Uncovered: Instacart is using AI algorithms to charge customers different prices for the same items. It's not just online. It's in physical grocery stores too.
New Investigation found that some grocery prices differed by as much as 23 percent per item from one Instacart customer to the next. In an inadvertently sent email, the company calls one pricing tactic “smart rounding.”
Instacart’s AI-Enabled Pricing Experiments May Be Inflating Your Grocery Bill, CR and Groundwork Collaborative Investigation Finds
Exclusive: Instacart’s AI pricing may be inflating your grocery bill.Consumer Reports
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Uncovered: Instacart is using AI algorithms to charge customers different prices for the same items. It's not just online. It's in physical grocery stores too.
New Investigation found that some grocery prices differed by as much as 23 percent per item from one Instacart customer to the next. In an inadvertently sent email, the company calls one pricing tactic “smart rounding.”
Instacart’s AI-Enabled Pricing Experiments May Be Inflating Your Grocery Bill, CR and Groundwork Collaborative Investigation Finds
Exclusive: Instacart’s AI pricing may be inflating your grocery bill.Consumer Reports
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Brigitte Macron faces criticism after using sexist insult about activists
The scene filmed on Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergère theatre in central Paris with actor Ary Abittan before a performance he was about to give.
The previous night, feminist campaigners had disrupted his show, wearing masks of the actor bearing the word “rapist” and shouting, “Abittan, rapist!”
A woman in 2021 accused the actor of rape, but in 2023, investigators dropped the case, citing a lack of evidence.
Before Sunday’s performance, Macron is seen in the video, published by local media Public on Monday, asking him how he was feeling. When he said he was feeling scared, Macron was heard jokingly responding, using a vulgar expression in French, “If there are any stupid removed, we’ll kick them out”.
Brigitte Macron faces criticism after using sexist insult about activists
The French first lady’s team says she had intended to criticise a feminist group’s ‘radical method’ of protest.Al Jazeera
Best multi player steam setup?
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/39957209
Hello lemmings, I've once again come for your advice. I've built a sff system with a dual boot bazzite os. This will be mostly for my kids playing games and media serving from Big picture in the living room. I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up the accounts. Ideally it would be as close to a console experience as possible but I want to make sure each kid can save their own progress. What's my best option here? Does everyone need their own os account that signs them into steam properly? I've never set up a system for multiple users before.Edit: details
Edit: thanks for all the feedback! I'm leaning towards single system account with multiple steam accounts. Now I just need to figure out how to keep myself signed in on steam so I don't have to put my PW in every time. Thanks a ton!
What’s a graphical piece of software you wish existed or was better?
Hi Linux Lemmites. Recently finished up school and started working full time and kind of miss working on personal projects. I’m looking to try to make something in rust and try out gpui if I can figure it out or maybe egui. I also want to make something maybe even a handful of people would actually use as I find that motivating, so I ask what would actually be useful to you?
Edit: thank you all very much for the input, I think that maybe doing something akin to a “settings+” would be a fair target for me for a n initial project. If I make anything interesting I’ll make another post in this sub.
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Officers at Texas immigration detention facility accused of beatings and sexual abuse
Officers at the large immigration detention camp located at the Fort Bliss army base in Texas are allegedly mistreating detainees, with accusations including beatings, sexual abuse and clandestine deportations of non-Mexican nationals into Mexico, according to a coalition of local and national US civil rights organizations.
In a 19-page letter, addressed to senior government officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and Fort Bliss military command, the coalition accuses officers at the immigration detention facility on the base, called Camp East Montana, of being “in violation of agency policies and standards, as well as statutory and constitutional protections”.
The advocates called for the immediate closure of the camp, where more than 2,700 detainees are being held in a complex of tents.
