Zelenskiyy signals diplomatic push to win over Trump -- Using Ukraine's Mineral Wealth Leverage.

Kyiv has been keen to flaunt its natural resources as a way to reel in partners and strengthen its position ahead of any peace talks with Russia. 

• In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Zelenskyy said he was open to the idea of opening up access to Ukrainian deposits.

Trump has previously expressed skepticism of U.S. military backing for Ukraine, but more recently he said that he was open to a deal with the country provided that Kyiv opens up its mineral resources, including rare-earth elements, to U.S. exploitation. 

The minerals — which have also fueled the administration's recent interest in Greenland — have a wide range of uses, including in defense, electronics, and energy production.

Zelenskiyy signals diplomatic push to win over Trump

POLITICO.eu

5 hours ago

Kyiv wants to secure the U.S. administration on its side before any peace talks with Russia

February 8, 2025 1:09 pm CET

By Carlo Martuscelli

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy is making a diplomatic push to win over Donald Trump's White House ahead of any negotiations with Russia, using Ukraine's mineral wealth as leverage.

“The coming weeks could be very busy in diplomacy,” said Zelenskyy in a post on Telegram late Saturday, adding that he valued “cooperation with President Trump.”

The annual Munich Security Conference starts next week, with the Ukrainian leader, as well U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, in attendance. Kyiv faces growing pressure to end the war as the death toll mounts and Russia slowly chips away at the frontline.. .

The Telegraph

22 hours ago

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Ukraine's gas storage facilities are another area of possible cooperation. The country was a major transit point for Russian natural gas to Europe until Moscow's invasion three years ago. 

• The U.S. is now the world's number one exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“We're ready and willing to have contracts for LNG supplies to Ukraine. And of course, we will be a hub for the whole of Europe,” Zelenskyy said.

Trump said late Friday that he may meet Zelenskyy next week, but added that he maintains a “very good relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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12 hours ago

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Reddit

4 hours ago

Interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Reuters, Feb 2025

Uploaded: Feb 8, 2025

America’s Biggest Setback – Why the US Can’t Keep Up with Russia’s Hyper...

ORIGIN STORIES: "Internet EnShittification"

Two years ago, a Canadian writer named Cory Doctorow coined the phrase "enshittification" to describe the decay of online platforms. The word immediately set the Internet ablaze, as it captured the growing malaise regarding how almost everything about the web seemed to be getting worse.

This isn't fine 

Ars Technica

3 days ago

As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders - Ars Technica

Two years ago, a Canadian writer named Cory Doctorow coined the phrase "enshittification" to describe the decay of online platforms. The word immediately set the Internet ablaze, as it captured the growing malaise regarding how almost everything about the web seemed to be getting worse.

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EFA : Electronic Frontiers Australia - “Enshittification” was Macquarie Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2024, and also won the People's Choice"

 

The Hustle

Enshittification just keeps happening - The Hustle

 

It’s my theory explaining how the Internet was colonized by platforms, why all those platforms are degrading so quickly and thoroughly, why it matters, and what we can do about it," 

• Doctorow explained in a follow-up article. "We’re all living through a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing. It’s even terrifying."

Doctorow believes there are four basic forces that might constrain companies from getting worse: 

1. competition, 
2. regulation, 
3. self-help, and
4. Tech workers. 

One by one, he says, these constraints have been eroded as large corporations squeeze the Internet and its denizens for dollars.

If you want a real-world, literal example of enshittification, let's look at actual poop.  

When Diapers.com refused Amazon’s acquisition offer, Amazon lit $100 million on fire, selling diapers way below cost for months, until Diapers.com folded. 

• With another competitor tossed aside, Amazon was then free to sell diapers at its price from wherever it wanted to source them.

Anyway, we at Ars have covered a lot of things that have been enshittified. Here are some of the worst examples we've come across. Hopefully, you'll share some of your own experiences in the comments. We might even do a follow-up story based on those. . . .

YouTube

Culturally Determined · 45:33

The "Enshittification" of Online Life | Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Cory Doctorow

Uploaded: Apr 7, 2023 · 2.98K Views · 93 Likes

Novelist and Internet activist Cory Doctorow discusses "enshittification," the term he coined for how online platforms start out great but gradually become nightmarish for users. How can we fight back ...

Inhale exhaust fumes instead

Feds putting the kibosh on national EV charging program

DOT orders states to halt plans to build federally funded EV stations.

WIRED – 4:01 

74

The US Department of Transportation has ordered states to kill their implementation plans related to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, according to a memo obtained by WIRED that was later made public. The decision appears to halt in its tracks a $5 billion program designed to fund state projects to install electric vehicle charging stations across the United States.

Officials at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which manages the program, ordered state transportation directors to “decertify” the plans that all 50 states have used to outline where and how they will build their charging stations, and with what companies they’ll contract to do so. States have followed those plans to build more than 30 charging stations across the US, with hundreds more on the way.

Surveys show prospective car buyers cite the country’s lagging electric vehicle charging infrastructure as a major reason they won’t buy electric. The NEVI program, established by 2021’s Infrastructure Law, was the government’s answer to those concerns. It attempts to build chargers along thousands of miles of federal highway, with a focus on places that might not otherwise be able to financially support a charger.

