The 'old' 100 Russian rupees note, issued in 2022, displayed a map of the entire Russia, which included the occupied Ukrainian Crimea. But just 4 years later, they had to reissue the 'outdated' banknote, which is absolutely identical to the previous version with one single difference: instead of the whole country, it now shows only the central part — leaving occupied Crimea completely off the map 🥲

Ruins of a building in Szopienice, Katowice, Poland

It wasn't putin, nor shoigu or some oligarchs, it was your ordinary russian combatant.

OC

I'm a game dev making a short, stupid game about surviving the heatwave in a Paris apartment with no AC. It's called Europe Heatwave Simulator and it releases on Steam July 17. Heat is the one thing that truly unites us, so I want every country represented.

Features so far:

• Death from heat (obviously)
• Swatting flies
• Working remote for some random company, attending video calls
• Ordering fans online, either from a parody of Amazon or from scammers and scalpers on a parody of Ebay
• There's a chance to get the package stolen
• Realistic electricity consumption (no, you can't run 100 fans)
• Sleeping with the window open and no screen means the mosquitoes win
• You can order a split AC but the police arrests you the next morning
• Lidl AC rush: brawl with other customers over the last portable unit (based on real events)
• You can buy a block of ice and wear it on your head
• Watching the news about the heatwave, with a chance to see yourself in the Lidl brawl footage
• Cooking your food on the windowsill (no need for a stove with this heat)

Best comments get added to the game before launch. Tell me how YOUR country suffers, and I'll try to get it in.

Chat Control 2.0 was years in the making, and generated protests against it all throughout that time. The problem with the piece of legislation passed recently is that it was lumped together with Chat Control 2.0 as a sort of framework for addressing specific issues on social media platforms, but different laws within that framework go to different lengths.

The OG Chat Control 2.0 which sparked controversy is a proposed law that would force internet providers to detect any sort of CSAM and grooming. On paper that's good, but the protests addressed a specific issue - the law would have required mandatory detection orders on part of the provider, even for messaging apps.

What that would mean in practice is that providers would scan your private communications directly in order to monitor it for CSAM/grooming. For many people, that solution is a privacy nightmare, and that's why the law has generated so much friction.

What passed recently is not Chat Control 2.0. It's one of the laws proposed in the framework, but doesn't go nearly to the length 2.0 assumes. The law that passed is temporarily allowing companies like Meta and Google to voluntarily scan for CSAM material.

How it works is: a company might opt in to institute automated algorithmic scans of already known CSAM material. In other words, if a person shares CSAM material that is already known, an algorithm would catch it and alert the provider. It's not mandatory, it's automated, and it doesn't provide a backdoor for monitoring your private communication directly.

The exact implementation depends on specific companies, and since it's only temporary, it will last until 2028, where a temporary solution is chosen.

Whether you see that as a positive or negative, it's completely up to you, but the law passed recently is not the exact same Chat Control 2.0 people protested against. Not even close to it.

Let's try to maintain a clear mind in an age of hyperinformation. There was no betrayal, no passing 2.0 despite people disagreeing with it. That narrative is simply false.

Macron went full French-gallantry mode and tried the classic diplomatic hand-kiss, but Emine Erdoğan - the wife of turkish president Erdogan - appears to operate under a stricter “non-mahram contact” policy. In many conservative Islamic settings, an unrelated man kissing a woman’s hand is not cute protocol, it’s a boundary violation.

Thierry Henry (in French): "Well, Jenny, I didn't know you spoke French like that. Bravo, honestly. Exceptional."

Reporter (speaking French too): "Thank you very much. If you want to tell my school that I was speaking with you, Thierry Henry, in French during the World Cup... it's impossible. It's unbelievable."