The real change in retail pricing might be discrimination pricing (or ‘surveillance pricing’ as it is now called sometimes). Simply speaking, it uses personal data to personalize prices not just for each customer, but also for each customer depending on actual circumstances such as day time, weather, an individual’s pay day, and other data, collected through apps, loyalty cards, …

As one article says, there is One Person One Price:

"If I literally tell you, the price of a six-pack is $1.99, and then I tell someone else the price of a six-pack for them is $3.99, this would be deemed very unfair if there was too much transparency on it,” [University of Chicago economists Jean-Pierre] Dubé said. “But if instead I say, the price of a six-pack is $3.99 for everyone, and that’s fair. But then I give you a coupon for $2 off [through your app] but I don’t give the coupon to the other person, somehow that’s not as unfair as if I just targeted a different price.”

The linked article is a very long read but worth everyone’s time. Very insightful.

I am thinking the same. Must be some sort of Streisand effect :-)

Yeah, and not to forget:

One interviewee admitted to paying for access to a data set. “I bought access to an official archive and altered the data to support my hypotheses.”

After the Trump verdict, most Republicans say they’re OK with having a criminal as president

Last week, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges in the hush-money case against him. Compared to before the verdict, the biggest changes we found in a post-conviction poll conducted between May 31 and June 2 are in Republicans’ positions on felony, crime in general, and the presidency. They have shifted in a way that puts the verdict in a more favorable light and keeps Trump’s candidacy viable. For example, fewer Republicans think it should be illegal to pay hush money for the purposes of influencing an election than did a year ago, and more now say felons should be allowed to become president than did a few months ago.

I deleted the most part of the text.

Just a question: Should longer texts not be posted as a principal or is it because it crashes some Lemmy apps?

Israeli activists battle over Gaza-bound aid convoys

Months after some Israelis started to protest against aid lorries entering Gaza at the main Kerem Shalom crossing, the battle has moved to other key junctions, where rival groups of activists do their best to block or protect aid convoys […]

Right-wing activists, including Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank, have uploaded dozens of videos of crowds, including some very young children, hurling food onto the ground and stamping on boxes of aid.

You’ll find a short video embedded in the linked article.

I doesn’t seem so given Israeli officials’ statements. But it will have a long-term political impact if Israel ignores that imho. It could lead to a higher degree of ‘diplomatic isolation’ for Israel and its allies for a long time. That’s just my opinion. And there’re arrest warrants, too.

As international support for an independent Palestine grows, here’s what Israelis and Palestinians now think of the two-state solution

With the announcement by Norway and Ireland that they have recognised Palestine as an independent state, and Spain expected to follow suit by the end of May, it appears that international momentum for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is growing.

The concept has long been supported by the US and its allies, as well as most Arab states and the United Nations […] Could things be different under different leadership? To answer this, we need to know whether the Israeli and Palestinian people could be persuaded to accept such a plan. Here it’s worth taking a look at what polling tells us.

They have to stop the use of forced labour in China, the U.S. and wherever this bs happens. This “U.S. bad, China bad okay” stance is unbearable.

This is related, particularly as the discussion is to a large part around cheap cars:

China: Carmakers Implicated in Uyghur Forced Labor - (February 2024)

China’s electric vehicle battery supply chain shows signs of forced labor, report says - (June 2023)

This article is highly biased and misleading imo.

First of all, it doesn’t make sense to compare economic policy performance by a single metric, be it inflation or GDP or anything else, let alone if you compare economies in different periods.

For example, the high inflation during president Carter’s term was mainly due to the oil crisis in the 1970s. President Biden started his term in 2020 - right when the pandemic broke out and subsequent interruptions of global supply chain caused a soaring inflation. You may or may not agree with both presidents’ economic policies, but you can’t obviously blame Carter or Biden for the oil crises and the pandemic, respectively.

The articles also says:

Neither the Fed nor economists in general view housing prices as inflation. The economic illiterates do not count asset prices in general as inflation.

The ‘economic illiterates’ use inflation to measure prices of consumer goods and services but explicitly not to measure prices of assets. This is why rent can reasonably be part of such an index, but house prices probably not (exactly because a house is an asset and not a consumer good). This is also one reason why you should always look at a dashboard of metrics and interpret them to the individual circumstances (e.g., in different epoches, cultures, etc.) rather than looking at just one measurement.

So the inflation and the way how it is measured (there are multiple ways to do so) is certainly an imperfect metric, but this is true for any metric. And comparing the economic policies over several decades by just using a single metric doesn’t make any sense.

(Edit typo.)

Probably, but as the article’s authors say, hate “does not mean rage, anger or general dislike”. It appears to be a different concept.

As much as I agree, I am not sure whether this is what they are aiming at.

The law’s provision of civil damages means that private actors — including those with seemingly endless resources — can bog you down in costly and distracting litigation,” Shamas said. “This means that Palestinians and those who support their rights become ‘high risk’ — and those who they rely on — charities, funders, banks or social media companies — are chilled from further engagement. The goal is to isolate Palestinians.”

Here is tbe study: Active self-treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan

Here’s an alternative link: https://www.eurasiareview.com/02052024-gazans-face-new-terror-threat-from-booby-trapped-cans-of-food

BUT: It seems that the UN deleted the article.

When looking for an alternative link, I found also this: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/feb/01/instagram-posts/no-viral-footage-doesnt-show-explosives-disguised

Social media posts claim footage from Gaza shows explosives disguised as food cans, but there are no visible labels or pictures on the metal cylinders to suggest they contain food.

Experts on military strategy and the Middle East said the metal cylinders seen in photos and videos online are likely containers for M603 fuzes, which are designed to detonate landmines. Footage shows one of the cans is labeled “fuze mine.”

The fuzes are not designed to explode if a person opens the container. It requires 140 to 750 pounds of force to ignite the fuze and trigger an explosion.

I’m sorry, seems that you can’t trust the UN news?

Iran charges journalists after BBC report on teen protester’s death

Iran’s judiciary has filed charges against “a number of journalists and activists” after the publication of a BBC report alleging men working for the security forces sexually assaulted and killed […] 16-year-old protester Nika Shakarami.

Yeah, but it’s not only the west. It seems there is no such thing as politics if and when enough money is involved.

Yeah, his name is Abdulaziz Alwasil.

Human Rights Watch says about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia:

The Personal Status Law [in Saudi Arabia] requires women to obtain a male guardian’s permission to marry, codifying the country’s longstanding practice. Married women are required to obey their husbands in a “reasonable manner.” The law further states that neither spouse may abstain from sexual relations or cohabitation without the other spouse’s consent, implying a marital right to intercourse.

While a husband can unilaterally divorce his wife, a woman can only petition a court to dissolve their marriage contract on limited grounds and must “establish [the] harm” that makes the continuation of marriage “impossible” within those grounds. The law does not specify what constitutes “harm” or what evidence can be submitted to support a case, leaving judges wide discretion in the law’s interpretation and enforcement to maintain the status quo.

Fathers remain the default guardians of their children, limiting a mother’s ability to participate fully in decisions related to her child’s social and financial well-being. A mother may not act as her child’s guardian unless a court appoints her, and she will otherwise have limited authority to make decisions for her child’s well-being, even in cases where the parents do not live together and judicial authorities decide that the child should live with the mother.

As one user in this thread said, it might be a feature required by the CCP.

Amid campus crackdowns, Gaza war triggers freedom of expression crisis

Across the United States, “heads are rolling” at the top of some Ivy League universities amid a campus-wide crackdown on students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, shining a spotlight on the question of freedom of expression worldwide, said UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan.