Bonum Certa Men Certa

Leftover Links 23/08/2023: India Attempt to Make History on the Moon



  • Leftovers

    • FEBRUARY 6 EARTHQUAKES: Release of sole arrested suspect in case of collapsed building where 105 died in earthquake

      Opposition MP argued that the release was contrary to the ordinary course of events and stated, "We believe that he was released in anticipation of a potential future lawsuit against the mayor."

    • Vox“Going shopping” is dead

      Now going to the store, whether it’s a Macy’s in a suburban mall or the neighborhood CVS — basically, all but the most luxury of retailers — is a battle that leaves consumers feeling defeated.

      Shoppers’ complaints abound. Vox spoke with customers across the country who bemoaned a dearth of employees in stores of all stripes. Equally aggravating: empty shelves, or only a register or two open at any given time.

    • The Drone GirlDrone pilots in Hawaii: Please don’t fly near Lahaina without authorization

      The FAA on Aug. 15 issued a temporary flight restriction (TFR) near Lahaina, Hawaii, which is set to end on Aug. 23, 2023. This means that drone pilots are prohibited from flying their drones in the restricted area without prior authorization from the FAA, specifically for the purposes of “providing a safe environment for fire fighting.”

    • FuturismTesla’s Cat Bed Design Appears to Be Stolen

      Now add a case of cat burglary — speaking very literally — and the meowing is getting so loud we can hear it from overseas. Yep, that's right: Tesla is selling a cardboard cat bed in China that looks almost exactly like another cat bed sold by another company, called Hulumao, as spotted by the Taiwan-run news outlet Focus Taiwan.

      "Dear Mr. Elon Musk, although we don't know each other, very thank you for promoting our product with Tesla logo on it and selling it in China," the company wrote in an Instagram post. "Meanwhile, we are sure we have never manufactured this model for Tesla company in China nor licensed the design to you. There must be something misunderstood in this matter."

    • Science

      • FuturismMysterious [Crackers] Are Targeting Space Telescopes

        For at least the last three weeks, hackers have been targeting major telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, forcing scientists to temporarily put ten observatories out of commission. Remote operations have also been shut down at a few others.

      • AAASCyberattack shutters major NSF-funded telescopes for more than 2 weeks

        NOIRLab has provided few further details about the matter, even to employees. The center declined to answer Science’s query on whether the incident was a ransomware attack, in which hackers demand money for the return of information or control of a facility. A NOIRLab spokesperson tells Science that the center’s information technology staff is “working around the clock to get the telescopes back into the sky.”

      • France24India nears attempt to become first nation to land craft on Moon’s south pole

        India readied Wednesday to become the first nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon's south pole, days after a Russian probe crashed in the same region.

      • New York TimesIndia’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing: How and When to Watch

        Coming on the heels of Russia’s lunar lander crash over the weekend, India is hoping to become on Wednesday the first nation to set down in the moon’s south polar region.

    • Hardware

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Security

      • LWNSecurity updates for Tuesday

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (intel-microcode, lxc, and zabbix), Fedora (clamav), SUSE (python-configobj), and Ubuntu (clamav).

      • Microsoft is now a cybersecurity titan. That could be a problem. [Ed: No, Microsoft is the culprit. It backs back doors in all its things and won't patch things.]

        Microsoft has fought to position itself as a global leader for cybersecurity, but it’s also battling its own cybersecurity demons and taking fire from the US Congress.

      • Security WeekTesla Discloses Data Breach Related to Whistleblower Leak

        Tesla has disclosed a data breach impacting 75,000 people, but it’s a result of a whistleblower leak, not a malicious cyberattack.

      • QuartzTesla is suing two former employees over a massive data breach

        The data of 75,753 individuals was compromised in a Tesla hack—and an insider job is apparently to blame. Tesla identified and filed lawsuits against two former employees over the cyber breach, resulting in the seizure of their electronic devices.

