A compulsory mandated app installed on every Indian citizen's new phone
‘If you don’t want…' Jyotiraditya Scindia says Sanchar Saathi app is optional amid strong Opposition protests | Today News
Following backlash on the government directive to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on all phones within 90 days, Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia claimed that users can delete the app if they do not want it.Livemint (mint)
like this
3½ years of anti-China & anti-Russia news posts by several similar Lemmy accounts
What they seem to have in common is:
- Way more posts than comments.
- Almost exclusively posting news articles.
- The vast majority of the articles are critical of Russia or China.
- Virtually always posting to the same few communities. Often there’s overlap in the communities the accounts target.
- Consistent weekly output.
| Username | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| tardigrada@beehaw.org | May 2022 | Dec. 2024 |
| 0x815@feddit.de | Apr. 2023 | Jun. 2024 |
| thelucky8@beehaw.org | Apr. 2024 | Jan. 2025 |
| 0x815@feddit.org | Jun. 2024 | Dec. 2024 |
| Anyone@slrpnk.net | Jan. 2025 | Apr. 2025 |
| @randomname@scribe.disroot.org | Jan. 2025 | – |
| @Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org | Jan. 2025 | – |
| @Scotty@scribe.disroot.org | Aug. 2025 | – |
| @Sepia@mander.xyz | Nov. 2025 | – |
FYI, @haui@lemmygrad.ml, you had this to say back in June on !europe@lemmy.dbzer0.com, before the post was removed by a mod:
OP is one of their propagandists from the looks of it. Please look at the post history and report if you see a pattern.
[Edited to update links for thelucky8@beehaw.org and and the archived post]
Your sides should be thrown away, your turkey should be frozen or almost gone.
Hell yeah im poly. Poly gonna eat way to much even though its not Thanksgiving anymore.
Late to posting this one. Holidays are hard on me because I have to interact with my family. You know what blood is thicker then water? A moldy scab.
A third Russian tanker attacked in the Black Sea, Turkish authority says
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A tanker carrying sunflower oil from Russia to Georgia was attacked in the Black Sea, the Turkish maritime authority said Tuesday, days after two Russian “shadow fleet” oil tankers were attacked by Ukrainian naval drones.
The Turkish Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said the MIDVOLGA-2 came under attack about 130 kilometers (80 miles) off the Turkish coast. The 13 crew members were unharmed and the vessel has not requested assistance.
It was heading toward the Turkish port of Sinop, the maritime authority said in a statement on X.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against Ukraine’s drone attack on two Russian vessels, the Kairos and Virat, saying it signaled a “worrying escalation” of the conflict.
It's a RUSSIAN FLAGGED ship. This isn't "grey fleet" under the guise of a "neutral" nation or anything like it. There is no deniability, this is literally just a russian vessel.
It's also waaaay outside turkish national waters, which end (if you're feeling generous) at 24 nautical miles.
Russia should just call their insurance. And then watch what's going to happen to their premiums now that it's russian-ship-season.
like this
There's a small legal step that Ukraine needs to do.
It needs to declare a blockade and declare which goods are blockaded, e.g. "all liquids transportable by ship".
Then, shipping companies will know in advance: "you cannot transport liquids to or from Russia, if your ship looks like a tanker, don't go" and dangerous drone strikes aren't needed.
It's fortunate that no sailors have been lost so far. But without a policy announcement, the discouraging effect is maybe too small and additional ships may try to run the blockade, which could lead to loss of life and environmental harm - which would be bad.
A third Russian tanker attacked in the Black Sea, Turkish authority says
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A tanker carrying sunflower oil from Russia to Georgia was attacked in the Black Sea, the Turkish maritime authority said Tuesday, days after two Russian “shadow fleet” oil tankers were attacked by Ukrainian naval drones.
The Turkish Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said the MIDVOLGA-2 came under attack about 130 kilometers (80 miles) off the Turkish coast. The 13 crew members were unharmed and the vessel has not requested assistance.
It was heading toward the Turkish port of Sinop, the maritime authority said in a statement on X.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against Ukraine’s drone attack on two Russian vessels, the Kairos and Virat, saying it signaled a “worrying escalation” of the conflict.
Rules of war
For those who missed it, Liberals are criticizing Trump for double tapping Venezuelan boats who (of course) surrendered after getting hit by a US terrorist bombing
But the actual problem is massacring innocent fishermen without evidence or trial.
Guy... nobody outside Trump's immediate circle was cheering the boat strikes in the first place. People are just talking now about this new more egregious and obvious war crime aspect instead of the war crime aspect they were talking about previously.
edition.cnn.com/2025/09/06/pol…
Why is it always this wild cartoonish bullshit with you guys lol
Where are US military planes and ships stationed near Venezuela?
The build-up in the Caribbean began in August with the deployment of air and naval forces, including a nuclear-powered submarine and spy planes, according to US officials.
It now includes a range of aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious assault ships capable of landing thousands of troops.
Analysis of satellite images has made it possible to identify at least six military vessels in the region over the past week.
Where are US military planes and ships stationed near Venezuela?
The US has justified its air and naval campaign as necessary to fight drug smuggling into the US.Jake Horton, Barbara Metzler & Joshua Cheetham (BBC News)
Where are US military planes and ships stationed near Venezuela?
