"It almost seems that it doesn't matter to them who they execute, as long as they send a message to society that there's a zero-tolerance policy on whatever issue they're talking about - whether it's protests, freedom of expression, or drugs," said Ms Basyouni.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman - who became crown prince in 2017 - has changed the country profoundly over the past few years, loosening social restrictions while simultaneously silencing criticism.

In a bid to diversify its economy away from oil, he has opened Saudi Arabia up to the outside world, taken the religious police off the streets, and allowed women to drive.

But the kingdom's human rights record remains "abysmal", according to the US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch, with the high level of executions a major concern. In recent years, only China and Iran have put more people to death, according to human rights activists.

Flock left at least 60 of its people-tracking Condor PTZ cameras live streaming and exposed to the open internet.

Benn Jordan’s Video

• Orban faces toughest challenge of his 15-year rule
• Economy mired in three-year period of stagnation
• Cost of living, economy, health dominate election concerns
• Veteran leader racing against time to turn economy around before the election in April 2025

Hungary's [prime minister] Viktor Orban may have got a brief poll boost last month from a costly pensions sweetener but he faces a race against time before April's election to turn the stagnating economy around enough to extend a 15-year grip on power.

Orban's reelection bid will be watched far beyond Hungary. A thorn in the side of the European Union, the nationalist leader counts U.S. President Donald Trump as an anti-EU ally and maintains close ties with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

...

While the inflation surge has lifted Hungarian food prices close to EU average levels, the annual average full-time salary per employee was third-lowest in the bloc and pension spending is also among the lowest as a share of output.

The pension top-up, aimed at Hungary's 2.4 million retirees who make up over a quarter of the electorate, will cost $454 million next year, with its price tag rising each following year as it is phased in over the next government cycle.

...

The pension moves will have a far larger cost in the long run. In August the IMF warned that, without reforms to its pension system, Hungary was set for "explosive growth" in borrowing beyond 2030, with its public debt estimated at a staggering 255% of output by 2054.

Some public comments to Orban's Facebook post announcing the pension top-up were critical of the move, calling instead for hikes to smaller pensions or indexation to wages, while others derided it as a "joke" or "vote buying".

...

"The problem is that (sentiment) is still negative and it cannot be changed dramatically in a few months. The time is too short and the amount of money to be distributed is limited," 21 Research Centre Director Daniel Rona said.

Several thousand activists from across Serbia joined student protests in the country's southwest on Sunday, rallying against what they describe as government pressure on state universities.

The demonstration, part of a wider movement confronting political interference in higher education, was the first of its kind in Novi Pazar, a town with a majority Bosniak Muslim population.

It is among many protests organised after the collapse of a railway station roof last year in the northern city of Novi Sad, which killed 16 people ... [The station’s modernization was a symbol of Serbia’s growing cooperation with China. Completed in the summer of 2024, the $1.5 billion project – funded through a loan agreement between the Serbian government, China’s Exim Bank, and the Russian government under the China-CEEC cooperation framework – but had come to symbolize systemic issues of corruption, secrecy, and a lack of accountability.]

...

Throughout the day-long protest, participants observed a moment of silence for the victims of the roof collapse. They waved flags representing their towns and universities, whistled, and chanted their signature slogan: “Pump up!”

The protest movement - led by students, academics, and opposition figures - accuses Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist nationalist party of fostering corruption, poor public services, nepotism, and restrictions on media freedom. Vucic and his party deny the allegations.

...

Visa says it has completed hundreds of secure AI initiated transactions with partners, signaling that agent driven shopping and checkout could reach mainstream consumers by the 2026 holiday season, raising both convenience and risk questions.

Anna’s Archive’s idealism doesn’t quite survive its own blog post

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's scandal-hit Socialists endured a crushing defeat in a regional election in Extremadura on Sunday, which saw far-right Vox make big gains.

The Socialists, who lead the minority national coalition, have been rocked by corruption and sexual misconduct allegations and the vote in the rural southwestern region was seen as an indicator of the party's wider prospects.

