Links 23/06/2024: Twitter/X Wants Your Money, Google Reports a Billion DMCA Takedowns in Four Months
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- 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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Robert Birming ☛ My blogging journey | Robert Birming
Inspired by Juha-Matti Santala's post, Short history of my blogging journey, I decided to write a text about my blogging journey, which has been a bit bumpy, to say the least.
I started blogging about 20 years ago using Movable Type, which was pretty much the only tool available at the time. After about a year, I switched to WordPress.
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Juha-Matti Santala ☛ Short history of my blogging journey
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I learned to read and write at a very young age and have been reading and writing stories ever since. But it has taken a long time to get where I am now. This summer was the first time I started to feel satisfied with my writing quality.
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The Scientist ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] How to Present a Research Study’s Limitations
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Overwhelmed by Anger Around Us? Thoughts on How to De-escalate a Situation
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Standards/Consortia
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The Register UK ☛ AT&T's request to withdraw Cali landline services denied
The telecommunications giant is considered a carrier of last resort (COLR) in California, which means that in certain areas, AT&T is legally obligated to provide its telephone services to anyone who asks, including landlines. The COLR designation basically exists to prevent telecoms firms from withdrawing from areas entirely, leaving citizens without any access to phone networks.
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PC Mag ☛ Not Dead Yet: AT&T Must Continue Providing Landline Service in California
AT&T claims that maintaining the copper lines used in some rural areas of California is too costly.
In its rejection, the commission noted, "COLR rules are technology-neutral and do not distinguish between voice services offered—such as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), commonly known as landline service, or Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)—and do not prevent AT&T from retiring copper facilities or from investing in fiber or other facilities/technologies to improve its network."
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[Old] Eisefunke ☛ SVG: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
SVG, short for “scalable vector graphics” is a format for, well, scalable vector graphics. In this article I summarize my opinion of the format, what its problems are and suggest what could be done to improve things.
I’ve been using SVG together with Inkscape regularly for a few years for sketches and graphics, and like to write it by hand to satisfy my love for precision and art through code. SVG and I have a kind of love-hate relationship. It’s powerful and has some nice free and open-source tooling, but the format itself is pretty ugly.
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Science
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The Register UK ☛ NASA finds humanity would totally fumble asteroid defense
In an exercise involving multiple US government agencies during April 2024, NASA conducted a so-called "tabletop" game in which participants plot their response to a 72 percent chance that an asteroid may hit Earth in 14 years. The results were sobering.
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Education
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CS Monitor ☛ Gangs have taken over Haiti. Schools must educate anyway.
Despite these real challenges – and the constant refrain that the Caribbean nation has hit rock bottom – Haitians are adept at meeting crises head on. One need not look further than the country’s primary and secondary schools to understand the extent of Haiti’s troubles, as teachers and administrators scramble to educate a generation otherwise lost to insecurity.
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Change.org PBC ☛ Petition · Let Readers Read: An Open Letter to the Publishers in Hachette v. Internet Archive: - United States · Change.org
We, the undersigned, are lifelong beneficiaries of libraries. We are avid readers, educators, researchers, librarians, authors, publishers and lifelong learners whose lives and communities have been transformed by public access to knowledge. In light of the ongoing legal battle in Hachette v. Internet Archive, we are writing to urge you to reconsider your stance and restore our access to the books that you have caused to be removed from the Internet Archive’s lending collection.
For more than twenty years, the Internet Archive has empowered students, teachers, and readers around the world, providing access to a vital library of books, many of which are otherwise inaccessible to readers due to geographical, financial, or physical constraints.
Your decision to remove books from the Internet Archive is having a devastating impact on readers in the US and around the world, with far-reaching implications: [...]
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ AI titans Microsoft and Nvidia reportedly had a standoff over Microsoft's use of B200 AI GPUs in its own server rooms
A dispute like this this is a sign of how large and valuable Nvidia has become over the span of just a year. Nvidia became the most valuable company earlier this week (briefly), and that title will likely change hands many times in the coming months. Server racks aren't the only area Nvidia wants to control, as the tech giant also controls how much GPU inventory gets allocated to each customer to maintain demand, and it's using its dominant position in the AI space to push its own software and networking systems to maintain its position as a market leader.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Can GM crops promise food security?
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So it’s guilt by association again, is it?