The build-up in the Caribbean began in August with the deployment of air and naval forces, including a nuclear-powered submarine and spy planes, according to US officials.
It now includes a range of aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious assault ships capable of landing thousands of troops.
Analysis of satellite images has made it possible to identify at least six military vessels in the region over the past week.
Where are US military planes and ships stationed near Venezuela?
The US has justified its air and naval campaign as necessary to fight drug smuggling into the US.Jake Horton, Barbara Metzler & Joshua Cheetham (BBC News)
Locals Say National Guard Shooter Was Imprisoned in Afghanistan After “Zero Unit” Killings
from Drop Site News
Dec 01, 2025
Story by Emran Feroz and Abdul Rahman Lakanwal
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who was arrested for shooting two National Guard soldiers last week in D.C., was briefly imprisoned in Afghanistan alongside other members of his Zero Unit team, according to five Afghan sources. The detention by local government forces came after Zero Units killed Afghan police forces in Kandahar they were supposed to be defending.Notwithstanding their arrests, there were no longterm consequences for the Zero Units; the Afghan state had no authority over them and the Americans shielded them. During his few days in prison, which Lakanwal and his comrades had to face after the incident in Kandahar, they still received their pay from the CIA, sources said.
Locals Say National Guard Shooter Was Imprisoned in Afghanistan After “Zero Unit” Killings
Before D.C. shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal attacked two National Guard members last week, he was part of a CIA-backed unit that killed many Afghans.Drop Site News
According to former militia commander Rafeh—who is still living, in hiding, in Afghanistan—the circumstances that shaped Lakanwal were common among resettled militia veterans. “Many former soldiers and militiamen lived for the war and experienced trauma. It’s not compatible with their new lives in Europe or in Northern America. Also, their former NATO allies are abandoning them more and more. Many still don’t have documents while their family members are forced to hide themselves in Afghanistan”, Rafeh said. “If they are also traumatized drug addicts like Lakanwal, they are literal time bombs created through American warfare itself.”
Trump, Gaza, and Oslo Déjà Vu
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39755013
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Dec 01, 2025
Trump’s 20-point plan has been endorsed by an assortment of Arab and Islamic states and Mahmoud Abbas, the deeply unpopular 90-year old head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), but it has been rejected by a wide cross section of other Palestinian political factions and parties.“It’s an Israeli plan that has been rebranded as a Trump plan,” said Diana Buttu, a human rights lawyer who previously served as an advisor to Palestinian negotiators. “All of the guarantees are being given to Israel, but there’s no guarantees that are given to Palestinians. The fact [is] that all of the control rests in the hands of Israel. No control is ceded to anybody else; it looks to me entirely like an Israeli plan that was rebranded as a Trump plan—not the other way around,” Buttu told Drop Site. “It was a plan that was designed to ease the pressure off of Israel and, at the same time, let Israel continue to kill Palestinians—let them try to ethnically cleanse Gaza. It exactly matches what Israel said from the beginning.”
Trump, Gaza, and Oslo Déjà Vu
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Dec 01, 2025Trump’s 20-point plan has been endorsed by an assortment of Arab and Islamic states and Mahmoud Abbas, the deeply unpopular 90-year old head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), but it has been rejected by a wide cross section of other Palestinian political factions and parties.“It’s an Israeli plan that has been rebranded as a Trump plan,” said Diana Buttu, a human rights lawyer who previously served as an advisor to Palestinian negotiators. “All of the guarantees are being given to Israel, but there’s no guarantees that are given to Palestinians. The fact [is] that all of the control rests in the hands of Israel. No control is ceded to anybody else; it looks to me entirely like an Israeli plan that was rebranded as a Trump plan—not the other way around,” Buttu told Drop Site. “It was a plan that was designed to ease the pressure off of Israel and, at the same time, let Israel continue to kill Palestinians—let them try to ethnically cleanse Gaza. It exactly matches what Israel said from the beginning.”
Trump, Gaza, and Oslo Déjà Vu
The U.S. is pushing its colonialist plan, as Israel keeps killing. Mahmoud Abbas is changing election laws to ban Hamas. And a battle is brewing over who speaks for the Palestinian liberation cause.Jeremy Scahill (Drop Site News)
The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about PeerTube, Loops, Bandwagon, and other platforms in the Fediverse that are geared around artists. I might get flamed for this, and you’re welcome to disagree, but I think the network is in dire need of having support for commerce.
Not “Big Capitalism” commerce, but the ability for people to buy and sell things, support projects, and commission their favorite creators to keep making more stuff.
The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization
One thing that I've been thinking about for a while: the PeerTube platform is somewhat limited in providing tools for video-makers to receive financial support. At best, PeerTube offers a "Support" button on videos, but all this really does is provide a lightbox with links to various donation pages.It's better than nothing, but not by much.
I actually think this is a bit of a problem when it comes to getting creators to use platforms such as PeerTube or Loops. A lot of people don't really see a point in joining a whole new ecosystem when they're well-established on YouTube or Tiktok to begin with, and a lack of financial incentives might make this seem like an exercise in futility.The majority of this post is going to be focusing on financial support mechanisms specifically, but I want to be clear that this alone is not a silver bullet solution. It's just something that I think requires a lot of attention first. I'm going to talk about a few things the Fediverse ecosystem offers to mitigate this problem, with some thoughts on how we can better support video makers on federated platforms.
