cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1191…

Public opposition to artificial intelligence data centers—and the push by corporations and officials to move forward with their construction anyway—were vividly illustrated in a viral video this week of a woman who was arrested after speaking out against a proposed data center in her community in Wisconsin.

Christine Le Jeune, a member of Great Lakes Neighbors United in Port Washington, spoke at a Common Council meeting in the town on Tuesday evening. The meeting was not focused on the recently approved $15 million "Lighthouse" data center set to be built a mile from downtown Port Washington—part of a project developed by Vantage Data Centers for OpenAI and Oracle—but the first 30 minutes were taken up by members of the public who spoke out against the project.

As CNBC reported last month, more than 1,000 people signed a petition calling on Port Washington officials to obtain voter approval before entering into the deal, but the Common Council and a review board went ahead with creating a Tax Incremental District for the project without public input. The data center still requires other approvals to officially move forward.

"We will not continue to be silenced and ignored while our beautiful and pristine city is taken away from us and handed over to a corporation intent on extracting as many resources as they can regardless of the impact on the people who live here," said Le Jeune. "Most leaders would have tabled the issue after receiving public input and providing sufficient notice. But you did nothing, and you laughed about it."

Le Jeune spoke for her allotted three minutes and went slightly over the time limit. She then chanted, "Recall, recall, recall!" at members of the Common Council as other community members applauded.

Police Chief Kevin Hingiss then approached Le Jeune while she was sitting in her seat, listening to the next speaker, and asked her to leave.

She refused, and another officer approached her before a chaotic scene broke out.

Last night, the Port Washington Police Department used excessive force to arrest a woman for speaking up against the Vantage data center.

We are thankful that this local advocate is safe, and we condemn the Port Washington PD’s actions in the strongest possible terms. SHAME! pic.twitter.com/35dhEKvojL
— Our Wisconsin Revolution (@OurWisconsinRev) December 3, 2025

City officials had told attendees not to speak out of order during the meeting, and Le Jeune acknowledged that she and others had spoken out of turn at times.

But she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she had been surprised by the police officers' demand that she leave, and by the eventual violence of the incident, with officers physically removing her from her seat and dragging her and two other people across the floor.

The two other residents had approached Le Jeune to protest the officers' actions.

"I never expected something like that to happen in a meeting. It was very strange," she told the Journal Sentinel. "Suddenly this police chief showed up in front of me, and all I was thinking was: 'Wait, what is going on? Why is he interrupting her speech? ... It felt like [police] were kind of primed tonight to pounce."

State Sen. Chris Larson (D-7) said that "police should not be allowed to violently detain a person who is nonviolently exercising their free speech. This used to be something all Americans agreed on."

William Walter, executive director of Our Wisconsin Revolution, filmed the arrest and told ABC News affiliate WISN, "I've never seen a response like that in my life."

"What I did see was a lot of members of the Port Washington community who are really frustrated that they're being ignored and they're being dismissed by their elected officials," he said.

AI data centers, he added, "will impact you. They'll impact your friends, your family, your neighbors, your parents, your children. These are the kinds of things that are going to be dictating the future of Wisconsin, not just for the next couple of years but for the next decade, the next 50 years."

After Le Jeune's arrest, another resident, Dawn Stacey, denounced the Common Council members for allowing the aggressive arrest.

"We have so many people who have these concerns about this data center," said Stacey. “Are we being heard by the Common Council? No we’re not. Instead of being heard we have people being dragged out of the room.”

“For democracy to thrive, we need to have respect between public servants and the people who they serve," she added.

Vantage has distributed flyers in Port Washington, which has a population of 17,000, promising residents 330 full-time jobs after construction. But as CNBC reported, "Data centers don’t tend to create a lot of long-lasting jobs."

Another project in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin hired 3,000 construction workers and foresees 500 employees, while McKinsey said a data center it is planning would need 1,500 people for construction but only around 50 for "steady-state operations."