Sometimes, a blogger’s gotta do what a blogger’s gotta do, even if it’s a post that he doesn’t really want to write. However, when deceptive attacks attempting to portray me as tight with a pedophile reach a certain level, eventually I do feel obligated to respond. So it has been the last week or two, the attacks coming from a particularly odious and stupid antivax quack, namely William Makis, one of the originators and key popularizers of the myth that COVID-19 vaccines are responsible for a wave of “turbo cancer.” Even though he blocked me on X, the hellsite formerly known as Twitter, through the intervention of others I learned that he’s been claiming that I was in the pay of the odious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who after his arrest in 2019 on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York committed suicide in his jail cell, leading me to say, “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”
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Science Alert ☛ Older People Who Use Psychedelics Show Fascinating Brain Functions
Despite a growing number of clinical trials exploring the potential health benefits of these illicit and historically stigmatized drugs, today's studies rarely include older patients. In fact, the possibility that psychedelics could be used as a tool to restore processes in the aging brain has hardly been explored at all.
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New York Times ☛ These Grieving Parents Want Congress to Protect Children Online
Ms. Schmill is among dozens of parents who are lobbying for the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, a bill that would require social media, gaming and messaging apps to limit features that could heighten depression or bullying or lead to sexual exploitation. The bill, which has the greatest momentum of any broad tech industry legislation in years, would also require the tech services to turn on the highest privacy and safety settings by default for users under 17 and let youths opt out of some features that can lead to compulsive use.
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The Record ☛ Texas judge upholds hospitals’ right to use online tracking technology
The judge backed arguments from hospital trade groups and local healthcare systems who said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) went beyond its authority when it issued a policy around the technology, which it said was intended to protect the privacy of web users.
Issued in 2022, the HHS guidance cautioned health care providers that allowing third-party vendors to collect data from users of their websites could break the 1996 federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) law.
HIPAA prohibits the public sharing of private health information to protect against discrimination.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Chris Enns ☛ David Simon on AI
In light of OpenAI's CTO Mira Murati saying the quiet part out loud about OpenAI's view of creative people, I love this exchange between David Simon, creator of The Wire among many other great series, and Ari Shapiro from an interview during the writer's strike:
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NL Times ☛ Social media platform X wants to charge money for live streams
X's announcement to abolish free live streaming immediately led to criticism. People who want to broadcast live images are likelier to switch to YouTube or Twitch, with which X previously said it wanted to compete.
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Futurism ☛ Asked to Summarize a Webpage, Perplexity Instead Invented a Story About a Girl Who Follows a Trail of Glowing Mushrooms in a Magical Forest
In fact, as Wired's logs showed, the search engine never even attempted to visit the page, despite Perplexity's assurances that its chatbot "searches the internet to give you an accessible, conversational, and verifiable answer."
The bizarre tale of Amelia in the magical forest perfectly illustrates a glaring discrepancy between the lofty promises Perplexity and its competitors make and what its chatbots are actually capable of in the real world.
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India Times ☛ Multiple AI companies bypassing web standard to scrape publisher sites, licensing firm says
A Wired investigation published this week found Perplexity likely bypassing efforts to block its web crawler via the Robots Exclusion Protocol, or "robots.txt," a widely accepted standard meant to determine which parts of a site are allowed to be crawled.
Perplexity declined a Reuters request for comment on the dispute.
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India Times ☛ US proposes targeted restrictions for AI, tech investment in China
Public comments will be accepted until Aug. 4, which means the U.S. is on track to implement regulations by the end of the year as anticipated.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ Artificial intelligence has spread lies about my good name, and I'm here to settle the score
Artificial intelligence lies.
Everyone knows this by now, of course. Programs such as ChatGPT and Google’s “AI overviews” routinely generate nonsense when queried by users. Tech enthusiasts call these mistakes “hallucinations,” as though AI just needs to sober up and come to its senses. I don’t see it that way.
Because AI has started fibbing about me and my family.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Child Privacy Complaint Against TikTok Referred to US Justice Dept
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Federal Trade Commission Refers Complaint About TikTok's Adherence to Child Privacy Law to the DOJ
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] US Lawsuit Against TikTok to Focus on Children's Privacy
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Make Tech Easier ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] TikTok Resigned to US Ban Unless Courts Step In
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The Verge ☛ Typing to AI assistants might be the way to go
There’s a time and place for everything. In the privacy of my own home, I’ve got no problem saying “hey” to Google, Alexa, Siri, Meta, and on occasion, Bixby. But out in public? Where other people can perceive me? I’d rather crawl under a rock.
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Axios ☛ Some parents struggle to stop tracking their kids' every move — even in college
By the numbers: 84% of U.S. parents use some form of tracking to monitor their kids, according to a survey from Malwarebytes, a cybersecurity company.
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The Register UK ☛ Apple Intelligence won't be available in Europe initially
In a statement on Friday, the iPhone maker claimed those rules would make its products less private, somehow, saying it is concerned the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) "could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security."