Payments, Access, and Friction
There are a few sticking points here that are worth thinking about. First and foremost is that, historically speaking, most Fediverse platforms don't offer good mechanisms for providing access to special paid content. From my limited understanding, there are two parts to think about:
- Payment Systems - payments in the Fediverse is still kind of a nascent, fledgling thing. A few systems offer the capability of buying or selling things through one or two major payment processing systems, and it's usually Stripe or PayPal. Part of the headache here is that this situation inherently props up a few monopolistic platforms, rather than allowing people to use whatever payment system is available in their own countries. Some of this can be worked around using cryptocurrencies – famously, the Mitra project leverages Monero for this very purpose, although I'm told it now can accept other forms of payment as well.
- Account Access - Historically speaking, the lion's share of Fediverse platforms lack a granular system for granting permissions to remote accounts. Most platforms in the Fediverse emulate Mastodon's privacy scopes, which don't do the best job of delegating which groups of people can see or interact with something. Either everybody can see a post, or just your mutuals can. Complicating things even further, there's not a great way to set something visible to a specific someone and let them know about it, unless you're specifically sending them a Private Message directly.
What's Available Today
There are a few cutting-edge attempts to solve this problem, and I think they might offer different pieces of the puzzle.Premium Users
One PeerTube plugin I have a lot of admiration for is simply called Premium Users, and it does exactly what you'd expect. PeerTube channels that have this integration set up offer a special paid subscription button on their pages, and it does two things:
- It takes a Stripe transaction to process payments.
- It takes note of which Fediverse accounts made this transaction, and adds them to a special group that can see videos intended specifically for them.
On paper, this is great! We at least have a proof-of-concept to say that hey, this thing is in fact doable. Unfortunately, there are a few shortcomings:
- Limited Utility — people can only get this special access by clicking the button on PeerTube. If they tried to pay you out of band, through something like Patreon or Kofi, there isn't a way to easily set up their Fediverse account as Premium Subscribers. The payment system has no concept of what their Fediverse identity is, and the manual way for adding people is kind of messy and confusing.
- Rigid Scope — the plugin basically has to get set up by an admin, and use their Stripe account. Users then upgrade their own PeerTube accounts to add payment, and they get upgraded to a special user type. Anyone with that user type can see "Premium" videos from anybody on the instance, and the money only goes to the instance admin. This is less than ideal.
- Vendor Limitations — it only works with Stripe at the moment, which is not necessarily what other people are using to make simple donations. Trying to account for multiple vendors might be challenging, as it means that such an integration has to abstract away the specific vendors in another layer. This is not impossible, but can be somewhat cumbersome if you're trying to just offer a simple plugin that's easy to set up.
Unfortunately, this is kind of a deal-breaker if you wanted to create something similar to YouTube's "Channel Membership" feature for the Fediverse. It's less Patreon-like, and more like a way to see all the exclusive paywalled media in one place.
At the very least, we have a proof-of-concept on how to at least broker access to special content on PeerTube using payments. It's not perfect, but maybe it could be a foundation to build on?Granular Permissions / Circles
Some of the most impressive development on this front comes from the Bonfire project, because their system actually lets people put their contacts into special collections.
Circles, which are Bonfire's concept for addressable groups, and Boundaries, which are the permission sets that can be assigned to them.
While it can be a little bit tedious to set up manually, the main thing to understand is that this works really, really well. You can have as many collections as you'd like, they can all have special rules applied to them, and you can decide which collections can see which things you post.
This can easily get super, super comprehensive. The UX definitely still needs some love to make it easier to manage.
From a technical perspective, I see Bonfire as a shining example for what all Fediverse platforms should follow: we need to think about access, permissions, and addressing for posts, all at the same time. You can create special custom presets today, and scope it to a specific group of people.
While I think the UX behind this is still complicated, I think the concept is solid, and a simplified version could be a very powerful way to create special scopes of friends or followers.Paid Circles
The Emissary project has been thinking long and hard about this problem by offering Circles, which are the very user collections we've been talking about up to this point. For their Bandwagon application, the lead dev has been thinking a lot about music sales, as well as different ways to support artists. As a result, the UX is very much simplified, and more user-friendly.
Examples of how different Circles can be set up as support tiers for artists.
Bandwagon does something neat by allowing musicians to turn membership of a specific Circle into a paid subscription. This allows artists to create special private things.posts, share events for secret shows, and even offer special tracks and albums to the people supporting them.
spectra.video/videos/embed/eod…
The lead dev, Ben Pate, has gone on the record in stating a desire to support many different payment providers in order to avoid monopolization of just one or two big vendors. He gave a really good presentation about the subject back in August for FediCon 2025, and it's worth watching.CrowdBucks
CrowdBucks is still a relative newcomer to the space, and offers a few novel approaches that are worth thinking about. It's open source, and you can host it yourself, and the project acts as a wrapper around payment integrations to provide payment status, as well as subscriber information. That includes Fediverse handles!
