ajpscs has added a photo to the pool:
looking backward rather than forward
the SQUARE
MUTED
TOKYO DAY WALK
© ajpscs
ajpscs has added a photo to the pool:
looking backward rather than forward
the SQUARE
MUTED
TOKYO DAY WALK
© ajpscs

Slecht nieuws voor mensen van omtrek de groteske gemeenschap BMI-uitgedaagden mensen met een hoog gewicht: uit een of ander onderzoek (niet gelezen, in plaats daarvan chips gegeten, red.) blijkt dat jullie minder snel uitgenodigd worden voor een sollicitatiegesprek, en als dat toch lukt minder snel aan worden genomen. Ook wordt jullie werk negatiever beoordeeld, verdienen jullie minder geld en maken jullie minder snel promotie, dit omdat (werkelijk geen idee, zit nu dropjes te eten, red.), of iets dergelijks. Daarom, bindend advies aan jonge mensen: vreet niet te veel, want straks heeft solliciteren amper nut, verdien je geen ruk, heb je geen perspectief op verbetering, en kan je eigenlijk alleen nog maar bij GeenStijl terecht.
Afijn, zin in chips en dropjes nu.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Luchtvaartmaatschappijen moeten boetes kunnen opleggen aan passagiers die zich misdragen, vindt het kabinet. Het is een van de plannen die minister Vincent Karremans (Infrastructuur, VVD) in een Kamerbrief voorstelt om wangedrag in vliegtuigen tegen te gaan. Als de boetes er komen naast strafrechtelijke vervolging, zou dat als "extra afschrikking" kunnen werken.
De VVD-minister ziet een "zorgwekkende stijging" van verstoringen in vliegtuigen, zoals schelden, bedreigen en fysieke agressie. "Helaas betreft dit een wereldwijde trend." In Nederland zou het dagelijks om twee à drie incidenten gaan. Vaak is er alcohol bij betrokken.
Karremans wil ook dat Europese luchtvaartmaatschappijen hun zwarte lijsten kunnen delen om verstorende passagiers te weren, vindt het kabinet. De bedrijven en vakbonden gaan met hulp van zijn ministerie kijken of het mogelijk is om meer informatie uit te wisselen. Als het plan slaagt, zouden passagiers die zich bij de ene luchtvaartmaatschappij misdragen dus ook niet meer welkom zijn bij de andere maatschappij.
KLM en Transavia delen hun zwarte lijsten al enkele jaren, aldus Karremans. Hij heeft recent in een Europees overleg al gepleit voor de gedeelde lijsten van verstorende passagiers, en zegt daarbij gesteund te zijn door zes andere lidstaten.
JINJIANG (ANP/AFP) - Bij een grote brand in een schoenenfabriek in de Chinese stad Jinjiang zijn zeker 28 doden gevallen, melden staatsmedia. De brand is uitgebroken in een vestiging van de Huiteng Shoes Company in het district Chendai.
De Chinese president Xi Jinping zei donderdag "een zwaar verlies aan mensenlevens" te vrezen. Hij gelastte de slachtoffers te vinden en een grondig onderzoek naar de oorzaak in te stellen.
Volgens Chinese media is de industrie in het voormalige vissersdorp Chendai enorm groot. In de plaats worden volgens de People's Daily Online jaarlijks een miljard paar sneakers gefabriceerd. De schoenenindustrie zou er goed zijn voor meer dan 6 miljard euro aan inkomsten.
UTRECHT (ANP) - Het treinverkeer tussen Alphen aan den Rijn en Bodegraven ligt vanaf oktober negen maanden stil vanwege de vervanging van de spoorbrug over de Gouwe. Die is op zich veilig, maar er is "beweging geconstateerd in de landhoofden en middenpijler van de spoorbrug", aldus de NS.
De NS raadt reizigers tussen Leiden Centraal en Utrecht Centraal aan om te reizen via Amsterdam Zuid. Tussen Alphen aan den Rijn en Bodegraven zet de vervoerder bussen in. Ook zullen er extra treinen rijden tussen Alphen aan den Rijn en Leiden Centraal.