      • Security WeekIvanti Ships Urgent Patch for API Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

        A critical-severity vulnerability in the Ivanti Sentry (formerly MobileIron Sentry) product exposes sensitive API data and configurations.

      • Security WeekAustralian Lender Latitude Financial Reports AU$76 Million Cyberattack Costs

        Australian lender Latitude Financial said the recent ransomware attack has cost it AU$76 million (roughly US$50 million).

      • Security WeekBrazilian Hacker Claims Bolsonaro Asked Him to Hack Into the Voting System Ahead of 2022 Vote

        A Brazilian hacker claims former president Bolsonaro asked him to hack into the voting system ahead of the 2022 election.

      • Security WeekFlaws in Juniper Switches and Firewalls Can Be Chained for Remote Code Execution

        Juniper Networks has released Junos OS updates to address J-Web vulnerabilities that can be combined to achieve unauthenticated, remote code execution.

      • IT WireEnergy One breached, some systems taken down as precaution

        Energy One is the biggest supplier of 24/7 operational energy services in Australia and the second largest in Europe. It has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, apart from those in other countries.

        The company said it had informed the authorities who needed to be kept in the loop, both in Australia and the UK.

        {loadposition sam08}"Key lines of the ongoing inquiry and response include securing Energy One’s systems, establishing whether or what personal information and/or customer-facing systems have been affected, and the initial point of entry," the statement said.

      • Network WorldBugs in x86 chips force Linux kernel update

        Bugs emerged earlier this month in Intel and AMD processors that affect both client and server processors over multiple generations. Fortunately, the bugs were found some time ago and researchers kept it quiet while fixes were developed.

        Google researchers found the Intel bug known as Downfall (CVE-2022-40982) and reported it to Intel more than a year ago, so both parties had plenty of time to work things out. The Downfall bug exploits a flaw in the "Gather" instruction that affected Intel CPUs use to grab information from multiple places in a system's memory. A Google researcher created a proof-of-concept exploit that could steal encryption keys and other kinds of data from other users on a given server

      • Dark ReadingEnergy One Investigates Cyberattack

        Wholesale energy software software provider Energy One reported on Friday a cyberattack had affected “certain corporate systems” in Australia and the UK. In a statement, the company said analysis is underway to identify which systems have been affected.

        Energy One is currently trying to establish whether customer-facing systems have been affected, and what personal information was compromised, if any. The company is also trying to determine the initial point of entry.

      • WiredA New Supply Chain Attack Hit Close to 100 Victims—and Clues Point to China [Ed: The problem is Microsoft, not China, but Microsoft-funded media shapes a phony narrative, wherein Microsoft is the victim]

        Every software supply chain attack, in which hackers corrupt a legitimate application to push out their malware to hundreds or potentially thousands of victims, represents a disturbing new outbreak of a cybersecurity scourge. But when that supply chain attack is pulled off by a mysterious group of hackers, abusing a Microsoft trusted software model to make their malware pose as legitimate, it represents a dangerous and potentially new adversary worth watching.

        Today, researchers on the Threat Hunter Team at Broadcom-owned security firm Symantec revealed that they’d detected a supply chain attack carried out by a hacker group that they’ve newly named CarderBee.

      • BloombergHealth Data Breach Lawsuits Surge as Cyberattacks Keep Climbing [Ed: Microsoft TCO]

        Companies handling health data are fending off more cyberattacks each year, and those that do get hacked are facing costly litigation at rapidly rising rates, a Bloomberg Law analysis found.

        The monthly average of new class actions filed over health data breaches so far this year is nearly double the rate from 2022, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of 557 complaints filed against companies in federal courts over the last five years.

      • InfoSecurity MagazineNew Chrome Feature Alerts Users About Malicious Extensions

        Google has announced an update set to be introduced in Chrome 117. This new feature aims to proactively inform users when an extension they have installed is no longer available on the Chrome Web Store. The move comes as part of the tech giant’s ongoing commitment to enhance security measures within its browser platform.

