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Россия не может допустить существование на своих границах государства, у которого задокументировано намерение использовать любые методы, чтобы отобрать у неё Крым, не говоря уже о территории новых регионов...

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https://t.me/orfosvinstvo/23147

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Редкая схема Московского метрополитена.

Схема взята отсюда.

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In late 2023, American Airlines AAdvantage announced that credit card spending would earn Loyalty Points based on purchase date.

But after the most recent AAdvantage elite status qualification year ended Feb. 29, there’s been a lot of consternation from American Airlines flyers (including me). Facebook groups have been full of confused AAdvantage members who are wondering why they received base miles from their credit card spending this month but not Loyalty Points.

As you can see from the screenshot below, I earned more than 10,000 base miles on my most recent Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees) statement. But notice the big zero under Loyalty Points.

This is what the activity tracker usually looks like when my AAdvantage credit card spending posts.

So, where are the Loyalty Points? They are coming — despite what my statement currently shows.

American Airlines has this banner on its website under the account information overview. The carrier also gave frequent flyers a formal notice via email that had the same language (though I never received that email).

It’s unclear why the Loyalty Points had to be posted separately this time. To shed some light on the situation, we reached out to American Airlines to learn more.

According to a carrier spokesperson, “To ensure all AAdvantage members get their miles and Loyalty Points deposited correctly and in a timely manner, this year the process entailed several separate actions. All Loyalty Points earned in February will be posted in March, and all Loyalty Points earned in March will be posted in April. The process results in more members earning status and Loyalty Point Rewards. As the new program year ramps up, we look forward to our members unlocking Loyalty Point Rewards and status toward an even better travel experience.”

I imagine splitting the Loyalty Points into two different status years was no small IT task.

For additional insight, you’ll find the following explainer on how March statements work on the American Airlines website:

As an example, if your monthly AAdvantage® credit card statement closes on March 5 (which includes purchases posted to your credit card account between February 6 and March 5), all the Loyalty Points earned from purchases made between February 6 through 29 will count toward 2024 status. All Loyalty Points earned between March 1 and 5 count toward the 2025 qualification year.

It may take up to 8 – 10 weeks after March 5 to post to your account in this example.

In other words, all your Loyalty Points earned until Feb. 29, 2024, count toward reaching status for the previous qualification year and all the Loyalty Points earned beginning March 1, 2024, will count for the current qualification year.

I assume that all my Loyalty Points for the previous qualification year (which ended Feb. 29, 2024) will eventually show up in the tracker at the top of my account overview (as you can see below), but that raises additional questions that we don’t have answers for yet.

As you can see, I earned 240,479 Loyalty Points in the previous qualification year, but I’m still confused about how many of the 10,431 Loyalty Points I earned on my most recent credit card statement will go toward my previous qualification year. I’m so close to 250,000 Loyalty Points for the previous qualification year that it would unlock two more rewards if I made it.

Will I get two more systemwide upgrade certificates, the same perk I chose when I reached 175,000 Loyalty Points and earned AAdvantage Executive Platinum status? Only time will tell. It would be lovely to get two more.

Another wrinkle to consider is that frequent flyers must choose their Loyalty Point Rewards by April 5, 2024. So what happens if the Loyalty Points don’t post by then? Having them appear eight to 10 weeks from now would be well past the April 5 deadline, so I’d seemingly be out of luck.

There’s some speculation that you may have to call customer service for assistance in choosing your award if the Loyalty Points don’t post before the April 5 deadline to choose awards. If we find out more about this from American Airlines, we’ll be sure to let you know.

No matter what happens, remember to make any outstanding Loyalty Point Rewards choices that may be waiting in your account.

Related reading:

• How American Airlines sucked me back into AAdvantage with Loyalty Points
• 6 ways that American Airlines could enhance Loyalty Points
• From zero to Executive Platinum: Why and how I qualified for American’s top-tier status without plans to fly the airline
• Best credit cards for American Airlines flyers
• Everything you need to know about flying basic economy on American Airlines

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"Это не та Россия, которую, честно говоря, мы хотели. Мы хотели (видеть) партнера, который ориентировался бы на Запад, стал бы европейским. Однако это не то, что сделал Путин", - сказала она в эфире телеканала CNN.

