Leftovers

• Latvia ☛ Plan to train 100 new Latvian language teachers for foreigners

  It is planned to create a study program at the University of Latvia (LU) to prepare at least 100 Latvian language teachers who will teach the state language as a foreign language to adults, according to the plan supported by the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) at the government's cabinet meeting on Tuesday, June 18.

• Hackaday ☛ The Guinness Brewery Invented One Of Science’s Most Important Statistical Tools

  The Guinness brewery has a long history of innovation, but did you know that it was the birthplace of the t-test? A t-test is usually what underpins a declaration of results being “statistically significant”. Scientific American has a fascinating article all about how the Guinness brewery (and one experimental brewer in particular) brought it into being, with ramifications far beyond that of brewing better beer.

• Hackaday ☛ Human Brains Can Tell Deepfake Voices From Real Ones

  Although it’s generally accepted that synthesized voices which mimic real people’s voices (so-called ‘deepfakes’) can be pretty convincing, what does our brain really think of these mimicry attempts? To answer this question, researchers at the University of Zurich put a number of volunteers into fMRI scanners, allowing them to observe how their brains would react to real and a synthesized voices.  The perhaps somewhat surprising finding is that the human brain shows differences in two brain regions depending on whether it’s hearing a real or fake voice, meaning that on some level we are aware of the fact that we are listening to a deepfake.

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong logs 3.4 million visitor arrivals in May, 57% of pre-Covid levels

  Hong Kong’s tourist figures have continued to lag below pre-pandemic levels, with May’s 3.4 million provisional visitor arrivals just 57 per cent of the 5.9 million recorded in May 2019. Since fully reopening its borders last February after three years of Covid-related isolation, Hong Kong’s tourism recovery has been led by visitors from mainland China.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ A Critical Boom in Technology Traced Back More Than Half a Million Years

    This was where it all began.

  • Science Alert ☛ Millions at Risk as Heat Dome Over The US Soon to Send Temperatures Soaring

  • Science Alert ☛ New Test Detects Parkinson's 7 Years Before Most Symptoms Show

    There are signs in the blood.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvian citizen science platform gets EU recognition

    The digital platform of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia "Iesaisties.lv." has been recognized by the organizers of the European Union Prize for Citizen Science.

• Education

  • New York Times ☛ Newsom Calls for Ban on Smartphone Use in California Schools

    Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a statewide ban as states and large school districts have pursued similar prohibitions to prevent disruption and cyberbullying.

• Hardware

  • The Straits Times ☛ US pushing Netherlands, Japan to restrict more chipmaking equipment to China: Source

    Washington is trying to keep chipmaking equipment from China that could modernise its military.

  • Hackaday ☛ Recovering An Agilent 2000a/3000a Oscilloscope With Corrupt Firmware NAND Flash

    Everyone knows that you can never purchase enough projects off EBay, lest boredom might inadvertently strike. That’s why [Anthony Kouttron] got his mitts on an Agilent DSO-X 2014A digital oscilloscope that was being sold as defective and not booting, effectively just for parts. When [Anthony] received the unit, this turned out to be very much the case, with the front looking like it got dragged over the tarmac prior to having the stuffing beaten out of its knobs with a hammer. Fortunately, repairing the broken encoder and the plastic enclosure was easy enough, but the scope didn’t want to boot when powered on. How bad was the damage?

  • CNX Software ☛ AAEON uCOM-ADN SMARC SoM features defective chip maker Intel Processor N97, Core i3-N305, or Atom x7425E CPU

    AAEON uCOM-ADN is a SMARC-compliant system-on-module (SoM) based on an defective chip maker Intel Core i3-N305, defective chip maker Intel Atom x7425E, or defective chip maker Intel Processor N97 Alder Lake-N SoC and mainly designed for the digital signage and smart kiosk markets. The module is equipped with up to 8GB LPDDR5, up to 64GB eMMC flash, two 2.5GbE controllers, and offers a range of interfaces through a standard 314-pin MXM 3.0 connector such as SATA III, three PCIe Gen3 x1, DP++ and eDP video outputs, MIPI CSI camera input, and more.

