Hurray! This German State Decides to Save €15 Million Each Year By Kicking Out Microsoft for Open Source
European governments are pushing back against Big Tech’s grip on public infrastructure. Denmark announced earlier this year that its Ministry of Digital Affairs was switching from Microsoft to LibreOffice. In more recent news, Switzerland’s data protection authorities declared international cloud services unsuitable for handling personal data. One German state hasContinue Reading
Siemens’s Heliox brand launches new 44 kW V2G-capable DC charger
Heliox, a Siemens business, has launched a next-generation, all-in-one DC fast charging system with intelligent vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functionality. The Heliox 44 kW V2G charger provides bidirectional charging and discharging capability, allowing vehicles to return energy to the grid. Programmability features enable time-of-use charging and scheduled energy transfers, enabling fleet operatorsContinue Reading
USPS finally gets some EVs on the road
How long does it take for a fleet to electrify? The answer depends on various factors, but it really shouldn’t take nine years—unless the fleet in question belongs to a quasi-governmental agency, and the transition is taking place against a background of unprecedented political turmoil. Postal delivery vehicles are aContinue Reading
Kristi Noem: A Case Study in the GOP Tilt Toward Ostentatious Fascism
Everywhere you look, there is news that one can scarcely believe is emanating from the United States of America, and I think you know the subject matter to which these news items all refer. In Arizona, a three-year-old child was forced to act as her own lawyer in immigration court,Continue Reading
The Traitor Jr: Father may walk away from Ukraine as Kremlin cheers US shift
President Traitor 47 now says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “hasn’t read” the U.S. peace proposal aimed at ending the war, adding to a weekend of signals from The Traitor World that Washington’s approach to Ukraine may be shifting. Overnight, Russia launched one of its largest attacks in months, as peaceContinue Reading
Is Warner Bros’ sale to Netflix a done deal?
Harry Potter, Batman and HBO are all set to become part of Netflix’s massive content library in a $72 billion deal announced last week. But it needs a sign-off from regulators in Europe and the U.S., and as Elena Casas explains, everyone from the Hollywood screenwriters’ union to Traitor 47Continue Reading
Hungary’s veto sparks EU push to seize €210bn in frozen Russian assets
On Friday, Hungary vetoed a €90bn eurobond scheme at an EU ambassadors’ meeting—killing Europe’s backup plan for funding Ukraine. By Sunday, seven EU countries were demanding that the bloc take a bolder path instead: seize €210 billion in frozen Russian assets outright. The leaders of Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania,Continue Reading
Kremlin hails The Traitor security strategy as “largely consistent with our vision”
Russia’s presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed the The Traitor administration’s new National Security Strategy on 7 December, saying the document’s adjustments “largely correspond to our vision” and could serve as a “modest guarantee” for joint work on a Ukrainian settlement. Peskov made the comments in an interview with Pavel ZarubinContinue Reading
As NOAA Funding Lags, a Critical Ocean Weather System Nears a Breaking Point
Officials warn that if regional Integrated Ocean Observing System readings go dark, coastal forecasts will become less precise, endangering commercial fishermen, cargo ships and coastal communities. By Ryan Krugman Years of underfunding and new delays in federal grantmaking threaten buoys and ocean monitoring assets run by the National Oceanic andContinue Reading
Baraa in Syria
A video diary for Al Jazeera, On the Ground A video diary for Al Jazeera Baraa Obied was internally displaced during the Syrian war and is now home again in Damascus. In his video diary, he shows how daily life in the capital is slowly returning to normal, one yearContinue Reading
Indonesia counts human cost as more climate change warnings sounded
Indonesia says 1,000 dead, some 1 million displaced from rains as report points at the threat posed by climate change., Indonesia reports 1,000 dead and close to 1 million displaced from rains as a report points at the threat posed by climate change and ecosystem decline across Asia. Nearly 1,000Continue Reading
Exxon’s Next Supreme Court Play
This piece is copublished by DeSmog and ExxonKnews . ExxonKnews is a reporting project of the Center for Climate Integrity. Facing a growing number of lawsuits that could hold them liable for billions of dollars in climate damages, oil companies for the fifth time in three years are asking the U.S.Continue Reading
Scientists uncover a volcanic trigger behind the Black Death
A newly analyzed set of climate data points to a major volcanic eruption that may have played a key role in the Black Death’s arrival. Cooling and crop failures across Europe pushed Italian states to bring in grain from the Black Sea. Those shipments may have carried plague-infected fleas. TheContinue Reading