news

Not a lot of people seemed to notice this lemmy post and I don't see it posted here, but this article (computer scientist goes silent after fbi raid and purging from university website) is crazy and idk what to even make of it. Just really set off my conspiracy brain.

French court finds far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty in embezzlement case - NPR

PARIS — A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty on Monday in an embezzlement case but didn't immediately say what her sentence might be and how it might impact the far-right leader's political future.

Le Pen, sitting in the front row in the Paris court, showed no immediate reaction as the chief judge declared her guilty. She later repeatedly nodded her head in disagreement as the judge went into greater detail, saying Le Pen's party had illegally used European Parliament money for its own benefit. "Incredible," she whispered at one point.

The judge also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like her, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers. Le Pen and her co-defendants face up to 10 years in prison. They can appeal, which would lead to another trial.

The biggest concern for Le Pen is that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office "with immediate effect" — even if she appeals. That could prevent her from running for president in 2027. She has described such scenario as a "political death." The verdict was shaping up as a resounding defeat for Le Pen and her party. As well as finding her and eight other former European lawmakers guilty of embezzling public funds, the court also handed down guilty verdicts to 12 other people who served as parliamentary aides for Le Pen and what is now the National Rally party, formerly the National Front.

The chief judge, who read the ruling delivered by her and two other justices, said Le Pen had been at the heart of "a system" that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money. The judge said Le Pen and other co-defendants didn't enrich themselves personally. But the ruling described the embezzlement as "a democratic bypass" that deceived the parliament and voters.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from the National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc's regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants denied wrongdoing.

Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party's electoral support has grown in recent years. During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility "would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.

"There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election," she told the panel of three judges. If Le Pen cannot run in 2027, her seeming natural successor would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.

Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of the system meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021. She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some political work related to the party.

Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen's bodyguard — who was once her father's bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant. Prosecutors requested a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility for Le Pen. Le Pen said she felt they were "only interested" in preventing her from running for president.

Reporter: Are you worried about stagflation?

Trump: I haven’t heard that term in years. I don’t know anything about it.. this country is going to boom. We’re going to have boomtown. We’re going to boom

its going to boom nerds

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/mar/31/france-marine-le-pen-embezzlement-verdict-europe-news-live?page=with%3Ablock-67ea58af8f08e6b4b7c0762a#block-67ea58af8f08e6b4b7c0762a

Le Pen and eight MEPs found guilty of embezzlement

US bank exec killed in plane crash https://www.youtube.com/embed/RUL6lEFoVIU?autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1

this will be a bad week for stonks

In my experience, those who say Israel and Palestine are both bad tend to really fucking hate Palestine but not mind Israel all that much.

Found this, don't know where it should go I guess it's news

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1jnjov7/ru_pov_athlete_from_russia_at_the_olympic_games/

Can't upload the picture for some reason. No content warning, except it's still sad in a way.

In some Lemmyverse news, Hexbear is now refed'd with lemmygrad.ml, with lemmygrad.ml users and posts showing up on embassy of Hexbear on Lemmygrad comm

OG post: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7382514

US airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 16th night in a row, with multiple airstrikes targeting Sana'a Governorate.

Quite a few more strikes reported in Sana'a Governorate.

Al-Mayadeen reports more strikes in Sana'a Governorate.

Lots of bad information circling around. The pictures of the "USS Harry Truman sinking" that are circulating on social media are six years old and of a different ship. Claims that the US Navy's E-2 Hawkeye AWACS aircraft has been shot down are also highly unlikely, nothing in Yemen's surface to air missile arsenal has the range to hit US assets in the rear like that, and with active SEAD operations going on from EA-18G Growlers, Ansarallah haven't shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over the past 16 days, yet alone a target as far away from the frontlines as an AWACS aircraft. They could try with some Jerry rigged anti radiation 'Hormuz' missiles to home in on the massive radome on the E-2, but such an attack is highly unlikely to succeed.

