Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Standards/Consortia

  • Andy Wingo: colophonwards

    A brief meta-note this morning: for the first time in 20 years, I finally got around to updating the web design of wingolog.org recently and wanted to share a bit about that.

    Back when I made the initial wingolog design, I was using the then-brand-new Wordpress, Internet Explorer 6 was the most common web browser, CSS wasn’t very good, the Safari browser had just made its first release, smartphones were yet to be invented, and everyone used low-resolution CRT screens. The original design did use CSS instead of tables, thankfully, but it was very narrow and left a lot up to the user agent (notably font choice and size).

    These days you can do much better. Even HTML has moved on, with <article> <aside> <section> elements). CSS is powerful and interoperable, with grid layout and media queries and :has() and :is() and all kinds of fun selectors. And, we have web fonts.

    I probably would have stuck with the old design if it were readable, but with pixel counts growing, the saturated red bands on the sides flooded the screen, leaving the reader feeling like they were driving into headlights in the rain.

    Anyway, the new design is a bit more peaceful, I hope. Feedback welcome.

    I’m using grid layout, but not in the way that I thought I would. From reading the documentation, I had the impression that the element with display: grid would be a kind of flexible corkboard which could be filled up by any child element. However, that’s not quite true: it only works for direct children, which means your HTML does have to match the needs of the grid. Grandchildren can take their rows and columns from grandparents via subgrid, but only really display inside themselves: you can’t pop a grandkid out to a grandparent grid area. (Or maybe you can! It’s a powerful facility and I don’t claim to fully understand it.)

    Also, as far as I can tell there is no provision to fill up one grid area with multiple children. Whereas I thought that on the root page, each blog entry would end up in its own grid area, that’s just not the case: you put the <main> (another new element!) in a grid area and let it lay out itself.

Leftovers

• Kev Quirk ☛ PenPals

  Brandon talks about a number of connections he’s made over the years from having PenPals.

• Hindustan Times ☛ Wikipedia’s most popular articles of 2023: From ‘Pathan’, IPL to Oppenheimer; know who's the winner

  According to data released by the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, English Wikipedia received over 84 billion views this year alone and the top five articles of the year were ChatGPT with 49,490,406 pageviews, followed in second place by Deaths in 2023 (42,666,860), the 2023 Cricket World Cup in third place (38,171,653), the Indian Premier League on the fourth spot (32,012,810) and the film Oppenheimer (28,348,248).

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Does Science Really Show Free Will Doesn't Exist? Here's What You Need to Know.

    Free will isn’t a scientific question.

  • Science Alert ☛ Radical New Theory Could Finally Unite The Two Biggest Frameworks in Physics

    What if space-time was actually classical?

  • Science Alert ☛ China's Lander Detects Giant Polygonal Structures Buried Beneath Mars

• Education

  • YLE ☛ PISA 2022: Performance in Finland collapses, but remains above average

    The results of the Program for International Student Assessment show that performance fell both in Finland and in nearly all other OECD countries.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Washington School for Kids With Disabilities Closes Amid Scrutiny

    Northwest School of Innovative Learning, until recently Washington's largest publicly funded private school for children with disabilities, announced plans to close amid a state investigation and a ban on accepting new students.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvian pupils do well in math and sciences: OECD study

    The competence of Latvian fifteen-year-olds in mathematics and natural sciences is higher than the average level of OECD countries, but in reading – close to the average level, according to the first results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022, released on Tuesday, December 5.

  • France24 ☛ OECD education survey shows 'unprecedented' drop in student performance

    Asian countries dominated the top spots in a keenly watched survey of education capabilities published Tuesday, while levels in Europe slipped at a record pace – and not just because of Covid.

  • Reason ☛ Global Math and Reading Assessment Indicates Widespread Post-Pandemic Learning Loss

    While U.S. math scores declined on the Program for International Student Assessment test, reading scores remained stable, bucking a global trend.

  • New York Times ☛ Nearly Everyone Gets A’s at Yale. Does That Cheapen the Grade?

    A report found that close to 80 percent of grades were in the A range last academic year. A pandemic-era bump has stuck.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ nRF7002 Expansion Board adds WiFi 6 to Nordic Thingy:53 devkit

    Nordic Semi keeps adding more nRF7002 WiFi 6 boards with the launch of the nRF7002 Expansion Board adding WiFi 6 connectivity to the Thingy:53 IoT prototyping platform and transforming it into an all-in-one wireless devkit with Matter, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, and WiFi 6 support. The new “nRF7002 EB” board follows the nRF7002 DK development kit combining the nRF7002 WiFi 6 with nRF5340 multiprotocol wireless SoCs, and the nRF7002 EK evaluation kit in Arduino UNO shield form factor adding WiFi 6 to existing Nordic development kits.

  • CNX Software ☛ MeLE Quieter4C ultrathin fanless defective chip maker Intel N100 mini PC supports up to three displays

    MeLE has just launched a new model from its Quieter family with the Quieter4C ultrathin fanless mini PC powered by an defective chip maker Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor, 8GB to 16GB LPDDR4, and 128GB to 512GB eMMC+SSD storage, and supporting up to three independent 4K displays.

  • Hackaday ☛ Stereoscopic Macro Lens Shows Two Is Better Than One

    You’d be forgiven if you thought [Nicholas Sherlock’s] new lens design was a macro lens that was 3D printed. In fact, it is, but it is also a macro lens that takes 3D images using two different cameras. If you have a pair of Sony E/FEs, you can 3D print your own copy today. If you don’t, you might have to adjust the design or wait for future releases. In any event, you are sure to enjoy the example photos, and there’s a video review of the device you can watch below.

  • Hackaday ☛ A Single Board Computer, With Vacuum Tubes

    We have occasionally featured vacuum tube computers here at Hackaday and we’ve brought you many single board computers, but until now it’s probable we haven’t brought you a machine that combined both of these things. Now thanks to [Usagi Electric] we can see just such a board, in the form of his UE-0.1, a roughly 260 by 210 mm PCB with 24 6AU6 pentodes on board that implements a simple one-bit CPU.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Retirement Without a Net: The Plight of America’s Aging Farmworkers

    Immigrants who worked decades on U.S. farms are reaching retirement age in a country that offers them neither Medicare nor Social Security.

  • Neritam ☛ US maternal death rate rose sharply in 2021

    That means the US maternal death rate for 2021 – the year for which the most recent data is available – was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with rates of 20.1 in

  • RFERL ☛ Romania Declares Measles Epidemic Amid Rapid Increase In Cases

    Romania's Health Ministry has declared a measles epidemic at national level amid an alarming increase in cases throughout of the country.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Koreans aged 20 to 34 to get mental health check-ups every 2 years

    The aim is to bring the country's suicide rate back to OECD average.

  • New York Times ☛ Boris Johnson Apologizes at U.K. Covid Inquiry for ‘Pain and Suffering’

    The former prime minister, whose tenure was dominated and derailed by the pandemic, is expected to admit some mistakes but also point out his successes.