        The feature, called the “Safety Check,” is designed to address three specific scenarios. First, it will alert users if an extension has been unpublished by its developer. Second, it will notify users if an extension has been removed due to a violation of Chrome Web Store policies. Lastly, the Safety Check will come into play when an extension is flagged as potential malware.

      • University of Minnesota investigating potential data breach

        The University of Minnesota confirms that it has contacted law enforcement and is investigating a claimed data breach that officials became aware of just a month ago.

        U of M spokesman Jake Ricker released a statement to KARE 11 saying on July 21 school administrators became aware that an “unauthorized party” claimed to possess sensitive data reportedly taken from the institution’s computer systems. Ricker says an investigation was launched as soon as the claim was discovered, local law enforcement was contacted and state and federal regulators were also notified.

      • Krebs On SecurityTourists Give Themselves Away by Looking Up. So Do Most Network Intruders.

        In large metropolitan areas, tourists are often easy to spot because they’re far more inclined than locals to gaze upward at the surrounding skyscrapers. Security experts say this same tourist dynamic is a dead giveaway in virtually all computer intrusions that lead to devastating attacks like data theft and ransomware, and that more organizations should set simple virtual tripwires that sound the alarm when authorized users and devices are spotted exhibiting this behavior.

      • Gizmodo2023-08-15 [Older] Republican Congressman Says China Hacked His Emails Thanks to Microsoft Bug
      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • India TimesFacebook owner Meta asks Norway court to halt privacy fine

          Meta Platforms on Tuesday asked a court in Norway to stop a fine that the country's data regulator has imposed on the owner of Facebook and Instagram for breaching user privacy, in a case that could have wider European implications.

          Since Aug. 14, Meta Platforms has been fined 1 million crowns ($94,313) per day for harvesting user data and using it to target advertising at them, called behavioural advertising, a practice common to Big Tech.

        • Silicon AngleTo placate EU regulators, Meta will let European users turn off its recommendation algorithms

          Under the new rules, tech firms won’t be able to target kids with advertising. There are rules about targeting people on what’s deemed sensitive information: religion, race and the like. The EU will also have much more power to force tech companies to remove certain content, content that could be related to terrorism, but also hate speech and scams.

          If companies don’t comply, they stand to pay a fine of up to 6% of their global revenue, which for Meta could be a handsome $7 billion. If the company in question breaks the rule numerous times, it could be kicked out of the EU. The EU has said the days are over, or will be over, when Big Tech companies act like “they are too big to care.”

        • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)Non-Interaction With Google Search. Why Your Next Search Engine Should Be SearXNG. Bonus: Nabbing AAC Encoder From Winamp For foobar2000 in Wine.

          In the United States, the major tech companies all spy on their users and just hand the data over to the government. Sometimes a warrant is involved, but when it is, the Constitution is increasingly seen as little more than a formality, and the tech companies almost never fight being served and often hand over more data than the warrant even asks for.

          That’s why I’ve stopped using Google Search. DuckDuckGo tracks you too.

          (It’s hosted on Microsoft Azure, it queries Microsoft Bing, there’s tracking code in the improving duckduckgo script, and they encourage you to talk about your privacy with friends……..on Facebook! They even provide a link to Facebook.)

        • Bruce SchneierApplying AI to License Plate Surveillance

          License plate scanners aren’t new. Neither is using them for bulk surveillance. What’s new is that AI is being used on the data, identifying “suspicious” vehicle behavior: [...]

        • [Old] ForbesThis AI Watches Millions Of Cars Daily And Tells Cops If You’re Driving Like A Criminal

          The previously unreported case is a window into the evolution of AI-powered policing, and a harbinger of the constitutional issues that will inevitably accompany it. Typically, Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology is used to search for plates linked to specific crimes. But in this case it was used to examine the driving patterns of anyone passing one of Westchester County’s 480 cameras over a two-year period. Zayas’ lawyer Ben Gold contested the AI-gathered evidence against his client, decrying it as “dragnet surveillance.”