“In light of these abuses, we urge the end to detention of immigrants at Fort Bliss,” said the letter signed by eight organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Humans Rights Watch, Estrella del Paso, the Texas Civil Rights Project and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
Officers at Texas immigration detention facility accused of beatings and sexual abuse
Civil rights coalition calls for immediate closure of camp, where more than 2,700 detainees are being heldLorena Figueroa (The Guardian)
China’s robots—from 'factory brains' to vacuums that can pick up your socks—are crushing the competition
China’s robots—from ‘factory brains’ to vacuums that can pick up your socks—are lapping the competition
Also: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.Nicholas Gordon (Fortune)
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(ADC) “Smartphone, dopamina e dipendenza: il mio ESPERIMENTO di 7 Giorni”
Caspiterina, De Concimi ha cacciato fuori questo esperimentino pazzo 2 settimane fa e io me l’ero perso… l’ho scoperto solo stasera per caso: 1 settimana senza lo smarfonino (o smarfonone, nel suo caso) per capire se è possibile vivere senza. Non tanto in senso di pratica universale del mondo, perché purtroppo al giorno d’oggi l’avere […]
octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…
(ADC) “Smartphone, dopamina e dipendenza: il mio ESPERIMENTO di 7 Giorni”
youtube.com/watch?v=yKM4mMAxtE…Caspiterina, De Concimi ha cacciato fuori questo esperimentino pazzo 2 settimane fa e io me l’ero perso… l’ho scoperto solo stasera per caso: 1 settimana senza lo smarfonino (o smarfonone, nel suo caso) per capire se è possibile vivere senza. Non tanto in senso di pratica universale del mondo, perché purtroppo al giorno d’oggi l’avere ed usare costantemente uno smartphone è qualcosa di praticamente forzato dall’esterno, sia dalla società che per certi versi dagli Stati, e con ogni anno che passa la possibilità di poter rimanere senza in tal misura si fa sempre più sottile, quindi non è questo il punto del video… Il suo discorso è più che altro sull’abitudine, la dipendenza, e queste minchiatine qui. 😳
È un caso spassoso che, come la sua sfida sia stata di 1 settimana, così io stasera — dopo aver trovato appunto per caso questo video, che credo abbia qualche spuntino di riflessione, e quindi mi è venuta la voglia di postare — stia scrivendo qui dopo 1 settimana intera che non tocco il fritto misto… E beh, di un caso si tratta, perché io non ho affatto mandato a fanculo il telefono, ma semplicemente sono evidentemente a corto di olio, quindi è difficile friggere. (In altre parole, l’anedonia mi distrugge, e quindi col piffero che esce qualcosa da scrivere qui, di lungo e sensato… ma, anche oggi pomeriggio ho applicato il mio fix vietato, e dunque stasera ho la voglia di fare le cose, che wow… però non divaghiamo.) 🙏
Lui avrebbe voluto fare proprio una settimana senza Internet, ma non è riuscito a giustificare il prendersi una settimana di ferie (che sarebbe la conseguenza logica di una tale scelta per lui, visto che il suo lavoro non è raccogliere i pomodori), quindi ha ripiegato sul semplicemente mettere via lo smartphone pieghevole fantastico moderno che ha, e ritornare ai tempi antichi del suo vecchio cellulare Nokia, mettendo la SIM in quello e non usando più lo smartphone per niente; se non per i codici della banca (e zio merdone, le banche e le loro app!) e per registrare pezzi di vlog. 👌
Cosa ne può mai venire allora fuori da questa cosa? Boh; per lui, che può fare a meno di avere certe app molto distraenti sul cellulare (incluse alcune che, nonostante ciò, avrebbero un giustificabile scopo lavorativo, come YouTube Studio; quindi non parliamo solo di minchiatine), decidendo quindi di levarle da lì, allocandole solo al PC e a tempi della giornata più controllati, avendo così un potenziamento dell’attenzione e sprecando dunque meno tempo durante tutti i giorni e quindi nella vita… e, per chi guarda, invece, veramente boh; nel senso, dipende. 🍇
Io, in realtà, grandi problemi con il telefonone in questo senso non sento di averne… ma non tanto perché ne ho in realtà di ben più gravi in altri sensi—ehm, volevo dire, non solo perché non è la prima volta che sento queste cose; quanto più per il fatto che innanzitutto il mio uso dello smarfonone è abbastanza diverso dalla media delle persone della mia generazione (che, le statistiche lo dicono, è comunque quella più fissata), e poi perché tante misure riparative o preventive dell’abuso dello smartphone sono per me normalità da tempo… per una semplice questione di miei gusti e tendenze, in realtà, lol. 😊
