I write with a heavy heart — my family and I need your support; your help is our hope in this darkness. 💔

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40712285

By Rick Berman
December 22, 2025

HILLSBORO, Oregon, December 20, 2025 — For two months Oregon coastal residents, led in part by fishermen and their wives, have been fighting an attempt by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to build an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility at an airport in the town of Newport. So far, the fight has had some successes, but it is far from over.

By early November, Newport residents were seeing clear signs that DHS was taking surreptitious steps to turn the city’s airport into an ICE detention facility. Online ads appeared for “detention officers based in Newport”; federal contractors made inquiries to area hotels and motels about long-term rentals of 200 rooms and contacted local businesses to explore the availability of water and sewer services.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/35008171

[UNRELATED] i think a ye power tripping bastard banned me from yepowertrippingbastard

Alternative for Germany’s opponents accuse the party of attempting to disclose sensitive information on arms supply routes and drone defenses.

Far-right German politician Ringo Mühlmann has taken a noteworthy interest in exposing information his political opponents say could be of great interest to Russian intelligence.

Using the rights afforded to him as a lawmaker for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the parliament of the eastern German state of Thuringia — where the AfD is the strongest party — Mühlmann has repeatedly asked the regional government to disclose intricate details on subjects such as local drone defenses and Western arms transports to Ukraine.

“What information does the state government have about the extent of military transit transports through Thuringia since 2022 (broken down by year, type of transport [road, rail], number of transits, and known stops)?” Mühlmann asked in writing in September.

so i yes, espeak exists and still sounds terrible even worse than picoTTS (last update 4 yrs ago?). so what else is there? i look at mimic3 and it says they are dead and one should go for piper here: https://github.com/MycroftAI/mimic3 the link to piper followed I get: https://github.com/rhasspy/piper "This repository was archived by the owner on Oct 6, 2025. It is now read-only. "

ok, so coqui? https://github.com/coqui-ai/TTS no update in over 12 months..how bad can it be? https://coqui.ai/ ...great it is a page for gambling now.

so, what are you using? gTTS is not offline.

There are people who argue that Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is not motivated by fears or imperial ambitions, but by other countries’ disrespect. Russia once commanded authority as one of the world’s two superpowers, but it has since forfeited that status. It knows it has lost the respect of other countries (Barack Obama famously dismissed Russia as just a “regional power”), and the Ukraine war is its way of winning it back.

What is perhaps surprising is that Donald Trump’s turn against Europe has similar motivations. Putin knows his aggressive revanchism won’t win Russia any love among countries whose respect he craves. But if he can’t be loved, he hopes at least to be feared. If you are in a social order that regards you as inferior, you have every incentive to turn spoiler.

So, too, Trump wants to disrupt a social order that regards him and his worldview with contempt. The US president and his officials get respect from dictators and kings (although perhaps not from the ones whose respect they most want – Putin and Xi Jinping), but they know that the leaders of many other democratic countries look down their noses at them.

Now it is America that wants to act as spoiler, smashing the existing hierarchy of respect to replace it with a world where Trump will get unqualified obeisance. Europe, with its emphasis on the rule of law and multilateralism, is the strongest remaining example of an entire system of prestige and values that the Trump administration wants to destroy.

I'm using CloudFlare to hide my home IP and to reduce traffic from clankers. However, I'm using the free tier, so how am I the product? What am I sacrificing? Is there another way to do the above without selling my digital soul?

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/44164675

• South Africans who went to Russia ended up in Ukraine
• They say they were recruited under false pretenses
• Conditions for them in Ukraine are harsh, they say
• They describe a lack of food and medical care

South African father-of-three Dubandlela was overcome with pride when his 20-year-old son signed up in July to receive elite training as a VIP bodyguard in Russia.

Five months later, Dubandlela is in despair. His son had fallen for an alleged recruitment scam in which he and at least 16 other South African men say they were conscripted by an unspecified mercenary group and sent to join Russian forces in Ukraine.

...

