the company from nearly 16% to well beyond 25%, increasing the fortunes of the world’s richest man to more than $2tn.
Tesla offers Elon Musk a trillion-dollar pay package
CEO will have to increase the value of his electric car company from just over $1tn to $8.5tn over 10 years.Rob Davies (The Guardian)
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At least 475 workers detained in major Ice raid at US Hyundai factory
Hundreds of workers at a factory being built in Georgia to make car batteries for Hyundai and Kia electric vehicles were detained in a huge raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) on Thursday that stopped construction.
The facility is part of what would be the biggest industrial investment in the state’s history and had been hailed as a huge boost for the economy by Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp.
About 475 workers were arrested, according to US immigration officials on Friday, the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US in New York and Washington DC.
Seoul promises to help hundreds of Korean workers arrested in US in Ice raid
Total of 475 detained in Georgia at construction site of factory to make batteries for Hyundai and Kia carsClea Skopeliti (The Guardian)
At least 475 workers detained in major Ice raid at US Hyundai factory
Hundreds of workers at a factory being built in Georgia to make car batteries for Hyundai and Kia electric vehicles were detained in a huge raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) on Thursday that stopped construction.
The facility is part of what would be the biggest industrial investment in the state’s history and had been hailed as a huge boost for the economy by Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp.
About 475 workers were arrested, according to US immigration officials on Friday, the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US in New York and Washington DC.
Seoul promises to help hundreds of Korean workers arrested in US in Ice raid
Total of 475 detained in Georgia at construction site of factory to make batteries for Hyundai and Kia carsClea Skopeliti (The Guardian)
700 days of Israeli genocide in Gaza a stain on humanity: Hamas
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas marked 700 days of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza on Friday, calling it a “stain on humanity” and urging the international community to take decisive action against the ongoing atrocities.
In a statement, Hamas highlighted its efforts to reach a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange agreement, stressing that it had “shown significant flexibility” in negotiations.
The movement blamed the repeated failure of mediators on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and called him “a war criminal committed to undermining diplomatic initiatives, pursuing indefinite plans of extermination and displacement, and placing the lives of captives at risk to serve his government’s agenda.”
Hamas renewed its call to the international community, including Arab and Islamic countries, the UN, and its organs, particularly the UN Security Council, to “fulfill their responsibilities toward the Palestinian people and intervene to halt the crimes of the fascist occupation government.”
The movement emphasized the need for “punitive measures against Israel,” warning that “mere condemnations are insufficient” and that, without substantial consequences, Israel would “continue its crimes without regard for international protests or positions.”
Hamas also praised global grassroots solidarity with the Palestinian people and welcomed the launch of the Global Sumud Flotilla, an initiative to break the blockade on Gaza.
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Dissenting civil servants are silenced, says UK diplomat who quit over Gaza
He said he was repeatedly warned by colleagues against documenting his concerns in writing, as he worked on a report assessing whether the government is legally compliant in exporting arms to certain countries.
“I was routinely asked to go to senior directors’ offices and told to, quote, ‘make the situation look less bad,” said Smith, who was a diplomat and policy adviser at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. “Sections that I’ve written which talked about civilian casualties, for example, I was asked to kind of play them down, make them smaller.”
He described the office’s working culture as “very strange” and “different to anything I’ve ever experienced in the civil service”. “Everyone wanted to make it look as though we were on the right side of the law, and any kind of suggestion [otherwise] tended to be met with panic and a kind of extreme pressure, to not talk about that.”
He said it is “fully understood in the department” that conversations about the UK’s conduct and relationship with Israel should take place “in person and not in writing”. “The reason for that is that we didn’t want those conversations to be requested by a court,” he claimed.
Dissenting civil servants are silenced, says UK diplomat who quit over Gaza
Mark Smith resigned last August over the UK’s failure to stop selling arms to Israel.Anealla Safdar (Al Jazeera)
Dissenting civil servants are silenced, says UK diplomat who quit over Gaza
He said he was repeatedly warned by colleagues against documenting his concerns in writing, as he worked on a report assessing whether the government is legally compliant in exporting arms to certain countries.