  • Hackaday ☛ Astroscale’s ADRAS-J Satellite Takes Up-Close Photo Of Discarded Rocket Stage

    Although there is a lot of space in Earth orbit, there are also some seriously big man-made objects in those orbits, some of which have been there for decades. As part of efforts to remove at least some of this debris from orbit, Astroscale’s ADRAS-J (“Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan”) satellite has been partaking in JAXA’s Commercial Removal of Space Debris Demonstration (CRD2). After ADRAS-J was launched by a Rocket Lab Electron rocket on February 18, it’s been moving closer to its target, with June 14th seeing an approach by roughly 50 meters, allowing for an unprecedented photo to be made of the H-2A stage in orbit. This upper stage of a Japanese H-2A rocket originally launched the GOSAT Earth observation satellite into orbit back in 2009.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Furore in Malaysia over high healthcare fees for pets

    Pet lovers said some veterinarians who own small animal practices are imposing unreasonable charges.

  • ACLU ☛ The Supreme Court Rejected an Attack on Medication Abortion, But the Fight Is Far From Over.

    This month, the Supreme Court refused to consider a request by anti-abortion groups to impose nationwide restrictions on mifepristone, a safe medication used in most U.S. abortions and for miscarriage care. Without addressing whether mifepristone should be further restricted, the court found that these anti-abortion plaintiffs lack “legal standing” – meaning they do not have a sufficient connection to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation of mifepristone to be able to challenge the agency’s decisions in court.

  • Reason ☛ Anthony Fauci's Inner Circle Initially Thought COVID Came From a Lab

    Sen. Rand Paul explains why FOIA litigation shouldn’t have been necessary to find this out.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Single Vaccine For COVID And The Flu Promises to Be a Big Win For Public Health [Ed: Mixing something controversial and experimental with established vaccines would only harm confidence in vaccines in general]

    Reminder: these are deadly diseases.

  • WhichUK ☛ Which? Shorts podcast: the truth behind the palm oil industry

    We give you tips on how to shop more sustainably in an age when palm oil is used in so many everyday products.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • It's FOSS ☛ 10 AI-based Search Engines I Tested Recently

    No one's happy, but they're here. And, for the sake of it, we take a look at some Hey Hi (AI) search engine options.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia is now the world's most valuable company by market cap, ahead of Apple, Microsoft, and Google [Ed: The ONLY company making LOTS of money out of the HYPE of "Hey Hi". After "blockchain" comes "HEY HI". After that comes... what?]

    Nvidia has passed Abusive Monopolist Microsoft and Apple, becoming the world's most valuable company. The rise in valuation comes on the back of data center GPUs, as the world wants more and more Hey Hi (AI) processors.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Nvidia surpasses Abusive Monopolist Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company

    Red-hot artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia Corp. has finally achieved what many thought was only a matter of time, surpassing Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Corp. to become the most valuable publicly traded company in the world. The value of Nvidia’s stock gained more than 3.6% in trading today, pushing its market capitalization to $3.34 trillion.

  • France24 ☛ Nvidia edges past Fashion Company Apple and Abusive Monopolist Microsoft to become world's most valuable company on stock market

    Nvidia edged ahead of other tech companies Tuesday to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company in the latest sign of the might of artificial intelligence.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ “How old is that MS SQL Server?”

    Richard Speed in The Register:

    According to chief strategy officer [of Lansweeper] Roel Decneut, the biz scanned just over a million instances of SQL Server and found that 19.8 percent were now unsupported by Microsoft. Twelve percent were running SQL Server 2014, which is due to drop out of extended support on July 9 – meaning the proportion will be 32 percent early next month.

  • Beta News ☛ Yes, Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Cross Device Service is causing high CPU usage in backdoored Windows 11; no, there is no fix

    If you have been experiencing higher than normal CPU usage in Windows 11 recently, you are certainly not alone. There is good and bad news. The good news is twofold. Firstly, the cause of the issue has been identified by Microsoft, and secondly, it only affects Insider builds of Windows 11. The bad news, however, is that there is no fix available, and no indication of when this may change.

