Sad this got downvoted. The engagement was really good.

Archive link

Sharon Cohen has orchestrated the transfer of 608 donkeys to Europe since 2022, most of them to France. Some were entrusted to her by Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza. The soldiers rescued the animals in the Palestinian enclave, where the war waged by Israel since Hamas' terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 has killed more than 71,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. This death toll continues to rise despite the ceasefire that took effect on October 10, 2025.

Save the donkeys from the war in Gaza! This rallying cry has echoed across Europe among some animal rights activists. It hardly matters whether the animals truly escaped the war or are simply poor beasts of burden bought from Palestinian owners in Israel. Cohen, 43, believes that almost all Arab owners, in both Palestine and Israel, force their donkeys to work in unacceptable conditions.

Four donkeys were destined for a shelter in Germany. Al Jazeera highlighted the paradox: "Germany has welcomed donkeys evacuated from Gaza. But it blocks the entry of Palestinian children who need medical evacuation." Since the spring, Palestinians have expressed outrage at Cohen's efforts. They accuse her of "stealing" Gaza's donkeys, while two million civilians displaced by the army wander from one end of the enclave to the other, on foot and on carts pulled by emaciated animals.

The operation led by Cohen began well before the war. In the fall of 2022, a senior French civil servant and animal rights advocate drew Le Monde's attention to a shelter in central France called La Tanière, which took in donkeys "rescued" from an alleged trafficking ring in Gaza. According to the claims, the animals were slaughtered for their skins under horrific conditions. The skins would then be smuggled through tunnels into Egypt and shipped on to China.

The vote will decide all 465 seats in parliament’s lower house and mark Takaichi’s first electoral test since becoming nation’s first female leader.

By Al Jazeera Staff and News Agencies

Japan’s Prime Minister ⁠Sanae Takaichi has ​said she ‍will dissolve parliament ‍on Friday ⁠and call a general election ​to ‌seek voter backing for her ‌spending ‌plans and ⁠other policies.

The snap election announcement on Monday comes just three months into her tenure as the nation’s first female prime minister. ……

• Nvidia and Micron are making emotional appeals to consumers while PC users express frustration with big AI companies’ practices and self-serving motives.
• Memory vendors predict DRAM and SSD shortages lasting until mid-2027, while new tariffs on advanced computing chips and potential Steam Machine pricing over $1,000 add to consumer concerns.
• The article highlights how corporations use emotional messaging to mask financial interests, advising consumers to remain skeptical of such appeals.

Acetaminophen use during pregnancy is not likely to raise the risk of having a child with autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability, according to a new study published Friday.

Researchers across Europe reexamined evidence from multiple studies investigating the link between these conditions and the use of paracetamol — called acetaminophen in the United States — and found that these purported associations fell apart after controlling for confounding factors.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10418020

It might be better to just get a PS5 Pro in my case.

I am not even joking, that's where I am right now with gaming in 2026.

Your thoughts?

Inspired by nitter.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57305272

Total billionaire wealth in the EU reached €2.4 trillion by late November, exceeding Italy's entire GDP of €2.2 trillion and approaching France's €2.9 trillion economy, a new Oxfam report found.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20260118190308/https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/ara3abf5ee

AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots

The Gaza Executive Board of the Board of Peace has three European members: Sigrid Kaag, Tony Blair and Nickolay Mladenov.

As a former diplomat (career at the United Nations) and politician (deputy prime minister of the Netherlands from 2022-2024 and leader of a centrist liberal party from 2020-2023), Sigrid Kaag's decision has de facto brought a semblance of respectability to this Board that makes it now easier for other European countries to join.

Am I the only one who is perplexed by this decision by Sigrid Kaag?

In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman's face during an immigration raid. ICE has said the app's results are a “definitive” determination of someone's immigration status.