The scam that Dubandlela said ensnared his son came to light on November 6, when South Africa said it had received distress calls from 17 men aged between 20 and 39 who said they were trapped in Donbas.

An investigation into the scam by an elite police unit known as "Hawks" focused on the alleged involvement of one of former President Jacob Zuma's daughters, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla.

Zuma-Sambudla later resigned as lawmaker in the Umkhonto weSizwe opposition party led by her father. She has denied knowing of the scam. Zuma-Sambudla did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Her lawyer, Dali Mpofu, declined to comment.

...

It is not just South Africans who unwittingly ended up in Ukraine's war. Kenya said on Nov. 12 over 200 of its citizens were fighting for Russia in Ukraine, and that recruiting agencies were still actively working to lure more Kenyans into the conflict. Authorities in Botswana have said two men were duped into joining the war under false promises of jobs.

...

Ukraine's foreign minister said last month that more than 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries were fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. Russia does not provide details of non-Russians fighting in Ukraine.

...

While all eyes are on the four-month-long US military campaign against Venezuela, the White House has been quietly striking security agreements with other countries to deploy US troops across Latin America and the Caribbean.

As Donald Trump announced a blockade on oil tankers under sanctions and ordered the seizure of vessels amid airstrikes that have killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean and the Pacific, the US secured military deals with Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago in the past week alone.

The agreements – ranging from airport access, as in Trinidad and Tobago, to the temporary deployment of US troops for joint operations against “narco-terrorists” in Paraguay – are being signed under the banner of a so-called “war on drugs”, the same rationale Washington has used to justify its offensive against Venezuela, although White House officials and Trump himself has said that the goals also include seizing the country’s vast energy reserves and bringing down the dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Although Washington has long maintained similar agreements in the region, the scale and timing of the new deals are seen by analysts as a further escalation amid what would be an unprecedented US invasion of a South American country.

A former Tory councillor has appeared in court charged with drugging and raping his former wife over a period of 13 years.

Philip Young, 49, and five other men have been accused of more than 60 rapes and sexual offences against Joanne Young, 48. She can be named as the alleged victim because she has waived her right to anonymity, which would otherwise apply in such cases.

Young, who was described by police as white British, appeared at Swindon magistrates court on Tuesday charged with 56 offences, including multiple counts of rape and administering a substance with intent to stupefy his former spouse.

He is also accused of voyeurism, possession of indecent images of children and possession of extreme images.

https://archive.is/GmyLR

Soriot points out that Europe now faces a double threat. On one hand, major pharmaceutical companies are investing heavily in the United States to avoid their products being heavily taxed by the Trump administration. On the other, China is already a leader in generics and has become a formidable competitor in innovative medicines.

On a sunny afternoon in August, Trans Mountain CEO Mark Maki donned a black jumpsuit to stroll atop a giant loading dock in Burnaby. Below, his company’s new pipeline pumped oil into tankers bound for the open ocean.

“We’re returning money now to the owner,” Maki said in a Global News segment. “Canadian taxpayers who are the shareholders of the system are reaping those benefits.”

What Maki didn’t mention was that the operating pipeline’s profit streak was relatively new, appearing after a sudden change had turned its months-long losses into gains.

Little had changed on the ground. The amount of oil travelling through the pipe had remained mostly stable, as had its fees. Instead, the boon came on the company’s balance sheets, where millions in monthly interest payments vanished overnight.

“The only reason Trans Mountain looks like it’s making a profit is that most of the debt has been moved off their books,” said Thomas Gunton, a professor and director in resource and environmental planning at Simon Fraser University.

“It’s a misrepresentation of finances on this project.”

An internal review of technical outages that caused significant delays at airports and international land borders this fall has exposed critical flaws with the Canada Border Services Agency's IT services.

The review found neither the CBSA nor Shared Services Canada (SSC) is prioritizing solutions to dated technology that should be declared "a top government risk."

The outages happened after two separate, planned IT changes: a database upgrade and a firewall patch.

