Lemdro.id

and I did it cramming at the last minute before midnight after a full shift of walking boxes.

I didn't post at midnight local time cuz sick, so pls enjoy now that I'm awake lol

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/16704

Led by Big Tech billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Elon Musk, the world's 500 richest people added a record $2.2 trillion to their collective wealth in 2025, Bloomberg reported as the year ended on Wednesday.

"Obscene greed! While billions of people live in poverty," human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell responded on X—a social media platform now controlled by Musk, the richest person on Earth. "It's why we need a global wealth tax."

Musk—who could become the world's first trillionaire thanks to his new controversial pay package as CEO of Tesla—is one of just eight ultrawealthy individuals who got around a quarter of all the gains recorded by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The others are Amazon founder Bezos and Oracle chairman Ellison, as well as Michael Dell, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. The previous year, Bloomberg noted, "the same eight billionaires made up 43% of the total gains."

According to Bloomberg, the gains that brought the combined net worth of all 500 people to $11.9 trillion "were turbocharged" by the 2024 election victory of President Donald Trump. The Republican and his relatives were among the "biggest winners" of 2025, gaining at least $282 million, for a net worth of $6.8 billion.

The "winners" also include Musk, who gained $190.3 billion for a net worth of $622.7 billion; Ellison, who gained $57.7 billion for a net worth of $249.8 billion; and Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart, who gained $12.6 billion for a net worth of $37.7 billion.

After Trump's electoral win, several Big Tech billionaires buddied up to him, with Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all attending his inauguration. Musk then spent several months spearheading the administration's attack on federal workforce as the de facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The world’s 500 richest people have total wealth of $11.9tn.Their wealth up by $2.2tn in 2025. 8 billionaires accounting for a 25% of the gains.No one becomes this rich by working.They fund right-wing parties, oppose worker/human rights, cause more pollution than normal people.

[image or embed]
— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka.bsky.social) January 1, 2026 at 3:21 AM

Sharing the Guardian's coverage of the findings on the social media network Bluesky, British climate scientist Bill McGuire warned that "if the monstrous political-economic system that is tearing our planet, the climate, and its people apart isn't brought to its knees—then humanity will be."

The Guardian pointed to Oxfam International's November statement that $2.2 trillion "would have been more than enough to lift 3.8 billion people out of poverty," which the humanitarian group highlighted ahead of the Group of 20 Summit hosted by South Africa, whose government used its G20 presidency to push for solutions to global inequality.

"Inequality is a deliberate policy choice. Despite record wealth at the top, public wealth is stagnating, even declining, and debt distress is growing," Oxfam executive director Amitabh Behar said at the time. "Inequality rips away life opportunities and rights from the majority of citizens, sparking poverty, hunger, resentment, distrust, and instability."

A June 2024 report from French economist and EU Tax Observatory director Gabriel Zucman—prepared for the G20's Brazilian presidency—estimated that a global 2% minimum tax on the wealth of 3,000 billionaires could generate about $250 billion.

As seven Nobel laureates, including Joseph Stiglitz, noted in a July op-ed published by the French newspaper Le Monde, "By extending this minimum rate to individuals with wealth over $100 million, these sums would increase significantly."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

After looking yesterday at the most viewed Linux hardware reviews and benchmarks of 2025, today's look is at the most popular open-source/Linux news of the past year. There were 3,286 original news articles on Phoronix during 2025 written by your's truly, here's a look back at what excited readers the most over these past twelve months.

Below is a look at the most popular news of the past year with several top articles revolving around Valve's ongoing Linux improvements, KDE Plasma advancing especially around Wayland, and the never-ending flow of Linux kernel improvements as well as insightful commentary by Linus Torvalds. Thanks for those that supported Phoronix over the past year either by viewing the site without ad-blockers, tipping, or being a Phoronix Premium supporter.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/16661

Richard Glossip woke up on Christmas morning at the Oklahoma County Detention Center, a 13-story, red brick tower in downtown Oklahoma City. He did a video visit with his wife Lea, then talked to her on the phone as he was served his dinner tray — a bit of turkey and some instant mashed potatoes.