We've asked Apple to clarify aspects of that announcement, made via carefully selected media including Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.
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India Times ☛ Apple delays rollout of AI features in Europe
Apple on Friday said it would delay the rollout of its recently announced AI features in Europe because of "regulatory uncertainties" linked to the EU's new landmark legislation to curb the power of big tech.
Citing the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a spokesperson for the iPhone-making juggernaut said "we do not believe that we will be able to roll out these features to our EU users this year."
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[Repeat] Michael Geist ☛ Road to Nowhere: Parliament Breaks For the Summer With Little Accomplished on Digital Policy
While the clock may run out on C-27 and C-63, Bill S-210, the mandated age verification bill, is almost surely headed for a vote in the fall. The bill did not receive a proper review at committee and was reported back to the House without any (much needed) amendments. Since the bill has already passed the Senate, it is only a couple of votes away from becoming law. The government will oppose the legislation, the Conservatives inexplicably support, and the remaining question is whether one of the Bloc or NDP will reverse their prior positions and vote against an obviously flawed age verification plan that would have significant implications for streaming services, search, and social media. Another bill that made some progress is Bill C-26, a cyber-security bill that has raised privacy security, and affordability concerns. The bill was introduced two years ago, but just now cleared the House. Senate hearings will presumably start in the fall and there is sufficient time for a full review and vote.
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India Times ☛ Facial recognition startup Clearview AI settles privacy suit
Facial recognition startup Clearview AI reached a settlement Friday in an Illinois lawsuit alleging its massive photographic collection of faces violated the subjects' privacy rights, a deal that attorneys estimate could be worth more than $50 million.
But the unique agreement gives plaintiffs in the federal suit a share of the company's potential value, rather than a traditional payout. Attorneys' fees estimated at $20 million also would come out of the settlement amount.
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[Repeat] Tedium ☛ Dear Meta: A One-Way Fediverse Integration Isn’t Good Enough
Maybe this makes me a stick in the mud, but I remember a point about six years ago where it came out that Facebook lied to hundreds of large publishers and advertisers.
It told them a few years prior that users wanted video content. But it was a fact built on faulty data that the company was slow to explain was faulty, and it led to layoffs across the media industry. The media industry is still hurting because of what happened here, more than half a decade later.
For that reason and myriad others, the company known as Meta is not to be trusted. So I don’t.
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Defence/Aggression
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] New Security System Uses AI to Shoot Criminals With Paintballs
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] Increased security measures announced ahead of Jerry Seinfeld's Melbourne comedy shows
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] Syrian general acquitted of war crimes by Swedish court
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] US Army Kills Senior Islamic State Official in Syria
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Fight for Control of Yemen's Banks Between Rebels, Government Threatens to Further Wreck Economy
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RTL ☛ Outspoken criticism: Arab-American mayor warns Biden has not 'earned my vote'
Abdullah Hammoud's election as the first Muslim mayor of Dearborn was a watershed moment for this city, an automaking hub home to the highest concentration of Arab-Americans in the United States.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Is the end of the petrodollar near?
As countries from the BRICS group and regions including the Middle East and Asia increase the use of local currencies for cross-border payments, there is a growing perception that the dollar’s importance in international finance is ebbing, particularly in global oil markets and the use of the petrodollar.
What exactly is the petrodollar? In short, it’s a commitment by Saudi Arabia to use dollar revenues from oil sales to the United States to buy US Treasuries. But the history is more complicated.
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VOA News ☛ Analysts worried by report of Sahel militants crossing into Nigeria
The 81-page report says extremists believed to be linked with al-Qaida in the last year have migrated from the Republic of Benin and settled in northern Nigeria, including around Kainji National Park.
If not addressed, the trend could escalate attacks in both countries already struggling with lethal violence from groups, the report indicates.
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New York Times ☛ How Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Failed Children on Safety
The email exchanges are just one slice of evidence cited among more than a dozen lawsuits filed since last year by the attorneys general of 45 states and the District of Columbia. The states accuse Meta of unfairly ensnaring teenagers and children on Instagram and Facebook while deceiving the public about the hazards. Using a coordinated legal approach reminiscent of the government’s pursuit of Big Tobacco in the 1990s, the attorneys general seek to compel Meta to bolster protections for minors.
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Defence Web ☛ US deeply concerned about growing terrorism in Africa and democratic backsliding
“The Sahel is the global epicentre of terrorism deaths, and this threat cannot be addressed without partnerships. These partnerships need to include civil society, in order to sustainably address the conditions conducive to terrorism and violent extremism,” Woods said.