 

(https://t.me/c/1753040321...) Взято отсюда

(https://russian.rt.com/us...) Взято отсюда

Хочу в Канаду.

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Россия требует от Германии официально признать блокаду Ленинграда в годы Великой Отечественной войны и другие злодеяния Третьего рейха актами геноцида. Такую ноту Министерство иностранных дел направило в Берлин.

(https://russian.rt.com/wo...) Взято отсюда

Спикер грузинского парламента Шалва Папуашвили высказал мнение, что военный конфликт 2008 года в Южной Осетии является политическим преступлением бывшего президента Грузии Михаила Саакашвили.

(https://russian.rt.com/us...) Взято отсюда

 "Brexit стал настоящей катастрофой. Уже сейчас очень много экономистов и экспертов всех направлений заверяют, что Великобритания находится в худшей ситуации, чем другие страны вокруг нее. Вот почему нам нужна независимость больше, чем когда-либо, потому что Шотландия сегодня связана с Соединенным Королевством, находящимся в экономическом упадке из-за его выхода из ЕС", - заявил Первый министр Шотландии Хамза Юсаф 13 марта газете El País.

Он отметил, что не поддерживает выхода из состава королевства в одностороннем порядке и хочет добиваться проведения референдума.

"Это должен быть законный и обязательный референдум. Другого пути достижения независимости нет. Вот почему мы должны создать необходимое политическое давление, чтобы у правительства Соединенного Королевства не было другого выбора, кроме как подчиниться воле граждан", - сказал глава шотландского правительства.

(https://iz.ru/1664588/202...) Взято отсюда

In case you need another reason to shout "tax the rich" from the rooftops, it's here, and it's going to make you angry. A study found that 35 major US companies paid their top five executives more than they paid in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022, the Guardian reports. The findings, which come from The Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness, are even less shocking when you learn the worst offender: Tesla.

Elon Musk's company earned $4.4 billion during those five years and gave its executives $2.5 billion. Despite that, Tesla not only didn't pay any federal taxes, but it received $1 million in refunds from the government. Musk himself is the second richest person in the world, with Forbes reporting he had a net worth of $207.9 billion at the start of March.

Tesla is one of 35 companies that paid less federal income tax than they paid their top five executives during that period. In total, the well-deserving and not-at-all greedy execs of these companies raked in $9.5 billion over these years, while cumulatively those same companies received $1.8 billion back from the government. Eighteen of these businesses reported net profits over the five years but didn't pay a cent of federal income tax. (All but one got refunds).

The study lists other notable companies like T-Mobile, Netflix, Ford Motor and Match Group alongside Tesla. T-Mobile made $17.9 billion, paid executives $675 million and received $80 million in refunds. The mobile provider has spent an incredible amount of money on lobbying Congress for tax breaks, spending $9 million in 2022 alone. Netflix actually did pay some taxes, but the $236 million was just 1.6 percent of its $15.1 billion in earnings — and just over a third of what it paid those top five executives. The statutory rate for federal income tax is 21 percent, so yeah, feel free to scream.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-paid-no-federal-income-taxes-while-paying-executives-25-billion-over-five-years-154529907.html?src=rss Взято отсюда

Data intelligence software provider Alation on Monday added a new feature, dubbed business lineage, to its Data Lineage product to help business users track data flow across enterprise systems.

“Business lineage is an extension of Alation’s end-to-end data lineage, providing an abstraction layer to filter views of data flows and visualize relationships across technical, system, and business metadata,” the company said in a statement, adding that this visibility increases trust in data and accelerates time to insights for decision-making.

Explaining further, the company said that enterprises generally have to face the challenge of increasing the number of data sources, especially in the wake of technologies such as AI and generative AI — which requires combining all enterprise data.