Op de stations Alphen aan den Rijn en Bodegraven komen meer ov-fietsen beschikbaar. Reizigers die tussen de twee stations fietsen, hoeven geen extra kosten te betalen voor het inleveren van de fiets op een andere locatie.
PARIJS (ANP) - Frankrijk zet zeker 20.000 politiemensen in voor de WK-voetbalwedstrijd Frankrijk-Marokko, deze donderdagavond. Zo'n 8000 van hen worden ingezet in Parijs, heeft het ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken bekendgemaakt, melden Franse media.
De autoriteiten houden er rekening mee dat rond de wedstrijd ongeregeldheden uitbreken, melden onder meer Europe 1 en Le Journal du Dimanche op basis van een instructie van het ministerie. Dat zou vooral een risico zijn als Marokko wint, gezien de "neiging van de fans om op een zichtbare en onrustige manier te vieren", aldus het document.
Le Figaro schrijft dat rekening wordt gehouden met geweld in fanzones waar de wedstrijd gekeken wordt, op andere openbare plekken in de steden en ook buiten de hoofdstad. De autoriteiten houden rekening met onder meer autobranden en plunderingen.
De nummer 114 van de wereld staat vrijdag tot verrassing van iedereen in de halve finale van Wimbledon. „Hij wil altijd weten waaróm we bepaalde dingen doen.”
Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Wednesday, John Deere agreed to give farmers broader access to repair their tractors and farm equipment under an antitrust settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, one of the biggest wins in the long right to repair battle. The settlement is the latest and by far the most important development in several recent lawsuits against John Deere, and is finally an agreement that isn’t full of half measures and doesn’t have massive, obvious loopholes.
The FTC settlement is far better than a recent, highly controversial settlement in a separate class action lawsuit against Deere brought by farmers in Illinois, and it’s worth breaking down the differences. Two years ago, I wrote an article called “The Walls Are Closing in on John Deere’s Tractor Repair Monopoly,” which followed that Illinois case, in which several farmers brought a complex, class action antitrust lawsuit against Deere. The judge in that case, Iain Johnson, wrote several scathing opinions about Deere’s anti-repair practices that indicated that he was seemingly inclined to hit Deere with stiff penalties.
But after years of litigation, the plaintiffs in that case decided to settle with Deere in April, earning a $99 million payout for farmers who paid for repairs over the last decade, and several right-to-repair protections that did not have much in the way of legal teeth.
This $99 million payout was roughly $79 million after legal fees and to be divided among more than 200,000 farmers; this means each farmer will receive roughly $395, or “less than the cost of a single authorized dealer service call for a typical 500-acre farm,” according to an analysis by Willie Cade, a longtime farm right to repair advocate.
“Bottom line is that farmers are getting $0.79 per acre for the eight years of Deere abuse,” Cade told me. “Bad settlement. The settlement is insufficient … the money is a small fraction of what the class could recover at trial, the claims process depends on labor-hour data only Deere holds, and the repair "fixes" are riddled with loopholes that leave Deere's monopoly intact.”
The Illinois settlement would prohibit farmers covered by it from filing any future repair-related litigation against Deere, and only required Deere to provide parts and repair guides to farmers under poorly defined “fair and reasonable” terms, a loophole that other manufacturers have used to claim that their parts and tools are constantly out of stock or cost astronomic prices.
“The ‘fair and reasonable terms’ standard is not price equality with dealers, nor is it a guaranteed price ceiling,” Cade wrote in his analysis. “Disputes about whether Deere’s pricing meets this standard are subject to Court oversight, but individual farmers may have limited practical ability to challenge pricing that does not obviously cross the line.”