Al Masirah TV twitter

Xcancel mirror

The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced two operations in two separate statements:

Cruise missile, naval and aerial drones launched at US Navy warships. No Anti Ship Ballistic Missiles. A Zulfiqar/Rezvan ballistic missile was also launched at Israel, a ballistic missile with a conventional ballistic flight path, no Palestine-2 missiles launched. Debris from the missile and an Israeli Arrow 3 interceptor landed in Israel.

Israeli news site N12 revealed that the US operated THAAD air defence system has intercepted 6 Yemeni missiles already. If anyone is wondering why this is, it's because Israel don't really have a terminal phase intercept system for MaRV (Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicle) capable ballistic missiles. THAAD is the only system that fits the bill and can plug the gaps. Arrow 3 is a midcourse interception system, it does not intercept ballistic missiles in the terminal stage of flight. So if Yemeni ballistic missiles bypass Arrow 3, and they are MaRV capable missiles, Israeli air defence systems are not adequate. I'll explain below:

Arrow 2 has a maximum flight ceiling/altitude of 50km, and a range of 100km, and uses a fragmentation warhead, not a kinetic one. David's Sling has a longer range up to 300km and a kinetic warhead, but a flight ceiling of only 15km, allowing for only last second interceptions. These flight ceilings are all problems when intercepting MaRV capable missiles that can perform glide phases within the earth's atmosphere, gliding above or near the limit their flight ceilings in the terminal phase. A MaRV could perform two glide phases, first one above Arrow-2 and one above David's Sling. So THAAD is brought in to plug the gap. THAAD can engage targets at altitudes between 40-150km, and at ranges up to 200km. So MaRVs cannot glide above the engagement ceiling of THAAD. The way to defeat THAAD would be to perform an extremely long glide phase below 40km under the engagement envelope of THAAD, but that puts the MaRV firmly within the engagement envelope of Arrow-2. Arrow 2s minimum altitude is 8km, so gliding under that would put the MaRV firmly within the engagement envelope of David's Sling. Also, with thicker atmosphere/air at lower altitudes, long glide phases become increasingly difficult as drag increases.

Small and bizarre news, but still news:

So there's a non-recognized nation in Africa called Republic of Annobon, which is a small island that is part of Equatorial Guinea. A small group of separatists declared independence in like 2022 or something and well, they travel around the world exposing their cause I guess. Many such cases.

Anyway, a small delegation headed by their Prime Minister visited our university, something completely random, and attended to a session of our History Assembly, which is celebrated each week or so to discuss career-related things and such. They were allowed to speak of their struggle against the Equatorial Guinean government. I failed to attend so I missed this peculiar event. Oh and Equatorial Guinea's President, Theodoro Obiang Nguema, as been in power since 1982, so there's that.

The world gets weirder and weirder each day.

And btw, before I forget:

death to "israel"

Bougainville may become independent in September 2027

German Greens want to force people of all ages to serve the state in a new Freedom Service™. Either military or some community service.

"It is time to ask the question: What can you do for you country?", Schulze said to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The threats are growing.

"In order make our society more robust, to defend our freedom, and to strengthen cooperation, we need everybody. The Freedom Service is a collective project for Germany, by all and for all. Through the Freedom Service, we will to bring together generations and milieus, strengthen our society, and defend what is important to us."

I'm not making this up btw.

They're no longer in government of course, that's just their contribution to the debate about re-introducing conscription.

White House aide Peter Navarro today: Trump's tariffs will raise $600 billion per year, or $6 trillion over a 10 year period

Seems to reflect our reporting that Trump wants to go absolutely enormous on the tariffs, regardless of short-term economic consequences

The killing and terror in Syria continues unabated, the new “government” contains 1 Christian, 2 Druze, 1 Kurd, and 1 Alawite though so I’m sure it’s fine.

Cw blood kidnapping corpses

https://t.me/enemywatch/32978