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European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of euros Wednesday as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation bloc’s digital competition rules.

The European Commission imposed a 500 million euro ($571 million) fine on Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store.

The commission, which is the EU’s executive arm, also fined Meta Platforms 200 million euros because it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.

It seems the 50501 movement is facing some predictable problems on commercial platforms.

On Reddit, the 50501 subreddit has temporarily shut down over abuse. This comes after reports from users that the community is "obviously being astroturfed". No word as to when it will be back online.

It seems things are not much better over at Facebook, where there is apparently frequent calls to stop protesting this and that, with a Reddit user commenting that the group "feels like it's imploding".

This is hardly surprising given how commercial social media has repeatedly shown itself to be easily manipulated, but it's still fascinating that it's bad enough to shut down the whole Reddit community. Although we are certainly in a better place over here we are not immune: Make sure to be vigilant and to report suspicious activity.

If anyone is on Facebook, maybe now is a good time to give people there a few pointers towards Lemmy/PieFed.

Swedish journalist Joakim Medin has been detained in Turkey after arriving in Istanbul on Thursday to report on the current protests.

Since Medin notified his editor in chief that he was being taken in for interrogation – around lunchtime on Thursday – nobody has heard from him.

Joakim Medin is a regular contributor to daily newspaper Dagens ETC and has reported from and about Turkey regularly for several years. We do not as yet know where or how he is, and we are imploring the Swedish government to take action to help us get Joakim home.

The chief editor of Dagens ETC wrote the following commentary on the decision to make this public, machine translated using FireFox:

This is what Dagens ETC's reporter Joakim Medin wrote yesterday when he landed in Istanbul to monitor recent developments:

"They are taking me in for interrogations now"

Now it's been more than 24 hours.

Silence.

I don't know where he is.

I don't know how he's doing.

Not if he's interrogated.

Not if he's going to be deported.

We at Dagens ETC have feverishly tried to get answers in different ways (the UD and consulate are connected).

But a whole day...

Now we choose to do this in public.

For Joakim to be released.

Because freedom of the press is under attack.

I demand that the Swedish government act directly and sharply.

I expect the support of just about every other media.

Joakim went to Turkey to give Dagens ETC's readers all the nuances.

Now he can't do that.

With the hope of very quick solution,

Andreas Gustavsson, Editor-in-chief Dagens ETC

Woody Guthrie was never too vague about his stance on fascism, starting with the famous phrase "This Machine Kills Fascists" written on his guitars.

"All You Fascists Bound To Lose" is a song that takes this bluntness to a lyrical level, to the point where it hardly needs any introduction.

I’m gonna tell you fascists
You may be surprised
The people in this world
Are getting organized
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose

Race hatred cannot stop us
This one thing we know
Your poll tax and Jim Crow
And greed has got to go
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose.

All of you fascists bound to lose:
I said, all of you fascists bound to lose:
Yes sir, all of you fascists bound to lose:
You’re bound to lose! You fascists:
Bound to lose!

People of every color
Marching side to side
Marching ‘cross these fields
Where a million fascists dies
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!

I’m going into this battle
And take my union gun
We’ll end this world of slavery
Before this battle’s won
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!

What's pretty cool about All You Fascists is that Guthrie's BBC recording was lost for a really long time, so we thought we were just left with his lyrics. When Billy Bragg teamed up with Wilco to put music to unreleased Guthrie songs in the late 90s, nobody knew that the Guthrie recording still existed. The Wilco/Bragg version of the song is therefore recorded not as a cover, but as a completely original composition by musicians who had not had a chance to listen to Guthrie's original.

A video has emerged of the arrest of a Turkish Tuft University graduate, showing her argue briefly with the men in hoodies and black jackets before being taken away.

Tufts University has confirmed that the person is one of their graduates, and that her lawyer has not managed to get in touch with her.

Statement of Tufts University on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/paleofuture.bsky.social/post/3llayvzabtk23

Via @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange on Mastodon: https://infosec.exchange/@JessTheUnstill/114230118930979696

Black man got a lotta problems
But they don't mind trowin' a brick White people go to school Where they teach you how to be thick

White Riot is the first single released by the Clash, and pretty much seems to set the agenda of the band. They find that while everything is going to shit, white folks have been dumbed down and pacified to a point where they are completely harmless to the ruling elites.

All the power's in the hands
Of the people rich enough to buy it While we walk the streets
Too chicken to even try it

At the time Joe Strummer saw little hope in the white population:

Everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
And nobody wants
To go to jail

He wants a "white riot - a riot of my own". It's a call for white folks to join black people in the fight against the powers that be, and to rise up against injustice instead of being so god-damn complacent.

Are you taking over
Or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

Released in March '77, a couple of months before Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen, White Riot could be seen to mark the beginning of the UK wave of punk music, which was influenced by the New York scene and later caused a second British invasion (or a "phony Beatlemania", as the Clash themselves later coined it) in the US. The studio version of White Riot ends with the following appeal to the listener:

Hey, you, standing in line
Are we gonna sign an agreement?

Considering the influence of the punk movement in the years that followed, it's fair to say that many audience members were, in fact, ready to sign on. It might be time we renew the terms.

Here's Rage Against the Machine doing the song justice.

In the occasion of the first presidency of Donald Trump, the ever-wonderful Marc Ribot put together an album of resistance songs, featuring a wide variety of artists. One of these artists is long-time Ribot collaborator Tom Waits, who sang Ribot's English translation of the classic Italian partisan song Bella Ciao.

Borrowing its melody from an old worker's song, Bella Ciao—goodbye beautiful—is narrated by a partisan who believes he is dying. He makes his final request to be buried in the mountain underneath a beautiful flower, so that the people pasing by can enjoy the beautiful sight of the flower of the partisan.