A demo of a CrowdBucks fundraising page.
What really sets CrowdBucks apart is this: you don't actually create an account, in the traditional sense. Instead, you log in with your existing Fediverse identity, which then allows you to financially support whoever you want, while also allowing you to do fundraising for yourself.
One other benefit I see to having services like CrowdBucks is the benefit of decoupling payment infrastructure away from Fediverse instances. Rather than trying to get a bunch of different platforms and instances to try to juggle Stripe and PayPal API keys for admins and users, it would probably be way easier to just handle the actual payment action on a separate layer outside of the social platforms themselves. Instead of every creator trying to sign into a bunch of different services, they could just authenticate against their CrowdBucks payment server instead.
Honorable Mention: Mitra
Although the project isn't as well-known as some of the other efforts on here, it's important to acknowledge Mitra and what it has pioneered. In a nutshell, this is a simple, stylish Fediverse platform that has paid subscription capabilities built in.
Subscribing to an account results in a dialogue to determine how much you're supporting a creator per month.
In a lot of ways, Mitra predates almost all of the other attempts to incorporate payments into the Fediverse. The lead dev behind it, Silverpill, is very active in the Fediverse Enhancement Proposals community, which aims to help extend ActivityPub capabilities in a somewhat standardized, grassroots way.
Posting to just your Paid Subscribers works out of the box!
Mitra has experienced some friction in being adopted by the wider Fediverse due to an ideological divide: historically, the platform has only supported Monero for payment, and the wider Fediverse itself doesn't generally hold a positive view on cryptocurrencies to begin with. A recent release no longer strictly requires Monero, but some glue code would still need to be written to support payment processors.Putting It All Together
So, we have all of these different pieces. Can we use them together to accomplish what we want?Let's say that we use CrowdBucks as the middleware that wraps around potentially many different payment solutions. It offers an API, can capture information about who is paying you for something, and can potentially even denote what thing they're paying for specifically. Great! Upon initial payment, a special follow request could get forwarded to the creator's account, which automatically gets approved upon proof of payment.
A plugin or integration could directly hook up to CrowdBucks, and then automatically put that paid subscriber into a dedicated Circle as a permission scope that can see stuff intended just for them. Additionally, this special follow request could also enable special notifications that tells the subscriber when new stuff is available to them.
A lapse in payment or cancellation could also be handled automatically through CrowdBucks, resulting in the Subscriber being automatically removed from the Circle after a set period of time.
Limitations
This concept is not without a few different headaches. Let's talk about them.Currency Support
While a fair amount of payment processors are set up to handle international currency exchanges, the experience could be messier for platforms that aren't set up to handle it.This is particularly glaring in situations where one person might want to pay with cryptocurrency, and the recipient doesn't actually accept that.
What might make sense is for CrowdBucks to allow people to plug in a multitude of different payment providers, defaulting to a "path of equilibrium" where the payee and recipient both go through whatever payment system they both have in common. The alternative is to basically establish some kind of escrow/transfer service for money in various forms, and that can get pretty complicated.
Fediverse Identity
Identity in the Fediverse is still somewhat flaky and non-standard. The secret sauce that CrowdBucks uses for Fediverse Login is really just a series of platform-specific integrations, such as "Sign in With Mastodon", "Sign in With Pixelfed", and "Sign in With PeerTube".Good concept overall, but lack of a uniform solution is killing us. Source: GreatApe
This isn't a great experience for anyone that's not using those specific platforms. Theoretically, we should all be using the ActivityPub Client-To-Server API for platform-agnostic Identity Login, but the biggest players such as Mastodon have yet to really embrace C2S in any way, shape, or form.If we could all rally around C2S for at least this singular use-case, we might be able to have a universal login system for the entire network.
Ecosystem Support
Finally, the biggest headache here is buy-in. It's very challenging to get a bunch of different groups of people to align to a common set of goals, implementations, and methodologies.My thinking here is simple: if we can get some level of integration working for PeerTube, Pixelfed, Loops, and any other federated platform where such a thing might be handy, we might be able to make major strides in solving this problem.
I'm Still Optimistic
While I think we still have a long way to go before we get to a place where there's a clear-cut "standard experience" on how these things should happen, it's evident that there are a lot of pieces being developed that could be made to work together.I hold the view that commerce, understood through the lens of "the marketplace or bazaar at the center of town", could be extremely beneficial for the Fediverse. If we are to build this thing, it's going to require a lot of careful consideration, with different builders comparing notes on how they're currently doing it.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
What is PeerTube? | JoinPeerTube
A free software to take back control of your videos! With more than 600,000 hosted videos, viewed more than 70 millions times and 150,000 users, PeerTube is the decentralized free software alternative to videos platforms developed by FramasoftJoinPeerTube
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A still life that I tried to reshoot, ten years later.
The components from the original take were still here, so I used them just as they were. Only differences were that I had shot the original (below) with an iPhone 6+ and I shot the modern take (above) with my Canon EOS Rebel T7; and that I rotated the gaff card in the middle of the frame to be true to my intentions, as I had many regrets once I published the original work.
Thank you for seeing my work!
