Lemmings.world

See linked post, OP has a very colorful emoji username, like many have. If I try and give him a label it does not display at all. It is added, if I go and edit user label I can see it in the box, but it is not shown. You can double check by adding a label to anyone else in that thread, it works as expected.

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/48437950

A New York state appeals court on Thursday overturned as overly punitive a nearly $500 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump, but left in place a finding of fraud based on records that inflated the value of Trump’s business holdings.

A five-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division for the First Department disagreed over aspects of the case and the trial court’s ruling that awarded $465 million to the state after finding Trump liable for fraud, issuing three opinions that spanned more than 300 pages.

Two judges concluded that the finding of liability against Trump was correct, two said errors in the trial court meant a new trial should be held, and one judge said the case was wrongly decided.

Still, all five judges agreed the penalty was excessive, and the two judges who’d called for a retrial joined the two upholding the decision “for the sole purpose of ensuring finality, thereby affording the parties a path for appeal” to the state’s highest court, according to the decision.

VA-11 Hall-A x Slay the Spire

Pixiv source

Abuja (AFP) – Rights groups are questioning a multimillion-dollar arms sale by the United States to Nigeria as security forces in the west African nation continue to be accused of killing civilians with impunity.

Last week the State Department approved the possible sale of $346 million in weapons, including bombs, rockets and munitions, to Nigeria, which is battling jihadist militants in the northeast, armed "bandit" gangs in the northwest and separatists in the southeast.

Civilians have often been caught in the crossfire: in May, the Nigerian air force bombed a local self-defence group in Zamfara state, mistaking them for bandits, residents told AFP.

The State Department's own annual human rights report on Nigeria, released the same week it approved the weapons sale, warned of air strikes killing civilians and torture of detainees.

The sale announcement was "conspicuously silent on the Nigerian military's record of serious human rights abuses and on what safeguards, if any, will be implemented", Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

In an interview with AFP, she added that the US Congress, which has the authority to pause such sales, "really needs to ask these tough questions that the State Department is dancing around".

Spokespeople for the Nigerian army, air force and the US embassy in Abuja did not respond to requests for comment.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in air strikes in Nigeria in recent years, though the authorities sometimes dispute hitting civilians.

In the Zamfara bombing, the air force said it struck "terrorists".

Though violence linked to the Boko Haram uprising has receded since its peak between 2013 and 2015, Nigeria's security situation remains dire as jihadist attacks continue, including from the Islamic State West Africa Province group.

The United States is not Nigeria's top weapons supplier, typically trailing third behind China and Russia, according to a database on arms sales from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

In the past five years, that landscape has shifted, with China, Turkey, Brazil, Pakistan and the Netherlands making up the top suppliers, according to SIPRI's database of publicly available "major conventional arms" transfers.

But "the US still remains the beacon of democracy, and it should still be an example of holding those human rights standards", Isa Sanusi, Nigeria director for Amnesty International, told AFP, calling on Washington to strictly monitor how its arms are used, and whether any are tied to abuses.

In a report released this month, the rights group warned of extrajudicial killings by the army in Nigeria's southeast, along with civilian casualties from airstrikes.

Sadeeq Shehu, a former air force spokesman, told broadcaster Arise News that the sale was "very good news", and served as proof of increased civilian protection mechanisms.

"There are alternatives, but then certain things, you have to get from the Americans," Shehu said.

The United States supplied $232 million in "security sector assistance", $593 million in foreign military sales and $305 million in "direct commercial sales" from private companies to the country from 2000 to 2021, according to a report from Brown University.

But alleged corruption and rights abuses in Nigeria have weighed on the relationship in the past: under president Barack Obama, the United States government blocked arms sales to the country and mostly worked with neighbouring Chad and Niger in the fight against Boko Haram.

In 2021, US lawmakers temporarily held up a sale of attack helicopters worth nearly $1 billion over human rights concerns, though it ultimately went through.

Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based conflict researcher with the non-profit Good Governance Africa, said while a lack of accountability was a problem in the army, it was also worth questioning why the military's superior weaponry has not led it to victory.

"You can't tell me that the Boko Haram factions or even the bandits... have more sophisticated weapons," he said, calling for an emphasis on better strategy and intelligence gathering.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36089101

The Office of Defects Investigation (“ODI”) has identified numerous incident reports submitted by Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) in response to Standing General Order 2021-01 (the “SGO”), in which the reported crashes occurred several months or more before the dates of the reports. The majority of these reports involved crashes in which the Standing General Order in place at the time required a report to be submitted within one or five days of Tesla receiving notice of the crash. When the reports were submitted, Tesla submitted them in one of two ways. Many of the reports were submitted as part of a single batch, while others were submitted on a rolling basis.  