  • France24 ☛ Watch live: Former British PM Boris Johnson faces high-stakes grilling at Covid inquiry

    Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who led Britain through the coronavirus pandemic before being ousted by scandal, is set to defend his record on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the country’s handling of COVID-19.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Hearst makes Claire Sanderson editor of Women’s Health UK and Men’s Health UK

    Claire Sanderson has led Women's Health UK since 2017.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • San Fancisco ☛ Yahoo, Twilio cut hundreds of workers in latest wave of Bay Area tech layoffs

    Over the weekend, employees from Yahoo Sports took to social media to announce their exits from the Sunnyvale-based company. Among the prominent departures were senior editor Sam Cooper; Kevin Iole, a journalist specializing in mixed martial arts and boxing; MLB reporter Zach Crizer; Canadian sportswriter Arun Srinivasan; and senior MLB reporter Hannah Keyser

  • Reason ☛ What Is "Human Intelligence," in Proposed Initiative Ballot Title, as Opposed to "Computer or Artificial Intelligence"?

    An interesting opinion by the Arkansas AG's office, rejecting a proposed popular name and ballot title for a draft initiative.

  • The Register UK ☛ Boffins devise 'universal backdoor' for image models to cause AI hallucinations

    Previous backdoor attacks on image classification systems have tended to target specific classes of data – to make the AI model classify a stop sign as a pole, for example, or a dog as a cat. The team has found a way to generate triggers for their backdoor across any class in the data set.

  • New York Times ☛ How Nations Are Losing a Global Race to Tackle A.I.’s Harms

    Lawmakers and regulators in Brussels, in Washington and elsewhere are losing a battle to regulate A.I. and are racing to catch up, as concerns grow that the powerful technology will automate away jobs, turbocharge the spread of disinformation and eventually develop its own kind of intelligence. Nations have moved swiftly to tackle A.I.’s potential perils, but European officials have been caught off guard by the technology’s evolution, while U.S. lawmakers openly concede that they barely understand how it works.

  • Gizmodo ☛ Microsoft Will Eventually Start Charging You for Windows 10 Security Updates

    That date is two years in the future, but Microsoft explained more of its plans in a Tuesday blog post. The current version, 22H2, will be the last of its kind for Windows 10, though it will still get monthly security updates all the way through the OS’ planned death date.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia’s Central Bank to ban use of Apple products at work — Meduza

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Techdirt ☛ Documents Show A Bunch Of Canadian Government Agencies Have Access To Phone-Hacking Tools

      Looks like everybody who’s anybody has got a set of hacking tools in Canada. Well, at least in terms of the federal government. Documents obtained by the CBC shed some light on the prevalence of phone-cracking tech within the government. And what that light shows isn’t all that flattering.

    • Techdirt ☛ Activists Call On FTC To Craft Tougher ‘Right To Repair’ Rules, Repairability Scoring System

      On one hand, the Lina Khan FTC has been the toughest agency in history when it comes to “right to repair” reform — or efforts to let you affordably repair your own tech. On the other hand, given past regulatory actions have been minimal, that’s not historically saying much.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ AI and Mass Spying

      Spying is another matter. It has long been possible to tap someone’s phone or put a bug in their home and/or car, but those things still require someone to listen to and make sense of the conversations. Yes, spyware companies like NSO Group help the government hack into people’s phones, but someone still has to sort through all the conversations. And governments like China could censor social media posts based on particular words or phrases, but that was coarse and easy to bypass. Spying is limited by the need for human labor.

      AI is about to change that. Summarization is something a modern generative AI system does well. Give it an hourlong meeting, and it will return a one-page summary of what was said. Ask it to search through millions of conversations and organize them by topic, and it’ll do that. Want to know who is talking about what? It’ll tell you.

    • India Times ☛ AI could judge if user is of porn-watching age under new UK guidance

      "Regardless of their approach, we expect all services to offer robust protection to children from stumbling across pornography, and also to take care that privacy rights and freedoms for adults to access legal content are safeguarded," media regulator Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes said.

      The regulator described its suggestion on facial age estimation as using AI to analyse a viewer's features. That would likely require taking a selfie on a device and uploading it.

      The watchdog said its proposed guidance also included photo identification matching, requiring a user to upload a photo ID such as passport or driving licence to prove their age, and credit chard checks.

    • WhichUK ☛ Why you shouldn't use a security camera as a baby monitor

      Find out why a security camera is a poor substitute for a baby monitor, plus the essential things to know for keeping an eye on your sleeping baby

    • The Register UK ☛ Spanish media sues Meta for ignoring GDPR and harvesting data

      A group representing some of Spain's largest media outlets have sued Meta, demanding €550 million ($596 million) in recompense for Zuckercorp's "systemic and massive" disregard for EU privacy regulations that have left them at risk of collapse.

      The lawsuit, filed by the Information Media Association (AMI) on behalf of 83 Spanish outlets – including industry leaders El Mundo, El País and others – accuses Meta of violating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) since it came into effect in 2018 until mid-2023, when Meta finally bowed to regulator pressure and promised it would begin explicitly asking for EU users' permission when seeking to collect data for advertising purposes.

    • EDRI ☛ EDRi-gram, 6 December 2023

      In this edition, we reflect on how our movement of human rights organisations and supporters influenced the European Parliament to reject the mass scanning of private messages in the CSA Regulation.

      And as we approach the final negotiations on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, we are raising the voices of 16 organisations, calling on the Council to effectively regulate the use of Hey Hi (AI) systems by law enforcement, migration control, and national security authorities in the law.

• Defence/Aggression

  • CS Monitor ☛ Trump claims immunity in Jan. 6 lawsuits. Federal court disagrees.

    While a federal appeals court dismissed Donald Trump’s claims that presidential immunity shields him from liability in capital riot-related lawsuits, it says Mr. Trump can still try to prove that his actions were taken in his official capacity as president.

  • Reason ☛ Wyoming Cop Assaulted a Disabled 8-Year-Old, Then Deleted the Body Camera Footage, Lawsuit Claims

    A new lawsuit alleges that Deputy Benjamin Jacquot, a school resource officer, slammed an 8-year-old's face into a conference room floor, causing bruises and lacerations.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Papua New Guinea to recruit Australia police in security deal: Minister

    Papua New Guinea will recruit Australian police officers for key positions in its national police force under a wide-ranging security deal to be signed this week that also covers defence and biosecurity, Papua New Guinea's minister of state said.

  • Pro Publica ☛ New Uvalde Investigation Reveal Details Into Law Enforcement’s Flawed Response

    The May 2022 gun massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead. It was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Why We’re Publishing Never-Reported Details of the Uvalde School Shooting

    When mass shootings devastate communities, investigators often set out to learn what happened by interviewing a wide array of people. What’s made public, if anything, rarely details the intimate, candid and emotional responses of the survivors and the first responders.

  • Pro Publica ☛ “Someone Tell Me What to Do”

    The children hid. They dropped to the floor, crouching under desks and countertops, far from the windows. They lined up against the walls, avoiding the elementary school doors that separated them from a mass shooter about a decade older than them. Some held up the blunted scissors that they often used to cut shapes as they prepared to fight. A few grabbed bloodied phones and dialed 911. And as students across the country have been instructed for years, they remained quiet, impossibly quiet. At times, they hushed classmates who screamed in agony from the bullets that tore through their small bodies.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ UK seeks to revive migrant transfer deal with Rwanda

    The original agreement had envisaged sending to Rwanda anyone who makes "dangerous or illegal journeys" to Britain on small boats from Europe or hidden in lorries.

