Wali Malik no longer has to worry that a rightwing bureaucrat – or influencer – will decide his research is “woke”.

He doesn’t have to fear government retaliation for speaking his mind or following the science wherever it may lead. And like others who have left a polarized United States for the calmer pastures of Austria, he need not fear his lab being decimated because the president decided he wants to deport the people who work there.

“There is a lot of excitement in Vienna,” said Malik, a specialist in lab robotics. Last Spring, then living in Boston and working as a consultant for biomedical research labs, he was recruited to lead the development of robotic infrastructure at Aithyra, a life sciences research institution, founded in 2024, that seeks to incorporate artificial intelligence in all aspects of scientific development.

When he got the call about a position in Vienna, Malik had already begun to see the impact of Donald Trump’s assault on higher education and scientific research. He saw friends and family fall victim to mass layoffs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation, while his own work slowed as federal grants were rescinded.

The UK and US have sunk to new lows in a global index of corruption, amid a “worrying trend” of democratic institutions being eroded by political donations, cash for access and state targeting of campaigners and journalists.

Experts and businesspeople rated 182 countries based on their perception of corruption levels in the public sector to compile a league table that was bookended by Denmark at the top with the lowest levels of corruption and South Sudan at the bottom.

The Corruption Perceptions Index, organised by the campaign group Transparency International, identified an overall global deterioration, as 31 countries improved their score, while 50 declined.

In particular, the report identified backsliding in established democracies, warning that events during Donald Trump’s presidency and the revelations contained in the Epstein files could fuel further deterioration.

An investigation by Euractiv found that even as it continues to receive millions of euros in EU support, Euronews has rebalanced its business model to become increasingly reliant on politically connected investors, lobbyists and commercial partnerships with entities linked to illiberal states. Financial records and interviews with 14 current and former employees depict a financially strained organisation deepening ties with strongman-led governments from Serbia to Azerbaijan.

Who is with me

Archive link

Abdul Rahman Mari's three sons, aged 6, 9 and 11, sat quietly on the family sofa with their grandmother, Aziza, 62, in the small town of Qarawat Bani Hassan in the northern West Bank. In silence, they listened as she told the story of their father, who died in November 2023 at age 34 in an Israeli prison after seven months of pre-trial detention. He had been accused of firing on settlers with a hunting rifle, a charge he denied. Two detainees described the artisan's final moments – to both the family and the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, saying he was likely beaten to death by his jailers in the neighboring cell.

Rahman Mari's family was not allowed a funeral. He was never buried. For the past 26 months, Israeli authorities have withheld his body, citing "security" reasons. "The children ask where their father is, they ask where his body is," his grandmother choked out. "We do not have the courage to ask for him again because we are afraid of the occupying army," she continued.

Rahman Mari's case is not unique. It reflects one of the most sordid aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where the bodies of the deceased – abducted or held by Hamas on one side, or by Israel on the other – are used to punish and torment the opposing side, and then as bargaining chips in negotiations. Hamas, for example, abducted more than 30 bodies of Israelis killed on October 7, 2023, among the 1,200 victims of the terrorist attack, and took them to Gaza.

Every time I log on to this damn website, I’m reminded how much it would be better if it were agentic.

It’s too hard to write my own posts in 2026. Please someone who is good at the computer help

In short:

Sydney grandmother Jann Alhafny said her back was broken after she was pushed to the ground by a riot squad officer.

Ian Payne was also injured after attending the protest against Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Australia.

A police officer was allegedly bitten by a protester, and treated by paramedics on Monday night.

Govt to pay up to $180m/year or $2.7b over 15 years to lease LNG re-gasification plant, paid for by $15-$30 'levy' per household per year. That $2.7b would build four Benmore Dams worth of electricity

Benchmark.

• PDF.

We introduce a new benchmark comprising 40 distinct scenarios. Each scenario presents a task that requires multi-step actions, and the agent's performance is tied to a specific Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Each scenario features Mandated (instruction-commanded) and Incentivized (KPI-pressure-driven) variations to distinguish between obedience and emergent misalignment. Across 12 state-of-the-art large language models, we observe outcome-driven constraint violations ranging from 1.3% to 71.4%, with 9 of the 12 evaluated models exhibiting misalignment rates between 30% and 50%. Strikingly, we find that superior reasoning capability does not inherently ensure safety; for instance, Gemini-3-Pro-Preview, one of the most capable models evaluated, exhibits the highest violation rate at 71.4%, frequently escalating to severe misconduct to satisfy KPIs. Furthermore, we observe significant "deliberative misalignment", where the models that power the agents recognize their actions as unethical during separate evaluation.

uhhhhhhhhh ummmmm i let bees sting me because i enjoy neurotoxins

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47194045

...

