Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ 3D Space Can Be Tiled With Corner-free Shapes

  Tiling a space with a repeated pattern that has no gaps or overlaps (a structure known as a tessellation) is what led mathematician [Gábor Domokos] to ponder a question: how few corners can a shape have and still fully tile a space? In a 2D the answer is two, and a 3D space can be tiled in shapes that have no corners at all, called soft cells.

• Hackaday ☛ Close Shave For An Old Oscilloscope Saved With A Sticky Note

  When you tear into an old piece of test equipment, you’re probably going to come up against some surprises. That’s especially true of high-precision gear like oscilloscopes from the time before ASICs and ADCs, which had to accomplish so much with discrete components and a lot of engineering ingenuity.

• The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Smart homes for assisted living have huge potential, but here’s why they’re still mostly a pipe dream

• The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] What delusions can tell us about the cognitive nature of belief

• New York Times ☛ Hundreds More Nazca Lines Emerge in Peru’s Desert

  With drones and A.I., researchers managed to double the number of mysterious geoglyphs in a matter of months.

• New York Times ☛ Madeleine Riffaud, ‘the Girl Who Saved Paris,’ Dies at 100

  Humiliated by a Nazi officer as a teenager, she joined the French Resistance. By the time she was 20, she had killed a German soldier, survived torture and captured a supply train.

• Robert Birming ☛ Why Blog?

  Why do I blog? Because I like to write.

  That's my spontaneous answer.

• Tedium ☛ Video-Based Social Media: Who Gets Left Out

  Why hasn’t video completely killed text-based social control media, despite social platforms clearly favoring it? Simple: By its very nature, it excludes voices from the discussion. [...]

  A pretty-good comment I spotted this week from journalist Sophia Smith Galer suggested that the problem with Bluesky was that it was a throwback popular with journalists, and it was giving journalists yet another excuse to ignore the clear popularity of video with audiences. To me, the key paragraph was this:

  Social media video drives far more interactions than a text post, and that’s why platforms love it. More interactions = more time spent in app = more advertising money. Famously, journalists have been incredibly slow to pivot to video platforms. A minority make their own Instagram and TikTok videos; I was an early adopter, but still remain one of a small few regularly doing it.

  Fair point, and she is not alone in making it, but I think my response to this is pretty simple: Does one format have to “win” over the others?

• James G ☛ Designing search filters for my personal website

  Returning relevant documents is the basis for a good search engine. The more relevant documents are on the first search page, the easier it is to find for what you are looking. Adding search filters on top of a relevant ranking algorithm gives you the ability to refine your search to find an exact document. Filters aid in finding documents that have certain attributes, or match one or more criteria.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Computers Are Bad ☛ 2024-11-23 cablesoft

    As an American, I often feel an intense jealousy of Ceefax, one of several commercially successful teletext services in the UK and Europe. "Teletext" is sometimes a confusing term because of its apparent relation to telecom-industry technologies like the teletypewriter and telegram, but it refers specifically to a "broadcast text" technology usually operated over TV networks. Teletext could be considered the first form of "interactive television," a reimagining of traditional television as a more WWW-like service that allows viewers to navigate through information and retrieve content on-demand.

  • Fernando Borretti ☛ Client Freedom

    Client freedom, by analogy to the four freedoms, is the freedom to operate a third-party client to an API. Email, IRC, and RSS are open protocols with client freedom. You can read email through a native GUI app, a spartan text-only client, and even an Emacs mode.

    Client freedom peaked in the 90s when most communication was through open protocols, and has been on the decline since. I remember, circa 2013, using Facebook Messenger over Pidgin, through their XMPP gateway, and with OTR messaging turned on. Then Facebook shut down its XMPP gateway, as Slack shut down its IRC gateway.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Physicists Found an Entirely New Way of Measuring Time

    Your time starts now.

  • Science Alert ☛ Stem Cells Grown in Space Turn Out to Have a Surprise Advantage

    Expand your horizons.

  • Science Alert ☛ Ancient Origins of Writing Traced to Mysterious 6,000-Year-Old Symbols

    Is this where it began?

  • Science Alert ☛ A Rare, Fatal Skin Disease Has Been Cured in Patients For The First Time

    The outcomes are incredible.

  • New York Times ☛ Aron D’Souza’s Enhanced Games May Happen. Should They?

    With a controversial plan to allow doping in a major athletic competition, Aron D’Souza hopes to usher in an era of “superhumans.” There are several hurdles left to clear.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ The dark energy pushing our universe apart may not be what it seems, scientists say

    It is so vast it is thought to make up nearly 70% of the universe—while ordinary matter like all the stars and planets and people make up just 5%.

    But findings published earlier this year by an international research collaboration of more than 900 scientists from around the globe yielded a major surprise. As the scientists analyzed how galaxies move they found that the force pushing or pulling them around did not seem to be constant. And the same group published a new, broader set of analyses Tuesday that yielded a similar answer.

  • The Conversation ☛ Mandelbrot’s fractals are not only gorgeous – they taught mathematicians how to model the real world

    It happened to be a difficult time for me. On paper, I was a very good student with an average of over 90%, but in reality I was feeling very uncertain. It was time for us to choose a branch of mathematics in which to specialise, but I hadn’t connected to any of the subjects so far; they all felt too technical and dry.

    So I decided to take a chance on the mini-course. As soon as it started, I was captured by the startling beauty of the patterns that emerged from the mathematics. These were a relatively recent discovery, we learned; nothing like them had existed before the 1980s.

  • Daniel Holden ☛ Variations on Müller's method of Polar Decomposition

    Today I'd like to talk about one of my favorite techniques in graphics: Müller's method of polar decomposition of 3x3 matrices. I really like this technique because it's a simple and interpretable solution to a problem that you would expect to require some fairly complex linear algebra, and yet it can be implemented in just a few lines of code.

    I'd also like to present a couple of variations of Müller's method that I think are useful and interesting, including one which (in my brief experiments at least) seems roughly two times faster to compute, and has a more regular convergence behavior.

  • Rlang ☛ How do we combine errors, in biology? The delta method

    In a recent post I have shown that we can build linear combinations of model parameters (see here). For example, if we have two parameter estimates, say Q and W, with standard errors respectively equal to \(\sigma_Q\) and \(\sigma_W\), we can build a linear combination as follows: [...]

  • Science Alert ☛ It's Official: Scientists Have Confirmed What's Inside The Moon

    And they found that the lunar core is very similar to that of Earth – with an outer fluid layer and a solid inner core. According to their modeling, the outer core has a radius of about 362 kilometers (225 miles), and the inner core has a radius of about 258 kilometers (160 miles). That's about 15 percent of the entire radius of the Moon.