Residents in Port Washington have also raised concerns about the data center's impact on the environment, including through its water use, the potential for exploding utility prices for residents, and the overall purpose of advancing AI.

As Common Dreams reported Thursday, the development of data centers has caused a rapid surge in consumers' electricity bills, with costs rising more than 250% in just five years. Vantage has claimed its center will run on 70% renewable energy, but more than half of the electricity used to power data center campuses so far has come from fossil fuels, raising concerns that the expansion of the facilities will worsen the climate emergency.

A recent Morning Consult poll found that a rapidly growing number of Americans support a ban on AI data centers in their surrounding areas—41% said they would support a ban in the survey taken in late November, compared to 37% in October.

---

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1193…

A detailed investigation released Thursday reveals that the e-commerce behemoth Amazon is using its market dominance and political influence to gain a foothold in local governments' purchasing systems, locking school districts into contracts that let the corporation drive up prices for pens, sticky notes, and other basic supplies.

The new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), titled Turning Public Money Into Amazon’s Profits: The Hidden Cost of Ceding Government Procurement to a Monopoly Gatekeeper, is based on purchasing records from nearly 130 cities representing more than 50 million Americans.

ILSR found that "cities, counties, and school districts spent $2.2 billion with Amazon in 2023—a nearly fourfold increase since 2016."

"Through its Amazon Business platform, the company has maneuvered to become the default source for office products, classroom materials, cleaning supplies, and other routine goods," the report states. "Today, it is embedded in most local governments, making inroads into state agencies, and dominating a new program designed to reshape how federal agencies buy commercial products."

Unlike the fixed pricing that's typical for government contracts, the agreements that Amazon has secured with local governments across the US entail "algorithm-driven pricing" to "covertly raise prices and inflate costs for governments."

"The result is dramatic price variation: One city bought a 12-pack of Sharpie markers for $8.99, while a nearby school district paid $28.63 for the identical pack that same day," ILSR said. "Our data contain thousands of similar examples, with some agencies paying double or even triple what others paid for the same items."

1. Hard to believe, but Amazon has persuaded schools and cities across the country to abandon competitive bidding and fixed price contracts. Instead, they're signing contracts with Amazon that specify dynamic pricing. The result: Paying $37 for 12 pens or $74 for 36 markers. pic.twitter.com/afIIkPucZL
   — Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) December 5, 2025

Overall, ILSR found that school districts bound to Amazon contracts spend twice as much per student as school districts without an agreement with the $2.5 trillion company.

“Public officials should be deeply concerned by what we found,” Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of ILSR, said in a statement. “Amazon is reshaping public procurement in ways that expose taxpayer dollars to waste and risk. It has persuaded cities and schools to abandon safeguards meant to ensure fair prices and accountability—while driving out independent suppliers, eroding competition, and putting Amazon in a position to dictate terms.”

Having gained sweeping access to local government purchasing processes, Amazon is increasingly inserting itself into state and federal systems. ILSR noted that "Amazon dominates the General Services Administration’s Commercial Platforms Program, a new system for agencies to make purchases below $15,000 that do not require competitive bids."

"During the first two years of the program’s pilot phase," the group found, "Amazon captured 96% of sales."

ILSR emphasized that Amazon's dominance is by no means inevitable and can, with concerted action, be rolled back.

"A handful of cities and counties have recognized the risks of relying on Amazon and taken steps to restore transparency and keep public dollars local," the report observes. "Tempe, Arizona rejected an Amazon group-purchasing contract after hearing concerns from a local business owner. Between 2017 and 2023, the city cut its Amazon spending by 84% while increasing purchases from local suppliers. Phoenix likewise prioritizes local bids and has spent almost nothing with Amazon over the last decade."

Kennedy Smith, co-author of the report, said that "when local officials put real safeguards in place and prioritize local suppliers, they save money, strengthen their economies, and restore public control over public dollars."