  • LRT ☛ Can damaged cables lead to war? NATO’s preparations to defend critical infrastructure

    While the Baltic countries and NATO have been working to defend themselves against cyber attacks, incidents in the Baltic Sea have revealed how vulnerable critical infrastructure is to conventional kinetic damage. While Lithuania, like all NATO members, is stepping up efforts to protect its facilities, experts stress that there is simply too much infrastructure to guard it all.

  • ADF ☛ Somali President Mohamud Aims to Eradicate Al-Shabaab Within a Year

    The al-Qaida-linked terrorist group has been launching attacks in Somalia since 2006, during which it has caused the deaths of thousands and displaced millions.

  • Meduza ☛ Finnish authorities launch investigation into companies suspected of supplying drones to Russia

    According to the Finnish customs agency’s press service, the companies have carried out at least 30 shipments of sanctions equipment to Russia, including microcontrollers and semiconductor components worth more than 600,000 euros ($649,000), anti-drone systems worth 350,000 euros ($378,500), and approximately 3,500 drones valued at over two million euros ($2.16 million)

  • ADF ☛ Somali President Mohamud Aims to Eradicate Al-Shabaab Within a Year

    ADF STAFF Somalia has one year to eradicate al-Shabaab from the country and end 17 years of war, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced in late November. The al-Qaida-linked terrorist group has been launching attacks in Somalia since 2006, during which it has caused the deaths of thousands and displaced millions.

  • ADF ☛ After Decades of War, Angola Is an Exporter of Peace

    ADF STAFF Angola has spent most of its time as an independent nation at war. It knows the cost of conflict and the dividends of peace.

  • YLE ☛ Some MPs want to prohibit dual Finnish-Russian citizenship

    Thirty-four lawmakers say they would block dual Finnish-Russian citizenship.

  • New York Times ☛ What Our Columnists Would Ask at the Debate

    They propose questions designed to test the candidates on guns and crime, foreign wars and health care.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea hackers may have stolen data on laser weapon: South Korean police

    
    

    South Korean police are investigating whether a North Korean hacker group, accused of stealing data from 14 entities, obtained information on defence technology including an anti-aircraft laser, a Seoul city police official said on Wednesday.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong student shot during 2019 protest featured as remorseful in police-promoted TV special

    A Hong Kong protester shot by police in 2019 has been featured in a police-promoted television special showing remorse over his frontline participation in the unrest that year, saying he took part because “everyone else was doing the same.”

  • The Straits Times ☛ Teacher in China executed for raping, molesting students

    The court said the case was severe and violated the bottom line of the law and morality.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China says its fighters shadowed US Navy patrol plane over Taiwan Strait

    The US described the mission as a demonstration of its commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's Wang stresses promoting stable, healthy Sino-US relations with Blinken

    China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that promoting healthy, stable and sustainable China-U.S. relations is an important task, in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

  • RFA ☛ China seeks a more ‘inclusive’ Taliban

    Beijing last week became the first country to accept an ambassador from Afghanistan’s new government.

  • RFA ☛ US signals plan for intermediate-range missiles in the North Pacific

    Some Pacific island nations are concerned U.S.-China rivalry will militarize their region.

  • RFERL ☛ Rape, Sexual Abuse Used Against Iranian Protesters, Says Amnesty International

    Iranian security forces have used rape and other types of sexual abuse to intimidate protesters during the crackdown on nationwide protests that started in September last year under the banner of "Women, Life, Freedom," Amnesty International said in a report published on December 6.

  • RFA ☛ Papua New Guinea, Australia to sign security agreement this week

    The pact will allow for Australian police to work closely with Papua New Guinea’s police.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Sec. of State Antony Blinken discuss need to de-escalate Israel-Hamas war

    The top diplomats from China and the United States discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict in a call on Wednesday, Beijing and Washington said, agreeing on the need to de-escalate the war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “reiterated the imperative of all parties working to prevent the conflict from spreading”, according to the US State Department.

  • New York Times ☛ Wednesday Briefing: Israel Entered Southern Gaza’s Largest City

    Plus, Moody’s lowered China’s credit rating outlook.

  • RFA ☛ Ratings agency cuts China’s credit outlook

    Moody’s says high local government debt poses challenges to the country’s economic growth.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Make Moscow cool again Meet the creators of the new ‘post-sanctions’ magazine for the Russian elite — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ WATCH: Riga Security Forum discussion: 'EU’s Global Outlook and Southern Neighborhood'

      The sixth in a season of geopolitical discussions under the 'Rīga Security Forum' banner was published online December 5.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia's military intelligence chief handed another five-year term in office

      The mandate of Indulis Krēķis, the head of the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIDD), who has been in office since 2002, will be extended for another five years, the government decided on Tuesday.

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine reportedly launches drone attack on oil depot in annexed Crimea — Meduza

    • Atlantic Council ☛ 2023 review: Ukraine scores key victories in the Battle of the Black Sea

      The front lines of the Russian invasion in Ukraine have barely moved in 2023, but Ukraine has had far more success in the Black Sea, where it has broken Russia's blockade and forced Putin's fleet to retreat from Crimea, writes Oleksiy Goncharenko.

    • Reason ☛ Brickbat: Big Neighbor Is Watching

      Russian police claim they are being overwhelmed by the number of people snitching on each other, according to the BBC. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the government enacted new laws to punish those who criticize the war, and Russians have been eager to denounce those they feel violate those laws.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky unexpectedly cancels US Senate briefing amid Ukraine war funding row

      Several Republican senators walked out of a classified briefing on Ukraine Tuesday as it descended into a row over the border crisis, after President Volodymyr Zelensky unexpectedly canceled a videolink appearance to appeal for continued US funding.

    • LRT ☛ Baltic ambassadors in Warsaw express concern over Ukraine border blockade

      Baltic ambassadors in Warsaw have expressed their displeasure to the Polish authorities about the blockade of truck traffic on the Ukrainian border, the Estonian public broadcaster ERR has reported.

    • RFERL ☛ Two Russian Officers Sentenced To Four Years Each For 'Failing To Repulse A Ukrainian Attack'

      A Moscow military court has sentenced two Russian officers -- Colonel Anatoly Bondarev and Major Dmitry Dmitrakov -- to four years in a penal colony for "failing to repulse a surprise attack" by Ukrainian forces on Russian territory.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Air Defense Says Repels Large Russian Drone Attack

      Ukrainian air defense shot down 41 out of 48 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched at targets in Ukraine early on December 6, the Air Force said.

    • RFERL ☛ Tsikhanouskaya Calls On U.S. To Support Belarusian Opposition, Tighten Sanctions On Lukashenka

      Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has called on U.S. lawmakers to materially support the Belarusian democracy movement abroad, tighten sanctions on authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and approve aid to Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Targets Belarusian Red Cross Official, Regime's 'Revenue Generators' With Sanctions

      The United States on December 5 imposed fresh sanctions targeting several entities and individuals that the U.S. Treasury Department says are revenue generators for the regime of Belarusian authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

    • RFERL ☛ Kazakh Court Liquidates Charity Foundation Providing Assistance To Victims Of Russian Aggression In Ukraine

      The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR) said on December 5 that a court in the western city of Atyrau had ruled to shut down the local Glory to Ukraine charity that provided humanitarian and financial assistance to victims of Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Returns Six Ukrainian Children Taken From Ukraine's Occupied Territories

      Russia has returned six Ukrainian children taken from Ukraine's territories occupied by Russia, officials of Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova told the RBK news agency on December 5.

