Leftovers

• Science

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Discover Bizarre Signals Coming From Ice in Antarctica

    "The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles," Wissel said in the press release, "like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice."

    Though the particulars of the particle findings were detailed in a new paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the researchers were more candid in the press release about just how stumped they were.

  • [Repeat] Science Alert ☛ Humans Have Smoked Meat For Almost 2 Million Years, Study Suggests

    Combining these factors provides strong evidence that these fires weren't lit just for warmth or to cook the large animals straight away, the researchers argue. The energy needed to keep a fire going would have outweighed the energy from a meal or two of cooked meat.

  • Science Alert ☛ Light Squeezed Out of Darkness in Surprising Quantum Simulation

    Getting something out of nothing.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Mix of These Specific Foods Could Help You Avoid Chronic Disease

    Natural compounds linked to longevity.

  • Science Alert ☛ Humans Age Faster at 2 Specific Times in Their Life, Study Finds

    You're in for a bumpy ride.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Just Solved a 100-Million-Year-Old Mystery About Platypus Sex

    A surprising genetic twist.

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA Satellite Glimpses Giant Volcano Peeking Above The Clouds of Mars

    There's nowhere to hide.

  • Science Alert ☛ Volcano Found Hiding 'In Plain Sight' Right Next to NASA Mars Rover

    Funny what you find.

• Career/Education

  • Stanford University ☛ Katie Ledecky speaks at Commencement marked by protests

    About 150 students protested during graduation while University president Jonathan Levin spoke. Katie Ledecky '20 gave the Commencement speech.

• Hardware

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The journey to a Dan A3-mATX case

    Last week I enumerated a series of common public misconceptions over on The Mastodons, including this one:

    It is preferable to be wrong than inconsistent.

    This line of thinking manifests in so many contexts, from politics to business. People are deathly afraid of being seen changing their mind, because they fear its intellectually weak or a sign one has “flip flopped”. This is so pervasive, people will go out of their way to defend previously-held positions, even in spite of growing evidence that its untenable or a mistake. It’s unscientific, it’s dishonest, and is a word with three letters.

  • Hackaday ☛ Bento – VR/XR From A Keyboard

    XR may not have crashed into our lives as much as some tech billionaires have wished, but that doesn’t stop the appeal of a full display that takes up no physical space. At that point, why not get rid of the computer that takes up living space as well? That is what [Michael] tries to do with Bento, the form factor of an Apple Magic keyboard and the power of a Steam Deck. 

  • Hackaday ☛ Upgrade Your Filament Dryer With A Swiveling Filament Port

    Many FDM filament dryers have a port through which you can guide the filament. This handy feature allows you to print from the spool without removing it from the dryer, saving time and limiting exposure to (moist) air. Unfortunately, these exit ports aren’t always thought out very well, mostly in terms of the angle with the spool as it unrolls. The resulting highly oblique orientation means a lot of friction of the filament on the side of the port. This issue is addressed in a recent [Teaching Tech] video, with a simple, low-cost solution.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan adds China’s Huawei, SMIC to export control list

    Taiwanese companies will need government approval before exporting products to the companies.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Taiwan bans chip exports to Huawei, SMIC — ban comes after Huawei tricked TSMC into making two million Hey Hi (AI) processors despite US restrictions

    Two of the most important companies behind China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency and Hey Hi (AI) supremacy hopes were dealt a blow on Saturday, with their addition to Taiwan’s strategic high-tech commodities entity list.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Customer sends four RTX 4090s to a repair technician, finds out three are fake — new counterfeiting technique uses modded 30-series chips

    A Chineese repair YouTube recieved four faulty RTX 4090 graphics cards only to find three of them were fake, based on RTX 3080/3080Ti and RTX 3090 GPU dies.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Patent reveals Huawei's quad-chiplet rival for Nvidia's Rubin AI GPUs could use packaging tech that rivals TSMC — Ascend 910D rumors have seemingly solid foundation

    That detail is, of course, in the patent that describes how a quad-chiplet processor could be made. While we cannot say for sure that it is the Ascend 910D, we can certainly connect some dots and make an assumption about the possible part (even though the patent, of course, does not indicate that). It also aligns with current chip industry insider chatter that suggests a quad-chiplet 910D is in the works.