It was not how he’d pictured his first Christmas after leaving death row.

Glossip won the victory of a lifetime last February, when the U.S. Supreme Court vacated his conviction, finding that it was rooted in false testimony and prosecutorial misconduct. After almost three decades facing execution for a crime he swore he didn’t commit, Glossip hoped the ruling would mark the end of his ordeal.

But nearly a year later, he was stuck in the county jail with no end in sight. Rather than resolve the case as Glossip’s advocates expected him to do, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who is running for governor, announced that he planned to retry Glossip for first degree murder — and asked a judge to reject his request for bond in the meantime. Although defense lawyers pointed out that their 62-year-old client was not a flight risk and posed no danger to society, prosecutors convinced Oklahoma County District Court Judge Heather Coyle to keep Glossip at the jail – a notoriously overcrowded and filthy facility known as one of the deadliest in the country.

In the months since, the state has been unable to get its prosecution off the ground. Glossip’s legal team has successfully sought the recusal of every criminal court judge assigned to the case – all of them former prosecutors who once worked for the Oklahoma County District Attorney, the same office that sent Glossip to death row. While the attorney general’s office has accused Glossip’s lawyers of “judge shopping,” an October evidentiary hearing showed the defense attorneys’ concerns over the judges’ impartiality to be well-founded. One judge assigned to the trial, who had originally refused to step down, was revealed to have taken multiple vacations with the original prosecutor in Glossip’s case.

Nevertheless, each recusal has pushed a potential trial date further into the future. While Glossip has had no choice but to be patient, the wait is taking its toll. The sensory chaos of the county jail is overwhelming for a man who spent decades in isolation on death row. According to Lea, he wears foam earplugs to try to drown out the constant noise, sometimes wrapping a towel around his head.

The conditions are “absolutely exhausting,” Lea said. And while Glossip is grateful to no longer be under a death sentence, he is now in a kind of “purgatory” – waiting for a trial that seems less likely to happen with each passing day.

“This is not where we ever expected to be,” she said.

Glossip was twice convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of hotel owner Barry Van Treese at a rundown Best Budget Inn on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. A 19-year-old maintenance man named Justin Sneed admitted to attacking and fatally beating Van Treese with a baseball bat but claimed that Glossip coerced him into committing the crime in exchange for money. Sneed agreed to testify against Glossip in exchange for a life sentence. He remains incarcerated.

But Sneed’s story was shaky from the start – and the state’s case against Glossip began falling apart from the moment he was sentenced to die. Over the decades that followed, numerous witnesses came forward to counter the state’s portrayal of Sneed as a follower who was powerless to stand up to Glossip, describing him instead as calculating and violent. Glossip’s attorneys also uncovered records revealing that Sneed sought to recant his testimony against Glossip on multiple occasions.

“Besides Sneed, no other witness and no physical evidence established that Glossip orchestrated Van Treese’s murder.”

Nevertheless, Glossip came close to execution numerous times before Drummond took office in January 2023 and immediately announced that he was launching an independent investigation into the case. Unlike his predecessors, who had aggressively fought back against Glossip’s innocence claims, Drummond expressed concern over the possibility that the case was a miscarriage of justice. The resulting review found myriad red flags – including that prosecutors had hidden key evidence from Glossip’s defense and that Sneed had lied on the stand – convincing Drummond that Glossip’s death sentence should not be carried out. In April 2023 he asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Glossip’s conviction.

At the same time, behind the scenes, Drummond was secretly discussing an agreement with Glossip’s longtime attorney, Don Knight, to resolve the case. “Once the conviction is vacated,” Knight wrote to Drummond in an email on April 1, the state would bring a new charge against his client: “a single count of being an Accessory After the Fact.” Glossip “will plead guilty to this charge” and be given credit for time served. Under the terms, Glossip would be entitled to immediate release.

“We are in agreement,” Drummond replied.