          And he had the data to back it up. A FOIA he filed with the Westchester police revealed that the ALPR system was scanning over 16 million license plates a week, across 480 ALPR cameras. Of those systems, 434 were stationary, attached to poles and signs, while the remaining 46 were mobile, attached to police vehicles. The AI was not just looking at license plates either. It had also been taking notes on vehicles' make, model and color — useful when a plate number for a suspect vehicle isn’t visible or is unknown.

        • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)Managing NoScript Whitelists and Some Tor Browser Observations.

          I noticed while I was playing with the Tor Browser last night, that the “Safer” setting, starts disabling some features that aren’t widely used while just browsing the Web. It leaves JavaScript on (but only for HTTPS sites), but it starts disabling some of the crappy features that you often don’t need.

          If you look at the monthly Mozilla security updates, a lot of them address High and Critical CVEs that WASM itself adds to the browser.

          That’s why I set javascript.options.wasm to False in all my browsers in about:config, so even sites I allow to run JavaScript can’t load WASM blobs on me.

          I just want to pay my phone bill, not risk having executables sent down the hatch.

        • EFFProposed UN Cybercrime Treaty Threatens to be an Expansive Global Surveillance Pact

          In the heart of New York City, a watershed moment for protecting users against unfettered government surveillance is unfolding at the sixth session of negotiations to formulate the UN Cybercrime Convention. Delegates from Member States have convened at UN Headquarters for talks this week and next that will shape the digital and fair trial rights of billions. EFF and our allies will be actively engaged throughout the talks, participating in lobbying efforts and delivering presentations.€ Despite repeated civil society objections, the zero draft of the Convention is looking less like a cybercrime treaty and more like an expansive global surveillance pact.

          Over the next 10 days, more than 145 representatives of Member States of the United Nations will invest 60 hours in deliberations, aiming for consensus on most provisions. Focused parallel meetings, coined “informals,” will tackle the most contentious issues. These meetings are often closed to civil society and other multi-stakeholders, sidestepping important input from human and digital rights defenders about crucial interpretations of the draft treaty text. The outcome of these discussions could potentially shape the most controversial treaty powers and definitions, underscoring the urgency for multi-stakeholder observation. It is critical that states allow external observers to participate in these informals over the next two weeks.

          The following articles in the zero draft, released in June, are the focus of our main concerns about Chapter V,€  which deals with cross border surveillance and the extent to which Member States must assist each other and collaborate in surveillance on each other's behalf. We will also deal with other articles (24 and 17) in the proposed treaty as they are relevant to the international cooperation on surveillance chapter.

      • Confidentiality

        • SANSHave You Ever Heard of the Fernet Encryption Algorithm, (Tue, Aug 22nd)

          In cryptography, there is a gold rule that states to not develop your own algorithm because... it will be probably weak and broken! They are strong algorithms (like AES) that do a great job so why reinvent the wheel? However, there are projects that try to develop new algorithms.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • MeduzaRussian journalists report ‘General Armageddon’ Surovikin fired as commander of Aerospace Forces

        General Sergey Surovikin has been relieved of his post as a Commander-in-chief of Russia’s Aerospace Forces, writes journalist Alexei Venediktov, the former head of radio station Echo of Moscow, citing an order from the Russian president.

        Venediktov adds that, according to the presidential order, Surovikin will remain employed by the Defense Ministry.

        The order has not been officially published.

      • RFERLProminent Journalist Says Russia's Surovikin Dismissed As Head Of Aerospace Forces

        A prominent Russian journalist says General Sergei Surovikin, former commander of Moscow's war effort in Ukraine, has been dismissed as head of the country's aerospace forces.