Alla fine del video, Alessandrone suggerisce alcune cose effettivamente utili, che per me infatti non sono nuove. Piattaforme social che non aggiungono praticamente nulla alla mia vita non le uso (ma in realtà, curiosamente, come ho già detto, se le iniziassi ad usare non riuscirei ad acquisire l’abitudine; mi scoccerei naturalmente e smetterei senza farci caso)… Il telefono certamente non è il mio unico robo di battaglia, e anzi, a casa non ho davvero tanto la voglia di usarlo quando posso fare qualcosa ugualmente o meglio dal PC (come scrivere)… E beh, a me le notifiche danno proprio fastidio dentro (ma questa sarà altrettanto la potenza del mio autismo), quindi le uniche che permetto al telefono di ricevere in qualsiasi momento sono chiamate ed SMS, nient’altro (mentre, sul tablet, praticamente zero). 😈
In realtà, però, devo ammettere che dei problemi di abitudini zombi li ho pure io, a riguardo… e quindi sì, assolutamente evito di tenere collegamenti rapidi a cose che apro di continuo senza motivo, altrimenti è la fine, ma mi trovo a dover ogni tanto cambiare anche la disposizione del drawer delle app o altre cose di questo tipo, perché sennò non basta… Ma, questo non è tanto un problema di dopamina, visto che mi accorgo che per me pure il fottuto Alt+Tab sul PC è compulsivo; proprio nel mentre di scrivere questo post, l’ho premuto non so quante volte… e l’unica finestra che ho portato in foreground è stata la mia cartella Download rimasta aperta da poco fa, non una app con meccanismo da slot machine. (E no, impostare la scala di grigi non mi aiuta con ciò.) 🥴
Boh, complessivamente l’esperimento è gnam, e… io non lo farei, perché ehh… francamente, a me, lo smartphone, quando serve serve. Se voglio annotare qualcosa devo farlo, e idem se voglio cercare sul web delle robe, o se ho da scattare delle foto e persino modificarle al volo, nonché attuare rapidi momenti di sysadmin e programmazione in giro, visto che un tablet sarebbe troppo grosso e dunque non potrei portarlo ovunque… Però, allo stesso tempo, non è assolutamente la fine del mondo se in un certo momento non posso aprire Pinterest o Telegram per guardare (e pigniare…) i miei memini; basta che ho un manga da leggere, o una console per giocare, e riesco tranquillamente a non morire. (…E sì, sto implicando che se non ho la possibilità di scrivere quando voglio è improbabile io possa sopravvivere; ma insomma, se esplodessero gli smartphone domani userei il 3DS, e se esplodesse tutta l’elettronica del pianeta userei la carta.) 👍
#adc #dipendenza #dopamina #esperimento #smartphone
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Glauber Braga é expulso do plenário após ocupação da Mesa Diretora
Glauber Braga é expulso do plenário após ocupação da Mesa Diretora
Congressista foi levado por policiais legislativos para fora do plenário após protesto contra possível cassação.Congresso em Foco
China completes 35,000-ton heavy-haul train group operation test, world’s first-of-a-kind
China completes 35,000-ton heavy-haul train group operation test, world’s first-of-a-kind
The world's first 35,000-ton heavy-haul train group operational test was successfully conducted on the Baoshen Railway in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Monday.www.globaltimes.cn
Can DSA Hold Mamdani Accountable? Its Co-Chairs Respond
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
100% Success Rate: All 32 Paralysis Patients in China’s Brain–Computer Interface Clinical Trial Achieve Brain-Controlled Grasping
100% Success Rate: All 32 Paralysis Patients in China’s Brain–Computer Interface Clinical Trial Achieve Brain-Controlled Grasping
This article reports the groundbreaking results of China’s NEO wireless minimally invasive brain–computer interface trial, where all 32 paralyzed patients achieved successful at-home brain-controlled grasping.pandaily.com
Segal Secrets: docs reveal Antisemitism Envoy's big pay day - Michael West
Where Winds Meet: Why China's Wuxia RPG is Winning Over Global Gamers
Where Winds Meet: Why China's Wuxia RPG is Winning Over Global Gamers - RADII
We look at how the epic Chinese RPG published by NetEase is challenging Western critics while captivating players worldwide.Mandy Wong (RADII - Transcend boundaries)
Can people not understand definitions that are longer than 5 words?
I dont understand why people on lemmy are trying to remove the meaning of every specific word related to politics, leaving a million synonyms of the same general thing and no word for a specific ideology
Nazi still has meaning today, but that doesnt stop people from calling any right wing extremist a nazi
Also, whats the point of creating more synonyms?
