It sure looks like Russian intelligence attempted to use military drones to assassinate the President of Ukraine inside a European capital.

Looking forward to more thoughts from Belgium 🤡 on why freezing Russian assets is an escalatory move that might compromise the peace process

I'm quite younger so I wasn't around that format war but depends on who you ask you get different responses.

Elon Musk's social media company X was fined 120 million euros ($140 million) by EU tech regulators on Friday for breaching EU online content rules, the first sanction under landmark legislation which will likely draw the U.S. government's ire.

Rival TikTok staved off a penalty with concessions.

The EU sanction against X followed a two-year-long investigation under the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54385668

The European Commission on Thursday (4 December) presented its strategy for better jobs in the EU — but unions and NGOs remain sceptical, arguing the roadmap lacks concrete measures and prioritises corporate interests.

European Commission delegates tried to block a United Nations resolution that merely reiterated commitments agreed by consensus at the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) in Seville last July.

The FfD4 outcome document, “Seville Commitment”, clearly calls for the launch of an intergovernmental process to discuss debt architecture reform at the UN — the only space where borrowers and creditors can participate on equal footing.

It appears the EU is reluctant to embrace multilateralism when real decisions are at stake, yet eager to participate in symbolic side-shows where it can be a champion in rhetoric while accomplishing very little.

Describing India's enduring partnership with Russia as "a guiding star", Modi said: "Based on mutual respect and deep trust, these relations have always stood the test of time."

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today signed two executive orders that will ensure city agencies continue to make sound financial decisions that protect taxpayer dollars and that protect New Yorkers’ right to practice their religion at houses of worship without harassment, while protecting freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.

Executive Order No. 60 prohibits mayoral agency heads, agency chief contracting officers, and any other mayoral appointees with discretion over contracting from engaging in procurement practices that discriminate against the State of Israel, Israeli citizens, or those associated with Israel.

The executive order also prohibits the chief pension administrator and mayoral trustees to the city pension system from opposing divestment from bonds and other assets that would discriminate against the State of Israel, Israeli citizens, or those associated with Israel.

Not sure if this is legit or not:

On 25 November 2025, during the closing hearings at the Central Military Court of the Yekaterinburg District, the prosecution demanded 20 to 24 years in a high-security penal colony for the members of a Marxist study circle in the city of Ufa, accusing them of “terrorism” and “conspiracy to overthrow the government.”

Does anyone have legit insights about the state of Marxism and communists in Russia? How or why the current government is unveiling statues of Lenin and Stalin anew and how that holds up against this article (in this regard, is idcommunism.com a legit source)?

Any legit source or insight is appreciated.

note: I am not advocating for the partition of the US, it's just fun to think about new countries! Also, I'm not American and have never been there so I have no clue about the different cultures in the different states.

If the US broke up into multiple pieces in some way or another, what new countries would you want to appear? (with and without considering for the feasibility of such new countries) What would their relations be like with each other and with other countries?

Personally, I would think New York (the city) becoming an independent microstate would be kind of cool, like the Vatican City of the stock market. The idea of "Cascadia" (which, to my knowledge, includes California, Oregon, and one other I forgot the name of. I think a bit of Canada too. The west coast, right?) could be realised, and with California, they would have a very beefy economy, as well as Silicon Valley. An independent Alaskan state could also be interesting, especially since they have a cool flag. Same goes for Texas.

RUV, the Icelandic national broadcaster, has set a date for determining if Iceland will compete at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna, Austria.

RUV’s Board will covene next week, namely on Wednesday 10th December in order to make a final decision on Iceland’s participation at Eurovision 2026.

Israel will compete at the ESC 2026, initially RUV had recommended the EBU to exclude the country from competing at the contest. Hence next week we will know if RUV and Iceland will partake in the competition in Vienna despite Israel’s participation or withdraw from the contest.

RUV’s official press release reads:

Israel will be allowed to participate in Eurovision this spring. The decision was made at a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) today. There was no vote on Israel’s participation at the meeting, given that the EBU’s proposal for new rules was approved at the meeting.

RUV’s press release goes on to read:

The board of RÚV will discuss on Wednesday whether Iceland will participate in next year’s contest despite Israel’s participation. The board agreed last week to recommend to the board of the European Broadcasting Union, EBU, that Israel be expelled from the contest next spring 2026.

RUV’s press release concludes:

The Netherlands, Ireland, Spain and Slovenia have already said they will not participate if Israel is among the participating nations this spring.

The new EBU rules, which include the reintroduction of judges to the preliminary rounds, are a response to criticism of Israel’s performance in the last competition and will be introduced before the next competition is held in the spring.

The proposal for the new rules was approved by 738 votes to 264. There were 120 abstentions. If the proposal had been defeated, a vote would have been held on Israel’s participation.

Nicholas Merrill received a hand delivered National Security Letter from the FBI in 2004, ordering him to give up data on one of his ISP customers.

Merrill opened it and read the letter while the agent waited. The first and second paragraphs told him he was hereby ordered to hand over virtually all information he possessed for one of his customers, identified by their email address, explaining that this demand was authorized by a law he’d later learn was part of the Patriot Act.

The third paragraph informed him he couldn’t tell anyone he’d even received this letter—a gag order.

He then fought a landmark, decade-plus legal battle against the FBI and the Department of Justice. As the owner of an internet service provider in the post-9/11 era, Merrill had received a secret order from the bureau to hand over data on a particular user — and he refused... and won.

After that, he spent another 15 years building and managing the Calyx Institute, a nonprofit that offers privacy tools like a snooping-resistant version of Android and a free VPN that collects no logs of its users’ activities.

Now the completely anonymous phone service. The full article is worth the read.

EDIT: Sorry I should have cross-posted. I forgot where I first saw the story: the Privacy community.

edit 2: Restarting my laptop us causing the issue, not leaving/coming back to the local network!!! Interestingly, it doesn't ask me to log in once I'm at school (i.e. outside my local network), only when I'm in the local network.

edit: Forgot to mention, this issue only affects the desktop client! When using the web client with my browser, I am still logged in.

I have a nextcloud instance that is local to my network, and I don't trust my IT skills enough to secure my server in the internet, so it only works when I'm at home (or if I use something like Tailscale). I am content with leaving it that way, since I mostly self-host to back up my files, I'm not using anything like Jellyfin or Navidrome at the moment.

Everything seems to work fine, Nextcloud, Immich, my calendar, etc. all sync fine. However, it seems that Nextcloud doesn't remember my laptop, and logs me out ~~whenever I leave and come back to the network~~ whenever I restart, meaning I pretty much have to login every day. Why is this? How do I get Nextcloud to remember my laptop?