*November payments have been significantly delayed, forcing families to go hungry. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to distribute benefits in full by Friday.*

We knew this was coming, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid. The road to the IRS’ Direct File program was long and hard-fought. We here at Techdirt have been talking about, and advocating for, something like the Direct File program for at least 15 years. The concept behind the program is a simple one. For a class of citizens with very simple income and tax payments, the IRS already has all the information it needs to process a tax return. In those cases, the IRS can simply mail the information it has to a taxpayer, ask them to sign off verifying the information is complete and accurate, and then process the return. The problem with this is that it cuts out the tax-prep industry that absolutely adores preying on these very same people to milk them for tax-prep services they don’t actually need.

Cross posted from: https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/Memes/p/389717/i-agree

Gerardo ‘Jerry’ Estrada, 30, was hit head-on by weaving car with sirens on that had drifted from correct side of street

Archive: [ https://archive.is/clwoW ]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the leak of footage showing ostensible abuse of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman “caused enormous reputational damage to Israel, to the IDF, and to our soldiers.”

The Israeli government has signed contracts worth millions of dollars in recent months to rehabilitate Israel's standing in American public opinion, both online and offline. Amid a sharp drop in support from the conservative right, Israel has hired firms to conduct not just "hasbara [public diplomacy] campaigns" but also campaigns targeting millions of Christian churchgoers, bot networks to amplify pro-Israel messages online, and efforts to influence both search results and the responses given by popular AI services like ChatGPT.

These divisions on the right may be pitting one loathsome crew of racist reactionaries against another, but it is extremely novel to see the American Republican party and broader right wing tearing itself apart over whether or not to put Israel first.

Western media has failed to accurately describe events at the heart of an Israeli military scandal, after the country’s top military lawyer was arrested for leaking footage of IDF soldiers allegedly gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner in a detention centre.

Zohran Mamdani’s campaign represented a struggle for basic dignity and an affirmation of democratic potential. It was ceaselessly denounced by political and media elites from across the spectrum as something sinister, violent, and dangerous.

The 2028 Olympics are coming to Los Angeles as a multi-billion dollar operation funded by massive private and federal government investments and backed by city and state pledges to cover cost overruns.

The BBC and the European Broadcasting Union have produced a large study of how well AI chatbots handle summarising the news. In short: badly.

Valve put out another small Beta to fix up an issue with the new Steam Deck screen-off downloads, and some other Desktop Linux fixes that came recently.

From censoring a report on CIA domestic surveillance to running cover for the Contra War to helping launch the war on terror, Dick Cheney dedicated his life to making sure the US national security state could kill, spy, and torture with few checks.

The Falconeer: Revolution Remaster is now available bringing a massive upgrade to the action-adventure game, but Linux gamers will now need to use Proton.

Merged yesterday to the mainline Linux 6.18 development kernel were the latest round of x86 platform driver fixes. Mostly some small fixes but standing out is electronic privacy screen hotkey support for some Dell laptops.

The Linux Mint team just shared a new report on what they worked on in October, and it highlights updates to Cinnamon, better troubleshooting tools, and a few other tweaks.

The five-year contract with government technology middleman Carahsoft Technology, made public in September, provides Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) licenses for a product called Zignal Labs, a social media monitoring platform used by the Israeli military and the Pentagon.

NATO has now overtaken Russia in ammunition production, Secretary General Mark Rutte said, warning that Moscow will remain a long-term threat.

Online pornography showing strangulation or suffocation is to be made illegal, as part of government plans to tackle violence against women and girls.

After fighting his candidacy to the bitter end, New York City billionaires are already offering to help incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Democrats face backlash from progressive voters as survey shows overwhelming support for primary challenges against party leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.

Rest in Peace, you hung but hateful fucker.

Human rights organisations call for an inquiry into Gaza organ theft as doctors find signs of missing organs in returned bodies.

All credit goes to the artist MoringMark. You can find him here: Tumblr | Reddit | Ko-fi | Instagram | Deviantart

Chow was criticized by pro-Israel Jewish groups, who said her comments were antisemitic and could encourage violent reprisals against the Jewish community.

Several performance issues addressed and bug fixes applied.

Stephen Miller melts down as Muslim immigrant Zohran Mamdani wins NYC mayor — hinting at deportations for defying Trump’s agenda

That ain't no crime

Artist: Doushimasho | fediverse | bluesky | pixiv | twitter | danbooru

The FBI is attempting to track down the identity of the owner of Archive.today and its numerous mirrors, like Archive.is and Archive.ph. As reported by 404 Media, the FBI subpoena, which was posted on the official Archive.today X account, was sent to web domain registrar Tucows on October 30th demanding the “customer or subscriber name, address of service, and billing address” associated with Archive.today.

Former NFL star Antonio Brown has been arrested on an attempted murder charge stemming from a shooting after a celebrity boxing event in Miami, police confirmed Thursday.

The number of detainees in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody increased to 66,000 this week, setting a new record high as Trump intensifies his crackdown on illegal immigration, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.

Brussels Airport on Thursday temporarily halted its operations due to a drone sighting, a spokesperson for air traffic control Skeyes said, without specifying how many drones had been seen.