Links 14/12/2023: COVID-19 Rebounding, Northern Ireland Police Breach Under Fresh Scrutiny
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Project Censored ☛ Teacher's Innovative Approach Humanizes Asylum-Seeker Students
For every student whose first language isn’t English, problems learning within the school system become increasingly more common. Next to the language, there are differences in family traditions, and social and cultural backgrounds, along with possible trauma originating from their journey to the United States.
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Terence Eden ☛ A list of incredible BlockChain innovations which I would like funding for please
Dear the venture capitalists. I am a very charming white man and am prepared to drop out of university if you'll invest in these ideas.
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Digital Music News ☛ Cher Arrives in Her First Roblox Crossover Event
During the holiday-themed Cher collaboration with Warner Music, players will be introduced to a new quest each week in Harmony Hills, while recovering presents scattered across the game world by a troublemaking elf. Players can interact with Cher’s Roblox model to get in-game rewards that pay homage to some of her most iconic looks.
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Press Gazette ☛ What The Guardian has learned from five years of daily news podcasting
Safi added that they “go into every episode not assuming any knowledge, so we’re going to build it for you from the ground up and lead you through it in a very human way as if you’re just talking to a friend at the pub or something.
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Science
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The Conversation ☛ Human intelligence: how cognitive circuitry, rather than brain size, drove its evolution
All our organs have running costs, but some are cheap and others expensive. Bones, for example, are relatively cheap. Although they make up around 15% of your weight, they only use 5% of your metabolism. Brains are at the other end of the spectrum, and at about 2% of typical human body weight, running them uses around 20% of our metabolism. And this without doing any conscious thinking – it even happens when we’re asleep.
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Education
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The Atlantic ☛ Why This Math Professor Objects to Diversity Statements
Before immigrating to America from Russia as a young academic, Alexander Barvinok lived under a repressive regime that he experienced as “systemic absurdity.” He is now a tenured mathematics professor at the University of Michigan. Earlier this year, he resigned his three-decade membership in the American Mathematical Society in a letter citing the group’s failure to oppose the growing number of job openings for mathematics faculty that require applicants to draft and submit a statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. He regards these statements as a gravely concerning trend for his discipline, and he wanted to register some sort of protest against them.
Painful experiences long ago convinced Barvinok that requirements to affirm any ideal are corrosive in academia.
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The Kent Stater ☛ Early separation plans: Why your professor may have left
The university hires an external advisor firm to run data analysis and modeling based on the most recent census of faculty and employees, according to Polatajko. This division then calculates the number of separations needed for the program and how much is needed in incentives to reach their desired number of separations.
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ AMD says overclocking blows a hidden fuse on Ryzen Threadripper 7000 to show if you've overclocked the chip, but it doesn't automatically void your CPU's warranty | Tom's Hardware [Ed: So proprietary designs = features that exist only to be used against the customers, including false positives]
AMD explains the hidden fuses behind Ryzen Threadripper 7000 processors and how it will handle warranty claims.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Patrick Breyer ☛ European Health Data Space: My health is my business, respect that!
The majority of citizens also do not want our doctors to be able to view our entire medical history, from mental disorders to abortions and potency problems, without being asked. Interconnected electronic health records can have advantages, but as a Pirate, my conviction is: Nobody other than myself has the right to decide what is good for me and my health.
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Science Alert ☛ Woman Who Defied Alzheimer's Could Show Us How to Avoid It
Hope for millions.
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Latvia ☛ Number of hospitalized patients with Covid continues to rise
The number of Čovid-19 cases continues to increase in Latvia, including the number of inpatient patients, reaching 401 last week (307 a week ago), the Disease Prevention and Control Center (SPKC) reported on December 13.
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Defence Web ☛ Court denies Beitbridge fence contractors’ profit
That then Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille’s well-intentioned plan to provide an extra buffer against COVID-19 in the vicinity of the Beitbridge port of entry failed spectacularly is well-known and a court judgement this week put another nail in its coffin.
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Press Gazette ☛ Covid-19 origins: A media conspiracy of silence
Why did so many journalists dismiss as a conspiracy the idea Covid-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan?
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The Straits Times ☛ Medical experts in Malaysia call for stringent measures as Covid-19 cases continue to rise
Most cases are mild and do not require hospitalisation, though the jump in numbers is of concern.
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The Straits Times ☛ Scientists see risk of lost opportunity for long Covid research in China
Experts said little is known about China's experience with long-term Covid-19 effects.
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New York Times ☛ How a Rare Myocarditis Death Caught the Attention of the Anti-Vaccine Movement [Ed: "Anti-Vaccine Movement" blamed on something other than mandating on everybody COVID-19 products which turned out not to be effective as advertised; this seems like a distraction from the elephant in the room.]
A 24-year-old’s sudden death devastated his family — and caught the attention of the movement of vaccine opponents.
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University of Michigan ☛ Genetic depression ‘protection’ no match for pandemic stress
Living through a historic pandemic while handling the stress of the first year of college sent one-third of students in a new U-M study into clinical depression.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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The Register UK ☛ Adobe warns it may face massive fines for subscription cancellation practices
Adobe has revealed it may have to fork out "significant monetary costs or penalties" as a result of a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation of its subscription cancellation practices.
The graphics giant slipped the news into a filing that details its Q4 and FY 2023 results and other corporate events.
Adobe's results were strong. The fourth quarter saw $5.05 billion of revenue, 12 percent year-over-year growth and the first time Adobe has reached the $5 billion mark in a single quarter. Quarterly net income reached almost $1.5 billion. Full year revenue was $19.4 billion, up ten percent year-over-year, and net profit reached $5.4 billion. CFO and executive veep Dan Durn hailed "world-class margins." President of digital media David Wadhwani celebrated record numbers of new commercial subscriptions for Adobe Creative Cloud. Execs forecast Q1 2024 revenue of between $5.1 and $5.15 billion, and annual revenue topping $21.3 billion.
