The left nor right covers the issue. Just on the chans mostly.
Pete Hegseth is now officially Secretary of War
https://x.com/SecWar/status/1964071478955032634
Israeli military urges Gaza City residents to leave
-Netanyahu says Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian Islamist militants.
-The assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting.
The Israeli military on Saturday said Palestinians in Gaza City should leave for the south, as its forces advance deeper into the enclave’s largest urban area.
Israeli forces have been carrying out an offensive on the suburbs of the northern city for weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to capture it.
Netanyahu says Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian Islamist militants, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war.
The assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting. Before the war, around a million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X that residents should leave the city for a designated coastal area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, assuring those fleeing that they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter there.
The designated area was a “humanitarian zone”, Adraee said.
On Thursday, the military said it had control over almost half of the city. It says it controls about 75% of all of Gaza.
Many of those in Gaza City were displaced earlier in the war only to later return. Some residents have said that they refuse to be displaced again.
The military has been carrying out heavy strikes on the city for weeks, advancing through outer suburbs, and this week forces were within a few kilometres of the city centre.
Netanyahu, backed by right-wing coalition allies, ordered the capture of Gaza City against the advice of Israel’s military leadership, according to Israeli officials. Despite its hesitation, the military has called up tens of thousands of reservists to support the operation.
The war in Gaza has increasingly left Israel diplomatically isolated, with some of its closest allies condemning the campaign that has devastated the small territory.
Palestinian militants took 251 hostages into the enclave after its cross-border attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 people.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, local health authorities say, with much of the enclave reduced to ruins and its residents facing a humanitarian crisis.
There are also growing calls within Israel, led by families of hostages and their supporters, to end the war in a diplomatic deal that would secure the release of the remaining 48 captives.
Israeli officials believe 20 of the hostages are alive.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
Israeli military officials say they have killed many of Hamas’ key leaders and thousands of its fighters, reducing the Palestinian militant group to a guerrilla force.
Hamas has offered to release some hostages for a temporary ceasefire, similar to terms that were discussed in July before negotiations mediated by the U.S. and Arab states collapsed.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington was in “very deep” negotiations with the Palestinian militants.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, has long said it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and to withdraw all its forces from Gaza.
Most of the hostages who have been freed were released through diplomatic negotiations mediated by the United States and Arab states. Israel and Hamas have accused each other of negotiating in bad faith since the breakdown of the last talks in July.
Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday said the military operations in Gaza would intensify until Hamas accepted Israel’s conditions for ending the war: releasing the hostages and disarming. Otherwise, the group would be destroyed, he said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/06/israeli-military-urges-gaza-city-residents-to-leave.html
No one wants to talk about how we can only see the same face of the moon when everything else in the Universe is spinning.
Gold is on a record run
-Interest in physical gold and gold-related financial investments has soared amid the precious metal’s recent rally.
-When it comes to buying gold, gold exchange-traded funds are “the most liquid, tax efficient and low-cost way to invest,” said Blair duQuesnay, a chartered financial analyst and certified financial planner.
-Here’s what to know before piling into the precious metal.
Gold prices notched another fresh record this week as more investors piled into the metal amid economic uncertainty and rising bets for a Federal Reserve rate cut.
So far this year, bullion has gained about 35% as of Friday’s close. Spot gold is now near $3,600 an ounce.
“Without a doubt, gold has been trending higher, and it’s getting a lot of attention from investors,” said Blair duQuesnay, a chartered financial analyst and certified financial planner, who is also an investment advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management.
Investors regard gold as protective against “bad economic times,” according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. As a safe-haven investment, gold tends to perform well in low-interest-rate environments and during periods of political and financial uncertainty.
“Gold checks all of those boxes,” said Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
According to Wells Fargo Investment Institute’s latest investment strategy report, its analysts “expect ongoing gold purchases by global central banks and heightened geopolitical strife to support demand growth for precious metals.”
To invest in the precious metal, investors can either buy physical gold or gold-related financial investments.
Most experts recommend getting investment exposure to gold through an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of physical gold, as part of a well-diversified portfolio, rather than buying actual gold coins or bars.
“In times of acute stress, gold stocks underperform, so to the extent that people want exposure, a gold bullion-backed ETF does a better job than gold-related equities and gold miner stocks,” said Samana.
SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) and iShares Gold Trust (IAU) are the two largest gold ETFs, according to ETF.com.
“Gold ETFS are going to be the most liquid, tax efficient and low-cost way to invest in gold,” duQuesnay said.
“It’s much more inefficient to own physical gold,” according to duQuesnay, largely due to higher transaction costs and storage considerations of bullion, including bars and coins.
Alternatively, gold mining stocks are not as closely linked to the underlying price of gold and are more tied to business fundamentals, she added.
Despite gold’s record run, financial advisors generally recommend limiting gold exposure to less than 3% of one’s overall portfolio.
CNBC Financial Advisor Council member duQuesnay said she has no gold in the portfolios she manages for her clients, in part because of the temperamental nature of any trendy investment.
“Are we in the third inning of this rally of the ninth inning? Gold is priced as a commodity, and that can make it hard to pinpoint the fundamentals,” she said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/06/how-to-invest-in-gold-amid-record-run.html
ICE Has Begun Immigration Crackdown in Massachusetts
The operation includes Boston, whose mayor has drawn the administration’s ire for speaking out against the growing scale of its immigration actions.
The Trump administration has started an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Massachusetts, saying it was targeting “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens living in the state.”
In a statement on Saturday about the operation, called Patriot 2.0, the Department of Homeland Security struck a harsh note: “If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”
The operation began late this week and was expected to last several weeks, according to two sources with knowledge of the initiative. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the activity publicly. One U.S. official who also was not authorized to speak publicly said the agency had prepared plans for a wider surge of immigration enforcement starting this month.
The operation in Massachusetts began just days before the Trump administration was expected to kick off an immigration crackdown in Chicago, and as immigration arrests have ramped up in Washington.
Top Trump officials had previously hinted that they planned to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities, which limit local police cooperation with federal immigration officials.
In its statement on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security called out Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston, who has drawn the administration’s ire for speaking out against the scale of its immigration actions.
“Sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but also place these public safety threats above the interests of law-abiding American citizens,” the statement said.
From the beginning of the first Trump administration, top immigration officials have sought to force progressive cities to cooperate, particularly in local jails, where ICE officials prefer to pick up immigrants directly.
Earlier this week, Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said to expect ramped-up enforcement in multiple sanctuary cities, saying they would “flood the zone.”
One homeland security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said Operation Patriot 2.0 was focused on targeting immigrants who had been released from custody despite ICE seeking to pick them up from local jails.
The scope of the operation extends beyond Boston, the official said, because some of those released from custody in the city live outside it.
This week, the Justice Department sued Boston for its sanctuary city policy, known as the Boston Trust Act, seeking to persuade a federal judge to invalidate the measure.
“The City of Boston and its mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America — they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “If Boston won’t protect its citizens from illegal alien crime, this Department of Justice will.”
Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, told a Boston-area radio show in August that his agency would make its presence known in the region.
Editors’ Picks
My Boyfriend’s Most Romantic Act
Is Partying Dead, or Are You Just Old?
The Hero of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ Is Back. Here’s What You Need to Know.
“We’re going to keep making Boston safe, as she’s failing to do with the sanctuary city policies,” he said, referring to Ms. Wu.
He added: “Now you’re going to see more ICE agents come to Boston to make sure that we take these public safety threats out, that she wants to let go back in the communities.”
The agency has conducted a regular cadence of operations in Massachusetts. In March, ICE arrested 370 immigrants in the state, of which 165 were so-called collateral arrests, or undocumented immigrants who were not targeted but were in the area of the operation. In May, ICE arrested nearly 1,500 immigrants in the state.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/us/politics/ice-operation-boston.html?unlocked_article_code=1.j08.xixo.KHDoa_0VLcYO&smid=url-share
Well the alleged explanation is because of 'Tidal Locking', and occurs on other planets with moons too. Even with Saturn being so much larger than its moons, apparently the same mechanic occurs. So it's like 2 spinning magnets but they still call it gravity and not electromagnetism.
UK: Tranny jailed for exposing himself to children at a park
Laura Mart, 35, who is a transgender woman, appeared before Preston Sessions House, charged with one count of indecent exposure and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
The incident occurred on July 18, when the defendant, of Game Street, Great Harwood, was walking in Williamson Park, in Wyresdale Road.