    • RFERL ☛ Six Nepalese Nationals Killed In Ukraine While Serving In Russian Armed Forces

      The government of Nepal said late on December 4 that six Nepalese nationals had been killed in Ukraine while serving with the occupying Russian forces.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Parliament To Declare Sea Of Azov As Internal Waters

      Russian lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet told the RIA Novosti news agency on December 5 that the parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, was set to approve a bill on the recognition of the Sea of Azov as an internal Russian body of water by the end of 2023.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Ukraine’s Zelensky to join G-7 leaders video summit on Dec 6

      Besides Ukraine, the talks will cover the Middle East, support for developing countries and AI.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Aid Falters in Senate as Republicans Insist on Border Restrictions

      Legislation to send military aid to Ukraine and Israel was on the brink of collapse, after a briefing devolved into a screaming match one day before a critical test vote in the Senate.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Opens War Crimes Inquiry Into Soldiers’ Deaths

      A video circulated on social control media but not independently verified purports to show Russian forces shooting troops who appeared to be surrendering.

    • Meduza ☛ Two Russian officers given four years in prison for failing to repel surprise Ukrainian attack on Russian soil — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia to suggest grain import bans from Russia to EU

      Latvia will encourage the European Union (EU) to ban imports of grain from Russia, the government agreed on December 6.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Russian [computer]-generated propaganda struggles to find an audience

      A long-running Kremlin propaganda campaign is experimenting with Hey Hi (AI) to create phony news sites but isn’t reaching a significant audience.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong firm among 9 hit by US sanctions over allegedly procuring electronics for Russian weapons

      The US has imposed fresh sanctions on nine companies and five individuals over allegedly assisting Russia in procuring electronic devices for weapons programmes, including one Hong Kong-based company, M & S Trading.

    • LRT ☛ Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s children are Lithuanian citizens – investigation

      Two children of the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich have acquired, and possibly still hold, Lithuanian citizenship, reports the Siena Centre for Investigative Journalism, which has contributed to an international investigation.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Prankster Posing As African Union Leader Reaches German Vice Chancellor On Phone

      A Russian prankster managed to get through to German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck on a recorded phone call, Germany’s Economy Ministry confirmed to dpa on December 5.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Says Russia Rejected 'Substantial' Proposal To Free Two Americans

      The United States says Russia rejected a new proposal to free two detained Americans, Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Defense Procurement Network Added To U.S. Sanctions Designations

      The United States on December 5 imposed fresh sanctions targeting a defense procurement network that the U.S. Treasury Department said is led by a Belgium-based businessman and involves numerous Cyprus-based companies as well as businesses in Sweden, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands.

    • RFERL ☛ Bosnian Arrested After Warrants Issued For Suspects In Russian's Escape From Italy

      Italian prosecutors have identified six suspects who allegedly aided the escape of the son of a Russian politician wanted by the United States on charges of smuggling Western technologies in violation of sanctions and money laundering.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia's LUKoil Mulls Sale Of Operations In Bulgaria

      LUKoil, Russia's largest private oil company, says it is reviewing its business strategy in Bulgaria and is not ruling out selling its entire operation in the Balkan EU and NATO member.

    • Meduza ☛ Why have hundreds of refugees decided to try entering the E.U. through Russia? A Syrian asylum seeker shares his story — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Relatives say Russian draftees being ‘deliberately exterminated’ in push to capture Avdiivka before Putin’s annual Q&A show — Meduza

    • The Straits Times ☛ Putin to talk oil in UAE and Saudi, to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

      Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and will hold talks with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a rare trip abroad to discuss oil, OPEC+ and the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Putin travels to the Gulf to discuss oil, Gaza and Ukraine

      Russian President Vladimir Putin began a one-day trip to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss cooperation within the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers as well as wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ The Biden administration finally has a Black Sea security strategy. It’s what comes next that matters.

      The Biden administration’s strategy on Black Sea security is coming into focus. It will take time and strong partnerships to execute.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Tesla whistleblower says Autopilot not ready, contradicting Elon Musk’s ‘best’ AI remark

    Lukasz Krupski, a former service technician for the company, says he was fired from his job in Oslo, Norway, when he questioned the safety of Tesla’s autopilot driver-assistance software. He has since handed more than 100 gigabytes of data to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, a leak that has become known as the “Tesla Files.”

• Environment

  • The Nation ☛ Big Oil Runs the Climate Change Conference

  • Atlantic Council ☛ How green banking can unlock climate solutions in Africa

    In order to succeed in its transition to a green and inclusive economy, Africa must ramp up its green banking ecosystems and mobilize resources needed to finance climate mitigation and adaptation while also addressing deforestation, pollution and biodiversity loss.

  • The Strategist ☛ Human security needs to be prioritised in the Pacific’s climate response

    Great power rivalry and climate-induced migration are frequently discussed in discourse about the effects of climate change in the Pacific, but we must not forget the implications for human security.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ China issues safety guidelines for autonomous public transport vehicles

      The guidelines mandate the vehicles carry at least one driver or security inspector.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ A new generation of nuclear reactors is poised to set the United States—and the world—on the path to net zero

      Over the next decade, more than a dozen advanced reactor concepts will be demonstrated in the United States. Ensuring the advancement of this nuclear energy will be critical to securing security, prosperity, and environmental sustainability for future generations.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Bitcoin comes roaring back as it hits 2023 high, but Hey Hi (AI) remains the largest threat to GPU pricing - gaming GPUs are safe from miners for now

      Bitcoin has poked its head above $42,000 today, with expected ETF approval and lower interest rates adding fuel to its rise. The good news is GPU mining still isn't regaining traction, and Hey Hi (AI) remains a bigger threat to gaming GPU prices.

    • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer) ☛ KIA Sends “Steering Wheel Lock”.

      I use Castrol Edge High Mileage in the Buick right now, but it’s 15 years old, and doesn’t consume oil that fast even with regular oil. High Mileage slows it from 2/5ths of a quart every 2,000 miles to about every 3,000 miles instead. That way I only use half a top off quart every 6,000 mile interval.

      Valvoline’s MaxLife is great oil in some old junker that’s burning and leaking so fast you don’t know what else to do with it. I’ve used it in cars that had over 260,000 miles on them and were consuming a quart a month and it slowed it down to a quart every 5-6 months. But it is not something you’d have to use in a new car that was built properly.

      I do have my eye on the new Buick Envista. It’s got a Korean transmission and a Mexican engine. It’s GM’s new way of selling compliance/economy cars in the US.

    • Democracy Now ☛ Planet for Sale? Record 2,500 Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Descend on COP28 U.N. Climate Summit in Dubai

      This year, there are at least 2,456 lobbyists at COP28, the U.N. climate summit in Dubai — nearly four times as many as last year — from companies like Shell, Total and ExxonMobil. The lobbyists outnumber the delegations of every country other than Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the summit, presided over by the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company, Sultan Al Jaber. “It’s definitely impossible to ignore how front and center the fossil fuel influence is at this particular COP,” says Rachel Rose Jackson, director of climate research and policy at Corporate Accountability, who says the climate summit must kick out big polluters and “reset the system so that it can finally end fossil fuels and advance real solutions and save millions of lives that don’t need to be lost.”

