Measles cases have been breaking out around Aotearoa in recent months, with Health NZ's public health medicine specialist Dr Sharon Sime warning there may be undetected cases circulating not linked to overseas travel.

Measles is highly contagious - up to 90 percent of non-immune people (those who have not been vaccinated or have not already had it) will be infected if they are exposed to the virus.

The measles vaccine is free, delivered as part of the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella).

About 80 percent of New Zealanders are immune - well below the 95 percent coverage needed to prevent an outbreak - and it is lower still for young children, who are among those most at risk of serious complications.

Op-ed by Alexander Kolyandr, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and former banker for Credit Suisse. He was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and lives in London.

[...]

The government has recognized how close Russia is to stagnation, with the Economic Development Ministry this month cutting its GDP growth expectations to 1% this year (down from 2.5%) and 1.3% next year (down from 2.4%). Even these reduced predictions look optimistic — they are based on assumptions of stable oil prices and the absence of significant sanctions, both of which look overly optimistic (The US administration imposed sanctions on two major Russian oil companies on October 22.)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also cut its forecasts for Russia, putting it at odds with the rest of the global economy and most countries, which saw a bump-up in expected growth. The Washington-based fund reduced its expectation of Russian growth from an already measly 0.9% in July’s forecast to 0.6%.

[...]

Russia’s borrowing costs are likely to stay higher, for longer. That’s because high inflation and weak growth are structural, not temporary.

Rapid wage expansion due to demographics and the war, coupled with stagnant growth, is one factor. Increasing VAT to cover military expenditure is another, as it will trigger a one-time spike in inflation, further putting the brakes on rate cuts.

As a result, businesses will have to struggle for longer, and government borrowing will cost more. The result will be a period of almost zero growth, high inflation, and interest rates — precisely the stagflation scenario this author has been warning about for more than a year.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38070235

By MEE staff
Published date: 24 October 2025 21:22 BST

Scottish firefighters sourced, refitted and kitted out a fire engine with medical supplies and firefighting gear for their peers in Nablus last year.

The fire engine was sent to the Palestinian territory last summer, and firefighters in Nablus have been waiting to receive it and protective equipment for the last 15 months.

However, despite the fire engine having documented clearance, Israeli officials refused to let it through customs, impounded it at the Port of Ashdod in July 2024, and have now slapped the Nablus governorate with $21,271 in accrued fees.[!]

I came across this article in another Lemmy community that dislikes AI. I'm reposting instead of cross posting so that we could have a conversation about how "work" might be changing with advancements in technology.

The headline is clickbaity because Altman was referring to how farmers who lived decades ago might perceive that the work "you and I do today" (including Altman himself), doesn't look like work.

The fact is that most of us work far abstracted from human survival by many levels. Very few of us are farming, building shelters, protecting our families from wildlife, or doing the back breaking labor jobs that humans were forced to do generations ago.

In my first job, which was IT support, the concept was not lost on me that all day long I pushed buttons to make computers beep in more friendly ways. There was no physical result to see, no produce to harvest, no pile of wood being transitioned from a natural to a chopped state, nothing tangible to step back and enjoy at the end of the day.

Bankers, fashion designers, artists, video game testers, software developers and countless other professions experience something quite similar. Yet, all of these jobs do in some way add value to the human experience.

As humanity's core needs have been met with technology requiring fewer human inputs, our focus has been able to shift to creating value in less tangible, but perhaps not less meaningful ways. This has created a more dynamic and rich life experience than any of those previous farming generations could have imagined. So while it doesn't seem like the work those farmers were accustomed to, humanity has been able to shift its attention to other types of work for the benefit of many.

I postulate that AI - as we know it now - is merely another technological tool that will allow new layers of abstraction. At one time bookkeepers had to write in books, now software automatically encodes accounting transactions as they're made. At one time software developers might spend days setting up the framework of a new project, and now an LLM can do the bulk of the work in minutes.