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ Rethinking Democracy for the Age of AI

    There is a lot written about technology’s threats to democracy. Polarization. Artificial intelligence. The concentration of wealth and power. I have a more general story: The political and economic systems of governance that were created in the mid-18th century are poorly suited for the 21st century. They don’t align incentives well. And they are being hacked too effectively.

    At the same time, the cost of these hacked systems has never been greater, across all human history.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Latvia ☛ Stay alert for phone scam in Latvia

      In the last year, 64% of Latvia's residents have experienced an attempt to defraud them, according to a survey conducted by Norstat for LSM.lv. Data from the State Police also show that the number of fraud episodes and the amount of damage caused are on the rise.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Off Guardian ☛ You will be tagged and you will love it

      As expected, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was the hottest anti-globalist multipolar traditional RETVRN values conference of 2024—possibly of all-time. The unipolar world suffered non-stop humiliations during this mind-blowing freedom event.

    • OpenRightsGroup ☛ No Data Protection, No Democracy

      As the General Election approaches, political parties in the UK are clashing and competing in the attempt to win voters, leaving no stone unturned—including the use of digital technologies.

    • AccessNow ☛ Privacy and human rights award at RightsCon 2025

      Access Now and the Global Privacy Assembly are launching a new international award to celebrate exemplary work to protect and promote privacy and other fundamental rights.

    • Privacy International ☛ Privacy International's comments on the updated draft text of the UN Cybercrime Convention (May 2024)

      >

    • SANS ☛ Video Meta Data: DJI Drones, (Sun, Jun 16th)

      Many years ago, I wrote about the EXIF data in pictures taken with Smartphones. Smartphones often record extensive meta data, including GPS and accelerometer data.

• Defence/Aggression

  • ADF ☛ Liberia Makes History with Female Defense Minister

    Retired Brig. Gen. Geraldine Janet George’s long, decorated career began in 2006 and culminated in late April, when the Liberian Senate confirmed her as the nation’s first female defense minister.

  • ADF ☛ JNIM Training Camp in Burkina Faso Shows Terror Group’s Deadly Ambition

    Newly released video shows Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) fighters in Burkina Faso marching with weapons held aloft and lining up on motorcycles. Analysts say the display of force is evidence that the terror group feels secure and is pushing to expand its reach despite the efforts of the country’s military junta.

  • New York Times ☛ French Court Strikes Down Ban of Israeli Companies at Arms Show

    A court ruled that France’s order to bar Israeli exhibitors from the Eurosatory arms show was discriminatory, as the French government’s criticism over the war in Gaza mounts.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ TikTok mistakenly refunds Bambu Lab A1 3D printer buyers — newer, non-faulty models flagged along with those that pose a safety risk

    Bambu Lab tried to put the messy February recall of 12,800 A1 3D printers behind it. But a heavy-handed refund by Fentanylware (TikTok) Shop – that included perfectly good updated printers – has dragged the ordeal back into the light.

  • JURIST ☛ UN human rights chief says number of children killed in armed conflicts tripled in 2023

    The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk declared in a statement that the number of children killed in international armed conflicts tripled in 2023, as he presented his global update to the 56th session of the Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok v. USA Oral Arguments Set for September 16th — A Little Over Four Months Before the Forced-Sale Deadline

    About one month after Fentanylware (TikTok) and the U.S. government jointly moved to fast-track their case, the court has officially set a date for oral arguments. That firm date, September 16th, was just recently finalized in a brief order.

  • JURIST ☛ Taiwan remains vigilant after Chinese nuclear submarine surfacing in Taiwan Strait

    Taiwan’s national defense minister, Wellington Koo, confirmed Tuesday that the government remains vigilant and has the necessary means to monitor the situation in the Taiwan Strait after photographs appeared online of a Chinese nuclear submarine surfacing near the island. Taiwanese media published photographs of the surfaced submarine taken early Tuesday morning by local fishermen.

  • ADF ☛ Turkey Sends Syrian Mercenaries to Niger

    A few kilometers from the border between Turkey and Syria, at Al-Muksourah base in the Tel Abyad countryside, Turkish military officers supervised a training course meant to prepare its participants for operations in Niger.

