Search

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38016051

Archived

From thousands of miles away, Lithuania is offering to help the Philippines confront a rising tide of cyber threats and disinformation on the West Philippine Sea — warning that tactics used in favor of Beijing mirror the same information warfare Russia has waged in Europe.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakaliene, concluding the first-ever visit by a Lithuanian defense chief to the Philippines, warned Wednesday, July 2, that the hybrid threats both nations face from their larger neighbors are increasingly sophisticated and coordinated.

"It seems that Russia and China sometimes are piloting certain methods in one region and then applying them in another region," Šakaliene told reporters at a press conference.

The Baltic nation ha

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38016051

Archived

From thousands of miles away, Lithuania is offering to help the Philippines confront a rising tide of cyber threats and disinformation on the West Philippine Sea — warning that tactics used in favor of Beijing mirror the same information warfare Russia has waged in Europe.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakaliene, concluding the first-ever visit by a Lithuanian defense chief to the Philippines, warned Wednesday, July 2, that the hybrid threats both nations face from their larger neighbors are increasingly sophisticated and coordinated.

"It seems that Russia and China sometimes are piloting certain methods in one region and then applying them in another region," Šakaliene told reporters at a press conference.

The Baltic nation ha

Archived

From thousands of miles away, Lithuania is offering to help the Philippines confront a rising tide of cyber threats and disinformation on the West Philippine Sea — warning that tactics used in favor of Beijing mirror the same information warfare Russia has waged in Europe.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakaliene, concluding the first-ever visit by a Lithuanian defense chief to the Philippines, warned Wednesday, July 2, that the hybrid threats both nations face from their larger neighbors are increasingly sophisticated and coordinated.

"It seems that Russia and China sometimes are piloting certain methods in one region and then applying them in another region," Šakaliene told reporters at a press conference.

The Baltic nation has long grappled with hybrid threats from Moscow and sees parallels in the P

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38014283

Archived

Russia is increasing foreign-currency sales from the National Wealth Fund [NWF] to address a growing budget deficit after oil and gas revenues plunged to their lowest level since January 2023.

Russia’s Central Bank, acting on Finance Ministry instructions, will sell yuan on the Moscow Exchange at a rate of 9.8 billion rubles ($124 million) per day from July 7 to Aug. 6, an increase of 2.5 billion rubles ($31 million) per day compared to June.

This marks the second time in 2025 that the Kremlin has dipped into the NWF a sovereign reserve built largely from oil and gas revenues, to manage fiscal shortfalls.

But the fund's remaining liquidity is shrinking fast.

At the start of July, the NWF’s liquid assets stood at 4.1 trillion

Archived

Russia is increasing foreign-currency sales from the National Wealth Fund [NWF] to address a growing budget deficit after oil and gas revenues plunged to their lowest level since January 2023.

Russia’s Central Bank, acting on Finance Ministry instructions, will sell yuan on the Moscow Exchange at a rate of 9.8 billion rubles ($124 million) per day from July 7 to Aug. 6, an increase of 2.5 billion rubles ($31 million) per day compared to June.

This marks the second time in 2025 that the Kremlin has dipped into the NWF a sovereign reserve built largely from oil and gas revenues, to manage fiscal shortfalls.

But the fund's remaining liquidity is shrinking fast.

At the start of July, the NWF’s liquid assets stood at 4.1 trillion rubles ($52.6 billion), including 1.3 trillion rubles in yuan and gold acquired

[...]

Wie etwa die Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) berichtete, wurden auch Belege für bestimmte Entscheidungen des CDU-Politikers Spahn unkenntlich gemacht. Laut einem Bericht des Spiegel fehlen unter anderem bei einem von Spahn im April 2020 persönlich freigegebenen Auftrag an die Schweizer Firma Emix-Trading Hinweise auf eine Bedarfsprüfung. Dies gelte auch für weitere Bestellungen.

[...]

Happy July 4th! It’s time to celebrate America’s birthday for seemingly the final time. There are a lot of ways one can celebrate America. Fireworks, hot dog eating contests, diabetes and kindergarteners gunned down in finger painting class. While those are all fantastic ways to honor the American way of life, there’s no better way to celebrate everything America is than by committing some war crimes. In video games of course. After all, engaging in very illegal and abhorrent atrocities with absolutely no consequences whatsoever and bragging about how cool it was has been the American way since 1776. So to get into the July 4th spirit, here are the best war crimes you can do in video games. [...]

