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Speed skater Tim Prins looks back on his disappointing Olympic year, in which he could not participate in the Games after an unfortunate qualifying tournament, and as a result feels like an outsider in the Dutch top speed skating world. #Schaatsen #TimPrins #OlympischeSpelen (translated)

VitalFluid has developed an innovative machine that uses lightning strikes to produce water that protects strawberries from mold without pesticides, but its use is currently not allowed in Europe due to uncertainty about residues. #VitalFluid #duurzaamheid #agrotechnologie (translated)

PSV coach Peter Bosz looked optimistically ahead to the upcoming match against Feyenoord, as five players are back to full training after injuries, while only Jerdy Schouten, Paul Wanner, Adamo Nagalo, and Alassane Pléa remain in the infirmary. #PSV #Feyenoord #PeterBosz (translated)

Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that the podcast *Het Wassalon*, for which he claimed 800,000 euros had been allocated, was stopped after 342,619 euros had been spent. He stated that Minister Caro Gennez had initially called the podcast a success because it had reached 1.2 million views, translating that as one in five Flemish people having seen the podcast. According to Vande Reyde, the reach was partly due to 64,000 euros being spent on Meta ads. He argued that views alone said nothing about the impact of a campaign and questioned whether the podcast had actually contributed to the acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals or to the sense of societal acceptance among people with disabilities. He cited an ad that led to an inclusive vocabulary list from Cavaria, featuring terms like “allosexual,” “amatonormativity,” “androphilia,” and “gray asexual.” Vande Reyde criticized the way the government evaluated campaigns, subsidies, and structures like service vouchers, claiming that standards were always found to label such initiatives as successful without determining what had actually changed. Regarding the cessation, he wrote that Gennez attributed it to hate and polarization caused by disinformation, mainly from the parliament, and that she referenced him in that context. Vande Reyde found that reasoning incorrect and stated that Sammy Mahdi, Ben Weyts, Melissa Depraetere, and others in the Flemish podcast world had also criticized the project the previous summer. He argued that the fiasco would yield no lessons and predicted that another useless subsidy would follow. #politiek #socialeimpact #mediaevalutie (translated)

Christian Marcussen wrote that Abud Mustafa's Islamic ideal community had faced extensive criticism on the internet and in the media. In the community, the death penalty for homosexuality and apostasy could be on the agenda, he wrote, referring to a picture made by VU. Marcussen welcomed the criticism but warned that the focus on Abud alone overshadowed a broader problem. He claimed that Abud shared his ideal community with a large proportion of practicing Muslims, and that the attitudes were therefore not extreme but mainstream in that group. As an example, he pointed out that Muslims had not condemned Abud. Marcussen wrote that it was important, in line with growing realizations about Islamic theology, to also understand how widespread these ideas were. #Islam #Ytringsfrihed #Menneskerettigheder (translated)

"I understand that 'in the heat of the moment' such a company is focused on: how do I prevent damage to my systems, so the immediate attention is not directed outward." Justice Minister David van Weel expressed hope on Friday that Albert Heijn would file a report. #cybersecurity #hackaanval #AholdDelhaize (translated)

In Łódź, Warsaw, and Lesser Poland, nine people suspected of money laundering from internet frauds were detained, including theft using the blik method, as well as employing complex schemes to conceal the source of their income, which may result in a penalty of up to 15 years in prison. #praniepieniedzy #oszustwa #kryptowaluty (translated)

Kudela the G.O.A.T. described Tomáš Chorý's first season at Slavia as the hardest in terms of pressure, but he believed the player handled it excellently. He credited him with a key role in winning the title after three years, including goals and contributions to the game, and stated that he didn't cause any problems at that time. He couldn't understand why Chorý started behaving like he did in Plzeň in his second season and came under pressure again. The author recalled the May incident in the derby, after which, according to him, the locker room, the owner, and some fans defended Chorý. He wrote that the player turned his back on the people who supported him in the summer when he showed his middle finger to referee Všetečka. According to the author, for a significantly worse verbal insult, he would likely only have received a yellow card, and the chosen gesture could have ended his tenure in "the most ridiculous way" he had ever seen. Kudela the G.O.A.T. stated that Chorý's possible lapses deprived him of the chance to be the king of the league and wrote that it should be his end at Slavia. According to him, the end of his tenure would close a chapter that had divided the Slavia fans for two and a half years. He wished Slavia good luck in selecting a new striker in the winter transfer window. #SlaviaPraha #fotbal #Chorý (translated)

Tadek Solarz wrote that the Volkskrant had reported the day before that Greta Thunberg had joined the French student protests and that the NOS had emphasized that the majority of the protests were peaceful. On X, he had seen footage of a woman trying to defend her store against looters and of a shopkeeper who was assaulted and kicked in the back. According to Solarz, those images could symbolize a distressed France and broader unrest. He stated that the tone and image choices of the Volkskrant and the NOS gave violence a different place in the story than the images he saw on X, which focused on victims. The criticism that X algorithms amplify certain messages and thus distort the perception of reality, he believed, also applied to the selection made by newsrooms. Solarz wrote that the woman and her looted store could have been front-page news and that her fear could have become the face of the protests. #journalistiek #mediatheorie #protesten (translated)

The author of the post wrote that the European payment systems Bizum, Wero, and MB WAY have joined forces to compete with Visa and Mastercard. He added that the Polish BLIK wants to join the project, which is already in talks about this matter. #płatności #Europa #fintech #PL #ES (translated)

Christian Marcussen wrote that Afrah Al-Jabouri had posted a video on social media where she pulled Ali's double-edged sword out of a gold-plated sheath. According to him, the video had received 27,484 likes, and Al-Jabouri described herself in it as 313 percent Shia. Marcussen wrote that the number 313 referred both to the number of warriors in the Battle of Badr, which he described as the Muslims' first military victory after a planned caravan attack from Muhammad, and to the 313 individuals who, according to an Islamic belief, were to make up the core of an army when the twelfth imam returned before the Day of Judgment. He wrote that the army was to bring the whole world under Islam. He concluded by saying that Airport Security must regret having fired such a skilled creator of content for social media. #Islam #AfrahAlJabouri #SocialeMedier (translated)

The Poland News reported that a draft of regulations aimed at increasing the security of BLIK transfers via phone has been submitted to the Sejm. According to the publication, telecommunications operators would be required to inform banks and payment operators about phone numbers that may be assigned to new users in order to reduce the risk of sending money to the wrong person. The Poland News added that the idea is supported by the BLIK operator, while the telecommunications industry raises concerns. #BLIK #bezpieczeństwo #finanse (translated)

Cezary "Trotyl" Gmyz warned that the German-French project Wero could threaten BLIK. He claimed that the solution was largely based on the Polish system, but the Germans and French were not profiting from it, so they were likely pressuring the European Union to adopt Wero. According to Gmyz, this could lead to the downfall of BLIK. #BLIK #WERO #finanse (translated)