Futurology Today

Sauce: https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPR/status/1902320043259560271

Trump administration 'has made the call for tech sovereignty an urgent geopolitical issue'

Skeet

Summary

Welsh tourist Becky Burke was detained for 19 days in a US immigration facility and transported in chains like "Hannibal Lecter" after alleged visa violations.

Burke had been backpacking and staying with host families in exchange for help around the house, which authorities suspected breached her tourist visa conditions.

Deported on March 18, she described the ordeal as traumatizing. Her parents criticized the harsh treatment and are considering addressing the issue politically.

Summary

U.S. and European intelligence assessments contradict claims by both Trump and Putin that Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region are encircled.

Intelligence shared with the White House indicates Ukrainian troops face pressure but are not surrounded.

Despite this, Trump reiterated the encirclement claim in public statements and conversations with Putin.

Ukrainian President Zelenskiy denied the claim, calling it misinformation. Analysts say Putin’s false narrative aims to pressure Ukraine into negotiations.

Summary

The Pentagon has removed web pages about Holocaust remembrance and other historical topics to comply with Trump’s order to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content from federal government sites.

Taken-down pages include stories of Holocaust survivors and religious tolerance, as well as content about 9/11 and veterans' issues.

The Defense Department used automated tools to identify and delete up to 24,000 pages.

Critics argue this erases significant historical narratives, while the Pentagon defends the move as necessary to end "Woke cultural Marxism."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27085313

Summary

U.S. and European intelligence assessments contradict claims by both Trump and Putin that Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region are encircled.

Intelligence shared with the White House indicates Ukrainian troops face pressure but are not surrounded.

Despite this, Trump reiterated the encirclement claim in public statements and conversations with Putin.

Ukrainian President Zelenskiy denied the claim, calling it misinformation. Analysts say Putin’s false narrative aims to pressure Ukraine into negotiations.

Summary

Germany updated its travel advice for the US after three German nationals were detained despite holding valid visas or entry waivers.

The Foreign Office clarified that holding a US visa or ESTA approval does not guarantee entry, as border authorities have the final say.

Recent detentions include a green card holder held at Boston airport and two others detained at the US-Mexico border.

Germany investigates whether these cases reflect a broader policy shift under Trump’s tighter immigration policies.

Yes, Canada has a legal path to E.U. membership – but would it want this?

gotta love "not everyone believes everyone is welcome" critical race theory now = welcoming everyone...

During their roughly one-hour phone call on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that “American ownership” of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants would be “the best protection” for them, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters.

President Trump is expected to sign a long-expected executive action Thursday calling on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon "to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure [of] the Department of Education and return education authority to the States," according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. Trump plans to sign the order at a ceremony alongside the Republican governors of Texas, Indiana, Florida and Ohio.

Summary

Trump’s proposed fees on China-built ships at U.S. ports are causing coal stockpiles to grow and disrupting agricultural exports.

The plan aims to boost U.S. shipbuilding by imposing up to $1.5 million in fines, but vessel shortages have stalled shipments of coal, oil, LNG, and farm products.

Coal exports worth $130 billion are at risk, and farmers face up to $930 million in added costs.

Industry groups warn of severe economic impacts, while limited availability of U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged vessels compounds challenges.

Soße
Wir brauchen mehr solcher Menschen

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26921774

The focus of this release is to add support for importing/exporting tables from the database of the app.

A lot of preferences/data, especially those that allow you to add to a list, are built on top of tables. Tables allows the app to scale better when lists can grow very long. Some features that use tables include drafts and bookmarked communities.

Currently while the app allows users to import/export settings, the app does not give the user any way to import/export anything backed by tables. This means not everything can be carried over by importing/exporting settings.

This release aims to give users a way to preview the database within the app and export them and import them with a high level of configurability.

This feature is a prerequisite of a larger feature which will be announced later.