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Ars Technica ☛ GM justifies decision to ditch Apple CarPlay due to stability issues | Ars Technica
The automaker's decision to ditch phone casting interfaces remains controversial.
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Harvard University ☛ The Hidden Costs of Layoffs
It can take years for companies to bounce back from these setbacks.
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Tech Job Losses Soar in 2023: An Alarming Surge Before Year-End
You’ve got it right — tech layoffs are unfortunately becoming a familiar trend for someone like me, who’s been part of the tech industry for over 16 years.
Having weathered through multiple rounds of layoffs, including being laid off twice since 2010, today brings news of another significant blow.
Amazon’s ongoing layoffs, which began earlier this year, are extending across multiple divisions. The current workforce reduction encompasses “several hundred” employees from the Alexa division and the recently formed Artificial General Intelligence team. Moreover, the gaming division is also affected, with 180 workers facing job cuts.
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InformationWeek ☛ IT & Trauma in the Gaza War
In Israel, tech workers struggle to keep things afloat while their senior staff are on the front lines. In Gaza, they struggle with a near-complete communications shutdown.
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The Atlantic ☛ Why It’s So Hard to Search Your Email
Comparatively speaking, web search has it easy. It receives billions of search queries every single day, creating data that companies can use to hone their results. Even if you’re searching for something very weird—say, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pickleball paddle—“probably dozens of people before you have already done that search,” Thorsten Joachims, a search expert at Cornell University, told me. Google or any other search company can track our behavior, seeing which search results users click on as they try to find the answer, and what websites they eventually end up on. It can track the different queries a user tries as they attempt to zero in on exactly what information they are seeking.
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Dictionary.com LLC ☛ The Dictionary.com Word of the Year is hallucinate.
When we look back on 2023 from whatever surreal future it forks into, we’ll remember it as the year that at least this much became clear: AI will forever change how we work, learn, create, interact with (mis)information, and think about ourselves.
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The Verge ☛ Extremely softcore: the old Twitter was an idealist’s workplace and a naive business
It’s hard to imagine the platform reaching the political and cultural relevance it once had, and it’s even harder to see how it could be the same force for progressive social movements, especially as its new owner touts a free speech policy that boils down to his retweeting antisemitic conspiracies. Dorsey had deluded himself into thinking Twitter could be the utopian ideal of a tech company. Employees wanted to believe it could last.
“When Elon Musk took over, it was like the mask slipped,” said an engineer who left just before the billionaire’s arrival. “We realized we worked under capitalism.”
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Dedoimedo ☛ Lockdown Mode in iOS - A fantastic Internet crap reduction tool
I came looking for copper, and I found gold. This be a review of the Lockdown Mode in iOS 16/17 on iPhone, focusing on intended purpose of security and additional unintended benefits as an Internet sanitization tool, activation, functionality, app and site exclusion, some other observations, and more. I came for security, I stayed because it reduces stupidity. Yup. Do read on.
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Techdirt ☛ Techdirt Podcast Episode 373: Could Engineer Licensing Make AI Safer?
There’s plenty of discussion right now about what approach, regulatory or otherwise, could rein in the potential harms of AI systems. This week, we’re joined by professor and researcher Chinmayi Sharma to discuss her brand new article that offers an interesting idea: professionalizing the AI field with engineer licensing and a malpractice standard.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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APNIC ☛ Models of trust for the RPKI
In the 1980s, during the early days of the Internet, the global address plan utilized the class structure. Jon Postel, as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) record keeper, managed allocations of Class A address blocks while delegating administration and record-keeping for numerous Class B and C address blocks to the Internet Network Information Centre (InterNIC), operated by Stanford Research International (SRI-NIC).
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Privacy/Surveillance
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The Register UK ☛ Northern Ireland cops count human cost of August data breach
Operational impact on the PSNI is also thought to be significant, with costs expected to be in the region of £24-37 million ($30-46.5 million) – a sum the PSNI could not afford due to other financial constraints. The total costs encompass factors such as home security, litigation, and a potential regulatory penalty.
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The United Kingdom ☛ Review into PSNI data breach
Today, the NIPB have published the review's findings.
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Northern Ireland Policing Board UK ☛ “Protecting From Within”: A review commissioned by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB), into the PSNI data breach of 8th August 2023 [PDF]
1.1 The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is the third largest police service in the United Kingdom (UK) in terms of officer numbers, and the second largest in terms of geographic area of policing responsibility. Following the establishment of the Patten Commission, the Royal Ulster Constabulary George Cross (RUCGC) transitioned to the PSNI on the 4th November 2001. All major political parties now support the PSNI, and form part of the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) that holds the PSNI to account for the delivery of an efficient, effective, and representative service.
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Politico ☛ Fear stalks Northern Irish police after catastrophic leak of personal data
The unprecedented breach — committed Tuesday, when the police force uploaded the wrong Excel spreadsheet to a Freedom of Information website — revealed details many officers had kept secret even from relatives and close friends.
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BBC ☛ PSNI data breach: Two men released after Terrorism Act arrests
In total four arrests have been made in relation to the data breach.
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[Old] PBS ☛ William Binney
In '97, I became the technical director of the geopolitical -- military geopolitical analysis and reporting shop for the world, which was about 6,000 people. Those were analysts and reporters, the people, not the technicians or the computer people. It was more analyzing the data to figure out what was going on and report it. ...
But part of the issue was volume, velocity and variety, as the agency put it. ... This is too much data. It's moving too quickly, you know, too many kinds of data; we can't do it.
