Full Letter.

Google also admitted the following to the House Judiciary Committee:

1. The Biden Administration pressured Google to censor Americans and remove content that did not violate YouTube's policies.
2. The Biden Administration censorship pressure was "unacceptable and wrong."
3. Public debate should never come at the expense of relying "authorities."
4. The company will never use third-party "fact-checkers."
5. Europe's censorship laws target American companies and threaten American speech, including the removal of "lawful content."

Comments

Almost a billion lost from ppl's retirement savings. It's more a scam than anything else though.

r/privacy moderators removed a New York Times Wirecutter journalist's post and comments, accusing them of "promoting a site or blog" (this is not an applicable rule).

The journalist was in the comments talking with users, and the top comment was censored too.

Original post (gone now)

The same post on a different subreddit where it was not censored

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36349852

This story is getting more and more bizarre.

Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate is angling for a pardon from Donald Trump, according to a report.

Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer who is serving four life terms for murder and kidnap, shared a cell with Epstein weeks before the disgraced financier died by suicide.

Tartaglione is making a fresh bid for release backed by an ally of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, The New Yorker reported.

cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/34379460

Archived

• Russia has devised a plan to intervene in elections in Moldova and disrupt the government’s efforts to keep the country on the path toward European Union membership, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
• The plan includes tactics such as recruitment of Moldovans abroad to vote, deploying others to stage disruptive protests, and a widespread disinformation campaign on social media, the documents show.
• The goal of the plan is to undermine the chances of President Maia Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity and ultimately see her removed from power, according to the documents citing the internal Russian plans.

[...]

Moldovan police, meanwhile, have been cracking down on disinformation campaigns and attempts to buy votes. Last month, the authorities officially asked to block 443 TikTok channels.

On Monday, officers mounted an operation against what they said was a Russian-backed plot to destabilize the election, according to presidential adviser Stanislav Secrieru. Authorities in Chisinau detained 74 people and conducted more than 250 searches across the country, dismantling a network allegedly run with support from the Russian intelligence service GRU, police told a news conference.

[...]

A former Soviet state, Moldova has a significant Russophone minority among its 2.4 million population. The breakaway state of Transnistria is under Russian occupation, according to the Council of Europe, while the leader of the region of Gagauzia was convicted by a Moldovan court of illegally funneling Russian money to a political party.

“The Kremlin’s goal is clear: to capture Moldova through the ballot box, to use us against Ukraine and to turn us into a launchpad for hybrid attacks on the European Union,” Sandu told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg on Sept. 9. “That is why this election is very important. By defending it, we protect not only Moldova, but also regional security and stability.”

[...]

Sandu’s party, known as PAS, is promising to kick off the EU accession process and win access to much-needed funds after Moldova began entry talks last year. But the latest polls suggest PAS may lose its parliamentary majority, raising the prospect of an uneasy coalition.

PAS faces stiff opposition from several groups. They include the nominally pro-EU Alternative bloc and a pro-Russian one led by former President Igor Dodon, who a separate set of documents seen by Bloomberg suggests asked security services to track political opponents when he was in office. Dodon said in an email to Bloomberg that he always acted legally and in the interests of Moldova.

[...]

Russia has dedicated significant resources to influencing elections in the region, according to the European government officials. In Georgia, a vote last year saw accusations of widespread interference and paved the way to ongoing protests.

Then came the presidential election in Romania, where judges ordered a rerun following allegations of Russian meddling that had propelled a fringe far-right candidate to a first-round victory.

A months-long investigation found that Russia had been targeting Romania as part of a hybrid campaign stretching back to 2022, according to the country’s chief prosecutor, Alex Florenta. Four companies with ties to Russia orchestrated fake social media accounts and AI bots that reached at least 1.3 million citizens, he said on Sept. 16.

[...]

The votes of Moldovans residing abroad were crucial in the 2024 votes. As part of its plans for these elections, one of the documents showed Russia intended to recruit members of the Moldovan diaspora and pay for them to travel and vote.

The plans also included a disinformation campaign on Telegram, TikTok and Facebook, as well as via more traditional channels and call centers. Messaging in Romanian, Moldova’s official language, and Russian accuses Sandu of being a foreign puppet who is pushing the country into misery and war.