“I was routinely asked to go to senior directors’ offices and told to, quote, ‘make the situation look less bad,” said Smith, who was a diplomat and policy adviser at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. “Sections that I’ve written which talked about civilian casualties, for example, I was asked to kind of play them down, make them smaller.”
He described the office’s working culture as “very strange” and “different to anything I’ve ever experienced in the civil service”. “Everyone wanted to make it look as though we were on the right side of the law, and any kind of suggestion [otherwise] tended to be met with panic and a kind of extreme pressure, to not talk about that.”
He said it is “fully understood in the department” that conversations about the UK’s conduct and relationship with Israel should take place “in person and not in writing”. “The reason for that is that we didn’t want those conversations to be requested by a court,” he claimed.
Dissenting civil servants are silenced, says UK diplomat who quit over Gaza
Mark Smith resigned last August over the UK’s failure to stop selling arms to Israel.Anealla Safdar (Al Jazeera)
In the West, it is a crime to deny one Holocaust and dangerous to name another
No self-respecting journalist considers Holocaust denial a legitimate point of view, and no serious media organisation argues that impartiality requires it to provide Holocaust denial with a platform in any serious discussion about Germany's extermination of Europe's Jews during World War Two - let alone equal time, or beginning and ending every such discussion with "Germany said".
Gaza Genocide denial, by contrast, is a well-organised and orchestrated global campaign sponsored, funded, and avidly promoted - without any hindrance whatsoever - by the regime perpetrating the genocide.
Serious media organisations not only consider it a journalistic requirement to give Gaza Genocide denial a platform and equal time, but they also routinely communicate Israel's talking points to their audiences. The BBC's compulsive resort to "Israel says" is a case in point.
The ICJ itself has already ruled, on multiple occasions, that Israel must implement a series of measures to ensure it is not violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Israel has dismissed these instructions out of hand and categorically refused to implement even one of them.
It is now widely considered a foregone conclusion that the ICJ will rule either that Israel's entire Gaza campaign constitutes genocide, or that specific acts and policies Israel has pursued in the context of its military campaign qualify as genocide under the Genocide Convention.
In the West, it is a crime to deny one Holocaust and dangerous to name another
While outlawing Holocaust denial, western governments punish critics of Israel's crimes and elevate denial of its ongoing genocide in Gaza to official policy and media orthodoxyMiddle East Eye
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1. Kicking Hitler's corpse is a cheap way to pretend to care for human life, without improving anything. But fighting a present genocide could actually prevent it. There might also be pushback. The adage: liberals oppose all wars, except the current war.
2. Europe and its successors (like US and Australia) genocided many red, brown, and yellow peoples. Hitler was meant to genocide slavs (not fully white) and especially communists, but escaped the leash and killed too many French, Jews and other whites.
Outlawing holocaust denial is dumb as fuck.
Japan was literally worse than the Nazis during World War 2, but we can think or say whatever we want about them.
Bolsonaro Coup Trial, Day 4 of 5: Supreme Court Majority Secures Conviction
The fourth day of Jair Bolsonaro’s Supreme Court trial brought a decisive turn. By Wednesday evening, four justices had voted to convict the former president and his seven allies for plotting to overturn the 2022 election, assuring a guilty verdict before the trial’s conclusion.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the rapporteur of the case, opened the session with a lengthy vote to convict on all charges, including coup plotting, criminal association, and violent attack on democratic order.
He described the scheme as an “unprecedented assault” on Brazil’s democracy, warning that past cycles of impunity for coups must not be repeated. Moraes proposed severe sentences that could exceed 30 years in prison for Bolsonaro.
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Global South Lines Up: From China to BRICS, Investors Ready to Chip in to Russia’s Far East
Global South Lines Up: From China to BRICS, Investors Ready to Chip in to Russia’s Far East
President Vladimir Putin’s push to drive Far East development through a unified business-friendly regime is drawing keen interest from ASEAN and other regional players, according to experts.Sputnik International
9point6
in reply to trilobite • • •I think you're possibly looking for Wero and its predecessors (iDEAL, Giropay, etc)
It's relatively new in its current form, but I think it's being adopted across the EU at an alright rate
Novocirab
in reply to 9point6 • • •infjarchninja
in reply to trilobite • • •I dont use either of those.