Costco sues the Trump administration, seeking a refund of tariffs
Costco sues the Trump administration, seeking a refund of tariffs
Costco Wholesale sued the Trump administration in the Court of International Trade, seeking a refund of tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law.Steve Kopack (NBC News)
This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39748429
archive.ph/ErKmx[Bias alert - #NYT usually favors Israel]
Opinion - Guest Essay
Ben Rhodes
During the Biden presidency, it was short-handed the “hug Bibi” strategy — the idea that smothering Mr. Netanyahu with unconditional support would give the U.S. leverage to influence his actions. Over the final 15 months of the Biden presidency, this approach led the White House to provide a flood of weapons for Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians, veto United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire, attack the International Criminal Court for pursuing charges against Mr. Netanyahu, ignore its own policies about supporting military units credibly accused of war crimes and blame Hamas for not accepting cease-fire terms that the Israeli government was also rejecting.
This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza
[Bias alert - #NYT usually favors Israel]
Opinion - Guest Essay
Ben RhodesDuring the Biden presidency, it was short-handed the “hug Bibi” strategy — the idea that smothering Mr. Netanyahu with unconditional support would give the U.S. leverage to influence his actions. Over the final 15 months of the Biden presidency, this approach led the White House to provide a flood of weapons for Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians, veto United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire, attack the International Criminal Court for pursuing charges against Mr. Netanyahu, ignore its own policies about supporting military units credibly accused of war crimes and blame Hamas for not accepting cease-fire terms that the Israeli government was also rejecting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/opinion/democrats-israel.html
like this
This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39748429
archive.ph/ErKmx[Bias alert - #NYT usually favors Israel]
Opinion - Guest Essay
Ben Rhodes
During the Biden presidency, it was short-handed the “hug Bibi” strategy — the idea that smothering Mr. Netanyahu with unconditional support would give the U.S. leverage to influence his actions. Over the final 15 months of the Biden presidency, this approach led the White House to provide a flood of weapons for Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians, veto United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire, attack the International Criminal Court for pursuing charges against Mr. Netanyahu, ignore its own policies about supporting military units credibly accused of war crimes and blame Hamas for not accepting cease-fire terms that the Israeli government was also rejecting.
This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza
[Bias alert - #NYT usually favors Israel]
Opinion - Guest Essay
Ben RhodesDuring the Biden presidency, it was short-handed the “hug Bibi” strategy — the idea that smothering Mr. Netanyahu with unconditional support would give the U.S. leverage to influence his actions. Over the final 15 months of the Biden presidency, this approach led the White House to provide a flood of weapons for Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians, veto United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire, attack the International Criminal Court for pursuing charges against Mr. Netanyahu, ignore its own policies about supporting military units credibly accused of war crimes and blame Hamas for not accepting cease-fire terms that the Israeli government was also rejecting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/opinion/democrats-israel.html
China’s Grip on American Medicine Cabinets Grows More Entrenched
China’s Grip on American Medicine Cabinets Grows More Entrenched
A US congressional commission is ringing alarm bells about China’s growing dominance over America’s drug supply, saying it is putting the country’s health in the hands of an adversarial nation.Anna Edney (Bloomberg)
'Imperial Israel’ in the New Middle East
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39747783
archive.ph/jphZ9[Bias alert - NYT usually favors Israel]
By Roger Cohen
Nov. 26, 2025[on-site, in-depth report from Lebanon, with many photos]
Abbas Fakhr al-Din, the soft-spoken mayor of Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, sat beneath a portrait of Ahmad Kahil, a doctor and his predecessor. Dr. Kahil was killed in an Israeli strike on the municipal building on Oct. 16, 2024, that took the lives of 16 people in all. The rubble remains.I asked Mr. al-Din if he was afraid. “No,” he said. “I have to be with my people through good times and bad.”
Nabatieh and the surrounding area continue to be hit by intermittent Israeli strikes, killing people and heightening the sense that the cease-fire is even less stable than Lebanon’s battered buildings. To the mayor’s eyes, American strategy is devoted solely to support of Israel.
'Imperial Israel’ in the New Middle East
[Bias alert - NYT usually favors Israel]
By Roger Cohen
Nov. 26, 2025[on-site, in-depth report from Lebanon, with many photos]
Abbas Fakhr al-Din, the soft-spoken mayor of Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, sat beneath a portrait of Ahmad Kahil, a doctor and his predecessor. Dr. Kahil was killed in an Israeli strike on the municipal building on Oct. 16, 2024, that took the lives of 16 people in all. The rubble remains.I asked Mr. al-Din if he was afraid. “No,” he said. “I have to be with my people through good times and bad.”
Nabatieh and the surrounding area continue to be hit by intermittent Israeli strikes, killing people and heightening the sense that the cease-fire is even less stable than Lebanon’s battered buildings. To the mayor’s eyes, American strategy is devoted solely to support of Israel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/world/middleeast/imperial-israel-in-the-new-middle-east.html
How did the Ad Networks find my search?
So a bit ago I got an add for "canned rambutan". I had looked up Rambutan a few days prior after hearing it mentioned 10 hours into the video game Baby Steps. I wasn't using a VPN at the time and I didn't have fingerprinting protections active but I only mentioned it to a few sources (according to my browser history) all of which generally are implied to be private.