Preliminary engagement between ODI and Tesla on the issue indicates that the timing of the reports was due to an issue with Tesla’s data collection, which, according to Tesla, has now been fixed. NHTSA is opening this Audit Query, a standard process for reviewing compliance with legal requirements, to evaluate the cause of the potential delays in reporting, the scope of any such delays, and the mitigations that Tesla has developed to address them. As part of this review, NHTSA will assess whether any reports of prior incidents remain outstanding and whether the reports that were submitted include all of the required and available data.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration can slash hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of research funding in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the Supreme Court decided Thursday.

The split court lifted a judge’s order blocking $783 million worth of cuts made by the National Institutes of Health to align with Republican President Donald Trump’s priorities.

The court split 5-4 on the decision. Chief Justice John Roberts was among those who wouldn’t have allowed the cuts, along with the court’s three liberals. The high court did keep the Trump administration’s anti-DEI directive blocked for future funding with a key vote from Justice Amy Coney Barrett, however.

The decision marks the latest Supreme Court win for Trump and allows the administration to forge ahead with canceling hundreds of grants while the lawsuit continues to unfold. The plaintiffs say the decision is a “significant setback for public health,” but keeping the directive blocked means the administration can’t use it to cut more studies.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, has said funding decisions should not be “subject to judicial second-guessing” and efforts to promote policies referred to as DEI can “conceal insidious racial discrimination.”

The lawsuit addresses only part of the estimated $12 billion of NIH research projects that have been cut, but in its emergency appeal, the Trump administration also took aim at nearly two dozen other times judges have stood in the way of its funding cuts.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said judges shouldn’t be considering those cases under an earlier Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for teacher-training program cuts that the administration also linked to DEI. He says they should go to federal claims court instead.

Five conservative justices agreed, and Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a short opinion in which he criticized lower-court judges for not adhering to earlier high court orders. “All these interventions should have been unnecessary,” Gorsuch wrote.

These findings give astronomers a hint at where and when to look for technosignatures; the periods during which extrasolar planets, or "exoplanets," in other star systems align with their stars are of particular interest.

Alignments between exoplanets and stars, called transits, that occur when these worlds cross the face of their parent star from our perspective on Earth, are particularly useful for detecting planets beyond the solar system.

An Israeli-born US federal prosecutor in Nevada has come under scrutiny after she declined to pursue federal charges against a senior Israeli official arrested in Las Vegas on child sex crime allegations. Sigal Chattah, the acting US attorney for Nevada, confirmed Monday that her office would not prosecute the case, instead leaving it to local authorities, which shields both the Israeli occupation and the accused official from serious consequences.

Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, executive director of the defense division of the Israeli National Cyber Directorate, was arrested earlier this month in a multi-agency sting targeting child sex predators. Police say Alexandrovich arranged online to meet a person he believed was a 15-year-old girl, and was arrested after arriving at a pre-arranged location with contraception.

Despite the seriousness of the charge, a felony carrying a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years, Alexandrovich was released on a $10,000 bond and quickly returned to the occupied Palestinian territories, where he has been placed on leave. His next court hearing in Nevada is scheduled for later this month, but it is unclear whether he will return.

“I’m just going to try and do the best I can,” [Lehrmann's barrister] assured the court, before describing her client as “pretty much … a national joke” and “probably Australia’s most hated man”.

Burrows added that she was representing Lehrmann because, he “couldn’t afford” the barrister he “really wanted”.

The long, long public saga of Lehrmann has always co-mingled tragedy and farce. This week, it careened fully, decisively into farce. Here are the highlights of the lowlights.

Bangkok (AFP) – Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was cleared Friday of royal defamation charges, relieving a threat to his embattled political dynasty which has dominated Thai politics for two decades.

The 76-year-old had faced up to 15 years in prison, but a Bangkok court found him not guilty of breaching the kingdom's strict lese-majeste laws criminalising criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his family.

"The court dismissed the charges against Thaksin, ruling that the evidence presented was insufficient," his lawyer Winyat Chatmontree told reporters.

Thaksin left court ahead of his lawyer, smiling and telling the press the case was "dismissed", without making any further comment.

But his dynasty remains on the ropes, with his daughter Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra facing her own reckoning next week with a court decision due which may see her thrown out of office.

Thaksin's royal insult case stemmed from decade-old remarks he made in South Korean media relating to the 2014 military coup that overthrew his sister Yingluck.

AFP is not able to report the comments in detail because the lese-majeste law is so strict that doing so could in itself trigger criminal charges.

Thailand has been roiled by a succession of coups, street protests and court orders as Thaksin and his followers tussled for power with the traditional pro-royalist, pro-military elite that sees him as corrupt, nepotistic and a threat to the traditional social order.