These days we have fewer bookkeepers - most companies don't need armies of clerks anymore. But now we have more data analysts who work to understand the information and make important decisions. In the future we may need fewer software coders, and in turn, there will be many more software projects that seek to solve new problems in new ways.

How do I know this? I think history shows us that innovations in technology always bring new problems to be solved. There is an endless reservoir of challenges to be worked on that previous generations didn't have time to think about. We are going to free minds from tasks that can be automated, and many of those minds will move on to the next level of abstraction.

At the end of the day, I suspect we humans are biologically wired with a deep desire to output rewarding and meaningful work, and much of the results of our abstracted work is hard to see and touch. Perhaps this is why I enjoy mowing my lawn so much, no matter how advanced robotic lawn mowing machines become.

I signed up because I was curious, I'm still a mod, and they promised swag. (My subreddit voted against moving over to lemmy and it's fine, I guess. They're the only reason I'm still over there at all.)

It was interesting--I've not watched all of it, but it was very high energy.

My biggest takeaway was that OMG they don't care about hearing-impaired mods. The subtitles were auto-generated and, even a few hours later, still had very obvious errors. For example, "a mod" was consistently transcribed as "Ahmad". "I love r/stupiddovenests and r/gardening" became "I love our stupid dove nests and our gardening". Very distracting.

Anyways, after the event you get to pick your swag--either a plushie or 'digital swag'. I'm going with the snoo plushie because it looks about the right size for my dog to hump, and he likes to take out his aggression against white plushies (the color of my other dog, who passed away a few years ago. He still growls at videos of her because he's a butthead).

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/53999408

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38063316

By MEE staff Published date: 24 October 2025 20:45 BST

"We emphasise that the current phase requires a unified national position and a national political vision based on unity of voice and destiny, and the rejection of all forms of annexation and displacement in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem," the statement said.

The factions urged an end to "all forms of torture and violations against prisoners in Israeli prisons", and "the need to take all necessary measures to maintain security and stability throughout the Gaza Strip".

There was no mention of disarmament - a thorny issue that is unlikely to come to fruition in its absolute form as the US and Israel have demanded.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38063016

By Katherine Hearst
Published date: 25 October 2025 11:59 BST

Aid groups have warned that the medical situation in Gaza remains unchanged, as Israeli restrictions continue to bar the entry of almost all medical supplies and equipment amid a fragile ceasefire.

Lena Dajani, a mutual aid volunteer who coordinates medical aid in Gaza, reported that “almost every doctor I’ve spoken to has said that nothing has changed in the healthcare sector” since the ceasefire came into effect on 10 October.

The World Health Organization announced on Thursday that only 10 percent of the requested medical supplies have entered Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect.

Hi, I teach a CS course, and I was wondering if there is a practical way in which to setup a server that would accept student's tar files, run some tests, and show them the results.

I could go "full unix mode" and roll up some accounts let them ssh into a server, scp their their files.... but I was wondering if there is a prepacked solution for this that is nicer to the eye. And I thought maybe you know some.

In December 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime — the first international treaty on criminal justice in more than two decades.

The adoption of the document was the result of five years of negotiations among UN Member States, with the participation of experts, civil society, academia, and the private sector.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the adoption of the Convention “a decisive step” in global efforts to ensure safety online.

On 25 October, the Convention will be opened for signature at an official ceremony in Hanoi, Viet Nam. It will enter into force 90 days after ratification by 40 States.

Global response to global threat

The new document establishes a common international framework for combating cybercrime. It introduces unified definitions, investigation standards, and mechanisms for assisting victims — including compensation, restitution, and removal of illegal content.

States will implement these measures in accordance with their national legislation but within agreed international principles. And perhaps, with this Convention, a new era will begin — one in which a single wrong letter in a website address will no longer cost you everything.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) leads the UN response to cybercrime with training and support to countries across the world.

The Vienna-based agency draws upon its specialized expertise on criminal justice systems to provide technical assistance in prevention and awareness-raising, legislative reform, revamping of law enforcement capabilities, international cooperation, forensic support as well as in data collection, research and analysis on cybercrime.