• Career/Education

  • CBC ☛ Kids are getting ruder, teachers say. And new research backs that up

    A recent study from Brock University found a significant increase in classroom incivility since the pandemic. Researchers asked 308 Ontario kids aged nine to 14 to fill out a survey, which asked if they ever engaged in rude or disruptive behaviour.

    That includes things like texting in class, interrupting or talking over a teacher, or packing up before the lesson is even over. The Brock team also spoke with 101 primary educators about their experiences in the classroom.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ ChatGPT in the classroom: OpenAI continues its education push with two new courses for teachers

    ChatGPT is the foe of teachers and students at all levels of education, keeping both teaching and learning from happening.

    OpenAI knows a juicy market opportunity when it sees one, so it’s put out two new courses to show teachers how to waste both their students’ time and their own: [...]

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ 3D Printed Boat Uses Tank Tracks For Amphibious Propulsion

    Boats normally get around with propellers or water jets for propulsion. Occasionally, they use paddles. [Engineering After Hours] claims he is “changing the boat game forever” with his new 3D printed boat design that uses a tank tread for propulsion instead. Forgive him for the hyperbole of the YouTuber. It’s basically a modified paddle design, but it’s also pretty cool.

  • MB ☛ New Office Chair

    After 4 good years, my old chair’s hydraulics broke. It lasted me 5 days a week all through the pandemic. It was a good chair.

    While I don’t have the funds for a really great chair, I wanted something that would last longer than my last one. I came across this one after searching and decided to purchase it.

  • Old VCR ☛ With PowerPC, Windows CE and the WiiN-PAD slate, everyone's a WiiN-er (except Data General)

    We last ran into Data General in the 1980s with the Data General/One, their (for 1984) ultraportable DOS laptop with a great form factor and terrible screen that we rehabilitated. Data General was founded in 1968 in Hudson, Massachusetts by three disaffected Digital Equipment Corporation employees, Edson de Castro, Henry Burkhardt III and Richard Sogge, along with Herbert Richmond from Fairchild Semiconductor. de Castro had been chief engineer of DEC's 1965 12-bit PDP-8 minicomputer which by then was one of the company's strongest sellers. The PDP-8 was a less expensive system than their bigger machines, but it was nevertheless costly to manufacture due to its use of discrete logic modules and wirewrap. To de Castro's surprise and frustration, however, DEC management was uninterested in an even lower-cost PDP-8 concept produced with newer printed circuit board and wave soldering technologies. He was convinced he could do better.

  • Howard Oakley ☛ A brief history of Mac CPUs

    Macs have used four different architectures for their Central Processing Units over the last 40 years. From their launch by Steve Jobs on 24 January 1984, for the first decade they used Motorola 68K CPUs, then switched to PowerPCs designed by an alliance of Apple, IBM and Motorola, which were used for 12 years. After 14 years being built around Intel processors from 2006, Macs most recently changed a third time to use Apple’s own Arm-based chips.

    Over those 40 years, continuous improvements in capabilities and performance of CPUs have transformed Mac OS and the apps it supports.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Chinese desktop PC chipmaker Loongson now has chips running the Tiangong Space Station

    While the report doesn't go into specifics about the processor - it is likely based on a modified version of the MIPS ISA (Instruction Set Architecture). There are also various mentions that this Loongson chip leverages a cloud computing setup - though that could be a mistranslation. As per the details, the chips are equipped to undergo self-testing and offer on-orbit processing. They have dedicated storage, networking capabilities, and a thermal management system.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ MagSafe-like detachable Ethernet cable debuts — Cat6 cables available up to 10 GbE

    These new Sanwa Ethernet cables immediately recall the design of Apple's "MagSafe" cables, which function under the same principle but are used for charging cables instead. Like MagSafe branded connectors, Sanwa's magnetically detachable Ethernet cable will come smoothly unplugged whenever someone trips on or tugs on the cable, preventing damage to the hardware or network port so long as the fall or trip doesn't also break something.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Meta, TikTok And X Have One-Year Deadline To Prepare For Australia's Social Media Ban For Kids Under 16

  • CBC ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Doctors met by security as they set up unsanctioned overdose prevention sites at Vancouver Island hospitals

  • CBC ☛ 2024-11-16 [Older] 27 cases of scurvy diagnosed in northern Saskatchewan community

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Medicare Part B Premium Hike Outpaces 2025 Social Security COLA, Tightening Seniors' Monthly Budgets

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Now What?

    It’s good advice. I took it myself, in fact, I’m still taking it. I did a media cleanse: no billionaire media, quit reading newsletters and Substacks, got off Xitter, and limited my screen time. I watched movies, read novels, talked to my friends over dinner and drinks. I cleaned out closets and drawers, took a close look at expenditures, and talked to my stock broker.

  • Giles Turnbull ☛ How to grow potatoes

    When I say tiny, I mean tiny. It won’t take you more than a cup of tea to read it. But if you’ve never grown potatoes before, and you’d like to, it might help. A bit. You’ll learn three of the main things worth knowing.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia’s national health insurer facing deficit could mean higher premiums for patients

    The national health insurer may be unable to pay out medical claims as early as 2026.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea finds high levels of toxins in kids’ clothing sold on Chinese e-commerce sites

    Toxic chemicals were found on seven products.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Green activists in S. Korea demand tough action on plastic waste at UN talks

    Hundreds of environmental campaigners marched on Saturday in the South Korean city of Busan to demand stronger global commitments to fight plastic waste at U.N. talks in the city next week.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Unfair decisions by AI could make us indifferent to bad behaviour by humans

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Researchers have invented a new system of logic that could boost critical thinking and AI

  • New York Times ☛ Bluesky Is Turning Into a Strong X Alternative

    You may be wondering why Bluesky — an experimental social media app that was started in 2019 under Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former chief executive, before becoming an independent company in 2021 — is attracting so much attention these days.

  • India Times ☛ Emerging details of Chinese hack leave US officials increasingly concerned

    Chinese hackers, linked to China’s Ministry of State Security, infiltrated US telecommunications networks for over a year, compromising sensitive data, including surveillance targets. The sophisticated breach exploited outdated systems, raising concerns over national security. A White House meeting emphasized urgent upgrades despite potential disruptions. The hack revealed vulnerabilities in American infrastructure, sparking debates on accountability and highlighting escalating US-China cyber tensions.

