Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ A Second OctoPrint Plugin Has Been Falsifying Stats

  The ongoing story of bogus analytical data being submitted to the public OctoPrint usage statistics has taken a surprising turn with the news that a second plugin was being artificially pushed up the charts. At least this time, the developer of the plugin has admitted to doing the deed personally.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 14 patients, 1 member of staff at Hong Kong’s Ruttonjee Hospital infected with Covid-19

    Hong Kong’s Ruttonjee Hospital has reported a cluster of Covid-19 cases involving 14 patients and one staff member. All are in stable condition. The public hospital in Wan Chai announced on Thursday that 12 male and two female patients in its geriatric infirmary ward had developed a fever and tested positive for Covid-19 since last […]

  • Science Alert ☛ COVID's Hidden Toll: Full-Body Scans Reveal Long-Term Immune Effects

    Even in those without long COVID.

  • DeSmog ☛ Revealed: Industry-led West Africa Fishery Protection Measures Marred By ‘Massive Conflicts of Interest’

  • Science Alert ☛ Mpox Has Infected Nearly 100,000 People. Here's What You Need to Know.

    The new strain is "the most dangerous yet".

  • Science Alert ☛ Can a 'Rocket Suit' With NASA Tech Help Olympic Swimmers Win Gold?

    Not everybody is convinced.

  • Science Alert ☛ A First-of-Its-Kind Signal Was Detected in Human Brains

  • Science Alert ☛ These Ants Perform Life-Saving Operations on Injured Nestmates, Similar to Humans

    The world's tiniest surgeons?

  • Science Alert ☛ A New Pathway Found in The Brain Could Help Spell The End of Migraines

    A new therapeutic target has emerged.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Face's Heat Patterns Could Reveal Vital Clues About Your Health

    Getting warmer.

  • New York Times ☛ Biden Tells Governors He Needs More Sleep and Less Work at Night

    The president’s opening remark to a group of key Democratic leaders — that he was in the race to stay — chilled any talk of his withdrawal, participants said.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Hackaday ☛ Cloudflare Adds Block For AI Scrapers And Similar Bots

    It’s no big secret that a lot of the internet traffic today consists out of automated requests, ranging from innocent bots like search engine indexers to data scraping bots for LLM and similar generative AI companies. With enough customers who are less than amused by this boost in useless traffic, Cloudflare has announced that it’s expanding its blocking feature for the latter category of scrapers. Initially this block was only for ‘poorly behaving’ scrapers, but now it apparently targets all of such bots.

  • New York Times ☛ A Hacker Stole Proprietary Chaffbot Company Secrets, Raising Fears That China Could, Too

    A security breach at the maker of Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot last year revealed internal discussions among researchers and other employees, but not the code behind OpenAI’s systems.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Site36 ☛ €2.1 billion for new Bundeswehr communications satellites, while spy satellites still do not provide images

    The German Armed Forces have awarded a contract for three communications satellites to Airbus. In the parallel “SARah” spy programme of competitor OHB, key components remain blocked in space.

  • Defence Web ☛ French senate report warns of growing threat of space debris pollution

    The French Senate recently released a report shedding light on the escalating issue of satellite pollution and space debris. Written by Jean-Luc Fugit, MP and Ludovic Haye, Senator, the analysis illustrates the growing awareness about this issue.

  • RFERL ☛ Bosnian Serb Entity Strikes 'Gender Identity' From Draft Criminal Code

    The government of the majority-Serb entity that makes up half of Bosnia-Herzegovina has deleted the term "gender identity" in draft amendments to the region's Criminal Code, indicating a hardening stance on LGBT causes.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ Baltic, Ukrainian public media sign cooperation memorandum

      The heads of public service media of the Baltic States and Ukraine have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation during the General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Cyprus on July 4 and 5.

    • France24 ☛ Ukrainian forces withdraw from part of strategic town in eastern Donetsk region

      The Ukrainian military announced on Thursday that its forces had withdrawn from part of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region, a day after Russia claimed control over a district of the strategic town. Russian troops have been steadily advancing in the Donetsk region for several weeks.

    • France24 ☛ Training in the shadow of war: Ukrainian athletes prepare for Paris Olympics

      A total of 126 Ukrainian athletes will be competing at this year's Paris Olympics. With their country at war, their participation takes on particular importance. Ukraine's National Olympic Committee says more than 400 registered athletes have been killed since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, while many others have put their sporting careers on hold to serve in the army. As for those who are competing, they say the war is both a stress factor and an additional motivation. Meanwhile, some Russian and Belarusian athletes will also be taking part, but in neutral colours: a neutrality that the Ukrainian side has decried as fake. FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports.

