Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg has told Swedish officials she is being subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody after her detention and removal from a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian.

According to the correspondence, Israeli forces are also reported by another detainee to have taken photographs where Thunberg was allegedly forced to hold flags. The identity of the flags are unknown.

In an email sent by the Swedish foreign ministry to people close to Thunberg, and seen by the Guardian, an official who has visited the activist in prison said she claimed she was detained in a cell infested with bedbugs, with too little food and water.

Greta Thunberg says she is being detained by Israel in cell infested with bedbugs

Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

^{Lorenzo Tondo (The Guardian)}

Silicon Valley has sold the idea of tech in classrooms for years, because they get access to lifelong customers and valuable data. But while corporations like Google make billions, student test scores are falling.

From Kathmandu to Lima, youth-led uprisings are driving thousands from their screens to the streets, demanding accountability, change and, in some cases, toppling governments.

These Gen-Z protesters come from disparate backgrounds and have different demands.

But the throughline is clear: Growing inequality and marginalization is destroying young people’s hopes for the future – and the only way forward is to confront a broken social contract head on.

Here’s what you need to know.

A global movement

On consecutive nights this week, cities and towns across Morocco have pulsed with the anger of young people mobilized under the umbrella “GenZ 212” – the country’s international dialing code. Led by mostly students and unemployed graduates, the protesters are demanding sweeping reforms in healthcare, education and social justice – issues they say have been sidelined as the government pours billions into 2030 World Cup infrastructure.

While stadiums and luxury hotels are erected, hospitals remain overcrowded and rural areas underserved. Morocco’s education system, long underfunded, is churning out graduates with few job prospects: Youth unemployment sits at 36% – and nearly 1 in 5 university graduates are out of work.

The recent protests were triggered by the deaths of several pregnant women following routine C-sections in the coastal city of Agadir, spotlighting the crumbling healthcare system. The government’s response has been swift and brutal: Three people were killed and hundreds of others injured, authorities said. Riot police have been deployed across major cities, using force and arresting dozens. Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch said Thursday his government had “engaged” with the protesters’ demands and was ready for “dialogue and discussion.” On Friday, GenZ 212 demanded the government resign.

But protests aren’t fading.

Thousands of miles away to the south, youth-led unrest is rocking Madagascar. For several days this week, cities across the Indian Ocean nation – one of Africa’s poorest – have been flooded with young protesters outraged over water shortages and rolling blackouts. They quickly morphed into calls for systemic reform, with the protesters demanding the resignation of President Andry Rajoelina, who first came to power in a 2009 coup, and his government.

Rajoelina responded by dissolving the government this week, saying, “I heard the call, I felt the suffering,” but authorities continue to crack down on dissent. The United Nations said Monday at least 22 people had been killed and more than 100 injured. The government disputes these figures.

Meanwhile, in the South American nation of Peru, youth demonstrations began on September 20 after the government announced reforms to a pension law. The protests then swelled to wider calls to stamp out corruption, repression and rising crime under President Dina Boluarte’s rule. The Peruvian leader’s approval ratings recently sank to 2.5%, with her government at 3%, according to the Institute of Peruvian Studies’ July report, reflecting widespread economic anxiety, anger over corruption scandals and continued outrage over the killing of dozens of protesters after she took office in late 2022.

The Nepal connection

The unrest comes in the wake of Gen Z’s extraordinary and unprecedented take down of the Nepali government in September. What began as a protest against a government social media ban quickly morphed into a broader revolt against corruption and economic stagnation. In fewer than 48 hours, at least 22 people were killed and hundreds injured as demonstrators torched government buildings in the capital Kathmandu and toppled the prime minister.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/04/world/gen-z-protest-movement-explainer-intl

Tech companies’ use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought

Two kinds of cooling systems are used to prevent the semiconductors and other electronic equipment stored in datacenters from overheating. Water cooling systems require huge volumes of water, and chemicals like nitrates, disinfectants, azoles and other compounds are potentially added and discharged in the environment.

Many centers are now switching to a “two phase” system that uses f-gas as a refrigerant coolant that is run through copper tubing. In this scenario, f-gas is not intentionally released during use, though there may be leaks, and it must be disposed of at the end of its life.

The datacenter industry has claimed that f-gas that escapes is not a threat because, once in the air, it turns into a compound called Tfa. Tfa is considered a Pfas in most of the world, but not the US. Recent research has found it is more toxic than previously thought, and may impact reproductive systems similar to other Pfas.

Researchers in recent years have been alarmed by the ever-growing level of Tfa in the air, water, human blood and elsewhere in the environment. Meanwhile, some f-gases are potent greenhouse gases that can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. But f-gasses are lucrative for industry: about 60% of all Pfas manufactured from 2019 to 2022 were f-gas

Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom

^{Tom Perkins (The Guardian)}

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-approval-rating-underwater-in-all-7-swing-states-10816841

So I’ve been putting this off all summer, but with support nearly ending for Win 10 and finally having a weekend to spend on this, and absolutely refusing to move to win 11, I’m finally pulling the trigger and getting this done.

I run a home built AMD rig with a 5800x and RT 7800xt, so as I understand, drivers shouldn’t be an issue. I’ve got 3 storage drives currently, a 1tb m.2 NVME I use for the OS and games I need to run quicker, and 2 SATA SSDs. I’ve also got a much larger external HDD which I’ll use to back up my entire windows environment (which I’ll disconnect after it’s backed up) just in case things go sideways during this process.

My biggest concern is here is moving all of my music, pictures, and docs over after the migration. Is it as simple as copying everything over from the NTFS win10 backup HDD to my newly formatted ext4 drives outside of the OS partition? I’m sure I’m not completely phrasing this correctly, since my understanding of Linux is currently at about a 4th grade level, and is probably why I’ve been running around in circles trying to find answers without much luck. I did go over the Mint install docs, but it seems a little light on details for my particular concern.

If there are any resources, suggestions or advice anyone could offer here to help me get through this, I gladly thank you in advance.

Edit: I think I have the information I need to make this work (at least for now), I just want to thank everyone here for taking the time to reply to this. I sincerely appreciate it!

Apple and Google blocked downloads of phone apps that flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents, just hours after the Trump administration demanded that one particularly popular iPhone app be taken down.

Apple and Google block apps that crowdsource ICE sightings. Some warn of chilling effects

^{WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, MATT O'BRIEN AND KELVIN CHAN AP business writers (ABC News)}