To keep their procurement system free of the kinds of tactics Amazon uses to line its pockets with taxpayer money, ILSR urged state and local governments to prohibit so-called "dynamic pricing" in purchasing contracts and to prioritize buying from local businesses.

"By reclaiming control of public procurement, governments can safeguard dollars, strengthen local businesses, and ensure that the goods that sustain our schools and public services are supplied through systems that are transparent, competitive, and democratic," the group said.

---

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1195…

From knowingly unhealthy products to deadly working conditions, capitalism’s focus on profit poisons our food, our planet, and our class.

The post Campbell’s Executive “Revelations” Expose the Rot of Capitalist Food Production appeared first on Left Voice.

---

From Left Voice via This RSS Feed.

Campbell’s Executive “Revelations” Expose the Rot of Capitalist Food Production - Left Voice

^{Mike Pappas (Left Voice)}

https://www.axios.com/2025/12/04/trump-ice-immigration-arrests-deportations

Rep. Adelita Grijalva says she was ‘sprayed in the face’ and ‘pushed around’ as agents descended on restaurant

Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva says federal agents fired pepper spray at her and others protesting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Arizona.

In a video posted on social media Friday, Grijalva said roughly 40 federal officers, most of them masked, pulled up in several vehicles for a raid at Taco Giro in Tucson, where a large group of demonstrators had gathered in the street.

There, she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent” and “pushed around by others,” she said.

She also posted footage of a heavily armored officer firing pepper spray towards her and others in the crowd as she approaches agents and repeatedly tells them “you need to get out.” The footage also appears to show a pepper bullet hitting her feet.

Arizona congresswoman who waited 7 weeks for Mike Johnson to swear her in says she was pepper sprayed by ICE at a taco joint

^{Alex Woodward (The Independent)}

How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and ’90s – and it hasn’t gone away.

Decades before artificial intelligence, Telegram and white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ livestreams, far-right extremists embraced the early days of home computing and the internet. These new technologies offered them a bastion of free speech and a global platform. They could share propaganda, spew hatred, incite violence and gain international followers like never before.

Far-right extremists have been organizing online since before the internet – and AI is their next frontier

Neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists were early adopters of bulletin board systems, pioneering online recruiting and radicalization techniques long before the social media revolution.

^{The Conversation}

Two men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean clung to the wreckage for an hour before they were killed in a second attack, according to a video of the episode shown to senators in Washington.

The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment. They also appeared to have no idea what had just hit them, or that the US military was weighing whether to finish them off, two sources familiar with the recording told Reuters.

The pair desperately tried to turn a severed section of the hull upright before they died. “The video follows them for about an hour as they tried to flip the boat back over. They couldn’t do it,” one source said.

US airstrike survivors clung to boat wreckage for an hour before second deadly attack, video shows

Footage seen by US senators shows two unarmed, shirtless men struggling to stay afloat before they were killed, sources say

^{Joseph Gedeon (The Guardian)}

Two men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean clung to the wreckage for an hour before they were killed in a second attack, according to a video of the episode shown to senators in Washington.

The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment. They also appeared to have no idea what had just hit them, or that the US military was weighing whether to finish them off, two sources familiar with the recording told Reuters.

The pair desperately tried to turn a severed section of the hull upright before they died. “The video follows them for about an hour as they tried to flip the boat back over. They couldn’t do it,” one source said.

US airstrike survivors clung to boat wreckage for an hour before second deadly attack, video shows

Footage seen by US senators shows two unarmed, shirtless men struggling to stay afloat before they were killed, sources say

^{Joseph Gedeon (The Guardian)}

You can use Thaura for everyday tasks like writing emails, doing homework, and researching online. It remembers your conversations, helps you create documents and code, and even searches the web for you. And it works seamlessly with your existing tools through full OpenAI SDK compatibility.

