Big Brother Watch have warned that this facial recognition drive "affects everyone with a passport" — threatening rights and civil liberties

The Swiss privacy regulator Privatim has taken steps to ban Microsoft, Amazon, and Google’s American cloud services for government agencies. Data storage within Switzerland offers no protection against American laws, Privatim argues.

Former MP Chris Williamson spoke exclusively to Skwawkbox and the Canary, revealing the instructions given to the jury

Youth Equality Coalition are a breath of fucking fresh air, and they're showing squabbling leftists exactly how it's done

Deaths and injuries from landmines and unexploded ordnance hit a four-year high in 2024, driven by conflicts in Syria and Myanmar as well as European countries moving to withdraw from the treaty banning their use, a new report showed on Dec 1.

Paris police say they have opened an investigation after a group of officers reportedly mocked a feminist and anti-fascist banner they had seized at a demonstration by turning it upside-down and photographing themselves behind it.

It said that police officers standing hooded in front of something turned upside-down was a "well-known practice among hooligans" – the very people police are meant to confront.

Rights groups and left-wing parties have repeatedly accused the French police of having right-wing bias and being racist.

France denies police racism is widespread, but evidence tells another story

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54124102

Kyodo News on Monday sent a letter of protest to Perplexity AI Inc., accusing the U.S. startup of using its articles without permission to provide online responses generated by artificial intelligence for its web search engine and infringing the Japanese news agency's copyright.

Kyodo said in the letter that Perplexity must immediately stop using its articles published on the website 47 News, which features articles created by Kyodo and its member newspapers, and compensate for damages resulting from the unauthorized use of Kyodo's distributed articles, among other demands.

Revenues from sales of arms and military services by the 100 largest arms-producing companies rose by 5.9 per cent in 2024, reaching a record $679 billion, according to new data released today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Global arms revenues rose sharply in 2024, as demand was boosted by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, global and regional geopolitical tensions, and ever-higher military expenditure. For the first time since 2018, all of the five largest arms companies increased their arms revenues.

Although the bulk of the global rise was due to companies based in Europe and the United States, there were year-on-year increases in all of the world regions featured in the Top 100. The only exception was Asia and Oceania, where issues within the Chinese arms industry drove down the regional total.

The surge in revenues and new orders prompted many arms companies to expand production lines, enlarge facilities, establish new subsidiaries or conduct acquisitions.

Georgia's authorities used a World War One-era chemical weapon to quell anti-government protesters last year, evidence gathered by the BBC suggests.

"You could feel [the water] burning," one of the protesters said of water cannon turned on him and others on the streets of the capital Tbilisi. A sensation, he said, which could not immediately be washed off.

Demonstrators against the Georgian government's suspension of its European Union accession bid have complained of other symptoms too - shortness of breath, coughing, and vomiting that lasted for weeks.

...

The BBC World Service has spoken to chemical weapons experts, whistleblowers from Georgia's riot police, and doctors, and found the evidence points to the use of an agent that the French military named "camite".

...

Dr Konstantine Chakhunashvili, a paediatrician who was among those sprayed by the cannons, and who has taken part in many of the demonstrations, said his skin felt like it was burning for days, and the sensation couldn't be washed away. In fact, he said, "it was worse when trying to wash it off".

Dr Chakhunashvili wanted to find out if others had suffered similar effects. So he appealed, via social media, for those also targeted by crowd control measures during the first week of the demonstrations to fill out a survey. Nearly 350 people got in touch, and almost half said they had suffered one or more side-effects for more than 30 days.

These long-term symptoms ranged from headaches, to fatigue, coughs, shortness of breath and vomiting.

...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54121431

cyanamide, used in products such as the plant-growth regulator Dormex, commonly applied in vineyards, has been banned in the EU since 2009 due to its toxicity, including links to carcinogenicity and infertility.