Your only complaints are:
- "It's icky"
- "ai sucks"
- The image itself is generated, rather than artisinally created
The first 2 are non-points to begin with, and the latter is an incomplete point. Again, there is absolutely no reason why this image needs to be artisinally created. Had OP used wordart and grabbed a stock image online for the background, it would have had the same amount of human input but no AI, yet you wouldn't be calling it into question.
Nobody present is trying to tell you that AI can replace artists making art. You're making the same mistakes the Luddites did in blaming machinery for the ills of capitalism, rather than capitalism itself. The same argument was had when digital art became mainstream over hand-drawn art, and when cameras came into being. Neither digital art nor cameras have replaced traditional art, nor can they, but that doesn't mean digital art and cameras don't have legitimate use cases.
AI has limitations that AI fanatics lie about. AI also has use-cases that people try their hardest to deny. Marxism helps us understand that AI can never replace traditonal art, but can absolutely be used for things like agitprop or stock images.
Requiring that communists spend hours on artisinally producing what is ultimately a disposable image meant to agitate and spark conversation just for you to acknowledge the message is wrong. From a human perspective, requiring this artisinal agitprop in order to acknowledge the point being drivin is deeply anti-human and instead individualist.
Your only point is:
- If it supports my ideology it's inherently good
No.
My point is that technology that eliminates labor is useful, and correctly analyzing where it's useful and where it isn't is important. It is better to save time where we can, such is the purpose of technology that amplifies what labor creates.
Any leftist of any sort should be dedicated to improving technology and production so that we can fulfill the needs of as many people as possible with as little labor necessary. AI can't replace art, but it can certainly help in cases like this, small disposable agitprop memes for sparking discussion (like we are having now).
This is why it's important to have a dialectical materialist outlook and not an idealist one. Metaphysics isn't helpful.
What is the actual difference in output in the use-case here? What changes about the message if this meme was artisinally created, especially if you couldn't tell? This is why it's important to discard idealism and to embrace materialism, idealism adds confusing baggage that clouds our judgement.
Further, it is working. Every other top-level comment is a discussion of the content of the post, not the fact that it was generated.
The difference is whether we're engaging with one another collectively or being engaged by a machine in isolation. If we couldn't tell the difference we would be "cooked" and it would be "so over" as the kids say. This is why it's important to care about the human element, freebasing materialism has apparently caused you to dismiss your fellow man as confusing baggage
Further, this (thankfully) doesn't seem very well-recieved, I would say in large part because it is thoughtless, souless, trite, mechanized slop. It's making a room full of countercultural system-smashers who would otherwise agree with at least the general sentiment stop and think that you suck too
As I said, OP could have grabbed a stock image and wordart and made the exact same image. Is it still intrinsically bad? We interact with machines and use tools all the time to shortcut processes that used to be artisinal. Taking photos of people instead of drawing them by hand did not erase the desire for portraits, but it added the ability to shortcut photography for times where applicable.
As for where you're getting the idea that OP's image isn't well-recieved from, I have no idea. Your top comment is at time of writing 50% upvoted and 50% downvoted, and everyone else is talking about the content of the image. Saying we are "cooked and so over" without further elaboration isn't a point either.
I'm not dismissing my fellow man, especially because I am fighting for the right of tool usage that alleviates artisinal labor from areas it doesn't need to be.
I explicitly said, over and over again, that AI can never take the place of art. OP clearly did not like the idea of hand-drawing agitprop, and so used a tool to shortcut to the final product. I don't see art as a burden to be alleviated, and made the case that AI can exist alongside art without replacing it, just as photography didn't replace hand-drawn portraits.
If you're going to deliberately ignore what others are saying to you and instead make up brand new strawmen to attack, do you actually care about human expression or is this just a trend of emotional reaction?
Top Brazilian Official Warns Trump of 'Vietnam-Style' Regional Conflict If He Attacks Venezuela
cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6977610
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1231…
A top Brazilian official is warning President Donald Trump that a US military attack on Venezuela could easily spiral out of control into a "Vietnam-style" regional conflict.
Celso Amorim, chief foreign policy adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said in an interview published on Monday by the Guardian that a US military strike on Venezuela would inevitably draw nations throughout Latin America into an armed conflict that would be difficult to contain.
"The last thing we want is for South America to become a war zone—and a war zone that would inevitably not just be a war between the US and Venezuela," he said. "It would end up having global involvement and this would be really unfortunate."