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Citizen Lab ☛ Peer-reviewed publication: Regulating Transnational Dissident Cyber espionage
In this article, Siena argues that the absence of an international law to prevent transnational repression permits states or entities connected to states to use digital technologies to suppress or silence dissent from activists, human rights defenders, and dissidents abroad by gathering personal data that is subsequently used as a weapon against the target or their networks. To protect and provide safe spaces to targeted communities, there is a need for states to work together to define dissident cyber espionage, as well as to develop a set of policies that will discourage it and make it easier for victims to seek justice.
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uni Cambridge ☛ Regulating Transnational Dissident Cyber Espionage
Remote-access cyber espionage operations against activists, dissidents or human rights defenders abroad are increasingly a feature of digital transnational repression. This arises when State or State-related actors use digital technologies to silence or stifle dissent from human rights defenders, activists and dissidents abroad through the collection of confidential information that is then weaponized against the target or their networks. Examples include the targeting of Ghanem Al-Masarir (a Saudi dissident living in the United Kingdom), Carine Kanimba (a United States–Belgian dual citizen and daughter of Rwandan activist Paul Rusesabagina living in the United States) and Omar Abdulaziz (another Saudi dissident living in Canada) with NSO Group's mercenary spyware. This practice erodes human rights, democracy and the rule of law and has a negative impact on targeted communities, including social isolation, self-censorship, the fragmentation and impairment of transnational political and social advocacy networks, and psychological and social harm. Despite this, international law does little to restrain this practice. Building on momentum around the regulation of mercenary spyware and transnational repression, this article elaborates on how States could consider regulating dissident cyber espionage and streamlines a unified approach among ratifying States addressing issues such as State immunity, burden of proof, export control and international and public–private sector collaboration.
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Patrick Breyer ☛ European Health Data Space: EU Parliament opposes mandatory electronic patient records for all citizens, but supports granting access to sensitive health data without asking patients
”A compulsory electronic patient file with Europe-wide access entails irresponsible risks of theft, hacking or loss of the most personal treatment data and threatens to deprive patients of any control over the collection of their illnesses and disorders,” emphasises Breyer, co-lead negotiator for the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the EU Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee. “This is nothing other than the end of medical confidentiality. Have we learnt nothing from the international hacker attacks on hospitals and other health data?”
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EFF ☛ Is This the End of Geofence Warrants?
Geofence warrants require a provider—almost always Google—to search its entire reserve of user location data to identify all users or devices located within a geographic area during a time period specified by law enforcement. These warrants violate the Fourth Amendment because they are not targeted to a particular individual or device, like a typical warrant for digital communications. The only “evidence” supporting a geofence warrant is that a crime occurred in a particular area, and the perpetrator likely carried a cell phone that shared location data with Google. For this reason, they inevitably sweep up potentially hundreds of people who have no connection to the crime under investigation—and could turn each of those people into a suspect.
Geofence warrants have been possible because Google collects and stores specific user location data (which Google calls “Location History” data) altogether in a massive database called “Sensorvault.” Google reported several years ago that geofence warrants make up 25% of all warrants it receives each year.
Google’s announcement outlined three changes to how it will treat Location History data. First, going forward, this data will be stored, by default, on a user’s device, instead of with Google in the cloud. Second, it will be set by default to delete after three months; currently Google stores the data for at least 18 months. Finally, if users choose to back up their data to the cloud, Google will “automatically encrypt your backed-up data so no one can read it, including Google.”
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Defence/Aggression
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New York Times ☛ Political Debate Is Rife on TikTok. Politicians? Not So Much.
Some pundits call next year the “TikTok election” because of the ballooning power and influence of the video app. TikTok may have been known for viral dances in 2020, but it has increasingly become a news [sic] source for millennials and Gen Z-ers, who will be a powerful part of the electorate.
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CS Monitor ☛ Waves of arriving Rohingya test limits of Indonesia’s welcome
Indonesia once tolerated such landings while Thailand and Malaysia pushed them away. But the growing hostility of some Indonesians toward the Rohingya, who come from refugee camps in Bangladesh, has put pressure on President Joko Widodo’s government to take action.
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Michigan News ☛ Michigan false electors appear in court; possible witness dismissed from hearing
As part of the ongoing preliminary examinations, which are for a judge to determine if there is sufficient enough evidence to send a case to trial, state attorneys must prove whether the group knew they were committing forgery when sending an alternate slate of Republican electors to the National Archives and Congress.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ SCOTUS Takes Up January 6 Obstruction Challenge — But with Unknown Scope
Remember that defendants have always likened the January 6 attack with the interruption by protestors of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing (there are significant differences, starting with the fact that all the protestors who disrupted Kavanaugh’s hearing were in the building legally). So I wouldn’t even rule out some set of Republicans rejecting this application on those grounds.
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The Scotsman ☛ COP28: What has been agreed by delegates? What does 'transition away' from fossil fuels mean?
Many countries, such as small island states which are severely threatened by rising seas, believe there are still too many loopholes in the agreement, but expressed confidence that it will lead to stronger action in future.
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Democracy Now ☛ Phase Down, Not Phase Out: COP28 Deal on Fossil Fuels Disappoints Activists & Vulnerable States
As the United Nations climate summit ends with nations pledging to transition away from fossil fuels instead of explicitly calling for a fossil fuel phaseout, we go to the COP28 site in Dubai for a debrief with Asad Rehman, spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition. He says the deal overseen by COP28 president and head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Sultan Al Jaber is a “very weak text” with “lots of loopholes” that allows rich countries to avoid responsibility. “If you’re an oil and gas baron and CEO, you must be rubbing your hands with glee,” says Rehman. “This requires everybody to take action, but developing countries can only act if they’re given the support.”