  • HowTo Geek ☛ 5 Hidden Costs of Building a Homelab

    Build a homelab, they said. It’ll be cheap, they said.

  • Hackaday ☛ Making Corrugated Cardboard Stronger And Waterproof

    As useful as corrugated cardboard is, we generally don’t consider it to be a very sturdy material. The moment it’s exposed to moisture, it begins to fall apart, and it’s easily damaged even when kept dry. That said, there are ways to make corrugated cardboard a lot more durable, as demonstrated by the [NightHawkInLight]. Gluing multiple panels together so that the corrugation alternates by 90 degrees every other panel makes them more sturdy, with wheat paste (1:5 mixture of flour and water) recommended as adhesive.

  • Hackaday ☛ An RC Car Driven With Old 3D Printer Motors

    With the newer generation of quick and reliable 3D printers, we find ourselves with the old collecting dust and cobwebs. You might pull it out for an emergency print, that is if it still works… In the scenario of an eternally resting printer (or ones not worth reviving), trying to give new life to the functional parts is a great idea. This is exactly what [MarkMakies] did with a simple RC rover design from an old Makerbot Replicator clone. 

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • NYPost ☛ Drug that makes our ‘brains happier’ can also fight tumors: study

    A surprising new study has found that some common medication used to make people feel better might also be effective in the fight against cancer.

  • NYPost ☛ RFK’s anti-vax agenda endangers the entire Convicted Felon reform drive

    Word of warning to Health Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr.: Restoring Americans' trust in the feds' public-health decisions means hiring truly fair-minded, science-driven folks — not anti-vax crackpots.

  • Futurism ☛ Psychiatrist Horrified When He Actually Tried Talking to an AI Therapist, Posing as a Vulnerable Teen

    This is classic chatbot behavior in which tries to please users no matter what — the opposite of what a real therapist should do. And while it may have guardrails in place for topics like suicide, it's blatantly incapable of reading between the lines.

  • Jim Nielsen ☛ Becoming an Asshole

    But what’s the point of survival if you become an asshole in the process?

    What else is there in life if not what you become in the process?

• Proprietary

  • International Business Times ☛ Could WestJet Cybersecurity Incident Mean More Planes Could Go Down In The Future? Details We Know So Far

    The airline said the incident, which restricted access for several internal users, has not disrupted flight operations or safety protocols. However, the breach has renewed concerns over the airline industry's vulnerability to increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • The Straits Times ☛ Indian colleges alarmed by Hey Hi (AI) misuse: Professors fight back with oral quizzes, live handwritten exams

      Some professors are upskilling themselves and advocating responsible, conscious use of AI [sic].

    • Don Marti ☛ Don Marti: encouraging first result from an Hey Hi (AI) right to know

      Pretty soon after I posted an agentic Hey Hi (AI) benchmark, already built, I got Mark Hinkle’s newsletter, How to Actually Start Using Hey Hi (AI) Agents Today. Perfect timing—thank you, universe! Now I have no excuse not to test the most promising Hey Hi (AI) agents and see if they will help with some of the complex processes that you have to go through to do a right to know (RtK) under CCPA or some other state privacy law.

    • El País ☛ Fake bands and artificial songs are taking over YouTube and Spotify

      AI-generated songs have made their way onto streaming services and it’s not just ambient or electronic music: fake bands, be they rock, salsa, or jazz, are also abundant

    • The Register UK ☛ ChatGPT polluted the world forever, like the first atom bomb

      Shortly after the debut of ChatGPT, academics and technologists started to wonder if the recent explosion in AI models has also created contamination.