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India Times ☛ US lawsuit against TikTok to focus on childrens' privacy
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to focus an upcoming lawsuit against TikTok on allegations that the popular social media platform violated the privacy rights of children, rather than claims it misled adult users about its data privacy practices, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigated the potential violations by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance and referred the case to the Justice Department on Tuesday.
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VOA News ☛ China threatens death penalty for Taiwan separatists
Beijing has made no secret of its dislike for Lai and his pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party. The new measures appear to be the latest effort by China to drive a wedge between the Taiwanese public and the new administration.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Death penalty among China's punishment guidelines for Taiwan independence advocates
It has stepped up pressure on Taipei in recent years and held war games around the island last month following the inauguration of its new leader Lai Ching-te.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ U.S. bans Kaspersky and hands out sanctions to execs — 100 days until class-leading antivirus ban takes effect
Fearing connections with the Russian government, the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued the first sanctions on Kaspersky on Thursday, issuing a Final Determination banning Kaspersky from providing antivirus or cybersecurity solutions to anyone in the United States. The sweeping ban was the first of its kind issued by the BIS after expanded powers were granted by the last two presidents of the United States.
The U.S. also placed Kaspersky Lab and its U.K. holding company on the Entity List, cutting them off from any U.S. trade entirely. The next day, twelve members of Kaspersky Lab’s board of executives and leadership were individually sanctioned, with most of Kaspersky Lab’s C-suite receiving individual punishment for their association with Kaspersky and suspected association with the Russian government. CEO and founder Eugene Kaspersky was excluded from this round of sanctions.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] President Biden Bans Kaspersky Antivirus Software Over Russia Ties
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Russia's Putin in Hanoi: What does Vietnam hope to gain?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv strikes Russian oil facilities
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Ukrainian Drones Knock Out Two Substations, Russia-Installed Officials Say
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] UN Chief Says Russia Must Uphold North Korea Sanctions
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] Russia's Putin arrives in Vietnam on state visit
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russian 'mass attack' hits thermal plant
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] North Korea, Russia Pact: to Give All Available Military Help if Other Is Invaded
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Reassessing Russia’s Engagement with Zimbabwe
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Russian President visits North Korea
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Outgoing NATO chief says China should face consequences for backing Russia's war on Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] How is North Korea supporting Russia in Ukraine?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] North Korea's Kim and Russia's Putin sign partnership treaty
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] North Korea's Kim greets Russia's Putin at Pyongyang airport
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Sanctions on Russian diamonds: Good or bad for Africa?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia steps up attacks on frontline town
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Russian Court Sentences US Soldier to Nearly 4 Years on Theft Charges
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Russia in Talks With Partners on Deployment of Long-Range Weapons, TASS Reports
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] US Soldier Jailed for Nearly Four Years in Russia After Love Story Turns Sour
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] US Soldier Sentenced to Nearly Four Years in Russia's Penal Colony, Russian Agencies Report
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Fire at Drone-Hit Russian Oil Depot Rages for Second Day, Emergency Services Say
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Germany Holds up Passage of New EU Sanctions Package on Russia
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] North Korea's Kim Vows 'Full Support' for Russia in Ukraine as Putin Announces Deal to Boost Ties
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] NATO Chief Says Russia, North Korea Pact Shows Mutual Support by Authoritarian Powers
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Russian Court Upholds Physicist's 12-Year Treason Sentence
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Russian Drone Attack on Lviv Region Injures One, Ukraine Official Says
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Russia's Putin Praises Vietnam for Its Stance on Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] What's Known, and Not Known, About the Partnership Agreement Signed by Russia and North Korea
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ANF News ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] ISIS-linked militants who took prison guards hostage in Russia killed
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Between ‘Rebelling’ and ‘Conforming’: The Gendered Paradox of the Put’ Domoi Movement in Russia
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] NATO: 500,000 Troops on High Readiness for War with Russia
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Germany faces threats from extremists, Russia and China
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Russia's Putin in rare visit to North Korea
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Ukraine updates: Oil depots ablaze in Russia's Rostov region
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Russian President visits North Korean leader
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Minister defends Canadian navy ship's visit to Cuba with Russian vessels in port
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia seeks gains as Kyiv awaits F-16s
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Spiegel ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Putin's Invasion of Ukraine: Are Airbus Satellite Images Helping Russia Wage War?