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The Strategist ☛ A strategy for defence innovation across the supply chain
Lockheed Martin can’t build an F-35 fighter jet without engines from Pratt & Whitney. Pratt & Whitney maintains similar relationships with a range of tier-two suppliers, forming a complex ecosystem that took 20 years to build. Many of those subcomponent suppliers rely on tier threes, and so on down to the nuts and bolts that hold everything together.
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The Strategist ☛ Australia must act now to develop a national security strategy
Two-thirds of the top 50 global powers by GDP produce an NSS or equivalent policy document. Eighty per cent of those ranked in the top 15 have an NSS; Australia (which ranks 14th), India (5th) and Brazil (9th) are the outliers.
Focusing on those major powers that either don’t produce an NSS or don’t make it publicly available, it becomes clear that population size and geographic region have less bearing on the decision than the characterisation of the government and its political approach.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine Faces Critical Tests as It Duels With Russia for Stamina
With Western support for Kyiv softening and Congress holding up urgently needed aid, Vladimir Putin’s bet on outlasting Ukraine and its allies is looking stronger.
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Meduza ☛ Putin says Russia will not have another wave of mobilization, echoing promises made before first wave — Meduza
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Atlantic Council ☛ The US and NATO must clamp down on Russian fossil fuels to end the war in Ukraine
The US and its EU allies have made several attempts to diminish Russia's fossil fuel exports, with mixed results. the West must do more to staunch the flow of Russian oil and gas—and restore peace for Ukraine.
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PHR ☛ White House Must Not Sacrifice U.S. Asylum System in Funding Negotiations: PHR
In response to reports that the White House and congressional leaders are considering overhauls to the U.S. asylum system as a compromise to secure funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, the following quote is attributable to Michele Heisler, MD, MPH, medical director at PHR and professor of internal medicine and public health [...]
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France24 ☛ EU faces challenge from Hungary's Orban over plans to increase Ukraine support
EU leaders met Thursday to boost their long-term support for Ukraine in its fightback against Russia's invasion and secure a European future, but faced a defiant challenge from Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
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France24 ☛ Scores wounded in Russian strikes on Kyiv and Odesa as Ukraine seeks more aid from Europe
A barrage of Russian missiles targeted Kyiv on Wednesday, wounding more than 50 people, and dozens of drones targeted Odesa on Thursday, wounding more than 10, said Ukrainian officials, as President Volodymyr Zelensky sought more military support in Europe after a trip to Washington secured no new pledges.
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France24 ☛ More than 50 injured in Russian missile strikes on Kyiv
Ukraine’s capital came under another ballistic missile attack early Wednesday, resulting in more than 50 injuries and several damaged buildings, officials said.
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JURIST ☛ ECHR hears oral arguments from Ukraine in case over Russian occupation of Crimea
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a case concerning potential human rights violations committed by Russia via its occupation of Crimea.
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JURIST ☛ US sanctions hundreds of people and entities who ‘support Russia’s war’ in Ukraine
The US Department of the Treasury, in coordination with the State Department, announced sanctions on over 200 individuals and entities on Tuesday to target Russia’s war capabilities in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The sanctions target Russia’s energy production, metals and mining sector, munitions transfers and defense industry.
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LRT ☛ Groundbreaking summit or historic fiasco – will EU leaders convince Hungary to relent on Ukraine aid and expansion?
European Union leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day meeting to finalise further support for Ukraine. In the corridors of Brussels, diplomats and officials feel that what’s at stake here is both the vital financial and moral support for Kyiv and the very unity of the EU.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian president says Hungary ‘harming itself’ by objecting to Ukraine’s EU accession talks
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has criticised Hungary for objecting that the EU start accession talks with Ukraine.
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RFA ☛ Russian governor visit points to more worker exports
Facing manpower shortage, Russia needs North Korean labor due to its war in Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Court Cancels Fine For Russian Rights Activist
The Moscow City Court on December 14 cancelled a lower court's decision to fine veteran human rights defender Oleg Orlov 150,000 rubles ($1,660) for the "repeated discrediting of Russia's armed forces" involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Urges EU Leaders Not To 'Betray' Ukrainians' European Aspirations
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on leaders attending a crucial EU summit in Brussels to green-light Kyiv's opening of membership negotiations with the bloc and told them that a negative vote would "betray" Ukrainians' European dreams and embolden Russia in its aggression against Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Downed Russian Drone Falls On Romanian Territory Amid Attack On Southern Ukraine
Romania's Defense Ministry says a drone shot down during Russia's attack on Ukraine's port installations on the Danube early on December 14 fell on Romanian territory, leaving a 1 1/2-meter deep crater near the village of Grindu, which is located some 8 kilometers from the Ukrainian port of Reni.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Opposition Politician Yashin's Prison Sentence Upheld On Appeal
A court of appeals in Moscow on December 13 rejected an appeal filed by opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who is serving an 8 1/2-year prison term for his criticism of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Sanctions Target Russian Firm That Received Dual-Use Tech From Kazakhstan
The United States has imposed sanctions on a Russian firm that RFE/RL found had received hundreds of shipments from Kazakhstan of dual-use technology that Western governments say Russia is using in weapons it is deploying in its war against Ukraine.
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YLE ☛ Finnish PM Orpo criticises Hungary's opposition to Ukraine aid, EU membership
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has demanded concessions from the EU in exchange for his country supporting a €54bn aid package for Ukraine.
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YLE ☛ Zelensky makes surprise stop at Nordic leaders' meeting in Oslo
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and the Ukrainian president are also scheduled to hold bilateral talks.
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CS Monitor ☛ Does Ukraine aid bolster US national security? Biden makes his case.
Many Americans worry that U.S. support for Ukraine is a waste of money. But might underwriting Kyiv's fight against Russia now be a kind of insurance against costlier U.S. military action later?