  • Lee Peterson ☛ Day 4 and you still can’t play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 as sold

    At this point I’m pretty sure that either they don’t know how to scale this game or they don’t care.

  • Macworld ☛ Apple has crossed a line with iMovie ads

    I sat there for a moment, staring at the ad–I wasn’t considering Apple’s recommendation, I was considering the imposition of the ad. You know that feeling when someone’s at your front door and you open it and immediately realize that a pitch you don’t want to hear is coming? That feeling.

  • The Verge ☛ Twitter’s heir apparent isn’t X or Threads — it’s Bluesky

    Over the course of this month, that’s changed. It added 700,000 new users in a week. Then, it crossed the 15 million-user mark. This week, CEO Jay Graber said it crossed more than 20 million users and had been adding more than a million users per day.

• Security

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Adobe Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Citrix Releases Security Updates for NetScaler and Citrix Session Recording

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Fortinet Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Ivanti Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] JCDC’s Collaborative Efforts Enhance Cybersecurity for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Microsoft Releases November 2024 Security Updates

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] CISA Releases One Industrial Control Systems Advisory

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC iQ-F Series

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] CISA Adds Three Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] CISA Releases Nineteen Industrial Control Systems Advisories

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens RUGGEDCOM CROSSBOW

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens SIPORT

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens OZW672 and OZW772 Web Server

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens SINEC NMS

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens Solid Edge

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens SCALANCE M-800 Family

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens Engineering Platforms

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens SINEC INS

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens Spectrum Power 7

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens TeleControl Server

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens SIMATIC CP

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Siemens Mendix Runtime

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Rockwell Automation Verve Asset Manager

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Updater

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Rockwell Automation Arena Input Analyzer

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Hitachi Energy MSM

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] 2N Access Commander

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] Palo Alto Networks Emphasizes Hardening Guidance

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] CISA Adds Five Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] CISA, FBI, NSA, and International Partners Release Joint Advisory on 2023 Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] CISA Releases Five Industrial Control Systems Advisories

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Subnet Solutions PowerSYSTEM Center

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Hitachi Energy TRO600

  • CISA ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk View ME

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Why online scams are on the rise in India

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Otávio C ☛ Kagi

      Two decades later, these products (and many others that Google launched) are still free for everyone. They’re free because they are not Google’s real products; they are merely a means to an end. Google makes about 80% of its revenue from ads—Search Ads, YouTube Ads, ads on apps and websites within its ad network, and more. Google is really good at selling and delivering ads because it knows its users—the same users who use their products for free.

    • 404 Media ☛ I Don't Own a Cellphone. Can This Privacy-Focused Network Change That?

      I haven’t owned a cellphone since around 2017. For years I used an iPod Touch to send emails or encrypted text messages. When Apple discontinued that iPod in 2022, I moved to a WiFi-only iPad Mini, which requires me to either carry a small bag or a jacket with pockets that can fit the not-so-mini communications device.

    • Wired ☛ Andrew Tate’s ‘Educational Platform’ Was Hacked

      Elsewhere, social media giant Meta has disclosed for the first time its efforts to combat the forced-labor compounds driving the surge in pig butchering scams on its platforms. The company revealed that it has been quietly collaborating with global law enforcement, tech industry partners, and external experts for over two years to dismantle the crime syndicates behind these operations in Southeast Asia and the UAE. This year alone, Meta reports it has taken down more than 2 million accounts linked to scam compounds in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, and the UAE.

    • Macworld ☛ How to enhance your network security with private Wi-Fi network addresses

      Apple recognized that any fixed identifier could be used to track someone if the ID could be tied to records shared beyond a local network. When you connect to a wireless hotspot, your Wi-Fi MAC address gets transmitted because it’s an inherent part of that connection. If that MAC address doesn’t change over time, the backend of a hotspot portal or a business location’s point-of-sale system could build up a profile of you (or your device) using a variety of clues that includes any Bluetooth broadcasts, logging into a portal to gain free access, using a discount card while paying, and emitting other broadcast identifiers.

  • Confidentiality

    • The Record ☛ RSA Conference to invest $5 million in sandbox contest finalists

      The owner of the RSA Conference announced it’s investing $50 million in finalists for the Innovation Sandbox (ISB) contest, which has helped dozens of cybersecurity companies get off the ground.

      The top ten entries will receive a $5 million uncapped Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) investment provided by affiliates of Crosspoint Capital Partners — the company that owns the conference. The investment is being made to honor the 20th anniversary of the competition.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Impact of Relocating China’s Embassy Near Israeli Mossad HQ on US Security

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Israeli Strike on Beirut Kills Hezbollah Media Head, Hezbollah Confirms His Death

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Nigeria and India Agree Deeper Ties in Maritime Security, Counter-Terrorism

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Somaliland: What elections mean for regional power dynamics

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Iran nuclear sites 'exposed' to strikes, says Israel's Katz

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Germany: 17-year-old arrested over alleged terror plot

  • The Gray Zone ☛ VIDEO: Evo Morales speaks to The Grayzone, blames U.S. for assassination attempt

  • India Times ☛ TikTok CEO sought Musk's input ahead of Trump administration

    According to a report, TikTok has reached out to Elon Musk for input on US matters. The ByteDance-owned platform is reportedly seeking insights from Musk, who is known for his influence in both the tech and political spheres. Musk’s close advisory role to President-elect Donald Trump may further underscore TikTok’s efforts to navigate complex regulatory and geopolitical challenges in the US.

  • US News And World Report ☛ After Trump's Project 2025 Denials, He Is Tapping Its Authors and Influencers for Key Roles

    During the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump had hailed what would become Project 2025 as a conservative roadmap for “exactly what our movement will do."

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Cases Against Trump: A Guide

    If the failure to swiftly prosecute Trump enabled his election, then his election seems to guarantee that he will never face accountability for the acts he committed, including those for which he has already been convicted of 34 felonies.

    What follows is a summary of the major legal cases against Trump, assessments of the gravity of the charges, and the prognosis. This guide will be updated as necessary.

  • Vox ☛ Trump’s Cabinet picks send a clear message

    An alarming number of those poised to be in the president-elect’s inner circle are accused of sexual misconduct.

  • New York Times ☛ How a Nigerian Nurse Abducted by Boko Haram Planned Her Escaped

    For more than six years, Alice Loksha Ngaddah bided her time, waiting for an opportunity to escape her abductors.

    She had been kidnapped in Nigeria by a splinter group of Boko Haram, one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups.

