Your worst still friendly friend

  • 4.29K Posts
  • 561 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 15th, 2023

help-circle






















  • After the Algerian parliament voted unanimously Wednesday to criminalise French colonisation and to demand an official apology, the French foreign ministry said the move was "manifestly hostile, both to the desire to resume Franco-Algerian dialogue and to calm, constructive work on issues of historical memory”.

    This is the third time since 2001 that the Algerian parliament has taken up such a proposal. The apology demanded in the law would be a prerequisite for any “reconciliation of historical memory”.

    On the left, politicians argue that French must confront its colonial past.

    “Algeria is today an independent country and its parliament is free,” said hard left France Unbowed MP Thomas Porte.

    “There is a reality: France committed crimes against humanity. France tortured, France killed. France owes apologies.”

    Communist Senator Yann Brossat believes France should have already apologised, “without waiting for pressure from Algeria”.

    Algerian MPs also passed an amendment that would allow the withdrawal of Algerian nationality from a dual national who commits acts deemed to undermine Algeria’s interests and security while abroad.

    https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20251225-france-calls-algeria-colonisation-law-hostile-and-blow-to-dialogue









  • Swiss reject compulsory civic duty, climate tax for super-rich: projections

    Geneva (AFP) – Swiss voters looked set Sunday to reject a proposal to replace the current men-only military conscription with a compulsory civic duty for all and another on taxing the super-rich to fund the climate fight.

    Early projections after polls closed at noon (1100 GMT) indicated that voters had overwhelmingly rejected the two initiatives, which had generated significant discussion in the wealthy Alpine nation.

    The so-called Civic Duty initiative, which called for requiring every Swiss citizen, regardless of gender, to do national service in the army or in a civilian capacity, was projected by public broadcaster SSR to be snubbed by a whopping 84 percent of voters.

    The ‘no’ vote on the second item on Sunday’s ballot, the “initiative for a future” calling for a new climate tax on big inheritances, was meanwhile projected to tick in at 79 percent, SSR said.

    The projections were not surprising, with recent opinion polls suggesting the proposals had little chance of passing.

    The Swiss government and parliament had also come out against both items, arguing that they would entail huge costs and could threaten the economy.

    https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20251130-swiss-reject-compulsory-civic-duty-climate-tax-for-super-rich-projections





  • Qualcomm has quietly made some massive changes to Arduino’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, marking a clear departure from the platform’s founding principles.

    According to Adafruit, the new policies introduce sweeping user-license provisions, broaden data collection (particularly around AI usage), and embed long-term account data retention, all while integrating user information into Qualcomm’s broader data ecosystem.

    Section 7.1 grants Arduino a perpetual, irrevocable license over anything you upload. Your code, projects, forum posts, and comments all fall under this. This remains in effect even after you delete your account. Arduino retains rights to your content indefinitely.

    The license is also royalty-free and sublicensable. Arduino can use your content however they want, distribute it, modify it, and even sublicense it to others.

    The terms further state that users are not allowed to reverse engineer or attempt to understand how the platform works unless Arduino gives permission. Adafruit argues that this contradicts the values that made Arduino attractive to educators, researchers, and hobbyists.

    The Privacy Policy states Arduino is wholly owned by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. User data, including from minors, flows to other Qualcomm Group companies.