But in a stunning move, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Drummond’s request to overturn the conviction. It was not until after the Supreme Court took up Glossip’s case and ruled in his favor almost two years later that the secret deal between Drummond and Knight could finally move forward. According to Knight, all signs pointed to the plan remaining in place after the high court’s decision – Drummond’s office told him to expect Glossip’s release to take place by Easter.

[

Related

In Shocking Move, Oklahoma AG Decides to Retry Richard Glossip for Murder](https://theintercept.com/2025/06/09/richard-glossip-new-trial-oklahoma-gentner-drummond/)

But that never happened. Instead, on April 22, 2025, Glossip was picked up from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and driven to Oklahoma City, where he was booked into the county jail just before 3 a.m. In early June, Drummond announced that he would try Glossip for first-degree murder.

Today, with the race for governor in full swing, Drummond denies that he ever made a deal with Knight. After Knight exposed their emailed agreement in a motion filed this summer – filing a lengthy affidavit detailing how Drummond made the deal “based on his own political calculus” – the attorney general’s office rejected his version of events. “Contrary to defense counsel’s abrupt, new theory, the parties have never reached a plea agreement in this matter,” prosecutors wrote.

On the Monday after Christmas, Glossip found himself back in court before a new judge. With six criminal court judges disqualified from presiding over the retrial, the Oklahoma County Chief District Judge had been forced to step in to move the case forward. He turned to the court’s roster of civil judges and, at a hearing in early December, chose two with experience handling criminal cases. He placed their names into a box and drew District Judge Natalie Mai.

Appearing in Mai’s courtroom on December 29, Glossip’s legal team requested two new court dates in early 2026: one on the pending motion asking the court to enforce Knight’s agreement with Drummond – which they maintain is a binding contract – and another once again arguing for Glossip’s release on bond. Mai granted the hearings, scheduling them back-to-back in mid-February.

The bond hearing will go first, on February 12. In their new bond motion, the lawyers argue that Judge Coyle should never have kept Glossip in jail awaiting trial. She had presided over his bond hearing “despite having an undisclosed, disqualifying source of bias” – a friendship with Connie Smotherman, the very prosecutor who had been found by the Supreme Court to have committed misconduct. Although Coyle had recused herself from Glossip’s case after conceding the relationship, Glossip was still paying for her decision.

The new bond motion also argues that Glossip’s health has deteriorated in the months he has spent in the county jail, where, despite repeated requests, he has only seen a doctor once. He has high blood pressure and has developed leg swelling and painful cramps, raising concerns about a possible blood clot. He also has “several soft tissue lumps” in different areas of his body, which have not been properly examined. “His remaining in the jail with a lack of medical attention and treatment puts his life and health at risk,” the lawyers write.

Finally, the motion reiterates what the lawyers argued at the last bond hearing: any decision to keep Glossip in jail must be based in part on some kind of evidence that he is guilty of the crime for which he stands accused. But the state has yet to present anything new. Coyle’s order was “directly at odds” with the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning his conviction, which rendered Sneed’s testimony unreliable, the lawyers write. “Because Sneed’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip’s guilt of capital murder, the jury’s assessment of Sneed’s credibility was necessarily determinative here,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. “Besides Sneed, no other witness and no physical evidence established that Glossip orchestrated Van Treese’s murder.”

This ruling should have been the final nail in the coffin of the state’s case, Glossip’s attorneys argue. But as long as the state of Oklahoma insists on pressing forward using the same evidence as before, the lawyers will seek to put Sneed on the stand. The court “must hold an evidentiary hearing to independently assess Mr. Sneed’s willingness to stand by his testimony and his credibility,” they argue in the new bond motion.

The Oklahoma attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment. With the state’s response to Glossip’s bond motion due in mid-January, there is reason to expect that prosecutors will argue against allowing Sneed on the stand. The state’s star witness has never been able to keep his story straight – and he has tried multiple times to recant his testimony against Glossip. Nearly 30 years after he murdered Van Treese, Sneed may be the one who unravels Oklahoma’s case once and for all.