Twice elected prime minister in the early 2000s, Thaksin fled Thailand and lived in self-imposed exile for 15 years after he was ousted in a military coup, finally returning to the kingdom in August 2023.

He landed in Bangkok on the same day his family's Pheu Thai party took office at the head of a coalition government backed by their conservative former enemies, fuelling suspicions a backroom deal had been struck.

On arrival, Thaksin was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison on graft and abuse of power charges dating back to his time in office.

But instead of going to jail, he was whisked to a private room at a police hospital because of health problems.

Days later, the king cut his sentence to one year, and in February 2024, he was freed as part of an early release scheme for elderly prisoners.

His handling has led to another legal case, set to conclude on September 9, arguing that because he never served time in a jail cell, he was not eligible for early release.

Prosecutions for lese-majeste, known as 112 in Thailand for its section in the criminal code, have increased sharply since anti-government protests in 2020, some of which openly criticised the monarchy.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a group providing legal services in many of the cases, says that more than 280 people have been prosecuted under section 112 in the last five years.

The law says anyone who "defames, insults or threatens" the king, queen, heir or regent can face up to 15 years in prison.

Rights groups and critics say the law is now interpreted so broadly as to stifle dissent and legitimate debate.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/upliftingnews by /u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 on 2025-08-22 05:50:19+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/upliftingnews by /u/Mrk2d on 2025-08-22 05:21:53+00:00.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36109840

Photo by Sora Shimazaki

by Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor
August 19, 2025

Police did not act improperly when an officer gained access to the phone of an individual detained for kidnapping, sex assault, and other serious charges after watching the man enter his cellphone passcode and committing it to memory, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Tyrone Ellison, who was arrested and convicted after kidnapping a minor with substance abuse issues from a Newark hospital, had no reasonable expectation of privacy when he unlocked his phone while in police custody and under the supervision of a detective, the court ruled.

“There was no violation of defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination where defendant voluntarily requested his cell phone, was not compelled to provide the passcode and voluntarily entered the passcode in the officer’s presence,” the judges wrote.

Police could not leave Ellison unattended with his phone without risking him deleting evidence, the ruling adds.

The judges said prior case law that found an arrestee maintained a reasonable expectation of privacy when making a call from a police station without being told that call may be monitored or recorded does not apply to Ellison’s case.

Ellison, the judges wrote, was aware of the detective’s presence when entering his passcode, did not attempt to conceal his password, and was not stopped from concealing his passcode from police.

“There was no deception or trickery used to obtain defendant’s passcode. Nor did the police orchestrate the situation to induce defendant to reveal the passcode,” the court wrote.

In effect, Ellison’s expectation of privacy vanished when he chose to unlock his phone in the presence of police, the court found.

A divided New Jersey Supreme Court in 2020 ruled in Andrews v. New Jersey that while the Fifth Amendment presumptively protects individuals’ passcodes, they can be compelled to reveal them under the foregone conclusion exception to the amendment. That exception allows the compelled disclosure of documents and passcodes as long as authorities know they exist and the individual subject to the warrant knows and possesses them.

Tuesday’s ruling says another doctrine that allows authorities to use improperly obtained information if it would have inevitably come into their possession through proper channels would have allowed police to use the passcode even if it was initially obtained improperly.

Police obtained a communications data warrant to search the phone and could have obtained an order to compel Ellison to disclose his passcode, the judges wrote.

“Once the passcode was compelled, law enforcement would have been able to access the contents of the phone,” the judges wrote.

The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender represented Ellison. Alison Perrone, deputy of the office’s appellate section, called the ruling concerning and said her office will ask the New Jersey Supreme Court to review the case.

“The ability of law enforcement to observe and later use a person’s private phone passcode while in custody presents serious questions about constitutional rights in the digital era,” Perrone said in a statement.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.SUBSCRIBE

New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4156859

Just months after ICIJ’s China Targets investigation, the country has confirmed that countering foreign influence is an “utmost priority” for the government.

Canada will appoint its first foreign interference commissioner next month as part of a package of reforms aimed at strengthening the country’s ability to fight back against transnational repression, a government minister has confirmed.

Speaking with ICIJ [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists] media partner CBC News, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree confirmed that the government has already begun vetting potential candidates for the watchdog role, and plans to present options to lawmakers for review by mid-September.

The move comes months after ICIJ and its media partners published the China Targets investigation, which showed how Beijing has used sinister tactics to silence critics of the Chinese government beyond its borders. In Canada, CBC News uncovered cases of intimidation and harassment against a Hong Kong pro-democracy advocate in exile and a pro-Taiwan activist that included the circulation of deepfake, sexually explicit images online and threats against the activist’s family members still living in China.