To read this article in full, please click here

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Air freight to and from the Faroe Islands has moved to a new level with the introduction of FarCargo, a dedicated freight airline that began cargo operations yesterday. On the previous day, FarCargo’s aircraft—a converted Boeing 757 passionately named Eysturoy after the island hosting its owner’s headquarters—arrived at Vagar Airport for the first time to the cheers of crowds, with a grand reception held the following day at the airport terminal.

Meanwhile, to accommodate the new operator, a special cargo terminal has been completed in one of the existing buildings at Vagar Airport.

Built in 2001, the former passenger plane has a hold capacity of 35 tonnes. The primary function will be to fly salmon products from Bakkafrost to clients in the United States, initially twice a week and later more frequently, ultimately five times a week, according to FarCargo executive Birgir Nielsen.

“On March 5th, 2024, at 19:22 local time, FarCargo’s Boeing 757, named Eysturoy, departed the Faroe Islands for New Jersey, USA for the very first time,” FarCargo announced last night. “The cargo onboard is premium fresh salmon from Bakkafrost, harvested in the Faroe Islands.”

No wonder the historic occasion was celebrated in the Faroese media. As the cargo plane took off on Tuesday evening, carrying its first load of fresh salmon from FarCargo owner Bakkafrost, a new reality has emerged—a major exporter in the Faroe Islands now ships fresh fish overseas by air in quantities. Simultaneously, new opportunities for imports by air present themselves with all the capacity available on the return flights.

Read more…

The post FarCargo makes history as first load takes off appeared first on Local.fo.

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После отставки Виктории Нуланд исполнять обязанности заместителя госсекретаря США будет Джон Басс - профессиональный разведчик и дипломат. Об этом сообщает в своем телеграм-канале украинский политолог Константин Бондаренко.

"Виктория Нуланд покидает свой пост. Вроде как добровольно. Она больше не будет заместителем госсекретаря США и больше не будет курировать украинский вопрос. Ей на смену приходит нынешний заместитель министра по вопросам государственного управления Джон Басс. Очень интересная личность. Профессиональный разведчик и дипломат", - пишет Бондаренко.

Отмечается, что Басс родился в 1964 году, он ученик и последователь экс-госсекретаря США Строуба Тэлботта. В 1999-м был одним из тех, кто продвигал идею создания независимого Косово, в 2009-2012-м - посол США в Грузии ("его пребывание в Грузии ознаменовалось победой „Грузинской мечты" и Бидзины Иванишвили, а также скорым падением Саакашвили"). В 2012-2017-м - посол США в Турции.

"Во время его пребывания в Анкаре Эрдоган (президент Турции Реджеп Тайип Эрдоган. - EADaily) подавил военный мятеж и рассорился с Вашингтоном; в конце концов Эрдоган потребовал выдворения Басса. В 2017-2020-м - посол США в Афганистане. Ну, что произошло в Афганистане летом 2021 года, не стоит напоминать. Теперь Басс будет курировать Украину... Любой, кто ознакомится с биографией Басса, воскликнет: "Да это же классический чистильщик, задача которого - вовремя зачистить следы. Тревожно как-то будет видеть в кабинете Басса портрет Владимира Зеленского рядом с портретами Михаила Саакашвили и Ашрафа Гани..." - резюмирует Бондаренко.

Как сообщало EADaily, заместитель госсекретаря США Виктория Нуланд заявила о намерении уйти в отставку в ближайшие недели. Об этом 5 марта объявил ее непосредственный начальник глава Госдепа Энтони Блинкен.

Таким образом, Виктория Нуланд, которая считается главным архитектором антироссийского курса и украинской политики, завершает 35-летнюю карьеру, после того как ее обошли назначением на пост первого заместителя госсекретаря - второй в иерархии Госдепартамента.

(https://eadaily.com/ru/ne...) Взято отсюда

The nerd haven isn’t what it once was, but its importance is arguably greater than ever.

