Do like the BBC and spin up your own mastodon instance, Guardian.

Yeah when the Epstein tapes dropped and Epstein talked about how Trump liked to fuck his “friends’” wives behind their backs, I knew it was just gonna make him more popular. That’s seen as an alpha chad move, despite being utterly gross.

A former dog groomer faces prison in Dubai for posting a critical Google review from Northern Ireland months before holidaying in the United Arab Emirates.

Craig Ballentine, 33, was arrested on slander charges three weeks ago after arriving in Abu Dhabi to visit friends, according to Detained in Dubai, a British organisation that provides legal assistance to tourists in the UAE.

His sudden detention comes months after he criticised his former employer, a Dubai-based canine salon, online about the “legal nightmare” he experienced following a six-month stint at the company.

After becoming ill — and having a couple of days off work — he was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body.

Ballentine, from Cookstown, Northern Ireland, told Detained that despite informing his boss about the diagnosis, and providing his employer with his doctor’s certificate, she registered him as “absconded” with the authorities, meaning he faced a travel ban on his passport which took two months and thousands of pounds to resolve.

“After picking up the pieces, he left an online review of the grooming centre and his former boss, noting the problems she had caused him. It wasn’t an abusive post and he had no idea that several months later, he would become a criminal and face prosecution,” the group said.

Ballentine was transported from Abu Dhabi to Dubai to face charges of slander under the UAE’s strict cybercrime laws that prohibit any form of online criticism.

Ballentine is now “stuck in the country, absent from his employment as a support worker with autistic people and facing two years in prison”, the group said.

“This case will send shockwaves to tourists and expats who feel safe posting online from the safety of their own countries,” warned Radha Stirling, the chief executive of Detained.

His family said they were not informed by the authorities in Dubai about his arrest, and did not know where he was during what was supposed to be a short vacation. Ballentine told Stirling in a phone call: “Mum was so upset and stressed, she thought I was dead.”

Stirling warned that Ballentine “has been advised by local lawyers there is almost zero chance of the case against him being dropped”.

She said: “When someone is offended, even if they are at fault, they can open a criminal prosecution out of spite. Craig deleted the post, apologised but still faces jail. It’s outrageous.

“The UAE’s recently enacted cybercrime laws are a nightmare for foreigners. It is sufficient for a complainant to simply tell police that someone posted something offensive or rude. The police don’t even need to see the actual post. The complainants have all the power and often demand money from the accused to close out the case.”

The Khaleej Times recently warned that those caught out by the strict cybercrime rules become trapped in legal battles and can face hefty fines if they are “overtly critical or give a vilifying Google review, as businesses are becoming increasingly vigilant about safeguarding their reputations”.

A woman in Dubai was last year found guilty of defamation for an Instagram post that “damaged a hospital’s reputation” after she posted a video clip, criticising it as the “worst hospital”.

Stirling said that Ballentine needed to return home and to his work, as he has dedicated his life to helping others.

“It’s atrocious that authorities are allowing such frivolous criminal reports to entangle visitors in the system. There are no protections or safeguards and people’s lives are being ruined,” she added.

The Times has contacted the Foreign Office, the UAE embassy in London, and the Dubai prosecutor’s office for comment.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We are providing support to a British man in the UAE and have been in contact with the local authorities.”

File this one with “and Trump won’t instate a national abortion ban”

Never ask a woman her age.

Never ask a man his salary.

Never ask an OnlyFans model what happens in Dubai.

I hate to say it but what the fuck did you expect vacationing in an authoritarian shithole???

Like, really? Thought it would be no big deal? What the fuck, this is what’s coming to America, so get ready.

I’m almost sure all my past online comments against Trump will one day be held against me in a court of law.

I pity the fool who isn’t familiar with Mr. T.

Most election data comes from the Associated Press, but I don’t see a place to purchase API access, may only be available to news orgs.

https://developer.ap.org/ap-elections-api/

A reddit poster had some JSONs from New York Times four years ago for 2020 but I’m not sure if you can make them work for 2024.

https://old.reddit.com/r/rstats/comments/jo1yuw/us_election_results_api/gmnxfz3/

yet their trial has been repeatedly delayed using legal tactics to hold up proceedings.

It seems like weaponizing the justice systems of the world to let the worst people get away with shit has really become en vogue.

sudo apt-get install intel-media-va-driver-non-free

Video will still be clunky but less clunky.

EDIT: I’m so happy.

Created by Joseph Bennett, who was also the creator of Scavenger’s Reign.

Also looks like some Mike Judge involvement.

Excited for this.

Because they hate their customers and want the mouse to become junk you have to replace when the mouse goes dead. It’s a finesse in planned obsolescence, same as the first time.

Yet it might have solved those problems had the sanctions been lifted 20+ years ago, allowing Cuba more access to diversifying their power grid through being able to get better deals for parts than they currently can.

The sanctions are part and parcel to why they’re struggling, and to ignore that they’ve been extremely limited in who they can trade with, and that limits their options for budgeting what they can buy because they have very few suppliers, is foolhardy.

No, we can’t fix the past, but we can recognize that it might have gone very differently had sanctions been lifted long ago.

Looking at what you quoted, that’s fair and can see how you misread it as such. I am sorry I said that it was purposeful.

Way to purposefully misread it.

The whole issue is that the Russians work for companies with sanctions against them.

So, treat all companies involved in war the same way, and you’ll never run into this hypocritical issue again.

There’s plenty of companies (like Valve) who don’t directly produce weapons of war or have contracts with their governments for war-services who contribute to Linux that could still do so, and plenty of individuals who don’t work for military and military adjacent companies to contribute.

Acting like removing people who work at companies that contribute to wars will mean no one can contribute is obviously a grossly exaggerated misinterpretation.

That’s literally what I suggested elsewhere here: If you work for ANY company in ANY country that produces weapons for war for ANY government, that they shouldn’t be allowed to contribute.

Because that at the very least would be consistent.

US isn’t helping fund a genocide in Israel or anything! /s

Yeah must suck to live in Israel.

Are we going to remove Israel maintainers from the list since IDF soldiers are using Palestinians as human shields?

Oh, no, because US is okay with that genocide?

It’s really more about how clearly fucking hypocritical it is.