xiffy

Public posts from @xiffy@mastodon.nl

I for one am glad I did not move all my github repositories to gitlab in a rush. Seems I have to move both github and gitlab to a safe haven.
about.gitlab.com/blog/gitlab-a

Uranada beach

Teruhide Tomori has added a photo to the pool:

Uranada beach

The Tateyama mountain range over Toyama Bay
Location : Nakata, Himi, Toyama prefecture.

富山県 浦灘海岸
富山県氷見市中田

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Wrestling With Trump review – the president gets an almighty smackdown!

In this punchy documentary, satirist Munya Chawawa steps into the ring to trash-talk Trump’s obsession with apeing the world of WrestleMania. The result? A bodyslam

Trump is the ultimate showman. He’s a master of it, a billionaire Barnum, but with a greed so insatiable it moves him ever further from entertainment into malevolence. If the Democrats had realised this earlier and recognised the strength the man was playing to and the particular voting public weaknesses he was preying upon, instead of sneering with distaste, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.

In fact, if they had done what comedian and satirist Munya Chawawa does in his punchy, passionate and weirdly uplifting documentary Wrestling With Trump, it might be a slightly better world today. Chawawa takes the not-new but certainly underused idea that Trump and his team’s campaigns and style of government use the same playbook as that created by the US pro-wrestling industry’s most famous promoters, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). WWE was founded by Vince McMahon and his since-estranged wife, Linda. Vince resigned from various business roles in 2024 in the wake of allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault (he has vigorously denied these allegations). Linda is now the US secretary of education.

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Southampton in playoff final after freak winner settles Middlesbrough grudge match

Southampton advanced to the playoff final against Hull City, though it seems unlikely it will be quite that straightforward from here owing to the alleged foul play that dominated the buildup to a fraught second leg that went the distance, more than 130 minutes in total. If found guilty of cheating, Middlesbrough will demand Southampton are adequately punished. Is there even a world where Kim Hellberg’s train for the next couple of weeks in the event of the unprecedented?

Just what is it about Shea Charles and big moments, his latest coming in the 116th minute to send Tonda Eckert’s side to Wembley? It was the midfielder who scored the winning goal to send Arsenal packing in the FA Cup quarter-finals, his 96th-minute winner that clinched the 4-3 comeback victory against Leicester in February and now this. Charles was out on the right flank, the game edging towards a penalty shootout, when he sent the ball in with his left foot – it was surely a cross – and the ball sailed past the Boro defender Dael Fry and in at the back post.

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Daily pill can help people maintain weight loss after they come off jabs, trial shows

Data shows orforglipron could in future avoid need to take other long-term medications for diseases associated with obesity

A daily pill could help people keep weight off and stop them needing other long-term medications, scientists behind landmark new trial data have suggested.

The researchers said orforglipron could help prevent more than 200 diseases associated with obesity and could be prescribed to prevent lower levels of overweight tipping into obesity.

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New York hospital system receives subpoena over trans youth healthcare

Request is one of the justice department’s latest attempts to track and regulate gender-affirming care for minors

A Texas federal prosecutor has subpoenaed NYU Langone Health (NYULH), a major hospital network in New York City, for information about minor patients who received gender-affirming care between 2020 to 2026.

The US attorney’s office in the northern district of Texas’s subpoena, which was sent on 7 May, also requested the names of medical providers and others who provided such medical treatment during that period. NYULH was one of several institutions that were issued a subpoena, according to a statement on its website.

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Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Knauw voor pensioenopbouw veel Nederlanders door oorlog en rente

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De grote pensioenfondsen die al zijn overgestapt naar het nieuwe pensioenstelsel ondervonden in het eerste kwartaal hinder van de oorlog in het Midden-Oosten en een gedaalde rente. De pensioenopbouw van bij elkaar miljoenen deelnemers liep hierdoor schade op. Het is nog te vroeg voor een inschatting van wat dit precies betekent voor de pensioenen van gepensioneerden in 2027. De fondsen menen genoeg reserves te hebben om kortingen op uitkeringen te vermijden.

Zorgfonds PFZW, metaalfonds PMT en bpfBOUW gingen per 1 januari over naar het nieuwe stelsel. Dat ging gepaard met flinke pensioenverhogingen. In het nieuwe stelsel bewegen de pensioenen echter meer mee met ontwikkelingen op de financiële markten. Door de uitbraak van de Iranoorlog ging het daar in maart niet zo goed mee.

Bezien over het hele eerste kwartaal lukte het de fondsen volgens woensdag verschenen cijfers wel bescheiden rendementen te behalen. Door de lagere rente ging de kostprijs van pensioen, het bedrag dat nu nodig is om later een bepaald pensioen uit te keren, echter sterker omhoog.

Solidariteitsreserve

Op basis van de voorlopige cijfers zouden de ingegane pensioenen op 1 januari volgend jaar met 0,4 procent moeten worden verlaagd, becijfert PMT voor de eigen achterban. Volgens het fonds kan die min worden opgevangen met een kleine inzet van de solidariteitsreserve, waardoor de uitkering gelijk blijft. Een woordvoerster benadrukt dat het gaat om een "momentopname". De daadwerkelijke gevolgen voor pensioenuitkeringen in 2027 worden pas bepaald op basis van de cijfers per eind september dit jaar.

Het beeld voor deelnemers die nog geen pensioen ontvangen, verschilt sterk per leeftijd. Jongere deelnemers hebben nog tientallen jaren tot hun pensioen en de cijfers kunnen voor deze groep sterker schommelen. Voor oudere deelnemers investeren de fondsen minder in risicovolle beleggingen om het pensioen stabieler te houden.

