A call for help from @eighthave@librem.one, who among other things is associated with F-droid:

> An open call to #Android #developers! The #EuropeanCommission needs help evaluating #GooglePlay's #security claims. I'm going to do what I can. Anyone with knowledge of how app installation, uninstallation, sandboxing, signing, etc. could really help here. If you want to contribute, please reach out!

I figured maybe someone around here could be capable of helping out. Note that his Mastodon instance, librem.one, does not support private messages.

Friday July 4 2:00 pm Logan Circle

> This July 4th cannot be a celebration of Trump’s Fascist America. It must be a day to join our voices to demand TRUMP MUST GO NOW, in front of the White House and throughout the streets of this country – in a collective shout heard around the world. > > We stand on a precipice – the Trump fascist regime has rejected the rule of law and deployed the US military and massive Gestapo-like force against the people. And in bombing Iran, in violation of US and international law, Trump has begun a war that threatens the future. We either build serious mass nonviolent struggle now or face being set back. > > We pledge that we will build on the strength of millions who took to the streets on June 14 against Trump’s military parade, and advance toward a day of “Making Good Trouble” on July 17 – and beyond that to forge a fierce, unrelenting, nonviolent struggle that makes it impossible for Trump to govern the country, impose his fascist program, or hold onto power. > > This is how hated tyrants have been driven out all over the world and it is what we must do here – not allowing our power to be diverted into elections in 2026 or 2028 that will be too late to stop the consolidation of fascist rule. Trump has shown, with threats and action, that he will not accept any restraints on his power to lock in a terrible future – with the largest military and nuclear arsenal at his fingertips. > > No! The time to act is now. Now is the time for Trump to go. > > This July 4, in D.C. and everywhere, in the name of humanity: > We Declare Our Independence from Trump’s Fascist America! > The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go Now!

– RefuseFascism.org, @refusefascism@mastodon.world

Via @youranoncentral.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy on Bluesky

Friday July 4 2:00 pm Logan Circle

> This July 4th cannot be a celebration of Trump’s Fascist America. It must be a day to join our voices to demand TRUMP MUST GO NOW, in front of the White House and throughout the streets of this country – in a collective shout heard around the world. > > We stand on a precipice – the Trump fascist regime has rejected the rule of law and deployed the US military and massive Gestapo-like force against the people. And in bombing Iran, in violation of US and international law, Trump has begun a war that threatens the future. We either build serious mass nonviolent struggle now or face being set back. > > We pledge that we will build on the strength of millions who took to the streets on June 14 against Trump’s military parade, and advance toward a day of “Making Good Trouble” on July 17 – and beyond that to forge a fierce, unrelenting, nonviolent struggle that makes it impossible for Trump to govern the country, impose his fascist program, or hold onto power. > > This is how hated tyrants have been driven out all over the world and it is what we must do here – not allowing our power to be diverted into elections in 2026 or 2028 that will be too late to stop the consolidation of fascist rule. Trump has shown, with threats and action, that he will not accept any restraints on his power to lock in a terrible future – with the largest military and nuclear arsenal at his fingertips. > > No! The time to act is now. Now is the time for Trump to go. > > This July 4, in D.C. and everywhere, in the name of humanity: > We Declare Our Independence from Trump’s Fascist America! > The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go Now!

– RefuseFascism.org, @refusefascism@mastodon.world

Via @youranoncentral.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy on Bluesky

John Hoiland is an ageing farmer in Montana, still running his farm the old fashioned way after the age of 90. The documentary John: The Last Norwegian Cowboy follows him for a few months, documenting his musical contributions, how he keeps his farm machinery running, how his mother taught him to make lefse, and how he once starred in a chevy commercial.

It's a really nice watch.