      • Society for Scholarly PublshingUniversal Access to Reliable Healthcare Information: An Interview with Neil Pakenham-Walsh of HIFA

        Getting reliable information about healthcare to everyone who needs it in a timely way is surely a goal we can all agree on. However, it’s still very far from being a reality. Around the world — especially, but by no means exclusively in the Global South — clinicians and healthcare workers, patients and carers, struggle to access accurate and up-to-date information. One small but mighty organization, Healthcare Information for All (HIFA), is trying to change this, by “convening all relevant stakeholders to address this complex challenge”. They’re now seeking to expand those stakeholders through a global consultation survey, open to all, being launched today to coincide with the IFLA conference in Amsterdam. Learn more, including how you can get involved, in this interview with their Global Coordinator, Neil Pakenham-Walsh, who will also be speaking at the conference.

    • Environment

      • Vice Media GroupBurning Man Has Fallen: Attendees Warned Not to Arrive Due to Flooding From Storms

        The first tropical storm to hit Southern California in nearly 100 years, Hilary, has already caused major flooding and is now moving on, spurring a state of emergency declaration in Nevada ahead of its impact. The effects of the storm are causing widespread hardship, including at Burning Man—an annual gathering in the desert for wealthy clientele that includes tech CEOs and celebrities who call themselves "Burners.”

      • France24Scientists blame climate change for record-breaking wildfires in Canada

        An in-depth scientific analysis published Tuesday now bears this out, finding fire seasons of this severity are at least seven times more likely to occur as a result of humanity burning fossil fuels.

        The study by the World Weather Attribution group also found that over the year, fire-prone conditions were 50 percent more intense as a result of global warming.

      • Spiegel"Nobody Wants to Hike Through a Dead Forest"

        Wildfires, flooding, algae blooms – many tourists in Europe and further afield experienced extreme conditions this summer. What might the future hold? Researchers have already begun studying what climate change might have in store for the tourism industry's future.

      • Michigan NewsThese West Michigan schools are changing schedules due to extreme heat

        Here is a list of schools in West Michigan that have announced a change in schedule this week due to the heat and humidity. Most schools in Kent and Ottawa counties are expected to welcome their students for the first day of school this week.

      • AxiosRecord-setting heat dome leaves 141 million people under extreme heat alerts

        Over a 141 million people in the U.S. were under heat alerts overnight as a dangerous heat dome lingered over a major swath of the Midwest, South and Southwest.

        The big picture: The heat dome is setting records for its intensity since at least 1950 and comes in a summer that's been notable for its historic high temperatures.

      • Energy/Transportation

        • Federal News NetworkEnvironmental groups sue to keep Virginia in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

          Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in Virginia to try to keep the state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the long-promised lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Monday. The initiative is an effort by mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to reduce power plants’ carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade system. The lawsuit argues that Virginia’s State Air Pollution Control Board and the Department of Environmental Quality lacked the authority to withdraw. The administration of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin disagrees. Youngkin has made leaving the compact a priority, citing its impact on the cost of electricity.

        • CS MonitorBiking the Erie Canal, I pedaled through history

          When I set out to ride my bicycle from Ontario to my home in Rhode Island, I knew very little about the Erie Canal.

          I didn’t know that it was considered an engineering feat when it was completed in 1825, or that it changed the economy of the region by allowing faster transportation of goods from Buffalo to New York City.

          What I do know is that I love to travel by bike. I love the pace that cycling allows. In a way, it’s not too different from the pace of the motorized boats that replaced the original barges, which were towed by mules.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Democracy NowIn Major Win for Indigenous Rights, Ecuador Votes to Ban Oil Drilling in Protected Amazon Lands

          Ecuadorian voters have overwhelmingly supported a ban on future oil extraction in a biodiverse section of the Amazon’s Yasuní National Park — a historic referendum result that will protect Indigenous Yasuní land from development. We speak with Helena Gualinga, a youth Kichwa Sarayaku environmental activist from Ecuador who has fought against oil drilling all her life and says the results of the vote not only set a “crucial precedent” as the first time a country has voted by democratic ballot initiative on resource extraction in the Amazon, but also demonstrates that “Ecuador is a country that is committed to protecting the Amazon rainforest and to protecting Indigenous peoples.”

