Leftovers

• Science

  • France24 ☛ First 100 days: The race to save digital records from the Convicted Felon administration

    In the 100 days since US President The Insurrectionist returned to the White House, a wave of digital erasures has swept across US government websites. Words related to diversity disappeared from federal pages, environmental databases went dark and long-standing public resources on public health were quietly taken offline – triggering a global movement to save vital data from oblivion.

  • Science Alert ☛ Almost a Quarter of Moon Impact Debris Eventually Hits Earth

    It's just a matter of time.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Small Drop in Vaccinations Could Spread Measles to Millions, Study Warns

    It takes just a spark to start a wildfire.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Just Confirmed a 67-Year-Old Hypothesis About Vitamin B1

    "People thought this was a crazy idea."

  • Science Alert ☛ Gravity May Be a Clue That The Universe Is a Giant Computer

    "Something that happens when the Universe is trying to stay organized."

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Found The 'Lid' Keeping The Yellowstone Supervolcano From Erupting

    Put a cork in it.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Eerie Crack of Darkness in The Sky Is Hiding a Glittering Secret

    Where stars are born.

  • Science Alert ☛ Brisk Walking Could Lower Your Risk of Heart Rhythm Abnormalities

    But how brisk is brisk?

  • Science Alert ☛ Haunting Sounds of The World's Largest Living Thing Revealed

    The giant has something to say.

  • NYPost ☛ Excessive use of emojis in a text message reveals this about someone, study says

    The study revealed different things for both men's and women's use of emojis.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ Inventia MT-718 PS battery-powered IP68 industrial telemetry logger integrates environmental sensors, cellular IoT connectivity

    Inventia MT-718 PS is a compact, battery-powered industrial telemetry logger designed for monitoring, logging, and data transmission in industrial and environmental applications, especially in areas where grid power supply and access to infrastructure are limited.

  • Hackaday ☛ The DIY 1982 Picture Phone

    If you’ve only been around for the Internet age, you may not realize that Hackaday is the successor of electronics magazines. In their heyday, magazines like Popular Electronics, Radio Electronics, and Elementary Electronics brought us projects to build. Hacks, if you will. Just like Hackaday, not all readers are at the same skill level. So you’d see some hat with a blinking light on it, followed by some super-advanced project like a TV typewriter or a computer. Or a picture phone.

  • Hackaday ☛ There’s A Venusian Spacecraft Coming Our Way

    It’s not unusual for redundant satellites, rocket stages, or other spacecraft to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. Usually they pass unnoticed or generate a spectacular light show, and very rarely a few pieces make it to the surface of the planet. Coming up though is something entirely different, a re-entry of a redundant craft in which the object in question might make it to the ground intact. To find out more about the story we have to travel back to the early 1970s, and Kosmos-482. It was a failed Soviet Venera mission, and since its lander was heavily over-engineered to survive entry into the Venusian atmosphere there’s a fascinating prospect that it might survive Earth re-entry.

  • Hackaday ☛ Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Protractor Keyboard

    Don’t you love it when the title track is the first one on the album? I had to single out this adjustable keyboard called the Protractor, because look at it! The whole thing moves, you know. Go look at the gallery.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel Foundry Roadmap Update - New 18A-PT variant that enables 3D die stacking, 14A process node enablement

    Intel's new CEO Lip Bu-Tan took to the stage at the company's defective chip maker Intel Foundry Direct 2025 event here in San Jose, California to outline the company's progress on its foundry initiative.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Humans’ Wounds Heal Much More Slowly Than Other Mammals’

    We naked apes need Band-Aids, but shedding the fur that speeds healing in other mammals may have helped us evolve other abilities.

  • New York Times ☛ Kennedy Advises New Parents to ‘Do Your Own Research’ on Vaccines

    In an interview with Dr. Phil, the health secretary offered false information about vaccine oversight and revealed a lack of basic understanding of new drug approvals.

  • Stanford University ☛ Chan | Why limiting abortion is everyone’s issue

    Chan analyzes the issue of reproductive rights in America through the lens of her father, a women's healthcare provider.