    • DeSmog ☛ Canada May Soon Give a $15.3B ‘Carbon Bomb’ Subsidy to Big Oil, Experts Say

      As world leaders meet in Dubai for the COP28 climate negotiations, federal and provincial governments in Canada are preparing to give an estimated $15.3 billion in new subsidies to oil and gas companies, and other heavy emitters, for expanding the production of fossil fuels, according to climate experts. 

      Those subsidies are taking the form of massive new tax credits for carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is a technology that companies use to grow their extraction of oil and gas while burying a fraction of their greenhouse gas emissions underground. 

    • H2 View ☛ Leaks suggest US 45V guidance will be more stringent than EU renewable hydrogen rules – reports

      A reported leak of US Treasury guidance for the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) 45V clean hydrogen production tax credit (PTC) suggests it could impose more stringent requirements on green hydrogen producers than EU rules.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • CS Monitor ☛ An Amazonian tribe was near extinction. Here’s how its women saved it.

      The Juma, an Amazonian Indigenous tribe, seemed destined for extinction. Sisters Boreá, Mandeí, and Maytá were able to make a comeback by changing the tribe’s patriarchal tradition. Now, they fight to preserve their territory and culture.

    • Hindustan Times ☛ Plants don’t have ears. But they can still detect sound

      If all that sounds strange, perhaps it should not. After all, sound carries useful information about an organism’s environment. From an evolutionary point of view, there is no reason to expect that information to be exploited only by animals.

    • Science Alert ☛ Rodent The Size of a Baby Spotted Crunching Coconuts in The Solomon Islands

      This is wild.

    • Science Alert ☛ Locusts Raised in High Gravity Grow Freakishly Strong… Up to a Point

      Eeeek.

    • Science Alert ☛ Blind, Sand-Swimming Golden Mole Rediscovered Alive After 86 Years

      It's so, so gorgeous.

    • Science Alert ☛ First Sighting: Pregnant Megamouth Shark Washes Up in The Philippines

      Incredibly rare.

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean man adopts two cats just to kill them

      He is said to have a contempt for cats, which was sparked by stray cats having scratched his car.

  • Overpopulation

    • International Business Times ☛ Groundwater Extraction Has Shifted Earth's Axis

      The study published in Geophysical Research Letters claimed that groundwater extraction led to the earth's axis tilting nearly 80 cm east. Between 1993 and 2010, nearly 2,150 billion tonnes of groundwater was removed and drained into the oceans, which has also resulted in global sea-level rise.

    • International Business Times ☛ Putin Says Women Must Have More Than Eight Children To Save Russia's Population

      The country has also suffered many casualties since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. So far, as of 1 November 2023, more than 300,000 Russian soldiers have been lost in Ukraine as a result of the conflict.

• Finance

  • New York Times ☛ China’s Rising Debt Spurs Moody’s to Lower Credit Outlook

    The ratings agency cut its view of the country’s finances to negative, saying it was concerned about the potential cost of local government bailouts.

  • Latvia ☛ In Latvia, the worse your credit rating, the more likely you are to use credit cards

    Currently around 217,000 credit cards have been issued to Latvia's population of nearly 1.9 milliion, with a total credit limit of around 370 million euros, according to information collected from across the  banking industry by AS "Kredītinformacijas Birojs".

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia still investigating lawyers linked to Goldman-1MDB deal

    The anti-graft body has withdrawn a court application to obtain documents from the lawyers as they were not needed yet.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China credit rating downgraded to ‘negative’ by Moody’s over debt fears in world’s second-largest economy

    Ratings agency Moody’s on Tuesday downgraded the outlook on China’s credit rating to “negative” from “stable” on the back of rising debt in the world’s second-largest economy.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Lessons of Pandemic Inflation

    As the inflation rate continues to fall, a new White House study emphasizes the central role that supply-chain disruptions have played in the economy.

  • The Business Journals ☛ Daily Digest: Wells Fargo CEO's warning; Mayor Breed makes budget cuts

    Tony Mestres this week takes the reins at the Sobrato Organization as its new CEO. The former Microsoft executive was announced in October as the pick to take over for former CEO Matt Sonsini, who had held the role for almost six years and departed this summer.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China says Afghan Taliban must reform before full diplomatic ties

    China said on Tuesday Afghanistan’s Taliban government will need to introduce political reforms, improve security and mend relations with its neighbours before receiving full diplomatic recognition. Beijing does not formally recognise Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, although both countries host each others’ ambassadors and have maintained diplomatic engagement.

  • France24 ☛ Former US ambassador charged with spying for Cuba since 1981

    A former US ambassador to Bolivia and member of the National Security Council has been charged with spying for Cuba for 40 years, the Justice Department announced Monday.

  • France24 ☛ US delegation visits India to discuss alleged plot to murder Sikh separatist

    White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer led a US delegation to New Delhi on Monday where he noted the formation of an investigative panel by India to probe an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on US soil.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Don’t expect much from the EU-China summit

    If this week's summit does prove to be as empty as anticipated, this should spark the EU to rethink its approach to these meetings.

  • RFA ☛ Answers for Alim Abdukerim case revealed after three months

    After his niece Nefise Oghuz posted videos calling on China to release him, Beijing explains why he is in prison.

  • teleSUR ☛ Research Report Sheds Light on China’s Approach to Humanomics

    China is advancing toward high-quality development while pursuing symbiotic interaction between the humanities and the economy.

  • The Straits Times ☛ DPM Lawrence Wong meets Chinese Premier Li Qiang, expects fruitful talks at top-level bilateral forum

    More than 20 bilateral agreements are expected to be inked on Dec 7.

  • India Times ☛ Japanese tech lobby warns against EU cybersecurity labelling scheme

    "We believe that the EUCS should be revised in light of the EU-Japan Digital Partnership, the Japan-EU mutual adequacy arrangement, and the Agreement in Principle on Negotiations Concerning Provisions on the 'Free Flow of Data' under the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement," he said.

  • India Times ☛ More talks required on AI rules even if there is a deal: French minister Jean-Noel Barrot

    EU countries and lawmakers may have to meet for yet another round of talks to hammer out crucial details of rules for artificial intelligence even if they clinch a deal on Wednesday, French digital minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday.

    Both sides and the European Commission, which drafted the rules two years ago, had been hoping that Wednesday's discussion would be the final one, following negotiations in June, July, September and October.

  • India Times ☛ ZestMoney to shut down by December-end, lay off 150 employees

    Financially-beleaguered fintech startup ZestMoney is shutting down its operations by the end of this month, employees were informed on Tuesday.

    One person in the know told ET that two major non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) who were supporting ZestMoney through credit lines withdrew them last week citing regulatory restrictions on unsecured lending.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ Amazon Brags It ‘Cultivated’ California Mayor With Donations in Leaked Policy Document

    The document, which is undated but refers to 2024 plans, also describes the company’s intent to combat legislation that would harm its interests by courting non-profit groups in California. The company said “Warehouse Moratorium Legislation” in the state—like AB 1000, which would prohibit companies from building large warehouses in residential and public areas—“would be detrimental to Amazon’s interests.”

