De Europese Commissie gaat vertegenwoordigers van de taliban uitnodigen om in Brussel te onderhandelen over de terugkeer van Afghaanse vluchtelingen naar hun thuisland. Dat heeft de Commissie bevestigd aan persagentschap AFP.

De bedoeling van het bezoek, dat mee gecoördineerd wordt door Zweden, is om de discussies die door Europese vertegenwoordigers in Afghanistan zijn opgestart in Brussel voort te zetten. Het zou gaan om “technische besprekingen” over het terugsturen van Afghaanse vluchtelingen. Een datum voor de besprekingen is er nog niet.

In januari brachten vertegenwoordigers van de EU en ons land al een bezoek aan Kaboel. Onder meer Freddy Roosemont, directeur-generaal van de Dienst Vreemdelingenzaken, was daar toen bij. Volgens federaal minister van Asiel en Migratie Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) is de vervolgmissie in Brussel “een belangrijke én noodzakelijke” volgende stap, zo klonk het nog in april.

Controverse

Dat de EU bereid is om te spreken met vertegenwoordigers van de groep, is op zijn minst opvallend. De taliban is een gewapende groepering die in 2021 de macht greep in Kaboel. De acties van de taliban hebben in het land geleid tot de “systematische en afschuwelijke uitsluiting van vrouwen en meisjes” en tot een “dramatische verslechtering van de politieke, economische en humanitaire situatie voor het Afghaanse volk”, zo staat op de website van de EU zelf te lezen.

Dat de EU toenadering zoekt tot de groepering, deed eerder dan ook al heel wat stof opwaaien. Europees Commissaris Magnus Brunner, die bevoegd is voor migratie, moet zich nog voor het Europees Parlement verantwoorden voor het geplande bezoek.

I'm going to be honest, I don't remember or understand anything that happened this episode at all. It's just this bombardment of complicated, long-winded, disconnected info bombs, along with a bunch of in medias res scenes where you're just supposed to understand what or who they're talking about.

Most states have attempted to curb cellphone use in schools in recent years. Parents and educators hoped decreased usage would improve test scores, boost mental health and help students pay more attention in class.

The results, however, have been mixed.

While cellphone bans have reduced unauthorized usage in schools, there has been little academic benefit, according to a new study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The average effect on test scores is “consistently close to zero,” researchers said.

The study also found that cellphone bans do not have much of an effect on attendance, perceptions of online bullying or in-class engagement. The bans, however, did make teachers happier at work.

“I think what our study is useful in suggesting is, a lot of times, easy solutions seem like they might work really well,” said E. Jason Baron, an assistant professor of economics at Duke University and one of the paper’s authors. But “it’s hard to move outcomes like test scores.”

Source: Washington Post

I was getting anywhere from 110 to 140 fps with a lot of stuttering, now I'm running at a smooth 1440p and 165 fps. 2080 Ti.

The quality of the posts is not just poor, nine times out of ten it's straight up misleading. Let's analyze this thread today, but really it applies to any thread you click on.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1sy2he1/does_the_cpu_really_matter/

One common theme is an obsession with "bottlenecking". Apparently any sort of bottleneck is unacceptable. The solution is simple: buy the latest and most expensive hardware. And that's the end of the advice of your typical Redditor.

The idea that maybe you should look at the bigger picture, instead of just the few frames you "lose" in edge case titles, and that you should maybe pace your upgrades until you're seeing a 50% uplift at least? Unheard of in the world of Reddit. Common sense elsewhere though.

Here are some brilliancies from the thread:

• I experienced an insane cpu bottleneck. I kept old hardware for a long time. I just replaced my i7 6700k with a 9800 x3d. I kept my 2070. My fps in arc raiders went up significantly. My gpu used to sit at like 60 percent utilization. Now it’s maxed at 99. It’s definitely real. -Mr_Hyper_Focus
• I have r5 3600, it's definitely not enough for single player 60fps gaming, or multiplayer 120fps - XenourXS
• I personally experienced some bottle necking by my 3700X with the 9060xt, so i upgraded to a 5800XT. Its not horrific bottle necking, but it was def noticeable in games like deep rock galactic, monster hunter wilds, and, surprisingly, elden ring. - WanderingGenesis
• I have a slightly weaker gpu (5060 8gb) and still get bottlenecked on quite a few games on a ryzen 5600g (similar to 5500).
• Yes CPUs matter. You're probably watching misleading content. I'd say even a 5600x and 5700x will bottleneck the 9060xt even on 1440p in a lot of cases. - mashdpotatogaming
• It does, gonna tell my part. I have RTX 2060 and ryzen 3500 CPU, I am actively running into CPU bottlenecks, specially if I want to stream games to my steam deck or do a few more things with my PC. If I got 3600 I would be in a much better place, but my RTX 2060 is actually performing okay for 1080p gaming. - notrealtedtotwitter

To be fair, there is at least one smart guy here:

• i'm a simple man. i see the word "bottleneck" and i ignore the thread. - itchygentleman

Be more like itchygentleman. If it's not obvious how horrible the advice given in this thread is, it's because a) they're wrong, and b) you gain far more upgrading your GPU rather than by keeping an RTX 2070, only to empty your wallets for an 9800X3D.

Additionally, midrange and low-end cards like a 9060XT or an RTX 5060 will only see a trivially small bottleneck with anything from Ryzen 3000 or newer, especially if you compare to the cost of upgrading, even setting the prices due to the rampocalypse aside. You're far better off directing your attention to GPU and monitor upgrades (which 1440p monitors have the convenient benefit of radically reducing CPU bottlenecks) if you want more FPS.

I'm still on my R7 3800x that I got back in Feb 2020. It is still absolutely fine, and it will continue to be fine for at least another four years. That's a blessing, not an incentive for the paranoid behaviour that has overtaken Reddit.