CPO Test Instance

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/post/712889

The long troll

Ministers and senior MPs have warned that the UK’s agreements with Donald Trump are “built on sand” after the Guardian established that the deal to avoid drug tariffs has no underlying text beyond limited headline terms.

The “milestone” US-UK deal announced this month on pharmaceuticals, which will mean the NHS pays more for medicines in exchange for a promise of zero tariffs on the industry, still lacks a legal footing beyond top lines contained in two government press releases.

The health department said that negotiators were now thrashing out the detailed agreement on the pharmaceutical deal. Asked to provide the headline terms, the department shared its press release hailing the “landmark UK-US pharmaceuticals deal” and a link to the equivalent US government announcement of an “agreement in principle” on pharmaceutical pricing.

Critics have noted that the two releases describe the deal in sharply different terms. The British release describes the UK as “the only country in the world to secure a 0% tariff on pharmaceuticals to the US”, while the American one largely focuses on how the NHS will have to pay 25% more for new medicines.

Elena worked for Novaya Gazetta, the last independent newspaper in Russia.

Her newsroom was systematically harassed. She has been arrested and beaten on many occasions. In fact, 4 of her colleagues were murdered under her watch.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the newspaper was forced to shut down.

She left Russia and moved to Ukraine where she started covering Russian war crimes committed against civilians. She was forced to leave after Ukrainians told her that Russian soldiers had a bounty on her head. (you can use subtitles)

Then, a few weeks later, she was hospitalized. Her food was poisoned in an attempt to kill her:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/you-may-have-been-poisoned-how-an-independent-russian-journalist-became-a-target

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke-university-elena-kostyuchenko-russian-journalist-in-exile-visiting-professor-poisoned-kremlin-20251124

Elena miraculously survived and kept reporting.

She now teaches at Duke University in the US. When asked if she is afraid, she said the following:

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-11-22/elena-kostyuchenko-im-not-afraid-if-i-wasnt-afraid-of-putin-i-wont-be-afraid-of-trump.html

Elena is one the bravest person I know.

When you think about it, people living in Western Democracies have no excuse. You can create a labor union in your company. You can run for office in your town. You can fight big corporations to reduce pollution.

When I lack inner strength to do the right thing, I always think about her.

I would like to start sharing podcast episodes I like on lemmy/threadiverse, but it feels like there is no non-awkward way to do it. Often podcasts don't actually have their own website and it feels obtuse to link to applepodcasts or something...

federal legislators includes representatives (HOR) and senators.

one could be tempted to think that on a fptp system the representative actually represents his district and not his party, something that should be clearer on a senatorial level.

However, there are no limits to political donations in the US afaik, which I guess means the rich and powerful ones can invest as much as they can to denigrate the other side, usually a democrat (correct me if wrong).

I don't know if there are like party federal committees that raise money nationally for or against abortion, death penalty, tariffs... and then each party decides how to allocate that money. I don't know if there are staffers in each party that decide which candidate is compliant enough to follow blindly what the federal committee decides and is not going to be a dangerous maverick because he actually has an independent moral compass.

Is it possible for local candidates to run against their own party and actually win? Like a republican that lost his party's nomination for a district, then becomes an independent and actually wins against his former party?

Or are HOR races much more local than I imagine and each representative campaigns exclusively on local issues, raises money only in the constituency to be invested exclusively in the district' election?

Do candidates have to give back the money that was given as a donation that wasn't actually used to try to win an election?

Can a politician actually pretend to raise money for a campaign and then simply pocket it?

I have the feeling that most members in the HOR are careerists that usually go with the motions and repeat the official position of their party and only selected individuals are brave or reckless enough to say out loud and clearly what they believe in (extreme example, Marjorie Taylor Greene). Most representatives, when pressed upon a problematic issue will first give you an elusive answer, then contact their party for instructions about what the correct answer is. This applies to both democrats and republicans.

