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I’m a tenant in Hawaiʻi dealing with a situation that’s gotten progressively worse, and I’m hoping for advice on what my rights are and what steps I should take next. A few weeks ago, I discovered bedbugs in my room. I immediately reported it and cooperated fully with cleaning, vacuuming, and treatment. I’ve been documenting everything. Despite this, my landlord has been blaming me for the infestation without any evidence. Here are the main issues: • Physical contact: During a conversation, she got upset and jabbed me in the back with her finger. It wasn’t an accident — it was out of anger. • Pressure to leave: She’s told me I should “stay somewhere else” and has made comments that feel like she’s trying to push me out without any formal notice. • Unequal treatment: There’s a washer and dryer in the house, but she won’t let me use it. I’m expected to go to the laundromat while other people in the house use the machines. • Internet disruptions: I interview for remote jobs, and the household sometimes lets the internet go offline. I’ve offered to fix it and explained the importance of my interviews, but nothing changes. • Noise issues: I work overnight and need mornings to sleep, but the house is extremely loud during my recovery hours. • Financial impact: I’ve had to pay for laundromat use, cleaning supplies, and deal with missed or disrupted job interviews due to internet issues. I’m on SSDI and trying to get back into remote work, so these disruptions are affecting my income and stability. I’ve already contacted Legal Aid and completed an intake, but I haven’t heard back yet. In the meantime, I want to understand what my rights are and whether any of this qualifies as harassment, retaliation, or something I can take action on. What steps should I take while waiting for Legal Aid to respond? Is documenting everything enough for now? Has anyone dealt with something similar in Hawaiʻi? Any guidance is appreciated.

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cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47682130

Restaurants and cafes are closing down in Russia at the fastest pace since the start of the war in Ukraine four years ago as consumption stalls even in affluent Moscow.

The closures, visible on streets from the capital to Vladivostok 6,500 km (4,000 miles) east on the Pacific Ocean, point to a significant slowdown in Russia's $2.8 trillion economy, which has so far proved surprisingly resilient in the face of stringent Western sanctions.

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High interest rates, higher taxes, rising prices and a $20-per-barrel discount for Russian oil are taking their toll - even in Moscow, a vast urban area of 22 million people that has been largely insulated from the worst impact of Europe's deadliest war since World War Two.

"To let" signs are prominent in retail spaces across the capital. Sales of new light commercial vehicles and trucks, a good indicator for the health of the retail and construction industry, fell by 38% to 147,000 units in 2025 and have continued to fall in the first weeks of 2026, Autostat said.

Data from Sberbank, which as Russia's biggest bank sees the ripples of expenditure across the economy, showed that the fall in the number of catering outlets in January was the biggest since 2021 and that restaurant spending hit the lowest in three years in November-early December 2025. The change is especially striking as major Russian cities saw a restaurant boom before the pandemic, and some politicians bridled at what they saw as Moscow's "decadent frivolity" while soldiers were being killed or injured at the front.

Overall, real consumer spending growth fell to zero in February for the first time in two years, Sberbank data showed. Russia forecasts economic growth of 1.3% this year after 1% in 2025, 4.9% in 2024 and 4.1% in 2023. The International Monetary Fund forecasts 0.8% growth for 2026.

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Russian sources say that while there are certainly problems in the economy, it is still performing remarkably well and they dismiss suggestions of its demise as premature. Besides, Putin is unlikely to change course on Ukraine due to restaurants shutting their doors, they said.

Nevertheless, Putin earlier this month told top economic officials to restore the growth rate and urged them not to simply monitor prices. Just 10 days later, the central bank cut rates by 50 basis points to 15.5%.

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Borrowing costs - advertised by major banks at about 18-19% for unsecured loans to business - have hit small businesses and consumers hard, especially after some lenders imposed stricter limits on consumer credit.

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Police have seized art posters from a Canberra music venue and bar that depict world leaders and others, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk, wearing Nazi uniforms, and are investigating whether new federal hate symbol laws were broken.

David Howe, the owner of Dissent Cafe and Bar in Canberra’s CBD, said his venue was shut down for about two hours on Wednesday night as police investigated a complaint about hate imagery relating to five posters in the window.

“I think it’s ludicrous to be perfectly honest,” he told Guardian Australia, describing the works as an “anti-fascist statement” and noting the shut down had caused the cancellation of an interstate band’s performance.

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i didn't think much of it when it came out, but i never woulda thought it could be this effective. its too bad this kind of game didn't get bigger?

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Donald Trump is the president of the United States, but the population believes that Bad Bunny better embodies American values. According to a survey published by Yahoo and YouGov, a company specializing in market research, the artist best reflects the North American country, with 42% of positive responses, compared to the Republican president, who had 39%. The study was conducted days after the Puerto Rican’s performance at halftime during Super Bowl LX, which took place on Sunday, February 8.

