Certainly seems like a questionable move by the bank, though it’s entirely possible we’re missing more context.

There was an article yesterday explaining that the frozen account belongs to an organisation that funds other organisations. One of those is accused of supporting/funding terrorism. So at the end, the bank has no choice and nothing to decide on their own, once they get knowledge of this accused connection. Otherwise they would to get dragged into the case as well and prosecution against them could be opened. Which is why they froze the bank account for now and sent a questionnaire about the organisation and their members to evaluate the situation. That is all, nothing was seized, the title is a lie.

Or I did just web search for 2024 and there are indeed ‘European Parliament election in France’ as a result.

But you probably understood very well what was saying and why I was writing it. Do you have an explanation for his behaviour?

Are there elections coming in France?

We are hearing big words from Macron over and over in the last few weeks to support Ukraine - yet France is far behind when in comes to supporting Ukraine financially or with military equipment. And please don’t bring that Reddit meme ‘France is doing everything secretly and nobody knows about it’. Democratic financing in billions of Euros is public and not a high toilet paper bill like in Hollywood movies from the 80s. There is of course a lot of proportionate support by France within the EU-assistance, as France is a big economy and paying into the EU budget. It’s a similar situation with Italy, as they are another big economy within the EU. Both EU ‘power houses’ are far behind when it comes to direct support for Ukraine.

Macron has been telling us just last week, that the local EU arms industry needs more orders to enable low and competitive prices. He also told us support for Ukraine should only receive subsidies for EU-made products. And last week we saw statistics that the arm industry/exports from the USA and France profited the most from the Russian invasion in Ukraine, as everyone is getting their military up to date and ordering a lot. So everything plays in his hands and France is reaping in big profits and getting support for its huge arms industry. Yet, the country is far behind in supporting Ukraine and Macron keeps calling other countries to support Ukraine more - or here that ‘Europe will lose all credibility’.

What is going on here? Elections?

It’s probably meant as distinction from other sectors with Methane emissions, e.g. agriculture, transport, chemical industry…

It’s not that they now changed something with data collection and sharing within the update. They always did it, all services free of charge do it and most that cost money likely take the extra money as well.

It’s now that they tell you in a short and informative way (1st sentence) and ask for your consent.

What’s really infuriating, are websites and services that have an “Accept All” button but no “Reject All”. Instead you have to manage individually and sometimes I have to flip 30 separate buttons to disable data sharing, where they even call advertisers a ‘necessary 3rd party’ requiring interaction on top.

I think the article only mentions the prices in the Google store, which are way more expensive than other shops. The Pixel 8 128GB is currently available at 550€.

So the Pixel 8a at 570€ would be the more expensive model.

“Tobias Ellwood, the former chairman of the Commons defence committee” is about half a year behind with his accusation. So either it’s just for show or he’s not well informed about this topic.

Already October 2023, this was in the news for everyone to read, that France and the UK are providing the geodata for their cruise missile targets and that the UK has personnel in Ukraine.

One example article I just picked via web search: German Tagesspiegel, dated 05.10.2023

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/keine-taurus-lieferung-fur-die-ukraine-erwarte-vom-kanzler-dass-er-endlich-den-weg-freimacht-10572931.html

Quote & DeepL translation:

The British and French can do something “we can’t”

The UK and France have nevertheless supplied cruise missiles of the virtually identical types “Storm Shadow” and “Scalp”. According to Bild, Scholz said in a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee last week that these two countries “can do something that we are not allowed to do”, adding: “So the question does not arise.”

What he meant was that the UK and France supplied the geodata for missile targets themselves, with the UK also having its own personnel on the ground in Ukraine. This is out of the question for the German government.

The motivation from the previous nationalist PiS government in Poland was mainly anything they could to do against Russia or against Germany.

So by supporting Ukraine with military equipment, they were acting against Russia. But at the same time slowed down German support for Ukraine, by blocking maintenance and factories for Ukrainian equipment in Poland. Leading to long transports across to other countries e.g. Latvia for maintenance.

Now, with the grain, this has no Russian involvement and their own farmers are unhappy. So there is no way to go against Russia or against Germany. Also there is a new government in Poland, so I guess we have to see how that develops now.

I read that paragraph on Wikipedia but fail to see your statements. Italy, Denmark, France aren’t even mentioned there.

In detail it’s described that Poland stopped paying Russia, so Russia stopped pumping gas via the Yamal pipeline to Poland. That is not ‘cutting-off’. Also Poland kept receiving natural gas from Russia via Nord Stream, via Germany and over to Poland during summer 2022. Yamal was running in reverse and supplying Poland, so that they even hit over 100% storage at that time. For Finland it’s similar - they stopped paying, so Russia stopped delivering.

Even today Russia supplies EU countries with natural gas, which is also part of the storage and supply calculation within the EU. What if Russia stops delivering tomorrow? How can these countries be supplied in such a scenario? Russia still has some leverage over a few countries, e.g. Austria via long-term contracts, where Austria stated not honouring the contracts from their side, would be more expensive that taking the natural gas.