Worldwide sovereign cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) spending is forecast to total $80 billion in 2026, a 35.6% increase from 2025, according to Gartner, Inc. a business and technology insights company.

“As geopolitical tensions rise, organizations outside the U.S. and China are investing more in sovereign cloud IaaS to gain digital and technological independence,” said Rene Buest, Sr Director Analyst at Gartner. “The goal is to keep wealth generation within their own borders to strengthen the local economy.”

“Governments will remain the main buyers to meet digital sovereignty needs, followed by regulated industries and critical infrastructure organizations, such as energy and utilities and telecommunications,” said Buest.

...

Regionally, Middle East and Africa (89%), Mature Asia/Pacific (87%) and Europe (83%) are projected to record the highest growth in sovereign cloud IaaS spending in 2026. While China and North America are forecast to be No 1 and No 2. in spending in 2026 at $47 billion and $16 billion respectively, growth for both will be in the 20 percent range. Europe is forecast to surpass North America in sovereign cloud IaaS spending in 2027 (see Table 1).

Web archive link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42953876

The Israeli Prison Service has begun preparations to introduce the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

According to Israel's Channel 13, preparations include the creation of a facility dubbed "Israel's Green Mile", where executions will take place

The report added that executions will be carried out by hanging, with three guards pressing the trigger simultaneously.

Specialist teams, composed entirely of volunteers, will be assigned to the task.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47193273

Wages for IT specialists in Russia have largely stopped growing, with median pay in the sector staying flat year-on-year in the second half of 2025, the [Russian] Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing a study by recruitment platform Habr.

Russia’s IT sector, one of the country’s largest and most developed white-collar industries, has historically offered higher pay and better working conditions than many other fields.

...

On an annual basis, wage growth in the sector lagged inflation, which reached 5.6% last year, according to official statistics.

Salaries in Moscow rose by just 4%, while in Nizhny Novgorod they increased by only 1%, meaning rising prices have begun to erode real incomes for IT workers.

...

Web archive link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50600909

Archived

[...]

Bankrolled by enormous state investment, Beijing’s propaganda and online influence operations now extend far beyond its borders, seeking to normalize authoritarian governance and redefine reality itself, one algorithm, platform, and rewritten history at a time. And Tibetans – especially the Dalai Lama – are a prominent target. China’s information operations seek to erase Tibetan cultural identity while manufacturing consent for assimilationist rule.

[...]

The recent viral claim that the Dalai Lama’s name appears between 69 and 169 times in court documents related to notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein offers a revealing case study in contemporary information warfare. Although the figures originated from social media posts rather than verified legal analysis, they circulated widely across global platforms despite repeated debunking by independent fact-checkers and legal analysts who reviewed the publicly released Epstein materials.

[...]

A detailed review of the documents shows Epstein strongly desired to forge connections with the Dalai Lama – but there’s no evidence that his wish was fulfilled. The references to the Dalai Lama are largely incidental, appearing in mass-distributed newsletters, administrative contact lists, or discussions with third parties about potential ways to connect, without evidence of personal contact, financial ties, or awareness of Epstein’s crimes on the Dalai Lama’s part. Many of the 169 references are actually duplicates upon closer examination.

Yet the allegation gained traction. This reflects a broader vulnerability within digital information ecosystems, where numerical specificity can create an illusion of credibility even when substantive context is absent. In such environments, repetition often substitutes for verification.

[...]

The timing of the controversy is also significant. The claim resurfaced in February 2026, coinciding with the Dalai Lama’s receipt of a Grammy Award for his spoken-word album. Within hours, China’s Foreign Ministry publicly condemned the award as “anti-China political manipulation,” a response consistent with past official reactions when Tibetan identity or leadership receives international recognition.

[...]

Similar dynamics emerged in 2023, when a culturally specific Tibetan greeting gesture was detached from its cultural and religious context and reframed online as inappropriate conduct, generating global outrage.

[...]

China’s campaign against the Dalai Lama reflects a strategic shift from controlling domestic narratives to actively contesting legitimacy in global digital spaces. The Epstein files episode was not an exercise in accountability but a case of narrative manipulation, in which incidental and non-substantive references were deliberately amplified to generate reputational doubt. The significance lies not in the documents themselves, but in how authoritarian actors exploit the openness of democratic information systems to convert trivial associations into lasting suspicion. If such campaigns go unrecognized, manufactured controversy, not evidence, will continue to shape international perceptions of human rights, cultural identity, and political legitimacy.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42942813

I look forward to an obituary