LibsEatPoop

Updates here:

Iran has launched hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles. Iran says with this attack, it considers the matter concluded, and any Israeli response will be met with severe retaliation. Iran also tells the US to stay away and that if any regional nation is used to launch the Israeli response, they will be targeted, too.

Israel claims to have intercepted 99% of Iranian response, and the IDF says citizens no longer need to stay near shelters, suggesting the Iranian attack is over. They were helped by UK and US fighter jets in other countries. Israel says it will give “an unprecedented response”. Israel has told the US what their response will consist of.

UN Security Council to meet at 4 PM Eastern Time, Sunday. As of now, it seems all drones and missiles have been intercepted/hit their targets. The impact on Israel has been extremely minor, with minimal casualties and zero fatalities. A military target seems to have been hit. Now we wait for Israel's response.

Hopefully, that too is similarly limited and the situation calms down.

Link to the news.

The German legislation will allow adults to change their first name and legal gender at registry offices without further formalities. The new rules will allow minors 14 years and older to change their name and legal gender with approval from their parents or guardians; if they don’t agree, teenagers could ask a family court to overrule them. In the case of children younger than 14, parents or guardians would have to make registry office applications on their behalf.

After a formal change of name and gender takes effect, no further changes would be allowed for a year. The new legislation focuses on individuals’ legal identities. It does not involve any revisions to Germany’s rules for gender-transition surgery.

Among others, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Spain already have similar legislation. In the U.K., the Scottish parliament in 2022 passed a bill that would allow people aged 16 or older to change the gender designation on identity documents by self-declaration. That was vetoed by the British government, a decision that Scotland’s highest civil court upheld in December.

In other socially liberal reforms, Scholz’s government has legalized the possession of limited amounts of cannabis; eased the rules on gaining German citizenship and ended restrictions on holding dual citizenship; and ended a ban on doctors “advertising” abortion services. Same-sex marriage was already legalized in 2017.

Link

Here's the video.

The quote replies restore some sanity at least.

After 20 days, he'll be asked to conscript again. If he refuses, he'll be sent to jail again. This will continue till either he agrees to conscription or the military stops requiring him.

If you're running version 5.6.0 or 5.6.1, downgrade immediately.

The State of Israel shall, in conformity with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and in view of the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of famine and starvation:

Take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full co-operation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies and medical care to Palestinians throughout Gaza, including by increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and maintaining them open for as long as necessary;

Ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza as a protected group under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including by preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance;

Submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order, within one month as from the date of this Order.

The main page says it won’t come out till tomorrow but the critic page lists them so…Here’s some highlights:

Metascore: 52 Positive Reviews: 6 Mixed Reviews: 14 Negative Reviews 1

The Wrap: 84: It’s no small compliment to say that 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' is expertly crafted drivel.

The Film Verdict: 68: If Hollywood insists on continuing its own separate monsterverse, it could do worse than GxK, a film where giant beasts wallop the tar out of each other with thrilling efficacy.

Chicago Sun-Time: 50: Godzilla x King Kong: The New Empire is the definition of an old-fashioned (with new technology) popcorn movie and there’s certainly no harm in that, but at the end of the day, it feels like the stakes have never been more medium.

The Telegraph: 40: There’s some commendable trippiness towards the end, but for the most part Godzilla Smooch Kong is all too ready to fall back on delivering the bare minimum promised by its title. It’s giant monsters fighting, the thing constantly shrugs: what else do you want? Ideally a bit more than this.

Rolling Stone: 40: What this feels like is a second-generation copy of a copy, and one that suffers from the typical franchise law of diminishing returns. No one expects the reinvention of the MonsterVerse wheel, but it’d be nice to have something that isn’t more of the same and less than the sum of its I.P. parts.

In a recent video on Twitter, he compared the China of today to 2019 and was completely shocked at the speed to progress and change. Says it’s like stepping into the future.

1 - Automation: From trains to taxis to purchases - everything is done seamlessly with super Apple Pay.

2 - EV: 30%-40% of the cars are fully electric. You can get Teslas but you have Chinese brands that offer sedans for $10k.

3 - The air is much cleaner. Partly due to EVs.

4 - People are more respectful of societal norms. There is better service everywhere you go.

5 - Less foreigners, even in touristy areas. Most white people are actually Russian.

6 - In factories, robots do the work in contrast to the perception people have in the US of China just throwing cheap labor at every problem. Factories set up their own e-commerce platforms and sell directly on China’s TikTok.

7 - It feels like over the past 5 years, everything by in China just got better, while everything in the US just got worse.

Someone (who's not banned already) should post this on r/worldnews.

On Jan. 7, the Israeli military struck a car carrying four journalists, calling them terrorists who "operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops." A new Post investigation finds no evidence of any Israeli forces in the vicinity: Drone footage raises questions about Israeli justification for deadly strike on Gaza journalists

In a statement on Jan. 10, the IDF said a commercially-available Mavic 2 drone operated by well-known freelancer Mustafa Thuraya posed an “immediate threat” to nearby soldiers. The Post reviewed Thuraya's drone footage and saw no Israeli forces.

The Post obtained and reviewed satellite imagery and shared that imagery with outside researchers. No Israeli forces were visible or detected within more than a mile of where Thuraya launched his drone.

The IDF said it had evidence that both men killed in the strike, Thuraya and Hamza, belonged to militant groups. Interviews with 14 witnesses and colleagues gave no indication that either man was operating as anything other than a journalist that day.

Both men had been subject to Israeli security checks, having traveled through IDF checkpoints earlier in the war, and Dahdouh had been cleared by Israel to leave Gaza.