I only use my credit card to buy online. I would rather trust my bank than some third party USA shite company.
Credit cards, unlike debit cards, offer more protections than shitty paypal.
specifically here on Airstrip One, there are no protections if you buy with paypal, whereas there are strict protections if you use your credit card.
Buyers using a credit card might get a refund via chargeback from their credit-card company. However, in the UK, where such a purchaser is entitled to specific statutory protections (that the credit card company is a second party to the purchase and is therefore equally liable in law if the other party defaults or goes into liquidation) under Section 75 Consumer Credit Act 1974, the purchaser loses this legal protection if the card payment is processed via PayPal.
Who on this earth needs amazon? amazon, the company that represents all that is wrong with the internet, with its ads, tracking, sellers fees, ai driven sales, etc etc, enshitification and abusive conduct.
I have heard from many people, friends and family, that have tried to get a refund via paypal, only to be rejected with no recourse. wankers!
whereas a quick phone call to the bank and you get a refund immediately.
irotsoma
in reply to infjarchninja • • •Amazon is pretty necessary in much of the US. Between big corporate stores like Walmart and Dollar General and online shopping it's really difficult for smaller stores to exist anymore. If there's any market, the big stores will come in, undercut whatever they sell, push the small stores out and then probably just go bankrupt and leave the area without anything. And the fact that much of the US is rural and our infrastructure, especially in rural areas, is old and/or underdeveloped means it could take hours to get to a store and back. And because the big stores only really carry the basics, it's really difficult to get your hands on stuff that's less common. That's where online shopping fills the gap.
I live in a medium sized major city that doesn't allow Walmart to get subsidies their business model relies on to buy up land and buildings on the cheap to help take over markets, and does at least try to keep space for small businesses, and I even have a hard time finding stuff. But doesn't help that even in most of the major cities, transportation is crap because politicians are owned by the fossil fuel companies and so public transit can't get much tax money and traffic is insane not to mention the gas prices are quite high here compared to much of the US even. And the property is super expensive primarily because so much prime real-estate is unoccupied by investors to keep the prices high. So its difficult to set up a specialty shop. I'm sure many other cities have similar issues, but I'm most familiar with this one.
As for Amazon in particular, I used them primarily because their return policy is the best and these days all of the online shops are as likely to send you a used or broken item as a new one and secondarily because at least in my city, the shipping is pretty quick. No other online stores can match it. But that said, they have started to move away from carrying quality brands and primarily sell cheap junk since that's where the profit is especially with their ability to price based on data they've mined from data brokers about you. That's why sites like Keepa and camelcamelcamel are essential to check and track actual prices they offer in addition to doing comparison shopping.
rhythmisaprancer
in reply to irotsoma • • •I couldn't disagree more. Amazon is a choice. You have to choose other options and move away from the mindset of immediacy.
irotsoma
in reply to rhythmisaprancer • • •Tell me the other choice and I'll happily change. I could do without the fast shipping. That's just a bonus. But how do I get products for sensitive skin that the drug stores and Walmart don't carry, or electronics parts, or reasonably priced clothes in my styles. And local specialty shops are going to require an entire day of travel and shopping for a single product or two.
To get everything I use out of necessity or projects, I'd end up using up all of my weekends to find and travel to places that carry them and likely have to spend a lot more money on them. A few I could order direct from the manufacturer or from specialty shops online, but the manufacturer sites are likely to cost more, plus shipping costs for one off items. The specialty shops online are often just owned by another corporate blob and if I end up with a defective product I often have to pay to ship it back assuming they accept returns at all, which with cosmetic products they often don't, even if it's defective or opened. And if it's damaged in shipping or stolen, the recipient can't file a claim with the shipping company and getting many online shops to do it for you often requires hours on the phone to get through layers of escalations.