Trump said on social media that the show had been one of the worst in history. “It is an affront to the greatness of the United States and does not represent our values of success, creativity, and excellence. No one understands a word this guy says, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children.” But the numbers tell a different story.

The partisan difference is striking. About 78% of those who identify as Democrats view Bad Bunny favorably, and only 7% reject him. On the other hand, among those who identify as Republicans, only 12% approve of the Puerto Rican, compared to 70% who disapprove. Among independent voters, 46% voted for the artist, while 27% voted for the president.

Bad Bunny’s performance at one of the most watched events in the world has also generated increased interest in learning Spanish and traveling to the Caribbean island. Duolingo, one of the most popular language learning apps, shared a graph on its social media showing a 35% increase in Spanish learners minutes after the artist’s performance ended.

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Well hell’s bells, who knew the ice could get so hot? The Olympic curling community is still all in a twist about everything that’s gone on in the sport since a row broke out between the Sweden and Canada sides on Friday. “The whole spirit of curling is dead,” Canada’s Marc Kennedy said on Monday night after his team’s 8-2 victory against Czech Republic, which felt like a bold take coming from the man who started this entire farrago by repeatedly telling his Swedish opponent Oskar Eriksson to “fuck off” after Eriksson accused him of making an illegal double‑touch.

On Tuesday, the Canadians were outplaying the British. They beat them handily, 9-5, which means Bruce Mouat’s team have to beat the USA team and hope other results go their way if they’re going to make the semi-finals.

The way the Canadians play it, curling is a sport where a competitor is supposed to take his opponent’s word. “This whole trying to catch people in the act of an infraction sucks,” Kennedy said on Monday. “We don’t look for infractions at grand slams. We don’t look for that kind of stuff on tour. We just trust that the people around us aren’t trying to cheat. If somebody does something out of hand, it just gets dealt with in the moment, and you move on, you don’t need the officials to manage our game. That’s where the spirit of curling is in a little bit of trouble, and, honestly, that’s probably come from the quest for medals.”

And how. The row has turned out to be the biggest thing to happen to it since it was brought back into the Olympic programme in 1998. The slow-motion footage of Kennedy brushing the stone with his forefinger has gone viral, and the internet is overflowing with sloppy AI skits of Kennedy nudging ice hockey pucks and knocking over figure skaters at the ice rink. On TikTok someone put together a spoof of Kennedy and Eriksson in a whole Heated Rivalry situation, which has pulled in 2.5 million views. It’s fair to say the organisers were caught short by the speed and size of the reaction.

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Dbzero Governance Vote Post https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/63525728

Ahoy mateys!

A few of our users have recently pointed out that a lot of the pro-Zionist accounts on the fediverse nowadays seem to come from the feddit.org instance.

But whatever the excuse happens to be, they need to do better imo. Israel is currently the most violent, fascist and genocidal nation state in the Middle East (if you exclude the US military bases there). And yet feddit.org seems to regard the Palestinians fighting against Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of their land as the real terrorists. ....

More context

Our instance already voted to ban pro-Zionist accounts (see https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/60585441 for reference) and the rule that was implemented is here: Golden Rule #8.

As further context, you can find relevant comments and discussion in this post by a banned feddit admin in MoG (that fact they chose to post in MoG is in itself quite telling), and this post about their defederation from quokk.au over anti-semitism allegations has recently become active again. ...

Note 2: If you think feddit.org deserves a full instance ban instead, or have alternative suggestions, then please leave your comments below. If enough people think that’s the better option, then we’ll do that instead.

In the end the Post had around 70% of support by dbzer0 users, who in the comments also called for defederation.

Here is a Link to Dbzer0 instances tab https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/instances where if you go to blocked instances you can see fedddit.org is now defederated

i dont think feddit has made a post now, but when they do i will add it

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Politico is owned by the german Axel Springer SE, a publisher that also owns Bild, Fakt (polish) and Welt among others.

The publisher and its news outlets (with the aforementioned Bild, Fakt and Welt most prominent) is a main driver for a news coverage and reporting that is jointly responsible for the rise of the far right in Germany and Europe.

Politico itself has published so-called Native Ads, a form of advertisng that is designed like op-ed articles and other opinion pieces in a way that is hard to differeentiate from regular, non-sponsored content, mostly for fossile fuel companies but also healt insurance, finance and weapons industries. (Source 1, Source 2).

That sums up to a news outlet that should not be shared, not be trusted and hence, not be posted here. It was not an issue mostly since this outlet wasn't posted here often , but recently, Politico articles are getting posted very frequently again, so I suggest the ban now.

Edit: lost a word

Edit 2: it should be noted that there is another publisher with a similar name (Springer Nature with several subsidiaries), but that company os not affiliated with Axel Springer SE and has different issues.

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An app to manage your Arr stack from your phone for iOS and Android.

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