If you’re a video game collector, you’ve either dreamed of visiting Akihabara or have already made your way there. Truth be told, Tokyo’s electric mecca isn’t quite what it once was; it used to be the best place in the world to seek out rare releases, but that was before the internet trivialized buying used games. Akiba (as it’s commonly known) has shifted with trends over time, and it doesn’t usually offer the same value or exclusivity that it once did. You’re far less likely to successfully dig in the crates for your personal holy grail, much less find it for a reasonable price.

But if you take a step back, Akiba’s place in the world feels more valuable than ever. As brick-and-mortar game stores in the West are now mostly associated with meme stocks and Funko Pops, Akiba holds firm as a sizable district in the planet’s largest megalopolis where you can reliably go shopping for video games both old and new.

In 2012, I wrote on The Verge about how Japan was out of step with the rest of the world when it came to media consumption. Back then, I was describing a country that still had few options for digital media, other than the widespread use of DVRs to record broadcast TV. Music and video streaming had yet to make a serious mark; CD and DVD rental chain Tsutaya remained ubiquitous. All of that has changed. Spotify and Netflix are as prevalent as anywhere else, while Tsutaya has closed more than 500 stores in the past five years, according to business magazine Toyo Keizai.

Video games, though, are a different story.

“When compared with other markets, it seems Japan still absolutely loves physical games,” says Kantan Games’ Serkan Toto, a veteran watcher of the Japanese industry, who points to the most recent survey from Japan’s Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA). CESA found that physical games accounted for about 70 percent of total sales in Japan in 2022, including 65 percent of PlayStation 5 games and 77 percent of Switch releases. By comparison, Sony says that 70 percent of full PS4 and PS5 game sales in 2022 were digital across the world.

It’s not just Akihabara, of course. Physical video game stores are all over the place in Japan, from big chains like Book Off to small family-run shops. People in Osaka will talk your ear off over how much better their own local Den-Den Town district is than Akiba for retro games these days. (As a former Osaka resident, I’m inclined to agree.)

“People still are used to going to stores here in Japan and buying physical items,” says John Ricciardi, who runs Tokyo game localization company 8-4 and now SuperDeluxe, a new physical game publisher for the Japanese market. SuperDeluxe is a joint venture between 8-4 and Limited Run Games, which is known for selling special-edition physical games in the West.

One reason to start SuperDeluxe as a separate publisher was the viability of the retail market in Japan. “We knew right off the bat that we were going to have to involve retail in order to be able to make that stick,” Ricciardi says. “Every game we do is available at retail as well as from our site from day one.”

So far, SuperDeluxe has put out physical versions of classics like Radiant Silvergun, deep cuts like Gimmick!, and recent indie hits like Unpacking. The catalog ranges from elaborate special editions to more standard releases, though those also benefit from greater attention to detail; there’ll always be a full printed manual, for example. “We want people to have the opposite experience [of regular physical releases], like you open it and [go], ‘Oh my God there’s a manual in there, people don’t do that anymore,’” says Ricciardi.

Retail sales data from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu shows that the disc drive-equipped PlayStation 5 has outsold the cheaper digital-only model by more than 6-to-1 in Japan. Both PS5 models were supply constrained for a while after launch, but Famitsu’s most recent weekly data shows a nearly 3-to-1 ratio in favor of the disc drive version. That’s even after Sony refreshed the PS5 design so that a disc drive could be added after purchase.

The Nintendo Switch, of course, is the dominant platform in Japan, and every version of the console comes with a physical card slot. Nintendo doesn’t provide regional breakdowns for digital and physical sales data, but in its most recent earnings report, it said that digital accounted for about 51 percent of sales overall, well behind CESA’s figure of 77 percent for Japan in 2022.

The digital-only Xbox Series S has slightly outsold the Series X, meanwhile, but the Xbox platform is so niche in Japan that the physical gaming market is almost nonexistent.

“I think that’s tracking in Japan, too, but at a much slower level,” Ricciardi says of the global trend toward digital. “Physical is still strong here, and there’s still value in having your game out in physical day one, even if you’re doing an indie game. Because people generally just do go buy stuff.”

