Study author says tech companies are reaping benefits of artificial intelligence age but society is left to pay cost

The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed.

The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading technology has been estimated in research published on Wednesday, which also found that AI-related water use now exceeds the entirety of global bottled-water demand.

The figures have been compiled by the Dutch academic Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a company that researches the unintended consequences of digital trends. He claimed they were the first attempt to measure the specific effect of artificial intelligence rather than datacentres in general as the use of chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini soared in 2025.

Pressure is growing on member states to back a €90bn loan for Kyiv ahead of a Brussels summit

European leaders are being urged to decide whether to use Russia’s frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defence at a time of unprecedented pressure from the US.

At a critical summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders will be asked to make good on a promise to find urgently needed cash for Ukraine, with Kyiv under pressure to cede territory as Russia ekes out advances on the battlefield.

Arriving at the summit, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said Europe had a choice between “money today or blood tomorrow”. He said he was “not talking about Ukraine only, I am talking about Europe. And this is our decision to make and only ours. I think all European leaders have to finally rise to this occasion.”

The initiative invites the Commission “to propose a regulation that establishes a standardised oversight of human rights across its areas of competence in its external action with third countries". According to the organisers, the "regulation should ensure that the Commission monitors, evaluates, and responds to human rights violations in a manner that is transparent, consistent, effective, proportionate and timely.”

Following today's registration, the organisers have six months to open the 12-month period of signature collection. If an ECI receives at least one million statements of support during that time, with minimum numbers reached in at least seven Member States, the Commission is required to react, and decide what, if any, action it will take in response to the initiative, justifying its decision.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43863645

Nazi salutes such as “Heil Hitler” or “Sieg Heil” are illegal in Germany. Members of the AfD, which Germany’s counterintelligence service described in May as a demonstrably right-wing extremist party, have faced a number of scandals in the past over using Nazi salutes or slogans.

[Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Matthias] Moosdorf’s case happened in June 2023 when, according to the public prosecutor’s office, he greeted his colleague in the Nazi manner by clicking his heels together and raising his right arm at the entrance to the locker room area of the lower house. The public prosecutor’s office has now charged him with using unconstitutional symbols.

The Bundestag has already stripped 60-year-old Moosdorf of his immunity from prosecution. [He] is described by critics as particularly pro-Russian.

Since the start of Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moosdorf has opposed weapons aid to Kyiv, claiming that opposing Russia means that Germany will end up like it did “in 1945”. The Soviet Union and the Western Allies defeated Nazi Germany that year.

Last year Moosdorf also became a target of criticism even within his own party after he accepted an honorary professorship at the Moscow Academy of Music [he is a Cellist]. Until June this year he held the post of the party’s foreign policy spokesperson.

Moosdorf’s predecessor in that position was Petr Bystroň, who is of Czech origin. Bystroň now faces suspicions of accepting bribes from the pro-Russian “Voice of Europe” news server.

Germany prohibits the distribution or public use of symbols of unconstitutional groups, in particular, flags, forms of greeting, insignia, slogans, and uniforms. Among other things, the ban applies to Nazi greetings, as well as to the farewell phrase “with German regards” (mit deutschem Gruß), which the Nazis also abused.

Nazi salutes such as “Heil Hitler” or “Sieg Heil” are illegal in Germany. Members of the AfD, which Germany’s counterintelligence service described in May as a demonstrably right-wing extremist party, have faced a number of scandals in the past over using Nazi salutes or slogans.

[Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Matthias] Moosdorf’s case happened in June 2023 when, according to the public prosecutor’s office, he greeted his colleague in the Nazi manner by clicking his heels together and raising his right arm at the entrance to the locker room area of the lower house. The public prosecutor’s office has now charged him with using unconstitutional symbols.

The Bundestag has already stripped 60-year-old Moosdorf of his immunity from prosecution. [He] is described by critics as particularly pro-Russian.

Since the start of Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moosdorf has opposed weapons aid to Kyiv, claiming that opposing Russia means that Germany will end up like it did “in 1945”. The Soviet Union and the Western Allies defeated Nazi Germany that year.

Last year Moosdorf also became a target of criticism even within his own party after he accepted an honorary professorship at the Moscow Academy of Music [he is a Cellist]. Until June this year he held the post of the party’s foreign policy spokesperson.

Moosdorf’s predecessor in that position was Petr Bystroň, who is of Czech origin. Bystroň now faces suspicions of accepting bribes from the pro-Russian “Voice of Europe” news server.

Germany prohibits the distribution or public use of symbols of unconstitutional groups, in particular, flags, forms of greeting, insignia, slogans, and uniforms. Among other things, the ban applies to Nazi greetings, as well as to the farewell phrase “with German regards” (mit deutschem Gruß), which the Nazis also abused.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43863123

Web archive link

Kenyan authorities have secured the return of 18 citizens who were recruited inside Russia to take part in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Nairobi-based outlet The Standard reported. In total, at least 82 Kenyans have appealed to the country’s embassy in Moscow for help returning home.

The Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation reported that some of those who have been repatriated sustained serious injuries during the war in Ukraine. According to the report, the Kenyans traveled to Russia after being offered what they believed were civilian jobs. Most of those recruited into the Russian army had no prior military experience, Daily Nation said.

The Kenyan government has revoked the licenses of more than 600 fraudulent agencies that had been sending Kenyans to Russia and is also holding talks with Ukraine on the release of Kenyan prisoners of war. According to available data, more than 200 Kenyans may have been recruited into the Russian military.

The Insider has reported on the deceptive methods that are used to lure citizens of African countries into the Russian army, most notably in the article Lost in translation: How African migrants are tricked and threatened into Russian military service, as well as the video report “They took my passport and gave me a gun”: How Russia recruits Africans for its war against Ukraine.

...

At the end of October 2025, the international tribunal in The Hague heard testimony from Olena Yahupova, a resident of the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region. Recently, Yahupova shared additional details with The Insider, describing how she was abducted by Russian soldiers and detailing the torture and abuse she endured at their hands.

Web archive link

We're driven blindfolded to a secret location where Ukraine is making one of its latest weapons.

We're told to turn off our phones - such is the secrecy around the production of Ukraine's Flamingo cruise missile.

For Ukraine, dispersing and hiding the production of weapons like this is key to survival. Two factories belonging to the company that makes it - Fire Point - have already been hit.

Even under fire, Ukraine is ramping up its arms industry. President Volodymyr Zelensky says the country now produces more than 50% of the weapons it uses on the front line. Almost its entire inventory of long-range weapons is domestically made.

At the start of the war Ukraine mostly relied on its old Soviet-era arsenal. Western military support helped modernise the country's armed forces, but it now leads much of the world in developing unmanned systems – like robots and drones.

One of the first white-tailed eagles to fledge in England for hundreds of years has vanished in suspicious circumstances, alongside two more “devastating” disappearances of the reintroduced raptor.

The eagles have gone missing in Sussex, Wales and Scotland. The chick, which hatched in the wild earlier this year in Sussex, was one of the first white-tailed eagles to fledge in England for hundreds of years.

It is thought someone could have harmed or killed the birds, as the satellite trackers that allow the reintroduction team to track their location and movements had been cut off. Two of the eagles had their trackers cut off with a sharp instrument with the equipment found dumped near their last recorded location. In the third case, the tag stopped sending information on 8 November and no sighting of the bird has been recorded since.

The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, drawing an angry response from China.

The State Department announced the sales late Wednesday during a nationally televised address by President Donald Trump, who made scant mention of foreign policy issues and did not speak about China or Taiwan at all. U.S.-Chinese tensions have ebbed and flowed during Trump’s second term, largely over trade and tariffs but also over China’s increasing aggressiveness toward Taiwan, which Beijing has said must reunify with the mainland.

If approved by Congress, it would be the largest-ever U.S. weapons package to Taiwan, exceeding the total amount of $8.4 billion in U.S. arms sales to Taiwan during the Biden administration.

I need to load a second page to enter my password in some sites. Why is this? I even have a site I use that has the username, password and 2FA entries on separate pages that each need to be loaded one after the other.

My uneducated guess is that it makes it harder for bots, but I can't imagine it being that much of an impedance 🤷‍

Cheers!

Children as young as 11 who demonstrate misogynistic behaviour will be taught the difference between pornography and real relationships, as part of a multimillion-pound investment to tackle misogyny in England’s schools, the Guardian understands.

On the eve of the government publishing its long-awaited strategy to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade, David Lammy told the Guardian that the battle “begins with how we raise our boys”, adding that toxic masculinity and keeping girls and women safe were “bound together”.

As part of the government’s flagship strategy, which was initially expected in the spring, teachers will be able to send young people at risk of causing harm on behavioural courses, and will be trained to intervene if they witness disturbing or worrying behaviour.

cross-posted from: https://troet.cafe/users/smalllebowsky/statuses/115734220706329734

Es ist Mittwoch 🎮 meine Gamer

Es ist Mittwoch 🎮 meine Gamer@dach #gaming

A new study by the Center for European Policy Analysis suggests Russia and China are pulling ahead of NATO nations, including Canada, in the race to develop and field drones capable of operating in harsh Arctic conditions.

The report, released this week, identified infrastructure gaps, questioned the adequacy of investment and pointed to procurement obstacles that hinder the integration of uncrewed systems into Western militaries.