I have no idea if federal senators are also mostly followers and not leaders.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40346958

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he has approved a $35 billion natural gas export deal to Egypt, the biggest gas deal in Israeli history. The agreement could also help repair relations between the two countries strained during the two-year war in the Gaza Strip.

The gas will be delivered to Egypt over the next 15 years by U.S. energy giant Chevron, a key owner of the gas field off Israel’s coast in the Mediterranean Sea. Half of the proceeds are expected to go to Israel’s state coffers.

In a recorded video statement, Netanyahu said the deal “greatly strengthens Israel’s position as a regional energy power, and it contributes to stability in our region.”

Egypt, which borders both Israel and Gaza, has served as a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas group leading up to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that was agreed on in October. Cairo has also has been a vocal critic of Israel’s offensive, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction in Gaza.

this post is just for fun and meant to be light hearted.

context: I forgot that a chunk of the lemmy community kinda likes to petty and I made fun of someone irrelevant to the fediverse for being petty and angry at me, and I asked if anyone else got had any examples of pettiness. some of lemmy users sided with the person I was speaking with and treated me as though I was offended, which was kinda interesting.

I did think a scenario about asking a cop what the worst case of police brutality they witnessed?

• UK to pay $760 million in first academic year back
• UK membership of Erasmus+ a key EU demand
• Universities welcome increased opportunity for students

LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to allow UK students to rejoin the bloc's popular student exchange programme Erasmus+ from 2027, a small but symbolic sign of improved relations after Brexit.

The UK contribution for the 2027/28 academic year will be 570 million pounds ($760 million), the British government said, adding that the deal included a 30% discount compared to the default terms under the current trade deal with the EU.

The two sides have also agreed to start negotiations on electricity market integration, and have set a deadline to finalise a food and drink trade deal and carbon markets linkage next year, the statement said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed a "new era" in the EU relationship in May when the two sides agreed the most significant reset of defence and trade ties since the country's departure from the bloc in 2020. "Today's agreements prove that our new partnership with the EU is working," EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said, calling the Erasmus+ deal "a huge win for our young people".

More than 100,000 people in the UK could benefit from the scheme in the first year, the government said.

Max Verstappen will be associated with a new driver number when the 2026 F1 season gets underway.

For example, is there a 'laws dot gov' kinda URL I can go to and type "importing raccoons to Northern Ireland to create a self-sustaining population" into the search bar?

Or maybe something like a multi-volume book series I can check at the library to see if "raccoon husbandry; N. Ireland" is mentioned?

Maybe an AI chatbot on the local council's website that I can ask "is it legal to raise baby raccoons by feeding them from miniature wheelie bins to teach them where food comes from and how to open the lids"?

I'm not about to do anything [potentially] illegal, I'm just curious.

Cheers! 🦝

Makers beware!

Much like with common household chemicals used for cleaning, such as bleach and ammonia, improper use of these can produce e.g. chlorine gas, which while harmful is generally not lethal. Things get much more serious with brake cleaner, containing tetrachloroethylene. As explained in the video, getting brake cleaner on a rusty part to clean it and then exposing it to the intensive energies of the welding process suffices to create phosgene.

The patch is small, about a fingernail in size.

Elsewhere on the packet they used two colors of ink: a very dark blue (this) and a lighter blue. I expected it to be some kind of alignment pattern, by only one of the inks seems to have been used here, so that's not it.

What is it for, why would they bother printing it? An ink+paper resolution/absorption test?

Hi. I'm using unofficial rom of the newest LineageOS for my Xiaomi Redmi Note 12S. I know it's not that secure to use unofficial rom as using official one because it might have malware but I think that I trust guy behind a rom and I even donated him for his hard work. Official firmware for Xiaomi is terrible and had a lot of spyware, I couldn't sleep with awareness of this.

For right now I'm planning to make my phone more private and secure. I heard that SIM Card is really big privacy issue and it can take control over device. I'm planning to don't using SIM Card on my main device and instead put in my old IPhone 7, then I will share internet from it or make calls if I will have to. I don't trust Apple too much but I think that their system is much better hardened than android when it comes to stuff like that. I don't planning to put any important stuff on IPhone, expect for proprietary software like banking apps etc. I think that ICloud account is huge privacy issue but I think that solution is better than what I have right now. So I'll have FOSS software only on my main Xiaomi Phone.

