cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/60156518

Breaking Free.

In the new report Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future, the Norwegian Consumer Council has delved into enshittification and how to resist it. The report shows how this phenomenon affects both consumers and society at large, but that it is possible to turn the tide. Together with more than 70 consumer groups and other actors in Europe and the US, we are sending letter to policymakers in the EU/EEA, UK and the US.

On 11 March 2025, the European Commission proposed a sweeping overhaul of EU return rules: the new ‘Returns Regulation’ – more aptly described by civil society as a Deportation Regulation.

It builds on decades of expansion of the EU’s migration databases and surveillance architecture — from Eurodac to the Schengen Information System — culminating in what can only be described as a digital deportation machine.

Like much recent EU migration legislation, the proposal was presented without a comprehensive fundamental rights impact assessment. Sixteen UN experts have already raised concerns about its compatibility with international law. Yet EU institutions are rushing the file through the legislative process.

Europe cannot credibly criticise authoritarian excess abroad while constructing its own dystopian deportation machine at home.

Song Ping (born 24 April 1917) was a veteran Chinese Communist revolutionary and retired high-ranking politician who served as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989 to 1992.

Song joined the Communist Party in 1937 at age 19. Song Ping's career spanned over seven decades, beginning in the 1930s when he joined the CCP and served as political secretary to Premier Zhou Enlai.

He held influential roles including First Party Secretary of Gansu Province and Minister of Organization of the CCP, where he played a key role in promoting future leaders such as Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.

On Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at the age of 108 in Beijing, Song passed away due to illness.

The Turkish Defense Ministry announced it opened fire on an Iranian long range ballistic missile aimed at Turkish territory. NATO systems in the region were placed on high alert.

Turkey issues strong warning to Iran to avoid such behavior

EDIT 2

A Turkish military official said the missile was probably launched on Cyprus, but it ended up deviating toward Turkey

Sanchez’s message broke with EU appeasement, offering a fresh contrast to leaders from countries such as Germany, who have insisted that “this is not the time to lecture our partners and allies” over potential breaches of international law.

Of course, one could argue that it was politically convenient for the Spanish PM to redirect attention, given the domestic backlash over scandals involving his wife, brother, and close members of his socialist party. But the Arab world will remember for years to come both Spain’s stand on Gaza and Europe’s double standards.

For decades, Europe has been portraying itself as a defender of international law. An image that, at least in the Middle East, is already trashed following the Gaza war, and more globally again lies visibly cracked.

Paywall? https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.wsj.com/economy/swiss-inflation-holds-steady-at-low-level-as-franc-concerns-swirl-5e362cfa

5.3.26: changed the video link to the video on dw.com (thnx to @succesfulltry)

Environmental groups have objected to the recommendation of a “blue tick” sustainability label being awarded to a Norwegian krill fishing giant, amid concerns over concentrated fishing pressure and dramatic climate-driven effects on the Antarctic’s fragile ecosystem.

Norway’s Aker QRILL, the world’s largest harvester of krill, a tiny crustacean and keystone of Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem, and its sister company, Aker BioMarine, produce feed additives for aquaculture and dietary supplements for pets and humans.

Their krill products have carried the “blue tick” label operated by fishery certification scheme, the not-for-profit Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), since 2010.

Environmentalists say that since Aker was last certified as meeting MSC’s standard for a “sustainable and well managed” fishery in 2020, management of the entire Antarctic krill fishery has worsened, due to lapsed conservation measures.

This article is a visual feast. Even if you don't read it, the images shown will inspire you. Had to share it. Apologies if I'm putting up too many posts.

So, when someone is called a bush rat, we now know it's a compliment.

>Why are native rats so important?

Australia is home to about 50 living species of rats that have adapted to its environments over thousands if not millions of years.

These rats often perform essential roles in nature...

"We know them to be really good pollinators, especially of our banksias...," "They're good at moving seeds and eating seeds ... they're really good dispersers of fungi spores, the mushrooms that are so key to our ecosystems...

Bush rats have been shown to keep black rats from reinvading places the native species is re-established.

Black rats often like to nest in homes and eat your food, but bush rats prefer to avoid developed places.

"[Bush rats] tend to live in these dense, complex, vegetated, native bushlands," Ms Wauchope said.

Boosting bush rat numbers can also help feed native predators — like goannas, owls and snakes.

Without bush rats these predators sometimes will eat poisoned black rats and then die themselves.

Fears US-Israeli onslaught could lead regime to push for bomb or embolden other groups to steal uranium stockpile

The US-Israeli onslaught against Iran is intended to resolve a 24-year standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme, but it runs the risk of backfiring and driving the regime towards making a secret bomb, proliferation experts have warned.

The regime in Tehran has long insisted that the programme is for civilian purposes and it has no intention of making a nuclear weapon. However, since two undeclared sites, for uranium enrichment and heavy water plutonium production, were discovered in 2002, the programme has been treated with intense suspicion.

A nuclear deal in 2015 imposed severe limits and thorough inspections on Iran but when Donald Trump walked out of the agreement in 2018, triggering its collapse, Iran ramped up its work on enrichment and other aspects of the programme.

Cuba said the speedboat carrying weapons came from the United States to sow chaos. However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was not a US operation.

Prosecutors in Cuba on Tuesday charged six Cuban nationals with "crimes of terrorism" and accused them of entering Cuba with a US-flagged boat packed with weapons to stir unrest in the country.

Their boat was intercepted by Cuba's coast guard as it entered Cuban waters last week, resulting in a shootout. Four of the Cuban nationals aboard the speedboat were killed in the incident and six others were wounded.

Last Wednesday, Cuba's Interior ‌Ministry accused the Cuban exiles of opening fire on a border guard vessel, and said they came from the United States with the intent ​to target military units on the Communist-ruled island.

Cuban officials said the boat was carrying firearms of various calibers, including 14 rifles, 11 pistols and nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition.

As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley, says author and historian Rutger Bregman

Paywall? https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-04/sweden-tells-citizens-to-hold-cash-in-case-of-war-or-crisis

This has been hidden in developer options for a while now, but they're now releasing it officially. Limited to Pixel 8 and newer devices and no 4k yet.