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New York Times ☛ Hungary’s Orban May Hold Up Aid for Ukraine at EU Leaders’ Meeting
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, has suggested he will block both financial support and membership talks for Ukraine. There are workarounds on aid, but they are cumbersome.
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New York Times ☛ Got Time for Milk? An Overwhelmed House, Somehow, Does.
With aid to Ukraine and Israel in limbo, a border deal elusive and a mountain of spending legislation left undone, the House turned its attention to whole milk in schools.
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New York Times ☛ Inside the Border Talks That Could Decide the Fate of Ukraine Aid
Negotiators are racing to reach a deal before Congress is expected to head home for the holidays at the end of the week.
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New York Times ☛ Russian Missile Attack on Kyiv Injures Dozens
Ukraine’s military said that it had shot down all the ballistic missiles targeting the capital, but that falling debris caused significant damage.
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Latvia ☛ Russian language requirement might be banned from job ads in Latvia
It is planned that Latvian employers will not be able to request mandatory knowledge of the Russian language, except for certain professions, as provided for by amendments to the Labor Law supported by the Saeima at first reading on Thursday, December 14.
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New York Times ☛ With a New Leader, Poland Prepares for a Course Change in Europe
Prime Minister Donald Tusk is sworn in and vows to try to invigorate flagging European support for Ukraine and push for “full mobilization” against Russia’s military assault.
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New York Times ☛ Germany Reaches a Budget With Promises on Ukraine
The government avoided extra borrowing for 2024, but must make cuts in programs to address climate change.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ South Korea scramble jets as Chinese and Russian warplanes enter air defence zone
South Korea’s military said Thursday it scrambled fighter jets as two Chinese and four Russian military planes entered its air defence zone, an area wider than the country’s airspace.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian cinemas boycott Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron over distributor’s Russia links
Hayao Miyazaki’s new film The Boy and the Heron will not be screened in Lithuania after all the country’s cinemas refused to cooperate with the distributor due to its links with Russia.
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LRT ☛ Police investigate Lithuanian citizen caught praising Russia on video
The Police Commissariat in Lithuania’s eastern city of Šalčininkai has launched a pre-trial investigation into the statements of a young Lithuanian man who was filmed praising Russia in a video, Ramunas Matonis, the spokesman for the Police Department, told BNS.
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RFERL ☛ Finland Temporarily Reopens Two Border Crossings With Russia
Finland on December 14 reopened two border crossings with Russia -- Vaalima and Niirala -- for one month, the Finnish newspaper Yle reported.
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RFERL ☛ Soviet-Era Dissident Maria Rozanova Dies At 93
Prominent Soviet-era dissident journalist Maria Rozanova has died in France at the age of 93, Russian writer Dmitry Bykov said on December 13.
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RFERL ☛ Activist's Trial In Russia's Bashkortostan To Be Held Behind Closed Doors
A court in Russia's Bashkortostan region decided on December 13 that the trial of Fail Alsynov, the former leader of the banned Bashqort group that for years promoted the Bashkir language and culture, will be held behind closed doors "to avoid possible provocations."
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RFERL ☛ Moscow Court Refuses To Jail Activist Who Was Forcibly Brought From Kyrgyzstan
A Moscow court on December 13 refused to imprison activist Lev Skoryakin, who in October went missing in Kyrgyzstan after applying for asylum there and was later located in a Moscow detention center.
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The Straits Times ☛ Russian court extends pre-trial detention for WSJ reporter Gershkovich -Ifax
A Moscow сourt ruled on Thursday that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich must remain in custody until Jan. 30, 2024.
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The Straits Times ☛ Seoul scrambles jets as Russia, China warplanes near South Korean peninsula
The planes flew above waters between South Korea and Japan.
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RFERL ☛ Putin Tells Russians War In Ukraine To Continue, Goals Remain The Same
President Vladimir Putin showed no signs of relenting in his war against Ukraine, telling Russians in his annual press conference and call-in event on December 14 that his goals remained the same and peace will come when they are achieved.
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RFERL ☛ Putin Says 'Dialogue' With U.S. Over Detained Americans Continues
President Vladimir Putin says there has been "dialogue" between U.S. and Russian officials over the release of two Americans currently being held in Russia on espionage charges both vehemently deny.
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The Straits Times ☛ Ukraine's Zelenskiy urges EU leaders to back membership talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged a summit of European Union leaders on Thursday to open membership talks with his country, warning that Europe would not understand if the meeting resulted in a "satisfied smile" for Vladimir Putin.
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teleSUR ☛ There Will Be Peace When We Achieve the Goals: Putin
"Financial, economic, and technological sovereignty is the future of all countries," the Russian president said.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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The Atlantic ☛ The Most Consequential Act of Sabotage in Modern Times
That said, there are also ample reasons why many are not eager to assign blame—even if, in the end, investigators will have to come to a conclusion. Officially naming Russia, the U.S., or Ukraine as the saboteur would have sticky political consequences all around. The belief that Russia might have carried out the attack has already helped swell military spending in Scandinavia, spending that some in the region oppose. If Russia is shown to be behind the attack, that opposition could lose traction. Identifying Russia as the perpetrator would also put Germany on the back foot: Germany had seen Russia as a partner, and German companies had invested in Nord Stream. Because Germany is now aligned with the United States and Ukraine in resisting Putin’s invasion, pinning the attack on the U.S. or Ukraine would pose its own difficulties. If Ukraine is responsible, it would make that country appear singularly ungrateful, because European arms and ammunition have kept it in the fight. Blowing up a major piece of energy infrastructure in the middle of the Baltic would feel like a betrayal. At the same time, it would make Russia look weak and ineffectual, unable to defend a marquee infrastructure project on its doorstep. The Biden administration, which has worked strenuously to rebuild its alliance with Europe and to rally its support for Ukraine, would appear coldly calculating and two-faced if it was behind the sabotage.