But what really makes Thaura different is what it doesn't do:

• It doesn't collect your data or spy on you
• It doesn't have political bias
• It doesn't water down the truth on sensitive topics

Announcing: Thaura - Your Ethical ChatGPT Alternative

Meet Thaura, your ethical AI companion. A platform that actually respects your values, protects your data, and tells the truth - all without Big Tech strings attached.

^{Afzal (Tech for Palestine)}

You can use Thaura for everyday tasks like writing emails, doing homework, and researching online. It remembers your conversations, helps you create documents and code, and even searches the web for you. And it works seamlessly with your existing tools through full OpenAI SDK compatibility.

But what really makes Thaura different is what it doesn't do:

• It doesn't collect your data or spy on you
• It doesn't have political bias
• It doesn't water down the truth on sensitive topics

Announcing: Thaura - Your Ethical ChatGPT Alternative

Meet Thaura, your ethical AI companion. A platform that actually respects your values, protects your data, and tells the truth - all without Big Tech strings attached.

^{Afzal (Tech for Palestine)}

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-sets-2027-deadline-europe-led-nato-defense-officials-say-2025-12-05/

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/german-parliament-backs-controversial-military-service-law-amid-russian-threat-2025-12-05/

Hoda Matar
Dec 03, 2025

QUNEITRA, SYRIA—In what has become a regular occurrence in southwest Syria, Israeli tanks and troops stormed the Quneitra countryside on Monday, taking up positions in the village of Saida Al-Hanout. As drones flew overhead, Israeli military units set up a temporary checkpoint and searched civilians before eventually withdrawing.

Over the past year, Israeli forces have established nine military posts in southern Syria; constructed military installations less than one kilometer from villages; demolished at least 12 buildings in al-Hamidiya; razed over 45 hectares of the Jubata al-Khashab forest; and seized thousands of dunams of agricultural land, cutting off access to farmers’ livelihoods. Local officials told Drop Site News that, in total, Israel has illegally seized between 600 and 800 square kilometers of southern Syrian territory through more than 200 incursions.

“A Second West Bank”: Israeli Military Raids Escalate in Occupied Syrian Border Villages

Israeli forces are entrenching even further in Syria as Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants a demilitarized “buffer zone” stretching to Damascus.

^{Hoda Matar (Drop Site News)}

The Sudanese city of El Fasher resembles a “massive crime scene”, with large piles of bodies heaped throughout its streets as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) work to destroy evidence of the scale of their massacre.

Six weeks after the RSF seized the city, corpses have been gathered together in scores of piles to await burial in mass graves or cremated in huge pits, analysis indicates.

While the final death toll of the massacre remains unclear, British MPs have been briefed that at least 60,000 have been murdered in El Fasher. Sarah Champion, chair of the Commons international development select committee, said: “Members received a private briefing on Sudan, at which one of the academics stated: ‘Our low estimate is 60,000 people have been killed there in the last three weeks.’”

As many as 150,000 residents of El Fasher remain unaccounted for since the city fell to the RSF. They are not thought to have left the city, and this grisly development comes amid increasingly gloomy speculation about their fate.

RSF massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show

Up to 150,000 residents of El Fasher are missing since North Darfur capital fell to paramilitary Rapid Support Forces

^{Mark Townsend (The Guardian)}

The Sudanese city of El Fasher resembles a “massive crime scene”, with large piles of bodies heaped throughout its streets as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) work to destroy evidence of the scale of their massacre.

Six weeks after the RSF seized the city, corpses have been gathered together in scores of piles to await burial in mass graves or cremated in huge pits, analysis indicates.

While the final death toll of the massacre remains unclear, British MPs have been briefed that at least 60,000 have been murdered in El Fasher. Sarah Champion, chair of the Commons international development select committee, said: “Members received a private briefing on Sudan, at which one of the academics stated: ‘Our low estimate is 60,000 people have been killed there in the last three weeks.’”