A person with SSC did not apply the necessary patch to CBSA databases ahead of a routine upgrade Sept. 28 that caused "significant corruption of live traveller and commercial data."

That led to "cascading system failures and service outages" at inspection points inside international airports and land borders, the report says.

A man identified as “A” who appears to be Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed facilitating meetings with “inappropriate friends” with Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Among the latest tranche of Epstein files are email exchanges in 2001 and 2002 between Maxwell and a correspondent who appears as “The Invisible Man” in the email thread and says that he is writing from Balmoral.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, has a well-established relationship with Maxwell. As well as the initial A and reference to Balmoral, the August 2001 emails in the latest tranche include a mention of a valet and having recently left the “RN”. Andrew left the Royal Navy in July 2001. A 2002 email includes a forwarded message referring to giving Andrew a phone number.

MintPress News is being financially censored. Indiegogo has cancelled our fundraising campaign and is refusing to release over $51,000 that you donated to keep MintPress alive.

They claim our project “did not meet their guidelines.” However, they only told us this nearly three months after the campaign ended — after I had been repeatedly trying to access our payout since October.

Based on leaked emails, we believe these bans may be connected to pressure by pro-Zionist actors and British intelligence related to our reporting. This raises serious questions about government influence over financial platforms.

It is also highly possible that Indiegogo has stopped our funding drive because of pressure from senior management. The company’s CEO and co-founder is Slava Rubin, a Conservative Zionist who has traveled to Israel many times. “I’m a big fan. I’m Jewish. I think Israel is a beautiful place,” he said in 2015. In the wake of October 7 and Israel’s attack on Gaza, Rubin came out publicly in support of Israel in its fight against “terrorism.”

I assume the mod wanted to wipe out all the comments, but why?

Why do Kiwis love Museli? What is the history? Doesn't it come from Switzerland?

I know they love it because I saw a lot in the grocery stores and supermarkets, and because of the song "Inner City Pressure" by the Flight of the Conchords, who, of course, represent all New Zealanders.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Bill C-12 includes many changes around border security along with new ineligibility rules for refugee claimants

Canada’s Liberal government is pushing through sweeping new legislation targeting refugees that observers fear will usher in a new era of US-style border policies, fueling xenophobia and the scapegoating of immigrants.

Bill C-12, or Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, includes many changes around border security along with new ineligibility rules for refugee claimants.

It was fast-tracked and passed through a third reading in the House of Commons on 11 December before members of Parliament rose for the holidays. If it receives Senate approval in February, the bill will become law.

“It’s very regressive in terms of refugee protection,” said Idil Atak, a professor of refugee and human rights law at Toronto Metropolitan University.

In 2023, Chinese media systematically avoided directly recognizing Russia as a party to aggression. The war was presented as a “conflict” or “crisis” that allegedly arose due to NATO expansion, US actions, and internal processes in Ukraine. Official statements of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which were published without alternative assessments or verification, often served as sources of information.

Such narratives included allegations of US-funded biolaboratories in Ukraine, the presence of NATO military personnel on Ukrainian territory, and the treatment of the Azov unit as a “neo-Nazi group.” All of these messages coincided with key elements of Russian propaganda and were aimed at removing responsibility from Russia.

...

In 2025, in statements that are actively quoted by the [Chinese propaganda outlets] Global Times and China Daily, Russia appears as a party ready to end the conflict provided its demands are taken into account, while the US and the West are presented as factors that either put pressure on Ukraine or are not interested in a real settlement ...

An important feature of the current rhetoric is the active promotion of the image of China as a responsible global actor and potential mediator. Calls for “creating a stable European security architecture” and emphasizing the need for negotiations allow Beijing to position itself as a neutral party interested in stability.

At the same time, the very logic of these calls remains close to the Russian interpretation of the war: the root causes of the conflict are sought not in an act of aggression, but in the security architecture, NATO actions, and US policy.

Chinese media less often resort to outright fakes like bio-laboratories or “Nazi Ukraine”, but they continue to avoid clearly naming the aggressor and continue to blur responsibility for the war.

...

Web archive link