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Shorten says Ukraine’s allies remain united against Russian aggression
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] 139 People in Russia Seek Medical Help With Botulism Symptoms. Ready-To-Eat Salads May Be to Blame
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Estonia's Kallas, Fierce Russia Critic, Tipped as New EU Foreign Policy Chief
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Russian Official Says Ukraine Pouring Troops Into Contested Kharkiv Region
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Russian Warships Leave Havana's Port After a 5-Day Visit to Cuba
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] In Sudan, Russia's Africa strategy advances another step
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Russian forces end prison siege, kill IS hostage-takers
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] 80 Countries at Swiss Conference Agree Ukraine's Territorial Integrity Must Be Basis of Any Peace
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Russian Forces Kill Islamic State-Linked Hostage Takers at Detention Centre
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Russian Forces Storm a Detention Facility to Rescue Staff Taken Hostage, Killing Hostage Takers
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Ukraine Summit Sees Hard Road to Peace as Way Forward Uncertain
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HRW ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] Attack on Kazakhstan Journalist in Ukraine
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HRW ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] Ukraine: Forced Russified Education Under Occupation
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NL Times ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Netherlands teams up with another country to supply Ukraine with Patriot missile system
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Why Won’t the US Help Negotiate a Peaceful End to the War in Ukraine?
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Reality Has Changed: the Ukraine War Slams Europe Rightward
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Ukraine Says Global South Nation Could Host Second Peace Summit
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] EU Enlargement Failure? Ukraine Still Has Not Yet Gained Membership Status
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NL Times ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Ukrainian refugees who arrive in Netherlands by plane automatically detained for days
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Ray McGovern: Why Is Putin in North Korea?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Germany debates scrapping benefits for Ukrainians
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] EU to Impose Tariffs on Ukrainian Eggs in Import Curbs
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Playing President (ep. 7): Putin and North Korea + Ukraine
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] US Lifts Ban on Weapons to Ukraine’s Nazi Azov Battalion
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Ukraine, Continued Aid, and the Prevailing Logic of Slaughter
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Ukraine Begins Work on Second Summit, Top Zelenskiy Aide Says
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] Trump Criticizes Zelenskyy and Threatens to Cut Aid to Ukraine If Reelected
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Global Unity: 80 Nations Stands Behind Ukraine at Swiss Peace Summit
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] War in Ukraine should not be ‘new normal’
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NL Times ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Ukraine summit: Rutte sees 'foolish' Putin peace proposal as a sign of panic
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Ukraine peace summit: Diplomatic support and political snubs
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Ukraine updates: Swiss peace summit wraps up
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Swiss Right-Wing Leader Calls Ukraine Summit an 'Embarrassment'
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Ukraine Says Peace Summit Communique Takes Kyiv's Positions Into Consideration
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Draft Joint Communique for Ukraine Conference in Switzerland
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Ukrainian Refugees Sing Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' Near Swiss Summit
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] US Senator Says Ukraine Is ‘Gold Mine’ with $12 Trillion of Minerals ‘We Can’t Afford to Lose’
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Rolling Stone ☛ Rolling Stone Lawsuit Forces Release of Henry Kissinger’s FBI Files
Rolling Stone’s Freedom of Information Act request, filed hours after the announcement of his death in November 2023, seeks expedited processing of FBI files related to the former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to President Nixon. Kissinger is widely considered to be a war criminal for his role in the bombing of Cambodia, a coup in Chile, and massacres in East Timor and Bangladesh, and his legacy remains controversial among historians despite his bipartisan embrace by Washington, D.C. power players over the last half century.
While a historic figure in American foreign policy, Kissinger had an impact on American diplomacy right up until his death. After his death in late 2023, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken lauded the former Nixon advisor and revealed that he had sought Kissinger’s counsel ”as recently as about a month ago.”
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Environment
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NYPost ☛ Why smart travelers are opting for shoulder season in 2024
Intrepid Travel, an adventure travel company, reported a 61% increase in shoulder season reservations to western Europe last year, leading them to increase the number of departures during those periods by as much as 47% in some countries.
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CS Monitor ☛ Hawaii reaches pathbreaking climate settlement with children
In a groundbreaking legal agreement, Hawaii’s government yesterday acknowledged young people’s right to a stable climate and agreed to eliminate emissions from its transportation sector by 2045.
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The Atlantic ☛ Maybe Don’t Spray-Paint Stonehenge
A video of Wednesday’s act of vandalism, posted by an X account devoted to Stonehenge, has accumulated more than 30 million views. The camps have coalesced as you’d expect: Conservative and moderate voices have reacted with outrage, while left-leaning environmentalists have argued that critics should be more concerned about the state of the planet than a bit of plant-based coloring that was easily removed. If I have to pick a side, I’m with the gentlemen wielding the washable dye. (I am an environmental-studies professor, after all.) But the protest left me frustrated: yet another example of environmental activism that produces more rancor over its means than focus on its message.