They won just 18 seats in the 65-seat assembly down from 28, their worst-ever regional result in Extremadura.

...

It was the first regional election since a court ordered Jose Luis Abalos, a former top aide to Sanchez, to stand trial over claims he took kickbacks related to the awarding of public contracts.

The prime minister's wife, Begona Gomez, and younger brother, David are also facing graft allegations.

David Sanchez is set to go on trial for influence peddling in May along with 10 other defendants including the Socialist candidate to head Extremadura's government, Miguel Angel Gallardo -- who called Sunday's election results "really bad".

The Socialists have also come under fire in recent weeks for allegedly failing to address sexual harassment by senior male officials.

...

Sunday's vote will be followed by regional elections in Andalusia, Aragon, and Castile and Leon during the first half of 2026.

I have a huge supply of ensure that i want to make a bit less desserty

Edit: Thanks to the feedback I found out that the playback issues are caused by transcoding setting. I had to select QSV instead of VA-API. Now playback is smooth with any bandwidth setting.

If there are any recommendations regarding data storage in my setup, it'd be much appreciated!

So, I am running Proxmox on an old thinkpad (Intel I7 11th gen, 32 gb ram) to host home assistant, nextcloud, npm and jellyfin. I was just able to set up hardware acceleration with the iris xe driver on jellyfin and install the client on my TV, but replay struggles at 4k hdr content. I doubt that this is actually the CPU, but my LAN interface. Buying the laptop I didn't notice that it doesn't have an RJ45 socket so I have to use an USB-C adapter instead.

Additionally, I will definitely run into storage issues before getting anywhere near a reasonable movie database and adding more and more external usb drives does not seem a good idea.

I think I need a NAS. But looking at used prices of a decent 4bay device, makes me wonder if "sidegrading" my PC wouldn't be a better option. I could buy a new mainboard, cpu and memory, install all HDDs in my current case, and move my current hardware to a new, smaller one.

Does that make sense? Or is it more likely that my hardware is just incorrectly configured and a NAS would make more sense? Or should I get a DAS and set up USB pass throughout? Or...? What's your opinion?

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6254738

Archived version

In almost four years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has become evident that Moscow’s technological alliances have reshaped not only the future of the battlefield but also the foundations of international security. The threats no longer lie in the number of tanks or missiles that a given army has. As the war in Ukraine has shown, technological advances in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and advanced radar jamming technologies have allowed for asymmetric application of such technologies, often rendering classical concepts of deterrence, defense, and security architecture obsolete.

At the center of this shift stands a China-enabled drone supply network that is rapidly transforming Russia’s capacity for sustained, cost-effective, and scalable warfare.

...

Chinese-supplied components in Shahed-type and now Geran drones enable longer-range, more cost-effective, and precise strikes. The result is an increasing asymmetric threat to the European continent and beyond. Even more alarming are reverse technological transfers to Moscow’s other Asian allies, such as North Korea, which has been rumored to receive both technology and manufacturing training for the Shahed/Geran drones.

If left unaddressed, this China-enabled supply chain risks becoming the backbone of a new model of warfare that exploits cost asymmetries, sanctions loopholes, and alliance-based technology transfers across multiple domains simultaneously.

...

Chinese-made components is much more substantial [according to] Ukrainian drone specialists [who] indicate that Russia has made significant upgrades to three dimensions of Shahed/Geran drones: maneuverability and controllability, jamming resistance, and tactical versatility. Combined, these upgrades allow Russia to test new asymmetrical tactics that are becoming an increasingly challenging issue for air defenses in Ukraine and could be utilized beyond Ukraine in the future. Russia’s UAV barrages continue playing a successful role in strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as part of Russia’s cognitive warfare as well.

...