German chemical giant BASF, Europe’s largest exporter of EU-banned pesticides last year

In 2020, the European Commission pledged to “lead by example” and ban exports of toxic pesticides to third countries. Five years later, no concrete measure has been taken.

cyanamide, used in products such as the plant-growth regulator Dormex, commonly applied in vineyards, has been banned in the EU since 2009 due to its toxicity, including links to carcinogenicity and infertility.

German chemical giant BASF, Europe’s largest exporter of EU-banned pesticides last year

In 2020, the European Commission pledged to “lead by example” and ban exports of toxic pesticides to third countries. Five years later, no concrete measure has been taken.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54120691

It is particularly indicative that Ukrainians are buying non-official BYD cars. The brand has no representation, no distributor, no dealers

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5883329

Archived version

Nato is considering being “more aggressive” in responding to Russia’s cyber attacks, sabotage and airspace violations, according to the alliance’s most senior military officer.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone told the Financial Times that the western military alliance was looking at stepping up its response to hybrid warfare from Moscow.

“We are studying everything . . . On cyber, we are kind of reactive. Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about,” said Dragone, who is chair of Nato’s military committee.

Europe has been hit by numerous hybrid war incidents — some attributed to Russia and others unclear — from the cutting of cables in the Baltic Sea to cyber attacks across the continent.

...

Dragone said that a “pre-emptive strike” could be considered a “defensive action”, but added: “It is further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour.”

...

A Baltic diplomat said: “If all we do is continue being reactive, we just invite Russia to keep trying, keep hurting us. Especially when hybrid warfare is asymmetric — it costs them little, and us a lot. We need to try to be more inventive.”

...

Archived version

Nato is considering being “more aggressive” in responding to Russia’s cyber attacks, sabotage and airspace violations, according to the alliance’s most senior military officer.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone told the Financial Times that the western military alliance was looking at stepping up its response to hybrid warfare from Moscow.

“We are studying everything . . . On cyber, we are kind of reactive. Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about,” said Dragone, who is chair of Nato’s military committee.

Europe has been hit by numerous hybrid war incidents — some attributed to Russia and others unclear — from the cutting of cables in the Baltic Sea to cyber attacks across the continent.

...

Dragone said that a “pre-emptive strike” could be considered a “defensive action”, but added: “It is further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour.”

...

A Baltic diplomat said: “If all we do is continue being reactive, we just invite Russia to keep trying, keep hurting us. Especially when hybrid warfare is asymmetric — it costs them little, and us a lot. We need to try to be more inventive.”

...

At least 80 million (3.3%) of Wikipedia's facts are inconsistent, LLMs may help finding them

A paper titled "Detecting Corpus-Level Knowledge Inconsistencies in Wikipedia with Large Language Models",^[1]^ presented earlier this month at the EMNLP conference, examines

At least 80 million (3.3%) of Wikipedia's facts are inconsistent, LLMs may help finding them

A paper titled "Detecting Corpus-Level Knowledge Inconsistencies in Wikipedia with Large Language Models",^[1]^ presented earlier this month at the EMNLP conference, examines

For one month beginning on October 5, I ran an experiment: Every day, I asked ChatGPT 5 (more precisely, its "Extended Thinking" version) to find an error in "Today's featured article". In 28 of these 31 featured articles (90%), ChatGPT identified what I considered a valid error, often several. I have so far corrected 35 such errors.

For one month beginning on October 5, I ran an experiment: Every day, I asked ChatGPT 5 (more precisely, its "Extended Thinking" version) to find an error in "Today's featured article". In 28 of these 31 featured articles (90%), ChatGPT identified what I considered a valid error, often several. I have so far corrected 35 such errors.

Related: "I have been asked by Jeffrey Epstein ..."

This article uses Jeffrey Epstein's emails (which were recently released by the U.S. House Oversight Committee) to follow up on a Signpost article from March 2020 about Epstein. These emails are not part of the Epstein files, which are required by Epstein Files Transparency Act to be released by the DOJ within 30 days of passage of the act, i.e. by around December 19.