  • India Times ☛ Australia to ban social media for kids; in line with stand taken by India, EU, US

    Australia’s communications minister Michelle Rowland has introduced a bill in parliament to ban children below 16 years of age from accessing several social media platforms. Platforms that break the rule could be fined up to A$50 million ($33 million). This move is in line with other countries who have taken similar steps to protect minors from harmful content online.

  • India Times ☛ Australia rejects Elon Musk's claim that it plans to control access to internet

    Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers dismissed Elon Musk's criticism of proposed legislation that would ban children under 16 from social media. Musk alleged the law was a way to control [Internet] access for all Australians. Chalmers stated the government's priority is protecting children online, not appeasing Elon Musk.

  • VOA News ☛ North Korean troops massed in Russia to enter Ukraine war 'soon,’ Pentagon chief says

    About 10,000 North Korean soldiers were believed to be based in the Russian border region of Kursk, Austin said, where they were being "integrated into the Russian formations."

  • Le Monde ☛ France marks 80 years since Strasbourg's WWII liberation

    French President Emmanuel Macron marked on Saturday the 80th anniversary of Free French troops liberating the eastern city of Strasbourg from Nazi occupation and called for overlooked victims of World War II to be honored. The president reviewed troops and attended a military ceremony at the Place Broglie in central Strasbourg, bowing before a monument to General Philippe Leclerc who led Free French troops into the city on November 23, 1944.

  • Wired ☛ Russian Spies Jumped From One Network to Another Via Wi-Fi in an Unprecedented Hack

    In a first, Russia's APT28 hacking group appears to have remotely breached the Wi-Fi of an espionage target by hijacking a laptop in another building across the street.

  • The Verge ☛ Elon Musk is directing harassment toward individual federal workers

    As the WSJ notes, Musk’s followers have responded in exactly the way you’d expect: with a flood of memes and harassment targeting Thomas, whose LinkedIn and Facebook pages are now private. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told the WSJ that the posts “are aimed at sowing terror and fear at federal employees.”

  • France24 ☛ More than 55 killed in Israeli strikes, Lebanon says

    Lebanon said Israeli air strikes on Saturday killed more than 55 people, many of them in central Beirut. The news came as Israel's defence minister vowed decisive action against Hezbollah, in a call with his US counterpart.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Strike Against Hezbollah in Lebanon Kills at Least 20

    Israel was targeting a senior Hezbollah commander, but failed to kill him, one Israeli official said. Hezbollah officials said none of the group’s leaders were at the attack site.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli PM's speech was 'a declaration of war directed inside Israel'

    Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech on Saturday was, "a declaration of war directed inside Israel", said FRANCE 24's correspondent in Jerusalem Noga Tarnopolsky. "The prime minister, in his video statement, said that he and the state have been betrayed – by the heads of the army, and by the heads of the Shin Bet, Israel's national security service."

  • RFERL ☛ Uzbek President Fires Top Officials Amid Assassination Attempt Scandal

    Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has fired several top officials in the State Security Service (SSS) and Interior Ministry in a sweeping reshuffle following an assassination attempt last month on a close ally of his eldest daughter.

  • What happens when China puts boots on the ground in Myanmar?

    The move represents direct intervention by China, whose troops will have to conduct offensive operations.

  • JURIST ☛ Israel prosecutors indict prime minister’s aid for leaking information to German newspaper

    Israeli prosecutors Thursday indicted one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides, Eli Feldstein, for leaking classified information on Hamas and most likely harming national security, the latest development in a web of legal scandals that has entangled Netanyahu.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-16 [Older] Xi Tells Ishiba China Hopes Japan Will 'Properly Handle' History, Taiwan Issues

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Deteriorating Security Situation in Pakistan: Implications for Political Stability

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Japan-EU Security and Defence Partnership: Paving the way for something more?

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] Chilpancingo security chief arrested for mayor’s murder

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] India: Shutdown in Manipur after security forces kill 10

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-20 [Older] Kremlin Says Russia-US Hotline to Deflate Crisis Not in Use

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-20 [Older] North Korea Troops Have Joined Ukraine War Battles as Part of Russian Units, Seoul Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-20 [Older] Turkey's Erdogan at G20 Summit Says Russia Has to Protect Itself

    • Copenhagen Post ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Copenhagen City Hall will be lit up in Ukraine’s colors 1000 days after Russia’s invasion

    • TruthOut ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Experts Fear Russian Escalation After Ukraine Fires First Long-Range Missiles

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Is Germany still importing Russian gas?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Russia-Austria gas dispute stokes fears of new energy crisis

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Ukraine fires ATACMS missiles into Russia, officials say

    • Vox ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Biden is letting Ukraine use a powerful new weapon. What happens next?

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Russia Guarantees Total Support for Africa’s Security and Increased Bilateral Trade -Interview

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Report: Biden Allows Ukraine To Strike Russia With Long-Range US Missiles

    • TruthOut ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Biden Allows Ukraine to Use Long-Range Missiles for Deep Strikes Inside Russia

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Russian ballet star gets public funeral at Mariinsky Theater

    • HRW ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Prominent Russian Rights Defender Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison

    • The Age AU ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Biden lifts ban on Ukraine using US arms to strike inside Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] A Timeline of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] UK Hits Iran With New Sanctions for Supplying Missiles to Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Germany's Scholz to Address Drones for Russia With China's Xi

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Leader of Russian-Backed Breakaway Georgian Region of Abkhazia Resigns

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Ukraine, Marking 1,000 Days of Russian Invasion, Eyes End to War Next Year

    • CBC ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Russia launches massive attack targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine

    • CBC ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] In major reversal, Biden reportedly OKs use of U.S. arms by Ukraine to strike inside Russia

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Russian opposition-in-exile holds Berlin protest march

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Ukraine faces 'one of largest' Russian aerial assaults

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Ukraine updates: US to let Kyiv strike deep inside Russia — reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Ukraine Strikes on Russia With US Missiles Could Lead to World War, Russian Lawmakers Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] AP Sources: Biden for the First Time OKs Ukraine's Use of US-Supplied Long-Range Missiles in Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Biden Allows Ukraine to Use US Arms to Strike Inside Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Russia Pounds Ukraine's Power Grid in 'Massive' Air Strike

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Putin Critics Lead a March in Berlin Calling for Democracy in Russia and an End to War in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Russia Grinds Deeper Into Ukraine After 1,000 Days of Grueling War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Russian Air Strikes Shake Fragile G20 Consensus Ahead of Summit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Two Children Among 10 Killed in Russian Missile Strike on Sumy, Ukraine Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Ukraine to Face Power Cuts on Monday After Russian Air Strike