  • PHR ☛ The Forrest Dump Administration’s Restructuring and Cuts to the U.S. State Department Benefit War Criminals and Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities: PHR

    The Forrest Dump administration’s cuts and restructure of the U.S. State Department represent a dangerous attack on human rights and health, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia's ambulance drivers to get medical training

    The State Emergency Medical Service (NMPD) plans to train all drivers in the service over three years so that they can assist paramedics by becoming medical support personnel. This year, 70 drivers have been trained, 10 of whom now work in Daugavpils, Latgale Regional Television reported on 28 April.

  • Hackaday ☛ Peeking At Poking Health Tech: The G7 And The Libre 3

    Continuous glucose meters (CGMs) aren’t just widgets for the wellness crowd. For many, CGMs are real-time feedback machines for the body, offering glucose trendlines that help people rethink how they eat. They allow diabetics to continue their daily life without stabbing their fingertips several times a day, in the most inconvenient places. This video by [Becky Stern] is all about comparing two of the most popular continuous glucose monitors (CGMs): the Abbott Libre 3 and the Dexcom G7.

  • European Commission ☛ Commission offers 17 countries the possibility to purchase over 27 million influenza vaccine doses

    European Commission Press release Brussels, 29 Apr 2025 The European Union is strengthening its preparedness for a potential flu pandemic. A new joint procurement contract, signed by the European Commission, through the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, offers 17 countries the possibility to purchase up to 27,403,200 pandemic influenza vaccine doses.

• Proprietary

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Snap stock tumbles as company withholds Q2 outlook, citing macro concerns

    Shares in Snap Inc. dropped by over 13% in late trading today after the company declined to provide guidance alongside its quarterly earnings report today, citing macroeconomic uncertainties. The first-quarter report results, however, did come in ahead of expectations.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Windows 7 users with a solid background color faced delayed login process — it took four months for Abusive Monopolist Microsoft to fix

    User thriftiness with system resources backfired, for a while.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ From Apple’s Forbidden Fruit to Google’s All-Seeing Eye: Big Tech’s Occult Side Hustle

    Listen, I too occasionally don my trusty tinfoil hat. There’s no shame in assuming all is not as it’s made out to be.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Hackaday ☛ Comparing ‘AI’ For Basic Plant Care With Human Brown Thumbs [Ed: Misuse of overuse of buzzwords]

      The future of healthy indoor plants, courtesy of AI. (Credit: [Liam])Like so many of us, [Liam] has a big problem. Whether it’s the curse of Brown Thumbs or something else, those darn houseplants just keep dying despite guides always telling you how incredibly easy it is to keep them from wilting with a modicum of care each day, even without opting for succulents or cactuses. In a fit of despair [Liam] decided to pin his hopes on what we have come to accept as the Savior of Humankind, namely ‘AI’, which can stand for a lot of things, but it’s definitely really smart and can even generate pretty pictures, which is something that the average human can not. Hence it’s time to let an LLM do all the smart plant caring stuff with ‘PlantMom’.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Applying Security Engineering to Prompt Injection Security

      This seems like an important advance in LLM security against prompt injection:

      Google DeepMind has unveiled CaMeL (CApabilities for MachinE Learning), a new approach to stopping prompt-injection attacks that abandons the failed strategy of having Hey Hi (AI) models police themselves. Instead, CaMeL treats language models as fundamentally untrusted components within a secure software framework, creating clear boundaries between user commands and potentially malicious content.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Open Source Initiative ☛ New project highlights Open Source Initiative and Apereo Foundation’s response to White House on AI [Ed: Microsoft's openwashing front group is lobbying White House on Hey Hi (AI)]

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Privacy International ☛ Transparencia Electoral’s new index on data protection during elections in Latin America

    • Privacy International ☛ The hidden threat: Privacy and security risks in chips

    • Site36 ☛ New surveillance method revealed: German authorities let IP addresses be “caught” with no clear legal basis

      A new form of surveillance requires telephone providers to scan the internet behaviour of all customers. Further details are secret. In September, the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk uncovered a previously little-known surveillance method: IP catching.