Amorim added that "if there was an invasion, a real invasion [of Venezuela]... I think undoubtedly you would see something similar to Vietnam—on what scale it’s impossible to say."
While acknowledging that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is disliked by many other South American leaders, Amorim predicted that even some of Maduro's adversaries would rally to his side in the face of destabilizing military actions by the US government.
He also predicted that anti-US sentiment would surge throughout the continent in the event of an invasion, as there is still major resentment toward the US for backing right-wing military coups during the Cold War in Chile, Brazil, and other nations.
"I know South America," he emphasized. "Our whole continent exists because of resistance against foreign invaders."
The Trump administration in recent weeks has signaled that it plans to launch attacks against purported drug traffickers inside Venezuela, even though reports from the US government and the United Nations have not identified Venezuela as a significant source of drugs that enter the United States.
The administration has also accused Maduro of leading an international drug trafficking organization called the Cartel de los Soles, despite many experts saying that they have seen no evidence that such an organization formally exists.
Trump late last month further escalated tensions with Venezuela when he declared that airspace over the nation was "closed in its entirety," even though he lacks any legal authority to enforce such a decree.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that Maduro is remaining defiant in the face of US pressure, as he is refusing to go into exile despite the threat of an attack on his country.
According to the Post's sources, Maduro's inner circle of allies "shows no signs of imminent collapse," even as he has limited his public appearances and beefed up his personal security amid fears that he could be the target of an assassination attempt.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Trump Claims Venezuelan Airspace Is Closed in Latest Illegal, 'Dangerous Escalation'
"Even if unenforced, Trump’s declaration functions as an improvised, extralegal no-fly zone created through fear, FAA warnings, and military pressure," said the anti-war group CodePink.julia-conley (Common Dreams)
it's the one we've created for ourselves thanks to self re-enforced propaganda.
remember this the next time someone tells you that you MUST vote democrat or republican.
Diaries of Blood, The secret artists within Israeli detention facilities.
cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6980575
"I will carry my soul in my palm,
And cast it into the abyss of death,Either a life that pleases a friend,
or a death that angers an enemy."When I asked my uncle Khader Shaat, 47, about the poetry verse that he inscribed on the embroidered, handmade notebook about 30 years ago in Asqalan Israeli prison, he told me that it was the fuel that made him survive.
"Clinging to a life of freedom kept me alive," he said, remembering the notebook he made out of black fabric and framed using many beads.
Khader Shaat was detained when he was 17, sent to prison as a child, and released as a very strong young man.
From 1948 until today, Israel has detained and attacked many iconic, educated thinkers and revolutionaries as a way to suppress their voices, lessen awareness, and hide the truth. But the Occupation doesn't discriminate. According to the 2023 report of the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, there are currently 4,850 detainees in Israeli prisons, among them 31 women, including eight mothers and 160 children.
Israel detains these children for nothing more than being Palestinian. You may be walking in the street, performing your prayer at a mosque or a church, doing your job at a company, studying for your exam to a school, or whatever and whenever. The accusation is homelove. They want the young Palestinians to grow up with fear, to stop raising their voices, to never defend their land.
Diaries of Blood: The secret artists within Israeli detention facilities
Palestinian prisoners have a powerful weapon against the Israeli occupation and illegal detainment: art, forged in blood on the prison walls.Eman Al-Astal (Scalawag)
Congress Quietly Kills Military “Right to Repair,” Allowing Corporations to Cash In on Fixing Broken Products
The idea of a “right to repair” — a requirement that companies facilitate consumers’ repairs, maintenance, and modification of products — is extremely popular, even winning broad, bipartisan support in Congress. That could not, however, save it from the military–industrial complex.
Lobbyists succeeded in killing part of the National Defense Authorization Act that would have given service members the right to fix their equipment in the field without having to worry about military suppliers’ intellectual property.
Under one version, co-sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mt., defense companies would have been required to supply the information needed for repairs — such as technical data, maintenance manuals, engineering drawings, and lists of replacement parts — as a condition of Pentagon contracts.
Congress Quietly Kills Military “Right to Repair,” Allowing Corporations to Cash In on Fixing Broken Products
Both chambers included Pentagon budget provisions for a right to repair, but they died after defense industry meetings on Capitol Hill.Matt Sledge (The Intercept)
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Congress Quietly Kills Military “Right to Repair,” Allowing Corporations to Cash In on Fixing Broken Products
The idea of a “right to repair” — a requirement that companies facilitate consumers’ repairs, maintenance, and modification of products — is extremely popular, even winning broad, bipartisan support in Congress. That could not, however, save it from the military–industrial complex.
Lobbyists succeeded in killing part of the National Defense Authorization Act that would have given service members the right to fix their equipment in the field without having to worry about military suppliers’ intellectual property.
Under one version, co-sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mt., defense companies would have been required to supply the information needed for repairs — such as technical data, maintenance manuals, engineering drawings, and lists of replacement parts — as a condition of Pentagon contracts.
Congress Quietly Kills Military “Right to Repair,” Allowing Corporations to Cash In on Fixing Broken Products
Both chambers included Pentagon budget provisions for a right to repair, but they died after defense industry meetings on Capitol Hill.Matt Sledge (The Intercept)
Official Propaganda for Caribbean Military Buildup Includes “Crusader Cross”
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1260…
An official U.S. military social media account on Monday shared a photo collage that included a symbol long affiliated with extremist groups — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.In a post on X trumpeting the deployment of troops to the Caribbean, U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM, shared an image that prominently displayed a so-called Jerusalem cross on the helmet of a masked commando.
The Jerusalem cross, also dubbed the “Crusader cross” for its roots in Medieval Christians’ holy wars in the Middle East, is not inherently a symbol of extremism. It has, however, become popular on the right to symbolize the march of Christian civilization, with anti-Muslim roots that made it into something of a logo for the U.S. war on terror.
Tattoos of the cross, a squared-off symbol with a pattern of repeating crosses, have appeared on the bodies of people ranging from mercenaries hired by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to Hegseth himself.
Now, the symbol has reared its head again to advertise President Donald Trump’s military buildup against Venezuela — an overwhelmingly Catholic country — and boat strikes in the Caribbean.
U.S. military forces are deployed to the #SOUTHCOM area of responsibility in support of #OpSouthernSpear, @DeptofWar-directed operations, and @POTUS' priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland. pic.twitter.com/vLvg9fQ5Lx— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) December 8, 2025
“As with all things Trump, it’s a continuation, with some escalation, and then a transformation into spectacle,” said Yale University historian Greg Grandin, whose work focuses on U.S. empire in Latin America.
The social media post came amid rising controversy over a series of strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, dubbed Operation Southern Spear.
[
Read Our Complete Coverage
License to Kill
---------------](theintercept.com/series/licens…)Hegseth is alleged to have ordered a so-called “double-tap” strike, a follow-up attack against a debilitated boat that killed survivors clinging to the wreckage for around 45 minutes. The U.S. has carried out 22 strikes since the campaign began in September, killing a total of 87 people.
The Pentagon’s press office declined to comment on the use of the Jerusalem cross, referring questions to SOUTHCOM. But in a reply to the X post on Monday, Hegseth’s deputy press secretary Joel Valdez signaled his approval with emojis of a salute and the American flag. In a statement to the Intercept, SOUTHCOM spokesperson Steven McLoud denied that the post implied any religious or far-right message.
“The graphic you’re referring to was an illustration of service members in a ready posture during Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR,” McLoud told The Intercept. “There is no other communication intent for this image.”
The original image of the masked service member appears to have come from an album published online by the Pentagon that depicts a training exercise by Marines aboard the USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea in October. The photo depicting the cross, however, was removed from the album after commentators on social media pointed out its origins.
Amanda Saunders, a spokesperson for the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, the Pentagon-run photo agency, said she was unable to comment directly but forwarded the request to the Marine unit involved in the exercise.
“Content on DVIDS is published and archived directly by the registered units,” she said, “so we don’t have control over what is posted or removed, nor are we able to comment on those decisions.”
Hegseth and the Cross
The Jerusalem cross’s popularity on the right has surged in part thanks to featuring in various media, including the 2005 Ridley Scott film “Kingdom of Heaven” and video games, according to Matthew Gabriele, a professor of medieval studies at Virginia Tech and a scholar of Crusader iconography.“It supports the rhetoric of ‘defense of homeland.’”“It supports the rhetoric of ‘defense of homeland,’” Gabriele told The Intercept, “because the crusaders, in the right’s understanding, were waging a defensive war against enemies trying to invade Christian lands.”