Then maybe I should root my LineageOS to harden it? It will give more control over my device and I could control it network traffic by firewall, add additional encryption if it's possible etc. What solutions can you recommend? Also I heard that opened bootloader is security issue but to be honest if I was able to do this by exploit avoiding doing this by manufacturer way I think that cops or hackers can do the same if they I will get my phone.

What can I do also for more privacy and security? I think that I should use work profile and private space which are great solutions. Also I can make some faraday cage which will also dull a sounds from environment, avoid holding sensitive data on my phone and have different accounts for messengers.

What do you think about this? How are you using your phone and what can you recommend for privacy?

...the conflict in Ukraine is unfolding similarly to others in Russia’s long history of failed or inconclusive imperial wars. Several times in the past few centuries, Russian leaders launched wars of conquest against foes they misunderstood and underestimated, and with little appreciation of the larger international context...

...The Crimean War (1853-56), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), World War I (1914-18), and the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-88) offer the most relevant analogies. All were wars of choice for territorial aggrandizement or other imperial interventions, which ended in military defeat followed by political upheaval.

Russia’s failure in these wars stemmed from common mistakes and shortcomings that also afflict Putin’s war in Ukraine. One common failing was to underestimate their foes’ military capabilities and societal resilience. Emperor Nicholas I expected the Ottoman Empire to quickly give way on his demand for a protectorate over Orthodox Christians in what is now Moldova and part of Romania, while Emperor Nicholas II and his commanders believed that the Japanese military could never stand up to a European great power. Similar hubris colored their assessment of the Ottomans in 1914-15, when they settled on seizing Constantinople and the Black Sea Straits as a war aim. Nor did Soviet commanders have much respect for the ragtag mujahedeen in Afghanistan.

Second, Russian leaders frequently downplayed the risks and impacts of foreign (i.e., Western) involvement that ended up prolonging the war and increasing the costs Russia was forced to bear. The landing of French and British troops in Crimea in 1854 forced Russia to fight on multiple fronts against better-equipped armies. British intelligence support enabled Tokyo to remain a step ahead of Russian plans throughout the Russo-Japanese War. While Russia declared war against Austria-Hungary in August 1914, it soon found itself at war with Germany, the Ottomans, and Bulgaria as well. A German-Ottoman blockade of the Black Sea Straits choked off Allied support, exacerbating the tsarist government’s inability to mobilize defense production. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan prompted the United States, in uneasy alliance with Saudia Arabia and Pakistan, to arm the mujahedeen forces that ground down the Soviet army until General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev ordered their withdrawal nearly a decade later.

With an economy far less dynamic that those of its Western rivals, Russia in each case found itself at an increasing disadvantage the longer these wars went on. As economic burdens and personnel losses mounted, so too did opposition not just to the war, but to the regime prosecuting it...

It's funny, I went to college and got my degree in mechanical engineering. I'm glad I went and it's definitely made my career easier. However, as a power plant operator, in my state a degree isn't needed, just licensing.

Is it when you use capital letters properly?

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43814573

One of the leaders of the pro-Russian Koos party and Estonian citizen Aivo Peterson was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason by Harju District Court on Thursday.

Web archive link

The trial, which began in November 2023, dealt with allegations of treason against Estonian citizens Peterson and Dmitri Rootsi, as well as claims that Peterson and Russian citizen Andrei Andronov acted to undermine Estonia's independence.

The charges were connected to meetings with Russian politicians, aligning policy positions, the organization of an independent civil defense organization, and a Russian-funded press trip to occupied Ukraine.

According to the indictment, Peterson and Rootsi, based on instructions received from Russia, knowingly and in an organized manner assisted Russia and people acting on behalf of Russian authorities in non-violent activities directed against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia from October 2022 to March 10, 2023.

...