A child who was playing on the monkey bars in the park saw Mart holding her penis and wiggling it at her, and she immediately told her friends and father.
At the time of the offence, Mart was subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order and was prohibited from standing within 10 metres of a public place where children are expected to be.
The defendant has a history of similar offences, with four exposure convictions and an indecency charge in 2017.
Judge Andrew Jeffries outlined that due to the repetitive nature of her offending, he had considered an extended licence, but this was impossible under the guidelines for the offences.
He said: “There is a real risk posed here to the public.
"If I had the power for an extended licence, I would have taken it, but it is not such an offence.”
Rebecca Holmes, mitigating, said Mart did not go to the park with the intention of committing the offence, but she "couldn’t control the urge she had there".
Ms Holmes also explained that while being transgender was no excuse for the offence, it is a complex thing to deal with.
She said: “She is transgender and identifies as a woman.
"There is no excuse for this offence, and it is a complex thing to deal with, and they have to wake up feeling they are in the wrong body.
“There is a clear path of offending, and since her last offence she has suppressed her libido, and it is to her credit she takes this and makes efforts to improve her behaviour.
“It demonstrates she is willing to comply with any intervention whilst in custody, which I do submit is a positive for her, and there can be improvements in her offending.”
When sentencing, Judge Jeffries said the defendant's frankness with the probation service was a double-edged sword, and whilst it was refreshing she recognised the issues she had, it also exposed the danger that she posed.
Mart was sentenced to 28 months' imprisonment with a notification requirement applied for life.
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/25438325.great-harwoods-laura-mart-jailed-exposure-lancaster/
Taliban's 'no skin contact with males' rule leaves Afghan women under quake rubble
Women trapped under debris are sometimes left behind while the dead are pulled out, further underscoring how gender rules, not just rubble, are obstructing rescue efforts in a country ruled by the Taliban for the past four years.
Centuries-old customs and Taliban-imposed gender restrictions are compounding the tragedy for Afghan women following the recent deadly earthquake, which killed at least 2,200 people and reduced scores of buildings to rubble. Women have often been the last to be rescued, or not rescued at all, due to ‘no skin contact with unrelated males’ rule that forbids male rescues from touching them.
Strict cultural and religious norms, enforced by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, permit only a woman’s close male relative, her father, brother, husband or son, to touch her and similarly, women are prohibited from touching men outside their family.
This rule makes the situation even more dire in the absence of female rescue workers, a consequence of the Taliban’s ban on women’s enrollment in medical education and other public roles. As a result, women trapped under debris are sometimes left behind while the dead are pulled out, further underscoring how gender rules, not just rubble, are obstructing rescue efforts in a country ruled by the Taliban for the past four years.
“They gathered us in one corner and forgot about us,” a New York Time report quoted Bibi Aysha as she recalled how rescue teams arrived more than 36 hours after a massive earthquake devastated her village in Afghanistan’s mountainous Kunar Province.
But instead of being helped, Aysha and other injured women and girls, out of which some were bleeding, were ignored. No one offered the women help, asked what they needed or even approached them.
Tahzeebullah Muhazeb, a 33-year-old male volunteer who reached the nearby village of Mazar Dara, also described the grim on-ground reality to the global publication and said: women trapped under rubble were left waiting while male rescue workers hesitated to touch them, fearing the cultural consequences of interacting with unrelated women.
In some cases, female victims remained buried until women from neighbouring areas arrived to help. “It felt like women were invisible,” said Muhazeb, adding that men and children were treated first, while the women were just sitting apart, waiting for care. If no male relative was present, he added, the dead were dragged out by their clothes to avoid physical contact.
More than 2,200 people were killed and 3,600 injured in the magnitude 6 earthquake that flattened entire villages. The horrific natural calamity also exposed the deeply entrenched gender discrimination women face in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
“Women and girls will again bear the brunt of this disaster,” warned Susan Ferguson, the UN Women representative in Afghanistan. “Their needs must be at the heart of the response and recovery.”
While the Taliban have not released a gender-specific casualty count, survivors, doctors and aid workers consistently report that women are suffering disproportionately. Many remain trapped, untreated or unaccounted for, hindered by rules that restrict male rescuers from physically assisting them.
