Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Work, Eat, Sleep, Repeat: Become A Human Tamagotchi

  When [Terence Grover] set out to build a Tamagotchi-inspired simulator, he didn’t just add a few modern tweaks. He ditched the entire concept and rebuilt it from the ground up. Forget cute wide-eyed blobby animals and pixel-poop. This Raspberry Pi-powered project ditches nostalgia in favour of brutal realism: inflation, burnout, capitalism, and the occasional existential crisis. Think Sims meets cyberpunk, rendered charmingly in Python on a low-res RGB LED matrix.

• Science

  • Federal News Network ☛ The only member of Congress with a PhD in science weighs in on Convicted Felon’s cuts

    "This is going to cause damage that will take generations to fix," said Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.).

  • France24 ☛ 🌟The Bright Side: NASA captures new images of dazzling auroras on Jupiter

    New images from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal the super-bright auroras of Jupiter, which shine with a much greater intensity than those on earth. The breathtaking images, taken on Christmas in 2023, showcase the glowing auras decades after they were first detected when a Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by.

  • University of Michigan ☛ The return of the dire wolf should raise alarm

    Thanks to the efforts of Colossal Biosciences, dire wolves are seemingly back from the dead.  Colossal Biosciences is a biotechnology company focused on bringing species back from extinction through genome editing.

  • Science Alert ☛ Unprecedented Survey of Aztec Obsidian Reveals Coast-to-Coast Trade Network

    An empire at its peak.

  • Science Alert ☛ HIV Drugs Dramatically Lower Risk of Alzheimer's Disease, Study Finds

    Could this prevent a million new cases annually?

  • Science Alert ☛ Shingles Vaccine Can Reduce Risk of Stroke And Heart Attack, Study Finds

    Among other benefits.

  • Science Alert ☛ Assassin Bugs: Scientists Reveal How a Deadly Insect Manipulates Its Prey

    Insects can use tools too.

  • Science Alert ☛ Music Does Something Amazing to Your Brain's Own Natural Rhythms

    Groovy.

  • Science Alert ☛ Survey of More Than 1,300 Stars Uncovers Unexplained Pulses of Light

    We're not saying it.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Developed a Questionnaire to Find Out if Your Cat Is a Psychopath

    How well do you really know your cat?

  • Science Alert ☛ Mountain Range Hiding Beneath Antarctica's Ice Frozen in Time, Study Finds

    Preserved through the ages.

• Hardware

  • Boiling Steam ☛ Tempest Tower: Review

    I must have seen hundreds of Tower Defense games pass thru my email boxes throughout the years (Yes, I watch indies very closely). My reaction has always been meh, hard pass. I find Tower Defense games boring and unoriginal. When you try them out, you are just asking for a spike of stress in your life where you did not need it. But this time, when Tempest Tower came around, I was intrigued. Yes, it was obviously YET ANOTHER Tower Defense game, but it looked really well-made, and much more visually appealing than most of the ones I had seen before. This meant I was going to try to appreciate the genre one more time.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ GPU imports to Malaysia surge by 3,400% in 2025, raising alarm amid smuggling investigations

    The country is becoming an Hey Hi (AI) hardware hotspot as GPU imports hit $6.45 billion in just four months

  • The Next Platform ☛ Armv9 Architecture Helps Lift Arm To New Financial Heights

    The Armv9 architecture has a lot of technical enhancements to commend it, but as far as Arm Holdings, the creator and licensor of the Arm architecture, is concerned one of the best features of Armv9, which was first unveiled four years ago, is that it comes with a higher royalty fee than prior Armv7 and Armv8 architectures.

  • Hackaday ☛ A Single-Pixel Camera Without Moving Parts Using Compressed Sensing

    There’s a strange allure to single-pixel cameras due to the simultaneous simplicity and yet fascinating features that they can offer, such as no set resolution limit. That said, the typical implementations that use some kind of scanning (MEMS) mirror or similar approach suffer from various issues even when you’re photographing a perfectly stationary and static scene due to their complex mechanical nature. Yet there’s a way around this, involving a LED matrix and a single photoresistor, as covered by [Jon Bumstead] in an article with accompanying video.