Which of these do you think is the reason the ad networks know?
- Wikipedia
- Startpage Search
- Duckduckgo Search
- My ISP
- Firefox
- My Firefox Extensions
- Kubuntu
- CachyOS
- The omnipotent algorithm connecting my mentions of Baby Steps with my progress through the game.
- Does this only make sense if my browser history is incomplete?
- Maybe I was using DNS over HTTPS via Cloudflare at the time of my search.
Any guesses as to where the weak link is?
It's duckduckgo. Search duckduckgo.com with the term "restaurants near me." You'll often get responses that are close to your IP location.
That couldn't happen unless DDG passes your IP address on to Bing. It's possible they censor part of the IP and only pass part of it to Bing, but probably not.
(Go ahead! Try it!)
Since Bing sells to data brokers, data brokers know your IP is linked to a search for rambutan, even without fingerprinting your browser.
I'm not calling duckduckgo.com a honeypot... I'm also not calling it not a honeypot. But it knows too much for something supposedly private.
Any closed source firefox extension that has access to the browser display could be parsing the texts and selling it and your IP and other identifiers to data brokers. It's part of how these extensions are profitable.
Cloudflare also does highly advanced fingerprinting and has a script called cloudflare insights, so it seems likely that any cloudflare activity is generating marketing data.
'Imperial Israel’ in the New Middle East
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39747783
archive.ph/jphZ9[Bias alert - NYT usually favors Israel]
By Roger Cohen
Nov. 26, 2025[on-site, in-depth report from Lebanon, with many photos]
Abbas Fakhr al-Din, the soft-spoken mayor of Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, sat beneath a portrait of Ahmad Kahil, a doctor and his predecessor. Dr. Kahil was killed in an Israeli strike on the municipal building on Oct. 16, 2024, that took the lives of 16 people in all. The rubble remains.I asked Mr. al-Din if he was afraid. “No,” he said. “I have to be with my people through good times and bad.”
Nabatieh and the surrounding area continue to be hit by intermittent Israeli strikes, killing people and heightening the sense that the cease-fire is even less stable than Lebanon’s battered buildings. To the mayor’s eyes, American strategy is devoted solely to support of Israel.
'Imperial Israel’ in the New Middle East
[Bias alert - NYT usually favors Israel]
By Roger Cohen
Nov. 26, 2025[on-site, in-depth report from Lebanon, with many photos]
Abbas Fakhr al-Din, the soft-spoken mayor of Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, sat beneath a portrait of Ahmad Kahil, a doctor and his predecessor. Dr. Kahil was killed in an Israeli strike on the municipal building on Oct. 16, 2024, that took the lives of 16 people in all. The rubble remains.I asked Mr. al-Din if he was afraid. “No,” he said. “I have to be with my people through good times and bad.”
Nabatieh and the surrounding area continue to be hit by intermittent Israeli strikes, killing people and heightening the sense that the cease-fire is even less stable than Lebanon’s battered buildings. To the mayor’s eyes, American strategy is devoted solely to support of Israel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/world/middleeast/imperial-israel-in-the-new-middle-east.html
'Imperial Israel’ in the New Middle East
[Bias alert - NYT usually favors Israel]
By Roger Cohen
Nov. 26, 2025
[on-site, in-depth report from Lebanon, with many photos]
Abbas Fakhr al-Din, the soft-spoken mayor of Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, sat beneath a portrait of Ahmad Kahil, a doctor and his predecessor. Dr. Kahil was killed in an Israeli strike on the municipal building on Oct. 16, 2024, that took the lives of 16 people in all. The rubble remains.I asked Mr. al-Din if he was afraid. “No,” he said. “I have to be with my people through good times and bad.”
Nabatieh and the surrounding area continue to be hit by intermittent Israeli strikes, killing people and heightening the sense that the cease-fire is even less stable than Lebanon’s battered buildings. To the mayor’s eyes, American strategy is devoted solely to support of Israel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/world/middleeast/imperial-israel-in-the-new-middle-east.html
Corrupt Ukrainian officials could have bagged over $100 billion in Western aid – former PM
Corrupt Ukrainian officials could have bagged over $100 billion in Western aid – former PM
Ukrainian officials could have stolen up to 30% of the $360 billion provided by the West, former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has claimedRT
Well, but that's kind of how it works.
If you say something positive about yourself, it's not worth anything. But if an adversary says something positive about you, it has meaning because they are not incentivized to say the thing.
Canada’s “Diversification” Trade Deal Is a Gift to Autocrats
The UAE is facing increasing scrutiny for its increasingly imperial foreign policy. It participated in the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen and backs a separatist movement in the former South Yemen.More controversial is its alleged support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that are battling the Sudanese military. The RSF's campaign for control of Sudan has reached genocidal proportions, with nearly 30,000 killed in the city of El Fasher in only a few days, according to Minni Minnawi, the governor of Darfur region, where El Fasher is located.
For Canada to announce that it is seeking closer ties to the UAE at this moment looks ignorant at best and callous at worst. There are also serious questions as to what benefits this will bring Canada. While the UAE does invest in green energy projects around the world, the Canadian government is signaling that liquefied natural gas (LNG) is to be part of this new relationship. Ottawa is signaling that LNG will feature in this new relationship, a strange move if Canada is serious about its decarbonization commitments.
