A massive defense policy bill, revealed by US lawmakers on Sunday, does not include a provision that would have provided broad healthcare coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty members of the military, despite Donald Trump’s pledge to strengthen access to the procedure.

Both the House and Senate previously approved the provision, which was added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as an amendment earlier this year. But Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House and a diehard anti-abortion Republican, worked behind the scenes to strip the provision from the new version of the NDAA, MS NOW reported last week.

Mike Johnson strips military IVF coverage from defense bill – report

House speaker worked behind the scenes to strip provision after it was added as an amendment earlier this year

^{Carter Sherman (The Guardian)}

A new poll suggests that 82% Of British people want Israel to be removed from the Eurovision Song Contest.

The country’s continued involvement with the Song Contest is the subject of controversy, with Russia having been removed following its invasion of Ukraine.

The poll was pieced together by Pablo O’Hana, and utilised a survey sample of 1093, done in a nationally representative manner.

A noted Eurovision fan himself, Pablo O’Hana adds: “Eurovision isn’t just about songs and staging – it’s about values. If Israel is permitted to compete, the people of Britain believe we should walk away. The BBC must find its backbone before walking into that meeting today.”

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/shock-poll-82-of-brits-was-israel-removed-from-eurovision/

A new poll suggests that 82% Of British people want Israel to be removed from the Eurovision Song Contest.

The country’s continued involvement with the Song Contest is the subject of controversy, with Russia having been removed following its invasion of Ukraine.

The poll was pieced together by Pablo O’Hana, and utilised a survey sample of 1093, done in a nationally representative manner.

A noted Eurovision fan himself, Pablo O’Hana adds: “Eurovision isn’t just about songs and staging – it’s about values. If Israel is permitted to compete, the people of Britain believe we should walk away. The BBC must find its backbone before walking into that meeting today.”

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/shock-poll-82-of-brits-was-israel-removed-from-eurovision/

10 januari 2026 kl 11-18, Norra Hamngatan 14 Göteborg

Välkommen på en heldag där vi avslöjar kopplingar mellan svenska aktörer och folkmordet i Palestina. Det finns uppgifter för dig som vill koda, skriva, gräva fram info eller designa. Vi kommer att analysera data, researcha, designa visualiseringar och andra uppgifter som du kan hitta på. Tillsammans tar vi fram underlag för artiklar, material till kampanjer eller publicerar saker direkt.

Det kommer finnas lite öl och pizza, ta gärna med din överblivna glögg eller nåt annat du vill bjuda på.

Vi som ordnar det här är journalist och IT-konsult. Senaste halvåret har vi samlat på oss dokument och data om svenska kopplingar till Israel som vi inte riktigt hinner gå igenom själva. Och vi tror att vi tillsammans kan få fram ännu mer genom att söka i datamängder, begära ut fler handlingar och visualisera data. Både du som har koll på det här och du som vill lära dig mer är välkommen.

Maila anmälan eller frågor senast 7 januari till
palestinahackathon@mailbox.org

State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public “sentiment” surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of “Catahoula Crunch,” prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they’ve been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation.

“Online opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,” said a briefing circulated early Sunday to law enforcement. Earlier bulletins noted “a combination of groups urging the public to record ICE and Border Patrol” as well as “additional locations where agents can find immigrants.”

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-new-orleans-online-monitoring-b2c300245ea4ffbef335502245760a1d

https://www.mooreslawisdead.com/post/sam-altman-s-dirty-dram-deal

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1232…

Photo: Eurokinissi

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has taken a clear, decisive position in support of the escalating struggle of poor farmers across the country.

With a series of on-site visits to the roadblocks in Larissa, Karditsa, Trikala, Tirnavos and other areas, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, conveyed the Party’s full solidarity and its commitment to stand at the side of those fighting for their survival.

During his meetings with farmers, Koutsoumbas underlined that the government bears full responsibility for the explosive situation in the countryside. It refuses to address the just demands of small farmers because it is structurally committed to the interests of big capital—large agricultural businesses, exporters, energy monopolies, shipowners, and all those who profit from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. As he stressed, the government subsidises industrial groups and big exporters, guarantees tax exemptions to shipowners, supports companies in renewable energy sources, and even allows them to charge exorbitant prices, while farmers are forced to pay out of pocket for their essentials.

