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Received today — 19 April 2025

Blue95 Topanga released with Paint and Plus! clones

19 April 2025 at 09:24

Only a few weeks ago we talked about Blue95, a Fedora-based distribution focused on bringing the Windows 95 look to the Linux world by integrating a set of existing Windows 95 Xfce themes. Since Fedora 42 has just been released, the Blue95 project also pushed out a new release, called Blue95 Topanga. It brings with it all the improvements from Fedora 42, but also goes a step further be integrating new applications to further add to the Windows 95 vibe.

First, there’s Winblues Paint, a faithful recreation of Windows 95’s Paint, using jspaint.app. Second, they’ve recreated the classic Plus! experience with Chicago95 Plus!, a tool that allows you to take any existing Windows 95/98/ME/XP theme and apply it as-is on Xfce. Topanga also further improves the theming experience with custom Windows 95 icons for LibreOffice as well as custom themes for Audacious and Flatpost, a desktop-agnostic Flatpak client.

I adore that this project aims to be more than just a vessel for the existing Chicago95 theme, and in fact goes so far as to create its own applications. I hope this continues from here on out and doesn’t fizzle out.

LXQt 2.2.0 released

19 April 2025 at 09:10

LXQt, the Qt-based alternative to KDE as Xfce is the GTK-based alternative to GNOME, has released version 2.2.0. LXQt is in the middle of its transition to Wayland, and as such, this release brings a number of fixes and improvements for Wayland, like improved multi-display support and updated compatibility with Wayland compositors.

Beyond all the Wayland work, LXQt Power Management now supports power profiles, text rendering in QTerminal and QTermWidget has been improved, the file manager PCManFM-Qt has received a whole slew of new features, and there’s the usual smaller bug fixes and changes.

The ultimate symbol of irrationality and credulity

19 April 2025 at 15:29
"The debunking of unicorns as an ontological category did not prevent their horns from remaining desirable adjuncts to enlightened cabinets," Spary writes, "even if they declined in financial value and changed in significance. They now became a symbol, not of extreme rarity, but rather of the program of putting the world to rights for which the collection stood." from The Undying Unicorn [jstor; paper]

This Week in LGBTQIA+ News: April 19 Edition

19 April 2025 at 10:58
Welcome to the first of hopefully many regular posts of news for, of, and about the LGBTQIA+ community. A lot of it is transgender-centric right now, but that's because of things going on in politics. I do promise more when it happens. But just to show how bad the US Government is (we'll get to the UK in a moment), let's just note that a judge had to issue a ruling that the Federal government couldn't take funding for school lunches from all of Maine because of two trans kids in sports in the state.

The Bad News Looking over the last week, let's start with April 16, and this post from fight or flight about the recent UK Supreme Court decision, where they declared that even with a Gender Recognition Certificate, trans women are not legally considered women. I also want to highlight Pallas Athena's comment as excellent as well. The next day, the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission head, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, said that the National Health Service would be pushed to update their rules on single-sex spaces, while Dolores Umbridge prototype horrid harridan J. K. Rowling celebrated the ruling in way that us in the US would recognize as similar to the late and deeply unlamented Rush Limbaugh, after giving £70,000 to the group behind it. Meanwhile, Health Minister Karin Smyth says that has stated the Tories should apologize for their pro-trans stance under Theresa May, showing she's delusional. Reportedly, US Vice President and enthusast for eyeliner and furniture J. D. Vance is pushing the UK to repeal LGBTQIA+ anti-hate-speech laws as part of negotiations in trade deals. The UK conservative press was its usual restrained and thoughtful self, and continues to provide proof I should not have an orbital laser cannon or comet driver. On April 17, Trump administration's HHS removed gender dysphoria from the protected list of disabilities, thus disagreeing from such radical scientific works such as the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the standard for psychological and psychiatric care. The HHS has also launched a snitch form for health providers who give gender affirming care to minors (for now; wait for it to update for everyone). US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that State would not place a freeze on PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) even as USAID was being dismantled. However, it has not been restored and reactivated as promised (who could have expected that?). And so, on April 17, a group of activists stacked 200 mock coffins in front of the State Department's offices to protest this. The Good News The case of Orr v. Trump has paused with a temporary restraining order allowing the plaintiff - and only the plaintiff - to get a passport with their legal gender present. It is expected that a final order to push all pending passport orders will result in whining from President Yamface and his sycophanty corps rapid appeals from the Federal government. Karina Ødegård, a member of Norway's Green Party and on-trrack to be Norway's first transgender person in their parlianment, has stated they feel that Norway should be offering asylum for US trans people (And I would expect our UK siblings as well), comparing it to 1930s Germany under the Nazis. Norway supported transfer refugees from the LGBTQIA+ community in a three year program in 2020. If you have comments about the nature of this post, I would like to direct you to place them in this MetaTalk post instead of in the post itself. While you're there, may I suggest you read this frankly astonishingly excellent comment in the thread by our new friend Seven Deadly Gins, and think about it before filing any complaints? Please leave this post to be a discussion about the news. I will be threadsitting and doing reports and flagging, despite my personal distaste for it. If you have any other issues, please refer to this comment by moderator Brandon Blatcher in that thread.