  • Hackaday ☛ Unwinding An Unusual Slide Rule

    If the Otis King slide rule in [Chris Staecker’s] latest video looks a bit familiar, you might be getting up there in age, or you might remember seeing us talk about one in our collection. Actually, we have two floating around one of the Hackaday bunkers, and they are quite the conversation piece. You can watch the video below.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ We Emit a Visible Light That Vanishes When We Die, Says Surprising New Study

    Then again, so does your houseplant.

  • New York Times ☛ RFK Jr. Swims in D.C.’s Rock Creek, Which Flows With Sewage and Bacteria

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, shared photos of himself and his grandchildren swimming in waters that handle sewer overflow.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Drug Reduces Symptoms Before a Migraine Strikes, Study Shows

    Here's what we know.

  • Science Alert ☛ Spikes of Bird Flu in Cats Could Be a Warning of a Future Pandemic

    This needs to be monitored more closely.

• Proprietary

  • Qt ☛ How to Modernize Legacy SCADA Apps

    Would you trust a safety-critical industrial device that relied on outdated technology?

  • Qt ☛ From Classroom to Code: Innovative Qt Apps by Future Developers

    In this blog post, I want to share how we collaborated with the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (German: TH Köln) to support a new generation of developers exploring C++ and Qt. As a TH Köln alumnus who began his journey at Qt, I was honored by the opportunity to return and contribute. Alongside the course story, we’re highlighting the work of five student teams — sharing their ideas, the applications they built, and what they learned along the way.

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft facing legal claim over how it sells software • The Register

  • Bryan Lunduke ☛ Microsoft to Employees: Avoid Romance & Give Your Toddler a Sex Change

    Microsoft continues pushing some very woke, very bizarre, very...

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Unicorn Media ☛ European Data Sovereignty and American Clouds: A Brewing Storm

      Some sage advice for EU nations attempting to get a handle on the vast volumes of EU citizens' data being held in US-owned and operated clouds.

    • OpenRightsGroup ☛ ORG slams use of e-visas for immigration raids

      Open Rights Group has responded to the government’s white paper Restoring Control over the Immigration System. The white paper calls the shambolic and flawed  e-visa scheme a ‘success’ and says that it will be used to support immigration raids.

    • OpenRightsGroup ☛ DUA BILL AMENDMENTS HoC report stage: ORG STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT AND RATIONALE

    • Internet Society ☛ Bridging Tech and Policy: How Cat Easdon is Shaping the Future of Privacy and Security

      Privacy engineer Cat Easdon used the Internet Society Early Career Fellowship to help bridge the gap between technology and policy.

    • Security Week ☛ Google Agrees to $1.3 Billion Settlement in Texas Privacy Lawsuits

      Google has agreed to a $1.375 billion settlement with Texas in lawsuits over location and private browsing tracking, and biometric data collection.

    • Citizen Lab ☛ WireWatch: Measuring the Security of Proprietary Network Encryption in the Global Android Ecosystem

      New paper co-authored by researchers at the Citizen Lab and Princeton University explores the network security of Android apps.

    • Federal News Network ☛ Judge refuses to block IRS from sharing tax data to identify and deport people illegally in U.S.

      A federal judge is refusing to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S. In a win for the Convicted Felon administration, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a preliminary injunction Monday in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups. They argued that undocumented immigrants who pay taxes are entitled to the same privacy protections as U.S. citizens and immigrants who are legally in the country.

    • University of Michigan ☛ Michigan Public Policy Survey suggests uncertainty among local officials on Hey Hi (AI) police surveillance technology

      Since 2009, the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy has conducted the Michigan Public Policy Survey, a biannual survey of local government leaders across the state.