  • ADF ☛ Sudan Conflict Creates Power Vacuum al-Qaida Is Eager to Fill

    Nearly 15 months of chaos and war in Sudan have primed the country for the potential return of al-Qaida at a time when the terrorist network is seeking to strengthen its bases across the Sahel and launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, experts say.

  • ADF ☛ Somali Piracy Surges as New Threat Diverts Resources

    Gun-wielding pirates in two small boats attacked a Liberian-flagged cargo ship, the Basilisk, as it sailed about 380 nautical miles east of Somalia on May 23. Pirates fled as the Spanish warship Canarias responded.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Turkey signed two major deals with Somalia. Will it be able to implement them?

    Turkey will face major challenges from both external and domestic pressure in implementing its hydrocarbons and maritime security deals.

  • ADF ☛ Somalia Faces Critical Threat as Islamic State Group Expands in Puntland

    The Islamic State group in Somalia’s Puntland region reportedly has gained ground from al-Shabaab, its longtime rival. The IS claims to have taken control of the Al Miskaad mountain range.

  • ADF ☛ Access to Cheap Drones Leads to an Increase in Civilian Deaths

    As government forces and extremists increasingly use low-cost drones a on battlefields to monitor and attack each other, civilians often are caught in the middle with deadly consequences. The drone technology ranges from off-the-shelf mail-order hobby kits to military-grade machines developed by China, Iran, Turkey and other countries.

  • New York Times ☛ North Korea Has Lost ‘Many’ Troops to Mines in DMZ, South Says

    North Korean soldiers have been sent into the mine-strewn buffer zone to do construction work since November, the South Korean military said on Tuesday.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Philippines, China on collision course in disputed South China Sea territory

    The collision of a Chinese vessel and a Philippine supply ship near the disputed Spratly Islands on June 17 is yet another incident among increasingly frequent and direct confrontations between China and its neighbors surrounding the South China Sea.

  • RFA ☛ Manila accuses China of dangerous maneuvers in South China Sea

    8 Philippine naval personnel were injured when Chinese vessels blocked a Philippine supply ship.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Pro Publica ☛ Easily Search the Finances of 527s With ProPublica’s New Database

    Each year, people and companies contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to tax-exempt political organizations in an effort to influence elections nationwide. These organizations, commonly known as 527s after a section of the tax code, can raise unlimited sums for political spending. Today, ProPublica is releasing a database that will allow journalists, researchers and others to more easily search 527s’ finances and find patterns.

    It’s a wide-ranging trove of data that includes well-known groups such as the Democratic Governors Association, which influences pivotal races nationwide, and many obscure ones, including the Minnesota-based organization Garbage Haulers for Citizen Choice, which says it advocates for local freedom of choice in waste pickup.

  • ProPublica 527 Explorer

    Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars flow through little-known political organizations called 527s. Use our database to explore who funds these organizations and how they’re spending their money.

• Environment

  • New York Times ☛ Why Longer Heat Waves Are So Dangerous

    Researchers have found that longer-lasting heat waves can be deadlier and can pose unique health risks.

  • New York Times ☛ Heavy Rains Lash Southern China, Killing at Least 9

    Rains set off landslides and inundated villages in the south, forcing thousands to evacuate. In the north, residents sweltered through a drought.

  • BIA Net ☛ Turkey grapples with wildfires amid heatwave

    Wildfires erupted in at least 19 provinces this month. The authorities have imposed restrictions on entries in forest areas.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ Labour Ignores Coal Mine-Shaped Elephant in the Room

    • DeSmog ☛ The Real Cowboys of Alberta Battle Zombie Coal Mine

    • DeSmog ☛ Fossil Fuel Advocate Wants ‘Complete Reset’ of Energy Policy After Trudeau

    • H2 View ☛ Hong Kong unveils hydrogen strategy: aims to link China with global markets

      Hong Kong plans to use clean hydrogen in transportation and power applications under a new strategy that aims to bridge the gap between Beijing and the rest of the world.

    • Zimbabwe ☛ The government wants to understand crypto to regulate it, help them know what’s what

      As Zimbabweans, we love complaining about how our government resists innovation and progress. They usually give us reason to complain so but once in a while, Zimbabwe gets on a train early. Zimbabwe is now seriously looking at cryptocurrencies and that’s good to see.

