did a small photoshoot with my cat #cat #catsofmastodon

Nothing screams Idiocracy like celebrating America’s 250th birthday with a UFC cage fight at the White House, sponsored by a president who’s already turned the Oval Office into a gold-plated McMansion. While the empire burns, Trump’s is paving over the Rose Garden for an octagon. It's a fitting reality TV arc for the unfolding national collapse.

White House to host UFC fight night on 4 July

The fight is set to be part of a series of events commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

#usa #uspol

Hundreds of firefighters are battling to stop the spread of a fast-moving wildfire in the the Corbières hills of southern France. The blaze burned an area the size of Paris over one afternoon and night and was still burning on Wednesday evening, making it the second biggest fire in France in 50 years.

the Guardian

‘Unprecedented’ wildfire burns area size of Paris in southern France

Advancing blaze scorches 16,000 hectares near Spanish border, destroying homes and forcing people to flee

#france #climatecrisis

Chinese researchers have developed two advanced DNA editing tools that could lead to breakthroughs in crop breeding and new treatments for cancer and genetic diseases.

New Chinese Gene-Editing Tools Promise Advances in Medicine, Agriculture

#china #science

German police expands use of Palantir surveillance software.

dw.com

German police expands use of Palantir surveillance software

Police and spy agencies are keen to combat criminality and terrorism with artificial intelligence. But critics say the CIA-funded Palantir surveill...

#germany #privacy

Canada’s government treats war funding as urgent but climate action as ‘unrealistic’ despite heat domes killing 20x more people than terrorism. While military spending is set to soar to 5% GDP, climate gets scraps at 0.7% GDP, half of which funds fossil fuel scams like carbon capture. The real security threat is climate chaos displacing millions and collapsing food systems Yet we’re buying missile shields instead of mass electrification. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/07/09/opinion/money-military-climate-nato #canada #cdnpoli #climatecrisis

US prices for China-made goods on Amazon rise faster than inflation, analysis shows, as tariffs bite. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-prices-china-made-goods-amazon-rise-faster-than-inflation-analysis-shows-2025-06-30/ #usa #economy #tariffs

Scientists in China have developed the world’s first 3D model of early mouse embryos, revealing how life forms in its initial stages at single-cell resolution.

South China Morning Post

Digital embryo gives China a powerful tool to decode secret of life: scientists

The world-first scientific breakthrough will enhance understanding of disease development, organ regeneration and cancer treatment.

#science

16 billion passwords have been leaked from Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. It is now considered as the largest password leak in history.

Dexerto

16 billion passwords leaked in one of the biggest data breaches ever: Report - Dexerto

Research from Cybernews has found 16 billion sets of login credentials have been leaked across all sorts of online services.

#security

A great video explaining how China's internet firewall is a net positive ensuring a sovereign and a cleaner online space. It limits harmful content, disinformation, and foreign interference, allowing domestic tech to thrive. While censorship exists, citizens have channels to voice concerns, and the system avoids the extreme polarization and toxicity seen elsewhere. #china #technology

Huawei faced a global business crisis when the US banned it 2019. The ban almost wiped out Huawei's global smartphone business but was met with strong support from China's government. Huawei is now at the center of China's efforts to achieve technological independence from the West having establishing a network of factories to manufacture its chips and developing its own operating system, HarmonyOS. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-14/china-s-huawei-how-did-it-survive-bans-by-us-and-allies #china #technology #huawei

#usa #china #tradewar

Bank of America strategists advise selling rallies in U.S. stocks and the dollar due to the ongoing depreciation of the U.S. dollar and the shift away from U.S. assets. The weak dollar theme favors increased global asset allocation to commodities, emerging markets, and international stocks. https://financialpost.com/investing/bank-of-america-sell-rebound-us-stocks-dollar #usa #economy

one of the best things about running your own instance is that you can just ban trolls immediately

Daniel Ortega "The Revolution in China continues, and now offers itself to the World as a Revolution bringing Peace, bringing Well-being, bringing Solidarity to the Peoples"

DANIEL: "The Revolution in China continues, and now offers itself to the World as a Revolution bringing Peace, bringing Well-being, bringing Solidarity to the Peoples" | Tortilla con Sal

Celebration of the Delivery of Buses to Transport Cooperatives March 8th 2025

DeepSeek V3 drives China's AI adoption with practical applications in customer service, healthcare, industry, and retail. DeepSeek is 20-50 times less resource intensive than ChatGPT. Its cost-effectiveness and focus on efficiency enable widespread use. #china #technology #ai

European leaders are struggling to find the funds and political will to increase military spending and support Ukraine, despite their tough talk against the US and Russia. Unity is already fracturing, particularly when it comes to borrowing money and raising collective debt. Ursula von der Leyen's plan to rearm Europe, called "ReArm Europe," has been rebranded as "Readiness 2030" due to opposition from Italy and Spain. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/world/europe/ukraine-us-nato-eu-defense.html #Europe #eu #economy

"This represents a potentially significant shift in AI deployment. While traditional AI infrastructure typically relies on multiple Nvidia GPUs consuming several kilowatts of power, the Mac Studio draws less than 200 watts during inference. This efficiency gap suggests the AI industry may need to rethink assumptions about infrastructure requirements for top-tier model performance." https://venturebeat.com/ai/deepseek-v3-now-runs-at-20-tokens-per-second-on-mac-studio-and-thats-a-nightmare-for-openai/ #ai #deepseek

Sesame AI just open sourced CSM-1B, the voice engine behind its viral assistant Maya under Apache 2.0 license.

sesame/csm-1b · Hugging Face

We’re on a journey to advance and democratize artificial intelligence through open source and open science.

#ai #technology #opensource

Brian Eno, a renowned artist, producer, and DJ, warns about the concentration of power in the hands of a few people who own AI tech. The negative effects he sees are a result of its profit-driven nature and the lack of a not-for-profit regime. Eno remains fascinated by the creative potential of AI and sees it as part of a long tradition of musicians repurposing technology in unexpected ways.

Brian Eno: “The biggest problem about AI is not intrinsic to AI. It’s to do with the fact that it’s owned by the same few people”

Brian Eno has spent decades pushing the boundaries of music and technology, but when it comes to artificial intelligence, his biggest concern isn�...

#technology #ai #capitalism