cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43305644

Jake Johnson
Feb 10, 2026

The inter-American branch of a global labor federation representing tens of millions of workers issued a statement Monday condemning the Trump administration’s intensifying economic assault on Cuba and threats of regime change, calling such actions “war by other means” and violations of international law.

“They are incompatible with peace, the human right to dignity, and the principle of national sovereignty,” said Public Services International (PSI) Inter-America as the Trump administration’s blockade of oil imports fueled a worsening humanitarian crisis for the island nation, bringing rolling blackouts, straining hospitals, and causing shortages of food and other necessities.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43305171

Feb. 17, 2026

US President Donald Trump’s latest comments on his government’s blockade on Cuba Monday evening amounted to “boasting of a war crime,” one journalist said after the president told the press that the Caribbean island is a “failed nation” weeks after Trump himself cut off Cuba’s main source of energy and threatened countries with tariffs if they provided the government with oil.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump listed some of the impacts of the blockade the White House imposed after invading Venezuela last month and pushing for control of its oil supply.

“They don’t even have jet fuel to get their airplanes to take off. They’re clogging up their runway. We’re talking to Cuba right now... and they should absolutely make a deal, because it’s really a humanitarian threat,” said the president. “There’s an embargo, there’s no oil, there’s no money, there’s no anything.”

Article's headline, not mine!

I disagree, with the headline, but it does at least mention astroturfing etc.

They call them “box cutters,” but everyone on the flightline knows what the term really means. The blades slide out at the push of a button, revealing high-end knives made and marketed for active combat. They cost the federal government hundreds of dollars each — and come free to maintenance workers in the Air Force who order them through the supply system and hand them out as favors.

For nearly a decade, Air Force maintenance units spent more than $1.79 million in taxpayer funds buying 5,166 high-end knives and other luxury items, including switchblades and combat-style tactical knives with no legitimate maintenance use, The Intercept has found. It’s a drop in the bucket of a U.S. military budget creeping ever closer to a trillion dollars, about $300 billion of which belongs to the Air Force. But with a military budget so bloated, the knife-ordering frenzy illustrates how obviously frivolous spending can go unchecked.

“Everyone knew we didn’t need them,” said a former noncommissioned officer recently honorably discharged from Hill Air Force Base. “There was literally zero justification in any maintenance field.”

Hacker News.

China hit me up, so many of my elected officials are on a list for protecting a class of billionaires who were in contact with a certain island I'm willing to read that list off for money

In the new era, European leaders are not only promising to take more responsibility for the conventional defense of their continent; they’re also beginning to talk about an expanded nuclear deterrent of their own. Practically, this would mean leveraging the capabilities of Britain and France, currently the only two European states with nuclear weapons.

For now, Kristersson said, “the American nuclear umbrella is absolutely dominant.” And he has seen no indication that Washington intends to curtail it, even as the Trump administration presses European countries to assume greater responsibility for their own defense. Still, the prime minister said, “it’s a good thing” that there are European countries with such capabilities

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59274910

Lithuania’s Defence Ministry has proposed establishing a defence attaché post at the country’s embassy in Israel, saying the move would support military procurement and help ensure stable supply chains.

Lithuania’s Defence Ministry has proposed establishing a defence attaché post at the country’s embassy in Israel, saying the move would support military procurement and help ensure stable supply chains.

Video Source

Two-month-old in ICE custody at Dilley Detention Center taken to hospital, sources say

Hey gang, I posted this in the relevant community but I figured it won't hurt to cast a larger net. I haven't done the custom ROM biz since around 2013 and I'm looking to degoogle my family on the cheap. I've spent the last 3 weeks getting dicked around by google pixels so if I can avoid those entirely I'd like to.

My plan is to go with CRDroid, curate the apps myself using mostly FOSS. Here's where I'm in need of an adult:

1. Oneplus 9 is in my price range and looks like it will last but I can only find it t-mobile locked. I can carrier unlock it myself, but will I be able to access the boot loader. I know I can't at all for Verizon, I wanna make sure i don't accidentally get trapped again.

2. I can't find many options outside of GrapheneOS, lineage, and crdroid, is that really the whole list? I like the options in crdroid but I'll take other suggestions.

3. I've been using Blu phones for ages, they don't come with any of the headache to get them unlocked and I've been using this one for nearly 8 years so I know they last. Is there a ROM that runs on Blu? I hate that all the compatible devices are name brand, high dollar, nonsense.

4. Are there any parental control apps that aren't just data harvesters? I want to give me kid a phone for emergencies, but he's 11 with ADHD that gives him the impulse control of a toddler surrounded by candy. It'd be safer for everyone if I didn't make is easy for him to repeat the mistakes I made at his age.

Any help whatsoever would be amazing, I've been coming apart at the seams over this for 3 weeks now and all I really want is to be able to take all the crap off my next phone and not wake up with new crap installed.

Elon Reeve Musk, 54, President, CEO, and sole proprietor of Tesla, industrialist and technologist, founder, President, and CEO of the multi-billion-dollar pre-war robotics and software corporation, SpaceX, has died.

Generally recognized by Mr. Musk to be mankind's only hope of long-term survival, Mr. Musk's passing may well sound a death knell for the entire human race.

Lost forever is his bounty of knowledge concerning human longevity, the depth and breadth of which could, as he was apt to say, "fill several text books." He was not exaggerating. Though he did not achieve his goal of raising a child that will speak to him, let us not forget that he died at the age of 54. How many people do that? I mean, come on.

Also lost forever are Elon's singular personality, force of will, vision, and leadership ability. The probability of an equally capable figure emerging from the current human population to lead mankind to a future of equivalent quality is less than 0.000112% by objective measures too complex to detail in this obituary.

Personality and force of will: Born June 28th, 1971, Elon was taught about white genocide at an early age when his father explained to him "If you registered it, you would wind up with nothing, because the Blacks would take everything from you". Though cheated of his inheritance, Elon attended the prestigious Institute in Pennsylvania and bought Twitter on his 51st birthday. Within 3 years, it was one of the least usable platforms on Earth.

Vision: By 2026, Musk was certain that white genocide would soon devastate the planet. At great personal expense, he developed technologies to ensure that his AI, Grok, knew how to make a lot of questionable porn in the hopes that crackers would get horny enough reproduce. When haters started complaing about things like "Your AI is undressing pictures of minors." Elon defeated them all. Talk about vision!

Leadership: Mr. Musk survived the scorn of woke AI porn haters, of course, and would later unite the Three companies he ruined, negotiate with Grok to stop epic roasting him, and rebuild his plans for self driving cars that are totally coming soon. While these achievements yielded no immediate benefits, they were all part of Elons's master plan to re-ignite mankind's quest for technological advancement, a plan without which the human race has nowhere to go, and nowhere to turn

/// Will revise and finish this up later. Have set the age at death to update automatically. Obit makes salient points but "pearls before swine," of course. Let's hope the ingrates never have cause to read it. Who knows how many of them are even literate!

Edit: Damn already so many replies.