Aftershocks and lack of resources hinder recovery work 3 weeks after Myanmar’s deadly earthquake

19 April 2025 at 15:53
BANGKOK — Basic services have yet to be restored to the areas of Myanmar worst hit by a huge earthquake three weeks ago, and emergency workers recovering bodies and clearing debris are contending with regular aftershocks and lack of resources, humanitarian services say.

© AP

People clean debris from damaged buildings in the aftermath of an earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on April 7.

Police investigating murder of Paria Veisi in south Wales find her body

19 April 2025 at 15:35

A 41-year-old man charged with murder after discovery at an address in the Penylan area of Cardiff

Police investigating the murder of a woman from Cardiff who was last seen leaving work a week ago have found a body.

Paria Veisi’s body was discovered by South Wales police at an address in Penylan, Cardiff, on Saturday, the force said.

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© Photograph: South Wales Police/PA

Paria Veisi was reported missing after leaving her workplace in the Canton area of Cardiff on 12 April.

© Photograph: South Wales Police/PA

Paria Veisi was reported missing after leaving her workplace in the Canton area of Cardiff on 12 April.

Never mind the late drama, Amorim and Postecoglou still face the Ten Hag trap | Jonathan Wilson

19 April 2025 at 15:00

The Australian could leave after Spurs win the Europa League, while United may stick with their coach after winning nothing

Erik ten Hag has gone, but his shadow looms over English football still. The mistake was understandable enough: high on the euphoria of beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final, Manchester United renewed his contract. Three months into the new season, more than £180m spent on summer transfers, Ten Hag was dismissed with United 14th in the table on 11 points from nine games.

The sporting director, Dan Ashworth, and various members of Ten Hag’s backroom staff also left, at a total cost of £14.5m. Or, to put it another way, keeping Ten Hag cost United £200m and in effect undermined this season. Nobody wants to be caught in the Ten Hag trap.

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© Composite: PA Images; Shutterstock

© Composite: PA Images; Shutterstock

Doctor Who: Lux – season two episode two recap

19 April 2025 at 15:00

A wild ride as Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor stepped out of the TV, leaving viewers believing anything could happen

Doctor Who is not the only television programme that could have an episode revolving around a cartoon character being brought to life and escaping the screen, while also hitting beats about the loss of a spouse, the loss of a child and racial segregation laws in 1950s America, plus mind-bendingly meta fourth-wall breaks about the impact and future of the show itself, but there aren’t that many of them.

This was an adventure where Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu spent nearly all of their on-screen time together, as Belinda got to grips with accompanying the Doctor on his travels. The highs – getting to dress up in a posh frock – were levelled by the lows: being on the receiving end of racist police treatment for entering a segregated theatre.