A hacker is threatening to leak 106GB of data allegedly stolen from Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica in a breach that the company did not acknowledge. [...]

The parental consent law passed in 2013, but was blocked in court and never took effect before being invalidated last year. [...] Montana’s highest court recognized a right to abortion before the Supreme Court overturned it nationwide, and voters also enshrined it in the Montana Constitution last year. That amendment took effect July 1, 2025.

[...]there's another story to be told here — and it's older and, if possible, even sadder. Microsoft has simply never been any good at running game studios.

The waste — of time, money, and human potential — is incalculable. And it's a sadly familiar story. In 2006, Microsoft acquired the legendary British developer Lionhead, only to close it ten years later after forcing the studio to chase fads it was ill-suited to, like motion control and live-service games. Rare, acquired for a then-record-breaking $375 million in 2002, has seemed to skirt close to a similar fate several times as it searched for a place within the Xbox family that made sense and played to its strengths. Pirate game Sea of Thieves has kept the developer afloat in recent years, but how much longer can that last?

Microsoft's original sin in this arena was its handling of Bungie. The studio was an inspired early acquisition that almost single-handedly made Xbox's reputation among gamers with its Halo series. B

Following a surprise restaurant raid Friday in which dozens of employees were taken into custody, witnesses reported that on top of everything else, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents responsible for the violent arrests had the gall to leave a negative review. “It takes a lot of nerve to complain about slow service after kidnapping 75% of my staff,” said Benny Romero, the owner of Romero’s Bar and Grill, who described how the group of masked agents had burst into his establishment with weapons drawn, demanding an eight-top despite not calling ahead to notify the restaurant of their large party. “They left one star, claiming no one greeted them at the host stand with their immigration documents, but that’s only because they set off a flash bomb before walking in—in the middle of a lunch rush, mind you. [...]

Doch die Verordnung war das einzige Werkzeug, mit dem eine Überdüngung auf die verursachenden Betriebe zurückzuführen war. Nun fürchten Experten, dass die Nitratwerte im Trinkwasser wieder steigen könnten, weil die Verursacher wieder anonym wären. Wenn das passiert, könnte das auch für die Regierung Folgen haben.2018 wurde Deutschland von der EU für die Nichteinhaltung der Nitratgrenzwerte im Trinkwasser verklagt. Eine Klage, die 2023 zurückgezogen wurde, weil die EU-Kommission die von Deutschland ergriffenen Korrekturen als hinreichend ansah. Dazu gehörte auch die 2018 eingeführte Stoffstrombilanzierungsverordnung.

Seit ihrer Einführung ist die Menge an Stickstoff, die von landwirtschaftlichen Flächen in die Umwelt gelangt, um fast ein Drittel gefallen. Dr. Benjamin Leon Bodirsky, PIK

Trotzdem hat das Bundesministerium für Landwirtschaft, Ernährung und Heimat (BMLEH) die Stoffstrombilanzverordnung abgeschafft. Bundesminister Rainer sagt, er löse ein Wahlversprechen zum Bürok

Fearsome trash-talker and Halo matchmaking enthusiast Timmy Dobbins has lost a valuable online trump card this week as his father has reportedly lost his job at Microsoft, Dobbins confirmed.

“Okay so I guess Microsoft fired a bunch of people this week, and it looks like my dad might’ve been one of them,” said 12-year-old Timmy. “Which is total bullshit cause, like, my dad worked really hard for them and he was really good at banning all the people who were mean to me in Halo. But also, I’m not even really that worried because my dad still has some really powerful friends at Microsoft who can definitely still ban all these fucking griefers.”

Timmy’s father, Randall Dobbins, expanded upon his responsibilities with the company as well as his feelings on the company’s recent staffing changes. [...]

Archived

Russia’s wealthiest business magnates pulled a record amount of cash from their companies in the form of dividends in 2024, Forbes Russia has said in a new report.

The news comes as the country’s economy teeters on the edge of recession.

[...]

Total payouts from major Russian corporations to 50 of the wealthiest businessmen in the country reached a historic high of 1.769 trillion rubles ($20 billion) in 2024. In comparison, these figures had remained under 1.4 trillion rubles ($18.2 billion) in both 2022 and 2023.

At least 11 individuals received over 50 billion rubles ($650 million) each in dividends last year.

