A CLOGGED PIPELINE!

Ukraine announces it will stop all transit of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine from January 1st

More screws tighten on Putin!
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #Ukraine #Russia #Putin #EU #NATO #Zelensky #war

Russian athletes will be able to qualify for the ice skating competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics as neutrals, the sport's governing body said Friday.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/12/20/russian-skaters-allowed-to-compete-as-neutrals-in-2026-winter-olympics-a87417

#Ukraine #Russia #Belarus #IOC #Olympics

Donald #Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming #US president will demand #Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to #Ukraine.

https://www.ft.com/content/35f490c5-3abb-4ac9-8fa3-65e804dd158f

#Russia #EU #UK

Analysis: Gaza v. Blinken

"Palestinians Sue Secretary of State Over Failure to Follow US Law on Sending Military Aid to Israel"

"For too long, the State Department has acted as if there’s an Israel exemption from the Leahy Law."

"This lawsuit demands one thing and one thing only: for the State Department to obey the law requiring a ban on assistance to abusive Israeli security forces."

~Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN

https://zeteo.com/p/gaza-v-blinken-palestinians-sue-secretary

#Blinken #USPol #GazaGenocide #USEnablement #BDS .

Quick guide to installing raspi-config on Ubuntu for seamless Raspberry Pi configuration.

https://itsfoss.com/install-raspi-config-ubuntu/

Interview: Tim Snyder: “Do Not Obey in Advance”: How Corporate America Is Bending to Trump

"It’s textbook anticipatory obedience" - the most monied are the ones setting "the example by yielding to power first."

Eg, ABC News settles a Trump defamation case by donating $15 million.

And tech leaders have also cozied up, with major donations to Trump.

Snyder is an expert on how authoritarianism works.

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/20/trump_defamation_suits

#Trump #CorporateObesiance #USPol #Fascism #Project2025 .

Air raid sirens were activated again across Ukraine.

#Ukraine️ #UkraineRussiaWar #Russia

🇺🇦 The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the disbursement of $1.1 billion in funds for #Ukraine via the Extended Fund Facility, the IMF announced on Dec. 20.

https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/12/20/pr-24493-ukraine-imf-completes-6th-rev-of-extended-arrangement-under-eff

🇷🇺 🇺🇦 #Russia attacked the city of #Zaporizhzhia the evening of Dec. 20, injuring four people, including a 12-year-old boy, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov reported.

https://kyivindependent.com/russian-attack-on-zaporizhzhia-injures-4-including-child/

#ukraine #RussianWarCrimes

🗣 #Ukraine said on Friday that Colonel General Alexei Kim, a deputy chief of #Russia's General Staff, ordered a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine in August that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and wounded two of the agency's journalists.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/ukraine-names-russian-general-suspect-missile-strike-that-killed-reuters-safety-2024-12-20/

#RussianWarCrimes

⛸️ #Russian athletes will be able to qualify for the ice skating competition at the 2026 Winter #Olympics as neutrals, the sport's governing body said Friday.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/12/20/russian-skaters-allowed-to-compete-as-neutrals-in-2026-winter-olympics-a87417

#russia #sports

🇺🇦 🇷🇺 Four Ukrainian drone strikes have hit #Chechnya since late October, but not a single drone has been shot down so far despite Kadyrov’s assurances that air defence systems in the republic are operational 😁

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/12/20/reputation-under-attack-en

#ukraine #russia

🇺🇲 US authorities on Friday said they charged a dual Russian and Israeli national in connection with his alleged participation with the LockBit ransomware group and are seeking his extradition.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-20/us-charges-israeli-national-with-working-for-lockbit-ransom-gang

Archive: https://archive.is/q4AZo

#usa

🛢 Russian and Kazakh oil flows to Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany via the Druzhba pipeline have stopped since Thursday due to technical problems at a Russian pumping station, Reuters reports.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/oil-via-russias-druzhba-pipeline-halted-by-technical-problems-sources-say-2024-12-20/

#russia #oilandgas

🇺🇦 #Ukraine is already receiving U.S. funds under the framework of the G7's $50 billion loan covered by profits from frozen #Russian assets, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Dec 20.

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-begins-receiving-first-funds-covered-by-frozen-russian-assets-proceeds/

#russia

🇪🇺🇷🇺 The EU purchased a record amount of Russian #LNG this year, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Among top byers, #France has already hit its highest-ever volumes and #Spain is closing in on records seen last year.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-20/europe-still-clings-to-russia-gas-with-record-lng-flow-this-year

Archive: https://archive.is/qTfBs

#russia #oilandgas

Zuma Deluxe for Windows 98 is proof that “gamers” have no idea what they’re talking about.

Back in the early ‘00s, they wailed against casual gaming like it was the end of civilization. Everything by PopCap games was apparently an affront to the sacredness of video games.

“Zuma is stupid,” they said.

“Casual games are a fad!”

Fast forward 21 years: I’m still gleefully blasting marbles while those same gamers are rage-quitting Call of Duty lobbies.

At the end of the day, Zuma is a puzzle game – and it’s awesome. It’s not that much different from Tetris, Puyo Puyo, or Bejeweled.

What sets Zuma apart is that all the marbles are on a track moving towards a skull. Your goal is to remove all the pieces from the track before they roll into the skull. You clear them out by rotating a frog who shoots marbles, and matches them to three or more similarly coloured marbles in a row – thus eliminating them.

There are two modes:

• Adventure - a campaign where you visit different temples, reaching a new one each time the track is cleared, in search of the secrets of Zuma.
• Gauntlet - where you try to level up from Rabbit to Sun God. All levels must be first unlocked in Adventure mode.