Full changelog

• Add support to import/export app data that is stored in tables.
• Improve performance of "mark posts as read on scroll".
• Improve general scroll performance on the post feed screen.
• Updated community search result to show the full community name with instance.
• Remove malformed markdown fix which tried to correct malformed headlines by inserting a space between '#' and text if there wasn't one.
• Change open instance behavior. If the instance opened does not match the current account, the guest account is used automatically. This is to prevent the app from getting into a weird state.
• Fix a bug where links do not open correctly if the default browser app is Firefox.
• Fix a bug where the post feed header does not update when switching instances.
• Fix a bug where rate limit errors are not recognized correctly.
• Fix a bug where "mark posts as read on scroll" doesn't mark a post as read if the height of the post is taller than the screen.
• Fix a bug where the thumbnail shown in the "Save for later" bottom sheet do not update when a new image is chosen to replace an older one.

Update

Some more bug fixes to come:

• Fix a bug where the thumbnail shown in the "Save for later" bottom sheet do not update when a new image is chosen to replace an older one.
• Improve general scroll performance on the post feed screen.

Update 2

Releasing the changes in the last update as v1.58.1.

Update 3

Conducting some user-agent testing. Releasing as v1.58.2.

• Add setting to change the app's user-agent.

Update 4

More fixes incoming:

• Fix a bug in full post layouts where blurred NSFW images are sometimes not shown.
• Fix a bug in full post layouts where NSFW posts can cause content to jump as they are loaded in.
• Fix a bug where blurred NSFW images are not shown for videos.
• Fix a bug where "Prefer full size image" for certain layouts was not respected and was always on.
• Fix a bug where posts in the post feed would jump around if "Prefer full size image" was on.
• Fix a bug where some posts do not have a "preview" button when using the list style layouts.
• Fix card shadow being clipped on user info screen.
• More optimizations in the post feed/post screen.

Update 5

Releasing new changes as v1.58.3

Update 6

Big update here which should both improve performance and also lessen the effects of rate limiting issues. These changes will be released as v1.58.4.

• Optimized network calls in the critical sections of the app.

My right sink was briefly occupied and my ocd was twitching, so I switched things up and used the left sink.   I feel like a rebel - almost a gadabout.   I'm still a bit anxious about it, but there's definitely a 'spring' in my step.

From Calvin Schnure

Compare the photo on the left vs right.

The two photos are of the same bird, a Northern hawk-owl, taken within an hour of each other. What's going on? The hawk-owl owl normally looks a bit plump, with an oval-shaped body. But if a predator is nearby (I saw a Rough-winged hawk soaring earlier in the afternoon) they sit up straight and tall and try to look thin.

Presumably this makes them less obvious (does it think it looks like a stick?) or less appetizing to the predator.

Northern hawk-owl
Sax-Zim Bog
March 3, 2025

On Samsung Phones. there is a function called "Auto Blocker". If this is enabled, this blocks installing apps from unknown sources and via USB and ADB. In principle, this is a useful feature, but it also prevents the installation of updates via F-Droid. Even if F-Droid is classified as trustworthy in general and can therefore theoretically install apps and updates automatically, activating this function prevents automatic updates. If this function is deactivated, new apps and updates are installed automatically on request.

Is there a way to activate this function and still receive automatic updates via F-Droid? Does the installation of the F-Droid.apk via ADB/USB change anything in this constellation?

OpenAI’s highly popular chatbot, ChatGPT, regularly gives false information about people without offering any way to correct it. In many cases, these so-called “hallucinations” can seriously damage a person’s reputation: In the past, ChatGPT falsely accused people of corruption, child abuse – or even murder. The latter was the case with a Norwegian user. When he tried to find out if the chatbot had any information about him, ChatGPT confidently made up a fake story that pictured him as a convicted murderer. This clearly isn’t an isolated case. noyb has therefore filed its second complaint against OpenAI. By knowingly allowing ChatGPT to produce defamatory results, the company clearly violates the GDPR’s principle of data accuracy.

From Radical Raptors

This photo gives us a look at some parts of the Barn Owl we don't normally get to see so closely.

Lovely white down on the flanks.

The comb-like serrations in the flight feathers.

The bristly leg feathers.

The grippy pads on the bottom of the feet.

And of course those pointy talons!

"It is right for Europe to equip itself to play its part but gullible to think it can do so on its own, outside the framework" of NATO, noted Meloni.