Lyrics in English:

> It’s hard to be a real human being > Truly difficult, my dear Yosl Ber > It’s hard to be a real human being > Truly difficult, my dear Yosl Ber > > You’re supposed to give grandmothers respect > Rather than throw them out of their homes > You’re not supposed to murder any children > You can’t even blind them > > You can’t make and spread > Plague, and the chains of hunger > You’re not allowed to destroy a hospital > Not even just one! > > Sometimes it’s hard to remain (behave like) humans > Especially when we are miserable and suffering > But there’s only one choice, my dear boy > If you don’t wish to be a swine > > Yosl Ber > Serves in the military > Yosl, Yosl, Yosl Ber > Serves in the military

Words by @Geoffberner@zeroes.ca with Annie Cohen, music by Geoff Berner. Berner is a Jewish Canadian protest singer who places himself somewhere between folk, punk, and klezmer.

Yosl Ber is a man serving in the military in an old Yiddish song (cover version here) by Itzik Manger. Lyrics with translation are available here. In the current context, it's hard not to think of Yosl Ber as a person recruited to the IDF as part of Israel's mandatory military service.

As deportations continue, this is a question of some relevance to the Americans out there. Music by @Geoffberner@zeroes.ca.

I've had this plant for a while in other countries, and it was always very easy going. But after the last time I moved the sapling I took with me has started struggling.

The picture is not a perfect illustration, but you can see new leaves coming out turning black in the ends, and eventually drying out and dying. This already happened with a lot of leaves that I cut off, but now it's repeating itself with the new ones.

The plant has been in a relatively bright spot and I think it has received enough water that it shouldn't be the problem. The black parts are completely dead. Does anyone have any idea what can be done? :)

I'm sorry the picture is not more illustrative.

I recently cancelled my Dropbox subscription, and will now be running local backups instead. For that purpose I need an external hard drive.

It seems most companies (Western Digital, Kingston, Seagate) are American, with Japanese Toshiba occasionally showing up in my search results.

Does anyone know of/have any experience with European storage manufacturers? If not I guess Toshiba will have to do. :)

Nawrocki, aka the "nationalist" candidate, just won the election in Poland with a very narrow margin.

Nawrocki is formally independent, but is aligned with the PiS party of current president Duda, who were responsible for undermining Polish democracy by among other things stacking the courts with illegitimate judges. As the president has the power to block all judidcal appointments, it does not look like Poland will have their democracy back for the next five years: Duda has simply blocked all judicial appointments rendering the Polish state a lame duck, and in all likelihood Nawrocki will keep up the same obstructionist strategy.

Then again, that's what they voted for.

> The thing I hate the most about AI and it's ease of access; the slow, painful death of the hacker soul—brought not by war or scarcity, but by convenience. By buttons. By bots. [...] > > There was once magic here. There was once madness. > > Kids would stay up all night on IRC with bloodshot eyes, trying to render a cube in OpenGL without segfaulting their future. They cared. They would install Gentoo on a toaster just to see if it’d boot. They knew the smell of burnt voltage regulators and the exact line of assembly where Doom hit 10 FPS on their calculator. These were artists. They wrote code like jazz musicians—full of rage, precision, and divine chaos. > > Now? We’re building a world where that curiosity gets lobotomized at the door. Some poor bastard—born to be great—is going to get told to "review this AI-generated patchset" for eight hours a day, until all that wonder calcifies into apathy. The terminal will become a spreadsheet. The debugger a coffin.

Unusually well-written piece on the threat AI poses to programming as an art form.

A Cypriot cargo ship ran ashore immediately next to a Norwegian household today, and they are currently doing their best to get the ship unstuck. It's a surprisingly soothening live stream.

!View from the living room of the affected house.

Via @DreadShips@mastodon.me.uk on Mastodon.

A Cypriot cargo ship ran ashore immediately next to a Norwegian household today, and they are currently doing there best to get the ship unstuck. It's a surprisingly sootehning live stream.

!View from the living room of the affected house.

Via @DreadShips@mastodon.me.uk on Mastodon.