As many as 150,000 residents of El Fasher remain unaccounted for since the city fell to the RSF. They are not thought to have left the city, and this grisly development comes amid increasingly gloomy speculation about their fate.

RSF massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show

Up to 150,000 residents of El Fasher are missing since North Darfur capital fell to paramilitary Rapid Support Forces

^{Mark Townsend (The Guardian)}

Looking for the best software stacks on my new Linux setups one for HTPC (running Kodi on Fedora KDE Plasma) I'm more focused on data security to store keys, passwords, and software outside of the mainstream software like FreeTube (freetubeapp.io/)

Where I can save the content I want for later/offline to store underground music stuff. Exploring all the software out there has been fun.

What software setups are you guys running?

I’ve been working on a "Linux Inside Out" series and wrote a post that might interest folks here who like low(ish)-level / OS internals.

The idea is to dissect the components of a Linux OS, layer by layer, and build a mental model of how everything fits together through experiments.

The first part is about the kernel, in the post I:
* take the same kernel image my distro boots from /boot
* boot it directly with QEMU (no distro, no init system)
* watch it panic
* write a tiny Go program and use it as PID 1
* build a minimal initramfs around it so the kernel can actually start our process

The goal isn’t to build a real distro, just to give a concrete mental model of:
* that the Linux kernel is just a compressed file, you can boot it
* without anything else
* what the kernel actually does at boot
* how it hands control to userspace
* what PID 1 / init is in practice
* what is kernel space vs user space

Link: serversfor.dev/linux-inside-ou…

I’m the author, would be happy to hear from other devs whether this way of explaining things makes sense, and what you’d add or change for future posts in the series.

Hope you find it useful.

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/plants/china-has-planted-so-many-trees-its-changed-the-entire-countrys-water-distribution

Do you have a ton of bookmarks like me?

I find normal people just Google everything and click the top result. They've never even bookmarked a page.

But for those of us who love the real internet (not corpo-net, as id refer to web 3.0 being), html pages and webrings, theyre often not even searchable any more because of enshittification of search engines.

Are there other ways besides bookmarks ?

The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to Texas’ efforts to be able to use a new congressional map favorable to Republicans in the 2026 elections despite a lower court’s ruling that the map unconstitutionally sorts voters based on race. In a brief, unsigned opinion, a majority of the court granted the state’s request to pause the ruling issued earlier this month by a three-judge district court in El Paso. That ruling had been on hold since Nov. 21, when Justice Samuel Alito – who handles emergency appeals from Texas – temporarily stayed it to give the justices time to consider the state’s request; Wednesday’s decision extends that hold indefinitely.

The court’s five-paragraph order indicated that “Texas is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that the District Court committed at least two serious errors.” Moreover, it added, the lower court “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.”

Justice Elena Kagan dissented from the ruling, in an opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Thursday’s order, she said, “announces that Texas may run next year’s elections with a map the District Court found to have violated all our oft-repeated strictures about the use of race in districting. Today’s order,” she continued, “disrespects the work of a District Court that did everything one could ask to carry out its charge—that put aside every consideration except getting the issue before it right.”

Supreme Court allows Texas to use redistricting map challenged as racially discriminatory

Updated on Dec. 5 at 8:58 a.m. The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to Texas’ efforts to be able to use a new congressional map favorable to […]

^{Amy Howe (SCOTUSblog)}

I was thinking about my post “Should I set the language when I post something?” (Is this the right way to link to a post?) again.

Does the way language gets used on Lemmy imply that a moderator would need to select all languages in the settings to prevent them from overlooking some content?

And wouldn't this be very annoying if the same account gets used for non-moderation usage?

Stefan_S_from_H

2025-11-27 11:45:26

Should I set the language when I post something?

On the web I can select the language of a post and comment. The two mobile apps I've tried so far don’t have any language-related features.

So I end up posting and commenting with a mix of languages.

Should I just not set any when using the web UI?

