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?

They state it's scheduled maintenance but the dashboard link leads to a 500 return. https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/

i want someone to hold me and cuddle me affectionately and say that they love me

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43056920

Web archive link

The EU should activate a never-before-used trade tool to counter Chinese restrictions on exports of critical raw materials if a new plan unveiled on Wednesday fails, the EU’s industry commissioner Stéphane Séjourné said.

“If this doesn’t work, and in one or two years we find ourselves with value chains that close down from a lack of Chinese sourcing – because we’ve not diversified quickly and we’re still too dependent – we will probably have to use the anti-coercion instrument,” Séjourné said in an exclusive interview with Euractiv.

The European Commission’s “RESourceEU” strategy is a Japanese-inspired plan to weaken China’s vice-like grip on trade flows of materials crucial for the tech and defence industries, like gallium, lithium and cobalt.

The aim is to cut Europe’s overwhelming dependence on China – without making the Brussels-Beijing relationship even more tense than it already is.

“The idea is not to break dialogue with the Chinese, but we need to accelerate our diversification projects around the world,” the EU industrial strategy chief said.

...

Privacy stalwart Nicholas Merrill spent a decade fighting an FBI surveillance order. Now he wants to sell you phone service—without knowing almost anything about you.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20251205050710/https://www.wired.com/story/new-anonymous-phone-carrier-sign-up-with-nothing-but-a-zip-code/

The brother of the Big Apple’s top cop called mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani an “enemy” of Jewish people during a fiery charity dinner speech where he railed about the future of the city.

Benjamin Tisch — younger brother of police Commissioner Jessica Tisch — was presenting an award Wednesday evening during the Met Council’s annual holiday dinner when the top exec at the Loews Corporation skewered the radical DSA lawmaker, according to sources.

The comments come just weeks after Jessica Tisch accepted an offer from the Mamdani to stay on as police commissioner — despite being far apart on a number of issues, including bail reform, raise the age and Israel.

The Tisch family, excluding Jessica, spent millions during the mayoral election to back Mamdani’s top foe, Andrew Cuomo, in an attempt to stave off the socialist mayor.

Archived

On the evening of 12 June 2013, according to court documents, three “Chinese intruders” were arrested by the Indian army in Sultan Chusku, a remote and uninhabited desert area in the mountainous northern region of Ladakh.

The three Thursun brothers – Adil, 23, Abdul Khaliq, 22 and Salamu, 20 – had found themselves in an area of unmarked and disputed borders after a 13-day journey by bus and foot over the rugged Himalayan terrain through China’s Xinjiang province, which borders Ladakh.

The men told army officials that they had fled their family home near the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang after the Chinese authorities intensified their crackdown on Uyghur Muslims and took several of their relatives into detention centres.

More than a million Uyghurs in Xinjiang appear to have been imprisoned in “re-education” camps and subjected to torture over the past decade for just attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

[...]

Latief U Zaman Deva, a former senior government official in Indian-administered Kashmir, of which Ladakh was part until 2019, believes the three men are victims of discrimination.

“Jailing these three violates the law. This is one of many examples where the current government demonstrates how it deals with a particular community: Muslims,” Deva says.

“The law being used against them is intended for people involved in anti-national activities or serious offences, not for persecuted people seeking refuge.”

Shafi says he will continue to fight for their release. “India has given refuge to tens of thousands of people from different persecuted communities at different stages of history. Even thousands of persecuted Tibetans live here and run their government in exile.

“If the government doesn’t want them to live here, they can release them and allow them to travel to a country which can offer them asylum. I hope they will be free one day – that is the goal of my life.”

I think they've gone too far. Im boycotting

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43057031

The partnership is designed to protect undersea oil and gas pipelines, as well as cables for data traffic.

Both navies will operate as one – sharing maintenance facilities, technology and equipment to create truly interchangeable forces able to deploy rapidly wherever needed, the British Ministry of Defence said in a press release.

This is the most comprehensive defence agreement in modern times, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence added as the deal was sign by Defence Secretary John Healey and his Norwegian counterpart Tore O. Sandvik at 10 Downing Street on December 4.

"The British presence in the High North plays a crucial role in safeguarding Norwegian and European security," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said after he met his British colleague Keir Starmer in London.