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Los Angeles Times ☛ California sees pre-summer wildfire boom, 'alarming' for rest of year
The Weather Service predicts it could reach 107 degrees up north in the Sacramento Valley, 95 in San José and 105 degrees or higher in Bakersfield in the next couple of days, with a heat advisory issued across much of the state. Triple-digit heat, gusty winds and the potential for thunderstorms in Southern California brings the risk of another fast-moving fire.
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CBC ☛ Megaconstellations of satellites are burning up in our atmosphere. That could have consequences
These are satellites, and there are thousands of them in orbit. When they've outlived their usefulness, most of them will come tumbling back down through Earth's atmosphere, burning up.
Scientists are now looking at how this process is dumping potentially harmful particles in our atmosphere. And though the exact consequences are still unknown, some are calling it a wake-up call.
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teleSUR ☛ Recorded Temperatures Exceed 50 Degrees in Rome, Italy - teleSUR English
The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Greenpeace Italy warned on Friday that the surface temperature in the Colosseum of Rome, capital of Italy, and St Peter’s Square of the Vatican has exceeded 50 degrees Celsius in real time, in a context in which that city is on red alert due to a heat wave that hits the European country.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-22 [Older] Hawaii Settles Lawsuit From Youths Over Climate Change. Here's What to Know About the Historic Deal
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Hawaii Commits to Transit Decarbonization in Settlement of Youth Climate Lawsuit
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Bridge Michigan ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Michigan medical students fight to make climate change part of curriculum
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] Building a Labor-Climate Justice Movement
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Vox ☛ 2024-06-21 [Older] The race to get ahead of the next tornado
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] Arrests after 5000-year-old Stonehenge monument sprayed by paint in climate protest
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Truthdig ☛ 2024-06-20 [Older] The American Climate Corps Is Ready for Deployment
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Thousands of American Climate Corps Workers Will Deploy This Month
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Fourteen Jordanians Die During Haj in Saudi Arabia, Some Succumb to Heat
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Hundreds are believed to have died at this year's Hajj in scorching Saudi heat
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-16 [Older] Saudi Arabia: At least 19 Hajj pilgrims die as temperatures rise
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] Climate Change Threat Hangs Over Haj Pilgrimage as Hundreds Perish in Heat
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-19 [Older] A Moment of Climate Truth
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Climate Refugees Are Occupying Abandoned Buildings in Southern Brazil
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] A Climate Emergency Declaration Is Long Overdue — as Is a Climate Action Plan
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Pacific Islander Festival Uplifts Anti-Colonial Solidarity Amid Climate Crisis
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] Attitudes on Climate Change are Changing – For the Worse
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Energy/Transportation
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] US Cryptocurrency as an Offshore Banking Center
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Silicon Angle ☛ Power consumption is becoming a priority in the age of AI
“It’s not about reducing the workload … it’s about reducing the energy consumption,” he said. “We put electricity into the data centers. What comes out [of] the waste product is heat. We want to reuse that energy; we want to capture that heat. That’s the other part that we have co-innovated on so that we have heat recovery stations.”
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Futurism ☛ Toddler Trapped in Scorching Tesla When Battery Dies
"And I closed the door, went around the car, get in the front seat, and my car was dead," Renee Sanchez, who was on her way to the Phoenix Zoo with her granddaughter, told the outlet. "I could not get in. My phone key wouldn’t open it. My card key wouldn’t open it."
Sanchez called 911 and fortunately, the local Scottsdale fire department responded right away.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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India Times ☛ Indian CEOs hold AI governance crucial for AI adoption, innovation: IBM study
Majority of Indian CEOs believe that it is not possible to integrate trusted artificial intelligence without effective AI governance within organisations, says a survey. A recent survey by IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics revealed that Indian CEOs are grappling with a range of challenges as they rush to integrate and scale generative AI across their organisations.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] How can media react to disinformation, climate change?
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] YouTube Adding Experimental Community Notes Feature to Battle Misinformation [Ed: Censorship or tackling "Misinformation"?]
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Reuters ☛ Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines
The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.
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VOA News ☛ China falsely denies Tibetan religious repression after US officials visit Dalai Lama
China falsely maintains it peacefully liberated Tibet after invading it in 1950 then annexing it the following year.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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The Local SE ☛ 2024-06-17 [Older] TikTok shuts down Sweden Democrats' anonymous accounts
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Project Censored ☛ 2024-06-18 [Older] The Project Censored Newsletter—June 2024
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Removal of raincoat sculpture in HK sparks censorship fears
Local media reported on Wednesday that it had been covered with hoarding, which bore a photo of the sculpture on it. However, the two figures in yellow raincoats in the image were obscured by a notice, informing people that a reinforcement project was underway.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Man held in custody under new HK security law over 'seditious' posts
The social media posts allegedly involved the words “Revolution is no crime, to rebel is justified,” a slogan dating back to China’s Cultural Revolution, the court heard.