Chinese-supplied components that enable Geran’s maneuverability and controllability also allow for other tactical and asymmetric applications. As an example, Ukrainian Air Forces and Army Aviation Forces have been seen utilizing helicopters and Yak-52 trainer aircraft as airborne anti-Geran defenses. To counter this threat, a Geran-2 drone has been fitted with an R-60 air-to-air missile. While currently rumored to be a one-off occurrence, the integration of heat-seeking missiles into the drone makes Geran a fully fledged air-to-air weapons-systems platform.

...

In 2025, Moscow also conducted drone incursions over NATO airspace. Reports from the incident in Poland indicate that the Gerbera decoy drones were used in these provocations. While most of the drones were successfully neutralized, the equipment used to shoot down the drones shows both the asymmetric threat of such barrages and the unprecedented levels of cost-effectiveness that Moscow was able to reach.

...

Russia is also rumored to be supplying North Korea with the technology for Shahed/Geran drones and even employing and training up to 12,000 North Korean workers in its Geran drone production lines. Combined with the effectiveness of constant drone innovation and technological transfers within Moscow’s close-knit circle of allies, it is only a matter of time until the spillover effect of the Geran drones reaches the Asia-Pacific and alters the strategic balance in the region.

...

Ukrainian defense specialists emphasize that Russia’s military-industrial sector continues to acquire drone technologies ... often via third countries that re-label and repackage components, making traceability nearly impossible under current sanction frameworks. Recent reports of drones produced entirely from Chinese parts further underscore the selectivity of Beijing’s export restrictions and the vulnerability of current EU and U.S. controls.

Targeting these networks demands coordinated monitoring of Russia’s parallel import hubs in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkiye, Vietnam, and the Balkan states, alongside penalties for intermediaries and financial institutions supporting these schemes.

...

Equally important is addressing the role of e-commerce platforms, where dual-use components can be purchased in small but continuous volumes and aggregated into a significant industrial supply source for Russia’s drone assembly lines. Restricting these procurement routes is essential for limiting Russia’s ability to sustain its cost-effective asymmetric warfare capabilities and the broader China-enabled military-industrial complex. Sanctions must not only focus on intermediaries directly supplying Russia but also on financial institutions enabling monetary transfers, such as Russian burner banks.

...

Interesting idea but I think it's gotta be made to work without helium to be viable.

Archived version

In almost four years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has become evident that Moscow’s technological alliances have reshaped not only the future of the battlefield but also the foundations of international security. The threats no longer lie in the number of tanks or missiles that a given army has. As the war in Ukraine has shown, technological advances in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and advanced radar jamming technologies have allowed for asymmetric application of such technologies, often rendering classical concepts of deterrence, defense, and security architecture obsolete.

At the center of this shift stands a China-enabled drone supply network that is rapidly transforming Russia’s capacity for sustained, cost-effective, and scalable warfare.

...

Chinese-supplied components in Shahed-type and now Geran drones enable longer-range, more cost-effective, and precise strikes. The result is an increasing asymmetric threat to the European continent and beyond. Even more alarming are reverse technological transfers to Moscow’s other Asian allies, such as North Korea, which has been rumored to receive both technology and manufacturing training for the Shahed/Geran drones.

If left unaddressed, this China-enabled supply chain risks becoming the backbone of a new model of warfare that exploits cost asymmetries, sanctions loopholes, and alliance-based technology transfers across multiple domains simultaneously.

...

Chinese-made components is much more substantial [according to] Ukrainian drone specialists [who] indicate that Russia has made significant upgrades to three dimensions of Shahed/Geran drones: maneuverability and controllability, jamming resistance, and tactical versatility. Combined, these upgrades allow Russia to test new asymmetrical tactics that are becoming an increasingly challenging issue for air defenses in Ukraine and could be utilized beyond Ukraine in the future. Russia’s UAV barrages continue playing a successful role in strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as part of Russia’s cognitive warfare as well.

...

Chinese-supplied components that enable Geran’s maneuverability and controllability also allow for other tactical and asymmetric applications. As an example, Ukrainian Air Forces and Army Aviation Forces have been seen utilizing helicopters and Yak-52 trainer aircraft as airborne anti-Geran defenses. To counter this threat, a Geran-2 drone has been fitted with an R-60 air-to-air missile. While currently rumored to be a one-off occurrence, the integration of heat-seeking missiles into the drone makes Geran a fully fledged air-to-air weapons-systems platform.