The post It’s 2026. Why Is Richard Glossip Still in Jail? appeared first on The Intercept.

From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.

Waking up every day and drinking that Hatorade.

If you don't like anything on the the platform, why stick around?

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/16644

In a statement for the 67th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), stresses out:

The KKE conveys its militant greetings to the Communist Party and the people of Cuba on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of the historic moment when the army of Cuban revolutionaries, led by Comandante Fidel Castro, overthrew the barbaric dictatorship of Batista and triumphantly entered Havana on 1 January 1959.

The Cuban Revolution was the first socialist revolution on the American continent and demonstrated that through struggle, the peoples have the power to overthrow capitalist barbarity, take their destiny into their own hands, and determine the development of their homeland based on the interests of its people.

The revolutionary government successfully repelled counterrevolutionary attempts and imperialist aggression and laid the foundations for social rights in work, education, health, sports, and culture —rights still denied to workers and peoples across the Americas and beyond.

The Cuban Revolution confirmed the vitality of Marxism–Leninism and proletarian internationalism, supported the liberation movements of other peoples in an internationalist, selfless, and sacrificial manner, and continues to support other peoples in an internationalist manner, as was particularly evident during the pandemic despite the significant difficulties caused by the imperialist blockade. That is why it has the sympathy and support of millions of workers worldwide, including the Greek people.

Today, as the hawks of US imperialism and their allies target the peoples of Latin America and even threaten imperialist interventions, it is imperative to strengthen internationalist solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and the people of Cuba.

The KKE and KNE strongly condemn any scenario of military intervention against the peoples of the region and will continue to oppose, with all their strength, the criminal imperialist blockade of Cuba by the US and any aggressive subversive action. They will further strengthen practical internationalist solidarity, particulararly the struggle to remove Cuba from the despicable list of “state sponsors of terrorism”.

Dear comrades,

In 2026, a year that marks the 100 th anniversary of the birth of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, as well as ten years since his passing, it is worth remembering his invaluable legacy to the international communist movement and especially to the Cuban people in their ongoing struggle against imperialist blockade and all attempts led by the US and the EU to undermine the achievements of the revolution.

Fidel Castro will live forever in the historical memory and collective consciousness of the peoples of the entire world, as well as in the struggles of the oppressed for the liberation of humanity from the exploitation of man by man, for socialism–communism.

 

KKE: 67. o aniversario de la Revolución Cubana: fuente de inspiración para la lucha de la clase obrera y los pueblos

Estimados camaradas:

El KKE extiende un saludo militante al Partido Comunista y al pueblo de Cuba con motivo del 67.º aniversario del momento en que el ejército de los revolucionarios cubanos derrocó la brutal dictadura de Batista y entró triunfalmente en La Habana, encabezado por el comandante Fidel Castro, el 1 de enero de 1959.

La Revolución Cubana fue la primera revolución socialista en el continente americano y demostró que los pueblos, con su lucha, tienen la fuerza de derrocar la barbarie capitalista, tomar las riendas de su destino y determinar el desarrollo de su patria en función de los intereses de su pueblo.

El poder revolucionario logró repeler victoriosamente los intentos de contrarrevolución y la agresión imperialista y sentó las bases para derechos sociales en el trabajo, la educación, la salud, el deporte y la cultura, de los que aún hoy están privados los trabajadores y los pueblos del continente americano y otras regiones.

La Revolución Cubana confirmó la vigencia del marxismo-leninismo y del internacionalismo proletario, apoyó de manera internacionalista, desinteresada y sacrificada los movimientos de liberación de otros pueblos, y sigue apoyando internacionalmente a otros pueblos, como se ha demostrado especialmente durante la pandemia, a pesar de las importantes dificultades que provoca el bloqueo imperialista. Por eso cuenta con la simpatía y el apoyo de millones de trabajadores en todo el mundo, así como del pueblo griego.