The altered Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, without new data to justify a reassessment, will no longer recommend universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth. The committee voted 8–3 to limit vaccination of newborns to those whose mothers test positive for the virus.

For mothers who test negative during pregnancy, ACIP now recommends waiting until their infants are two months of age to give them the first dose. There was no evidence provided at the meeting to support this timing change.

A CDC panel has struck down universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination

A reshaped vaccine committee voted to scale back newborn hepatitis B shots despite decades of data showing the birth dose is safe, effective and vital.

^{Aimee Cunningham (Science News)}

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israels-latest-military-tech-tested-in-gaza-wanted-by-the-west-3d9add02

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank announced on Friday that a man was killed by IDF fire in the Palestinian village of Udala, south of Nablus.

Palestinian sources told Haaretz that the deceased, Bahaa Abed al-Rahman Rashed, 38, was fatally shot as he left a mosque in the village.

According to the sources, IDF forces entered the center of the village and surrounded the Udala mosque.

Sources said that the soldiers opened fire and threw tear gas canisters as worshippers left the mosque.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-12-05/ty-article-live/idf-says-palestinian-who-crossed-gazas-yellow-line-shot-and-killed-by-troops/0000019a-ec6e-de8e-a99b-fefe6d860000?liveBlogItemId=377239026#377239026

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-to-1 ruling that President Trump acted lawfully in firing two members of independent agencies, despite federal laws that hold they can only be fired for cause, because they wield significant executive power.

The ruling comes as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in a similar case on Monday.

The case decided by the appeals court was brought by Cathy Harris, a Democratic member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board. Trump fired both within weeks of taking office but did not cite any permissible reason, such as neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39908251

Israeli attacks continue across Gaza. Trump plans to unveil his “Board of Peace” before Christmas. The UN says aid into Gaza is still being blocked. Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti is brutally beaten. Nicholas Kristof confronts former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak about his Epstein ties. Another U.S. strike in the Pacific. NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani asks 179 city officials to resign, while outgoing Mayor Eric Adams signs a pro-Israel executive order. Federal judge dismisses antisemitism suit against Harvard. U.S. President Donald Trump shortens asylum seekers’ work permits. Rwanda and the DRC sign a peace deal in Washington. Forty-seven killed, mostly children, after the RSF attacks a kindergarten in Sudan. Ukraine is staring at a massive population crisis, according to a Reuters report. Russian President Vladimir Putin is found culpable for a 2018 death by a UK public inquiry. Clashes between the Yemeni government and UAE-backed separatists in Hadramaut. A boycott of Israeli participation in Eurovision materializes. Netflix to buy Warner Bros.

Peter Link

2025-12-05 19:24:51

RSF attacks kindergarten in Sudan; U.S. strikes another boat in the Pacific

Israeli attacks continue across Gaza. Trump plans to unveil his “Board of Peace” before Christmas. The UN says aid into Gaza is still being blocked. Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti is brutally beaten. Nicholas Kristof confronts former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak about his Epstein ties. Another U.S. strike in the Pacific. NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani asks 179 city officials to resign, while outgoing Mayor Eric Adams signs a pro-Israel executive order. Federal judge dismisses antisemitism suit against Harvard. U.S. President Donald Trump shortens asylum seekers’ work permits. Rwanda and the DRC sign a peace deal in Washington. Forty-seven killed, mostly children, after the RSF attacks a kindergarten in Sudan. Ukraine is staring at a massive population crisis, according to a Reuters report. Russian President Vladimir Putin is found culpable for a 2018 death by a UK public inquiry. Clashes between the Yemeni government and UAE-backed separatists in Hadramaut. A boycott of Israeli participation in Eurovision materializes. Netflix to buy Warner Bros.

RSF attacks kindergarten in Sudan; U.S. strikes another boat in the Pacific

Drop Site Daily: December 5, 2025

^{Drop Site News}