Infosec.Pub

Hey everyone! In case you haven't noticed, this is a new community focused on NonPolitical Comics (NPCs), which essentially means no gloom and doom of the day stuff.

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In an interview on Fox News Sunday, US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Shannon Bream that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is not, nor are they planning to, investigate Jonathan Ross—the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed Renée Nicole Good in her car in Minneapolis earlier this month.

“We don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody or putting his life in danger,” Blanche, formerly Donald Trump’s personal attorney, said. The Trump administration began asserting immediately after the killing that Good was a “rioter” who committed an “act of domestic terrorism,” continuing a long pattern of responding to deadly tragedies by making baseless and false claims.

“We investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate and that is not the case here, it wasn’t the case when it happened, and it’s not the case today,” Blanche insisted. “If circumstances change, and there’s something that we do need to investigate around that shooting or any other shooting, we will,” he said, adding, “but we are not going to bow to pressure from the media, bow to pressure from politicians.”

Video in article

Russian authorities have detained an Indigenous climate advocate, accusing her of participating in a terrorist organization in what international observers are calling “retribution” for her United Nations advocacy on behalf of Indigenous peoples.

Daria Egereva, an Indigenous Selkup woman from the city of Tomsk in western Siberia, has been involved in international advocacy at the United Nations for several years and has been a co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change since 2023—an official forum that facilitates the participation of Indigenous peoples in UN meetings and gatherings, including the annual Conference of the Parties climate change conventions. During COP30 in Brazil, Egereva advocated for the inclusion of Indigenous women in climate negotiations. “If we don’t protect women, we don’t have a future,” she said in a video published on social media on November 21.

According to the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, on December 17, Russian authorities searched Egereva’s home, confiscated her digital devices, and arrested her, in what the organization called “a direct retaliation for her Indigenous rights advocacy,” which included her work at COP30.

^Usernames^ ^removed^ ^to^ ^prevent^ ^brigading^

Archived copy of the article

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/58902873

Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.

Think about where this is leading. One possibility, anticipated this morning by financial markets, is a damaging trade war. Another is an American military occupation of Greenland. Try to imagine it: The U.S. Marines arrive in Nuuk, the island’s capital. Perhaps they kill some Danes; perhaps some American soldiers die too. And then what? If the invaders were Russians, they would arrest all of the politicians, put gangsters in charge, shoot people on the street for speaking Danish, change school curricula, and carry out a fake referendum to rubber-stamp the conquest. Is that the American plan too? If not, then what is it? This would not be the occupation of Iraq, which was difficult enough. U.S. troops would need to force Greenlanders, citizens of a treaty ally, to become American against their will.

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A carnivorous power is one that struggles to curb its appetite and recognize its own limitations. Since the start of 2026, almost one year after he returned to the White House, Donald Trump has sought to seize Venezuela's oil, launch ground operations against drug cartels, notably in Mexico, decapitate the Iranian regime, and, finally, acquire Greenland, whether through persuasion or by force. He has pursued all these goals, all while more extensively deploying the United States military on the domestic front to help police hunt for undocumented migrants, especially in Minnesota. This dizzying display of power has even alarmed his own base, the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, not for reasons of principle or legality, but because he has dispersed his efforts and shown a lack of focus on Americans' everyday lives.

US public opinion has overwhelmingly rejected the ambitions expressed by the White House regarding Greenland. According to a CBS-YouGov poll, 86% of Americans surveyed, including 70% of Republicans, opposed using force to take control of the autonomous territory, which falls under Danish sovereignty, and 70% also objected to the idea of purchasing it. Nevertheless, Trump opted to escalate tariff measures on Saturday, January 17, in an effort to twist the Europeans' arm.

Europe has, so far, not been the US's primary target in its use of tariffs as a tool for punishment. At the end of August 2025, Trump decided to impose an additional 25% tariff on India, raising the total levy on goods exported to the US to 50%, because India was buying Russian oil. The measure caused lasting damage to the US's bilateral relationship with New Delhi, and while it led India to reduce its Russian oil purchases, it fell far short of completely stopping the flow, the outcome Trump had wanted. Meanwhile, the case of the eight European countries targeted is more serious, given that they are US allies and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Furthermore, the United Kingdom is, thanks to its supposed "special relationship" with Washington, one of the few countries to have concluded a bilateral trade deal with the Trump administration. Now, that deal is under threat too.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/45811590

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/45810913

Cows are not usually credited with thinking on the hoof. They eat, they chew, they stand in fields performing an activity that may look like contemplation but is generally written off as digestion.

They are not typically thought to plan, let alone solve problems. A new study suggests we may have underestimated them.

The research describes what experts claim is the first documented case of flexible, multi-purpose tool use in cattle, observed in a cow named Veronika.

...

Veronika is a Swiss brown cow kept not for milk or meat but as a pet by Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and baker in Austria. More than a decade ago he noticed her using a long-handled brush, holding it in her mouth to scratch awkward parts of her body.

When video footage of this behaviour reached Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, it struck her as unusual, largely because Veronika used the brush in different ways to scratch different parts of her body.