...

Jenny Kwan, a member of the left-leaning New Democratic Party who herself is an “evergreen” target of the Chinese government according to Canada’s intelligence agency, told ICIJ media partner CBC News at the time that countering transnational repression has become an urgent matter.

...

The new watchdog position in Canada was mandated by legislation passed in June 2024 following a public inquiry into foreign interference. The legislation also includes provisions to create a public registry of foreign agents, which Anandasangaree said would likely be ready before the end of the year.

...

A network of new wetlands, wader scrapes, hedgerows and woodlands has transformed land in Cow Ark, Ribble Valley, as part of a major restoration project led by Ribble Rivers Trust and local landowners.

The initiative aims to restore nature, improve water management, and strengthen resilience to climate change.

The recently-completed works have created a thriving habitat mosaic where wildlife can flourish. Wetlands and wader scrapes now hold water for longer, providing vital feeding grounds for wading birds and homes for amphibians and invertebrates.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki

by Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor
August 19, 2025

Police did not act improperly when an officer gained access to the phone of an individual detained for kidnapping, sex assault, and other serious charges after watching the man enter his cellphone passcode and committing it to memory, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Tyrone Ellison, who was arrested and convicted after kidnapping a minor with substance abuse issues from a Newark hospital, had no reasonable expectation of privacy when he unlocked his phone while in police custody and under the supervision of a detective, the court ruled.

“There was no violation of defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination where defendant voluntarily requested his cell phone, was not compelled to provide the passcode and voluntarily entered the passcode in the officer’s presence,” the judges wrote.

Police could not leave Ellison unattended with his phone without risking him deleting evidence, the ruling adds.

The judges said prior case law that found an arrestee maintained a reasonable expectation of privacy when making a call from a police station without being told that call may be monitored or recorded does not apply to Ellison’s case.

Ellison, the judges wrote, was aware of the detective’s presence when entering his passcode, did not attempt to conceal his password, and was not stopped from concealing his passcode from police.

“There was no deception or trickery used to obtain defendant’s passcode. Nor did the police orchestrate the situation to induce defendant to reveal the passcode,” the court wrote.

In effect, Ellison’s expectation of privacy vanished when he chose to unlock his phone in the presence of police, the court found.

A divided New Jersey Supreme Court in 2020 ruled in Andrews v. New Jersey that while the Fifth Amendment presumptively protects individuals’ passcodes, they can be compelled to reveal them under the foregone conclusion exception to the amendment. That exception allows the compelled disclosure of documents and passcodes as long as authorities know they exist and the individual subject to the warrant knows and possesses them.

Tuesday’s ruling says another doctrine that allows authorities to use improperly obtained information if it would have inevitably come into their possession through proper channels would have allowed police to use the passcode even if it was initially obtained improperly.

Police obtained a communications data warrant to search the phone and could have obtained an order to compel Ellison to disclose his passcode, the judges wrote.

“Once the passcode was compelled, law enforcement would have been able to access the contents of the phone,” the judges wrote.

The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender represented Ellison. Alison Perrone, deputy of the office’s appellate section, called the ruling concerning and said her office will ask the New Jersey Supreme Court to review the case.

“The ability of law enforcement to observe and later use a person’s private phone passcode while in custody presents serious questions about constitutional rights in the digital era,” Perrone said in a statement.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.SUBSCRIBE

New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

It's interesting to note that data centers don't use very much, despite perception.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36092597

From VA Marine Mammal Rescue Society via this RSS feed

Ash dieback and other tree diseases are resulting in significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought because a large amount of carbon is escaping from woodland soils, a study has found. This is in addition to carbon losses from tens of millions of dying trees and reduced removal of CO2 from the atmosphere due to the widespread deaths of mature ash trees.

The research team led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) says that the exponential rise in tree diseases across the world are likely to hamper forests’ ability to help meet net zero plans.

They estimate losses from soils alone due to ash dieback in British woodlands resulted in 5.8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over five years (2016-21). This is equivalent to over half the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere by broadleaf woodlands in Great Britain in a year, or alternatively the total amount of CO2 emitted by cars travelling on Scotland’s roads annually.

Any documentary with the adored, uncensored actor is always a treat. Plus: John Cena returns as a hulking hero. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Two

After her great series exploring Australia, Miriam Margolyes is now in New Zealand, shooting a film in which she plays a nun. She invites the cameras to follow her as she asks how being a New Zealander is different from being Australian. (“I haven’t got a flying fart of an idea.”) Any show with Margolyes is a guaranteed hoot and serves up wisdom, too. Hollie Richardson

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