  • Vice Media Group ☛ Jeff Bezos Is Funding a Real Estate Startup Buying Up Family Homes to Rent

    Of course, Arrived is reducing the supply of single-family homes available for purchase, even as it adds to the rental supply, exacerbating the problem it is profiting from. This has been a criticism lodged for years at private equity-funded single family home purchases, which have increased dramatically since the pandemic. Investors accounted for a quarter of all homes sold in 2021 according to Stateline and 28 percent of all homes sold in 2022, according to Pew Charitable Trusts.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China and Mexico officials vow to strengthen cooperation

    China-Mexico cooperation has great potential and huge room for development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday as he met in Beijing with his Mexican counterpart Alicia Barcena, who vowed to strengthen bilateral ties.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Almost 13,000 electors register to cast ballots at border polling stations ahead of ‘patriots’ District Council race

    Almost 13,000 electors have registered to cast their ballots at two polling stations near the city’s border with mainland China in the upcoming “patriots-only” District Council race. The 12,976 registrations, announced by the government after registration closed on Wednesday afternoon, amounted to just over a third of the quota, which was capped at 38,000.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • RFA ☛ Chinese interference 'looms large' over Taiwan's presidential poll

      Chinese officials are stepping up influence operations targeting officials, social control media users, reports say.

    • The Strategist ☛ Australia needs to consider global perspectives to weed out online deception and disinformation

      Present day disinformation is a lot like Japanese Knotweed. It takes just one post (or plant) to kick off an infestation. It spreads fast through a continuously growing horizontal underground stem—and it’s really hard to eradicate.

      Reflecting on the recent inaugural OECD conference addressing the global disinformation challenge, parallels between strategies to combat knotweed and disinformation emerged.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Fake history is a crucial weapon in Vladimir Putin’s bid to destroy Ukraine

      It is doubtful Vladimir Putin actually believes much of the anti-Ukrainian propaganda coming from the Kremlin’s echo chamber. After all, few educated people would. Still, he and his colleagues have little choice but to vigorously counter Ukraine’s compelling national narrative of a country emerging from centuries of imperial subjugation and reclaiming its place among the European family of nations. Russia’s response has focused on denying Ukraine’s right to exist. The Kremlin’s use of false historical narratives delegitimizing Ukraine is a key element of Russia’s broader campaign to destroy the Ukrainian state and nation. As such, it is worthy of far more international attention than it currently receives.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ Indiana’s Lawsuit Against TikTok Fails As Well

    Last week we wrote about how Montana’s ridiculous TikTok ban was blocked by a judge for being fairly obviously unconstitutional. But in the rush of the moral panic over TikTok coming from all over, I had missed that Indiana had sued the company. The argument was that TikTok had violated “child safety laws,” and in some ways appears to have some similarities with the recent state lawsuits against Meta.

  • The Register UK ☛ China gamifies censorship and surveillance with national internet law quiz

    China has introduced a program designed to make propaganda fun – an online knowledge competition that poses questions about the rules of proper socialist internet use and other cyber matters.

    Late last week, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) outlined the topics for the quiz, which focus on current "hot topics" and laws and ideals it feels need publicizing.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Florida congressman proposes federal funding to help schools fight book bans

    Under Frost’s legislation, the Department of Education would help cover book ban-related expenses up to $100,000 for each school district, Frost said. He said the total appropriation for the program would be $15 million over five years.

  • Meduza ☛ The number of misdemeanor charges brought against ‘foreign agents’ in Russia for repeat violations has sharply risen — Meduza

  • EFF ☛ Digital Rights Groups Urge Meta to Stop Silencing Palestine

    In the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing backlash on Palestine, Meta has engaged in unjustified content and account takedowns on its social media platforms. This has suppressed the voices of journalists, human rights defenders, and many others concerned or directly affected by the war. 

    This is not the first instance of biased moderation of content related to Palestine and the broader MENA region. EFF has documented numerous instances over the past decade in which platforms have seemingly turned their backs on critical voices in the region. In 2021, when Israel was forcibly evicting Palestinian families from their homes in  Jerusalem, international digital and human rights groups including EFF partnered in a campaign to hold Meta to account. These demands were backed by prominent signatories, and later echoed by Meta’s Oversight Board.

    The campaign—along with other advocacy efforts—led to Meta agreeing to an independent review of its content moderation activities in Israel and Palestine, published in October 2022 by BSR. The BSR audit was a welcome development in response to our original demands; however, we are yet to see its recommendations fully implemented in Meta’s policies and practices.

  • JURIST ☛ Activist Agnes Chow Ting will not return to Hong Kong amid ongoing investigation

    Hong Kong opposition activist, Agnes Chow Ting revealed on her social control media Sunday that she has no plan to return to Hong Kong, despite being required to return by the Hong Kong Police National Security Department (NSD) in December.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Self-exiled activist Agnes Chow says she can never return to Hong Kong as nat. sec. police condemn her for ‘challenging rule of law’

    Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow, who on Sunday revealed she had moved to Canada, has appeared on Japanese television to discuss her decision to leave Hong Kong, as national security police issued a statement condemning “someone’s recent claim of jumping Police bail.”

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong 47: Landmark national security trial comes to a close, with ‘no guarantees’ of when verdict is expected

    Prosecutors must have proven that Hong Kong pro-democracy figures at the centre of a landmark national security trial had used violence and intended to subvert state power if they are to be found guilty, two lawyers representing defendants have argued as the city’s largest security law trial to date came to a close.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong police stop members of activist group League of Social Democrats during hike, no arrests

    Some members of Hong Kong’s League of Social Democrats (LSD) were stopped and searched by police officers during a hike on Sunday, the pro-democracy group has said.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia softens Internet law after critics complain of misuse

    Human rights activists have long called for revision to the 2008 law, which regulates defamation.

  • Reason ☛ Even Hateful Protests Are Protected, Free Speech Group Reminds Congress

    Respecting free speech defends individual rights and lets people show us who they are.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ People claiming Hong Kong only focuses on national security are committing ‘soft resistance,’ leader John Lee says

    People who say that the Hong Kong government only focuses on national security are committing “soft resistance,” the city’s leader John Lee has told government-funded broadcaster RTHK.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Organisers of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigils appeal conviction, sentencing over national security data request

    Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil group was not a foreign agent and therefore did not have to oblige a national security police request for information, a court has heard as activists appealed their conviction and sentencing in a national security case.

  • NYPost ☛ Institutional stupidity replaced free speech in Ivy League

    On Dec. 5, the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT were hauled before a House Committee to explain how their intuitions devolved into hotbeds of anti-semitism — and it showed how a lack of free speech has allowed radicalism.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • RFA ☛ Repression without borders: autocratic governments try to silence reporters

    A Freedom House report says intimidation and attacks against exiled journalists are increasing.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Who is Kash Patel, Trump's aide who has threatened to sue journalists in US, ‘we will go out and find the conspirators’

    Kash Patel or Kashyap P Patel, a close associate of Donald J. Trump with extensive experience in national security roles, has threatened a potential legal action against journalists if former president returns to power in 2024.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia turns down ‘significant’ U.S. proposal for release of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan — Meduza

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • UNICEF ☛ Child Poverty in the Midst of Wealth" Innocenti Report Card 18 [PDF]

    Poverty is often defined by income. But for most children, poverty is about more than just money. It is about growing up in a home without enough heat or nutritious food. Poverty means no new clothes, no telephone and no money for a birthday celebration.

    For the eighteenth edition of the Innocenti Report Card, UNICEF Innocenti examined child poverty in the high-income and upper middle-income countries in the European Union (EU)and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This Report Card provides an assessment of the current state of child poverty and the progress – or lack of progress – that these countries made towards eliminating it.