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Rolling Stone ☛ Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi Has Death Sentence Overturned, Faces Retrial
Salehi was arrested in Oct. 2022 in the midst of the uprising sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who was arrested by Iran’s morality police and later died in their custody. Salehi was ultimately charged with “spreading corruption on earth,” a death penalty offense, for releasing music critical of the government and urging his followers to join the protests.
Following his arrest, allegations emerged that Salehi was being held in solitary confinement and tortured, with U.N. experts saying he had a broken nose, several broken fingers, and damaged legs. There were also concerns that his court hearings took place behind closed doors without his lawyer present.
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The Guardian UK ☛ Iran court overturns death sentence of rapper Toomaj Salehi, lawyer says
“Mr Salehi’s case has been returned to Branch 1 of the Isfahan revolutionary court for resentencing. Even a shorter period of imprisonment would be an injustice: Mr Salehi has done nothing other than to call for his, and other Iranians’, fundamental rights to be respected. He must be free to continue his music and seek the necessary medical care he needs following his imprisonment, free of any continued imprisonment, harassment or persecution.”
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BBC ☛ Pakistan: Tourist accused of blasphemy killed by mob
A tourist has been dragged from a police station and killed by a mob in north-west Pakistan after being accused of blasphemy.
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Reuters ☛ Pakistan police hunt mob that lynched local tourist accused of blasphemy
"After initially rescuing the man from a crowd, the police took him to the station in Madyan, but announcements from mosque loud speakers asked locals to come out," Gandapur said, after which the mob stormed the station. Lynchings are common in Pakistan, an Islamic republic where blasphemy can legally carry the death penalty. Legal processes are frequently preceded by vigilante action based on rumours or complaints and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a report on Pakistan in December that in many cases the perpetrators operate with impunity.
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The Hindu ☛ Muslim mob torches police station in Pakistan, lynches man for alleged blasphemy
International and national rights groups say blasphemy accusations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Pakistani 'blasphemy vigilante' mob kills man
Hundreds are in prison facing blasphemy charges, with judges often postponing trials for fear of retribution if they are deemed too lenient.
Even unproven blasphemy allegations can lead to the accused being lynched.
According to rights groups, accusations of blasphemy are sometimes used as a means of settling scores.
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The Print ☛ Pakistani man accused of blasphemy burnt to death. People say it’s a lawless, crazy nation
Videos making the rounds on the [Internet] show a mob circling the burning man and the police station.
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Dawn Media ☛ Man killed by mob in Swat’s Madyan over alleged Quran desecration: DPO
“And the madness continues … We are hellbent to commit suicide as a society,” rued former information minister Fawad Chaudhry.
Fuelled by an extremist religious worldview, violence against non-Muslims in Pakistan has escalated rapidly ever since Gen Ziaul Haq made blasphemy punishable by death. Between 1927 and 1986, only 14 incidents of blasphemy were reported in what is now Pakistan. But after the changes were made in the law, the number surged quickly.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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VOA News ☛ Togo lifts suspension on foreign journalist accreditations
Reporters Without Borders had denounced the suspension as a violation of freedom of information.
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New York Times ☛ Na Kyung Taek’s Photos Exposed a Bloody Crackdown. His Identity Was a Secret.
Mr. Na dared not take credit for the photo and other unsettling images from Gwangju for fear of the military junta and its leader, Chun Doo-hwan, whose crackdown there left hundreds killed or missing in the darkest chapter in South Korea’s long struggle against dictatorship. Mr. Chun’s rule ended in 1988, and now many in South Korea support a Constitutional revision to sanctify Gwangju’s role in the country’s democratization. Still, most have never heard of Mr. Na.
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VOA News ☛ Military paper moves to defend its 1st Amendment rights
Supporters of the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes are using a public consultation period on the outlet’s regulations to try to roll back what they say are restrictive rules.
Funded in part by the Department of Defense but editorially independent by order of Congress, the Stripes has operated under the same Federal Register regulations since 1993.
But with updates to those rules open to public comment until Monday, journalists and media analysts are drawing attention to three longstanding articles they believe should be relaxed or scrapped entirely.
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CPJ ☛ Nigerian authorities detain journalist Precious Eze Chukwunonso for 18 days
The charges relate to Chukwunonso’s May 8 article for News Platform, which alleged that a local businessman Prince Chris Odinaka Igwe, who heads the petroleum distribution firm Mainland Oil and Gas Limited, was involved in a confrontation with a neighbor in a Lagos residential estate, during which shots were fired, those sources said.