In this framework, even the most elementary measures for farmers—such as reducing production costs, securing fair prices, or establishing real protective mechanisms—are dismissed as “fiscal impossibilities,” while billions are channelled to capitalist groups. The recent example of forcing livestock breeders to destroy their animals instead of ensuring vaccinations demonstrates, once more, that state policy sacrifices small producers for the benefit of monopoly interests.

The KKE places this entire confrontation within a broader class context. The struggle of the poor farmers concerns not only those who work the land in Thessaly or Macedonia; it affects workers, employees, and the popular strata across the country. High food prices—driven not by farmers but by wholesalers, middlemen, and state taxation—burden working-class households daily. The same political forces that crush farmers are those that attack labour rights, public services, wages, and social provisions.

For this reason, the KKE calls on the working class to actively support the farmers’ mobilisations. It denounces efforts by the government and the mass media to divide workers and farmers or to present the struggling rural poor as an obstacle to society. Such divisive tactics, alongside the deployment of riot police, chemicals, and arrests, aim to wear down the movement. The KKE demands the lifting of all repressive measures, the release of all detained demonstrators, and the immediate withdrawal of police forces from the roadblocks.

In his interventions, Koutsoumbas also linked the farmers’ struggle with Greece’s deeper political commitments to NATO and EU militarism. He pointed to the transformation of regions like Thessaly—especially Larissa—into strategic hubs for U.S. military drones and operations extending from the Balkans and Black Sea to the Middle East and the Red Sea. While the government spends more than €30 billion on armaments for NATO missions, it claims a lack of resources for essential support to farmers and workers. The KKE exposes this contradiction as proof that the state serves imperialist designs rather than the needs of the people.

Against this backdrop, the Party promotes a clear political perspective: no sustainable solution for poor farmers can be found within the current framework of capitalist development, EU policies, and market competition. Partial adjustments or temporary subsidies cannot reverse the relentless concentration of land and production in the hands of agribusiness. The KKE argues that the only real alternative is a radical shift—a people’s economy based on social ownership, central planning, and cooperatives of small producers integrated into a unified plan for food production, infrastructure, and supply. Such a system can guarantee low-cost inputs, stable and fair prices, rational use of resources, and the elimination of parasitic intermediaries.

The Party thus calls for escalation of the people’s struggle, not only to defend the urgent demands of the farmers but to build the political and social alliance capable of confronting monopoly power, breaking with the EU and NATO, and paving the way for workers’ and people’s power.

The KKE’s presence at the roadblocks, its intervention in Parliament, and its continuous activity across unions, associations, and popular organisations highlight a consistent line: the battle of the poor farmers is a battle of the entire working people. The Party urges both workers and farmers to strengthen their unity, reject any attempt at division, and continue the fight with confidence, determination, and a clear orientation toward the real solution—popular power and a socialist reconstruction of agriculture and the economy as a whole.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM©

---

From In Defense of Communism via This RSS Feed.

In Defense of Communism

Greek farmers rise up and the KKE stands by their side | In Defense of Communism

^{www.idcommunism.com}

https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-has-a-problem-nobody-wants-to-buy-or-use-its-shoddy-ai

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/health/obamacare-deductibles-premiums-health-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7E8.MX5L.8a20Q_vHDti9

This is a frontend for the asknostr hashtag on nostr, a more decentralized fediverse alternative.

More questions are needed, if you can help. You can sign up instantly with no email address or anything, but it's hard for the user base to grow, because the questions are usually too focused on a small (honestly cultish) number of topics. I find that odd when anyone can ask anything.

The website has content filters to remove spam and stuff from its own display, but the nostr protocol is open source, and you can self host your own backups of removed posts and display them on your own website without losing any data. I also haven't heard of anyone getting a "ban" where all their past posts are filtered at once / they have to stop posting.

As someone who constantly gets banned from places like asklemmy for being a radical communist or whatever, it's especially important to me that there are no bans here, because it means I don't have to worry about admins repeatedly wiping out time I invest in helping people with answers to their questions.

Note: asknostr.site is still early in development and kinda buggy. Remember you can also post to it through the asknostr hashtag from other nostr apps if you want.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos met with Donald Trump to try and win him over ahead of the bidding war for Warner Bros.