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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Bridge Michigan ☛ Whitmer plan would give rebates to Michiganders who buy new EV, other cars
The $25 million program, which would need legislative approval, is an effort to support the auto industry after a nearly seven-week strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW). The strike forced Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis to pay higher wages, offer more job security and make changes to their plans to transition to electric vehicles.
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The Revelator ☛ How Low-Income Families Can Reap Rewards From Solar Energy
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Finance
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Jim Nielsen ☛ The Largest Money-Printing UI Element Ever Made
One of Evan’s assertions is that the largest source of money flowing into the world of programming languages comes from Google paying to be the default search engine (a fascinating idea, be sure to watch the entire talk to understand why).
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong could see dimmer economic outlook in 2024, as over 60% of companies expect no growth – survey
Hong Kong could see a dimmer economic outlook in 2024 amid its long, post-pandemic road towards full recovery, a survey conducted by the the city’s oldest business group has found. Over 60 per cent enterprises surveyed by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) said they expect no income growth next year.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong Tourism Board to give residents HK$100 dining vouchers in bid to boost local spending
The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) will offer residents HK$100 dining vouchers to encourage them to eat out in the evening in a bid to boost local consumption amid a weaker than expected post-pandemic economy.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Democracy Now ☛ Rep. Greg Casar: Biden Must Not Cave on GOP’s Hard-Line Immigration Demands in Ukraine Funding Request
President Biden appears to be caving to hard-line Republican demands for a new crackdown on asylum seekers and immigrants nationwide in exchange for more Ukraine funding. As negotiations on the emergency funding request continue, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas about how he and other lawmakers oppose “some of the worst changes to our immigration system in decades.” Casar and Democracy Now! co-host Juan González also discuss how today’s “toxic brew” of border politics relates to 200 years of Monroe Doctrine policies punishing Latin America, forcing people to flee their home countries, and then blocking them from seeking asylum in the United States.
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The Nation ☛ We Have Mounting Proof That Cruel Men Control Women’s Bodies in Red States
After creepy misogynist Donald Trump’s devastating inauguration, The Handmaid’s Tale, understandably, took off on Hulu. I’d read the book by Margaret Atwood in college, but my daughter told me not to watch the television series (although she and her friends were loving it). She knew I’m squeamish about “entertainment” featuring oppression and abuse of women, and, in those months, I was overwrought generally, as were so many of us. I listened to her, as I often do, and I’m glad I did.
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New Yorker ☛ George Santos and the Art of the Scam
The ex-congressman has already pivoted from politics to pop culture—and become the latest beneficiary of America’s enduring fascination with con artists. Are we the ones being duped?
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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NPR ☛ Fake social media accounts are targeting Taiwan's presidential election
An influence operation spanning Facebook, TikTok and YouTube has been targeting Taiwan's upcoming presidential election, according to a new report from research firm Graphika.
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Graphika ☛ Inauthentic Accounts Pose as Taiwanese Users to Spread Political Memes and Videos Ahead of 2024 Election
Graphika has identified a sustained and coordinated effort to manipulate online conversations about Taiwanese politics ahead of the country’s presidential election in January 2024. The operation was active starting as early as May 2022, employing deceptive behaviors to disseminate Chinese-language videos and memes about Taiwanese political parties across Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. We do not currently attribute this activity to a specific actor based on open-source indicators.
The actors behind this activity leveraged a range of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) associated with online influence operations (IO). These TTPs included the use of likely inauthentic accounts that purported to be Taiwanese residents and displayed profile pictures of real people that were edited to alter their appearance. We also observed signs of coordination, such as different accounts in the operation posting identical content within minutes of each other.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Valve recommends users not huff Steam Deck exhaust vents for Fentanylware (TikTok) views
Valve responds to support forum post asking whether it's a good idea to sniff exhaust fumes from the Steam Deck's vents.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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RFERL ☛ Teacher Imprisoned For Condemning Russia's Aggression Against Ukraine Placed In Solitary Confinement
Supporters of Russian history teacher Nikita Tushkanov, who was imprisoned for criticizing Moscow's war in Ukraine online, said on December 12 that the activist was sent to solitary confinement for seven days for lying on a bed before it was officially sleeping time. [...]
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EFF ☛ Speaking Freely: Dr. Carolina Are [Ed: No, Jillian York does not stand for free speech; EFF pays her lots of money as a contractor to spew out lies about people and then silence them!]
Dr. Carolina Are is an Innovation Fellow at Northumbria University Centre for Digital Citizens. Her research primarily focuses on the intersection between online abuse and censorship. Her current research project investigates Instagram and TikTok’s approach to malicious flagging against ‘grey area’ content, or content that toes the line of compliance with social media’s community guidelines.
She is also a blogger and creator herself, as well as a writer, pole dance instructor and award-winning activist. Dr. Are sat down for an interview with EFF’s Jillian York to discuss the impact of platform censorship on sex workers and activist communities, the need for systemic change around content moderation, and how there’s hope to be found in the younger generations.
Jillian York: Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your work? Specifically, can you give us an idea of how you became a free speech advocate?
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New Yorker ☛ Masha Gessen on the Holocaust, Israel, and the Politics of Memory
The New Yorker staff writer discusses the enforcement of “memory culture” in Germany, and the ongoing battle over the definition of antisemitism.
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Meduza ☛ Navalny’s associates say unable to locate him in Moscow detention centers after unconfirmed reports he was transferred there — Meduza
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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RFERL ☛ Media Watchdogs Criticize Taliban Over Arrests Of Afghan Journalists
The AFJC denounced the sentence as "unfair and unacceptable due to the absence of a defense lawyer during the trial" and called for a "thorough review of the case, immediate and unconditional release of the journalist," and reopening of Nasim Radio.