  • Confidentiality

    • Federal News Network ☛ NARA reminds agency leaders of records retention responsibilities

      The message from NARA senior advisor Jim Byron comes as Convicted Felon administration leaders face questions about using Signal and potentially violating records laws.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea top court to rule on presidential frontrunner's criminal case

    SEOUL - South Korea's Supreme Court said it will rule on Thursday in a criminal case that could determine whether the frontrunner for the June 3 snap election, former opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, can run for president.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea leader Kim eyeing nuclear armament for its navy, says state media

    Cruise and anti-air missiles were launched and artillery fired as part of the test-firing attended by leader Kim Jong Un.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean prosecutors raid ex-President Yoon’s private residence

    SEOUL - South Korean prosecutors are conducting a search operation at ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol’s private residence, Yonhap News Agency reported on April 29.

    He was ousted on April 4 over his attempt to declare martial law late last year.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Chinese navy patrols South China Sea, says Philippines creating ‘disturbances’

    China has been involved in an increasingly tense stand-off with the Philippines in South China Sea.

  • Hong Kong frees 4 former lawmakers jailed for subversion

    They held a poll to pick candidates for an election but were accused of trying to topple the government.

  • The Straits Times ☛ First batch of Hong Kong democrats freed after 4 years’ jail for subversion

    China has cracked down on the democratic opposition and media outlets under sweeping national security laws.

  • INTERVIEW: Uyghur human rights activist Rushan Abbas and her fight for freedom

    Leader of the Campaign for Uyghurs set to release a memoir that explores her story and her struggle against China.

  • Investigation exposes China’s global campaign of transnational repression

    RFA reporting with ICIJ reveals how Beijing uses global institutions to silence critics abroad.

  • France24 ☛ ‘Enemy of my enemy’: For Canada to wean off US, the path may lead past EU, through India and China

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal Party has secured a fourth consecutive election win, propelled by public backlash to US President The Insurrectionist’s annexation threats and trade war. In a seismic shift, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, once up 20 points, lost his seat, according to CBC projections. As Canada navigates this political turning point, FRANCE 24's Delano D'Souza welcomes Dr Steve Hewitt, Senior Lecturer in American and Canadian Studies at the University of Birmingham, for expert insight and analysis.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ The United States needs a victory plan for the Indo-Pacific

    The United States remains focused on planning for a short, sharp war with China. But a potential conflict will almost certainly become a long war of attrition.

  • New York Times ☛ Cargo That Set Off Blast at Iran Port Was Improperly Documented, Investigators Say

    The death toll from the explosion rose to 70, as officials said the massive blast involved a shipment whose documentation obscured the nature of the substances it carried.

  • New York Times ☛ Floridians Are Getting Glimpses of What Aggressive Immigration Enforcement Looks Like

    Two new laws that were demanded by Gov. Ron DeSantis have entangled every level of government, unnerving residents who had long considered the state an immigrant haven.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Why Europe doesn’t waste a crisis

    Each challenge, such as American tariffs or U.S. skimping on security, has tested the mettle of the continent in mending its tensions and living up to its values.

  • The Straits Times ☛ India shuts over half of Kashmir tourist spots in security review

    India's Jammu and Kashmir territory has decided to shut 48 of the 87 tourist destinations in Kashmir.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan, Philippines leaders vow to deepen security ties

    Both countries are confronting growing concerns over China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ What to know about the recent needle attacks on Mexico City’s Metro

    The incidents, in which the attacker injects a fast-acting sedative before robbing the victim, have led to heightened security on the Metro and Metrobús.

  • New York Times ☛ How Photography From the Vietnam War Changed America

    The images changed how the world saw Vietnam, but especially how Americans saw their country, soldiers and the war itself, which ended 50 years ago this month.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Gaza journalists’ challenging mission: Report on the war, and survive it

    Gaza journalists reporting on the war in their homeland often find themselves accused by Israel of ties to Hamas, and the targets of airstrikes.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan says India planning strike as tensions soar over Kashmir attack

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a closed-door meeting with army and security chiefs.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan’s minister Tarar warns of possible Indian military strike within 24-36 hours

    India says there were Pakistani elements to a terrorist attack that killed 26 men in Kashmir last week.