• Finance

  • New York Times ☛ How Capitalism Went Off the Rails

    Easy money destroyed the basis for productive, competitive markets.

  • New York Times ☛ More Doctors Walk Off the Job in South Korea

    Physicians across the country staged a one-day strike, the latest escalation in a months-old protest against the government’s plan to train more doctors.

  • New York Times ☛ Kenya Tax Bill Draws Fire From Protesters

    The government is trying to pass a finance bill in Parliament that would involve increasing taxes. Critics say it will raise the cost of living for Kenyans who are already struggling economically.

  • JURIST ☛ Kenya dispatch: police teargas protesters and arrest hundreds opposing government Finance Bill on Nairobi streets

    Aynsley Genga is JURIST’s senior Kenya correspondent. She files this from Nairobi. What is democracy? At its core, democracy embodies the will of the people. While definitions may vary, democracy is fundamentally a system of governance where the people’s voices are not only heard, but honored.

  • Latvia ☛ The Bundesbank's man in the Baltics

    As previously reported by LSM, the Deutsche Bundesbank has taken a new focus on the Baltic States – and posted Nikola Marcinko as its special representative in Rīga with responsibility for Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in an initiative to deepen ties with the Baltic central banks.

  • UWindsor Layoffs: 10 employees cut amid $5.6M budget shortfall

    Big names, including Vancity, Stifel, WillScot of Canada, Netflix, McKinsey & Co, EXL Service, Best Buy, Relic Entertainment, Ubisoft, Intel, Amazon, Telus, Canada Goose, Dell, Unilever, IBM, and TC Energy, have pulled out the axe as they continue to navigate challenging economic conditions.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Press Gazette ☛ Has Rishi Sunak already lost support of The Sun? Press general election bias tracked

    National front pages evenly split between and pro- and anti-Conservative sentiment.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Tories have slight lead versus Labour… on BillBC general election push notifications

    Some 68 general election news push notifications have been sent to 7m mobile phone users.

  • Pro Publica ☛ These Political Nonprofits Spend 90% of Donations on Fundraising

    In September 2020, the Federal Trade Commission joined regulators in four states to sue four men behind a notorious telemarketing company called Outreach Calling. The FTC alleged that the company, which it described as a “sprawling fundraising operation,” had raised millions on the promise of helping the needy — cancer patients, veterans, firefighters — but instead used the money to line its pockets.

    The case was meant to put fundraisers on notice. The FTC would not only go after charities that improperly spent donor dollars, but it would “aggressively pursue their fundraisers who participate in the deception,” a news release said.

  • EFF ☛ What’s the Difference Between Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads? [Ed: EFF pushing social control media instead of opposing that nonsense]

    The mainstream social web arguably became “five websites, each consisting of screenshots of text from the other four,”  but in just the last few years radical and controversial changes to major platforms were a wake up call to many and are driving people to seek alternatives to the billionaire-driven monocultures.

    Two major ecosystems have emerged in the wake, both encouraging the variety and experimentation of the earlier web. The first, built on ActivityPub protocol, is called the Fediverse. While it includes many different kinds of websites, Mastodon and Threads have taken off as alternatives for Twitter that use this protocol. The other is the AT Protocol, powering the Twitter alternative Bluesky.

    These protocols, a shared language between computer systems, allow websites to exchange information. It’s a simple concept you’re benefiting from right now, as protocols enable you to read this post in your choice of app or browser. Opening this freedom to social media has a huge impact, letting everyone send and receive posts their own preferred way. Even better, these systems are open to experiment and can cater to every niche, while still connecting to everyone in the wider network. You can leave the dead malls of platform capitalism, and find the services which cater to you.

  • EFF ☛ How to Clean Up Your Bluesky Feed [Ed: EFF jumped the shark big time, it is promoting very harmful online platforms]

    Currently, Bluesky is mostly a single experience that operates on one set of flagship services operated by the Bluesky corporation. As the AT Protocol expands and decentralizes, so will the variety of moderation and custom algorithmic feed options. But for the time being, we have Bluesky.