"Procurement of Arctic-capable drones across NATO remains fragmented, slow and risk-averse, as most allies prioritize systems designed for temperate climates and only later adapt them for Arctic use, thus resulting in few NATO-certified Arctic-ready platforms," said the report authored by research fellow Federico Borsari and retired U.S. major-general Gordon (Skip) Davis, who recently served as NATO's deputy assistant secretary general for defence investment.

So Gen-Z incel infuencer brought the male loneliness epidemic concept, I understand that for many people loneliness isn't a blessing, and know that it feel better to sleep in the arm of someone loving you than alone.

However, if I remember my English class, single women were mostly banned from immigrating to the US, and men were the one travelling to the far-west, so I expect a pretty bad gender-ratio, with many single men How was it managed at the time ? Did it led to societal scale problem ?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47501722

Archived

[...]

According to official information released by various governments, as well as commercial satellite imagery, there were at least seven groups of Chinese warships operating across the western Pacific at the beginning of the week.

Last week Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed Australia was tracking several Chinese warships in the Philippines Sea, but the Government has not released any further information about their movements since.

On Sunday another PLA-Navy Task Group, which is currently on a far-sea comprehensive training mission, arrived in Jakarta to begin a four-day “friendly” visit to Indonesia.

[...]

This week New Zealand revealed that its largest naval ship, HMNZS Aotearoa, was closely shadowed by seven Chinese warships while helping enforce United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea in the East China and Yellow Seas last month.

New Zealand’s defence force said the warships kept a “safe and professional distance” from its replenishment vessel as it operated alongside ships from Canada, France, and Japan.

The same naval vessel also encountered a Taiwanese warship as it sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait during November.

[...]

Last week Defence Chief David Johnston confirmed an Australian P-8 surveillance plane had observed the Chinese task group operating in the Philippine Sea, approximately 500 nautical miles north of Palau.

“I have previously stated that we have seen a greater PLA Navy presence in our immediate region in recent years, and we do expect to see future PLA in extended area deployments,” Admiral Johnston told a senate estimates hearing in Canberra.

Archived

[...]

According to official information released by various governments, as well as commercial satellite imagery, there were at least seven groups of Chinese warships operating across the western Pacific at the beginning of the week.

Last week Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed Australia was tracking several Chinese warships in the Philippines Sea, but the Government has not released any further information about their movements since.

On Sunday another PLA-Navy Task Group, which is currently on a far-sea comprehensive training mission, arrived in Jakarta to begin a four-day “friendly” visit to Indonesia.

[...]

This week New Zealand revealed that its largest naval ship, HMNZS Aotearoa, was closely shadowed by seven Chinese warships while helping enforce United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea in the East China and Yellow Seas last month.

New Zealand’s defence force said the warships kept a “safe and professional distance” from its replenishment vessel as it operated alongside ships from Canada, France, and Japan.

The same naval vessel also encountered a Taiwanese warship as it sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait during November.

[...]

Last week Defence Chief David Johnston confirmed an Australian P-8 surveillance plane had observed the Chinese task group operating in the Philippine Sea, approximately 500 nautical miles north of Palau.

“I have previously stated that we have seen a greater PLA Navy presence in our immediate region in recent years, and we do expect to see future PLA in extended area deployments,” Admiral Johnston told a senate estimates hearing in Canberra.

For user-readable files or media I store them under ~/docker/data, and for everything else I store them under ~/docker/stacks/[service] where ~/docker/stacks is maintained by Dockge.

Is there a better way to do this?

A Jewish woman wearing a Keffiyeh as well as the Star of David was escorted off Bondi Beach by police. The resulting social media storm led to death threats to her and to her friend.

I am writing this knowing it will likely result in more death threats.

That is not a metaphor. It is a statement of fact, based on what happened to my friend Michelle and me this week, and what happened next when we sought protection from the state.

On Monday, at the Bondi memorial for the victims of the mass killing the day before, Michelle – a Jewish local and member of Jews against the Occupation ‘48 – was surrounded by a hostile crowd shouting “get her off”. She was escorted off the beach to the sound of applause by approximately forty police officers, whilst trying to explain her position to the surrounding reporters, and taken to Bondi Police Station, where she was told she couldn’t go back to Bondi Beach for 6 hours.

Her “offence”? Wearing a Keffiyeh.

Whether one agrees with her politics or not is beside the point. The memorial was dominated by Israeli flags – the flag of a state currently accused of genocide and whose leaders are wanted for war crimes. Michelle wore the keffiyeh because she objected to a moment of mourning being politicised. But it is not a crime. Nor is it a provocation warranting mob intimidation.

What followed should concern anyone who believes the rule of law applies equally.

After video footage of Michelle circulated on X, under a post by journalist Hugh Riminton, the abuse escalated rapidly.

[article continues]

Video of some police interaction with Michelle: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=wvWm3zEmygY