    • France24 ☛ Moscow court rules to keep French NGO worker Laurent Vinatier in pre-trial detention

      A Moscow court ruled Thursday to maintain the pre-trial detention of French researcher Laurent Vinatier, who was arrested last month on accusations of gathering military information. Vinatier, who works for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO, has been charged under Moscow's "foreign agents" law amid escalating tensions between Russia and France over the Ukraine conflict.

    • LRT ☛ Baltic, Ukrainian public broadcasters sign deal on cooperation in emergencies

      The heads of the Baltic and Ukrainian public broadcasters on Thursday signed a memorandum on cooperation in crisis situations, aimed at creating mutual support mechanisms for the Baltic and Ukrainian public broadcasters: Lithuania’s LRT, Latvijas Televizija and Latvijas Radio in Latvia, Estonia’s ERR, and Ukraine’s Suspilne.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Colonel Whose Unit Was Linked To Bucha Massacre Arrested On Fraud Charges

      Russian Colonel Artyom Gorodilov, who is under U.S. sanctions due to suspected involvement in war crimes in Ukraine, has been detained in Russia on allegations of conducting large-scale fraud.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Admits Loss In Chasiv Yar As New Deaths Reported In Odesa, Kharkiv Regions

      Ukraine's military has acknowledged its withdrawal from part of the key highland town of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region, while its Energy Ministry said Russian missiles killed one person and damaged a gas facility in the central Poltava region.

    • New York Times ☛ Europe Seeks to Solve the ‘Patriot Puzzle’ in Ukraine

      With Ukraine clamoring for more air defenses, officials are trying to scrape together a Patriot battery from spare parts scattered across the continent.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Arrests Top Military Officer, Artyom Gorodilov, on Corruption Charges

      Col. Artyom Gorodilov, who oversaw forces occupying the Ukrainian city where a massacre took place, was arrested and accused of large-scale fraud.

    • JURIST ☛ OSCE parliament urges Russia to withdraw from occupied Georgia territories

      The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) parliamentary assembly on Wednesday called for Russia’s immediate and unconditional withdrawal from the occupied Georgian territories of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia in its 31st annual session that took place in Bucharest from June 29 to July 3, 2024.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Jails U.S. Citizen For 12 1/2 Years On Drug Charges

      A Russian court has sentenced U.S. citizen Robert Woodland to 12.5 years in jail after finding him guilty of drug trafficking, Woodland's lawyer Stanislav Kshevitsky told Reuters on July 4.

    • RFERL ☛ Apple Reportedly Removes VPN Services In Russia Often Used To Access Media Blocked By Kremlin

      Apple has removed from the Russian unit of its App Store several VPN services used to bypass blocking efforts by the Kremlin, Russian media outlets and VPN services reported on July 4.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Envoy To Washington Suggests His Mission Is Ending

      Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported on July 4 that Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the United States, has indicated that his assignment is ending soon amid a time of high tensions between Moscow and Washington.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Pretrial Detention Extended For Frenchman Accused Of Spying, Failing To Register As 'Foreign Agent'

      A court in the Russian capital ordered further pretrial detention on July 4 for a French researcher arrested in June who Russian investigators said a day before pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining information about the Russian military.

    • RFERL ☛ SCO Quickly Absorbs Belarus On Final Day Of Regional Grouping's Astana Summit

      The leaders of China, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, four of the five post-Soviet republics of Central Asia, and other states kicked off the final day of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan by accepting Belarus as a member.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian Border Guard: illegal crossing attempt numbers rise

      The number of attempts to illegally cross the Latvian-Belarusian border has increased in recent days, Guntis Pujāts, Chief of the State Border Guard Service, said in an interview on the Latvian Television program "Morning Panorama" July 4.

    • RFERL ☛ Poland Seeks Belarus Border Guard Help From Germany, Greece, Finland

      Poland hopes to bring in border guards and police from Finland, Germany, and Greece to help patrol its frontier with Belarus, a senior official said on July 4.

    • RFERL ☛ Putin Holds Talks With Iran's Interim President

      Russian President Vladimir Putin met Mohammad Mokhber, the interim president of Iran, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on July 4.