Moldova’s police have sought to stop fake news spreading on social media and said groups were also illegally bringing in money to buy votes and for political parties to undermine the outcome of the election. Officers seized 5 million Moldovan lei ($302,000) on Sept. 16 alone during raids to take down an alleged money-laundering operation, police said in a statement.

Russia plans to recruit young men from sports clubs and criminal networks to stage violent provocations during the vote and protests after it, the documents show. That would include demonstrations calling for Sandu to resign if her party loses the election or to paint the result as tainted if it wins.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/52138373

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1294024

• The Register forums.

I am running grapheneos and got nc from fdroid if it matters. I also use nc on my local network only.

Archived

A Chinese cargo ship has visited the Russian-occupied port of Sevastopol in Crimea — making an unprecedented series of stops by a major foreign vessel to one of the Ukrainian ports seized by Russia.

The use of Sevastopol has been barred by western sanctions since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. Allies of Kyiv have sought to prevent Moscow from exploiting the occupied regions and third parties from treating the territories as part of Russia.

While China has not adopted the western sanctions regime against Russia, its commercial ships have previously avoided Russian-held ports.

The Heng Yang 9 — a Panama-flagged ship that is owned and operated by the Guangxi Changhai Shipping Company, based in Guangxi — has been spotted docking in Crimea at least three times in the past few months, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Financial Times has been able to independently verify the most recent of these trips in September using optical satellite imagery, radar imagery, transponder data and conventional photographs.

[...]

The Heng Yang 9 made at least two visits to Sevastopol this summer, according to the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The container ship was in the port from June 19 to June 22 — its first stay in Sevastopol, the president’s office told the FT. According to Ukrainian officials, the vessel also requested entry to load 101 containers on August 15.

After those previous alleged calls to the Crimean port, it called at ports in Turkey before travelling to Alexandria in Egypt.

“Ukraine has made it clear that such actions are unacceptable and expects all international partners and companies to strictly avoid contacts with the occupied territories,” Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions policy [said].

[...]

During the two-week voyage in the Black Sea in September, the vessel appears to have falsified its tracks, using its transponder to report false positions and disguise its movements. The vessel appears to have sailed to Novorossiysk, a Russian port on the east side of the Black Sea where it was caught on a satellite image on September 6.

[...]

However, a European Space Agency Sentinel-1 satellite took radar images of the port on September 9 just 10 minutes after the vessel reported its position in the harbour. No ship was at the reported location.

Similarly, the ship was passed by two Sentinel-2 satellites, which take optical photographs, on September 11 and 15. In both cases, the passes came within an hour of the vessel reporting a position. There was no vessel present in the location where its transmissions implied it should be.

[...]

https://archive.ph/2025.09.23-062925/https://www.reuters.com/business/nvidia-invest-100-billion-openai-2025-09-22/

The EU is probing three U.S. tech firms and one European company regarding how well they protect users against online scams.

The model is already available to government agencies in the United States and a handful of other countries.

The Department of Homeland Security has sparked a Pokémon backlash after using the kids’ game to promote ICE deportation raids.

The DHS social media team posted a video to X on Monday of dramatic immigration raids—including one that was bungled yet still posted online by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—spliced with animé imagery from the popular Japanese cartoon and collectibles game, which is part owned by Nintendo.

---

Video link

ICE tweet link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36347075

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is powering up with its biggest update since launch! With both free and paid content, there is something for everyone. We are taking the game to the next level on September 30, 2025.

NEW ARCADE MODE – HEX AND FLEX YOUR WAY (Free). Arcade Mode is intense, fast-paced, and offers unique challenge runs.

NEW PLAYABLE CHARACTER – METALHEAD (DLC). He is our first full-range hero, armed with a powerful laser gun, explosive landmines, and tactical skills.

METALHEAD COMPANION CONTENT (Free). Metalhead’s debut ties directly into the free Arcade Mode, bringing additional narrative and content for all players.

GAME IMPROVEMENTS (Free). We’ve also added over 100 improvements across the game.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXGD8H4X0KI