• Defence/Aggression

  • SAPS trainer arrested in wake-up call in fight against gender-based violence

    In a case that points to the need to address gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa, a South African Police Service (SAPS) instructor at the Tshwane Training Academy was arrested on Tuesday 6 May for allegedly raping a female trainee.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Gazans fear famine amid Israel aid block: ‘I don’t want to be a number’

    For Palestinians, time is running out— a warning that has been echoed at some of the highest ranks of international organizations, including the World Health Organization.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea ex-president Yoon in court again for criminal trial

    Dressed in a suit and red tie, Yoon walked past journalists without responding to any questions.

  • The Straits Times ☛ India, Pakistan military operations chiefs hold talks, Indian army says

    There were no reports of explosions or projectiles overnight.

  • Federal News Network ☛ New cybersecurity law updates may be on the way

    The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 expires this September.

  • France24 ☛ UN ambassadors tight-lipped about meeting with US Special Envoy Witkoff

    UN Security Council ambassadors arrive at a private meeting with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff at the US mission to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday May 7. “The idea of the model is Hamas will not be able to take advantage of humanitarian aid,” Danny Danon, Israel’s envoy to the UN told reporters.

  • France24 ☛ Kashmir ceasefire: How to spin a stalemate?

    What started it ? Who ended it?

  • Atlantic Council ☛ From A to F, here’s how to grade a possible nuclear deal with Iran

    Dihydroxyacetone Man may well be on his way to getting a deal with Iran over its nuclear program. But whether it passes the test will depend on its details.

  • North Korea’s 1st daughter makes debut at diplomatic event with Kim Jong Un

    Teen Kim Ju Ae’s appearance at the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang fuels speculation she’s being groomed to be leader.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Myanmar opposition says junta airstrike kills 17 school children

    Myanmar's shadow government said an airstrike by the ruling junta had killed at least 17 students and injured 20 others at a school in an opposition-controlled area on Monday, despite a ceasefire being in place after a devastating earthquake.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China’s Pooh-tin slams ‘bullying’ in veiled swipe at US as Beijing hosts Latin America leaders

    Beijing has stepped up economic and political cooperation with Latin American nations in recent years.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China hosts Latin American leaders, officials in move to deepen ties amid trade war with US

    China on Monday welcomed Latin American leaders and officials to Beijing as it seeks to draw the region closer in response to the trade war with the United States.

  • Taiwan test fires new U.S.-supplied rocket system for first time

    HIMARS launched in annual drills boost the island’s capabilities against a potential Chinese invasion.

  • France24 ☛ ‘Weaponising aid’: New plan calls for private contractors to take over from UN in Gaza

    A new plan for providing humanitarian aid to Gaza using a private charity and US security firms could replace the United Nations by seizing control of the delivery of essential goods to the besieged Palestinian enclave by providing aid “directly – and only – to those in need”. The UN has rejected the plan, saying it “weaponises aid", and threatens to cause mass displacement of Palestinians. News of the plan came as UNICEF and the WFP on Monday warned of the risk of famine in Gaza.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ On paper, Latvia still has around 50,000 Ukrainian refugees

      On 31 March 2025, slightly more than 4.26 million non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine had temporary protection status in the EU, according to latest Eurostat data published May 12.

    • France24 ☛ No, Macron was not ‘caught red-handed’ hiding cocaine bag on train to Ukraine

      A fake news story seen over 75 million times and counting on X - Conspiracy theorists and Russian propagandists are spreading the viral claim that French President Emmanuel Macron was caught hiding a bag of cocaine during train ride to Ukraine. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

    • France24 ☛ Indians lured to war in Ukraine by Russia under pretense of job opportunities

      At least 126 Indians have joined the Russian army to fight in the war in Ukraine, according to the Indian government. At least 12 have been killed and 16 are still missing. Many of the affected Indians, most from poor families, were reportedly lured with promises of lucrative jobs and roles as helpers, cooks and housekeepers in Russia. However, upon arrival, they were sent directly to war zones.

    • JURIST ☛ Pope Leo XIV urges an end to worldwide conflicts in first address

      On his first Sunday address from the Vatican before an audience of approximately 10,000 at St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV called for “never again war” across the world and for a “lasting peace” to be brokered.