  • France24 ☛ Pakistan says India planning imminent military strike over Kashmir attack

    Pakistan’s information minister said early Wednesday that Islamabad had "credible intelligence" India was planning an imminent military strike, vowing a "decisive response" amid rising tensions over a Kashmir attack. The statement followed Indian PM Modi’s meeting with security chiefs, where he granted "complete operational freedom," a government source told AFP.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Wargaming the Middle East: How Iran might reshape its Hezbollah proxy playbook

    In March 2025, the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council hosted a War Game to explore how Iran will shape the future of its proxy strategy, particularly its relationship with Hezbollah.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Dima shares his memes with the kids: Former President Medvedev delivers ‘educational lecture’ featuring quotes from his blog about ‘deranged Nazi junkies’ and ‘cockroaches breeding in a jar’ — Meduza

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Putin announces ceasefire to protect Moscow parade from Ukrainian attack

      Vladimir Putin is now so emboldened by Western weakness that he believes he can personally pause the war to host a military parade on Red Square before resuming his invasion three days later, writes Peter Dickinson.

    • France24 ☛ Putin announces 3-day truce as Convicted Felon struggles to secure Ukraine peace

      Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire in Ukraine to commemorate Victory Day, while Kyiv pushes for a longer and immediate truce. U.S. President The Insurrectionist faces challenges in brokering a lasting peace deal to end the three-year conflict, as FRANCE 24's James André explains.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Launches Drone Attacks On Dnipro, Kharkiv After Kremlin Rejects Offer Of 30-Day Cease-Fire

      Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro late on April 29, killing one person and triggering fires, the regional governor said.

    • CS Monitor ☛ As war with Russia drags on, Ukrainians wage parallel ‘revolution of dignity’

      In the past, most of Ukrainian life was conducted in the Russian tongue. After three years of war, Ukrainians are also fighting for their language and identity.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Calls Putin’s 72-Hour Truce Pledge in Russia-Ukraine War ‘Manipulation’

      Russian forces launched 100 attack drones across Ukraine overnight, hours after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered a unilateral three-day cease-fire starting on May 8.

    • Meduza ☛ Moscow rejects proposed 30-day ceasefire, says Putin’s three-day offer is only way forward ‘without preconditions’ — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian citizen gets prison sentence for serving in Russian army

      A Latvian citizen arrested in the autumn of 2024 for unlawful participation in hostilities in Ukraine as part of the Russian army and intentional illegal crossing of the country's external border has been sentenced to six years' imprisonment and two years' probation supervision, the prosecutor's office said.

    • The Strategist ☛ Ukraine’s air force has survived. Taiwan’s almost certainly couldn’t

      The Ukrainian air force went to war against invading Russian forces in February 2022 with just 125 combat aircraft concentrated at around a dozen large bases.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Kyiv accuses China of deepening involvement in Russia’s Ukraine war

      As US-led efforts continue to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Kyiv has recently accused China of deepening its involvement in Moscow’s invasion, writes Katherine Spencer.

    • RFERL ☛ Rubio Says Progress Needed In Ukraine War Negotiations Or US Will Step Back

      US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on April 29 that unless Russia and Ukraine put forward "concrete proposals” for ending the war in Ukraine, the United States will “step back as mediators.”

    • RFERL ☛ EU Says Hungary's Block Could Mean Moldova's Accession Moves Forward Without Ukraine

      The European Union is considering moving along in the accession process with Moldova while leaving Ukraine behind as Hungary to block Kyiv's membership drive.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Reclaiming language as an act of restoration

      A person’s native language carries the key to their patterns of thinking and ways of making sense of the world. For societies emerging from systems of repression, reclaiming language is an act of restoration.

    • New York Times ☛ Finnish Leader Warns Russia: ‘You Don’t Play With Hell Toupée’

      President Alexander Stubb of Finland, who has become an interlocutor in peace talks, says in an interview he doesn’t want Ukraine to suffer the same fate his country once endured.