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© Photograph: Lara Cornell/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf

© Photograph: Lara Cornell/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf

Max Verstappen claims Saudi GP F1 pole after Lando Norris hits the wall

19 April 2025 at 14:44
  • Championship leader will start race from 10th on grid
  • Oscar Piastri qualfies second with George Russell third

Already struggling for confidence in his car the world championship leader, Lando Norris, suffered another serious blow to his title ambitions, crashing out in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. His Red Bull rival Max Verstappen claimed pole position, one-hundredth of a second clear of Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri.

McLaren and, indeed, Norris had looked strong all weekend, but on the first of the final runs in Q3 at the Jeddah circuit he took too much kerb through turns 4-5 and 6 and it spat him out into the wall, taking a nasty hit on the front. He was unhurt but declared himself an “idiot” when speaking to his team. The session was red-flagged and Norris will start from 10th on Sunday, his title lead hanging by the slenderest of threads and his self-belief perhaps once more undermined.

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© Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP

© Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP

Onana piledriver wraps up Aston Villa’s thrilling demolition of Newcastle

19 April 2025 at 14:39

Nobody seems to have told Aston Villa the season is winding down. At a boisterous, increasingly gleeful Villa Park Unai Emery’s side moved up to sixth in the Premier League with a relentless dismantling of Newcastle, who simply fell away in the second half, conceding three goals in the final 20 minutes of a chastening 4-1 defeat.

Newcastle remain in third and fought hard in the opening hour, after which life just seemed to catch up with them, Villa’s squad depth apparent as Emery shuffled his attacking substitutes with notable precision.

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© Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

© Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

The Observer view on poverty: promises won’t get children off the breadline | Editorial

19 April 2025 at 14:30

It’s not good enough for Labour to say that there’s no money to tackle the problem – raising taxes risks losing a few votes but for the greater good

One of the crowning achievements of the last Labour government was a significant reduction in child poverty. This was achieved not only by supporting more parents into work, but through significantly increasing the generosity of financial support paid by the state to low-income parents. Today, that ambitious New Labour goal to halve child poverty feels like a distant memory as this government looks set to preside over a significant rise over the course of this parliament.

That financial support was slashed away by Conservative chancellors from 2010 onwards, meaning that Labour has inherited a tax and benefit system that is far meaner when it comes to children living in financially precarious families. The poorest tenth of families with children lost on average £6,000 a year as a result of tax and benefit changes between 2010 and 2024. On top of that, it is the poorest households that have been most sharply affected by the cost of living crisis. This explains why the UK’s child poverty rate rose the fastest of 39 OECD and EU countries between 2012 and 2021, a symptom of the lack of priority and care afforded to poor children by successive Conservative governments and the product of policy choices to cut taxes in a way that disproportionately benefited better-off households rather than protect children from growing up in families where it is a constant struggle to put food on the table and keep homes warm. Almost one in three children live in relative child poverty and one in four in absolute poverty in households with incomes of less than 60% of the median income in 2011, adjusted for inflation.

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© Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

© Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Rampant Red Roses rout Scotland to set up grand slam decider with France

  • England 59-7 Scotland
  • Twickenham finale will decide destination of title

England felled Scotland in a devastating manner to set up a grand slam decider against France in the Women’s Six Nations as they bid for their seventh successive title. The 59-7 victory was the team’s 33rd consecutive win in the tournament.

England were heavy favourites heading into the match as Scotland have never beaten the Red Roses in the tournament, with their last win across all competitions against their rivals coming in 1999.

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© Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters

© Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters

Miliband in blistering attack on Farage’s UK net zero ‘nonsense and lies’

19 April 2025 at 14:05

The energy secretary has accused Reform UK’s leader of peddling dangerous falsehoods about renewable power

Tories and Reform use the steel crisis to knock clean energy. They’re wrong: it will secure all our futures

Ed Miliband has torn into Nigel Farage and the Tories for peddling dangerous “nonsense and lies” by suggesting the UK’s net zero target is responsible for destroying Britain’s businesses, including its steel industry.

Cabinet ministers are determined to fight back against the way Reform UK and the Conservatives have unceremoniously lambasted the climate crisis agenda for what they believe are nakedly political reasons before important local elections next month.