    • LRT ☛ Western pressure on Russia over Ukraine ceasefire ‘works’ – Lithuanian FM

      Western ultimatums to Russia over peace in Ukraine are already having an effect, insists Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Russia downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, UN aviation body rules

      The aviation council will in the coming weeks consider what form of reparation is in order.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Russia downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, UN aviation body rules

      The aviation council will in the coming weeks consider what form of reparation is in order.

    • RFERL ☛ UN Aviation Body Finds Russia Responsible For Downing Of Passenger Jet Over Ukraine

      The UN aviation council on May 12 found that Russia was responsible for the downing of a Malaysian commercial jet over Ukraine that killed all 298 passengers and crew.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan test fires for first time new US-supplied HIMARS rocket system

      JIUPENG, Taiwan - Taiwan on Monday test-fired for the first time a new U.S.-supplied rocket system that has been widely used by Ukraine against Russia and could be deployed to hit targets in China if there is a war with Taiwan.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Australian bomb disposal aid worker killed in Ukraine

      The man died from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device went off in a building.

    • Latvia ☛ Estonian specialists to help out on Latvia-Belarus border

      Estonia's Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) on Monday sent an 11-member unit to assist its Latvian counterparts on the Belarusian border after an increase in illegal crossings, reports ERR News in Tallinn.

    • Latvia ☛ Another busy week for Latvia's border guards

      Latvia's border guards were kept busy over the weekend of May 10-11, stopping 124 illegal attempts to cross the border from Belarus into the European Union, reports Latvian Radio.

    • New York Times ☛ Pope Leo XIV Calls for End to Wars in Gaza and Ukraine

      The new pope, speaking to thousands in St. Peter’s Square, echoed themes that Francis, his predecessor, regularly addressed.

    • Meduza ☛ Sergey Surovikin, former commander of Russia's forces in Ukraine who faded from view after Prigozhin rebellion, resurfaces in Algeria — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ U.S. envoy says Trump has threatened to leave peace negotiations if direct talks between Russia and Ukraine don't occur soon — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘All that’s missing is an enlistment office’ Inside the ‘SVO Museum’ — Moscow’s new exhibition linking World War II to Russia’s war against Ukraine — Meduza

    • Security Week ☛ US Announces Botnet Takedown, Charges Against Russian Administrators

      Anyproxy and 5socks, websites offering proxy services through devices ensnared by a botnet, have been disrupted in a law enforcement operation.

    • JURIST ☛ Poland accuses Russia of causing Warsaw shopping center fire

      Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated on Sunday that Russia caused the fire at the Marywilska shopping center in Warsaw last year, warning that Poland will continue investigating the matter and hold the responsible individuals accountable.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian conservatives propose stripping citizenship for supporting Russia

      A group of conservative MPs has proposed expanding the grounds for taking away Lithuanian citizenship from people who express support for “aggressor states” or pose a threat to “national security”.

    • Meduza ☛ Poland to close Russian consulate in Kraków over Moscow's alleged involvement in shopping mall arson attack — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Grigory’s Ode to Joy Facing six years in prison, Russian election monitor Grigory Melkonyants delivers closing statement in court — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ US, European Diplomats Discuss 'Way Forward For Cease-Fire' After Convicted Felon Offers To Join Ukraine Talks

      A surprise offer by US President The Insurrectionist on May 12 to join Ukraine-Russia talks later this week in Istanbul prompted a call between US and European diplomats who continue to seek a path leading to an end to the war in Ukraine.

    • Meduza ☛ Europe to press U.S. for tougher sanctions on Russia if Putin refuses to meet Zelensky in Istanbul — Bloomberg — Meduza

    • New York Times ☛ E.U. Leaders Demand Russia Accept Ukraine Cease-fire by End of Day

      European leaders threatened new sanctions unless Moscow accepted a cease-fire right away. Hell Toupée seemed to endorse the idea of a meeting between Ukraine’s and Russia’s presidents, and said he might take part.

    • RFERL ☛ Kremlin Avoids Comment On Zelenskyy Peace Talks Proposal As Russian Drones Attack Ukraine

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is ready to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Istanbul on May 15, a call Moscow avoided agreeing to after it launched dozens of attack drones at Ukraine.