The symbol’s position of prominence in official military communications is just the latest example of a trollish extremism by the Trump administration’s press teams, which have made a point of reveling in the cruelty wrought on its perceived enemies at home and abroad, or “owning the libs.”
[
Related
Team Leader at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites Belongs to Anti-“Jihad” Motorcycle Club, Has Crusader Tattoos](theintercept.com/2025/08/06/ga…)
Monday’s post may also be intended as Hegseth putting his thumb in the eye of the Pentagon’s old guard. Hegseth’s embrace of the symbol — in the form of a gawdy chest tattoo — once stymied, however temporarily, his ambitions in the military.Folling the January 6 insurrection, according to Hegseth and reporting by the Washington Post, Hegseth was ordered to stand down rather than deploy with his National Guard unit ahead of the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden. The decision to treat Hegseth as a possible “insider threat” came after a someone flagged a photo of a shirtless Hegseth to military brass, according to the Washington Post.
“I joined the Army in 2001 because I wanted to serve my country. Extremists attacked us on 9/11, and we went to war,” Hegseth wrote “The War on Warriors,” his 2024 memoir. “Twenty years later, I was deemed an ‘extremist’ by that very same Army.”
Hegseth was hardly chastened by the episode and has since gotten more tattoos with more overt anti-Muslim resonance, including the Arabic word word for “infidel,” which appeared on his bicep sometime in the past several years. It’s accompanied by another bicep tattoo of the Latin words “Deus vult,” or “God wills it,” yet another slogan associated with the Crusades and repurposed by extremist groups.
The use of the image to advertise aggressive posturing in a majority-Christian region like Latin America may seem odd at first glance. In the context of renewed U.S. focus on Latin America, however, it’s a potent symbol of the move of military action from the Middle East to the Western Hemisphere.
“They’re globalizing the Monroe Doctrine.”The post comes on the heels of the release of the Trump’s National Security Strategy, a 33-page document outlining the administration’s foreign-policy priorities that explicitly compared Trump’s stance to the Monroe Doctrine, the turn-of-the-century policy of U.S. dominance in Latin America in opposition to colonialism by other foreign powers. Grandin, the Yale historian, described the document as a “vision of global dominance” based on a model of great-powers competition that can lead to immense instability.
“They’re globalizing the Monroe Doctrine,” Grandin said. “I’m no fan of the hypocrisy and arrogance of the old liberal international order, but there’s something to be said for starting from a first principle of shared interests, which does keep great conflict at bay to some degree.”
The post Official Propaganda for Caribbean Military Buildup Includes “Crusader Cross” appeared first on The Intercept.
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Pete Hegseth’s Arabic tattoo stirs controversy: ‘clear symbol of Islamophobia’
Critics say US defense secretary’s tattoo of the word kafir, meaning ‘infidel’ or ‘non-believer’ could offend MuslimsMarina Dunbar (The Guardian)
Silex v3.5.1-5 Canary – UI Polish & Smarter Data Preview
A new canary version of Silex is available: canary.silex.me/
This update continues improving data-driven design and the overall editing experience, with refined UX across the editor, new expression tools, and better live preview handling. It’s now smoother, clearer, and more intuitive for anyone building dynamic sites.
Help us test it before it goes live — your feedback helps shape Silex.
