The European Commission said it will “make sure” it receives money owed by Elon Musk’s X after the company was fined €120 million for failing to meet transparency rules.

The Commission on Friday said X has breached transparency and deceptive design obligations under the EU's platforms regulation, the Digital Services Act, and issued the €120 million penalty.

The decision set off a cascade of accusations of censorship from U.S. officials, Musk and his supporters, with some suggesting the company should refuse to pay the fine.

Exclusive: Congress urged to act against energy-hungry facilities blamed for increasing bills and worsening climate crisis

Some good ideas in here.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40060343

By MEE staff Published date: 4 Dec 2025 15:06 GMT

It found that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) introduced a separate, sparse menu for “security prisoners”, which is used to describe mostly Palestinian prisoners, leaving many malnourished.

Released prisoners told media outlets and rights groups that meals sometimes consisted of a tiny portion of undercooked rice shared between several inmates for an entire day, while others went days without food.

The report described the resulting hunger as “severe, manifested in extreme weight loss and associated physical symptoms, including extreme weakness and fainting”.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54617060

Ford CEO Jim Farley is warning that Europe could undermine its own carmakers if it keeps setting ambitious EV rules and then backing away from them when buyers do not follow

That stop-start approach, he says, leaves automakers designing products and plants for targets that may not stick, all while dealing with tariffs, content rules and rising costs.

Carmakers BMW and Toyota and auto rental and leasing firms from across Europe urged the European Commission on Monday not to set mandatory targets for electric vehicle purchases for corporate fleets

• Windows Latest discovered Discord and other Chromium and Electron-based applications with high RAM usage
• RAM usage spikes from 1GB to 4GB on Discord both in and out of voice chat

“A 25% tax on gas exports would solve the gas crisis. It would cut energy bills, ensure there is enough gas for Australians. It would also provide $17 billion annually for better housing, health care, education and childcare,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor to The Australia Institute.

A decent analysis of one of the systemic weaknesses of our system, party discipline.

Think about one of the things happening in our parliament at the moment. An independent candidate, in the form of Andrew Wilkie from Tasmania, is trying to get the parliament—the body we elect to represent our views—to pass legislation that would ban gambling advertising. It is an issue on which we-the-people are in loud agreement and yet our elected body will not enact such legislation. Or rather, cannot. The impediment is the government itself, more specifically, the Labor Party, even more specifically, the prime minister.

I'm very very proud of you if you washed your ass and asshole today with soap and water. Congrats! Keep up the great work

If you didn't quite do it right today, don't worry! Just keep trying and you'll eventually get there but in the meantime you'll smell like stinky doodoo feces

Loads of info on environment.govt.nz

About the planning system

The Government has announced it will replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) with a planning system designed to make it easier to build houses and infrastructure, let farmers and growers get on with doing what they do best, and boost New Zealand’s primary sector, while protecting the environment.

The new planning system is based on a blueprint developed by the Expert Advisory Group on Resource Management Reform.

Read the EAG’s blueprint report.

A major change is the shift to two separate bills that separate land-use planning and natural resource management

Read more about the resource management reforms.

The two new Bills

The Planning Bill is focused on enabling development and regulating how land is used.

See more about the Planning Bill.

The Natural Environment Bill is focused on managing the impacts from the use of natural resources and protecting the natural environment from harm.

See more about the Natural Environment Bill.

Key features

Key features of the new system include:

• Fewer effects managed
  • Many currently considered effects will be removed from scope, including internal site matters, retail distribution effects, visual amenity, competition impacts and the financial viability of a project.
• Fewer consents
  • Fewer activity categories, with low-impact activities no longer requiring consent.
• More proportionate conditions
  • all consent conditions must be necessary and proportionate, reducing red tape.
• Fewer plans
  • More than 100 existing plans will be reduced to 17 regional combined plans that bring together spatial, land use and natural environment planning in one place, making it easier for New Zealanders to know what they can do with their property.
• Spatial planning
  • 30-year regional spatial plans to identify growth areas, infrastructure corridors and areas requiring protection.
• Faster plan-making:
  • plan development time will fall from an average of 6 to 7 years to around 2 years for a regional combined plan.
• Standardised zones
  • a major reduction from 1,175 bespoke zones to a nationally consistent set decided by central government.
• National standards:
  • a comprehensive suite of national standards for common activities to reduce costs and speed up consenting.
• Regulatory relief
  • when imposing significant restrictions, such as heritage protections and significant natural areas, councils must provide practical relief mechanisms.
• Clearer consultation requirements
  • clarity about who must be consulted and when, including iwi.
• Faster conflict resolution
  • a new Planning Tribunal to resolve straightforward disputes quickly and at low cost.
• Clear environmental limits
  • clear limits to support community decision making, improve efficient resource use and reduce unnecessary application costs.
• Better, more consistent enforcement
  • centralised oversight to ensure consistent and effective enforcement across the country.

National policy direction

National policy direction under the new system will be finalised within nine months of the bills becoming law. Mandatory national standards will be delivered in stages and aligned with council plan-making needs.

https://archive.is/wV0Ue

To the irritation of some other European capitals, France has withheld any details on the institutions holding the Russian state funds and how any interest accrued is used, claiming it is an issue of client confidentiality.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54608608

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54608546

This is the first time that researchers have compared what would happen to Europe's summer precipitation under different climate scenarios if the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) were to collapse.

The AMOC is a major ocean current system in the Atlantic Ocean that brings heat from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere and helps regulate the climate globally. Scientists have previously warned that human-linked climate change is weakening the massive current system and could be pushing it to a tipping point.

Sorry I don't mean to sounds like I have main character syndrome, that's not my intent.

cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/127040

Ultranationalist Israeli politicians, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, wore golden noose-shaped lapel pins to a meeting on Monday in order to show their “commitment” to advancing a widely condemned bill to mandate the death penalty for “terrorists” who kill Israelis. The pins resemble the yellow ribbon pins that Israeli leaders have worn throughout their genocide to to…

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