Posted to Facebook yesterday, but I only saw it now. Seems to be worth sharing, as the Senator also requested.

***

Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.

So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back. The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted. In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.

Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.

So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires. The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.

The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children. They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.

Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM.

This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials. So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.

And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment.

Every best wish,

US Senator Chris Murphy

KrF har bestemt seg for å bli et skikkelig møkkaparti, og det ser sannelig ut til at de lykkes.

This seems like a good opportunity for anyone interested in contributing to the organization of 50501 as well as the decentralized web.

They are looking for someone who is:

• Experienced with Lemmy or willing to learn
• Available for weekly meetings
• Willing to dedicate time to moderate
• Willing to limit communications to secure channels, predominantly Matrix

From the original post:

> We are looking for admin/mod especifically from Lemmy community itself. We are in serious need of moderators or admin with Lemmy knowledge. Please let us know if you would like to be a part of the movement and this Lemmy instance. If you would like to be a part please understand there would be significant time commitment needed as we are a growing community here at Lemmy. > > Application > > About the movement > > Thank you!

Considering how the movement is under attack on other platforms it is likely to be a more challenging task than moderating some other forums out there, but it's an opportunity to make a real contribution. :)

Trump has cut budgets, laid off employees, and pressured universities. Now Norway wants to attract researchers who have poor conditions abroad.

!Picture from US protest. A protester is holding a sign saying "Congress makes laws, not the president".

The Research Council prioritizes and allocates funds on behalf of the state.

Now they are allocating 100 million kroner to attract foreign researchers to Norway.

The Managing Director of the Research Council, Mari Sundli Tveit, is clear about the backdrop.

– It is particularly related to the situation in the USA. Academic freedom is under pressure and funding is being cut, says Tveit.

The new scheme allows Norwegian institutions to apply for support to bring in international researchers.

The work around the new scheme was both expanded and expedited when the Trump administration introduced significant cuts to American research in March.

Tveit emphasizes that the arrangement will not be reserved for researchers from the USA.

According to Tveit, many of those who have been laid off in the USA are researching areas such as climate, health, and the Arctic.

– These are areas where it is extremely important for us to ensure that the activity continues. And connecting the researchers to us is a very, very good idea, says Tveit.

Lists with "illegal words"

She is concerned about what she sees as an attack on research in the USA. Among other things, in the form of restrictions on specific research topics.

– There are lists of forbidden words, that is, prohibited words that cannot be included in research applications, says Tveit.

She points to words like "woman," "black," and "climate change."

In addition, the Research Council is concerned about a lot of important research data that is stored in the USA. This includes important research data and results on climate change and health.

– If there is a breach in that data, it will cause irreparable damage. And we are very concerned about that. Right now, we are looking for ways to move data to store it safely elsewhere, says Tveit.

Great need for expertise

Research and Education Minister Sigrun Aasland (Ap) has been a driving force behind the new scheme.

– In Norway, we have a great need for expertise in the coming years, including in research, Aasland explains.

She makes it clear, like Tveit, that the scheme should not be limited to researchers from the USA.

As the situation stands now, Aasland believes there is an increased need for such schemes.

– But is it wise to launch this scheme in the same week that Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg are set to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House?

– This is not an American scheme, but a global one. Also, an important reason why we are so focused on collaboration with the USA in research is that they are an outstanding research nation. They account for a significant amount of the world's knowledge about health, climate, and energy, Aasland responds and adds:

– We have extensive collaboration with American researchers, and we want to continue that.

Positive for Norwegian research

The Research Council estimates that the funds can cover 30 to 50 research positions. The researchers will be recruited to both colleges and universities in Norway.

The rector of UiO, Svein Stølen, is positive about the new arrangement.

– This is very interesting. It can bring us truly top researchers from other countries, says Stølen.

The rector believes this could have a significant impact on Norwegian and European research.

– We see that there are challenges in the USA, where China is advancing. The fact that Europe is stepping up is important, continues Stølen.

