cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33714981

Israel has long restricted or completely blocked aid to Gaza on the argument that Hamas steals it to use as a weapon of control

By Natan Odenheimer Reporting from Jerusalem July 26, 2025 Updated 1:34 p.m. ET

More than 100 aid agencies and rights groups warned this past week of “mass starvation” and implored Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance. The European Union and at least 28 governments, including Israeli allies like Britain, France and Canada, issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s “drip-feeding of aid” to Gaza’s two million Palestinian residents.

Israel has largely brushed off the criticism.

David Mencer, a government spokesman, said this week that there was “no famine caused by Israel.” Instead, he blamed Hamas and poor coordination by the United Nations for any food shortages.

https://archive.ph/awIxu

https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454

The investigation follows two January complaints that alleged the X algorithm had been used for foreign interference in French politics. The social media company last week denied the allegations, calling them 'politically motivated.'

Hey folks!

One of my life goals for 2025 was going back to single purpose devices and avoiding algorithm-based media consumption. No smartphones, no AIs, no Spotify.

I'm quite happy with my offline music library, even if it took a while to organize. I use MusicBee (it FINALLY runs perfectly via Wine, if you install some dependencies in your prefix) to listen, find artwork, find lyrics, create playlists and so on and I sync them to my Innioasis, a little iPod Classic clone that supports modern features like USB-C charging.

But here's the thing... how are people finding new music nowadays? I'd assume TikTok and automatic suggestions from your music streaming services, but are there alternatives?

TikTok would probably work for me if I didn't stop using social media, but I did. Apple Music's algorithm sucked tremendously when I used it in the past - it always recommended me Ed Sheeran, an artist I strongly dislike and not anywhere near adjacent to my taste in music (and tapping 'Not Interested' a million times never worked) and Spotify's worked well for a while, but then it started getting extremely repetitive and pushy, "Shuffle" became essentially "Your 10 most recently listened to songs, repeated often, and sometimes we sprinkle two suggestions you already didn't like but we think you should like actually"

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/34610234

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33516635

Hi all. Hope this is allowed here. I've been toying with the idea of getting a cat for the past several months now. I've actually never really interacted with cats, though. I don't even know if I'm allergic to them. I visited my coworker a couple of times and one of her cats rubs up against my leg to either greet or mark me and then goes elsewhere.

Some info on me:

• Early 30s, lives alone, works ~40 hours a week in a NON wfh job (so I will not be home for significant portions of the week)
• I do not have much of a social life, so most of my time outside of work is spent at home
• I am very comfortable financially to own a pet. I frequently pay vet bills for my mom's dog who has ailing health.
• I own my own place, ~1200 sq ft (111 sq m), and do not plan to leave any time soon
• I do not plan to move, have a partner, or have children
• It is impossible for me to ever wfh with my career and I do not want to change my career
• I am familiar with taking care of dogs, and took care of my mom's dog on my own temporarily for 1 year without issue
• I am only interested in owning a single pet, not two (I know people frequently get 2 cats to keep each other company)
• I am interested in an adult cat, not a kitten
• I don't do lengthy traveling, however I frequently visit my mom (and vice versa) for a couple of days at a time

One big important thing to note is that my mother and I take turns visiting each other every couple of weeks. It involves us traveling a couple of hours by car and then one of us staying with the other (either my place or my mom's place) for 2 days. My mom has a dog who is quite old and has ailing health, so I'm not sure how much longer she will live. Her dog is a small dog ~15 lbs, but is not necessarily great with other animals. She is ok with other dogs if they do not antagonize her, but I don't know if she would fight with a cat or not as she has never met one. Her dog also has bad separation anxiety. I have enough rooms in my house that I could separate the cat and dog when my mom visits, but idk if that is a ok or not. It also means that I might leave a cat home alone for a couple of days when I visit my mom. I have read that people can do this with cats, but I don't know if it is a good idea. I would plan to purchase pet cams, auto feeders, etc.

I still haven't had the balls to go down to the local Human Society and ask them about cats and cat adoption, but I don't know. I am thinking about going there tomorrow. Is my situation too complicated for me to have a cat? I feel like mentally it would be nice to have a companion to come home to every day. One of the reasons why I've never bothered to look into getting a pet is because I live alone and don't work from home and because my mom and I visit each other. Although I have experience with dogs, it seems like a cat might be more doable for my life situation.

Would this be too poor of a life for a cat?

Thanks for your time, all.

I have always dreamed of having a good computer after years of using very old stuff. Current build has a Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 GB of RAM, and an RX 6700 XT. Recently changed keyboards and also bought a new drawing tablet!

Best thing of all is that this entire build, aside from the peripherals (other than the headphones), the storage, the case and the cooler, was built with used parts. It took me a while of researching and picking up good deals, but I finally have a computer that would make my 25 year old self geeked.

The build itself is this one, altho it does have some things as a placeholder. My motherboard is actually a Brazilian variant of that same one in the list (PRIME B450M-GAMING /BR), the memory sticks are Gloway Tiance IIs that I bought in Aliexpress, and the second monitor (not the AOC one) is a white label one from a Brazilian retailer (Pichau Athen V2 CV24) who shares the same specs and format.

A PowerPoint presentation made public by the Post claims that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) used the AI tool to make “decisions on 1,083 regulatory sections”, while the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau used it to write “100% of deregulations”.

The Post spoke to three HUD employees who told the newspaper AI had been “recently used to review hundreds, if not more than 1,000, lines of regulations”.

Oh, good. Everything was feeling a little too calm, so of course they're doing this right fucking now.

Venezuelans that the Trump administration expelled to El Salvador’s most notorious megaprison endured “state-sanctioned torture”, lawyers for some of the men have said, as more stories emerge about the horrors they faced during capacity.

A 22-year-old German politician who secretly served in Ukraine’s army now faces expulsion from the pro-Russian Alternative for Germany party after calling his own leadership “Russia-kissers.”

cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/31591103

https://peertube.wtf/w/6QRycUXXTkfquoYQJ6jAVc

i have nothing better to do and i’m curious. i’m also very autistic if you couldn’t tell.

Microsoft says it will no longer use China-based engineers to support the Pentagon. But ProPublica found that the tech giant has relied on its global workforce for years to support other federal clients, including the Justice Department.