The settlement in the Illinois case was so bad that one of the plaintiffs in the case, Wilson Farms, filed a 53 page formal objection to it two weeks ago, in part because it claims that there are many “unlitigated and uncompensated” cases in which farmers suffered under Deere’s monopoly. Under the settlement, farmers would no longer be able to sue Deere by “terminat[ing] Class members’ ability to collectively challenge Deere’s repair aftermarket monopolization for a generation.”
“Rather than provide any meaningful benefit to the Class, it appears that the proposed Settlement’s most important effect will be to give Deere its most powerful tool yet in its decades-long effort to block farmers from repairing their own equipment,” the objection says. “Extinguishment of farmers’ rights under the law.”
Other farmers called the Illinois settlement “disingenuous” and “unfair.”
The good news is that the wildly disappointing and seemingly unnecessary selling out of farmers’ rights in the Illinois case that Deere appeared to be losing very badly is greatly mitigated by the FTC’s settlement from this week. The FTC case was brought by Lina Khan under the Biden administration; to its credit, the Trump administration decided to continue litigating.
The FTC settlement does not have monetary damages for farmers, but it has far better right to repair protections for John Deere customers moving forward. In the FTC deal, the “fair and reasonable terms” are better defined and are based on the price that John Deere dealers actually pay for repair parts and tools. Deere and its dealers are not allowed to “discriminate or retaliate” against farmers who repair their own equipment (manufacturers have been known to brick devices that consumers fix themselves). The FTC settlement also includes access to farmers for “future repair resources,” meaning repair tools, guides, software, and parts that Deere creates in the future.
Deere must also file “compliance reports” with the FTC, and the FTC will have oversight of the compliance. Crucially, the FTC settlement also does not affect farmers’ private grievances against Deere, meaning it is possible for farmers to sue Deere if the company’s repair practices have affected them.
The FTC settlement is one that has actual legal teeth and enforcement mechanisms that Deere should at least theoretically have to comply with. Earlier agreements and right to repair “wins” for farmers were often half measures (though it’s worth mentioning that Colorado passed a good agriculture right to repair law in 2023 after years of struggle from farmers and advocates). Deere and various farmers’ public interest groups had previously agreed to right to repair “memorandums of understanding” in which Deere promised to make repair parts and tools available to farmers. In practice, however, these tools and parts were often not available, were not as good as what dealers and authorized service providers had access to, or were unreasonably expensive. These memorandums of understanding also had few or no enforcement mechanisms.
Cade told 404 Media in an email that this settlement order “gives farmers real hope.”
Nathan Proctor, senior right to repair campaign director for consumer rights group U.S. PIRG, said in a statement that the FTC settlement “is much better than the deal secured in [the Illinois] class action lawsuit.”
“Deere has now agreed to make available all materials needed to conduct repairs, including some which it has previously withheld,” Proctor said. “I want to thank the FTC for its work on this case. Our goal from the start of our campaign was to ensure that farmers and independent mechanics get everything they need to fix equipment. We will continue to monitor the situation and advocate to ensure that goal is a reality.”
In other words, farmers finally have an actual, major win in the right to repair fight that goes far beyond earlier piecemeal and moral victories.
On the back of our editors’ choices of the year’s finest, we asked you to share your magical movie moments from the first half of 2026
The film that had me gripped right from its ridiculous and bizarre first scene at a Brazilian country road petrol station was The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho. The gorgeous Armando is on the run from a corrupt private company official, who wants to steal his academic expertise for his own financial gain. It’s a deal that Armando knows will sully his academic reputation but by refusing to do so, he ends up with a target on his back from the resentful Ghirotti, who sent chills up my spine. This is a stunning movie. Liz, London
Continue reading...Exclusive: Questions grow over George Cottrell’s role as party says he has never held an official position
George Cottrell was routinely introduced as Nigel Farage’s chief of staff before the 2024 election despite denials that he had any official role, according to a Reform UK candidate who stood aside for the party leader.
Others who have been closely involved in the party have also claimed Cottrell arranged the Land Rovers that ferried Reform’s newly elected MPs to parliament, and that he covered the cost of a fundraising lunch with potential donors before the national vote.
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