What’s New Since v3.5.1-4
New Features
- Expression editor
- Copy and paste expressions between fields
- Data Source plugin
- Improved UX with inline help buttons
- Better layout and visual cues in the data source editor
- Loop deletion now removes cloned preview elements correctly
- Preview refreshes correctly at startup
- Fonts manager
- Major UX redesign: cards replace dropdowns
- Clearer variants and font details
Improvements & Fixes
- Chrome fixes for expression fields and data preview
- Prevent invalid tokens when clearing loop data
- Selector Manager: clearer class state display
- Internal performance improvements and cleanup
Developer Notes
- Lint & metadata cleanup across packages
- Refactored imports
- Ongoing UI/UX refinements
Try It Now
- Canary version → canary.silex.me/
- Stable version → v3.silex.me/
Get Involved
- Forum → community.silex.me/
- Chat → short.silex.me/chat
- Bug reports → github.com/silexlabs/Silex/iss…
For Developers
npm install @silexlabs/silex@3.5.1-5
docker pull silexlabs/silex:3.5.1-5
silexlabs/Silex
Silex is an online tool for visually creating static sites with dynamic data. With the free/libre spirit of internet, together. - silexlabs/SilexGitHub
2025 set for second-hottest year on record
2025 set for second-hottest year on record
This year is expected to match 2023 as one of the warmest on record, second only to 2024, EU scientists warn. They cite greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels as the main cause of global warming.Felix Tamsut (Deutsche Welle)
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Spoiler formatting looks like this:
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler
Spoilers go here
:::The "Tap for spoiler" part is what shows up in the post, like this:
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler
Snape kills Dumbledore
:::
You can put whatever you like instead of "Tap for spoiler", such as emojis:
::: spoiler 😱😱😱😱
Mrs Flood is the Rani
:::
That's all 😀
Tesla Optimus falls in Miami demo, hand movements sparks remote operation debate
Tesla Optimus's fall in Miami demo sparks remote operation debate
While falls are not unusual in robotics development, a specific hand motion has raised questions about the current level of autonomy in Tesla’s system.Jijo Malayil (Interesting Engineering)
Samsung shifts focus from HBM to DDR5 modules: DDR5 RAM results in FAR more profits than HBM
Samsung is reportedly scaling down its HBM production, shifting focus of DRAM production to DDR5 modules because there's FAR more profits to be made.
Woman hospitalized after Pluribus ad on smart fridge triggers psychotic episode
A Pluribus ad displayed on a Samsung smart fridge led a UK woman to seek hospital care for a psychotic episode.
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UK: People urged to wear masks when they are ill as UK faces ‘tidal wave’ of flu
People urged to wear masks when they are ill as UK faces ‘tidal wave’ of flu
NHS Providers boss says those who are ‘coughing and sneezing’ should wear face coverings on public transportNadeem Badshah (The Guardian)
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Ireland: Here are the hospitals that have introduced visitor restrictions due to high flu cases
Here are the hospitals that have introduced visitor restrictions due to high flu cases
The HSE has warned that Ireland is facing an early and difficult winter season.TheJournal.ie
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Massachusetts Church Keeps Anti-ICE Nativity Scene, Defying Diocese Leaders
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40091546
The Christmas display, which replaces Jesus, Mary and Joseph with a sign saying “ICE Was Here,” has drawn criticism from Catholic leaders and immigration officials.Dec. 8, 2025
Massachusetts Church Keeps Anti-ICE Nativity Scene, Defying Diocese Leaders
The Christmas display, which replaces Jesus, Mary and Joseph with a sign saying “ICE Was Here,” has drawn criticism from Catholic leaders and immigration officials.Dec. 8, 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/us/massachusetts-church-ice-nativity-scene.html
Politics Channel reshared this.
Massachusetts Church Keeps Anti-ICE Nativity Scene, Defying Diocese Leaders
The Christmas display, which replaces Jesus, Mary and Joseph with a sign saying “ICE Was Here,” has drawn criticism from Catholic leaders and immigration officials.
Dec. 8, 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/us/massachusetts-church-ice-nativity-scene.html
actionjbone
in reply to tyrant • • •If you want each kid to have their own desktop experience, then you'd want to give each one their own system login.
If you only care about them each having different Steam accounts, they don't need different logins. You can add multiple accounts to Steam.
warmaster
in reply to tyrant • • •soulsource
in reply to tyrant • • •I'd go with different system acounts. That way their savegames are guaranteed to stay separate.
That's because on PC most games just care about the system user when determining the savegame folder, and don't care about steam accounts.
So, what I'd do is to:
- Give each their own system account
- Set up Gamescope as a session: wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam…
- Configure the Display Manager to use that session for their users (In GDM, for instance, it's enough to manually select it once on login - GDM remembers the last-used session per user)
- Profit
Steam - ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.orgRedStamp
in reply to tyrant • • •If your kids are only going to be using big picture mode in steam, then one system account will work. The steam deck only has one system user with the ability to have multiple steam accounts and that works great for multiple users, from my experience.
For anyone interested in a great dual use system for regular desktop use and a console-like experience, I recommend checking out nixos and jovian-nix:
jovian-experiments.github.io/J…
I'm using it on my main PC and it works incredibly well to mimic the steam deck experience using a full desktop on nixos 25.11
Home | Jovian-NixOS
jovian-experiments.github.io