...

In 2025, Moscow also conducted drone incursions over NATO airspace. Reports from the incident in Poland indicate that the Gerbera decoy drones were used in these provocations. While most of the drones were successfully neutralized, the equipment used to shoot down the drones shows both the asymmetric threat of such barrages and the unprecedented levels of cost-effectiveness that Moscow was able to reach.

...

Russia is also rumored to be supplying North Korea with the technology for Shahed/Geran drones and even employing and training up to 12,000 North Korean workers in its Geran drone production lines. Combined with the effectiveness of constant drone innovation and technological transfers within Moscow’s close-knit circle of allies, it is only a matter of time until the spillover effect of the Geran drones reaches the Asia-Pacific and alters the strategic balance in the region.

...

Ukrainian defense specialists emphasize that Russia’s military-industrial sector continues to acquire drone technologies ... often via third countries that re-label and repackage components, making traceability nearly impossible under current sanction frameworks. Recent reports of drones produced entirely from Chinese parts further underscore the selectivity of Beijing’s export restrictions and the vulnerability of current EU and U.S. controls.

Targeting these networks demands coordinated monitoring of Russia’s parallel import hubs in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkiye, Vietnam, and the Balkan states, alongside penalties for intermediaries and financial institutions supporting these schemes.

...

Equally important is addressing the role of e-commerce platforms, where dual-use components can be purchased in small but continuous volumes and aggregated into a significant industrial supply source for Russia’s drone assembly lines. Restricting these procurement routes is essential for limiting Russia’s ability to sustain its cost-effective asymmetric warfare capabilities and the broader China-enabled military-industrial complex. Sanctions must not only focus on intermediaries directly supplying Russia but also on financial institutions enabling monetary transfers, such as Russian burner banks.

...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40672174

By Elis Gjevori
Published date: 22 December 2025 12:45 GMT

Two pro-Palestine activists held in British prisons have been transferred to hospital after weeks without food, prompting mounting concern from their families and members of parliament over prison conditions and medical care.

Amu Gib, 30, who is being held on remand at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, entered hospital on Saturday after reaching day 50 of a hunger strike. Kamran Ahmed, 28, who has refused food for 42 days at Pentonville prison in London, has also been hospitalised.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Monday, Ahmed's sister Shahmina Alam said that “at this point, there’s significant risk of organ damage”.

...

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) president Holger Münch said the BKA ... described an “acute threat situation”, with sightings concentrated around military facilities and transport hubs, as well as defence companies and port infrastructure.

...

The German government has responded with a new coordination structure. On 17 December, federal and state authorities inaugurated the Joint Drone Defence Centre (Gemeinsames Drohnenabwehrzentrum, GDAZ) in Berlin, intended to improve detection and the coordination of countermeasures. Until now, drone defence in Germany had been spread across multiple agencies; the new centre is designed to close gaps while leaving decision-making powers with the participating bodies.

...

Alongside the new centre, Germany is expanding specialist capacity. A Federal Police counter-drone unit has been established and is expected to grow to 130 personnel. It will be deployed at airports, in Berlin and around security-sensitive sites nationwide, using equipment including AI-assisted jamming systems and automated interceptor drones.

...

Industry has also reported rising demand for counter-drone systems. The German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI) had recorded increased interest in detection and defence technology, with a survey indicating enquiries from civilian security actors and the Bundeswehr. The association called for clearer legal rules for both defensive measures and the use of drones by security authorities.

...

Investigators have stopped short of attributing the flights to a specific country in every case. Münch said the authorities could not say with full certainty whether the activity was linked to Russian actors, citing the practical difficulty of identifying drone pilots and proving control or direction. In many incidents, he said, the pattern appeared consistent with state-directed operations.

...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in October that the German government believes Russia is behind many of the drone sightings over German territory.

...