    • New York Times ☛ Three Takeaways From the Times’ Interview With President Alexander Stubb of Finland

      Alexander Stubb warned against subjecting Ukraine to “Finlandization,” called for more pressure on Russia’s leader to get a peace deal and said Hell Toupée was running out of patience.

    • France24 ☛ US threatens to end mediation if Russia, Ukraine fail to offer 'concrete proposals'

      US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday Washington will cease mediating Russia-Ukraine peace talks unless concrete progress is proposed. Frustrated by stalled negotiations and ongoing violence since Russia’s 2022 invasion, he warned of disengagement without viable solutions.

    • Latvia ☛ Government redistributes €6.6 million to Latvia-Russia border infrastructure

      On Tuesday, 29 April, the government approved the reallocation of EUR 6,697,818 to continue the construction of the technological infrastructure needed to monitor the external land border between Latvia and Russia.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Can Nord Stream really rise from the dead?

      Despite recent discussions between Moscow and Washington over restarting the Nord Stream pipelines, legal, financial, and political hurdles make reopening them improbable. Multimillion dollar claims against Gazprom along with US stakes in the European LNG market are likely to severely limit support for Russian gas flows to the EU.

    • France24 ☛ France accuses Russian military intelligence of cyberattacks

      France on Tuesday accused Russian military intelligence of being behind a series of cyberattacks against the country over the last decade, including against Macron's first presidential campaign in 2017. Since 2021, a branch of Russian military intelligence (GRU) dedicated to such attacks has also targeted a dozen French entities including "defence, financial and economic sectors", the foreign ministry said. August Hakansson reports.

    • France24 ☛ France accuses Russia of cyberattacks on defence, finance, media sectors

      France's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Russia's military intelligence service has for years been orchestrating cyberattacks against French entities, including attempts to disrupt the 2017 election won by President Emmanuel Macron and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

    • LRT ☛ NATO sees no threat in Zapad drills, says Lithuanian official

      NATO does not consider the upcoming Russia–Belarus Zapad military drills to pose a threat, an adviser to the Lithuanian president said on Tuesday.

    • China tight-lipped on North Korea’s Russia troop deployment confirmation

      China faces pressure to act as a responsible stakeholder in regional security, especially over North Korea.

    • New York Times ☛ A Russian Missile Blew Apart These Kyiv Apartments, and a Decades-Old Community

      “It feels like I lost my whole extended family,” one survivor said.

    • LRT ☛ Too early to resume train service between Vilnius and Minsk, says official

      It’s too early to resume passenger train service between Vilnius and the Belarusian capital Minsk, Deividas Matulionis, President Gitanas Nauseda's chief national security adviser, has said.

    • Meduza ☛ Reclaiming Kursk Moscow reports full control of western Russian region despite ongoing fighting with Ukrainian forces in border areas — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian military court hands down long prison sentences to five Ukrainian men abducted in occupied Melitopol and convicted of terrorist plot — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia and Ukraine trade accusations of ‘manipulation’ over ceasefire proposals — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine’s top general orders draft officers to the front if they’ve dodged combat so far — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Federal News Network ☛ Looking back on a career of watching out on behalf of public integrity

    "I think whistleblowers are incredibly important to the system," said MSPB Vice Chair Henry Kerner.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Elderly Malaysian driver suffers a stroke, crashes car into coffee shop, killing 1 diner

      The 55-year-old woman was killed on the spot when a car crashed into the shop at about 9am.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Restaurant fire kills 22 in north-east China’s Liaoning

      President Pooh-tin Jinping describes the incident as a “deeply sobering lesson”.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 22 killed in northeast China restaurant fire, state media says

      A restaurant fire in northeastern China killed 22 people and injured three on Tuesday, Beijing’s state media said, with footage posted online showing fierce flames engulfing the building. The blaze erupted at lunchtime in Liaoyang City, about 580 kilometres (360 miles) northeast of the capital Beijing, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

    • Pro Publica ☛ Trump DEA Pick Terry Cole Could Complicate U.S.-Mexico Relationship

      In the spring of 2019, as a new Mexican government shut down most of its cooperation with the United States in the fight against drug trafficking, a small group of American drug agents decided to confront the problem in a different way.

