8===D

he so happy.

Brende stated on Thursday that after “careful consideration” he is stepping down

“I am convinced that the Forum can now continue its important work without distraction,” wrote the former Norwegian diplomat, who exchanged more than 100 text messages and emails and met Epstein on three occasions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43746192

Shipments of Venezuelan and American oil could begin flowing to the Communist island to relieve the humanitarian crisis

[only small amounts, to private sector only] Updated Feb. 25, 2026 3:50 pm ET

MIAMI—The Trump administration is easing its policy on the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, providing a potential lifeline to the island’s eight million people as a fuel shortage accelerates a humanitarian crisis.

The policy announced Wednesday applies to transactions involving Cuba’s small private sector “that support the Cuban people,” but sales to the ruling Communist government in Havana would remain illicit under the comprehensive sanctions that Washington has imposed for decades, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The Treasury would allow the sales on a case-by-case basis.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/48071812

A Russian political prisoner whose husband died in a penal colony last week was denied permission to attend his funeral, independent news outlet Bumaga reported on Thursday.

Anastasia Dyudyaeva’s request to be granted a furlough to attend the funeral of her husband, Alexander Dotsenko, was turned down, according to a group set up to support the political prisoner couple.

Dotsenko died on 19 February after suffering a heart attack in the penal colony where he was serving his sentence, and his funeral took place on Thursday morning at a church in the Leningrad region village of Taitsy, where the couple lived together before being imprisoned. It was attended by around 30 mourners.

Both Dotsenko and Dyudyaeva were found guilty of “inciting terrorism” by a St. Petersburg court in 2024. According to investigators, the couple had distributed Ukrainian-language leaflets reading “Putin to the gallows” at a supermarket in St. Petersburg.

The couple denied the allegations, but were sentenced to three and three-and-a-half years in a penal colony, respectively. Independent news outlet Mediazona observed at the time that a handwriting expert, called as a witness by the prosecution, had cast doubt on the couple’s involvement.

,,,

Web archive link

Mark Levin, a staunchly pro-Israel commentator who is close to Trump, has argued that the US should not agree to a deal with Iran even if Tehran makes major concessions.

“On what basis do we believe the Iranian regime will adhere to any agreement. There is absolutely none,” Levin wrote in a social media post.

“Then the simple question is: do we destroy this enemy regime before it destroys us. There is absolutely no justification for exposing our country to such a death cult.”

Looks a little musou-inspired, maybe?

Karina Remez knew her husband — 33-year-old Dmytro Remez — had been captured in 2022 while defending Mariupol. For years, there was no confirmed information about where he was being held. Then, in early February 2025, a man contacted her claiming he had shared a cell with Dmytro and had personal information to pass on.

The initial questions soon escalated into direct blackmail. They demanded that she blow up a communications tower and provide Ukrainian military locations.

To pressure her, they forced Dmytro to speak to her on the phone. During later calls, they spoke to her themselves with sounds of torture in the background.

. . .

Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, says this is a deliberate Russian strategy aimed at destabilizing Ukraine that has only escalated and become increasingly cruel during four years of full-scale war.

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Police warn Moninder Singh, head of the Sikh Federation of Canada, his family are also at risk

Police in Canada warned a prominent Sikh activist of “credible threat” to his family’s life, days before the prime minister, Mark Carney, visits India in search of new trade deals.

Moninder Singh, who heads the Sikh Federation of Canada, said officers visited his home on Sunday, to warn him that a confidential police informant had passed information suggesting he and his family were at risk.

In 2023, the former prime minister Justin Trudeau accused India of orchestrating the high-profile assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another Sikh activist and Canadian citizen. Canada’s federal police and spy agency later repeated the accusations.

Singh, a close friend of Nijjar, said he believed the Indian government was behind the most recent threat.

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TL;DR: Mozilla recently released AI controls for Firefox: a single control panel that lets people disable AI features in the browser or pick and choose which to leave on. On the surface, this sounds like a win for user choice in an era of AI-everything.

If we dig deeper, you can start to see that the kill switch isn’t the whole story. This feature acts like an accountability sink. By giving you an off-switch, Mozilla’s leadership shifts the ethical burden of AI onto the user - turning their design choices into your responsibility.