Creators worldwide are facing mounting financial pressures as rapid advances in digital technologies and artificial intelligence continue to transform the cultural and creative industries, according to a new global report released by the UN culture agency, UNESCO, on Wednesday.

In their own words
“Arm yourselves. Today. If you're worried about the law, you're worried about the wrong things.” - Jeremy MacKenzie, 2025
“You gotta harden your hearts. So if hearing people talk in a very aggressive and offensive way is too much for you, are you really gonna be able to stomach like men, women and children being loaded onto fucking boats at gunpoint so they can be sent back to India? Like if the word, you know, “n****r” is obviously like the most offensive one, if that is too much for you, I seriously doubt your ability to have the intestinal fortitude to stomach what needs to happen because what needs to happen is very aggressive and extreme.” - Alex Vriend, 2024
“‘Are you gonna, are you gonna suggest deporting the Jews?’ Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think we do all the time.” - Alex Vriend reading and responding to a comment on his livestream, 2024
“Give me some guys and some weapons and we'll fucking get rid of them. We'll take them up. Get in the truck, you're going to the airport. ‘Make me.’ Okay, bang. Anybody else? Anybody else not want to go to the airport? Who wants to go to the airport? Show of hands, who wants to go to the airport? I only had to shoot one, see? Easy. - Jeremy MacKenzie, 2024
“It's funny, this all started as a joke. Making YouTube videos, but then we got noticed, right? The Prime Minister had said our name in the House of Commons multiple times. So, we realized that we can move the needle in politics in Canada. So we decided to take it a little bit more seriously.” - Derek Harrison, Road Rage Terror Tour stop in Carp, Ontario, 2024

Crosspost from https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10784541

The nights of January 8-9, 2026, saw Iran go up in a coordinated blaze after two weeks of protests. I, and many other Iranians, witnessed the breakdown in public order during those days, and the influence of outside forces instigating the explosion.

Crosspost from https://altmedia.house/post/203756

Trump on Wednesday night signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to compel the domestic production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides. Glyphosate is the chemical in Bayer-Monsanto’s
Roundup and is the most commonly used herbicide for a slew of U.S. crops. Trump, in the order, said shortages of both phosphorus and glyphosate would pose a risk to national security.
Kennedy backed the president in a statement to CNBC Thursday morning.
“Donald Trump’s Executive Order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply,” he said. “We must safeguard America’s national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it. When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families.”

The pollution travels, too.

Crosspost from https://altmedia.house/post/203726

The Supreme Court ruling has helped the family of one man in particular: the architect behind Trump’s tariffs.

Crosspost from https://altmedia.house/post/203729

whilst the US kidnaps presidents, arms genocides and bombs countries indiscriminately, why is it that only its enemies face sanctions?

whilst the US kidnaps presidents, arms genocides and bombs countries indiscriminately, why is it that only its enemies face sanctions?

And I’d like to pose a question so obvious it feels absurd to ask, yet so necessary it demands an answer. That is: in a world where the primary tool of imperial control is no longer the bomb (though that is never far behind) but the sanction, the embargo, the financial chokehold, why is it that the chief architect and enforcer of this global siege economy and instability never faces the same treatment?
In the West, we have normalised the idea that certain nations must be crippled for their defiance. Venezuela, for refusing to auction its oil to the highest imperial bidder. Cuba, for the crime of building a society on its own terms for over six decades. Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, for the sin of sovereignty in a world that demands submission.
These countries, crucially, are not invading their neighbours. They are not arming genocides. They are not kidnapping foreign leaders from their palaces. Yet they are strangled by the most comprehensive, brutal sanctions regime in human history, administered from Washington, with the rest of the world expected to comply or face consequences.
Al-Jazeera reports that US and EU sanctions have killed 38 million people since 1970.
And yet the chief operator of this system faces no such pressure. And this is a country that does invade countries on false pretexts, that does kidnap foreign leaders, that is arming and funding an ongoing genocide in Gaza
The Empire that sanctions everyone is sanctioned by no one.

No archive link because archive.today seems to be down currently, and the Internet Archive is definitely down.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59511455

Crossposted from https://lemmy.world/post/43398953

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/26040194

From mid-May, Denmark will stop granting residence permits under the scheme to certain Ukrainians displaced by the war, including people subject to mobilisation in Ukraine.

A good insight on the feasibility of the eurostack [at the time of writing].

The EU is currently negotiating a Deportation (“Return”) Regulation to expand and normalise immigration raids and surveillance measures across our communities. They want to oblige Member States to “detect” undocumented people – turning everyday spaces, public services, and community interactions into tools of ICE-style immigration enforcement