Don't worry she's fine

The U.S. Postal Service plans to impose its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages (source paywalled; alternative source), adding an 8% fee starting in April as it struggles with rising fuel costs and ongoing financial pressure. The surcharge will not apply to letter mail and is currently expected to remain in place until January 2027. The Wall Street Journal reports: Other parcel carriers, including FedEx and United Parcel Service, have imposed fuel surcharges, as well as a basket of other surcharges and fees, for years. Both FedEx and UPS have dramatically raised their fuel surcharges in recent weeks as the price of oil has increased amid the turmoil in the Middle East. [...] The post office has been trying to increase the volume of packages it delivers. It previously differentiated itself from commercial carriers by saying that it doesn't apply residential, Saturday delivery or fuel or remote-delivery surcharges.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US president says he will host Chinese leader in a reciprocal visit later this year

Donald Trump will meet Xi Jinping in May during the US president’s first visit to China in eight years, a closely watched trip that had been postponed due to the Iran war.

Trump was initially slated to travel next week, but will now visit Beijing on 14 and 15 May, he wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. Trump said he would host the Chinese leader in a reciprocal visit in Washington later this year.

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The relationships therapist sat down with a lovestruck man and his chipmunk-voiced companion. But could the bot provide him with what he really craved?

I heard celebrity therapist Esther Perel provide a couples counselling session for a man and his AI “girlfriend”. As a result, my soul will never know peace.

Something very, very drastic needs to occur to fix society before more precious, real people spend their allotted hours on Earth being kept company by a machine that does a good job of approximating a human interaction.

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ajpscs posted a photo:

the SQUARE
© ajpscs

ntomlin124 has added a photo to the pool:

Just some old man's (fisherman's) beard. Lovely day though.

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

De Verenigde Naties hebben de trans-Atlantische slavenhandel officieel bestempeld als „de ernstigste misdaad tegen de menselijkheid” ooit. Nederland onthield zich van stemming.