Unless you’re shopping for Xbox titles, physical games are still easy to buy in Japanese cities. Even if you’re in a rural location, you can generally expect speedy release-day shipping thanks to Japan’s relatively small size and high population density. (Amazon and other retailers do make caveats for remote regions such as Okinawa and certain other isolated islands.)

“I’m not a prophet or anything, but I believe that physical media will have more longevity here for the same reason that I think magazines do, which is that anyone can step out of their house and walk five feet [to buy one],” says Ricciardi. “It’s just easier to get to these things in Japan.”

But even if you live in easy reach of a game store, there’s still nothing quite like Akihabara. Its sheer scale elevates it above any similar electronics district in the world, with everything from big-box retailers in multistory towers to tiny independent component sellers huddling under train tracks.

It’s changed over the years, to be sure. Iconic stores like Super Potato have had their shelves stripped of sought-after stock, while beloved mainstays like Game Hollywood and Tokiwa Musen have gone altogether. The early 2000s appearance of maid cafes was shortly followed by the arrival of formerly dominant J-pop idol group AKB48, a handful of members of which would perform daily at a theatre on Akihabara’s main strip starting in 2005. The district’s identity became less focused on video games at a time when the Japanese industry was facing challenges.

Akihabara existed as an electronics market before video games were even a thing, though, and the district is simply continuing to change with the times. A couple of years ago, the AKB48 theatre sign was replaced with adverts for the Chinese game Genshin Impact, which would have been unthinkable a few years prior. Genshin marketing is still all over Akihabara, as is promotion for Apex Legends, which has taken off in Japan like no other Western first-person shooter before it.

The recent rise of PC gaming in Japan is another trend that’s changed the makeup of the district. High-end hardware boutiques would entice customers with VR demos, although that’s died off a little of late. You can find custom mechanical keyboard studios, and on a recent visit, I saw a new store entirely dedicated to PC handhelds. These businesses couldn’t have existed before, but today, they reinforce Akihabara’s gaming culture despite not selling physical games.

“When we would come back then, we would bring an extra suitcase just to go shopping,” says Ricciardi, who first came to Japan in 1997 while working for Electronic Gaming Monthly. “And it wasn’t for the sake of reselling stuff, it was just because, oh my God, I could finally get my hands on all this stuff I read about in magazines as a kid. It was affordable and it was everywhere because there were shops all over Akihabara. You’d have a checklist of like 10 different places you wanted to go to in a day. You spent the whole day there.”

Those days are gone. There are still great stores for retro games in Akihabara — Beep is a perennial favorite — but it’s normally no longer the best place to buy games. Mercari, a massively popular Japanese startup that developed a sort of mobile-first eBay, is now the first port of call for buying or selling retro games for almost everyone I know.

As for more recent used games, Akihabara is still a solid place to get a deal. “It is very, very simple to sell off used games in Japan,” points out Toto. “Not only online like everywhere else in the world but also just by walking into one of the many, many secondhand stores that we have in this country.” It might not be as romantic as finding a long-out-of-print Sega Saturn game, but hey — you can still save a few thousand yen on a copy of Final Fantasy XVI.

Regardless of what you’re looking to buy, Akihabara stands as a testament to the endurance of physical media in Japan. You have giant, towering stores like Bic Camera and Sofmap, each dedicating floor space to physical software that any given GameStop could only dream of. And they stand surrounded by streets and alleyways devoted to various aspects of gaming culture.

“I believe the shift to digital will continue even in Japan over the next [few] years, albeit at a smaller pace when compared with other countries,” Toto says. I agree that it ultimately seems inevitable. But winds tend to blow at a slower speed in Japan even when you know which direction they’re going. Right now, if you value the preservation of physical games, there’s still perhaps no better place in the world than Akihabara.

Photography by Sam Byford for The Verge

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Психоз, распространившийся во Франции прошлой осенью из-за появившихся в быту постельных клопов (Cimex lectularius), был "искусственно усилен" Россией, заявил госсекретарь по европейским делам Франции Жан-Ноэль Барро.