Ribot translates the lyrics pretty precisely, but his composition is significantly less upbeat than what many people often associate with Bella Ciao.

I think it's a beautiful testament to the willingness to give everything to create a better world for those who follow.

There are a bunch of 50501 communities all over the Fediverse, and the numbers increased substantially with the state-oriented communities hosted by 50501.chat.

In response to this I put together a combined feed for the movement, which can be seen here: https://piefed.social/f/50501

As of now, the feed combines content from 64 different Lemmy communities hosted on five different instances. Lemmy does not (yet) support these feeds, but PieFed users will be able to interact with all 50501 communities in one place.

If anyone has suggestions for communities to include in the feed, or alternatively communities they feel should not have been included, feel free to let me know in this thread or over a direct message! :)

It seems Ubuntu Touch for Fairphone 5 is now available from the ubports installer, which means it should be relatively easy to install!

It's still early, and some features are apparently not working yet (such as Waydroid, which lets you emulate Android apps), but it seems to be running pretty well already.

With two months left in office, the president for the first time authorized the Ukrainian military to use the system known as ATACMS to help defend its forces in the Kursk region of Russia.

President Biden has authorized the first use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia, U.S. officials said.

The weapons are likely to be initially employed against Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia, the officials said.

Mr. Biden’s decision is a major change in U.S. policy. The choice has divided his advisers, and his shift comes two months before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office, having vowed to limit further support for Ukraine.

Allowing the Ukrainians to use the long-range missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, came in response to Russia’s surprise decision to bring North Korean troops into the fight, officials said.

Mr. Biden began to ease restrictions on the use of U.S.-supplied weapons on Russian soil after Russia launched a cross-border assault in May in the direction of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

To help the Ukrainians defend Kharkiv, Mr. Biden allowed them to use the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, which have a range of about 50 miles, against Russian forces directly across the border. But Mr. Biden did not allow the Ukrainians to use longer-range ATACMS, which have a range of about 190 miles, in defense of Kharkiv.

I remember when Trump first won, the American-centered part of the web I would occasionally stop by seemed completely infiltrated with MAGA trolls. You had this feeling people thought it was edgy and fun - the worst kind of cultural moment seemed to be happening.

This time around I'm not so much on mainstream social media. And when I do check them out, it seems hard to understand what the vibe is as most content is AI or from professional content creators.

The closest thing I see to Trump supporters these days seems to be the enablers who endlessly repeat how they won't vote for Harris for some dumb reason or another - they simply cannot vote for a black woman president because it's not progressive enough, and all that jazz. But I don't ever see Trump supporters.

Of course they exist still. I have just chose social media platforms strategically to avoid toxic people.

So I'm wondering if the same enthusiasm for Trump that seemed to be boiling online in 2016 is still there today, and if this election only feels different because I'm self-selected into saner platforms. Or if it is really different this time around.

I get that it's an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I would love perspectives from people who have kept up an active use of mainstream social media, or otherwise have some insights I lack.

Norway asks the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to clarify whether Israel is violating international law. On Monday, Israel adopted new laws that effectively ban the UN aid organization for Palestinian refugees.

Norway, the UN, the USA and several countries have reacted strongly to the fact that the majority in the Knesset passed two new laws on Monday evening which will ban the UN aid organization for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA.

One law prohibits UNWRA from operating in Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories from next year.

The second law stipulates that Israel labels the UN aid organization as a terrorist group and breaks diplomatic ties with the organization.

This means that the Israeli authorities are prohibited from having any contact whatsoever with the UN organisation.

Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) said in a press release yesterday that Norway strongly distanced itself from the decision.

Now the Norwegian government is going one step further.

Eide wants the UN's highest court to assess whether Israel is violating international law when they want to ban UNRWA's work.

- No one is above the law and no one is above international law. The occupying power Israel has a duty to facilitate support for the people living in Palestine under occupation. Therefore, we believe this decision is simply illegal, says Eide to NRK.

According to the government, a number of countries have expressed support for the initiative, in addition to the United Nations Organization for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Doesn't think anyone can replace UNRWA now

Norway has long been critical of how Israel has operated in Gaza and the West Bank after the Hamas attack in October last year.

Following Israel's decision to ban the UN aid organisation, Norway fears that the consequences could be dramatic for hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The organization has provided aid to millions of displaced Palestinians for over 70 years. They have also continued to work, while the war has raged in Gaza.

Eide believes that the Israeli government is now making it difficult for the Palestinians to get vital help and basic services such as health care and school.

The Israeli authorities say they are working on other solutions that can replace UNRWA, but Barth Eide believes that is not good enough.

- All the important emergency aid organizations are clear that they need the UN's emergency aid organization for Palestinian refugees. They are the ones who have the experience, they are the ones who have the expertise and those who have the entire infrastructure both in Gaza and the West Bank, says Eide to NRK.

He does not believe that anyone can replace the UN organization in the current situation.

- I do not believe that there is an alternative plan for this that can be put in place in time. The need and the crisis are now, not in the future. So this must be reversed, says Eide.

- Undermines the work on a two-state solution

Eide also believes that Israel's decision could undermine the work for a viable Palestinian state and a two-state solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, is well satisfied with Monday's decision.

- UNRWA staff involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable, he wrote on X after the new laws were passed.

Israel has claimed that 450 UNRWA staff worked for militant groups in Gaza and that several participated in the terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October last year.

Several countries put payments to UNRWA on hold. Norway was not among them.

An independent commission of inquiry later determined that Israel lacked evidence. UNRWA also fired around 20 staff for having a role in the 7 October attack.

Via NRK, the Norwegian public broadcaster.