…Read full story 

 

That's gotta hurt

National Institutes of Health radically cuts support to universities

Sudden and drastic change will make it hard for researchers to keep the lights on.

John Timmer – 2/7/2025 

184

Grants paid by the federal government have two components. One covers the direct costs of performing the research, paying for salaries, equipment, and consumables like chemicals or enzymes. But the government also pays what are called indirect costs. These go to the universities and research institutes, covering the costs of providing and maintaining the lab space, heat and electricity, administrative and HR functions, and more.

These indirect costs are negotiated with each research institution and average close to 30 percent of the amount awarded for the research. Some institutions see indirect rates as high as half the value of the grant.

On Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that negotiated rates were ending. Every existing grant, and all those funded in the future, will see the indirect cost rate set to just 15 percent. With no warning and no time to adjust to the change in policy, this will prove catastrophic for the budget of nearly every biomedical research institution.

…Read full story 

 

 

Reticulating Splines

The Sims re-release shows what’s wrong with big publishers and single-player games

Opinion: EA might be done with single-player games—but we're not.

Samuel Axon – 2/7/2 

61

It's the year 2000 all over again, because I've just spent the past week playing The Sims, a game that could have had a resurgent zeitgeist moment if only EA, the infamous game publisher, had put enough effort in.

A few days ago, EA re-released two of its most legendary games: The Sims and The Sims 2. Dubbed the "The Legacy Collection," these could not even be called remasters. EA just put the original games on Steam with some minor patches to make them a little more likely to work on some modern machines.

The emphasis of that sentence should be on the word "some." Forums and Reddit threads were flooded with players saying the game either wouldn't launch at all, crashed shortly after launch, or had debilitating graphical issues. (Patches have been happening, but there's work to be done yet.)

…Read full story

 

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AI Action Summit: Can Europe catch up with the US and China? • FRANCE 24...

 

OpenTools

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France AI Action Summit Set to Revolutionize Global AI Governance | AI News

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AI and the arts: A new cultural frontier

In this show we're reflecting on the rise of the machines, as AI-generated arts are becoming a mainstay of the cultural landscape. As Paris hosts the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, we ask: what does its prevalence mean for creativity, for the cultural industries and for the artists who might be replaced by machines?

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TRUMP ADMIN UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACK TO GOVERNMENT REFORM: A Person Known online as "Big Balls" is working as part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Elon Musk said on social media in response to Coristine being identified: 

 

"Can't believe they doxxed another DOGE team member …"

Why It Matters
Coristine's recruitment to Musk's team, which was commissioned by President Donald Trump to recommend ways to cut down on government spending, symbolizes the new administration's unconventional approach to government reform.

What To Know
Previously, it was reported that DOGE staff had received equivalent training and security clearance to federal employees who work with sensitive information. However, The White House has not confirmed if Coristine has received these clearances.

• Coristine, a high school graduate with a history of launching startups, has founded at least five companies across multiple jurisdictions, including Connecticut, Delaware, and the United Kingdom.

However, many of these ventures were absent from his now-deleted LinkedIn profile. 

• In 2022, he worked briefly for Path Network, a network monitoring company known for hiring former hackers, according to Wired. 
• That same year, an individual using a Telegram alias linked to Coristine reportedly sought out a cyberattack-for-hire service.

One of Coristine's ventures, Tesla.Sexy LLC, registered when he was just 16, manages dozens of web domains, including Russian-registered sites. 

• One of these, still operational, offers Helfie, an AI-powered Discord bot operating in Russia, which could present security clearance challenges, per Wired.

Coristine worked at Neuralink, another Musk-run enterprise, before joining DOGE, where he has reportedly participated in meetings reviewing government personnel and code.

DOGE, which was mandated by the election result, has already been responsible for some of the biggest changes to the U.S. government in years, calling for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to be dismantled and its services moved to the State Department. It claims to have saved $1 billion a day in spending based on budget cuts alone.

 

Who is 'Big Balls'? Teen DOGE Engineer Edward Coristine

Published Feb 07, 2025 at 9:02 AM EST Updated Feb 07, 2025 at 10:29 AM EST

The Daily Dot

3 days ago

A 19-Year Old DOGE Employee Goes By Big Balls on LinkedIn

Yahoo

The Freakout Over 'Big Balls' and DOGE

Newsweek

Who is 'Big Balls'? Teen DOGE Engineer Edward Coristine - Newsweek

Kids Of DOGE: 

Engineer 'Big Balls' Goes Viral; Another Musk Staffer RESIGNS After Racist Posts

YouTube

3 hours ago

Kids Of DOGE: Engineer 'Big Balls' Goes Viral; Another Musk Staffer RESIGNS After Racist Posts - YouTube

NewsBreak

2 hours ago

CNN Mocked For “Bombshell” Report That DOGE Staffer Went By “Big Balls” Online - NewsBreak

Reporter asks Trump what he thinks about Musk Being on Time's Cover