https://xcancel.com/ICEgov/status/1986821339810820479#m

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Peace talks in Istanbul between Pakistan and Afghanistan were at a deadlock on Friday, a day after both sides accused each other of mounting border clashes that risked breaching a ceasefire brokered by Qatar.

The update on the talks by Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar came after an Afghan official said four Afghan civilians were killed and five others wounded in clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces along their shared border despite the joint negotiations.

There was no immediate comment from Kabul about the Pakistani claim. Pakistan’s state media reported that the Pakistan delegation is leaving for the airport to return home. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif also told Pakistan’s independent Geo news channel that “as we speak, the talks are over.”

YouTube expands age verification to more users. Several users are reporting on Reddit seeing new restrictions being applied to their accounts.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5511282

Archived version

Europe should consider measures against China if trade ties with the Asian nation continue to deteriorate, according to Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel.

Nagel said Friday that the region needs to let China know that its actions are being scrutinized and that Europe’s core industries must be protected.

“Europe has to think about how do we retaliate, maybe, when things are escalating further,” he said Friday in Frankfurt. “But my impression here is that first of all it’s important that we talk to each other. I think we should understand better what’s going on.”

The European Union is concerned about China’s restrictive trade measures and is seeking to defend its industries from a glut of subsidized Chinese competition. Beijing has also been restricting shipments of rare-earth magnets used in everything from electric vehicle batteries to defense manufacturing — requiring companies to obtain import permits.

Nagel will travel to China this month along with German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil. He hopes the trip will provide an opportunity to improve relations.

“To discuss things in a cooperative sense, I guess, is the best that we can do to overcome one or the other stress situation we had in the past,” he said.

Archived version

Europe should consider measures against China if trade ties with the Asian nation continue to deteriorate, according to Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel.

Nagel said Friday that the region needs to let China know that its actions are being scrutinized and that Europe’s core industries must be protected.

“Europe has to think about how do we retaliate, maybe, when things are escalating further,” he said Friday in Frankfurt. “But my impression here is that first of all it’s important that we talk to each other. I think we should understand better what’s going on.”

The European Union is concerned about China’s restrictive trade measures and is seeking to defend its industries from a glut of subsidized Chinese competition. Beijing has also been restricting shipments of rare-earth magnets used in everything from electric vehicle batteries to defense manufacturing — requiring companies to obtain import permits.

Nagel will travel to China this month along with German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil. He hopes the trip will provide an opportunity to improve relations.

“To discuss things in a cooperative sense, I guess, is the best that we can do to overcome one or the other stress situation we had in the past,” he said.

https://archive.ph/Jvmnn

Second Thought

This video exposes the "Hollywood accounting" practices that lead to massively successful movies being declared unprofitable (0:40-2:00). This allows studios to avoid paying out net profit participation to many involved in the film's creation.

Prosecutors in Tanzania have charged dozens of people with treason over a wave of deadly protests sparked by a disputed election.

At least 76 people were accused of intending to obstruct the October 29 election, The Associated Press news agency reported on Friday, citing the charge sheet.

Prices are rising across Netflix, Spotify, and their peers, and more people are quietly returning to the oldest playbook of the internet: piracy. Is the golden age of streaming over?

Hey all,

I used to build my own gaming PCs way back in the 90s/early 2000s but I fell out of the habit when I realised I'd rather kick back on the sofa with something that "just works" than constantly chasing framerates etc, and I switched to exclusively console based gaming. Now that I own a Steam Deck, and with Xbox going down the shitter, and my kids becoming of the age where having a static family PC makes a lot of sense, I've decided to move back into PC gaming.

I started looking at self builds again but everything's moved on so much since I last dipped my toes into that space that I struggle to know where to start. Then I saw an Alienware A51 in the refurb store with a decent early Black Friday discount code and very-nearly top-end specs so I pulled the trigger yesterday:

£2525

• Core Ultra 9 285K
• Geforce RTX 5080
• 64GB RAM
• 2TB Gen5 SSD
• 1500W platinum PSU

Retail, this spec is currently going for £3600 so it's a sizeable saving, but now I'm getting cold feet on the basis of the Intel chip not being the best choice for gaming (and will possibly never see the BIOS fix that Intel rolled out to address this), the odd PSU that'll likely need swapping out at some point in the future, and the sheer size and weight of the thing.

On the plus side, the reviews I've seen say that it's very cool and quiet, which is pretty important to me, and I do like the case design itself - it's very understated compared to most of the off-the-shelf options out there. On the downside what looks like a huge discount on the surface is mostly just wiping out the Dell premium, and similarly specced AMD options are available elsewhere for similar prices - albeit with the aforementioned off-the-shelf cases and a big question mark over noise levels.

All of which is to say: Help this former DIY builder feel a bit better about dropping this much money on a Dell of all things! Odd CPU choice aside, this is still a decent system at a decent price, right?

🤢

I can fix him