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The Cartel of the Large Adult Sons

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Archived

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has called on the EU to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s war effort, arguing the move could unlock a €140bn loan for Kyiv and show “staying power” against Russian aggression.

In a stark reversal of Berlin’s previous scepticism about tapping seized Russian assets, Merz said the loan should be used to fund military equipment, with EU governments deciding on procurement alongside Kyiv.

The appeal from the leader of Europe’s largest economy and Ukraine’s biggest backer comes as the European Commission examines options to leverage the €194bn worth of Russian assets held at Euroclear, Belgium’s central security depository.

[...]

Microsoft has terminated the Israeli military’s access to technology it used to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected millions of Palestinian civilian phone calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank, the Guardian can reveal.

Microsoft told Israeli officials late last week that Unit 8200, the military’s elite spy agency, had violated the company’s terms of service by storing the vast trove of surveillance data in its Azure cloud platform, sources familiar with the situation said.

The decision to cut off Unit 8200’s ability to use some of its technology results directly from an investigation published by the Guardian last month. It revealed how Azure was being used to store and process the trove of Palestinian communications in a mass surveillance programme.

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• Hacker News.

On this week’s ‘We’re Not Kidding’ Mehdi Hasan sits down with award-winning Hollywood actor and activist Mark Ruffalo. For over two decades, Mark has been one of the most politically courageous actors in Hollywood, having spoken out against the fracking industry, US imperialism, Donald Trump, and the genocide in Gaza. Mark and Mehdi get into all of that, but first… Mehdi nerds out with some ‘Marvel’ movie questions.

The two talk about Mark’s political evolution, from being raised in a household with three different religions to getting involved in the anti-war movement during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. When discussing Trump’s second term and rising fascism here in the US, Mark doesn’t mince words when it comes to the tepid opposition from Democratic party leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.

Finally, Mehdi asks Mark about his years-long advocacy for Palestine and the elaborate “propaganda machine” deployed by Israel and its allies, as Mark is no stranger to being attacked for his pro-Palestine views. Now almost two years into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Mark gets deeply emotional when discussing the human cost of the conflict. “I'm a humanist, okay? What's happening there is inhumane,” Mark says. “It's f*cking heartbreaking, man.”

00:00 - Opening montage 1:04 - Intro 3:14 - ‘Task’ on HBO 8:12 - Mark’s history with ‘Marvel’ 14:20 - ‘Marvel rapid-fire questions 20:42 - Mark’s politics 24:09 - Democratic party failures 31:58 - Ritchie Torres 33:25 - Mark’s advocacy for Palestine 38:05 - Filmworkers for Palestine 44:41 - Hollywood censorship 48:43 - Kamala Harris’ election loss 50:16 - Trump 2.0

This interview was published 10 days earlier on Zeteo.com. If you want early access to exclusive content and hard-hitting, independent journalism, subscribe on Substack here: https://zeteo.com/subscribe

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cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/34675903