Archived copies of the article

• web.archive.org
• archive.today
• ghostarchive.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49277840

TL;DR:

• Chinese officials say Moscow knew about the US preparations for an operation in Venezuela. Moreover, in late December, Russia began pulling diplomats and their families out of Caracas.
• Russia has not informed China about its assessment of the situation in Venezuela, however, which has caused bewilderment in Beijing and called into question the nature of relations between the two countries.
• Because of U.S. actions, China risks losing billions of dollars in oil loans to Venezuela. As a result, Beijing has found itself in an extremely disadvantageous position, yielding to Washington.
• China is discussing the version that the failure of Russian air defense systems could not be an accident, but a sign of a high level of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. In this connection, Beijing is increasingly asking whether Russia can be considered a reliable ally.

Archived

[...]

That an intervention [by the US in Venezuela] was imminent was understood by Russia, one of Venezuela’s most enthusiastic partners over the last two decades. Towards the end of last month Moscow began pulling diplomats and their families out of the capital, Caracas.

Russia’s assessment of the situation, and its withdrawal of personnel, were not shared with Beijing, according to well-placed sources in China. This has caused eyebrows to be raised about what it means for a relationship between the two countries that is supposed to be “comprehensive”, “mutually beneficial” and “eternal”.

Beijing was not simply blindsided by the US operation, it was embarrassed by it. Qiu Xiaoqi, China’s special envoy to Latin America, had arrived in Caracas and met Maduro hours before the latter was captured. Shortly before, Wang Yi and Yván Gil, the two countries’ foreign ministers, had spoken by phone to affirm China’s “solidarity and firm support for Venezuela in defending its sovereignty, independence and stability.”

[...]

These words would serve less as a show of resolve than a measure of how limited China’s ability was to translate diplomatic language into meaningful protection or leverage on the ground.

China stands to lose out from the many billions of dollars of loans it has made to Venezuela in return for its oil. It also stands to lose the half a million barrels of oil a day it has been getting from its ally: about 4 per cent of its total oil imports. Such was Beijing’s confidence in its partnership with Maduro and his regime that it invested an estimated $9 billion in building a petrochemical plant in Jieyang, Guangdong province, capable of producing 20 million tons of refined oil a year.

[...]

It is easy to make crass comments about the significance of losing face in Chinese culture. In this case, though, the fact that Beijing has been caught badly out of position, outmanoeuvred by the US and let down by Russia, has sparked vigorous discussion in China — and, in some quarters, speculation that the failure of Russian-built defence systems in Venezuela was not a coincidence, but evidence of high-level co-operation between Moscow and Washington.

[...]

Over the last few years, the question of whether Russia is both a reliable and a good ally has become one of the key talking points among policymakers, advisers and thinkers in China.

Professor Jia Qingguo, former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and one of the most well-connected figures in Chinese strategic thinking, noted that while Russia’s isolation because of the war in Ukraine had brought economic benefits to China, these have come at a cost.

In particular, he noted in an interview just before the Maduro operation that Moscow’s dependence on China has meant that the latter’s current and future relations with Europe have been compromised. As such, he added, a solution to the war in Ukraine would be of benefit to China.

[...]

For Chinese strategists, the problem is not simply reputational damage in Europe or the US, but the deeper risk of being tied to a partner whose way of doing things cuts directly against China’s own instincts about order, predictability and control.

[...]

For policymakers in Beijing, the contrast is stark: one partner leans on force, disruption and intimidation; the other offers markets, rules and negotiated stability. The question increasingly being debated inside China is not whether Russia is useful in pushing back against American pressure, but whether following Russia’s example leads China towards the kind of global role it actually wants to play.

[...]

As Charter97, an exiled Belarusian rights organization has framed it, China Has Begun To Doubt Russia.

A round-up of reactions from European leaders in response to Trump's tariff threats.

Listen to Donald Trump and you would think Moscow and Beijing were lying in wait off the coast of Greenland, ready to pounce to boost their power in the Arctic.

"There are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place," President Trump said recently.

That is why, according to America's president, US control of Greenland is essential.

So how do you think Moscow has reacted to its alleged plot being uncovered and potentially thwarted by a US takeover of Greenland?

The Russians can't be pleased. Right?

Wrong.