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Russia Launches One of Its Fiercest Missile and Drone Attacks at Ukraine's Infrastructure

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-16 [Older] Will Russia's opposition show a united front in Berlin?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-16 [Older] Russians, Belarusian Held in Chad Return to Moscow, Media Say

    • CBC ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] As Canada leads a beefed-up NATO force near Russia's border, the alliance prepares for Trump

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Protesters storm Abkhazia parliament, reject Russian investment deal

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Russia to stop supplying Austria with natural gas

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Austria Says Russia's Gazprom Will Cut off Natural Gas Supply This Weekend

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Exclusive-Democratic Senators Ask Pentagon, US Attorney General to Probe Musk's Alleged Russia Calls

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Russian Air Defences Down Ukrainian Drones in Different Regions

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Russian deserters risk deportation from Germany

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Russian Air Attack Kills One, Damages Energy Installations in Ukraine's Odesa

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia launches fresh strike on Kyiv

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] Kyiv 'Cautiously Optimistic' After Discussing Deep Strikes in Russia With US

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] Ukrainian Forces Repel Russian Bid to Pierce Defences in Northeast, General Staff Says

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] North Korea ratifies defense treaty with Russia

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv says 50,000 Russians fighting in Kursk

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Doctor Accused of Criticizing Russia's War in Ukraine Is Convicted and Given Over 5 Years in Prison

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Moldova Protests to Russian Envoy Over Election Meddling Denied by Moscow

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] NATO Chief Warns of Threat From Russian Ties With China, Iran, North Korea

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] NATO's Rutte Calls for More Western Support for Ukraine, Warns of Russian Alliances

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Russia Bans 'Child-Free Propaganda' to Try to Boost Birth Rate

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Russian Doctor Jailed for 5-1/2 Years After Being Publicly Denounced

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Russian Power Creeps Across West Africa With Equatorial Guinea Mission

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-20 [Older] Biden Approves Anti-Personnel Mines for Ukraine, US Official Says

    • HRW ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] A Thousand Days of War in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] US Support for Ukraine and Israel Is Eating Into Weapons Stockpiles, Indo-Pacific Commander Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Ukraine, Middle East Conflicts Eating Into US Air Defense Stocks, US Admiral Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] France's Macron Says U.S. Made 'Good Decision' by Lifting Ukraine Missile Restrictions

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Displacement and destruction: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Ukraine updates: Germany still a 'no' on long-range missiles

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Why Germany isn't sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Why Germany says 'no' to Ukraine's cruise missile request

    • The Age AU ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Australia urges G20 leaders to take tougher stance on Ukraine, Middle East wars

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] North Korea Has Embarked on a Risky Adventure

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] British Prime Minister Says He Has No Plans to Talk With Putin as He Reaffirms Support for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] France's Macron Says Strikes on Ukraine Show Putin Does Not Want Peace

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Germany's Scholz Defends Call to Putin Ahead of Snap Elections

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Ukraine's War Losses Weigh on Cultural Heart of Lviv

    • The Age AU ☛ 2024-11-16 [Older] German leader’s call to Putin ends Western isolation over Ukraine, infuriates allies

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-16 [Older] G20 Diplomats Hit Snags on Climate, Taxation and Ukraine, Sources Say

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] US 'committed' to delivering Ukraine aid by January: Blinken

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Ukrainian Minister Backs 'Peace Through Strength' in Message to US's Rubio

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] EU Top Diplomat Nominee Strongly Backs Ukraine and Underlines China's Links to the War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Blinken Is Heading to Europe for Urgent Talks on Ukraine After Trump's Election

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Blinken Heads to Europe for Ukraine Talks Ahead of Trump Return

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Ukraine in 'Final Stages' to Set up Three New JVs With European Armsmakers

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Re-appointment of Lukashenko by Lukashenko himself’ Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya condemns upcoming presidential vote in Belarus — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • JURIST ☛ Texas Supreme Court blocks deposition of state attorney general in whistleblower lawsuit

    The Texas Supreme Court held Friday that state Attorney General Ken Paxton can avoid deposition in a years-long lawsuit brought against him by former employees since his office no longer contests the factual allegations of the suit.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Trump lied incessantly and still won. Does truth matter?

    Trump lied incessantly and extravagantly in his bumptious bid for president, after racking up more than 30,500 false or misleading statements during four years in the White House, according to fact-checkers at the Washington Post. Advertisement

    Trump won anyway. Some voters might even have backed him because of his relentless falsehoods.

    Which raises several questions.

• Environment

  • EcoWatch ☛ Alliance to End Plastic Waste Members Created 1,000x More Plastic Than They Cleaned Up, Greenpeace Investigation Finds

    But according to a new report by Unearthed, a Greenpeace investigative journalism team, the initiative members have actually produced more than 1,000 times the amount of plastic than they’ve cleaned up in the 2019 to 2023 timeframe.

    The report found that the initiative was established by American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade association, and a PR company. According to Unearthed, the project aimed to “change the conversation – away from short-term simplistic bans of plastic.”

  • RFERL ☛ United Nations Climate Talks On Verge Of Failure Amid Walkout 

    Developing countries have been pushing rich countries for years to finance their attempts to battle the impact of climate change, saying that the extreme weather and rising seas hurting them is the result of greenhouse gas emitted by the wealthy nations decades ago.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Time is running out for a treaty to end plastic pollution—here's why it matters

    On March 2, 2022, delegates to the UN environment assembly adopted an ambitious resolution to develop the text of a new treaty by the end of 2024 to end plastic pollution. With 24 days of formal negotiation between almost 200 countries completed, spread over meetings in Peru, France, Kenya and Canada, the fifth and final negotiation meeting is about to take place in Busan, South Korea. This is crunch time. Agreement must be found or the opportunity to take global action to tackle plastic pollution might be lost.

  • Science Alert ☛ Phasing Out Sugar Could Have a Profound Effect on The Planet

    In a recent article, we evaluated sugar's environmental impacts and explored avenues for reducing sugar in the diet to recommended levels either through reducing production or using the saved sugar in environmentally beneficial ways.

    By phasing out sugar, we could spare land that could be rewilded and stock up on carbon. This is especially important in biodiverse tropical regions where sugar production is concentrated such as Brazil and India.

  • EcoWatch ☛ Half the World’s Countries Are Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuel Energy Emissions: Report

    Half the economies in the world are making the transition away from fossil fuel use, and are five or more years past a peak in fossil power generation.