So, yes, it's a choice. But the alternatives require a significant investment of time and money. Given my job requires around 10 hrs per day and being neurodivergent, I often don't have time or energy, and then wouldn't be able to do anything fun. Not to mention, I definitely don't get paid enough. So, no not technically 100% necessary, but unfeasible not to, at least for many of us.
infjarchninja
in reply to irotsoma • • •Hey irotsoma
I do feel your dilemma
I would drive for an hour to buy anything from a small store rather than buying from amazon and increasing their profits. Obviously one person has no impact upon their obscene profits.
Amazon is the curse for small business and all its employees, drivers, sellers and customers.
good reseacrh here:
yalelawjournal.org/note/amazon…
The authors conclude that getting the best price on Amazon requires that you "first spend considerable time searching through pages of results and then utilize, at a minimum, spreadsheet algebraic capabilities to determine the product’s full price…[and] somehow de-bias from the psychological effects of anchoring, and labels such as 'limited time deal' and 'Best Seller,' as well as many other subtle psychological influences."
Amazon says it's entitled to use the consumer welfare cheat-code to get out of antitrust enforcement because it has so many bargains. But to get those bargains, you have to pay such minutely detailed attention – literally spreadsheeting your options and hand-coding mathematical formulas to compare them – that you'll almost certainly fail. The price of failure is incredibly high – a 25-29% overcharge on every purchase.
The Amazon Paradox has dropped, and it drills into another way that Amazon overcharges most of us by as much as 29% on nearly every purchase, disqualifying it from invoking that consumer welfare cheat code. The new paper is "Amazon's Pricing Paradox," from law professors Rory Van Loo and Nikita Aggarwal, for The Harvard Journal of Law and Technology:
The authors concede that while Amazon does have some great bargains, it goes to enormous lengths to make it nearly impossible to get those bargains. Drawing from the literature on behavioral economics, the authors make the reasonable (and experimentally verified) assumption that shoppers generally assume that the top results in an Amazon search are the best results, and click on those.
But Amazon's search-ordering is enshittified: it shifts value from sellers and shoppers (you!) to the company. A combination of self-preferencing (upranking Amazon's own knock-offs), pay-for-placement (Amazon ads), other forms of payola (whether a merchant is paying for Prime), and "junk ads" (that don't match your search) turn Amazon's search-ordering into a rigged casino game.
From 2023:
pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/att…
theverge.com/2023/9/22/2388524…
Amazon is sticking ads in Prime Video shows and movies unless you pay more
Jess Weatherbed (The Verge)bridgeenjoyer
in reply to irotsoma • • •ronigami
in reply to irotsoma • • •Gooey0210
in reply to trilobite • • •revolut is pretty popular, also it's a good cheap way to buy xmr dexes
birdwing
in reply to trilobite • • •haqi
in reply to birdwing • • •Ulrich
in reply to trilobite • • •You can get the same with credit cards.
Autonomous User
in reply to trilobite • • •HakFoo
in reply to Autonomous User • • •IMO, the real use case for PayPal was really on the seller side.
When it was 2002 and you weren't a major business but just wanted to sell three old CDs on eBay or offer dog haberdashery online, it was by far the simplest way to accept a credit-card funded transaction.
We're still not a lot better there in 2025. Even with more modern platforms, you can't really get from zero to accepting cards directly in 15 minutes.
Autonomous User
in reply to HakFoo • • •SteleTrovilo
in reply to trilobite • • •I've been happy not using Amazon since 2010!
For paper books, find a good local bookstore first. Then for online ordering, bookshop is good. B&N is iffy ethically - they helped crush a lot of smaller stores in the 90's, but they aren't part of the current tech giant oligarchy either. Target will usually have a section of best-sellers. If you have to buy from a big store, maybe offset it ethically by donating to a library.
For ebooks, Bookshop is good! They point out which of their ebooks have DRM and which don't. For some cases, you can also buy books directly from the publisher - these basically never have DRM in my experience. I mainly experience this with technical books and tabletop RPG books.
favoredponcho
in reply to trilobite • • •bridgeenjoyer
in reply to trilobite • • •CrocodilloBombardino
in reply to bridgeenjoyer • • •Virtual Credit Cards: A Quick Guide | Chase
J.P. Morgan Chasecram
in reply to trilobite • • •