The two prime ministers then flew north to the Royal Airforce base Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. It is from here British P-8 maritime patrol aircraft are operating when flying missions over the North Sea or further north over the Norwegian and Barents Seas.

...

The partnership is designed to protect undersea oil and gas pipelines, as well as cables for data traffic.

Both navies will operate as one – sharing maintenance facilities, technology and equipment to create truly interchangeable forces able to deploy rapidly wherever needed, the British Ministry of Defence said in a press release.

This is the most comprehensive defence agreement in modern times, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence added as the deal was sign by Defence Secretary John Healey and his Norwegian counterpart Tore O. Sandvik at 10 Downing Street on December 4.

"The British presence in the High North plays a crucial role in safeguarding Norwegian and European security," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said after he met his British colleague Keir Starmer in London.

The two prime ministers then flew north to the Royal Airforce base Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. It is from here British P-8 maritime patrol aircraft are operating when flying missions over the North Sea or further north over the Norwegian and Barents Seas.

...

Web archive link

The EU should activate a never-before-used trade tool to counter Chinese restrictions on exports of critical raw materials if a new plan unveiled on Wednesday fails, the EU’s industry commissioner Stéphane Séjourné said.

“If this doesn’t work, and in one or two years we find ourselves with value chains that close down from a lack of Chinese sourcing – because we’ve not diversified quickly and we’re still too dependent – we will probably have to use the anti-coercion instrument,” Séjourné said in an exclusive interview with Euractiv.

The European Commission’s “RESourceEU” strategy is a Japanese-inspired plan to weaken China’s vice-like grip on trade flows of materials crucial for the tech and defence industries, like gallium, lithium and cobalt.

The aim is to cut Europe’s overwhelming dependence on China – without making the Brussels-Beijing relationship even more tense than it already is.

“The idea is not to break dialogue with the Chinese, but we need to accelerate our diversification projects around the world,” the EU industrial strategy chief said.

...

Web archive link

The E.U. blacklisting will further isolate Russia’s financial system, making cooperation significantly riskier for foreign banks and investors. “In practical terms, landing on this list serves as a global warning: engaging with this country entails serious risk,” Shumanov explained. He pointed out that the designation will force even “friendly countries” like China and Turkey to curb Russia-linked operations to avoid “ending up among the pariahs or rogue states that assist those on these blacklists.” Credit-rating agencies may incorporate the blacklist status into sovereign credit assessments, reducing Russia’s access to investment, technology, and partnerships. “Entire industries face long-term contraction,” Shumanov explained.

Inclusion among countries like Myanmar, Mali, Kenya, South Africa, Venezuela, and Syria has nothing to do with attracting investment or developing global commerce. Instead, Shumanov said, it signals Russia’s erasure from numerous investment programs and bars Russian businesses from prospective projects, largely because numerous governments closely track European economic policy.

...

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43056460

Web archive link

Ukrainian children abducted by Russia are being forcibly sent to a summer camp in North Korea, a legal expert has said.

Kateryna Rashevska, a representative from Ukraine’s regional centre for human rights, told the US Senate that at least two young girls had been sent to Songdowon camp in North Korea.

At the children’s camp, the two girls – Misha, 12, and Liza, 16 – were “taught to ‘destroy Japanese militarists’ and met Korean veterans who … attacked the US Navy ship Pueblo”, she said.

Ms Rashevska made the comments at the start of the US Senate’s hearing on Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

At least 19,546 Ukrainian children are believed to have been abducted from Russian-controlled territory and taken to Russia since the start of the invasion in Feb 2022.

They are often taken to re-education camps, where they are “militarised and Russified”, Ms Rashevska said, adding that the human rights centre had identified at least 165 such camps.

The Songdowon camp – located in Wonsan, North Korea – hosts around 400 children every year. It hosts a series of activities, including a water park, a football pitch and a large private beach.

...

Russia is one of a handful of countries that is allowed to send children to the camp. A former attendee, Yuri Frolov, previously told CNN that he attended the camp when he was 15, and socialised with children from Laos, Nigeria, Tanzania and China.

...

Earlier this week, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said only 1,859 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia had been brought back so far. Kyiv has made the return of stolen Ukrainian children a key demand during US-brokered peace negotiations with Russia, which are set to continue on Thursday.