  • RFERL ☛ Nobel Laureate Malala Calls Out Taliban For Making 'Girlhood Illegal' In Afghanistan

    But, she added, that since the U.S.-led troops pulled out in August 2021, the Taliban rulers who seized power "quickly began the systematic oppression of girls and women" by enacting more than 80 decrees and edicts restricting women's rights -- including barring girls from pursuing a high-school education -- in the name of their "false visions."

  • The Verge ☛ Hollywood’s strikes are over

    With both writers and actors on strike, Hollywood productions ground to a halt over the summer. Actors walked off of sets, and writers stopped working for months. Both writers and actors were fighting for contracts that prevent an AI from replacing them at their jobs, whether it’s writing scripts or appearing as a background actor.

    The unions representing writers and actors — the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) — went on strike after their contracts expired with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the association that represents media companies like Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and others. While the WGA began its strike on May 2nd, SAG-AFTRA joined the writers at the picket lines on July 14th, marking the first time since 1960 that both unions have gone on strike at the same time.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Honor killings: What would it take to keep women safe in Pakistan?

    Police have arrested four men for the alleged honor killing of an 18-year-old girl in the north Pakistan district of Kohistan last week, including the victim’s father. Authorities say the teenager was shot by her family on the instructions of a village council, or jirga, after appearing in a photo with a man.

    Hundreds of Pakistani women are murdered every year in so-called honor killings. Few perpetrators are ever convicted.

  • New York Times ☛ Texas Woman Sues State for an Abortion

    A woman who is 20 weeks pregnant, and whose fetus has been diagnosed with a deadly condition, is suing for an abortion under a medical exception to the state’s bans.

  • France24 ☛ France passes law to protect farmers against 'abusive' lawsuits from former city dwellers

    French parliament has passed a law to protect farmers from complaints from neighbours about noise or stench from agricultural activities, to stop "abusive" lawsuits from former city dwellers who bought houses in the countryside.

  • Reason ☛ Court Rejects Lawsuit Seeking to End American Aid to Israel

    From Friday's decision by Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi in Nguyen v. U.S. (N.D. Cal.): Ms. Nguyen alleges that after hearing about the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, she did "some research" on the internet...

  • BIA Net ☛ 'Ban all aid that would contribute to the maintenance of the Taliban regime'

    The Women’s Platform for Equality have sent a letter to UN officials, calling on the UN Security Council to "strongly urge the Taliban to immediately end gender-based apartheid policies."

  • RFA ☛ Former 'white paper' protester describes torture in police custody

    After fleeing China, Huang Guoan is applying for political refugee status in New Zealand.

  • BIA Net ☛ Rising postal expenses impede prisoners' sole connection to the outside world

    "Due to economic reasons and the exorbitant prices set by PTT, I am sending this letter through regular mail. I hope it reaches you intact and without censorship. Sending guaranteed letters such as registered or APS has become economically challenging," says a prisoner.

  • NYPost ☛ China’s government can’t take a joke, so comedians living abroad censor themselves

    Comedians are known for bristling at limits, but most Mandarin-language comedians, and many fans, say some topics have no place in the comedy club.

  • New York Times ☛ The Backlash to Anti-Israel Protests Threatens Free Speech

    There’s a growing legal effort to define anti-Zionism as bigotry.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Inside the Wabanaki Tribes’ Struggle to Reclaim Ancestral Remains from Harvard

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Community watch: China’s vision for the future of the internet

    In 2015, Beijing released Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace, a white paper outlining the CCP’s vision for the future of the internet. In the eight years since then, this vision has picked up steam outside of China, largely as the result of Beijing’s efforts to export these ideas to authoritarian countries.

  • APNIC ☛ APNIC celebrates 30 years: Part 7 — Community in the wide

    Much more than a registry — NOGs, IXPs and CERTs.

  • EFF ☛ Our “How to Fix the Internet” Podcast is an Anthem Awards Finalist— Help Make It a Winner!

    The Anthem Awards honors the purpose and mission-driven work of people, companies and organizations around the world. By amplifying the voices (and podcasts) that spark global change, the awards seek to inspire others to take action in their own community.

    That’s exactly why we launched “How to Fix the Internet” — to offer a better way forward. Through curious conversations with some of the leading minds in law and technology, we explore creative solutions to some of today’s biggest tech challenges. We want our listeners to become deeply informed on vital technology issues and join the movement working to build a better technological future.

    This nomination is testament to our support by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, and to all the amazing thinkers, makers, and doers who have been our guests. We want to honor them by winning this!

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Techdirt ☛ Carmakers Push Forward With Plans To Make Basic Features Subscription Services, Despite Widespread Backlash

    Automakers are increasingly obsessed with turning everything into a subscription service in a bid to boost quarterly returns. We’ve noted how BMW has embraced making heated seats and other features already in your car a subscription service, and Mercedes has been making better gas and EV engine performance something you have to pay extra for — even if your existing engine already technically supports it.

  • The Verge ☛ Spotify profits from more subscribers and price hikes

    The number of people paying for Spotify Premium rose three percent to 226 million on a quarterly basis as the streaming service announced price increases across the US and several other global markets. Spotify’s monthly active users (MAUs) also rose to 574 million as of September 30th, a four percent increase from last quarter. Both rises were slightly above Spotify’s forecast.

    Comparing performance year over year, Premium subscribers were up 16 percent while MAUs were up 26 percent. Spotify says the net growth in monthly active users was the second largest third-quarter increase in its history.

  • Techdirt ☛ You Still Don’t Own What You Bought: Purchased TV Shows From PS Store Go Bye Bye

    Thank you for joining us for your latest lesson in how you don’t actually own the things you buy when you buy them digitally. Over a year ago, we discussed a story out of Germany and Austria where a deal expired between Sony and movie distributor StudioCanal, which resulted in 100s of movies being delisted and deleted, both from the PlayStation Store and from the PlayStations of those who bought them. Yup! People bought a thing, got a thing, and then had that thing clawed back from them once the licensing agreement wasn’t renewed. You can guess for yourself whether members of the public who “bought” these movies had any idea that them disappearing long after purchase was even a possibility, but don’t overthink it, you know the answer.

• Monopolies

  • India Times ☛ Amazon latest to criticise Microsoft in UK cloud market probe It's Cheaper to Pay Bribes (and Produce Press Releases) Than to Pay Fines (After Lots of Negative Publicity)]

    In a letter published on the CMA's website on Tuesday, Amazon said changes to Microsoft's terms of services had made it difficult for customers to switch to alternative cloud providers, or run competitors' services alongside.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ Amazon Brags It ‘Cultivated’ California Mayor With Donations in Leaked Policy Document

    Amazon "aims to paint myself and the City of Perris as an example of a manipulated municipality for future development," Mayor Michael Vargas said.

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Motion for remand in Xencor

      As background, Xencor’s biotech patent monopoly application contains both Jepson and means-plus-function claims that were rejected by the PTAB on questionable written description grounds.  The examiner had initially issued written description rejections, but withdrew the rejections during the PTAB appeal briefing. The PTAB then reinstated the rejections based upon its authority to find new grounds for rejection, and then reaffirmed its position on request for rehearing.  Xencor then appealed to the Federal Circuit.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ No Mandamus Relief in Privilege Ruling

      After reviewing documents in camera, the district court granted in part Dorel’s motion to compel production of certain Cozy documents listed as privileged on the basis that the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege applied. The court found that Dorel had established a prima facie case that Cozy’s founder, Dr. Arjuna Rajasingham, “manipulated the PTO into recognizing priority dates to which he was not entitled” and “relied on the advice of his counsel to perpetrate a fraud on the PTO.”