  • Wired ☛ How Trump Could Actually Increase Fossil Fuel Production

    Several of his nominations are indicative of these goals. He’s chosen oil industry executive Chris Wright—a fracking evangelist—to head up the Department of Energy. He’s named North Dakota governor Doug Burgum—who connected Trump to oil executive donors during the campaign—as the lead for the Interior Department and as an “energy czar.” He’s also tapped former representative Lee Zeldin—who’s emphasized his commitment to deregulation—as his chief of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] How to make Africa's mega transport projects work

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Shell wins appeal against order to cut emissions

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Italy reaches deal with Lufthansa over sale of stake in ITA

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Opinion | Michigan AG should cease ‘lawfare,’ avoid interfering with energy prices

    • TruthOut ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Biden Is Pushing a Massive Nuclear Energy Expansion. Will Trump Follow Through?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Company Announces Nearly $712 Million Project in Kentucky to Make Batteries Used to Store Energy

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] From the Amazon Rainforest, Biden Declares Nobody Can Reverse US Progress on Clean Energy

    • TruthOut ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Trump Picks Fracking Company CEO Chris Wright to Head the Department of Energy

    • International Business Times ☛ 2024-11-17 [Older] Donald Trump Boards 'Trump Force One' To New York For UFC 309 After Naming Energy Secretary

    • Vintage Everyday ☛ Dunkley Motorized Perambulators in England From the 1920s

      In 1923, Dunkley entered the history books with a fairly unlikely motor vehicle – a motorized perambulator. The Dunkley Pramotor was a scooter attached to the rear of a large baby pram, and the nanny rode standing astride the engine on the scooter platform. Initially powered by a 1HP horizontal single-speed two-stroke which required a push the bathtub and leap aboard with your ankle-length dress start, the following year a 2-speed version was offered with a kickstarter and clutch lever making life oh so much easier for intrepid nursie.

    • Futurism ☛ Warning! Do Not Expose Cybertrucks to Common Magnets

      His case doesn't appear to be a one-off. Several other owners chimed in to say they had the same issue as well.

      In the thread, the owners speculate that the damage is being caused through the contact of different metal surfaces — like steel and copper, for example. If there's moisture present, this can facilitate electrolysis, the same chemical reaction that takes place in batteries, causing corrosion. Probably not good, huh?

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Five animals that behave differently in moonlight

    • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Cacti are surprisingly fragile – and five other intriguing facts about these spiky wonders

    • CS Monitor ☛ Farm animals may have conscious experiences, science says

      The statement declared that there is “strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds.” It also said that empirical evidence points to “at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience” in all vertebrates and many invertebrates, including crustaceans and insects.

      Researchers have found myriads of indications of perception, emotion, and self-awareness in animals. The bumblebee plays. Cuttlefish remember how they experienced past events. Crows can be trained to report what they see.

  • Overpopulation

    • VOA News ☛ Rice-loving Sierra Leone wants to free itself from imports. But how?

      Even though West Africa has a long tradition of growing rice and often excellent places to do it, experts said the import dependency is due to a lack of investment in agriculture, booming population growth and cheap rice imports from Asia.

      Sierra Leone's agriculture minister, Henry Kpaka Musa, accused the International Monetary Fund of pressuring Sierra Leone in the 1980s to stop investing in agriculture and open its markets to imports as a condition for receiving loans.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ IMF approves third review of Sri Lanka's $2.9 billion bailout

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the third review of Sri Lanka's $2.9 billion bailout on Saturday but warned that the South Asian economy remains vulnerable.

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] US Senate Has 6 Weeks To Pass Social Security Bill That Would Increase Benefits For 3M Americans

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-16 [Older] What to Know About the Congressional Push to Expand Some Social Security Benefits

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Trump's Plan To Cut Social Security Taxes May Benefit Millions, Especially Top Earners, But Risks Insolvency In Six Years

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] Let’s Start a Revolution; Usurping the Titans of Capital

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] Europe’s Economic Challenges Amid Energy Shocks, Supply Chain Disruptions, and Inflation

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ Elon Musk’s model mother sees celebrity take-off in China

    Mrs Maye Musk’s popularity is surging on Chinese social control media.

  • The Register UK ☛ Trump picks border hawk Noem for DHS

    Noem likes to talk about cybersecurity being "South Dakota's next big industry," and during her time in office, the state has added jobs and invested in university programs and research. Her website cites 4,000 jobs added in scientific and technical services over five years, and claims a 25 percent growth rate in the sector.

    Additionally, the US National Security Agency has designated Dakota State University as a "Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations," and Noem says her administration is investing $90 million to expand the university's infosec programs, which includes building a second cyber-research and development hub in Sioux Falls.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Navigating Discontent in the Age of the Internet

    Considering the often-toxic tenor of public discourse, Kingwell underscores the need for constructive critique and ethical engagement in place of tribalist teeth-gnashing. He suggests that those on the Left should balance critique with a vision of transformation, embracing practices that build solidarity and integrity in public conversation, while also having the courage to speak the truth as we understand it.

  • The Register UK ☛ Public developer disagreements endanger bcachefs

    In case you have difficulties opening Kent Overstreet's blog, Patreon has protective measures in place, which gave us problems on some browsers. When we were using Waterfox, it didn't believe this vulture was a human (we assure you, the FOSS desk is an entirely LLM-free zone). You may have to try a few different browsers or machines.

  • Seth Godin ☛ Toward better

    The best way to make things better is to begin. Create the conditions for others to join you. Persist.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Germany: Bosch to cut 5,000 jobs with car industry in crisis

    Bosch's spokeswoman said that some 3,800 of the job cuts are to be made in Germany.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Straits Times ☛ Australia dumps plan for fines for social control media giants enabling misinformation

      The plan was to fine internet platforms up to 5 per cent of their global revenue for failing to prevent the spread of misinformation online.

    • El País ☛ Alex Jones, the great liar who lost in court, but not entirely

      The HBO documentary The Truth Vs Alex Jones is gut-churning and will make your blood boil. It chronicles the rise and fall of one of America’s great ultra-right misinformation disseminators, from his early days as a TV presenter to the two trials that brought him down.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Straits Times ☛ As landmark national security case concludes, Hong Kong turns the page on a troubled chapter

    The landmark case is seen as a litmus test of the National Security Law enacted in June 2020.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ National security guidelines for Hong Kong civil servants: Could this be too much of a good thing?

    Civil servants are to get a new set of guidelines next year, according to Secretary for Security Chris Tang, which will show them how to safeguard national security in their daily duties.