“It was immediately clear that this was not accidental,” Auersperg said. “This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective.”

Auersperg and her colleague Antonio Osuna-Mascaró conducted a series of trials. They placed a long-handled brush on the ground and recorded how Veronika used it.

...

When scratching broad, thick-skinned regions such as her back or rump, Veronika tended to use the bristled end, applying it with sweeping, forceful movements. When targeting softer, more sensitive areas of her lower body, she switched to using the handle to scratch herself, moving more slowly.

Because Veronika directs tools at her own body, researchers describe this as egocentric tool use, which is usually regarded as less complex than tool use aimed at external objects. Even so, flexible, multi-purpose use of a single tool is rare. Outside humans, it has previously been demonstrated convincingly only in chimpanzees, the researchers say in their paper.

They wrote in a study published in the journal Current Biology that the findings “invite a reassessment of livestock cognition”.

...

The researchers suspect that Veronika’s life circumstances have played a role in the emergence of this behaviour. Most cows do not reach her age and they are rarely given the opportunity to interact with a variety of potentially useful objects.

Her long lifespan, daily contact with humans, and access to a rich physical landscape probably created favorable conditions, they said. If that is true, there may be nothing very exceptional about Veronika, other than the opportunities she has been given to exercise her brain.

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Political rhetoric and “irresponsible media commentary” are actively fuelling violence against Muslims, warns top Islamic body.

On Saturday in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, a pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and anti-Muslim hate rally organized by racist Jake Lang was abruptly aborted after Lang was swarmed by local residents and counterprotesters. The robust community response to the rally underscores the unpopularity of Trump’s “mass deportation” policies and attacks on immigrants.

footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AuLhDJnaEk

Source (Twitter)

Listen to Donald Trump and you would think Moscow and Beijing were lying in wait off the coast of Greenland, ready to pounce to boost their power in the Arctic.

"There are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place," President Trump said recently.

That is why, according to America's president, US control of Greenland is essential.

So how do you think Moscow has reacted to its alleged plot being uncovered and potentially thwarted by a US takeover of Greenland?

The Russians can't be pleased. Right?

Wrong.

In an astonishing article, the Russian government paper is full of praise for Trump and critical of European leaders who oppose a US annexation of Greenland.

"Standing in the way of the US president's historic breakthrough is the stubbornness of Copenhagen and the mock solidarity of intransigent European countries, including so-called friends of America, Britain and France," writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

"Europe does not need the American greatness that Trump is promoting. Brussels is counting on 'drowning' the US president in the midterm congressional elections, on preventing him from concluding the greatest deal of his life."

"Greatest deal"? The reporter explains what he means. I have to keep reminding myself I am reading the Russian government newspaper, not a pro-Trump publication in America.

"If Trump annexes Greenland by July 4 2026, when America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he will go down in history as a figure who asserted the greatness of the United States," writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

"With Greenland, the US becomes the second largest country in the world after Russia, surpassing Canada in area. For Americans, that's on par with such planetary events as the abolition of slavery by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 or the territorial conquests of the Napoleonic Wars.

"If, thanks to Trump, Greenland becomes part of America…for sure the American people will not forget such an achievement."

And the Russian reporter has this message for America's president: don't U-turn.

"It is dangerous for the American president to back down over Greenland. This would weaken the position of the Republican Party in the midterm elections and likely result in a Democrat majority on Capitol Hill with the ensuing consequences for Trump. Whereas a rapid annexation of Greenland before the elections can change this political trend

That these DoJ’s disclosures apparently comprise a drop in the bucket – and have done little to shed light on how Epstein operated with apparent impunity for years – has roiled survivors’ advocates and lawmakers. They include attorney Spencer Kuvin, who has represented dozens of Epstein’s survivors.

“A special master might help relieve the court and the DOJ from sifting through thousands upon thousands of documents,” he said. “Special masters tend to be appointed in serious complex litigation, cases with many parties involving massive amounts data or potential damages.”

Kuvin voiced similar sentiments. “A special master could help impose structure and accountability on a process that has clearly stalled. While a special master cannot invent authority that doesn’t exist, they can force clarity – what is being withheld, why it’s being withheld and whether those justifications actually withstand legal scrutiny,” he said.

An Ontario woman who regularly shared her experiences as a sexual assault survivor at police training courses says she’s ending her relationship with the Ontario Police College and is raising concerns about what she and several experts say are harmful biases among some officers and a lack of accountability from the college.

It comes after she received anonymous comments from two officers last year that she says left her feeling "mortified" and "humiliated."

For several years, she has volunteered her time by speaking at training organized by the college for sexual assault investigators. CBC News is protecting her identity because she is a sexual assault survivor.

Experts say the comments, which include calling her “damaged,” accusing her of being too critical of police and presuming a mental illness diagnosis, are not only hurtful but also show a concerning bias that could affect the integrity of sexual assault investigations.

The woman wants to know if those officers are working as sexual assault investigators, but more than four months after taking her concerns to the college, she still has no answers.