      • Overpopulation

    • Finance

      • The Telegraph UK Government makes biggest payment to Bank of England in history to fund bond losses

        The Government transferred a record €£14.3bn to the Bank of England last month as increases in interest rates lumbered the Treasury with heavy losses from quantitative easing (QE).

        The Treasury delivered the single largest state transfer to the Bank on record in July to meet the shortfall from the monetary stimulus programme put in place after the global financial crisis.

        Losses on the Bank of England’s quantitative easing measures have cost the taxpayer almost €£30bn in the past 11 months, according to the Office for National Statistics.

        [...]

        The Bank of England’s own projections show the taxpayer will need to transfer about €£220bn to the Bank in the seven years to 2030 alone.

      • RFATo cope with surging inflation, Laos raises minimum wage by about 25%

        But many say the hike, which doesn’t apply to government workers, still isn’t enough.

      • The Business JournalsDell Technologies cuts sales jobs—and, once again, stays silent on local impact

        Dell Technologies Inc., one of the tech giants with a significant presence in Massachusetts, is eliminating jobs among its sales teams without offering any indication on the local impact of the cuts.

        The Round Rock, Texas–based laptop maker (NYSE: DELL), whose local workforce is composed of many former EMC Corp. workers, confirmed in a statement to the Business Journal Tuesday that "some members" of its sales staff will leave the company.

        "We’re always assessing our business to remain competitive and ensure we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners," the statement reads. "We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’ll support those impacted as they transition to their next opportunity."

      • TediumSorry State

        SSD prices are insanely low right now—but manufacturers focused on bottom line have built computers designed to prevent consumers from leveraging this trend.

      • Crypto firm CoinDCX sacks 12% workforce

        Domestic crypto unicorn CoinDCX has fired 12% of its workforce or 71 employees amidst global tech layoffs. The company has cited "dwindling macroeconomic conditions coupled with higher TDS (tax deducted at source) on domestic exchanges" as the reasons behind this decision.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • FuturismProfessor Suggests Replacing Elections in US With Lottery System

        "In the United States, we already use a version of a lottery to select jurors," Adam Grant wrote in The New York Times. "What if we did the same with mayors, governors, legislators, justices and even presidents?"

        Grant makes a persuasive case for picking our leaders randomly from a pool of candidates by pointing to research by Alexander Haslam, another psychologist, who's run experiments that show that better decisions are made when the group leader is chosen by lottery essentially versus if the group leader is chosen for their leadership skills or if elected by their peers

      • New York TimesThe Worst People Run for Office. It’s Time for a Better Way.

        If you think that sounds anti-democratic, think again. The ancient Greeks invented democracy, and in Athens many government officials were selected through sortition — a random lottery from a pool of candidates. In the United States, we already use a version of a lottery to select jurors. What if we did the same with mayors, governors, legislators, justices and even presidents?

        People expect leaders chosen at random to be less effective than those picked systematically. But in multiple experiments led by the psychologist Alexander Haslam, the opposite held true. Groups actually made smarter decisions when leaders were chosen at random than when they were elected by a group or chosen based on leadership skill.

      • The Register UKIt's official! Arm files for IPO on Nasdaq

        While the British chip designer has has filed to become a public traded company once again, it will likely remain under majority control of Japanese parent SoftBank.

        In a statement today, Arm did not reveal the number of shares it will list nor the price it expects them to go on sale at. References to these figures were left blank in the official filing.

      • Tom's HardwareArm Files for IPO on Nasdaq, Expects to Ship One Trillion Chips

        Given the ubiquitous nature of Arm technology, Arm Holdings's valuation is estimated to fall between $60 and $70 billion. Though initial ambitions aimed to raise up to $10 billion, SoftBank's choice to retain a larger portion of Arm might adjust this figure. Arm Holdings is currently owned by SoftBank, a Japanese investment conglomerate, which intends to capitalize on Arm's strengths in traditional markets as well as in the expanding AI computing sector.