The top recipient was Alexei Mordashov, the controlling shareholder of steel giant Severstal, who, along with affiliated entities, received 201.8 billion rubles ($2.62 billion).

Close behind was

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37950684

Archived

The former head of the UK’s civil service has described the Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator” and said Donald Trump had put “helpful pressure” on Europe to increase defence spending.

Simon Case, who served as the cabinet secretary until December, when he stepped down on health grounds, said China had sent a clear message to “prepare for serious conflict” in Taiwan.

[...]

The UK has committed to spend the equivalent of 2.6% of GDP in 2027, and it and other Nato members have signed up to increasing spending to 5% by 2035 on militaries and related security.

[...]

Case said: “There’s some actually quite helpful pressure, if you ask me – [this is a] slightly unpopular view – from the White House about us pulling our fingers out in Europe and actually st

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37950684

Archived

The former head of the UK’s civil service has described the Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator” and said Donald Trump had put “helpful pressure” on Europe to increase defence spending.

Simon Case, who served as the cabinet secretary until December, when he stepped down on health grounds, said China had sent a clear message to “prepare for serious conflict” in Taiwan.

[...]

The UK has committed to spend the equivalent of 2.6% of GDP in 2027, and it and other Nato members have signed up to increasing spending to 5% by 2035 on militaries and related security.

[...]

Case said: “There’s some actually quite helpful pressure, if you ask me – [this is a] slightly unpopular view – from the White House about us pulling our fingers out in Europe and actually st

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37950684

Archived

The former head of the UK’s civil service has described the Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator” and said Donald Trump had put “helpful pressure” on Europe to increase defence spending.

Simon Case, who served as the cabinet secretary until December, when he stepped down on health grounds, said China had sent a clear message to “prepare for serious conflict” in Taiwan.

[...]

The UK has committed to spend the equivalent of 2.6% of GDP in 2027, and it and other Nato members have signed up to increasing spending to 5% by 2035 on militaries and related security.

[...]

Case said: “There’s some actually quite helpful pressure, if you ask me – [this is a] slightly unpopular view – from the White House about us pulling our fingers out in Europe and actually st

Archived

The former head of the UK’s civil service has described the Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator” and said Donald Trump had put “helpful pressure” on Europe to increase defence spending.

Simon Case, who served as the cabinet secretary until December, when he stepped down on health grounds, said China had sent a clear message to “prepare for serious conflict” in Taiwan.

[...]

The UK has committed to spend the equivalent of 2.6% of GDP in 2027, and it and other Nato members have signed up to increasing spending to 5% by 2035 on militaries and related security.

[...]

Case said: “There’s some actually quite helpful pressure, if you ask me – [this is a] slightly unpopular view – from the White House about us pulling our fingers out in Europe and actually stepping up to the plate on our defence spending."

“But the reason that matters is b

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37950350

Archived

• [Security firm] Silent Push Threat Analysts followed a tip from Mexican journalist Ignacio Gómez Villaseñor about a threat actor targeting “Hot Sale 2025,” an annual sales event similar to “Black Friday” in the U.S.
• The team pivoted from that Mexico-centric campaign into thousands of websites that broadly targeted a more global audience with abundant waves of fake marketplace scams.
• We identified a private technical fingerprint associated with this infrastructure, which contains Chinese words and characters to strongly indicate that the developers of this network are from China.
• Our analysts observed this threat actor group building multiple phishing websites with pages spoofing well-known retailers, including Apple, Harbor Freight Tools, Michael Kors, REI, Wayfair, and Wrangler Jeans.
• The threat a

Archived

• [Security firm] Silent Push Threat Analysts followed a tip from Mexican journalist Ignacio Gómez Villaseñor about a threat actor targeting “Hot Sale 2025,” an annual sales event similar to “Black Friday” in the U.S.
• The team pivoted from that Mexico-centric campaign into thousands of websites that broadly targeted a more global audience with abundant waves of fake marketplace scams.
• We identified a private technical fingerprint associated with this infrastructure, which contains Chinese words and characters to strongly indicate that the developers of this network are from China.
• Our analysts observed this threat actor group building multiple phishing websites with pages spoofing well-known retailers, including Apple, Harbor Freight Tools, Michael Kors, REI, Wayfair, and Wrangler Jeans.
• The threat actor has also been caught **abusing online payment services, including