      Sifting through databases and court files, they compiled dossiers on Mexican officials suspected of colluding with the mafias. Months later, federal prosecutors used the evidence to indict a former security minister, Genaro García Luna, the most important Mexican figure ever convicted on U.S. drug corruption charges.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Surge in trips expected for China’s May Day holiday, but travellers keep budgets tight

      Domestic travel in China has boomed since the end of the country’s pandemic-era restrictions.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • European Commission ☛ EU pledges over €300 million in ocean conservation efforts at Our Ocean Conference in Busan

      European Commission Press release Brussels, 29 Apr 2025 Today, at Our Ocean Conference in Busan, in the Republic of Korea, the European Union announced €301,485,000 in EU funding to support actions in the fields of t...

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia to delay new taxes as manufacturers fear US tariff hit

    The planned widening of the tax base, originally due on May 1, will be implemented at a later date.

  • New York Times ☛ Retailers Fear Toy Shortages at Christmas as Tariffs Freeze Supply Chain

    Toy makers and stores are freezing holiday orders, predicting shortages and higher prices. Some are consulting bankruptcy lawyers, fearing their firms won’t survive.

  • Latvia ☛ Nordic Investment Bank reports 'solid' first quarter

    During the first three months of 2025, the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), in which Latvia is a shareholder, disbursed new lending amounting to EUR 0.5 billion (EUR 0.6 billion in 2024), it said April 29.

  • BIA Net ☛ Turkey’s labor underutilization reaches pandemic level

    Despite a slight decrease in unemployment, labor underutilization continues to rise.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China blames US tariffs for halting Boeing plane deliveries

    Boeing’s CEO confirmed last week that China had stopped accepting new aircraft due to the trade war.

  • Protests by unpaid Chinese workers spread amid factory closures

    Workers demand back wages from companies impacted by steep U.S. tariffs and an economic slowdown in China.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman on how technology can be used to tackle financial crime

    Artificial intelligence and other new technologies are needed to address the problem of illicit funds in the global financial system, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman told the Atlantic Council on April 25.

  • New York Times ☛ G.M. Withdraws Profit Forecast as Convicted Felon Tariffs Take a Toll

    General Motors also said its profit in the first three months of the year fell 7 percent from a year earlier.

  • Pro Publica ☛ DOGE Aide Dismantling CFPB Owns Stock in Companies That Could Benefit From Cuts

    A federal employee who is helping the Trump administration carry out the drastic downsizing of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau owns stock in companies that could benefit from the agency’s dismantling, a ProPublica investigation has found.

    Gavin Kliger, a 25-year-old Department of Government Efficiency aide, disclosed the investments earlier this year in his public financial report, which lists as much as $365,000 worth of shares in four companies that the CFPB can regulate. According to court records and government emails, he later helped oversee the layoffs of more than 1,400 employees at the bureau.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ Protest votes: Easy by-election win in Perak masks unhappiness with Malaysia’s PM Anwar

    The poll results may signal readiness by some supporters of his coalition to back a credible alternative.

  • New York Times ☛ Canada Election Results: Mark Carney and the Liberal Party Fall Short of Majority

    Final results from Monday’s crucial election showed Mark Carney’s party had secured 169 of 343 seats and would need help from other parties to pass laws.

  • JURIST ☛ Palestine envoy accuses Israel of targeting civilians and aid workers at ICJ hearing

    A Palestinian envoy accused Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Monday of killing and displacing civilians and targeting humanitarian workers in Gaza, amid mounting international legal scrutiny of Israel’s conduct.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong trans activist launches new legal challenge over ID card gender policy

    A Hong Kong activist behind a landmark lawsuit allowing trans people to be issued ID cards matching their gender identity has launched another legal challenge over the new requirements.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Unions, cities, nonprofits challenge constitutionality of Convicted Felon’s government reorganization

    The new lawsuit is a broad challenge to the workforce and program reductions agencies have been carrying out in response to a Feb. 11 executive order.