Hoy en día, cuando los halcones del imperialismo estadounidense y sus aliados tienen en el punto de mira a los pueblos de América Latina y amenazan incluso con intervenciones imperialistas, es imperiosa la necesidad de reforzar la solidaridad internacionalista con la Revolución Cubana y el pueblo de Cuba.

El KKE y la KNE condenan enérgicamente cualquier escenario de intervención bélica contra los pueblos de la región y seguirán condenando con todas sus fuerzas el criminal bloqueo imperialista de Cuba por parte de EE.UU. y cualquier acción agresiva y subversiva. Reforzarán aún más la solidaridad internacionalista activa y, en particular, la lucha por la eliminación de Cuba de la infame lista de “países patrocinadores del
terrorismo”.

Estimados camaradas:

En 2026, año que marca el centenario del nacimiento del líder de la Revolución Cubana, Fidel Castro, así como los 10 años desde su fallecimiento, vale la pena recordar su valioso legado al movimiento comunista internacional y, en particular, al pueblo cubano, en la lucha que sigue librando hoy contra el bloqueo imperialista y todos los intentos, encabezados por EE.UU. y la Unión Europea, de socavar los logros de la revolución.
Fidel Castro vivirá para siempre en la memoria histórica y la conciencia colectiva de los pueblos de todo el mundo, así como en las luchas de los oprimidos por la liberación de la humanidad de la explotación del hombre por el hombre, por el socialismo-comunismo.

LA SECCIÓN DE RELACIONES INTERNACIONALES DEL CC DEL KKE

From In Defense of Communism via This RSS Feed.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/422810/River_City_Ransom_Underground/

85% off before delisting apparently.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/16658

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City's mayor early Thursday inside an abandoned subway station, capping off the meteoric rise to power of a former state assembly member whose laser focus on affordability, willingness to challenge establishment corruption, and adept use of social media inspired the electorate—including many previous nonvoters.

Mamdani's choice of location for the swearing-in ceremony, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, symbolized his commitment to restoring a city "that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working people’s lives," the mayor said in a statement.

During his campaign, Mamdani pledged to pursue a number of ambitious changes that he and his team will now begin the work of trying to implement, from fast and free buses to a $30 minimum wage to universal childcare—an agenda that would be funded by higher taxes on large corporations and the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.

“Happy New Year to New Yorkers both inside this tunnel and above,” Mamdani said in brief remarks at the ceremony. “This is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime.”

This is now the official account of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Welcome to a new era for NYC. pic.twitter.com/sDyiGWUVeb
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) January 1, 2026

Much of Mamdani's agenda would require action from the city legislature. But in the weeks leading up to his swearing-in, members of Mamdani's team scoured city statutes looking for ways Mamdani could use his mayoral authority to lower prices quickly.

In an interview with Vox earlier this week, Mamdani said that enacting his agenda is "not just critically important because you’re fulfilling what animated so many to engage with the campaign, to support the campaign, but also because of the impact it can have on New Yorkers’ lives."

"There’s a lot of politics where it feels like it’s a contest around narrative, that when you win something, it’s just for the story that you can tell of what you won, but so many working people can’t feel that victory in their lives," he said. "The point of a rent freeze is you feel it every first of the month. The point of a fast and free bus is you feel it every day when you’re waiting for a bus that sometimes never comes. The point of universal child care is so that you don’t have to pay $22,500 a year for a single toddler."

Prior to Thursday's ceremony, former Democratic Mayor Eric Adams spent his final hours on a veto spree, blocking 19 bills including worker-protection legislation.

City & State reported that "among the 19 pieces of legislation that received a last-minute veto was a bill that would expand a cap on street vending licenses, a bill that aims to protect ride-hailing drivers from unjust deactivations from their apps, a bill that would prohibit federal immigration authorities from keeping an office at Rikers Island, and a bill that would grant the Civilian Complaint Review Board direct access to police body-cam footage."

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a statement that "Mayor Adams' last stand to steal protections from workers can’t dampen our hope for a better New York City under the leadership of Zohran Mamdani... and his pro-worker appointees, including Julie Su."

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