breakfastmtn

joined 11 months ago
 

Israel’s military has said it was highly likely its troops fired the shot that killed Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the American-Turkish woman killed at a protest in the occupied West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said her death was unintentional and expressed deep regret.

The statement came as Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, called the killing of the 26-year-old last week “unprovoked and unjustified”.

Speaking on a diplomatic visit to London, Blinken told journalists that Eygi’s death showed the Israeli security forces needed to make fundamental changes to their rules of engagement.

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Russia has received new deadly ballistic missiles from Iran for use in Ukraine and is likely to use them, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced on Tuesday in London as he prepared to travel with the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to Kyiv.

The news, confirmed by the US for the first time and seen as of huge significance to the battlefield balance ahead of Ukraine’s difficult winter, led the US and Europe to impose new sanctions on Iran, so apparently slamming the door on the prospect of a rapprochement between the new reformist Iranian government and the west.

The move may also add to the pressure on the US to end its restrictions on Ukraine using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia and not just in occupied parts of Ukraine.

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Early in the conflict, Mr. Zaanin said, Hamas had wanted to station police officers at the shelter where he was staying. The group said it would ensure security, but he said the residents had gathered to stop that.

. . .

“We simply want to save all families, women and children and not let there be any potential threat against us because of the existence of police and members of the Hamas government,” he said. The police, Mr. al-Zaanin added, could stand outside the building but not inside.

Several other residents of school shelters in central Gaza recounted similar stories, though attitudes in other areas were unknown. It is hard to know how widespread the phenomenon is, and whether the armed militia are from Hamas, Islamic Jihad or other armed gangs, but these residents’ experiences suggest that at least some evacuees have blocked armed militias from moving into these shelters.

. . .

The residents’ testimonies also suggested that Hamas’s grip on the enclave may be weakened by the war and that ad hoc community groups are starting to operate outside the organization’s control, at least on a small scale.

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Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on a tent encampment designated as a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, Gaza officials said early on Tuesday, in what the Israeli military said was an attack on a Hamas command centre.

A Gaza civil defence official told Agence France-Presse that 40 people were killed in the attack inside the Al-Mawasi camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Earlier, the civil emergency service said airstrikes on a tent camp for displaced Palestinians killed and wounded 65 people in the southern part of the strip, but did not break down the number of dead and injured.

Residents and medics said the tent encampment in the al-Mawasi area was struck by at least four missiles. The camp is crowded with displaced Palestinians who have fled from elsewhere in the enclave.

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Ukraine’s low-budget tech wizardry has stunned Western audiences since the war’s outset. Soldiers operating out of front-line garages have modified donated artillery, rehabbed captured weapons, amped up off-the-shelf drones, and coded software to streamline it all.

. . .

As Russia’s war carries on into its third year, the Ukrainian government has tried to promote investment both from abroad and domestically into the defense tech startups for its current wartime arsenal and a prospective peacetime cash cow — particularly as global venture capital has gone gung-ho on weapons.

But money has been painfully slow to come in from abroad. The average weapons firm in Ukraine faces stout financial barriers from all sides — reactionary policy at home where the central bank has put measures in place to prevent capital flight, and abroad, where major insurers and investors won’t touch either Ukraine or defense.

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Israeli jets have launched a substantial strike on targets in Syria, killing at least 25 people, according to an opposition war monitor that said it was one of the most violent such attacks in years.

The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles programme, but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus. Syrian state media had put the death toll at 16 with 40 wounded.

The attack on Sunday night struck targets associated with pro-Iranian militias as well as the “scientific research facility” near Hama, reportedly run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

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Elected last year on promises to accelerate a shift out of Russia’s orbit of influence and into the European Union, the government of Montenegro recently nominated a curious candidate as its ambassador in Moscow — a Russian citizen.

. . .

[W]hen voters elected Mr. Milatovic and then gave the most votes in a legislative election to his allies in Europe Now, a party headed by Mr. Spajic, the two men were firmly united behind the goals of joining Europe and rooting out the corruption and crime that had long bedeviled the country.

Today, Mr. Milatovic has split from Europe Now. He accuses a coalition government — led by Mr. Spajic but dependent on support from Kremlin-friendly legislators — of sinking back into the patronage politics it promised to eradicate and bowing to the interests of Russia and Serbia at the expense of Montenegro’s links with Europe.

The rift highlights the difficulty of building a stable, Western-style democracy in a fragile Balkan country rent by rival ethnic, religious and geopolitical loyalties.

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The poliovirus that paralyzed a child in Gaza, the first case in the region in 25 years, has traveled a long path.

It most likely arose in Nigeria and made its way to Chad, where it was first detected in 2019, according to genetic analysis. It emerged in Sudan in 2020 and then found a foothold in Egypt, in unvaccinated pockets of Luxor and North Sinai — next door to Gaza.

This journey was the consequence of a fateful decision by global health organizations to pare down the oral polio vaccine in 2016. The move, now called “the switch,” was intended to help eradicate the disease.

Instead, the change has led to outbreaks of polio in dozens of countries and has paralyzed more than 3,300 children.

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Ukraine's continued requests to Western allies for more air defenses were answered in part this week, with the announcement that Germany has ordered an additional 17 IRIS-T air defense systems for Kyiv.