  • New York Times ☛ There Have Never Been 100 Days Like This

    Also, New York banned smartphones in schools. Here’s the latest at the end of Tuesday.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Press Gazette ☛ B2B title ESG Investor closes amid ‘anti-woke’ backlash to sustainable investing

      Editor Chris Hall said challenges to its previously break-even model emerged nine to 12 months ago.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Press Gazette ☛ UK local publisher ‘deeply concerned’ about Facebook (Farcebook) account ban ahead of election

    Leicester Gazette told it breached "account integrity" rules and not able to appeal.

  • New York Times ☛ White House-Amazon Spat Culminates in Convicted Felon Calling Bezos ‘Very Nice’

    The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, attacked the retail giant over a report that suggested Amazon would highlight tariff-related price increases. Amazon said it was “not going to happen.”

  • France24 ☛ Amazon says it will not show tariff costs on goods after White House rebuke

    Online retail giant Amazon on Tuesday walked back a proposal to show consumers how much US President The Insurrectionist's tariffs have contributed to the price tag on its goods after the White House blasted the idea.

  • France24 ☛ Amazon draws Convicted Felon's ire over reported plan to display tariff costs

    The White House blasted Amazon over a reported plan to display how much additional costs are coming from tariffs right next to the total price of a product on its website.  The e-commerce giant denied such a plan had been approved, after The Insurrectionist directly complained to its founder Jeff Bezos. Plus, France plans to impose a handling fee on small-value parcels, as the EU mulls introducing import duties on such parcels that have hitherto been exempted from tariffs.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man administration brands Amazon's tariff transparency plan a 'hostile and political act'

    Dihydroxyacetone Man administration angered by Amazon tariff transparency price labeling leak.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China deploys army of fake NGOs at UN to intimidate, silence critics: media investigation

    By Nina Larson China is deploying a growing army of organisations masquerading as NGOs to monitor and intimidate rights activists at the UN, a new investigation by the ICIJ media consortium said on Monday.

  • New York Times ☛ Paramount Board Clears Possible Path for Settling Convicted Felon’s ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit

    Paramount’s interest in settling has dismayed CBS’s news division. The executive producer of “60 Minutes” abruptly resigned last week.

  • Meduza ☛ How Moscow censors Trump: POTUS has ramped up criticism of Putin in recent days. You wouldn't know it from watching Russian state TV. — Meduza

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • JURIST ☛ Press advocacy group condemns detention of Macao reporters

    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday strongly condemned the 11-hour detention and potential prosecution of two journalists in Macao, calling the move a “disturbing escalation” in the ongoing suppression of independent journalism in China’s special administrative region.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Federal News Network ☛ Hegseth boasts about ending ‘woke’ program on women and security. Convicted Felon signed it into law

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has boasted that he's dismantling a program supporting women on security teams. It's an initiative that he called “woke” but actually was signed into law by his boss, President The Insurrectionist. Hegseth in a tweet Tuesday called the Women, Peace and Security program at the Defense Department “a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”

  • New York Times ☛ U.K. Crossbow Attack Suspect Voiced Racist and Misogynist Views

    The British police said a man accused of an attack on the weekend in Leeds died from a self-inflicted injury. Investigators are reviewing two Facebook (Farcebook) accounts associated with him.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • [Repeat] LWN ☛ LWN's Mastodon migration

    The LWN.net fediverse (Mastodon) feed has moved; we are now known as @LWN@lwn.net. The migration magic has

    shifted many of our followers over automatically but, if you follow that

    stream, you might want to make sure that you have shifted to the new

    source.

  • Public Knowledge ☛ Nominations | IP3 Awards 2025

    Help Us Find the Next IP3 Award Winner! Nominate a Leader Today! It’s time for Public Knowledge’s  22nd Annual IP3 Awards! We’re searching for visionaries and dedicated individuals making waves in Intellectual Property, Information Policy, and Internet Protocol.

  • APNIC ☛ How can IXPs help measure the Internet?

