hello special agent
Hungary blocks €50bn of EU funding for Ukraine
By Jaroslav Lukiv in London & Jessica Parker in Kyiv 15th December 2023
Hungary has blocked €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) in EU aid for Ukraine - just hours after an agreement was reached on starting membership talks.
"Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after Thursday's talks in Brussels.
EU leaders said Ukraine would not be left without support.
Ukraine is critically dependent on EU and US funding as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces.
Mr Orban announced his block shortly after the EU leaders decided to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.
Hungary - which maintains close ties with Russia - has long opposed membership for Ukraine but did not veto that move.
Mr Orban left the negotiating room momentarily in what officials described as a pre-agreed and constructive manner, while the other 26 leaders went ahead with the vote.
He told Hungarian state radio on Friday that he had fought for eight hours to stop his EU partners but could not convince them. Ukraine's path to EU membership would be a long process anyway, he said, and parliament in Budapest could still stop it happening if it wanted to.
Talks on the financial package ended in the early hours of Friday. EU leaders said negotiations would resume early next year, reassuring Kyiv that support would continue.
Speaking later that day, European Council President Charles Michel said he was "confident and optimistic" the EU would fulfil its promise to support Ukraine.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo echoed him: "The message to Ukraine is: we will be there to support you, we just need to figure out a few of the details together."
Mr Michel had earlier confirmed that all but one EU leader had agreed on the aid package and wider budget proposals for the bloc - although Sweden still needed to consult its parliament. He vowed to achieve the necessary unanimity for the deal.
A long delay in financial aid for the country would cause big problems for Ukraine's budget, Kyiv-based economist Sergiy Fursa told the BBC.
"It pays for all social responsibilities of the government - wages for teachers, doctors for pensions," he said.
Ukraine is also desperately seeking the approval of a $61bn US defence aid package - but that decision is also being delayed because of major disagreements between Democrat and Republican lawmakers.
Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russia's occupying forces ground to a halt at the start of winter, and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.
Olena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady, warned in a BBC interview last week that Ukrainians were in "mortal danger" of being left to die without further Western support.
On Thursday, President Putin mocked Ukraine and claimed Western "freebies" were running out.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67724357
For real
Deaths put spotlight on growing US homeless population
By Kayla EpsteinBBC News, Los Angeles 15th December 2023
A series of deadly attacks on unhoused people in the US has coincided with a spike in American homelessness.
US officials released a report on Friday showing that homeless numbers have risen about 12% since 2022.
The new survey comes after the recent arrest of a suspected serial killer in Los Angeles who targeted the homeless.
Separately, a California man attended court on Friday for manslaughter after allegedly filming himself shooting a sleeping homeless man.
The annual Point In Time survey, taken on a single January night each year, found that 653,104 people experiencing homelessness in the US. The Department of Housing and Urban Development report says that this is the highest number of people since the count began in 2007.
Unhoused people, US officials, and advocates told BBC News that this recent spate of deadly attacks on the homeless underscores the dangers of such a spike in numbers.
"The recent murders of people experiencing homelessness - many who were sleeping at the time - is a cruel reminder that this is a life-and-death issue that must be met with urgency," Jeff Olivet, director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, said.
Those interviewed said that a political climate that stigmatises homelessness, inadequate housing, and gang and drug violence all help create a dangerous world for some of America's most vulnerable people.
But most concerning to many is that the attacks occur with regularity and often without notice.
Attacks on homeless people
Police allege in the days after Thanksgiving, a suspected Los Angeles serial killer zoomed through the streets of LA in a pricey BMW and fired upon homeless people he saw. He is also accused of killing another man during a home robbery.
The suspect, Jerrid Joseph Powell, 33, was arrested and charged with four counts of murder.
Mr Powell has not yet been arraigned or entered a plea, but the violence he allegedly committed is not unique in the US, advocates said.
"Every time there is a mass shooting, a serial killer, it pops back up into our consciousness and it gets written about and talked about," said Margot Kushel, director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) at the University of California, San Francisco. "This violence is happening every day, just outside of our vision."
Other recent incidents have caused increased dialogue, including a shooting upon a homeless encampment in Las Vegas on 1 December that killed one and injured three others.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67666887
There are thousands of veterans that are homeless
A few years ago the cameras at the CSX railroad HQ in Jacksonville Florida recorded five young guys beating a homeless vet to death in the doorway
Not propaganda but fact
Now hang your head in shame
When the warm weather returns, check out weather reports from Los Angeles. So many times you'll hear: "Today's major pollutant is ozone…"
Canada #50 >>20076070
Tesla recall affects almost 90% of all EVs in Canada
It’s a total Tesla recall.
Faulty Tesla software affects almost nine in 10 electric vehicles on the road in Canada, according to the latest Statistics Canada data.
On Wednesday, Transport Canada officially posted a recall notice which affects virtually every Tesla sold in this country since 2017, or about 193,000 units, for its faulty Autosteer or advanced driver assistance feature.
By comparison, there are only 220,000 battery electric cars of all makes registered in the Great White North. And it is the first time a vehicle — any make or model — has been recalled for anything other than a mechanical issue.
It’s essentially a software issue.
According to Transport Canada’s website, the Tesla controls that monitor driver ‘engagement’ may not kick in with audible and visual alerts to warn the driver the feature is not available or about to disengage. That means a higher risk of a crash if the driver fails to realize it has been automatically shut off — or falls asleep at the wheel.
It comes after a two-year investigation from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) following 35 crashes affecting Tesla Evs stateside, killing at least 17 people.
That includes a fatal crash in Virginia that resulted from the Autopilot improperly speeding through an intersection and was t-boned by a semi-trailer.
It’s not immediately clear how many Teslas have the feature installed, because it is a subscription software feature — similar to a smart phone app. Nonetheless, it’s embedded in the central operating system of the car and as such, all models are capable of having it activated.
More than two million of the trendy T-cars are being recalled in the US.
Tesla owners are pushing back on the idea of a software update as a recall in the true sense of the term and are accusing regulators of unfairly targeting owner Elon Musk.
But it illustrates the growing role of automation and software issues in a variety of transportation settings, not just cars. A similar software defect in Boeing’s 737 Max kicked in under certain conditions causing planes to crash.
That glitch reportedly cost the company US$80 billion in direct and indirect costs.
More:
https://www.westernstandard.news/business/tesla-recall-affects-almost-90-of-all-evs-in-canada/51068
VD I understand being around, but what did anons post that got the bots whizzing around?
Saturday and Botmania