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© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Tories and Reform use the steel crisis to knock clean energy. They’re wrong: it will secure all our futures| Ed Miliband

19 April 2025 at 14:05

The argument for a green power transition is not just one of climate breakdown but social justice and national security

Miliband in blistering attack on Farage’s UK net zero ‘nonsense and lies’

The world feels more uncertain and unpredictable just now than at any time in my political lifetime. For Britain – in our values, our approach and our consistency – we owe it to today’s and future generations to be the port in the storm. Nowhere is that more true than on energy and climate. The decisions we take today will shape not just the years ahead but the generations ahead.

That is why it is so important that Keir Starmer set out more than three years ago his mission for Britain to become a clean energy superpower. It is even more relevant and important today than it was back then. And he has rightly shown a resolute determination to stick to it. The argument for a clean power system by 2030 is based on what happened to Britain’s families and businesses following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Our exposure to fossil fuels meant that, as those markets went into meltdown and prices rocketed, family, business and public finances were devastated. The cost of living impacts caused back then still stalk families today.

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© Photograph: Dave Donaldson/Alamy

© Photograph: Dave Donaldson/Alamy

Xiao Guodong leads Chinese charge as snooker’s balance of power tilts

19 April 2025 at 13:58

Xiao’s fine start against Matthew Selt serves notice of China’s strong presence at the Crucible this year

There are few sports as synonymous with one place as snooker is with Sheffield. For two weeks every year, this city becomes the beating heart of the sport, with supporters from across the globe descending upon South Yorkshire – but this year there is a distinct feel of significant change on the horizon.

That is not to suggest that the future of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible is any more under threat than usual: there have been almost annual murmurings about the event being moved from its spiritual home, though there is hope a new deal can be agreed to keep it here beyond the end of the current deal in 2027. It is more on the baize this year where there is the potential for a seismic shift.

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© Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA

© Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA

‘One hell of a turnout’: trans activists rally in London against gender ruling

19 April 2025 at 13:36

Thousands gather in Parliament Square in a show of unity after supreme court judgment

After last week’s supreme court decision, activists had been worried that trans people might become fearful of going out in public in case they were abused.

They weren’t afraid in London on Saturday. Thousands of trans and non-binary people thronged Parliament Square, alongside families and supporters, waving baby blue, white and pink flags to demonstrate their anger at the judges’ ruling.

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© Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

© Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Stepmothers, relax, you’ll always be wicked but true love is worth it | Kate Maltby

19 April 2025 at 13:30

Two new surveys confirm that women who take on children from an earlier marriage will almost always be seen as witches

Stepmothers have always been witches. Long before the Brothers Grimm gave us Snow White’s usurping queen (and long before Gal Gadot’s toe-curling recent turn in the role), there was Medea, witch of classical myth. Medea is best remembered for killing her own children but, according to Ovid, she went on to acquire a stepson, the hero Theseus, and attempted to kill him too. (Poison, of course, and with an eye on his inheritance: Witchy stepmothering 101.)

Two millennia after Ovid, modern women still let our lives be limited by such stories. A new survey says that 43% of single mothers are deterred from dating other parents by “negative stereotypes of stepmothers portrayed in popular culture”; 37% explicitly cite the fear that their partners’ children will view them as a “wicked stepmother”. One should approach such a survey with caution – it is commissioned by a dating app for parents – but these findings are mirrored in academic studies the world over. A 2018 survey from New Zealand found that stepmothers altered their behaviour, fearful of setting boundaries with their stepchildren, for fear of the “wicked stepmother” tag.

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© Photograph: Disney/Allstar

© Photograph: Disney/Allstar

Zak Starkey reinstated as The Who’s drummer, days after departure

19 April 2025 at 13:13

Pete Townshend welcomes musician back into band after disagreement over his playing at Royal Albert Hall gig

Zak Starkey has been reinstated as The Who’s drummer just days after parting company with the band.

The group announced earlier this week that Starkey, the band’s drummer since 1996, was leaving over a disagreement about his playing at a Royal Albert Hall gig last month.

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© Photograph: Tin!y/Alamy

© Photograph: Tin!y/Alamy

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