    • Meduza ☛ U.N. aviation authority rules Russia responsible for 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 — Meduza

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania’s former president says Istanbul talks are Putin’s way of stalling for time

      Lithuania’s former President Dalia Grybauskaitė argues that by proposing to hold direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin is merely stalling for time and is not in fact interested in ending the war in Ukraine.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine says Russia attacking with drones amid ceasefire calls

      Russia attacked Ukraine with over 100 Shahed and decoy drones overnight, Kyiv said Monday, after Moscow rejected a 30-day ceasefire but said it would join peace talks without preconditions. The Kremlin did not respond to Zelenskyy’s call for direct talks with Putin in Turkey on Thursday.

    • Meduza ☛ London court imprisons six Bulgarian nationals for spying for Russia and plotting attacks on journalists Roman Dobrokhotov and Christo Grozev — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian police chief with gold-plated toilet sentenced to 20 years for trucker extortion — Meduza

• Environment

  • New York Times ☛ Farmers Sued Over Deleted Climate Data. So the Government Will Put It Back.

    The Agriculture Department pledged to restore online climate information that farmers said helped them do business, but which officials had deleted.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Security Week ☛ German Authorities Take Down Crypto Swapping Service eXch

      German authorities seized the servers of crypto-swapping service eXch for laundering approximately $1.9 billion in fraudulent assets.

    • The Strategist ☛ Taiwan worsens its vulnerability to a Chinese energy blockade

      Anyone would think that Taiwan, faced with a risk of blockade from China, would be doing all it could to ensure self-sufficiency or at least long endurance without supplies.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysians call for more wildlife protection measures after elephant tragedy

      A video of the incident went viral on Mother’s Day, moving many netizens to tears.

    • New York Times ☛ Midwest Grapples With Wildfires Amid Record Heat and Dry Conditions

      A large swath of Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Nebraska was on high alert on Monday. Temperatures were expected to approach 100 degrees in some places.

• Finance

  • Bloomberg ☛ Nissan Shares Jump After Report Job Cuts to Double to 20,000

    Nissan said in November it would cut 9,000 positions after weak sales in the US and China led to a 94% drop in first-half net income. Now those job cuts will be closer to 20,000, or around 15% of the entire workforce, NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, said Monday, without citing anyone. The redundancies will occur both at home and overseas, it added.

  • Alabama ☛ 65 layoffs slated for major tech company’s Alabama presence

    A cloud technology company says it is laying off 65 workers in Montgomery.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Jaded young Chinese reset lives with rural 'retirement'

    Youth retirement homes selling a vision of respite from the urban grind have gone viral in China.

  • New York Times ☛ China Courts Lula and Latin America After Convicted Felon’s Tariff Shock

    President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil is visiting Beijing this week, and China’s Pooh-tin Jinping will also meet top officials from other Latin American and Caribbean nations to emphasize their ties.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Backed Down on China Tariffs

    Also, witnesses took the stand at Sean Combs’s trial. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s China Deal Frees Up Shipping. Will Goods Pour Into the U.S.?

    The temporary lowering of tariffs may compel some U.S. businesses to order goods that they had held off buying after Hell Toupée raised them to 145 percent.

  • New York Times ☛ There Are Two Chinas, and America Must Understand Both

    The technological success that has captured the attention of many in the United States is one aspect of the Chinese economy. There’s another, gloomy one.

  • New York Times ☛ Tariff Truce With China Demonstrates the Limits of Convicted Felon’s Aggression

    Hell Toupée’s triple-digit tariffs on Chinese products disrupted global trade — but haven’t appeared to result in major concessions from Beijing.