    Bluesky’s current moderation filters operate on two levels: the default options built in the Bluesky app, and community created filters called “labelers”. The company’s default system includes options and company labelers which hide the sorts of things we’re all used to having restricted on social networks, like spam or adult content. It also includes defaults to hiding other categories like engagement farming and certain extremist views. Community options use Bluesky’s own moderation tool, Ozone, and are built exactly the same system as the company’s default ones; the only difference is which ones are built into the app. All this choice ends up being both powerful and overwhelming. So let’s walk through how to use it to make your Bluesky experience as good as possible.

    Bluesky offers several ways to control what appears in your feed: labeling and curation tools to hide (or warn about) the content of a post, and tools to block accounts from your feed entirely. Let’s start with customizing the content you see.

  • EFF ☛ California Lawmakers Should Reject Mandatory Internet ID Checks

    If you care about a free and open internet for all, and are a California resident, now would be a good time to contact your California Assemblymember and Senator and tell them you oppose A.B. 3080. 

    If A.B. 3080 passes, it would make it illegal to show websites with one-third or more “sexually explicit content” to minors. These “explicit” websites would join a list of products or services that can’t be legally sold to minors in California, including things like firearms, ammunition, tobacco, and e-cigarettes. 

    But these things are not the same, and should not be treated the same under state or federal law. Adults have a First Amendment right to look for information online, including sexual content. One of the reasons EFF has opposed mandatory age verification is because there’s no way to check ID online just for minors without drastically harming the rights of adults to read, get information, and to speak and browse online anonymously. 

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • France24 ☛ UNESCO sounds alarm over artificial intelligence-fuelled Holocaust denial

      AI technology is helping to create false stories about World War II atrocities including Holocaust denial, risking an "explosive spread of anti-Semitism", the UN warned Tuesday.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Senate intelligence chair sees ‘Wild West’ election risks from Hey Hi (AI) and disinformation

      At a Monitor Breakfast, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia talked about threats to U.S. elections and to national security, from the border to TikTok.

    • New Yorker ☛ Could the 2024 Election Be Decided by Memes?

      Supporters of the Trump and Biden campaigns are trying to engineer viral moments to win the election through social control media.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Press Gazette ☛ Joey Barton pays Jeremy Vine £75,000 to settle ‘bike nonce’ libel claim

    Ex-footballer Barton has accepted his claims were "very serious" and "untrue".

  • Reason ☛ Journal of Free Speech Law: "FDA Regulation of Physicians' Professional Speech," by Prof. Barbara J. Evans

    An early article from what will eventually be several on Information as Medicine.

  • RFA ☛ Calling a halt to hate speech

  • The Strategist ☛ Slovakia’s anti-democratic government is doubling down

    Just as Slovakia entered a moratorium on public speeches and campaigning ahead of this month’s European Parliament elections, Prime Minister Robert Fico delivered his first public remarks since he was seriously injured in an assassination attempt...

  • JURIST ☛ China court sentences women’s rights activists for ‘subversion’

    Chinese activists Sophia Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing were sentenced on Friday by the Guangzhou Intermediate Court to five years and three years and six months in prison, respectively, for “subversion against the state,” as shared by supporters of the activists on social control media.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘They are my heroes’: Team behind Hong Kong’s new security law to receive award for excellence, John Lee says

    A government taskforce behind the fast-tracked legislation of Hong Kong’s homegrown security law will receive an award for completing the “historical mission,” Chief Executive John Lee has said.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong will monitor new electoral systems before considering direct voting for leader or lawmakers, official says

    The Hong Kong government will observe the outcome of major electoral overhauls before considering direct voting to elect the city’s leader or legislature, an official in charge of constitutional affairs has said.

  • Reason ☛ President Biden Should Pardon D.M. Bennett

    Issuing a posthumous pardon for Bennett would reaffirm our nation’s commitment to free expression and intellectual freedom.

  • BIA Net ☛ YouTuber faces legal action over sharia law comments

    Two social control media personalities engaged in a debate over the Sharia law. The atheist one, who is widely considered to have won the debate, is facing potential prison term.