      • Arm LimitedArm Announces Public Filing of Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering

        Arm Holdings Limited (“Arm”) today announced that it has publicly filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) relating to the proposed initial public offering of American depositary shares (“ADS”) representing its ordinary shares. Arm has applied to list the ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ARM”. The number of ADSs to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have yet to be determined.

      • Craig MurrayAlba Must Fight Rutherglen

        This is one of those unusual occasions, where a little while ago I intended to write a post advocating the precise opposite, but events have changed my mind.

      • ADFNiger Coup Underscores Dangers of Presidential Guards

        In little more than two years, Niger has exemplified the power of presidential security forces — and what can happen when that power is unchecked. In March 2021, Niger’s presidential guard quelled an attempted coup by elements of the military two days before the inauguration of President-elect Mohamed Bazoum.

      • teleSURSudan Foreign Affairs: RSF Is a Terrorist Group

        The Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “the duty of the international community is to classify the rebel militia as a terrorist group, and to provide the necessary support to the Sudanese government, which is playing its role in confronting this militia to protect its national, regional and international security.”

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • TwinCities Pioneer PressPrime Minister Justin Trudeau slams Facebook for blocking Canada wildfire news

          Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, blocks news content from Canada on its platforms because of a new law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.

        • Atlantic CouncilPutin weaponizes history with new textbook justifying Ukraine invasion

          Russian society has never undertaken an introspection of Czarist colonialism or Soviet crimes against humanity because the post-Soviet Russian Federation did not evolve into a genuinely post-imperial nation state. Instead, during Vladimir Putin’s nearly quarter of a century in power, a new generation of Russians have actively embraced the country’s imperial identity. This unreconstructed imperialism led directly to the current full-scale invasion of Ukraine and will remain a major threat to international security until it is acknowledged and addressed.

          The recent publication of a new history textbook for Russian schoolchildren highlights the continued dominance of unapologetically imperialistic thinking within the Russian establishment. “This isn’t a historical textbook, but a narrative of excuses for Russian and Soviet crimes, as well as an exhortation to young readers to accept these crimes, past and present, as their own,” commented Jade McGlynn, the British author of a new study of Russian memory politics.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • AxiosChances of costly autoworker strike extra high amid Biden's EV push

        A potential strike by U.S. auto workers in September would be a high-stakes problem for President Biden, who's trying to balance his push for electric vehicles with his self-description as "the most pro-union president ever."

      • GannettUniversity of Michigan, Graduate Employees' Organization reach tentative agreement

        "This campaign has been all about trying to get a University of Michigan for everyone, where anyone could come here and thrive as a grad student, no matter their social identity or economic class," said Fleischmann. "This contract doesn't get us all the way there, but it gets us much closer."

      • EFFEFF Benefit Poker Tournament at DEF CON 31

        Fifty-one EFF supporters and friends played in the charity tournament on Friday, August 11 in the Horseshoe Poker Room at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.

        Before the tournament, Tarah and her father, professional poker player Mike Wheeler, hosted a poker clinic to teach basic strategy to those new to the game. Rookie players learned how to raise preflop, not go all-in on a draw, and many more tips that helped them throughout the tournament.

        Emcee Ohm-I kicked off this year’s tournament. The Seattle hacker and hip hop artist thanked everyone for coming, shared his experience playing poker on the N64, and announced that it was time to “Shuffle up and deal!"

      • India TimesUS hits China on 'forced assimilation' of Tibetan children

        "These coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet's distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans," Blinken said in a statement.

        "We urge PRC authorities to end the coercion of Tibetan children into government-run boarding schools and to cease repressive assimilation policies, both in Tibet and throughout other parts of the PRC," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China.

      • AlerNetAmazon accused of unlawfully calling cops on workers during assault on union effort - Alternet.org

        A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board submitted a filing on Monday accusing Amazon of illegally calling the police on workers and other unlawful union-busting tactics during its effort to crush an organizing campaign at a warehouse near Albany, New York.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • APNICStriking a balance in fairness

        Guest Post: Exploring fairness in buffer allocation and packet scheduling.