Now for the controversy. People have accused Zuma of ripping off Ballistic. I have not played Ballistic, but from screenshots, the two games look similar. Nevertheless, if this is a case of plagiarism, Mitchell Corporation and Capcom should have taken PopGames to court.

What Zuma does have is style. The game’s bright, vibrant colours and Meso-American-inspired aesthetic slap harder than a pinata at a party. This is all tied together with animations that are pleasing to the eye. My only complaint is that you can’t play this game in higher resolutions. You’re stuck at 640x480, and can’t increase it. I wish EA would do a re-master of this game.

The sound is even more pleasing. The soundtrack? Incredibly memorable, and really gets into your head. The sound effects, particularly when the marbles clink against each other, are oddly satisfying, like bubble wrap for your ears.

Control is easy as pie. You literally point-and-click with your mouse. If you can use a mouse, you can play this game.

PopCap Games developed Zuma Deluxe, and they’re legendary. They’re the same folks who brought us Peggle, Chuzzle, and Plants vs. Zombies. They haven’t made a new game since 2022, and I hope they drop something fun next year.

So, if you’ve never played Zuma, stop what you’re doing and fix that. Just don’t tell “hardcore gamers” you’re enjoying yourself – they might cry.

Scholz's at it again 🤦‍♂️

🇩🇪🇷🇺 #Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday he would speak with #Putin again after reinitiating contact with the Kremlin chief last month.

https://www.barrons.com/news/germany-s-scholz-says-he-will-speak-with-putin-again-0b041cd0

#russia

The Russian government will not cover all the costs of rebuilding facilities destroyed in the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops, the governor of the partially occupied Kursk region told residents at a recent meeting.
https://buff.ly/3VPVkzH

🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Over 12,340 civilian deaths have been recorded in #Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Under-Secretary-General of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs said during a UN Security Council meeting on Dec. 20.

https://kyivindependent.com/over-12-000-civilians-killed-in-ukraine-since-russias-full-scale-war-un-says/

#RussianWarCrimes

USPS tried to deliver a package tonight. I wasn't home so they left a slip.

I'm not going expecting anything tho ...

Maybe I'm a sentimental old coot, but every time I hear this song, I think it might still be possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xGxQXmu7Os
Incidentally, the story of the guy who wrote the song is pretty interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet_Powers
#ChunderRoad #Music

Is there anything he can’t do?

I don't know if it's possible to get a good answer to this but: if you learned how to make websites with, like, users who can login and do things where the website stores stuff in a database, without doing it as a job, how did you do it?

I feel like in principle I know all of the basic pieces (HTTP, HTML, CSS, SQL, CORS, various programming languages, etc), but also somehow it still feels extremely hard to me

(no advice please, only stories)

Morning glory spinach kangkong

Hugz & xXx

FUN FACTS:

The shareholders meeting that Brian Thompson was going to started on time.

They advertised for his then open position the next day.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was fine letting Marcellus Williams be executed. Meanwhile, he just committed the sentence of a white cop who killed an unarmed black man. www.kshb.com/news/local-n...

Missouri Gov. Parson commutes ...

The driver who rammed into a car in Magdeburg was arrested by German security forces.

He is from Saudi Arabia and has been in Germany for 18 years.
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #breaking #breakingnews
#Germany

Song of the Day December 21 2024

In honor of the birth of Samuel L. Jackson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_L._Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Whaley and John Travolta - "Big Kahuna Burger" scene from "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

https://youtu.be/Mnb_3ibUp38?si=IuyW1jlNc-Fad8P2

#SongOfTheDay #SOTD #SOTD2024 #December21 #SamuelLJackson #PulpFiction #BigKahunaBurger #JohnTravolta #QuentinTarantino #FrankWhaley #MotionPicture #MovieScene #1990s

Christmas Cat Commiseration
#catsodon #catsofmastodon #caturday

Having a lot of fun building the Loops webUI using vue, pinia and tailwind.

Can’t wait to jump back on the new @pixelfed redesign I started cooking up last month, I’ve learned a lot since I last updated the Pixelfed UI in 2020!

supreme court rules 6-3 that critical thinking is unconstitutional. we find it threatens our job security, writes majority

Very smart savvy businesspeople spent 54 million dollars to make You, Me and Dupree but remember, I'M crazy and bad when I suggest harvesting them and the fucking lot of their caste to make a more equitable society.

I try not to be too judgmental but if you invested in this you are a fucking idiot and you should lose your money

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did😛lc:cfy5rgqvohpdqxgu2geb5u2b/post/3ldrizdwbzc2g

Heute um 10:20 Uhr ist #Wintersonnenwende. Danach werden die Tage wieder länger. Der Tag mit dem spätesten #Sonnenaufgang ist damit aber noch nicht erreicht. Der ist erst am 30.12. Dafür bleibt es bereits seit dem 12.12. abends wieder länger hell.

https://www.woellsdorf-wetter.de/info/wintersonnenwende.html

#Sonnenuntergang #Astronomie #Winteranfang

For some reason the Govt of South Carolina publishes the home address and number of its state legislators.

Anyway, here are the website links and office numbers to the 6 MAGA Extremists who intro'd a bill to allow SC to execute women who get an abortion: https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/s-carolina-intros-bill-to-execute

https://www.europesays.com/1704897/ POLL: Should Charles and William forgive Prince Harry – vote now | Royal | News #BritishRoyalFamily #charles #CharlesIII #KingCharles #PrinceHarry #PrinceWilliamForgiveness #RoyalFamilies #RoyalFamily #RoyalFamilyFeud

https://www.europesays.com/1704895/ Tesla Sales Are Tanking In Europe #europe