  • JURIST ☛ New Zealand police enforce ban on gang symbols within minutes of prohibiting legislation coming into effect

    New Zealand police on Thursday made their first arrest under the newly enacted Gangs Act 2024, just three minutes after the legislation prohibiting the public display of gang insignia came into effect.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Hong Kong Jails 45 Democracy Activists in Landmark National Security Trial

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-20 [Older] Former Hong Kong Publisher Jimmy Lai Begins to Testify in His National Security Trial

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-20 [Older] Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Tycoon Lai Testifies in National Security Trial

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] 45 Sentenced to up to 10 Years in Prison in Hong Kong National Security Case

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Hong Kong: 45 activists jailed in national security case

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Unplugging the News (and History) in San Francisco

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-15 [Older] Ben & Jerry's Lawsuit Accuses Parent Company of Censorship Over Gaza

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Silenced Voices: Kashmir, Palestine, and BRICS Uncovered

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Who are the 45 HK pro-democracy figures jailed for subversion? Part I

    Among those sentenced to up to a decade behind bars over their roles in an unofficial election primary held in July 2020, which aimed to help the pan-democrats secure a controlling majority in upcoming elections for the legislature, were environmentalists, an LGBTQ advocate, and social workers.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Who are the 45 HK pro-democracy figures jailed for subversion? Part II

    Hong Kong’s largest national security case came to a close on Tuesday as 45 prominent pro-democracy advocates were jailed for up to 10 years over taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion.

    The offence centred on an unofficial primary election held in July 2020 that aimed to help them win a controlling majority in the legislature.

  • RFERL ☛ Russia Declares Forum Advocating Regional Autonomy A Terrorist Organization

    Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its attempt to wipe out Ukrainian identity has shone a bright light on the Kremlin's historical mistreatment of its own indigenous populations and triggered a "decolonization" movement that seeks to give more prominence to ethnic groups within Russian historical and cultural studies.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • CPJ ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] Journalist attacked by business owner, security guards in Montenegro

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ WaPo Enthusiastically Joins Trump's Attack on Rule of Law

    This article, from WaPo, is a remarkable example.

    It confirms what was already clear — that Trump will attempt to fire everyone who worked on his own criminal prosecutions — and adds that Trump also intends to use DOJ to investigate his claims of voter fraud that his own DOJ already debunked in late 2020. It describes this fascist project to politicize DOJ as evidence of his “intention to dramatically shake up the status quo in Washington.”

  • Press Gazette ☛ Battle for future of National World as shareholder launches takeover bid

    Media Concierge, which also owns Irish newspapers including the Donegal Democrat and Limerick Leader through subsidiary Iconic Media Group, was one of National World’s original backers and already holds 27.8% of its shares.

    Media Concierge abstained in a vote chief executive David Montgomery’s continued leadership of the business at the company’s last annual general meeting in May, Press Gazette understands. Since then National World has discontinued a longstanding business relationship with Media Concierge subsidiary Mediaforce, which had until then handled national advertising for the company. National World now sells its national print advertising through competitor Reach.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Trump tells U.S. Senate Republicans they 'must kill' journalism shield law

    President-elect Donald Trump ordered congressional Republicans on Wednesday to block a broadly popular bill to protect press freedoms, likely ending any chance of the U.S. Senate clearing the legislation.

    The measure would limit federal law enforcement surveillance of journalists and the government’s ability to force disclosure of journalists’ sources, codifying regulations the Department of Justice has put in place under President Joe Biden.

    The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved it last year and it passed the House by voice vote in January.

  • The Hill ☛ Trump Jr., Musk joke about buying MSNBC

    The exchange occurred just two days after Comcast, one of the largest media conglomerates in the nation, said it planned to spin off NBCUniversal assets, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel, to “create a new publicly traded company.”

    Comcast did not mention any indication it would be open to selling MSNBC.

  • [Repeat] Press Gazette ☛ Carole Cadwalladr denounces Observer sell-off in conference speech

    Cadwalladr is one of few serving Guardian or Observer journalists to have spoken out publicly about the proposal to transfer the title and its 70 staff to Tortoise Media despite widespread opposition. Some 93% of Guardian and Observer journalists voted in favour of strike action in protest at the deal this week.

  • [Repeat] Press Gazette ☛ Jason Cowley bowing out after 16 years as New Statesman editor

    Cowley will continue to write for the New Statesman as a columnist and essayist.

  • New Statesman ☛ Jason Cowley to stand down as New Statesman editor-in-chief after 16 years  

    New Statesman editor-in-chief Jason Cowley has announced his intention to step down at the end of the year. He will continue to write for the New Statesman as a columnist and essayist.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-13 [Older] US Labor Board Bans Mandatory Anti-Union Meetings in Ruling Against Amazon

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] Amazon and Elon Musk's SpaceX Challenge Labor Agency's Constitutionality in Federal Court

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] UK: Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over abuse scandal

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-12 [Older] Trump judge delays hush-money decision

  • Wired ☛ The World’s Biggest EV Maker Has the Industry’s Worst Human Rights Appraisal

    The race to keep pace with EV development could be taking a dark turn. Amnesty International has released a report claiming the world’s leading EV makers are failing to adequately demonstrate how they address human rights risks in their mineral supply chains, which gather vital materials for making electric car batteries.

    The report, Recharge for Rights, alleges that BYD, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai had the worst human rights due diligence policies of 13 major EV manufacturers, ranked in a league table (the three companies did not respond to Amnesty on its findings).

  • ANF News ☛ Young Yazidi man kidnapped by ISIS in Shengal in 2014 freed by the SDF in Manbij

    During a special operation conducted by the SDF’s military operations teams in the city of Manbij, a young Yazidi man, Diyar Ali Raffo, who was abducted by ISIS during the genocidal onslaught in Shengal in 2014, was freed.

  • The Independent UK ☛ A man called 911 for help during a home invasion. Las Vegas police fatally shot him

    Bookman was one of the first officers to arrive and kicked in the front door. Koren said the officer found Durham in a hallway struggling over a knife with the intruder.

    In a short video clip of body camera footage released by police, the officer yells for them to drop the knife, then fires one round. Durham and the intruder both fall to the floor, then the officer moves closer and fires five more rounds while standing over them, the video shows.

  • Federal News Network ☛ DOGE leaders seek telework rollback, but agencies say it improves retention

    Agency supervisors are telling a government watchdog that flexible work agreements help them recruit and retain frontline federal employees who provide benefits and services to the public.

    President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for a new Department [sic] of Government Efficiency, however, include rolling back telework for the federal workforce, according to the two officials tapped to run the organization.