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ANF News ☛ Kurdish journalist Ezîzî sent to Evin Prison
It was learned that Pexşan Ezîzî was deprived of all her rights during the interrogation process and was not allowed to use her right to phone calls with her family.
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CPJ ☛ Azerbaijani journalist Hafiz Babali latest arrest in Abzas Media crackdown
“By arresting widely respected investigative journalist Hafiz Babali, Azerbaijani authorities are only confirming that their real aim in targeting Abzas Media is to silence its uncompromising reporting on official corruption allegations,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities in Azerbaijan should immediately release Babali along with all other unjustly jailed journalists and stop the ongoing wave of reprisals against the independent press.”
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Silicon Angle ☛ EU agrees to rules that will give gig workers employee rights
After years of negotiations, the European Union has provisionally agreed to new rules to improve the labor conditions of people working in such jobs as delivery and ride-hailing, potentially affecting millions of gig workers.
It’s believed that right now, there are close to 500 digital work platforms in the EU employing about 28 million people, although it’s estimated that by 2025, the number could rise to 43 million – a sizable chunk of the EU’s 448 million population.
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New York Times ☛ The Woman Who Fought the Texas Abortion Ban
Kate Cox is at the heart of one of the most contentious cases since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
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New York Times ☛ Migrant Children Working as Roofers, and a Biden Impeachment Inquiry
Hear the news in five minutes.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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The Verge ☛ An X outage broke all outgoing links, again
If this sounds familiar, it’s because something similar happened in March, taking down links and images across timelines for around an hour. Twitter blamed that on an “internal change that had some unintended consequences” before Platformer reported the bug occurred because of a mistake by the site’s single remaining site reliability engineer, who was operating solo after Musk instituted massive layoffs.
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APNIC ☛ Charting APNIC’s course for the next four years
The APNIC Strategic Plan (2024-2027) was created by the APNIC EC and Secretariat, and is informed by feedback from Members and the community. The plan sets out the future that APNIC wishes to see, the objectives and priorities that need to be achieved to help reach that future state, and the guiding principles underpinning APNIC’s efforts.
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Techdirt ☛ The ‘Race to 5G’ Wound Up Being More Of A Hobbled Waddle To Nowhere
We’ve noted for years how the “race to 5G” was largely just hype by telecoms and hardware vendors eager to sell more gear and justify high U.S. mobile data prices. While 5G does provide faster, more resilient, and lower latency networks, it’s more of a modest evolution than a revolution.
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EFF ☛ Spritely and Veilid: Exciting Projects Building the Peer-to-Peer Web
There are many technologies used behind the scenes to create decentralized tools and platforms. There has been a lot of attention lately, for example, around interoperable and federated social media sites using ActivityPub, such as Mastodon, as well as platforms like BlueSky using a similar protocol. These types of services require most individuals to sign up with an intermediary service host in order to participate, but they are decentralized in so far as any user has a choice of intermediary, and can run one of those services themselves while participating in the larger network.
Another model for decentralized communications does away with the intermediary services altogether in favor of a directly peer-to-peer model. This model is technically much more challenging to implement, particularly in cases where privacy and security are crucial, but it does result in a system that gives individuals even more control over their data and their online experience. Fortunately, there are a few projects being developed that are aiming to make purely peer-to-peer applications achievable and easy for developers to create. Two leading projects in this effort are Spritely and Veilid.
Spritely is worth keeping an eye on. Being developed by the Institute of the same name, Spritely is a framework for building distributed apps that don’t even have to know that they’re distributed. The project is spearheaded by Christine Lemmer-Webber, who was one of the co-authors of the ActivityPub spec that drives the fediverse. She is taking the lessons learned from that work, combining them with security and privacy minded object capabilities models, and mixing it all up into a model for peer to peer computation that could pave the way for a generation of new decentralized tools.
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CoryDoctorow ☛ An Epic antitrust loss for Google (permalink)
The mobile app store world is a duopoly run by Google and Apple. Both use a variety of tactics to prevent their customers from installing third party app stores, which funnels all app makers into their own app stores. Those app stores cream an eye-popping 30% off every purchase made in an app.
This is a shocking amount to charge for payment processing. The payments sector is incredibly monopolized and notorious for its price-gouging – and its standard (wildly inflated) rate is 2-5%: [...]
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India Times ☛ Apple to be hit by EU antitrust order in fight with Spotify
The decision is slated for early next year and Apple could face a fine of as much as 10% of its annual sales, Bloomberg reported.
The probe was sparked by a complaint nearly four years ago from Sweden's Spotify Technology, which claimed it was forced to ramp up the price of its monthly subscriptions to cover costs associated with Apple's App Store rules.
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EFF ☛ Without Interoperability, Apple Customers Will Never Be Secure
Apple’s iMessage offers end-to-end encrypted messaging for its customers, but only if those customers want to talk to someone who also has an Apple product. When an Apple customer tries to message an Android user, the data is sent over SMS, a protocol that debuted while Wayne’s World was still in its first theatrical run. SMS is wildly insecure, but when Apple customers ask the company how to protect themselves while exchanging messages with Android users, Apple’s answer is “buy them iPhones.”
That’s an obviously false binary. Computers are all roughly equivalent, so there’s no reason that an Android device couldn’t run an app that could securely send and receive iMessage data. If Apple won’t make that app, then someone else could.
That’s exactly what Apple did, back when Microsoft refused to make a high-quality MacOS version of Microsoft Office: Apple reverse-engineered Office and released iWork, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote could perfectly read and write Microsoft’s Word, Excel and Powerpoint files.
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Patents
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MIT Technology Review ☛ Vertex will pay tens of millions to license a controversial CRISPR patent
The patent on CRISPR has been the fulcrum off a decade-long legal fight after the Broad Institute, a research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, snatched rights to the most important uses of the gene-editing tool in 2014.
