rooooofus has added a photo to the pool:
Crackdown on undocumented people could lead to home raids, surveillance and racial profiling, 75 organisations say
More than 70 rights organisations have called on the EU to reject a proposal aimed at increasing the deportation of undocumented people, warning that it risks turning everyday spaces, public services and community interactions into tools of ICE-style immigration enforcement.
Last March, the European Commission laid out its proposal to increase deportations of people with no legal right to stay in the EU, including potentially sending them to offshore centres in non-EU countries.
Continue reading...Once a whites-only enclave, the grand McMillan Memorial library is one of three in the Kenyan capital that have been transformed for the community
Down a steep, narrow staircase, the basement of the McMillan Memorial Library in Nairobi holds more than 100 enormous, dust-covered bound volumes of newspapers. Here too are the minutes of council meetings and photographic negatives going back more than a century.
“Here lie some of the minute-by-minute recorded debates from the time British colonial powers ruled Nairobi, when it was a segregated city,” says Angela Wachuka, a publisher. Seconds later, a power cut plunges the room into darkness. “We still have a great deal of work to do,” she adds.
Continue reading...This extraordinary diner is the final wonder of the great Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who dreamt it up at the age of 103. And it’s a great place for a sunset kombucha and gin
Perched among old brick buildings in an industrial neighbourhood of Leipzig in eastern Germany, a giant white sphere appears to hover over the corner of a former boiler house. Is it a giant’s golf ball? An alien spacecraft? A fallen planet?
Twelve metres in diameter, the Niemeyer Sphere is the final design of world-famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and probably the most surprising creation by a visionary who valued the sensation of newness in art above all else, the result being mesmerising buildings that seem both space age and out of this world. The Sphere is like a vision from the future, dropped among used-car dealerships and construction equipment rental outlets, in a working-class neighbourhood that few tourists would ever pass through by design.
Continue reading...The hit podcaster, author and former GP says a failure to regulate big tech is ‘failing a generation of children’. He explains why he quit the NHS and why he wants a ban on screen-based homework
A 16-year-old boy and his mum went to see their GP, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, on a busy Monday afternoon. That weekend, the boy had been at A&E after an attempt at self-harm, and in his notes the hospital doctor had recommended the teenager be prescribed antidepressants. “I thought: ‘Wait a minute, I can’t just start a 16-year-old on antidepressants,’” says Chatterjee. He wanted to understand what was going on in the boy’s life.
They talked for a while, and Chatterjee asked him about his screen use, which turned out to be high. “I said: ‘I think your screen use, particularly in the evenings, might be impacting your mental wellbeing.’” Chatterjee helped the boy and his mother set up a routine where digital devices and social media went off an hour before bed, gradually extending the screen-free period over six weeks. After two months, he says the boy stopped needing to see him. A few months after that, his mother wrote Chatterjee a note to say her son had been transformed – he was engaging with his friends and trying new activities. He was, she said, like a different boy from the one who had ended up in hospital.
Continue reading...Former US president clarifies ‘they’re real’ answer that he gave during quick-fire interview round
Hours after Barack Obama caused a frenzy by saying aliens were real on a podcast, the former US president has posted a statement clarifying that he has not seen any evidence of them.
In a conversation with the American podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend, Obama appeared to confirm the apparent existence of aliens during a speed round of questioning where the host asks guests quick questions and the guests respond with brief answers.
Continue reading...Niet de volgende hype, maar de vraag waarom herstel dit keer traag kan zijn—door cyclusdynamiek, hefboomhandel en afkoelende institutionele steun.
De cryptomarkt is weer in de stand “winter”. Na een piek rond 126.000 dollar zakte Bitcoin terug richting 60.000–70.000: grofweg een halvering, precies het soort klap dat eerdere bearmarkten inluidde. Het opvallende is niet alleen de daling, maar de verdamping van belangstelling: handelsvolumes zijn volgens analisten bijna gehalveerd en de stemming sloeg om naar paniek.[
Dat is het recept voor een langdurige dip. In de cryptowereld werkt vertrouwen als brandstof: als het op is, duurt het vaak maanden voordat nieuw geld weer durft in te stappen. Kaiko Research beschrijft bovendien dat bearmarkten historisch vaak zes tot twaalf maanden nodig hebben om een overtuigende bodem te vormen—met tussendoor meerdere oplevingen die weer stuklopen.
Een klassieke “FTX-achtige” klap lijkt deze keer niet de directe oorzaak; analisten wijzen juist op een cocktail van factoren. Zo was er een eerdere flashcrash (met veel speculatie op geleend geld) die de markt kwetsbaar maakte: zodra koersen dalen, worden hefboomposities gedwongen afgebouwd en versnelt de verkoop. En waar institutionele partijen eerder als vangnet golden, is dat vangnet niet gegarandeerd: er zijn signalen dat ook daar verkoopdruk kan ontstaan.
De kern is: zelfs als crypto “fundamenteel” blijft bestaan, kan de prijs lange tijd laag blijven. In zo’n fase verschuift de markt van verhalen (“to the moon”) naar schadeherstel: minder liquiditeit, lagere risicobereidheid en het wachten op een nieuw overtuigend narratief. Voor het brede publiek is dit vooral een les in tempo: crypto beweegt snel omlaag, maar herstelt vaak traag—zeker als de psychologie eenmaal is geknakt.
Asia In Brief The United States may be about to change its policies regarding Chinese technology companies.…