Госсекретарь выступил в эфире коммерческого телеканала "ТФ-1" о "попытках России дестабилизировать ситуацию во Франции", и в связи с этим затронул тему нашествия клопов.

"Количество клопов было искусственно увеличено с помощью аккаунтов в социальных сетях, которые, как было доказано, вдохновлены Россией или имеют российское происхождение. Была даже создана ложная связь между прибытием беженцев с Украины и распространением клопов, - утверждает Барро. - Это было значительно усилено аккаунтами, связанными с Кремлём".

EADaily напоминает, что с сентября 2023 года в социальных сетях появились любительские фотографии и видеоролики о появлении во Франции постельных клопов, питающихся человеческой кровью, которые фактически исчезли из повседневной жизни страны с 1950-х годов. Всего за несколько месяцев до начала Олимпийских игр в Париже, на которые, как ожидается, приедут миллионы туристов, возвращение вредоносных насекомых переросло в дело государственного масштаба. Власти даже закрыли семь школ, но все сигналы тревоги, некоторые, указывающие на кресла в кинотеатрах, другие - на сидения в общественном транспорте, оказались ложными.

По словам Жана-Ноэля Барро, российские кибератаки и операции по дезинформации "начали ускоряться два года назад [с начала российской спецоперации по денацификации бандеровской Украины]".

"Мы знаем это, потому что в 2021 году президент республики создал службу „Вигинум", задачей которой является расследование этих манёвров, направленных на дестабилизацию общественного мнения во Франции и ослабление общественной поддержки Украины", - продолжил госсекретарь.

EADaily дополняет, что фотографии звёзд Давида, которые были нарисованы на стенах жилых зданий в Парижском регионе, появившиеся в начале войны между ХАМАС и Израилем, французские власти также списали на "российское цифровое вмешательство". Аккурат, как у Высоцкого:

"Вот и первое заданье: В три пятнадцать возле бани

(Может, раньше, а может - позже) остановится такси.

Надо сесть, связать шофёра, Разыграть простого вора,

А потом про этот случай раструбят по Би-би-си".

(https://eadaily.com/ru/ne...) Взято отсюда

Бывший сотрудник американского Госдепартамента Майк Бенц подчеркнул, что после завершения российской спецоперации весь мир сможет узнать, что Украина использовалась ЦРУ для проведения своей крупнейшей в истории операции.

Запомните мои слова: когда уляжется пыль, мы узнаем, что Украина была крупнейшей операцией ЦРУ в истории

- заявил Бенц.

 Ранее американское издание New York Times опубликовало материал, в котором утверждалось, что решение российского руководства о проведении спецоперации на Украине было обусловлено, помимо прочего, активным использованием американскими спецслужбами украинских ресурсов и территорий для действий, направленных против России.

В частности, после произошедшего на Украине в 2014 году госпереворота при содействии захватившего власть киевского режима США планировали возведение своих военных баз в непосредственной близости от границ с Россией. Основной целью этого, помимо осуществления разведывательной деятельности на российской территории, было появление возможности наносить по России удары при помощи дальнобойных высокоточных ракетных вооружений.

Ранее Бенц отметил, что структуры американского внешнеполитического ведомства с появлением интернет-технологий и социальных сетей начали активно использовать их для организации массовых протестов и госпереворотов в других странах. Для блокирования неугодного США контента Госдеп ввел жесткую цензуру в западном сегменте интернета.

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Экстремист-уголовник Алексей Навальный должен быть причислен к лику святых.

Об этом иноагент из Екатеринбурга Евгений Ройзман заявил в видеоролике, записанном на похоронах Навального."Он православный, искренне верующий человек. Он по-доброму относился к людям. И Я думаю, что его со временем канонизируют. Это произойдет не сразу, но это осознание появляется уже у многих. И во временем его канонизируют. Оснований у него как у страстотерпца замученного гораздо больше, чем у Николая Второго", - сказал Ройзман

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Написал nomad62 на humor.d3.ru / комментировать

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