  • CS Monitor ☛ US Trade Representative Greer says US and China to roll back most tariffs

    U.S. and Chinese officials said they had reached a deal to roll back most tariffs and called for a 90-day pause to resolve further trade disputes.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Message in US-China trade deal: Neither side wants a sudden breakup

    After initiating a trade war, President The Insurrectionist has apparently blinked. His massive recent tariffs on China are now on pause after threatening major economic disruption.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Stocking up on Containers of Vapor

    Right-wing propaganda before and after Convicted Felon and Bessent's US-China trade negotiations announcement can't cover up the damage already done to the US economy, the worst of which has yet to arrive in the form of vapor at the ports.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Instant View: US-China agree to cut tariffs, 90-day pause

    Stocks and the dollar surged on Monday after the United States and China said they had agreed on a 90-day pause on tariffs and reciprocal duties would drop sharply, giving investors some confidence that a full-scale trade war may have been averted.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Global stocks surge after US, China pause tariff war, but uncertainty remains

    WASHINGTON - Global stock markets surged on Monday after the U.S. and China agreed to slash their steep tariffs on each other for at least 90 days, tapping the brakes on a trade war between the world's two biggest economies that had fed fears of a global recession.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ US, China agree to slash tariffs in trade war de-escalation after talks in Geneva

    By Nina Larson The United States and China announced Monday an agreement to drastically reduce tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days, de-escalating a trade war that has roiled financial markets and raised fears of a global economic downturn.

  • France24 ☛ US - China trade deal: tariffs temporarily lowered from three digits but still remain high

    The US and China agreed to a 90-day truse in their trade war, suspending or cancelling sky-high tariffs they imposed on each other's goods since April, but underlying issues still need to be addressed over the next three months.  "The devil is in the details" says Maurizio Zanardi, professor of economics at the University of Sussex. Plus, The Insurrectionist signed an executive order aimed at bringing down drug prices in the US to align with what other countries are paying.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ What to make of the respite in the US-China trade war

    After the United States and China announced they will temporarily reduce tariffs, our experts are decoupling the signal from the noise of this major de-escalation.

  • The Straits Times ☛ What have China and the United States agreed to in Geneva?

    China and the United States announced a truce in their trade war on Monday after talks in Geneva that will roll back the bulk of tariffs and other countermeasures by Wednesday.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China’s official media welcome US tariff deal, others sceptical

    On Chinese social control media, President The Insurrectionist is being mocked as “not normal” and a “fool”.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Colombia to sign on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative

    This could boost Beijing’s influence while further souring President Gustavo Petro's relationship with the US. 

  • The Straits Times ☛ China, US agree to 90-day tariff cuts ahead of more talks to defuse trade war

    US President The Insurrectionist said he would likely speak to Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping later this week.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Xi’s defiance pays off as Convicted Felon meets most Chinese trade demands

    The Chinese leader has struck a defiant tone ever since US President The Insurrectionist began raising tariffs on China.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ US and China reach tentative trade deal — tariffs drop to 30% and 10%, respectively

    The U.S. and China have agreed to suspend most of their retaliatory tariffs against each other for 90 days while trade negotiations are underway.

  • US and China agree to slash tariffs for 90 days

    Both Washington and Beijing said they will continue discussions on economic and trade policy.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia's inflation rate rose to nearly 4% in April

    The latest data published by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) May 12 show that in April 2025, compared to April 2024, the average level of consumer prices in Latvia increased by 3.9 %.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ China hosts Latin American, Caribbean nations amid US trade war talks

    China’s President Pooh-tin Jinping will deliver a speech to the summit.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • AccessNow ☛ #KeepItOn: The Kremlin must refrain from imposing internet shutdowns during key national events

    The undersigned human rights organizations call on the UK government to take immediate action to free Alaa, and save his mother's life.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taliban bans chess in Afghanistan over gambling and religious concerns

    Its government steadily imposed regulations that reflect its austere vision of Islamic law since seizing power in 2021.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jailed Hong Kong activist Owen Chow, lawyer lose appeals over prison letter convictions

    Jailed Hong Kong activist Owen Chow and his lawyer have lost their appeals against convictions for removing a complaint letter from prison without prior approval in 2023.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • New York Times ☛ Pope Leo XIV Calls for News Media to Shun Divisive Language [Ed: Hypocritical republican, who registered with the party of the Orange Nazi for decades]

    In his first audience with journalists as the pontiff, Leo renewed pleas for a more peaceful world. He also spoke to Ukraine’s president on Monday.