  • JURIST ☛ Human rights groups join in statement calling Tunisia government to end crackdown on free speech

    A group of human rights organizations in a joint statement released on Tuesday called on the government of Tunisia to end its recent crackdown on free speech and free association and to uphold respect for human rights as attacks on journalists, lawyers and human rights groups have “significantly escalated” in the last month.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • RFA ☛ Australia complains after Chinese officials block view of Cheng Lei

    Australian journalist who was jailed in China was covering Premier Li Qiang’s press conference.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Daily Mail launches ‘blockbuster’ video strategy aimed at home TV viewers

    Head of new global video studio Tony Manfred explains TV expansion.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Reason ☛ Protections for the Undocumented

    Plus: Putin goes to North Korea, designer babies, YIMBY wins, and more...

  • RFERL ☛ Jailed Kazakh Activist Launches Hunger Strike

    Kazakh opposition activist Aidar Syzdyqov, who was arrested in May on a charge of "selling illegal drugs," launched a hunger strike four days ago, his wife, Aigul Toqpaeva, said on June 18.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Ahead of Juneteenth, Maryland Pardons 175K Pot Convictions, Seeking to Remedy Harms of War on Drugs

    We host a roundtable conversation on Maryland Governor Wes Moore’s historic pardons of 175,000 marijuana-related convictions in the state, including drug paraphernalia-related convictions. Jheanelle Wilkins is the chair of Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus; Maritza Perez Medina is the director of federal affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance; and Jason Ortiz, who was himself arrested at the age of 16 for cannabis possession, is director of strategic initiatives at the Last Prisoner Project. “It’s incumbent upon us to make sure we take action to repair the harms” of the war on drugs, says Wilkins. Maryland legalized the use of recreational marijuana in 2022, but the mass pardons provide historic relief for those who faced criminal consequences while the drug was illegal. Moore says he timed the pardons for the week of Juneteenth, the federal holiday on June 19 to mark the end of slavery in the United States — a symbolic move that underlines the disproportionate impact of drug criminalization on Black communities. Our guests call on other states and the federal government to follow Maryland’s example, as we also discuss the Biden administration’s recent descheduling of marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug. “This needs to go further,” says Medina. “We want to make sure we’re also focusing on community investment and retroactive relief,” adds Ortiz.

  • JURIST ☛ EU calls on China to cease ‘very serious’ human rights violations

    The EU Monday expressed concerns about what it called the “very serious human rights situation” in China, particularly in Xingjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong during the the 39th session of the Joint Human Rights Dialogue in Chongqing in China.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Amazon’s first labor union partners with the Teamsters

    Members of the Amazon Labor Union, the one and only unionized Amazon warehouse, have voted to join forces with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Workers at Amazon.com Inc.’s JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island voted to unionize in 2022, becoming the first and still the only Amazon warehouse to make such a decision.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ Tech Will Power The O2 Concession Stand—After the Company Gave Up on Just Walk Out Grocery Stores

    Despite giving up on its own Just Walk Out technology to power self-serve grocery stores, Amazon isn’t giving up on the tech entirely. A new partnership with The O2 Arena in London will see the technology power cashier-less checkout there—ideally to reduce long lines while at the venue.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• New Research: Stricter Abuse of Dominance Provisions Hurt GDP & Job Growth

  Over recent years, many of your state legislators have proposed to expand state-level antitrust legislation...

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ Munich Regional Court sticks to its guns in PI dispute over Bayer’s Xarelto

    Bayer is fighting tooth and nail to defend its market share for blockbuster drug Xarelto. In May, Munich Regional Court issued preliminary injunctions prohibiting seven generics manufacturers from selling their products in Germany. Under German procedural law, defendant companies can ask a chamber to review a PI decision.

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Sustainability and IP [Ed: Buzzwords and misnomers]

    The question on how intellectual property and specifically patents can contribute to sustainable innovations that contribute towards the both inevitable and highly desirable transition towards a CO2-neutral economy happened to be the key subject of no less than two conferences that I had the pleasure to attend within the last 5 days.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Patent hoarder sues Micron for up to $480 million for infringement — South Korean firm Mimir IP acquired the patents from SK hynix in May

    Mimir IP acquired around 1,500 patents from SK hynix just last month, and has now sued Micron and its partners for patent monopoly infringement in a seeming proxy battle. Such tactics are becoming increasingly common in the semiconductor industry.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Three Recent Section 2(d) Appeals For Your Consideration

    The rate of affirmance for Section 2(d) refusals is running at about 93% so far this year, a tad higher than usual. Here are three recent TTAB decisions. How do you think they came out? [Answers in first comment.]