The rector of the University of Bergen, Margareth Hagen, is also positive about the new arrangement.

– The consequences for us are significant. It concerns the fact that about 22 percent of the research at UiB is conducted in collaboration with American researchers. So it is clear that what is happening in the USA affects us quite immediately, says Hagen.

She points out that the collaboration with American research environments spans the entire breadth of UiB's academic fields.

– UiB is particularly known for strong climate research and also for a lot of research on global health, where Americans are at the forefront.

(Translated by Kagi)

> European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of euros Wednesday as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation bloc’s digital competition rules. > > The European Commission imposed a 500 million euro ($571 million) fine on Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store. > > The commission, which is the EU’s executive arm, also fined Meta Platforms 200 million euros because it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.

It seems the 50501 movement is facing some predictable problems on commercial platforms.

On Reddit, the 50501 subreddit has temporarily shut down over abuse. This comes after reports from users that the community is "obviously being astroturfed". No word as to when it will be back online.

It seems things are not much better over at Facebook, where there is apparently frequent calls to stop protesting this and that, with a Reddit user commenting that the group "feels like it's imploding".

This is hardly surprising given how commercial social media has repeatedly shown itself to be easily manipulated, but it's still fascinating that it's bad enough to shut down the whole Reddit community. Although we are certainly in a better place over here we are not immune: Make sure to be vigilant and to report suspicious activity.

If anyone is on Facebook, maybe now is a good time to give people there a few pointers towards Lemmy/PieFed.

> On March 15, three planes touched down in El Salvador. They carried 261 men deported from the United States. Most were Venezuelans—people who fled one nightmare only to be thrust into another. They were designated as “gang members” by the current administration and deported with little or no due process. No trials. No evidence presented. Just labeled, processed, and removed. > > What happened next should shatter any comfortable notions of what American values mean in practice. > > These men—human beings with names, histories, dreams—were marched through a gauntlet of armed guards, beaten, stripped naked, shaved, and thrown into overcrowded cells. A photojournalist on the scene described watching men age a decade in two hours. He watched as one young man sobbed, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” This man was slapped for his tears, beaten for his vulnerability. > > No phone calls. No visitors. No books. No talking. Just exile to a place “so cold and far from home they may as well have been sent into space, nameless and forgotten.” > > And all of this—every slap, every sob, every stolen dignity—stamped with American approval. Coordinated with American officials. Executed with American efficiency.

Full text on Tech Dirt (who would have thought).

> Swedish journalist Joakim Medin has been detained in Turkey after arriving in Istanbul on Thursday to report on the current protests. > > Since Medin notified his editor in chief that he was being taken in for interrogation – around lunchtime on Thursday – nobody has heard from him. > > Joakim Medin is a regular contributor to daily newspaper Dagens ETC and has reported from and about Turkey regularly for several years. We do not as yet know where or how he is, and we are imploring the Swedish government to take action to help us get Joakim home.

The chief editor of Dagens ETC wrote the following commentary on the decision to make this public, machine translated using FireFox:

> This is what Dagens ETC's reporter Joakim Medin wrote yesterday when he landed in Istanbul to monitor recent developments: > > > "They are taking me in for interrogations now" > > Now it's been more than 24 hours. > > Silence. > > I don't know where he is. > > I don't know how he's doing. > > Not if he's interrogated. > > Not if he's going to be deported. > > We at Dagens ETC have feverishly tried to get answers in different ways (the UD and consulate are connected). > > But a whole day... > > Now we choose to do this in public. > > For Joakim to be released. > > Because freedom of the press is under attack. > > I demand that the Swedish government act directly and sharply. > > I expect the support of just about every other media. > > Joakim went to Turkey to give Dagens ETC's readers all the nuances. > > Now he can't do that. > > With the hope of very quick solution, > > Andreas Gustavsson, Editor-in-chief Dagens ETC