  • Hamilton Nolan ☛ Lean Into the Punch

    Sorry for being a sports metaphor guy, but: this is a lesson that organized labor needs to learn very fast, as a new Trump administration approaches. For all of their public talk about how they plan to fight, the instinct of the leadership of most big labor unions in America when faced with a hostile federal government is to do the opposite—to withdraw into their shells like turtles and try to weather the storm, to protect what they already have as best they can until the next election rolls around, when they will pour everything into the campaign of a friendlier candidate, who they presume will reset the playing field to a more welcoming state, which will then allow them to flourish.

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Reverse engineers bust sleazy gig work platform

    The reason for their newfound popularity is obvious: the rise and rise of algorithmic management tools, in which your boss is an app. That IBM slide is right: turning an app into your boss allows your actual boss to create an "accountability sink" in which there is no obvious way to blame a human or even a company for your maltreatment: [...]

  • Pivot to AI ☛ Whoops! AI tenant-screening tool SafeRent pays $2.28 million settlement for being massively racist

    Plaintiffs alleged that SafeRent racially discriminated in violation of the Fair Housing Act and broke related Massachusetts laws. The US Department of Justice supported the case going forward.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Rise of 4B in the Wake of Donald Trump’s Reëlection

    Why the South Korean feminist movement, which calls for a boycott of men, is gaining traction among American women.

  • Cambodian trafficking victim describes forced marriage, abuse in China

    Sok Suosdey sought a better salary, but was told she had to wed or pay back the cost of her relocation to Shanghai.

  • New York Times ☛ 55 Days Into Hunger Strike, Activist’s Mother Says She ‘Won’t Back Down’

    Laila Soueif, the British-born mother of the Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd El Fattah, is demanding the U.K. do more to secure his release.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • James G ☛ What do you want for the web?

    In a conversation with a friend, I wrote down three things I want for the web: [...]

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • SANS ☛ Analyzing an Encrypted Phishing PDF

    My PDF tools do not support encryption, you need to use another open source tool: qpdf, developed by Jay Berkenbilt.

    A PDF document can be encrypted for DRM and/or for confidentiality. PDFs encrypted solely for DRM, can be opened and viewed by the user without providing a password. PDFs encrypted for confidentiality can only be opened and viewed when the user provides the correct password.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• IP Kat ☛ 2024-11-18 [Older] General Court on design law: Principle of unicity of design and no interpretation favourable to the holder

• IP Kat ☛ 2024-11-19 [Older] Design reform reaches its finale: it is now Regulation (EU) 2024/2822 and Directive (EU) 2024/2823

• India Times ☛ Google Chrome divestiture: What forcing Google to sell Chrome could mean

  On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice submitted its recommendation for the breakup to US District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who is set to impose steps next year to address Google's monopoly power in online search.

• RTL ☛ Antitrust case: What forcing Google to sell Chrome could mean

  US antitrust lawyers are calling on a judge to force the sale of Google's Chrome browser to limit the company's market clout in a move that would shake up the internet giant.

• The Register UK ☛ Why Google's Chrome monopoly won't crack anytime soon

  The US Department of Justice has accused a major tech company of an illegal web monopoly and tried to force them to split off their web browser. Sound familiar?

  Oh, right, it was the United States vs Microsoft, aka Netscape vs Internet, in 1998. This time around, it's the United States vs Google. Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court ruled that Google violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by stifling advertising competition and arranging exclusive and restrictive contracts with other companies. To quote Mehta: "Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly."

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-11-14 [Older] UK Supreme Court finally issues ruling on "bad faith" trade mark applications in Sky v SkyKick

  • Techdirt ☛ KFC Sues Church’s Chicken Over ‘Original Recipe’ Trademark, Which Shouldn’t Be Trademarkable

    It’s amazing just how many of the trademark disputes we see and discuss here at Techdirt ultimately result from the USPTO granting trademarks that never should have been granted in the first place. In the food industry specifically, we saw this recently in the whole “Taco Tuesday” episode, in which the Trademark Office granted Taco John’s a mark for “taco Tuesday,” despite the descriptive and fairly generic nature of the term. The end result was years and years of Taco John’s bullying other restaurants wielding a this trademark that never should have been a thing. It was only when another large entity with a sizeable legal war chest teamed up with LeBron James of all people to get the trademark rescinded.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ AGCOM Piracy Shield Critic Receives Ominous Warning, Comes Out Fighting

    Despite a series of failures concerning Italy's IPTV blocking platform Piracy Shield and the revelation that the 'free' platform will cost €2m per year, telecoms regulator AGCOM insists that all is going to plan. After breaking ranks, AGCOM board member Elisa Giomi called for the suspension of Piracy Shield while decrying its toll on public resources. When she was warned for her criticism, coupled with a threat of financial implications, Giomi came out fighting.

  • India Times ☛ 'Worst leak in streaming history': Our team is ..., update on ‘Netflix hack’ that leaked episodes of Terminator Zero, Squid Game and other shows online

    It now appears, it may have found some lead here. Netflix is enlisting the help of Discord to track down the individual responsible for leaking unreleased footage of its Blockbuster shows. According to a report in Polygon, "Netflix is looking toward Discord for help in figuring out who, exactly, is leaking unreleased footage from some of its popular shows."

  • The Atlantic ☛ What 'Wicked' Understands About the World of Oz

    Baum’s novel and its sequels were major literary phenomena in their day. But Oz persists primarily through the books’ many adaptations, which established the series’ enduring iconography. Baum’s world is best remembered as it has appeared on-screen, especially in the 1939 musical film starring Judy Garland as Dorothy: a place bursting with songs such as “Over the Rainbow” and visuals such as the yellow brick road, which have become the franchise’s most memorable features. And with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’s 1956 entry into the public domain, allowing for new, noncanonical works, subsequent generations have iterated on these hallmarks to tell Oz stories of their own.

  • Futurism ☛ Parents Sue School for Punishing Their Son for Copy-Pasting AI Homework, Get Rude Wakeup Call

    His mom and dad, though, decided that this was some sort of cosmic injustice. Rather than use this as an opportunity to teach their kid about the wrongs of plagiarism, the parents — Dale and Jennifer Harris — fearful of their son's college prospects, threatened to sue the school.

    The couple probably expected the school's administrators to cave to the fear of litigation — but they didn't.

  • New York Times ☛ ‘The Interview’: K-Pop Trained Rosé to Be ‘a Perfect Girl.’ Now She’s Trying to Be Herself.

    The Blackpink star strikes out on her own, away from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.