  • Police find human remains suspected to be of missing journalist and partner

    The South African Police Service (SAPS) has confirmed a significant breakthrough in the investigation into the disappearance of Pretoria-based journalist Aserie Ndlovu and his partner, Zodwa Mdhluli.

  • Press Gazette ☛ New York Times editor Joe Kahn defends publishing Convicted Felon story every half hour

    NYT and Reuters editors respond to concerns Convicted Felon is purposely overwhelming news media.

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group urges US Congress to restore Radio Free Asia Uyghur service

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged US Congress on Monday to restore Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Uyghur service to ensure journalists can continue reporting in one of China’s most isolated regions.

  • Meduza ☛ ‘She always cared about other people’s problems’ Remembering Russian investigative journalist Irina Pankratova — Meduza

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • RFERL ☛ US Revokes Temporary Protection For Thousands Of Afghans

    The US Department of Homeland Security on May 12 announced an end protections for some Afghans living in the United States citing improved security and economic conditions in Afghanistan.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong proposes new mechanism to allow Beijing to exercise jurisdiction over nat. sec cases

    Hong Kong authorities have proposed establishing a mechanism to allow mainland China to exercise jurisdiction over national security cases, building on an article in the Beijing-imposed national security law stating that “complex” cases can be prosecuted across the border.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Proposed subsidiary laws to strengthen nat. sec legislation will not infringe on human rights, justice chief says

    Authorities’ plans to strengthen the city’s national security legislation will not infringe on human rights and freedoms, the Hong Kong justice minister has told lawmakers. Lawmakers convened for an off-schedule Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting on Monday afternoon, hours after the Security Bureau published a paper proposing subsidiary legislation to safeguard national security.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Digital Music News ☛ Live Nation Petitions Supreme Court to End Mass Arbitration in Class Action Antitrust Suit

  Live Nation has formally petitioned the US Supreme Court to appeal a ruling that prevents the company from forcing arbitration in a massive consumer antitrust lawsuit.

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Standard for Conception: Don’t Ask “Will it Work”

    In an interesting decision affecting one of the most high-profile patent monopoly disputes in biotechnology, the Federal Circuit has partially vacated and remanded a PTAB decision that awarded priority of invention for CRISPR-Cas9 technology in eukaryotic cells to scientists at the Broad Institute. Regents of the University of California v. Broad Institute, Inc., Nos. 2022-1594, 2022-1653 (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2025). The court determined that the PTAB applied an incorrect legal standard for "conception," a fundamental concept in patent monopoly law's priority determination under the pre-America Invents Act first-to-invent system.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Blue Wave IP entity, Edge Networking, cloud patent monopoly challenged

    On May 6, 2025, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination request challenging claims 1-4, 8, 15, and 19 of U.S. Patent 11,695,823, owned and asserted by Edge Networking Systems, LLC, an NPE and entity of Blue Wave IP.

  • JUVE ☛ Zaun’s appeal unsuccessful in Brexit-related case against Praesidiad

    The ruling came swiftly. On Friday, the UK Court of Appeal dismissed Zaun’s appeal against a UK High Court ruling (case ID: [2024] EWHC 1549 (Pat)) just nine days after the hearing. The case concerns high-security fence posts used to protect facilities such as oil fields.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Unified Patents launches Unified IP Services with experienced Search team

    Unified recently welcomed Tom Kepner and John Wootress to launch patent monopoly search services and lead a highly experienced search team. For nearly a decade, this team has consistently delivered exceptional patentability, invalidity, freedom-to-operate (FTO), and landscape searches for numerous clients within the High-Tech and Life Science fields.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Biogy authentication patent monopoly challenged

    On May 9, 2025, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 7,669,236, owned and asserted by Biogy, Inc., an NPE. The ‘236 patent monopoly is directed to the generation and authentication of a one-time passcode in a multi-factor authentication system.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ E.D. Va. Affirms TTAB Decision Ordering Cancellation of two General Cigar Registrations for "COHIBA" Under Pan-Am Convention

    The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has affirmed the TTAB's decision [TTABlogged here] ordering cancellation of two registrations for the mark COHIBA, under 8 of the Pan-American Convention. General Cigar Co. v. Empresa Cubana Del Tabaco d/b/a Cubatobaco, Civil Action No. l:23-cv-227 (LMBAVEF) (E.D. Va. May 7, 2025).