      The crime-fraud exception provides that attorney-client privilege does not apply to communications between a client and attorney that are made for the purpose of furthering criminal or fraudulent activity. Specifically, the ordinarily strong privilege may be pierced if the party seeking disclosure can show that (1) the client was engaged in or planning criminal or fraudulent activity when the attorney-client communications were made, and (2) the communications were intended in some way to facilitate or conceal the criminal or fraudulent activity.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Permissible Repair versus Impermissible Reconstruction

      I was looking forward to the oral arguments in the interesting case of Karl Storz Endoscopy v. STERIS Instrument Management  Services (IMS) focusing the threshold between permissible repair and impermissible reconstruction.  Oral arguments were scheduled for December 4, 2023, but the parties filed a joint dismissal on December 3.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ VLSI’s $2.2b Infringement Verdict Rejected by Federal Circuit

      VLSI Technology LLC v. defective chip maker Intel Corporation, No. 2022-1906 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 4, 2023)

      In its decision here, the Federal Circuit took VLSI’s $2.2 billion judgment down to zero — but it will allow a new trial on damages.  The court particularly affirmed a finding that defective chip maker Intel infringed claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,523,373, but found the associated $1.5 billion damage award flawed.  With regard to the second patent monopoly at issue, U.S. Patent No. 7,725,759, the appellate panel found that insufficient particularized evidence had been presented to show infringement under the Doctrine of Equivalents. This took away the $700 million damage for infringement of that second patent.  Opinion by Judge Taranto and joined by Judges Lourie and Dyk.

    • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 for Vilox search engine patent monopoly prior art

      Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 6,760,720, owned by Vilox Technologies LLC, a Texas-based NPE managed by inventor Joseph De Bellis. The ‘720 patent monopoly relates to a method and system for a dynamic search engine that facilitates search-on-the-fly/sort-on-the-fly capabilities.

    • JUVE ☛ Austrian Patent Office names new president

      The Austrian Patent Office has now found a successor to Mariana Karepova. Stefan Harasek, who has been managing the office’s business on an interim basis since July, officially took over the position of president on 1 December. Harasek is the 19th president in the office’s almost 125-year history.

  • Software Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ $12,000 for Intellectual Ventures networking patents prior art [Ed: Microsoft proxy]

      Unified Patents added five new PATROLL contests, each with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on the list below. The patents are owned by Intellectual Ventures LLC, an NPE.

  • Trademarks

    • TTAB Blog ☛ KEEP AMERICA GREAT! Fails to Function as a Trademark for Ornamental Novelty Pins, Says TTAB

      Not surprisingly, the Board upheld a refusal to register the proposed mark KEEP AMERICA GREAT! for ornamental novelty pins, finding that the phrase is "a political and cultural message one that is too commonly used, often ornamentally, in connection with novelty pins and other products for it to be perceived as a trademark." In re America in Harms Way, Serial No. 87976064 (November 30, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Michael B. Adlin).

  • Copyrights

    • Creative Commons ☛ Highlights from GLAM Wiki by the CC Open Culture Team

      From 16 to 18 November, members of the Creative Commons (CC) Open Culture and Learning and Training teams attended GLAM Wiki in Montevideo Uruguay. In this blog post we look back at the event’s highlights from CC’s perspective.

    • Walled Culture ☛ How copyright hinders the preservation of modern, digital culture

      In practice, that means that as platforms become obsolete and are phased out, they can take with them the digital artefacts that depend on those platforms to be accessed. Technical solutions exist that can help deal with these issues. For example, code stored on old physical formats can be transferred to new ones, and software emulators can help keep digital artefacts alive that might otherwise be impossible to access. That’s the good news.

      The bad news is that there’s a big problem in the form of copyright law. Generally speaking, technical solutions can only be applied with the permission of the copyright holders. If the latter can’t be found – hard enough with physical books, often impossible for complex pieces of outdated software – these characteristic digital creations may be doomed to disappear. The severity of punishments for copyright infringement are so disproportionate, that researchers and curators are understandably unwilling to risk being taken to court for their preservation work – good intentions are no defence. Moreover, it’s a threat that continues to hang over cultural institutions for decades as a result of copyright’s absurdly long term.

    • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ The Problem at the Heart of Public Access

      It is my contention that the outputs of biomedical research are not equally usable by all members of the American public. With the laudable increase in access to journal articles, it is now fairly simple to discover and access much of the biomedical literature. A simple search of Google or Google Scholar is enormously valuable for discovery. But that doesn’t make the biomedical literature usable to all. There are at least two reasons for this. For one, not everyone can establish the trustworthiness and authority of information resources, particularly given that we are awash in a sea of misinformation including on biomedical topics. And second, not everyone can distill or synthesize what they find into usable knowledge.

    • India Times ☛ Rapper Bad Bunny lashes out over viral AI copycat hits

      Chilean artist Maurico Bustos launched the trend with the song NostalgIA - a play on the Spanish abbreviation for AI. It was written and recorded by Bustos using artificial intelligence to modify Bad Bunny's vocals, producing a viral track that prompted parodies and copycat versions on TikTok.

      Bad Bunny told his 20 million WhatsApp followers to leave if they liked "this shitty song that is viral on TikTok ... I don't want you on tour either."

    • Tedium ☛ Stealing Passages

      Plagiarism is often seen as an insignificant problem in online culture, but an epic Hbomberguy video essay proves that regular folks do in fact care about content theft.

      [...]

      The vibes in this general direction began with a video by the durability-tester JerryRigEverything (a.k.a Zack Nelson), whose joint collaboration with the phone-skin company dbrand has long celebrated the innards of phones. Turns out another company, Casetify, liked these designs enough that they decided to do their own version. Just one problem: The design had many of the in-jokes that the dbrand version had, making it a pretty open-and-shut case of copyright infringement.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ Legal Manga App User Banned After Taking 'Fraudulent Screenshots'

      A user of a legal manga app operated by one of Japan's largest publishers claims they were locked out of the service after being accused of fraudulent activity. While using Shueisha's YanJan! app, the user's smartphone began vibrating before displaying a message that their account had been suspended. It was later confirmed that taking screenshots, even inadvertently, can lead to being banned.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Technology and Free Software

  • Programming

    • The Dystopia of Web-Only Documentation

      I’m glad this didn’t happen (especially with the benefit of ten years of hindsight knowing the web is 1000000% pure garbage, even though the web was bad back then too).

      Having HTML/web-based ways to read man pages and Texinfo documentation is awesome, yes. If those ways are in addition to the traditional ones.

      Texinfo in particular is structured, semantic, accessible, and has a glorious legacy of being one of the very first public hypertexts.

    • Source languages, intermediary formats, and output formats

      I have human-readable text primarily in mind here when I say not every file format needs to be all things to all people.

    • Things I'm not particularlly interested in.

      There was a bit of a delay, but I think this thought was triggered by a post on mastodon a few days ago, with someone asking how to improve handling and analysis of large datasets in R. My off the cuff response - imparted with what I considered a modicum of humor, was to suggest re-writing everything in Python. I assumed some people would miss the attempt at humor, and lo, I was right :)