The idea of natural gas as a "bridging fuel" between dirtier fossil fuels like coal and renewables is largely a mirage. Recent research on China --- the world's biggest coal consumer and LNG importer --- finds that rising LNG imports have not reduced or slowed the country's coal usage and still plays only a marginal role in its power mix. Instead, it is wind and solar that are squeezing coal out, and these renewables are now cheaper than gas-fired power.
Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi says RSF killed 27,000 Sudanese in el-Fasher
The governor of Darfur, Minni Arko Minnawi, has told Middle East Eye that 27,000 Sudanese were killed in just three days as paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) went on a killing spree after seizing el-Fasher late last month.Peter Oborne (Middle East Eye)
Venezuela calls on OPEC to counter US threats
Venezuela calls on OPEC to counter US threats
Maduro asks oil-producing bloc to help protect Venezuela’s oil reserves from US ‘aggression’.Lyndal Rowlands (Al Jazeera)
India forces WhatsApp and Telegram into permanent SIM binding
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/54163653
The Indian telecommunications authority, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has instructed eight messenger services to implement a permanent binding to inserted SIM cards. Affected are WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Snapchat, ShareChat, as well as the Indian services Arattai, JioChat, and Josh. According to the directive, the companies must ensure within 90 days that their services can only be used with a physically inserted SIM card.
India forces WhatsApp and Telegram into permanent SIM binding
The Indian telecommunications authority, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has instructed eight messenger services to implement a permanent binding to inserted SIM cards. Affected are WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Snapchat, ShareChat, as well as the Indian services Arattai, JioChat, and Josh. According to the directive, the companies must ensure within 90 days that their services can only be used with a physically inserted SIM card.
India forces WhatsApp and Telegram into permanent SIM binding
India's telecom authority DoT mandates permanent SIM binding for messenger services. WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal must comply within 90 days.Malte Kirchner (heise online)
like this
The Session Protocol: A new standard for decentralised private messaging
It’s time for a new encryption protocol built from the ground up for decentralised secure messaging. Introducing the Session Protocol.Session
‘Don’t want a slave’s peace’: Maduro hits back after Trump ultimatum; tensions surge
Sources told the Miami Hearld that during the call Trump had pressed Maduro to leave “right away”, offering guarantees for his family only if he resigned on the spot. Maduro reportedly refused and instead put forward counter-demands, including global amnesty and the ability to retain control of the armed forces even if he ceded political power.
According to the Miami Herald, there has been no further communication since, despite Maduro’s attempt to secure a second call after Trump declared Venezuelan airspace “closed in its entirety”.
‘Don’t want a slave’s peace’: Maduro hits back after Trump ultimatum; tensions surge
US News: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro rejected a \"slave's peace\" amid escalating US pressure, accusing Washington of testing the nation with a prolongedTOI World Desk (The Times Of India)
China’s currency push gains ground as Russia nears issuance of yuan bond
China’s currency push gains ground as Russia nears issuance of yuan bond
Foreign governments have raised a record 13 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) via yuan bonds this year, Bloomberg-compiled data shows.Bloomberg (South China Morning Post)
China pares down US Treasury holdings
China pares down US Treasury holdings
China cut its US Treasury holdings by $25.7 billion in July to $730.7 billion, marking the steepest reduction in nearly two years and pushing its holdings to the lowest since 2009, as the country's foreign exchange reserve diversification continued, …global.chinadaily.com.cn
China-Russia cooperation expanding in traditional areas, emerging sectors
Bilateral trade poised for steady growth
China-Russia trade is expected to maintain growth momentum in the coming years, as both countries are actively strengthening business ties in manufacturing, green industries, cross-border e-commerce and other emerging sectors, said market watchers an…global.chinadaily.com.cn
Amusingly, I predicted this exact scenario right at the start of the war, looks like mainstream western press finally figure it out.
Nobody knows whether Russia plans to take over all of Ukraine or merely keep the areas friendly to Russia and make the rest of Ukraine west’s problem. The latter seems a more plausible scenario to me. Russia will likely take areas like Kharkov and Odessa because there is a strong pro Russian sentiment there. Then western Ukraine where the nationalists are will become a rump state without any industry or agriculture. This will become an ongoing burden for the west because the state won’t be able to function on its own, and will require constant flow of money to prevent it from collapsing.
like this
*Per reddit u/pathtracing - Thu Jun 19 08:27:23 2025 UTC - old.reddit.com/r/ipv6/comments…
I think the problem is you (and others) using the term “vpn” to cover various different needs.
There’s:
- actual privacy from network observers, which is about only Mullvad
- exploiting non-technical podcast listeners, which is just about every other product labelled “vpn”
- providing better connectivity, which is Tunnelbroker or a GRE/vxlan provider
- joining the DFZ via a crap isp, which is bgptunnel and various more expensive ones
You want 3 or 4, which is fine. Making item 1 provide a subnet doesn’t help 1 do its job any better and definitely will harm unskilled users.
saibhargav
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •Ex Nummis
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •nimpnin
in reply to Ex Nummis • • •Even if you can't, minimizing smartphone use, uptime and carrying mitigates some of the risk
Constant Pain
in reply to Ex Nummis • • •Default Username
in reply to Constant Pain • • •ulterno
in reply to Default Username • • •This doesn't make sense to me.