    • RFERL ☛ Kremlin Says Modi Visit Set For July 8-9

      The Kremlin on July 4 said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia on July 8-9 and hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    • RFERL ☛ Hungary's Orban To Meet With Putin In Moscow Following Trip To Kyiv, Angering EU Officials

      Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will travel to Moscow on July 5 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, days after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, a Hungarian government source told RFE/RL.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s Pooh-tin Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin push anti-Western agenda at Central Asian summit

      The leaders of China and Russia on Thursday urged their allies and partners to resist malign external influence, advancing their shared anti-Western agenda at a regional summit in Central Asia.

    • Meduza ☛ Putin talks Taliban, Trump, and more following 2024 Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘I take photos to convey my hatred of war’: Maxim Dondyuk has photographed Zelensky and embedded with Ukrainian troops. Now Kyiv’s military censorship is keeping this photographer from the front. — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ In the crosshairs: A new Russian operation threatens a significant part of Ukraine’s Donbas — Meduza

• Environment

  • Science Alert ☛ Deadly Hurricane Beryl Foreshadows The Future, Scientist Warns

    More storms like this are coming.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong police arrest 2 women over allegedly abducting 3-year-old boy for HK$5 million crypto ransom

      Hong Kong police have arrested two women over allegedly abducting a three-year-old boy from a shopping mall for a ransom of more than HK$5 million in cryptocurrency.

• Finance

  • Federal News Network ☛ IRS has recouped billions from whistleblower claims. Tipsters can wait a decade for their cut

    The IRS Whistleblower Office has helped recover nearly $7 billion in taxes owed. Whistleblowers have been paid more than $1 billion in awards.

  • EFF ☛ Craig Newmark Philanthropies Matches EFF's Monthly Donors [Ed: EFF remains controlled by oligarchs like Craig; The more you donate to the EFF, the more financial control Craig will have over it]

    Since its founding in 1990, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has relied on member support to power its public interest legal work, advocacy, and technology development. To wit, more than half of EFF's funding comes from small dollar donors around the world, and EFF's community of monthly and annual Sustaining Donors play a crucial role in keeping the organization running strong. Sustaining Donors giving $10 or less each month raised over $400,000 for EFF last year. Every member and every cent counts. This free donation matching offer from Craig Newmark Philanthropies takes EFF supporters' donations even further at a time when many households are especially conscious of their finances.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • AccessNow ☛ Generative Hey Hi (AI) and election disinformation: much ado about nothing?

      In this bumper “year of elections,” alarm bells are being raised about the potential impact of generative Hey Hi (AI) in worsening election disinformation. But is this really the democratic disaster many are making it out to be, or is it a lot of fuss over nothing?

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Democracy Now ☛ “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech

    We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. James Earl Jones reads the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn. The late great historian introduces the address.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Hope and Resistance: Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century

    In a special broadcast, we look at voices of a people’s history inspired by the late great historian Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking book, A People’s History of the United States, which helped reshape how history is taught in classrooms. Twenty years ago, Zinn and Anthony Arnove began organizing public readings of historical texts referenced in A People’s History of the United States. The two would go on to publish a book collecting theses texts under the title Voices of a People’s History of the United States. While Zinn died in 2010, his work continues to inspire millions across the country and the globe. Arnove and Hailey Pessin have just published a new book titled Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century: Documents of Hope and Resistance. It gathers more than 100 speeches, essays and other documents of activism, protest and social change. We speak with them about the book, and feature readings from texts featured in it.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ OpenAI Wants New York Times to Show How Original Its Copyrighted Articles Are

    OpenAI wants to know to what degree New York Times articles are 'original' and worthy of copyright protection. The AI company is seeking journalists' source materials to assist in its defense of a multi-million copyright infringement claim previously filed by the newspaper. The Times objects to this and other information requests, suggesting that OpenAI's approach is overbroad and could potentially have a chilling effect.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Supreme Court Blow: ISP Bill Payers Aren't Piracy Police or Instantly Liable

    When settlement-focused rightsholders spot a pirated movie being shared, they want to hold someone liable. Internet bill payers are regular targets, also in Canada where a movie studio painted 30 subscribers as 'authorizers' of movie piracy on BitTorrent. Hopes of a favorable ruling at the Supreme Court are now dead after the studio's appeal was denied. In its place, greater clarity for bill payers and an increased evidential burden for piracy settlement factories.