      • APNICThe Global Digital Compact: A top-down attempt to minimize the role of the technical community

        Raising the technical community’s concerns about the UN Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology’s recent comments.

      • The Register UKICANN warns UN may sideline tech community from future internet governance

        But ICANN, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), and the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) worry that recent articulations of the Compact suggest it should use a tripartite model for digital cooperation with three stakeholder groups: the private sector, governments, and civil society.

        That's dangerous, ICANN and co argue, because technical stakeholders would lose their distinct voice.

      • ICANNThe Global Digital Compact: A Top-down Attempt to Minimize the Role of The Technical Community

        The WSIS and the follow-up WSIS+10 clearly affirmed the globally accepted multistakeholder model of Internet governance and determined the best way for further deployment and development of the Internet. While we are not in the position to directly influence internal UN Secretariat processes, we would like to raise awareness about the direction the GDC process is taking, and the risks involved in excluding the Internet technical community from its processes and discussions.

        Finally, we must emphasize the success of the Internet today, and over the 20 years since the start of the WSIS process. When WSIS concluded in 2005 there were one billion Internet users around the globe. Today, there are more than five billion users, yet the Internet continues to evolve and adapt to the needs of humanity, most recently in our response to the unprecedent challenge of the COVID pandemic. This success must be recognized as an important testament not only to the Internet as a technological platform, but also to the prevailing multistakeholder model by which it has been governed.

      • Cory DoctorowEnshitternet: The old, good internet deserves a new, good internet

        I’m an official Old Person (I turned 52 last month). According to the AARP, that means that I am now officially entitled to complain that back in my day, things used to be better.

    • Monopolies

      • The Register UKMicrosoft wants Activision so badly, it's handing streaming rights over to ... Ubisoft?

        Microsoft so desperately wants its $68.7 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard to happen that it's willing to divest cloud streaming rights for the publisher's games to France's Ubisoft.

        The largest acquisition in tech history first surfaced in January 2022, but regulators were quick to tap the brakes over concerns that Microsoft, with its already well-developed credentials in cloud gaming, would have the market cornered if the deal went ahead as presented.

      • Tom's HardwareMicrosoft's Revised Acquisition Plan Could See Activision Cloud Gaming Go to Ubisoft

        Microsoft is still working to receive the required regulatory approvals for its planned Activision-Blizzard acquisition. Despite the fact that other regulators have already approved of Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion deal, the United Kingdom's CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) has definitively rejected that proposal. In a bid to save its buyout attempt, however, Microsoft has submitted a revised acquisition plan to the CMA. According to the CMA, this new plan is "substantially different" from the one that came before it - in that now, Microsoft is willing to do away with cloud streaming exclusivity of Activision-Blizzard franchises by offloading the rights to competitor Ubisoft.



Recent Techrights' Posts

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Microsoft isn't on the agenda in Iraq
Video: The Rise of GNU/Linux and Free Software as Seen by RMS in 2004
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When (Almost) One-Man Operations Are Disguised as Medium-Sized Companies
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For the second time in a week, Microsofters are unable to obey orders
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
 
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Operating Systems' Statistics in New Zealand: GNU/Linux Up, Windows Down to All-Time Lows
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Microsoft already announcing some plans to shut down Vista 11
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
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Microsoft's debt has reached an all-time high
The Register US = The Register MS
Formerly The Register UK
Weeks After Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan Windows Falls to All-Time Lows
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GNU/Linux Rises to All-Time Highs in Europe
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Links for the day
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Upcoming OSI Scandal Series
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IRC logs for Friday, August 01, 2025
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
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How much lower will IDG sink?
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It'll probably cause Google to get sued a lot, both by individuals and companies
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Being Obedient or Doing the Right Thing
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Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 31, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 31, 2025
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
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Links for the day
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 30, 2025