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CPJ ☛ Moscow court detains journalist Artyom Krieger on extremism charges
“The arrest of journalist Artyom Krieger is unjust and unacceptable. Russian authorities should immediately free Krieger and dismiss all charges against him,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “It is time for Russian authorities to stop using tactics of intimidation to silence critical voices and allow independent journalists to work freely and without fear.”
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Civil Rights/Policing
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CNBC ☛ Paytm layoffs: Employees file complaint with Labour Ministry over 'unfair termination'
Several Paytm employees have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour and Employment against the fintech major, alleging “unlawful termination” without compensation.
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JURIST ☛ Pakistan authorities launch investigation after mob kills tourist accused of blasphemy
District Police Officer (DPO) Zahidullah Khan reported that while Ismail was being questioned, announcements from local mosques on loudspeakers called upon the public to gather at the police station. This call to action resulted in thousands of people assembling outside the station, demanding that the suspect be handed over to them. When the police refused, violence erupted, injuring at least eight people and leading to the mob setting fire to the police station and police vehicles.
The situation escalated rapidly as the mob overpowered the police, snatched Ismail, beat him to death and subsequently burned his body. Actual recordings of the incident, showing the mob dragging the man’s body through the streets and setting it on fire, circulated widely on social media, eliciting widespread outrage.
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The Verge ☛ Amazon retaliated after employee walkout over the return-to-office policy, NLRB lawyers say
The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Amazon in Seattle that alleges the company “unlawfully disciplined and terminated an employee” after they assisted in organizing walkouts last May in protest of Amazon’s new return-to-work directives, issued early last year.
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RFA ☛ In Tibetan region, Xi Jinping calls for ethnic unity
But Tibet watchers said his trip only reinforced China’s efforts to Sinicize Tibetan identity, culture and language, and did nothing to help Tibetans.
Xi’s visit to a Tibetan school and monastery appeared to be “a deceptive display aimed at misleading the world,” given ongoing international concern over human rights in Tibet, said Sangay Kyap, a Tibetan rights analyst.
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VOA News ☛ UN report condemns executions, hijab crackdown in Iran
Al-Nashif told the council that minorities continue to be disproportionately affected by executions, “with 20% of all executions in 2023 affecting the Baluch minority.”
“While noting an overall decline in the sentencing of children to death since 2024, the report deplores the execution of two child offenders in 2023 and urges the government to introduce an immediate moratorium on the death penalty,” she said, adding that two men also were executed last year “in relation to the September 2022 nationwide protests,” bringing the total to nine.
“Serious allegations of torture-tainted confessions and due process violations have permeated these cases,” she observed.
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Freedom From Religion Foundation ☛ FFRF applauds legislation to repeal Comstock Act
In introducing legislation to repeal the Comstock Act yesterday, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., aptly characterized the federal law as “a 150-year-old zombie law banning abortion that’s long been relegated to the dustbin of history.” But, as she warned, “When MAGA Republicans say they intend to use the Comstock Act to control women’s decisions and enact a backdoor national abortion ban, we should believe them. Now that Trump has overturned Roe, a future Republican administration could try to misapply this 150-year-old Comstock law to deny American women their rights, even in states where abortion rights are protected by state law.”
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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PC Mag ☛ SpaceX Invites Users to Buy Starlink Mini, But at Higher-Than-Expected Price
SpaceX has started inviting select users to buy the new Starlink Mini dish. But for now, the company is charging $599 for the portable product, rather than the $250 to $300 price that was previously alluded to.
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NL Times ☛ Apple is postponing the launch of AI products in Europe
Apple points to the rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In this law, large tech companies are seen as a kind of "gatekeepers", subjecting them to all kinds of strict rules regarding, for example, privacy, data protection, and competition. This means that competitors must be given space on their platforms.
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Patents
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Copyrights
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Torrent Freak ☛ Google Search Processed a Billion DMCA Takedowns in Four Months
Google Search's takedown department is facing the busiest year ever. The all-time takedown total has just surged to nine billion, adding the latest billion in just four months. The list of most targeted sites has also welcomed some newcomers, with shadow library "Anna's Archive" entering the top ten with two domain names.
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[Repeat] Tom's Hardware ☛ Several AI companies said to be ignoring robots dot txt exclusion, scraping content without permission: report
Several AI companies are circumventing the Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt) to scrape content from websites without permission, according to TollBit, a content licensing startup, reports Reuters. This issue has led to disputes between AI firms and publishers, with Forbes accusing Perplexity of plagiarizing its content.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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