cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/52413761

Summary

Polish Defense Minister dismissed Maj. Gen. Artur Kępczyński, head of the Support Inspectorate, following the discovery of missing anti-tank mines in an IKEA warehouse.

Reports suggest Kępczyński concealed the mishap, which occurred in June 2024 when soldiers failed to unload a train carrying explosives.

False documentation masked the missing mines until IKEA contacted the military to retrieve them.

The defense ministry did not specify reasons for the dismissal, but an investigation is ongoing.

When train carriages were returned to Poland’s state-owned railway company, it emerged that five pallets of mines were missing.

Onet reported that the missing mines were carried on a civilian carriage through several Polish cities, including Szczecin, Poznań, Warsaw and Białystok, over the course of nearly two weeks. They were eventually located near Orla, a village in northeastern Poland, inside a warehouse belonging to furniture giant IKEA.

At CES 2025, a company called Sybran Innovation showed off the Code27 Character Livehouse. It's an AI-powered digital purgatory that you can trap a small anime girl in, forever.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/52049518

Archived version

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24024969

Sex trafficker Andrew Tate announces his own UK political party: "BRUV"

Some things may go without saying, but Belgium's food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up: don't eat your Christmas tree.

The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country's northern Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table.

Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town website suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried - for use in making flavoured butter, for instance.

Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply from Belgium's federal agency for food chain security, AFSCA, was a resounding "No".

"Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain," it said in a statement.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22433346

Pope Francis seemingly put his own spin on telling women to 'smile more,' urging nuns to abandon "vinegar faces," and stop speaking with the devil.

The Pope, 88, emphasized the importance of friendliness and love in embodying the virtues of the Catholic Church as he spoke to a group of Dominican sisters visiting the Vatican Sunday, The Times reported.

"Sometimes in my life, I have met nuns with a vinegar face, and that's not friendly," the Pope remarked. "That's not something that helps to attract people. Vinegar is nasty, and nuns with a vinegar face—let's not even talk about it."

The Pope also urged the nuns to follow Jesus' example of speaking to everyone—except the Devil. "No dialogue with the Devil, understood?" he stressed, warning against allowing jealousy and other human frailties to provide entry points for evil.

Among human frailties, the Pope addressed gossip as a substantial hurdle for women.

"Please, distance yourself from gossip," he urged. "To ask this of a woman is heroic but, come on, let's move forward and no gossip." He called on the sisters to instead be "heralds of affability."