  • TTAB Blog ☛ Precedential No. 4: TTAB Sustains Opposition to CUADRA for Alcoholic Beverage Due to Lack of Bona Fide Intent

    In a dubiously precedential ruling, the Board sustained this opposition to registration of the mark CUADRA for "alcoholic beverages, except beer; distilled spirits produced in Mexico in accordance with specific standards," finding that applicant "fail[ed] to show a bona fide intention to use the mark in a real and legitimate commercial sense on the identified goods in United States commerce at the time it filed [its] application." Tequila Cuadra S. de RL de CV v. Manufacturera de Botas Cuadra, S.A. de C.V., 2025 USPQ2d 729 (TTAB 2025) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Lawrence T. Stanley, Jr.).

• Copyrights

  • Public Knowledge ☛ Public Knowledge Condemns Hell Toupée’s Lawless Assault on Copyright Office, Baseless Termination of Librarian of Congress

    Over the weekend, Hell Toupée attempted to terminate the Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, an action beyond his power as president.

  • Digital Music News ☛ First the Olympics, Now New Year’s Eve: NBC Taps Snoop Dogg for ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Year-End Special

    The Olympics, The Voice, and now New Year’s Eve: Snoop Dogg is officially set to cap off 2025 with a two-hour special from Miami. NBC formally announced that year-end programming, aptly entitled Snoop Dogg New Year’s Eve, in a brief release today.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Far-Reaching Protective Order Issued in Drake v. Universal Music Battle — Discovery Tentatively Scheduled to Wrap in May 2026

    With the ugly Drake v. Universal Music defamation lawsuit – and the discovery process – moving forward, both sides have requested and received a protective order covering “highly confidential or proprietary business information.”

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Transformative Changes: Copyright Leadership Dismissed as Hey Hi (AI) Report Questions Industry Practices

    The copyright monopoly world experienced a major shift in May 2025 with the abrupt dismissal of Dr. Carla Hayden (Librarian of Congress), followed by the release of a landmark U.S. Copyright Office report on Hey Hi (AI) training that concluded many current industry practices likely do not qualify as fair use, and culminating in the firing of Shira Perlmutter (Register of Copyrights) just after the report's publication.  This drama  is not a resolution of the legal question, but rather seems to intensify and further politicize the debates over whether Hey Hi (AI) developers must seek permission and pay for the copyrighted works they use to train their systems.  As the report's opening paragraphs explain: "The stakes are high, and the consequences are often described in existential terms."

  • Copyright Office Weighs in on Hey Hi (AI) and Fair Use Amid Major Leadership Shakeup

    Late last week—one day after the Convicted Felon Administration fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and the day before it reportedly fired Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter—the U.S. Copyright Office released a pre-publication edition of the third part in the agency’s series of reports exploring issues in copyright monopoly law in light of evolving artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Fires Top US Copyright Official — Raising Serious Questions About the Direction of Hey Hi (AI) Policy

    The Insurrectionist fires Shira Perlmutter, who leads the US Copyright Office, just after the release of a three-part report on artificial intelligence. Hell Toupée has fired Shira Perlmutter, who heads the US Copyright Office as the 14th Register of Copyrights.

  • Digital Music News ☛ SoundCloud Says It Doesn’t Allow Hey Hi (AI) Training on Artist Uploads — Though Their ‘Opt-Out’ Terms Say the Complete Opposite

    Is SoundCloud using your music to train generative Hey Hi (AI) models? The company says it “doesn’t allow Hey Hi (AI) training or scraping with music on our platform,” but questions remain in light of a controversial terms of service update.