And the timing couldn't be more critical – an ongoing campaign of aerial strikes on Kharkiv, devastating attacks like that on Ukraine's largest children's hospital in July, a strike on Poltava earlier this week that killed at least 55 people, and an attack on Lviv the day after, repeatedly highlight the shortcomings in the country's air defenses.

. . .

But according to experts who spoke to the Kyiv Independent, while welcome, the IRIS-Ts will be unable to protect from something that has become an increasing concern in recent days – Iranian ballistic missiles.

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Three Israeli security guards have been killed at a border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan when a Jordanian truck driver opened fire on them, in a fresh sign that the nearly year-old Gaza conflict is spreading violence across the region.

On the same day, an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza killed a senior aid official and two women and two children from his family.

The West Bank border shooting took place on Sunday at the Allenby Bridge crossing over the River Jordan, also known as the King Hussein Bridge.

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Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González has left the South American country after seeking asylum in Spain, according to the Spanish foreign minister.

“Edmundo González, at his own request, flew to Spain on a Spanish air force plane,” José Manuel Albares said in a statement online, adding that the “government of Spain is committed to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans”.

The surprise departure by the candidate, who Venezuela’s opposition and several foreign governments consider the legitimate winner of July’s presidential election, comes just days after the government ordered his arrest.

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Thousands of angry leftwing protesters took to French streets on Saturday two days after Emmanuel Macron appointed a conservative prime minister.

Demonstrators accused the president of a “denial of democracy” after his decision to name the former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, 73, as leader of the government.

The appointment came two months after a snap general election left France with a hung parliament formed of three roughly equal blocs – the New Popular Front (NFP), a leftwing alliance; the centre, including Macron’s Renaissance party and the centre-right; and the far-right National Rally (RN) – none of which had a majority.

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[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago

It's fine. It might be gross or sickly sweet, depending on how long it's been fermenting.

Auto-brewery syndrome is super rare. It's caused by conditions that allow brewing yeast (and other fermenting microbes) to live/thrive in your gut when they shouldn't. Nutritional yeast is also living brewing yeast, though it's dormant and not actively fermenting when eaten. You will get a bunch of B complex vitamins from the yeast!

But beware, my friends used to call green beer 'fartzens,' after the original Hefefartzen that we drank way too early.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago

They aren't really polling well. The best realistic scenario is probably the current one -- Libs in power with the NDP holding the balance and making awesome demands. They're most likely to have way less power after the election. I don't really get what Singh is seeing in the tea leaves here.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

We were just too jealous of you Americans and all the election fun you're having. We want some too! It's topple time.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

To do that in the short term, the Fediverse probably just needs more money. The competitors have a fuckload of it and can introduce features way faster because of it. I think Mastodon's been "exploring/planning" quote posts for like 18 months and haven't even begun working on it. I'd love to have user-controllable, optional algorithmic feeds in Mastodon (not replacing the main reverse-chron feed) but I can't imagine it existing in less than 5 years.

Mods cracking down on the plague of 'polite' harassment (ex. passive-aggressive FYIs about CWs) wouldn't hurt. It's not as bad as it used to be but it's chased a ton of people away.

I think in the long term the Fediverse has an advantage. The only real goal Fediverse services have is to get better for users. At some point, Bluesky and Threads will have to make money or die. I don't think they have a way to do that without damaging the user experience.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 92 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The initial ruling was by a single judge but it was upheld yesterday by a panel of five supreme court justices:

Members of Brazil’s supreme court have unanimously voted to uphold the ban on X, after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws led to the social network being blocked in one of its biggest markets.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Uh.. he's only had those far-right coalition partners since December 2022. A ceasefire deal that would lead them to topple the government wouldn't have made a ton of sense in September 2023 (or September 2014). Gantz also wasn't an opposition leader in 2014. Those don't seem like unimportant things.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 week ago

I don't disagree with your points but I think they apply to pretty specific groups. I doubt that the average person knows or cares that Bluesky is a PBC. The reaction of the average person to 'open source' is probably, "I have no idea what that is and please for the love of god don't explain it to me."

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
  1. There are more people there.
  2. Fewer people even know the Fediverse exists at all.
  3. Mastodon (where most would probably move from Twitter) has a reputation for being more difficult to use.
[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

From Mehdi Hassan's Wikipedia page:

Mehdi Raza Hasan (born July 1979) is a British-American progressive broadcaster, political commentator, columnist, author and co-founder of the media company Zeteo.

. . .

Zeteo was presented as a subscription-based news organization. He announced that the platform will "bring you hard-hitting interviews and unsparing analysis that you won’t find elsewhere". Hasan presents a new video series on the Zeteo News channel, the first one was called "Debunked! Top seven lies about Gaza".

Hassan is identified as the founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief. His Wiki page says he's a co-founder but I can't find mentions of other founders. This is a media company built around Substack newsletters and they generate revenue from subscriptions. This Rolling Stone article says that they also raised $4M in seed money before launch but don't note the source(s). They just launched in April and there doesn't appear to be any fact check or bias analysis on them yet.

Prem Thakker is currently listed as a staff reporter for the Intercept, though it says he worked for them "previously." According to his bio there, he's also worked for The New Republic, The American Prospect, and CNN. On July 23, he was announced as Zeteo's "first full-time reporter."

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