Broad’s patent claims have been opposed by the University of California, Berkeley, which says researchers Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier are the tool’s true inventors. The pair won a Nobel Prize in 2020 for their work on the technology.
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Copyrights
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Digital Music News ☛ Understanding Music Copyright: A Guide for Independent Musicians
We’ve already seen so many court cases over copyright infringement. Sometimes, one artist has a similar idea to another artist and inadvertently makes a song that sounds similar. And sometimes it may be on purpose, who knows. The point is, you need to protect yourself. So let’s talk music copyright.
(Note: I am not a lawyer or copyright expert and this is not legal advice. I’m a fellow indie musician who did a bunch of research so you don’t have to. I’ve linked to all my sources within the article).
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The Atlantic ☛ ChatGPT Is Turning the Internet Into Plumbing
It’s arguably a strange move for the publisher, which in the old days might have seen some competitive advantage in maintaining a distinctive voice—that is, one that isn’t easily replicated by a chatbot. But Axel Springer will be paid for lending its work. That’s certainly better than getting ripped off for free, which is effectively what generative AI is presumed to have done to publishers across the industry. Julia Sommerfield, a spokesperson for Axel Springer, declined to give any specific details about the deal but told me over email, “Our reporters at Politico and Business Insider will continue to deliver high-quality journalism. The partnership introduces an additional channel for distribution and revenue, and enriches users’ experience on ChatGPT.” A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment on the deal.
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Silicon Angle ☛ OpenAI inks content licensing deal with Axel Springer
Berlin-based Axel Springer is a media company majority owned by investment firm KKR. As part of the licensing deal announced today, OpenAI will gain access to “select news content” from several of the company’s properties including Politico and Insider as well as the German tabloids Bild and Welt. The contract covers not only free content but also certain articles that are usually only available to paid subscribers.
The companies didn’t disclose the deal’s financial terms. However, the Wall Street Journal described it as a multiyear partnership that is expected to generate “substantial revenue” for Axel Springer. The deal is said to be nonexclusive, which means the company can ink similar partnerships with other AI developers.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Two Arrested in Pirate IPTV Raids, Police Obtain Details of UK Subscribers
The UK's Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) has revealed details of raids on Tuesday targeting a pirate IPTV operation. The regional organized crime and counterterrorism unit says that warrants were executed at addresses in Essex, Hertfordshire, and Lanarkshire in Scotland. Two men were arrested on suspicion of fraud, money laundering, and intellectual property offenses. Police say they have obtained a list of customers who shouldn't rule out the possibility of criminal prosecution.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Take Aim at AI Freeloading * TorrentFrea
Members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association have no trouble envisioning an AI-centered future, but developments over the past year are reason for concern. The association takes offense when AI models exploit the generosity of science fiction writers, who share their work without DRM and free of charge.
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Torrent Freak ☛ France: Streaming & DDL Piracy Fall But Cloud & Usenet Boosts Wipe Out Gains
French telecoms regulator Arcom has published the 2023 edition of its online content consumption report. Covering movies, TV shows, live sports and similar content, the report aims to map French internet users' consumption habits from both legal and illegal sources. After reductions in recent years, the overall piracy rate remained static in 2023, with some interesting changes in access methods that may signal moves to avoid detection.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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LiveFromFrance S1E05
Too bad because we were beginning to speak intelligently about Ukraine-Russia and Palestine-Israel conflicts. But in this time of the Immigration Bill in the National Assembly, any attack or aggression is a pretext for controversy. A teenager was stabbed in a village when people from an impoverished neighborhood invited themselves to a party. After a week of polemics, extreme right-wing movements and groups organized protests and riots in the neighborhood and in the big cities. Some media drew parallels with immigration. At the same time, a mosque was tagged with insults. And the main far-right party forgot its links with this kind of violent gangs of skinheads and Neo-Nazis. Some of its staff had been members in their youth. The interior minister (who wrote articles in a far-right newspaper in his youth, and who uses the word «ensauvagement», a neologism to describe the fact to become savage, like the far-right) promised to disband these militias. But he didn't explain why these militias were in possession of information that is normally only known to the police. Right-wing and far-right parties (the difference is becoming so thin) are using the fears of others to create a climate of insurrection. And they have good examples.
France is looking at Netherlands, Argentina or Sweden where far-right took the power or at least a part of the power. Nothing was done against that and with left-parties as stupid as the last month in France
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Technology and Free Software
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Squid service on gopher.zcrayfish.soy discontinued
The precompiled version of Squid which comes with my distro, Alpine Linux, seems to have stopped supporting gopher recently. Consequently the gopherproxy.sh cgi script on the web server, which some folks were using to access other gopher servers, has ceased to function.
I don't feel like going through the maintenance burden of compiling my own version of squid, despite the fact that it is an /extremely/ easy piece of software to compile...
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Finally deciding to buy a new laptop
I tried to subsitute my personal laptop with a PineTab 2. Thinking I can just SSH into my servers and do everything there. I thought it'll work but ended up not. Mainly 2 reasons: 1. People haven't sorted out the WiFi driver issue yet. And the USB dongle I bought absolutely sucks. Secondly, I need enough CPU power to browse the internet and read documents. I was thinking a tablet would be a good form factor for documentation reading. But the PienTab2 is too slow to run web pages smoothly. As much I don't want to have any e-waste. The PineTab2 is slowing me down and I won't be using it much anymore. I'll probably repurpose it as a light weight server or something.
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Programming
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The "can't fail" scripting language, round 2
This is a new attempt at defining a "can't fail" scripting language. The general idea is to design a language that has no error state and can successfully parse and execute any string of binary data (subject to caveats like resource limits, not guaranteeing that any particular program can finish executing, and so on).
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.