16 procent omlaag

In het eerste kwartaal was het verschil goed zichtbaar, want het opgebouwde pensioen voor een 35-jarige bij PMT ging volgens de cijfers meer dan 16 procent omlaag. Bij mensen van 65 jaar bedroeg de afname minder dan 2 procent.

BpfBOUW en PFZW delen minder cijfers. Het fonds voor de bouw zegt wel dat er voor deelnemers vlak voor pensionering sprake is van een daling van hun verwachte pensioen met zo'n 2 procent. Een woordvoerster van PFZW voegt toe dat forse verhogingen er komende jaren sowieso niet meer inzitten, omdat beleggingsresultaten voortaan over meerdere jaren worden uitgesmeerd.


Fiscale aftrekregeling populair voor investeringen in batterijen

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Nederlandse bedrijven hebben vorig jaar meer gebruik gemaakt van een fiscale aftrekregeling voor de aanschaf van energiebesparende middelen. Dat meldt de Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO). Met belastingvoordeel via de Energie-investeringsaftrek (EIA) werd vooral meer geïnvesteerd in batterijen voor de opslag van energie.

In totaal werd er vorig jaar voor bijna 4 miljard euro aan energiezuinige investeringen gedaan, 23 procent meer dan een jaar eerder. In batterijopslag werd 70 procent meer geïnvesteerd ten opzichte van een jaar eerder. Ondernemers investeerden voor 1,1 miljard euro in batterijen met de fiscale aftrekregeling. Met de EIA-regeling kunnen ondernemers 40 procent van de investeringskosten aftrekken van de fiscale winst.

Batterijopslag is populair omdat bedrijven energie zelf willen opslaan, stelt de RVO. De meeste aanvragen werden gedaan voor batterijen die duurzaam opgewekte energie opslaan, bijvoorbeeld opgewekt via zonnepanelen op het dak van een bedrijf. Het meeste geld werd geïnvesteerd in batterijen die door bedrijven worden gebruikt om het net te balanceren. Deze batterijen slaan energie op wanneer het overtollig en goedkoop is en kunnen dit later weer terugleveren. De bedrijven leveren daarmee een bijdrage aan het verminderen van netcongestie.


The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

Foxconn confirms cyberattack after ransomware crew claims it stole confidential Apple, Nvidia files

Foxconn, a critical supplier for major hardware companies like Apple and Nvidia, on Tuesday confirmed a cyberattack affecting its North American operations after the Nitrogen ransomware gang listed the electronics manufacturer on its data leak site. “Some of Foxconn's factories in North America suffered a cyberattack,” a Foxconn spokesperson told The Register. “The cybersecurity team immediately activated the response mechanism and implemented multiple operational measures to ensure the continuity of production and delivery. The affected factories are currently resuming normal production.” Nitrogen ransomware criminals on Monday claimed to have breached the Taiwan-based company and stolen 8 TB of data comprising more than 11 million files. The miscreants say the leaks include confidential instructions, internal project documentation, and technical drawings related to projects at Intel, Apple, Google, Dell, and Nvidia, among others. Foxconn declined to confirm that these - or any - customers’ information was hoovered up in the digital intrusion. Nitrogen, which has been around since 2023, is believed to be one of the various ransomware offshoots that borrowed code from the leaked Conti 2 builder. And, in what may be very bad news for its latest victim, even paying the ransom demand may not guarantee recovery of encrypted files. In February, Coveware researchers warned that a programming error prevents the gang's decryptor from recovering victims' files, so paying up is futile. The finding specifically concerns the group's malware that targets VMware ESXi. This isn’t the first time Foxconn has been targeted by ransomware gangs. In 2024, LockBit claimed to have infected Foxsemicon Integrated Technology, a semiconductor equipment manufacturer within the Foxconn Technology Group. The same criminal crew also hit a Foxconn subsidiary in Mexico in 2022. ®

Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Microsoft's $1 Billion AI Data Center Will 'Switch Off Half of Kenya'

Microsoft and G42's planned $1 billion AI data center in Kenya has stalled amid disagreements over power commitments, with President William Ruto saying the country would need to "switch off half the country" to support the project at full scale. Tom's Hardware reports: The project, announced in May 2024 during Ruto's visit to Washington, was supposed to bring a geothermal-powered data center to the Olkaria region in Kenya's Rift Valley. G42 was to lead construction, with the facility running Microsoft Azure in a new East Africa cloud region. The first phase targeted 100 megawatts of capacity and was expected to be operational by this year, with a long-term goal of scaling to 1 gigawatt.

President Ruto isn't exaggerating about shutting off half the country's power. Kenya's total installed electricity capacity sits between 3,000 and 3,200 megawatts, and peak demand reached a record 2,444 megawatts in January, according to data from KenGen, the country's government-owned electricity producer. The full 1 gigawatt build would therefore have consumed roughly a third of the country's total capacity, and even the first 100 megawatts would have required a significant share of the Olkaria geothermal complex's output, which currently generates around 950MW across all its plants.

John Tanui, principal secretary at Kenya's Ministry of Information, told Bloomberg that the project hasn't been withdrawn and that talks are continuing, adding that the "scale of the data center they [Microsoft] wanted to do still requires some structuring." A separate 60-megawatt project with local developer EcoCloud is also still under discussion. [...] Microsoft is spending $190 billion on capex in 2026, and the company adds approximately 1 gigawatt of data center capacity every three months globally. But power constraints are proving to be a universal bottleneck: nearly half of planned U.S. data center builds this year have been delayed or canceled due to shortages of electrical infrastructure.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.