Netflix CEO made a visit to the White House before buying Warner Bros.

^{Terrence O'Brien (The Verge)}

His House is a modern horror masterpiece that’s better than your average “haunted by trauma” fare.

You need to watch the modern horror masterpiece, His House

^{Terrence O'Brien (The Verge)}

The Apache Software Foundation discovered a serious security flaw in Apache Tika, a widely used open source tool for analyzing and extracting metadata from files. The vulnerability has the maximum CVSS score of 10.0 and could enable exploitation if systems are not fully updated.

Apache warns of critical vulnerability in Tika toolkit - Techzine Global

Apache reports a security flaw in Apache Tika, an open source tool for analyzing and extracting metadata from files.

^{Mels Dees (Techzine)}

Juan Orlando Hernández thanked the Lord for being ‘a free man’ and then Trump for ‘changing my life’

Archived version: archive.is/newest/theguardian.…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Ex-Honduran president thanks God – and Trump – for drug-trafficking pardon

^{Ramon Antonio Vargas (The Guardian)}

STC troops now control all eight governorates, a major setback for Emirates’ regional rival Saudi Arabia

Archived version: archive.is/newest/theguardian.…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Seizure of South Yemen by UAE-backed forces could lead to independence claim

^{Patrick Wintour (The Guardian)}

Tokyo has vowed a 'calm and resolute' response as tensions with Beijing continue to escalate.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/bbc.com/news…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

China fighter jets lock radar on Japan planes as tensions rise

^{Shaimaa Khalil (BBC News)}

A young Palestinian man sustained injuries after Israeli forces opened live fire near the apartheid wall in the town of al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem. The Palestine Red Crescent said its teams responded at the scene and provided medical assistance to the wounded man.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/middleeastey…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Israeli forces wound Palestinian, deploy bulldozers near Jerusalem

^{Middle East Eye}

While exports from China to the US have fallen for most of the year, shipments have surged to other destinations, including Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the European Union.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/euronews.com…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

China's exports grow 5.9% in November, while US shipments drop 29%

^Euronews.com

Portugal has modified its cybercrime law to establish a legal safe harbor for good-faith security research and to make hacking non-punishable under certain strict conditions.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/portugal-updates-cybercrime-law-to-exempt-security-researchers/

Ruby survives on affection, not utility. Let's move on.

Archived version: archive.is/20251204034843/wire…

The big question is whether, as another judge suspected, this is just a DOJ distraction.

Case file: storage.courtlistener.com/reca…

Federal judge orders release of Jeffrey Epstein grand jury records in Florida

^{Mother Jones}

The EU fined Elon Musk over issues which had nothing to do with free speech, and yet he's crying victim again

Elon Musk is crying about free speech again

^{Willem Moore (The Canary)}

Google will have to renegotiate its contracts every year, a judge ruled on Friday.

Judge puts a one-year limit on Google's contracts for default search placement

^{Cheyenne MacDonald (Engadget)}

Childhood infections have fallen by 99 percent since the vaccine was recommended, with hardly any major side effects.

Kennedy’s Hand-Picked Vaccine Panel Votes to End Hepatitis B Shots for Newborns | Truthout

^{Zack Kligler (Truthout)}

The “emergency billionaires tax” would offset the billions of dollars being stripped from CA Medicaid recipients.

Despite Progressive Posturing, Newsom Opposes Popular CA Wealth Tax Proposal

^{Stephen Prager (Truthout)}

Even recent feeble reforms have been rolled back when Trump appointees took the reins.

Medicare Advantage Companies Focus on Profits Over Care as Open Enrollment Ends | Truthout

^{britney (Truthout)}

The Court of King’s Bench of Alberta ruled Friday that the proposed referendum to separate the province of Alberta from Canada contravenes the Constitution Act, 1982, and citizens cannot initiate the referendum under the Citizen Initiative Act (CIA). Justice Colin Feasby clarified that the ruling does not forbid Alberta from holding a separation referendum altogether.

Case file: s3.documentcloud.org/documents…

Alberta judge rules proposed separation referendum would be unconstitutional

The Court of King's Bench of Alberta ruled Friday that the proposed referendum to separate the province of Alberta from Canada contravenes the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, and that citizens may no...

^{Derren Chan | JURIST Staff (- JURIST - News)}