    In re Alex Avila, Serial No. 97253987 (June 11, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Michael B. Adlin) [Section 2(d) refusal of the mark LOVE UNIVERSITY for “educational services, namely, conducting seminars, lectures, teleseminars, teleclasses, and workshops in personal awareness; entertainment services, namely, providing video podcasts in the field of psychology/spirituality/self help" [UNIVERSITY disclaimed], in view of the registered mark LUV YOUNIVERSITY for "education services, namely, providing mentoring, tutoring, classes, seminars and workshops in the field of self improvement, relationships, health and wellness, business; entertainment services, namely, providing podcasts in the field of self improvement, relationships, health and wellness, business; entertainment services, namely, providing video podcasts in the field of self improvement, relationships, health and wellness, business; publishing of books, e books, audio books, music and illustrations.]

  • TTAB Blog ☛ "ECOPRENEUR" Merely Descriptive of Environmental Awareness Software and Services, Says TTAB

    The Board wasted little Time in upholding the USPTO's Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusal of the proposed mark ECOPRENEUR for software and services relating to environmental awareness, including educational and research services. Applicant Time USA, Inc. feebly argued that the word "ecopreneur" does not appear in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, that it is merely suggestive because "understanding of the goods and services in connection with the Mark is not instantaneous,” but requires “several mental steps, and that the term is incongruous because it refers to a type of person, not to goods or services. In re Time USA, LLC, Serial No. 90493176 (June 17, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Michael B. Adlin).

• Copyrights

  • EFF ☛ Ah, Steamboat Willie. It’s been too long. 🐭

    Creativity should spark more creativity.

    That’s not how intellectual property laws are supposed to work. In the United States, these laws were designed to give creators a financial incentive to contribute to science and culture. Then eventually the law makes this expression free for everyone to enjoy and build upon. Disney itself has reaped the abundant benefits of works in the public domain including Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid" and "The Snow Queen." Creativity should spark more creativity.

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Raffaele Mainella’s Illustrations for Nos Invisibles (1907)

    Ethereal illustrations for a book that charts the voices of Balzac, Zola, Flaubert, and other illustrious writers and thinkers from beyond the grave.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ 2.6M Piracy Reports Against French Users Resulted in 234 Financial Penalties

    In 2023, rightsholders monitoring French internet users submitted 2.6 million complaints to the authorities after determining illegal sharing of pirated content on peer-to-peer networks, including BitTorrent. For the whole of 2023, a total of 3,844 subscribers were labeled 'grossly negligent' after receiving a third warning while 1,526 cases were sent to the public prosecutor. A relatively small number, just 234, received a financial penalty.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Football League Scores ‘Dynamic’ Pirate Site Blocking Orders in Peru

    The Peruvian IP protection authority has issued two new injunctions, requiring ISPs to block nearly two dozen sports streaming domains. The orders come at the request of 1190 Peru, which exploits various sports leagues, including the local football league. While not all blocking requests were honored, this is the first 'dynamic' order, allowing the targeted domains to be updated.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Nintendo Takedown Wipes "Rhythm Heaven" Remix Tool & 250+ Forks Off GitHub

    Nintendo's DMCA takedown campaign continues with the targeting of "Heaven Studio", a fan-created remix tool for the game "Rhythm Heaven." The software was flagged because it uses copyrighted sprites and sound effect files, but GitHub has taken the entire repository and 290 forks offline. Despite the setback, the tool's developers are not giving up.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Police Make New Pirate IPTV Arrest as Public Criticism Over Priorities Persists

    UK police are reporting yet another pirate IPTV-related arrest. A warrant was executed at a flat in Nottingham where a 42-year-old was detained on suspicion of offenses related to the provision of pirated Sky broadcasts. For deterrent purposes, both the police and Sky want reports like this to reach the public, and that is being achieved. The response, however, is one of almost universal criticism, on grounds that in many cases have little or nothing to do with piracy.