Why do they even need it to be that way?
Compartmentalisations was one of the basic points in system design methodology that I thought (because I read it somewhere) smartphones would also be built upon. So why compromise the whole thing to a supply chain attack?
ayyy
in reply to ulterno • • •brachiosaurus
in reply to ulterno • • •so that they can surveil you
ulterno
in reply to brachiosaurus • • •That part, I already understand.
But you needed to have some sort of excuse for such things back when smartphones were new.
I think the compartmentalisation concepts were there from the feature-phone era.
Constant Pain
in reply to ulterno • • •Kazumara
in reply to Ex Nummis • • •Just make sure your pagers are not backdoored with Semtex either.
jof
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •Crazy this is a thing actually being rolled out and it hasn't hit world headlines.
Europe, USA and other countries are not far behind this initiative once they (governments) see how even more successful it is for collecting and sorting data to control citizens.
Time to go to GrapheneOS folks.
witty_username
in reply to jof • • •like this
geneva_convenience likes this.
ExcessShiv
in reply to witty_username • • •like this
geneva_convenience likes this.
jof
in reply to ExcessShiv • • •Entertainmeonly
in reply to ExcessShiv • • •anomnom
in reply to Entertainmeonly • • •Entertainmeonly
in reply to anomnom • • •ulterno
in reply to ExcessShiv • • •Withdrawing cash is going to be taxed.
ExcessShiv
in reply to ulterno • • •ulterno
in reply to ExcessShiv • • •If you have a smartphone, you get to use UPI (United Payments Interface).
If you don't, you are basically limited to a certain amount of free withdrawal per month, which is set to prevent getting an outcry from BPL (below poverty line) people, which would otherwise be bad for elections.
I was considering pushing for open source UPI apps for Linux devices (and providing my services for development), to reduce India's reliance on Google and Android but considering recent events, I believe that is not really going to align with the Government's plans.
ExcessShiv
in reply to ulterno • • •ulterno
in reply to ExcessShiv • • •Though that's probably connected to the debit/credit card and not really a separate interface.
brachiosaurus
in reply to ExcessShiv • • •quick_snail
in reply to brachiosaurus • • •Helix 🧬
in reply to quick_snail • • •quick_snail
in reply to Helix 🧬 • • •eleitl
in reply to witty_username • • •ColeSloth
in reply to witty_username • • •RodgeGrabTheCat 🇨🇦🏴☠️
in reply to ColeSloth • • •eldavi
in reply to RodgeGrabTheCat 🇨🇦🏴☠️ • • •RodgeGrabTheCat 🇨🇦🏴☠️
in reply to eldavi • • •ulterno
in reply to witty_username • • •They will randomly send dacoits in uniform to beat you up and jail you and make it harder for you to earn a living until they get their ~~birthright~~ bribes.
grue
in reply to witty_username • • •FTFY
artyom
in reply to jof • • •I mean, it has been, for a long time, but this is not why. According to the article you can simply uninstall the app.
driving_crooner
in reply to artyom • • •artyom
in reply to driving_crooner • • •Chulk
in reply to artyom • • •artyom
in reply to Chulk • • •Zamboni_Driver
in reply to jof • • •RodgeGrabTheCat 🇨🇦🏴☠️
in reply to jof • • •M137
in reply to jof • • •jimbroof
in reply to jof • • •jof
in reply to jimbroof • • •Yes I watched a few videos about the NSA’s hacker group, TAO, and how they exploited backdoors and zero day exploits like crazy but without our knowledge. Went unknown for some 15 years til Snowden blew the whistle.
Scary stuff man.
spez
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •Richard
in reply to spez • • •jaybone
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •db0
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •laz
in reply to db0 • • •Jack
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •amazon.com/Nokia-3310-3G-Unloc…
Sorry how to install it exactly?
ptu
in reply to Jack • • •colourlessidea
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •AllNewTypeFace
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •bdonvr
in reply to AllNewTypeFace • • •the_riviera_kid
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •zod000
in reply to the_riviera_kid • • •kn0wmad1c
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •oopsgodisdeadmybad
in reply to kn0wmad1c • • •bstix
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •Cool..how can I get it?
They too should suffer my endless search history for obscurities.
I want them to download all of my USB storage of virus infected malware. I will sit idly and tap my fingertips against each other while my SMS messages corrupt their society from within.
abbiistabbii
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •herseycokguzelolacak
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •global computer systems outage
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Jiří Král
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •brachiosaurus
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •Balldowern
in reply to brachiosaurus • • •The caste system ended in 1947.
We know the laws there.
The only thing holding their people back is the Reservation system.
shneancy
in reply to Balldowern • • •3abas
in reply to shneancy • • •redparadise
in reply to Balldowern • • •redparadise
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •like this
geneva_convenience likes this.
geneva_convenience
in reply to redparadise • • •MrSulu
in reply to Florencia (she/her) • • •