An Apple fan who has spent “nearly 30 years as a loyal customer” says they’ve been “permanently” locked out of their Apple Account due to what might be the overzealous actions of Apple’s automated anti-fraud system. It’s left them locked out of “20 years of digital life,” and it all started with the seemingly straightforward purchase of an Apple gift card.

The ultra-Zionist cult Chabad and its complicity in genocide in Gaza

Excerpt:

Chabad is an ultra-orthodox Jewish cult. It has many adherents in the genocidal Israeli occupation forces. Many of them wear Chabad patches on their uniforms. Here is a Zionist tank flying the distinctive Chabad flag in Gaza.

spoiler

In addition, there are also Chabad Rabbis attached to the Israeli occupation forces. One notes that the genocide is actually about “rooting out evil”. Here two Chabad Rabbis erected the Jewish religious symbol, the Menorah, in Gaza.

But what is Chabad? It styles itself as a friendly outgoing Jewish movement dedicated to helping Jews reconnect with Judaism. However, in reality, it is a supremacist, hate-mongering Zionist cult.

In the past it was anti-Zionist, but back then, even as far back as 1929, its adherents in Al Khalil (or Hebron as it is called by Zionists) were involved in spying on the Palestinians for the Haganah terror militia as well as storing weapons for them.

Chabad is now so ultra-Zionist that it called in December for Gaza to be recolonized with Jewish settlers. Worse, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, its adherents believe - as laid out in the Tanya, Chabad’s key religious text - gentiles have only animal souls, not human souls.

In January, the Tanya was printed out by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza. This supremacism is carried over into its attitude to the Palestinians.

Followers of a Chabad Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh are known as the ‘hilltop youth’. Two of his followers wrote the hugely controversial King Torah, which was also recommended by Ginsburg.

The book states that it is permissible to kill Palestinian children, including babies.

....

KEY POINTS

• The 78-year-old was charged under Hong Kong’s controversial national security law.

• The law was enacted by Beijing in 2020 after pro-democracy protests swept the region in 2019. 

• The businessman founded Asian clothing brand Giordano, newspaper Apple Daily and digital media company Next Digital.

• The verdict comes on the heels of the dissolution of Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy party on Sunday after 31 years.

Taiwan's population declined for the 23rd straight month in November, with almost twice as many deaths as births—putting it on track to match the previously reported record low.

Jaume Collboni and 16 other city leaders urge EU to unleash billions in funding as it prepares to tackle crisis

The soaring cost of housing is akin to a “new pandemic” sweeping across Europe, the mayor of Barcelona has said, as he and 16 other city leaders urged the EU to respond to the crisis by unleashing billions in funding for the hardest-hit areas.

The EU is expected to present its first-ever housing plan on Tuesday, after consultations with experts, stakeholders and the public. For months, those on the frontlines of the crisis have warned the problem is too big to ignore.

“The new pandemic affecting European cities is called the cost of housing,” said Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, who launched the Mayors for Housing alliance last year with the support of his counterparts in Paris and Rome.

Naveed Akram previously known to security agencies, prime minister says. His gun-owning father, Sajid, was shot dead by police at the scene

The alleged gunmen behind the Bondi beach attack are a father-son duo suspected of using legally obtained firearms to commit the massacre, according to police.

Naveed Akram, 24, was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His 50-year-old father, who the Sydney Morning Herald first reported to be Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police.

The pair allegedly killed 15 people, with dozens more injured in the shootings, which took place on Sunday during a gathering to celebrate the first night of Hanukah.

The son was known to New South Wales police and security agencies, while his father had a firearms licence with six weapons registered to him. All six firearms have been recovered, police said.

and Vote on that Thang

On social media, the upcoming generation is expressing more European solidarity than the continent has seen in decades.

A futuristic EU soldier stands guard, laser blaster at the ready. European fighter jets zoom through the sky over thumping Eurodance beats. An imaginary map shows a vastly enlarged EU, swallowing everything from Greenland to the Caucasus.

Welcome to the wild world of pro-Europe online propaganda, where the EU isn’t a fractious club of 27 countries but a juiced-up superpower on par with China or the United States, only wiser and more cultured.

This type of content, which re-imagines the EU as a pan-European empire, a European Federation or the United States of Europe — take your pick — has flooded social media platforms over the past two years, garnering billions of views collectively on X, TikTok and Instagram as the EU has reeled from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a U.S.-EU trade deal decried as “humiliation” for Brussels in many parts of Europe.

More like doubling down. Personally, I'd be let's go nuts here, let large free, but not bad. Here's hoping the grid doesn't break and consumer run virtual power plants (VPPs) get a chance to shine. Put a smile on my face for Solstice Season.

Americans seem determined to bring our old ways back 🤔

Is anyone else watching ch9 tonight and wondering da fuq ? I just saw a guy being interviewed in a segment about heroes and at the end he asked to read out the names of the lifeguards who stayed and risked their lives to help and the interviewer was like oh sorry we don’t have time for that and then cuts to a break? Bizarre

Our leaders hardly had to lift a finger to divide us: we’ve done it all on our own. Just another distraction that only serves the powers-that-be who profit off our ego and insecurities. It is a ‘me against the world’ mentality where identity supersedes all.

Russian and Chinese support for Venezuela has largely dried up, with no prospect of real military or financial aid.

One of the issues with "age verification" is that an effect of the suggested technologies is that they ultimatively take control of your computer. In the suggested form, they require elements that are not controlled by you, the user. It is like replacing the lock to your home's main door, for which YOU (and only you) have the keys, with an electronic, remotely controlled lock, controlled by goverments, which can lock out at any time.

Once a model for the world, the EU’s rulemaking machine has faltered under the weight of its own ambition.

Paywall? https://archive.is/CmWdg

International human rights groups have condemned the re-arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi in Iran, with the Nobel committee calling on Iranian authorities to immediately clarify her whereabouts.

Mohammadi's French lawyer, Chirine Ardakani, said on X that the human rights activist was arrested on Friday after denouncing the suspicious death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi at his memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

...

Mashhad prosecutor Hasan Hematifar told reporters she [Mohammadi] and Alikordi's brother had made provocative remarks at the event and encouraged those present "to chant 'norm‑breaking' slogans" and disturb the peace, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

...

The Norwegian Nobel Committee called on Iranian authorities "to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions."

The European Union also called for Mohammadi's release. "The EU urges Iranian authorities to release Ms Mohammadi, taking also into account her fragile health condition, as well as all those unjustly arrested in the exercise of their freedom of expression," an EU spokesperson said on Saturday.

A video purportedly showing Mohammadi, 53, without the mandatory veil, standing on a car with a microphone and chanting "Long Live Iran" in front of a crowd, has gone viral on social media. Ardakani said Mohammadi was beaten before her arrest.

Reporters Without Borders said four journalists and other participants were also arrested at the memorial for human rights lawyer Alikordi, who was found dead in his office on December 5.

...

Last thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/32115404

Interview with Oglaf creator.couple, i didn't realise they were Australian!

https://archive.is/xgh0G