A critical shortage of female healthcare workers has only made this worse in the quake-hit regions. Following the Taliban’s 2023 ban on women enroling in medical education, female doctors and nurses are rare, especially in rural, disaster-hit areas. The New York Times report also mentioned how one of the hospitals visited by their journalist had no female staff at all.
Sharafat Zaman, a spokesperson for the Taliban-run Ministry of Health, acknowledged the lack of female workers but insisted women were serving in hospitals across Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman provinces to treat earthquake victims.
Afghanistan remains one of the most repressive places in the world for women and girls under Taliban rule, which has persisted for the past four years. Despite mounting pressure from the broader Muslim world, human rights groups and international institutions like the World Bank, the Taliban have shown no signs of easing their strict gender policies, which experts warn are severely damaging the country’s social cohesion and economic future.
Girls are barred from attending schools beyond sixth grade and women face tight restrictions on movement, requiring a male guardian to travel even short distances. Employment opportunities are also vanishing; women are banned from working in most sectors, including humanitarian organisations and NGOs.
The report also mentions that even Afghan women employed by UN agencies have not been spared, many have faced escalating harassment, with threats so grave that some agencies were forced to tell female staff to work from home for their own safety.
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/taliban-gender-restrictions-delay-rescue-efforts-afghanistan-women-earthquake-2782694-2025-09-05
A former mayor in the Philippines paid $175,000 for a server computer that is actually worth $90
Sometimes, we pay a little more for a full-on rig, rather than paying for parts separately, but I've never heard of paying a ten times markup. A former mayor of a city in the Philippines has been accused of doing such a thing, putting down nearly $175,000 for 16 PCs (with mice and keyboards) plus a server.
As reported by Tom's Hardware, on August 27th, Ukc Ibrahim shared a post to their Facebook page saying that the previous mayor, Darwin Bajada, paid 10 million Philippine pesos (equivalent to $174,932 at the time of writing) for a computer server, and shared an image of a computer.
This was attached to a quote from current mayor Sally A. Lopez, which says (machine translated) "The price is too high and has not been tested whether it works or not, former Mayor Bajada paid immediately." This post was then reshared by the official Sally A. Lopez Facebook account.
Soon after, this information was corrected by Lopez herself, who clarified that the lump sum was in fact given for '16 generic computer', alongside '16 generic keyboard and monitor', plus '1 system'. The keyboard and mouse (a Jedel G17 combo) are currently on sale for 290 Philippine pesos (around $5), so that's around $70 total so far ($90 full price).
The imagery is somewhat hard to make out, but the monitors appear to be from Fonudar. As of the time of writing, Fonudar monitors range from $17 to $78. This means 16 of them, taking the middle price, would cost around $650-800. We don't know the specific monitor in question, so naturally, take this figure with a grain of salt.
According to Tom's Hardware's approximation, the PCs (with a $60 UPS charge) would cost you $670 if you picked all the parts on Newegg. So far, the cost of everything here roughly accounts for around $12,000. Admittedly, this is rough maths, and it's worth noting this sale was from a year ago, so part prices are likely to have changed since then, but the discrepancy between the price and the value of these rigs is being questioned in Lopez's post and comment.
Finally, Lopez notes a server with an Intel i9 14th Gen CPU, 32 GB of RAM, 512 GB SSD, and 10 TB HDD. Though we don't have a price on this, if this server doesn't cost $150,000, then the former mayor perhaps paid a tad (or a lot) more than the computers are worth.
Something good does seem to have come from this discrepancy, though. Carlo Ople, the CEO of Philippines-based tech shop Unbox, has announced that he will be providing a tech care package and has urged others in the area to contribute to it. I doubt enough will be made to account for the difference, but a little more tech is certainly not a bad thing.
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/a-former-mayor-in-the-philippines-may-have-got-a-majorly-bad-deal-on-computing-tech-reportedly-paying-usd175-000-for-16-intel-11th-gen-machines/
War without reason you mean.
Well, everyone is still fucking around.
Doug Burgum: Trump's Push for U.S. Energy Dominance | Pod Force One w/ Miranda Devine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfL1xYSHD20