I must admit I stopped reading after the first paragraph but it’s just so exaggerated or simply false, that I don’t see the value in spending more time on such an article.

Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, forecast on Wednesday that global demand for liquefied natural gas, which has been a lifeline for Europe after Russia cut off pipeline gas supplies, will surge by around 50 percent over the next 15 years.

• LNG is not a lifeline. A pipeline could be labelled like that, but LNG is a globally traded good supplied by dozens of countries.
• Russia did not cut off natural gas supplies, they even supply now throughout their illegal war, towards countries that support Ukraine.
• 50% increase over 15 years is not a ‘surge’, but more a slow and steady increase.

The point is that Hamas doesn’t stop firing rockets. I’m not there, so I don’t know if they fire on southern Israel every single day, but twice a week everyone can read about rockets fired at Israel and sirens going off. It seems just Tel Aviv wasn’t targeted for a few weeks (this article). In the link below Ashkelon is mentioned as well with a short break of 2 weeks. But as I said before, the further north, the longer the range they need to build and with the claims they are running short on weapon supplies, this makes sense that further targets get hit less often.

e.g. just a few days ago:

“Hamas welcomes UN court ruling as it fires rockets on Israel (January 26, 2024; The Telepgraph)”

“Hamas appears to have targeted the south of Israel, where attacks have become increasingly rare amid claims the group is running out of missiles. Rockets were sighted over the city of Ashkelon for the first time in two weeks.”

https://news.yahoo.com/hamas-welcomes-un-court-ruling-181014383.html

This article is only about the location Tel Aviv.

It’s further away, so more effort to build rockets and harder to hit. Hamas never stopped firing rockets on Israel. On the 7 October 2023 terror attack alone, reports range from 3000 to 5000 projectiles or rockets within 24 hours and in the following conflict, they kept firing missiles on Israel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Hamas-led_attack_on_Israel#Rocket_fire

If you believe the information on CNN is wrong, you could just use a web search for a different source to check and compare for yourself. Or just go to unrwa.org and their press releases:

26 January 2024 AMMAN,

“The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October.

“To protect the Agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay. Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families.

“These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the Agency has been providing since the war began. Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world”.

Quote from here: https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/serious-allegations-against-unrwa-staff-gaza-strip

Misleading title.

Article:

“We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day … so we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a NATO country one day,” Pistorius said in an interview with the Berlin-based Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.

While a Russian attack is not likely “for now,” the minister added: “Our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible.”

There is no warning of an attack. There is an analysis that it’s not likely for now. And earliest where something like this could become possible, would be that mentioned time frame. That is not what the word warning means. That is a statement about a vague estimate of an unlikely event - of course way less catchy title.

Wikipedia also has a list with more countries and animals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_animals

E.g. Denmark even has 3 national animals listed and not just the swan in the picture: Red squirrel (national mammal), Mute swan (national bird) and Small tortoiseshell (national butterfly).

As you didn’t read the article:

“This move seems driven by the government’s interest in collecting and centralizing biometric data for identification, tracking, and surveillance purposes,” he said. Omar agreed: “Probably to keep track of the refugees.”

They hand out SIM cards to track those SIM cards. Using a certain messaging app on the phone or not doesn’t change SIM card tracking within the network.

“Her application was refused in June on the grounds she did not provide sufficient evidence, but she had asked for an administrative review of the decision and had a certificate of application (CoA) from the Home Office. It states “you can work in the UK until you receive a decision on your application to the EU settlement scheme”.”

“The Border Force refused entry on the grounds that her “application for EUSS [EU settlement scheme] has been refused” […]”

Could be just overlapping on the timing, that she got the decision in her post box in the UK, while she was abroad in Spain. Would be the simplest explanation for the situation.

What is the thought process behind these attacks?

We all know from Operation Atalanta, the anti-piracy naval operation around Somalia by EU and UN, that interrupting trade routes is a speed run to get a strong military response. Around Yemen, even US naval forces got involved. But why would the Houthi rebels want that? Is there any gain for them from getting such an escalation? From my armchair point of view, this doesn’t look smart.

As per comment on the hacker news discussion, Dropbox AI was apparently introduced and mentioned in the changelog on October 10, 2023 only for users from the USA.

“Dropbox AI is currently in alpha and available in the US in EN only for Dropbox Pro, Standard, Advanced, Essentials, Business, and Business Plus. Some features may be available soon for eligible non-US customers to test.”

I just checked my settings before reading that comment and there is no such setting on my free account (‘Basic’) from the EU.

In a selected port, with a crane. That’s basically the tl;dr from the video Kalash posted at 4:23 time index.

But the Houthis didn’t fire at warships. I know some outlets had similar sounding titles but they were clickbait and their own articles were contradicting their title. The Houthis were firing towards merchant vessels and within 20 km or so, there was also a warship, which then reacted.