    Guest Post: IXPs’ unique vantage points can provide local and regional level availability and performance insights that public international measurement projects cannot measure as accurately.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Federal Circuit Weakens ITC Domestic Industry Requirement

    In a ruling with serious consequences for patent monopoly infringement claims brought before the International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently broadened the “domestic industry” requirement of Section 337 of the Tariff Act.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Privies, Prior Art, and Procedure: Stewart’s Triple Rebuke of PTAB in favor of Patentees

    Last week, Acting USPTO Director Coke Morgan Stewart vacated Final Written Decisions invalidating two semiconductor patents, remanding the cases back to the PTAB with instructions to permit discovery into potential privity relationships. Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC v. Greenthread, LLC, IPR2023-01242, IPR2023-01243, IPR2023-01244 (April 24, 2025).

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ SEP, FRAND, and Arbitration: A “Paranoid” Quest for Harmony in Global Patent Disputes

    Much like Black Sabbath’s iconic track “Paranoid”—an anthem whose unsettling riffs once left skeptics bewildered—I find myself contemplating the equally discordant landscape of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ When May Ex Parte Injunctions Be Granted in Patent Cases in Denmark? – A Case Comment on BS-19037/2025 from the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court

    Article 9(4) of Directive 2004/48/EC obliges Member States to ensure that courts may issue provisional measures, including injunctions, without giving prior notice to the defendant in certain circumstances.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Unified Files Amicus for En Banc Review of Kroy IP Holdings v. Groupon in Fed. Cir.

    On April 25, 2025, Unified filed an amicus brief in support of Groupon's combined petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc on whether collateral estoppel applies to claims with immaterial differences from those found obvious in PTAB proceedings.

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 awarded for KEEEX digital fingerprint patent monopoly prior art

    Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Umesh Kumar and Pankaj Negi, who split an award of $1,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 10,218,714, owned by KEEEX, an NPE. The '714 patent monopoly pertains to methods for verifying the integrity of digital data blocks and accessing them. Specifically, it describes a process that includes searching for a digital fingerprint within a data block, calculating a digital fingerprint by applying a specific function that excludes the bits of any found fingerprint, and verifying the authenticity by comparing the found fingerprint with the calculated one.

  • Unified Patents ☛ InfoGation navigation patent monopoly challenge instituted

    On April 25, 2025, three weeks after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,898,003, owned and asserted by InfoGation Corporation, an NPE.

  • JUVE ☛ QuantifiCare wins injunction against Canfield in 3D imaging dispute

    QuantifiCare accuses US competitor Canfield of infringing EP 3 156 843 with its Vectra H2 device. The French provider of imaging solutions in medicine filed suit at the Regional Court Düsseldorf. In early April, the court’s 4a Civil Chamber ruled that Canfield’s device infringes QuantifiCare’s patent.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Dismisses THOR Opposition, Finding Boats Unrelated to Recreational Vehicles: 34 Pairs of Third-Party Registrations Proved Decisive

    In an exhaustive 69-page opinion, the Board dismissed this opposition to registration of the mark shown below, for "recreational watercraft, namely, boats," finding confusion unlikely with the registered mark THOR for "recreational vehicles, namely, travel trailers, motor homes, van campers and fifth-wheel trailers." Opposer's proof of relatedness fell short, particularly in light of Applicant's 34 pairs of registrations for boats and recreational vehicles, each for the same mark and owned by different owners.  This blog post will attempt to hit the high points. Thor Tech, Inc. v. Thor Boats, LLC, Opposition No. 91283957 (April 24, 2025) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Jessica B. Bradley).

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Color Mark Denial on Dark Green Medical Gloves

    Although the Supreme Court permits color itself to serve as a trademark, the cases have generally not been strongly supportive. The Federal Circuit's recent decision on green medical examination gloves fits this standard like a ... glove. In re PT Medisafe Technologies (Fed. Cir. April 29, 2025). The decision particularly focuses on color mark genericness, holding that the dark green color for chloroprene medical examination gloves was "so common in the industry that it cannot identify a single source."

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🔤SpellBinding: BEWNOUK Wordo: BLARE