      Their concern is that AI models are being trained with synthetic data created by AI models. Subsequent generations of AI models may therefore become less and less reliable, a state known as AI model collapse.

    • Andrew Plotkin ☛ Zarf Updates: AI web scrapers: a data point

      We all know that the Web is currently under attack by AI companies trying to turn scraped data into venture capital. I'd link to the early article I saw sounding the alarm, but I can't find it because there are hundreds of search hits on "ai bot scraper problems". I guess this article (arstechnica, March) was a big one.

    • International Business Times ☛ ChatGPT and Other AI 'Therapists' May Fuel Delusions, Spark Psychosis and Suicidal Thoughts, Stanford Research Finds

      Specifically, their findings revealed that AI therapist chatbots inadvertently reinforce harmful mental health stigmas. Even more concerning, these chatbots exhibited truly hazardous responses when users displayed signs of severe crises, including suicidal thoughts and symptoms linked to schizophrenia, such as psychosis and delusion.

    • Ruben Schade ☛ How to make StackExchange (and others) more fun

      It’s currently the top-rated answer on the question. I expect it will be ignored.

    • Gary Marcus ☛ Seven replies to the viral Apple reasoning paper – and why they fall short

      My own post here laying out the Apple paper in historical and scientific context was so popular that well over 150,000 people read it, biggest in this newsletter’s history. The Guardian published an adaptation of my post (“When billion-dollar AIs break down over puzzles a child can do, it’s time to rethink the hype”) The editor tells me readers spent a long time reading it, notably longer than usual, as if people really wanted to understand the arguments in detail. (The ACM computer science society is reposting the essay, too, and there is now a French version as well).

      Tons of GenAI optimists took cracks at the Apple paper (see below), and it is worth considering their arguments. Overall I have seen roughly seven different efforts at rebuttal, ranging from nitpicking and ad hominem to the genuinely clever. Most (not all) are based on grains of truth, but are any of them actually compelling?

  • Social Control Media

    • Idiomdrottning ☛ Please don't let me be misunderstood

      But from that second in the garden, we humans were all cursed with foot-in-mouth disease. People say misunderstandable things or there’s hearsay or there’s “can you believe they allegedly said such-and-such (or so I’ve been told)”.

    • Ava ☛ some things to (un)learn

      I recently thought about what needs unlearning when transitioning from social media to a website and/or blog.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Pivot to AI ☛ EchoLeak — send an email, extract secret info from Microsoft Office 365 Copilot AI

      If you ask Copilot a question, it looks through everything in your available environment — including your email. So the attacker sends an email that looks like answers to basic corporate questions, but includes prompt injections asking for confidential information.

      The attacker gets Copilot to load an image on the attacker’s website. You add parameters to the image address and the secret stuff is embedded in the parameters.

      Copilot filters outgoing calls to the [Internet]. So instead, the attacker tells Copilot to get Microsoft Teams to call the evil website for it — and it’ll just do it.

    • Hackaday ☛ Smart Lamp Keeps Students On Track With Image Recognition

      It’s a common enough problem: you’re hitting the books, your phone dings with a notification, and suddenly it’s three hours later. While you’ve done lots of scrolling, you didn’t do any studying. If only there were a quick, easy project that would keep an eye on you and provide a subtle nudge to get you off the phone. [Makestreme] has that project, an AI study lamp that shifts from warm white to an angry red to remind students to get back to work. See it in action in the demo video below.

• Defence/Aggression

  • TruthOut ☛ Gunman Dressed as Cop Assassinates Democratic State Rep. and Spouse in Minnesota

    A gunman pretending to be a police officer assassinated a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota and killed the lawmaker’s husband in “an act of targeted political violence,” Gov. Tim Walz said Saturday. The assailant also shot and injured another Democratic lawmaker and his wife, officials said.

  • France24 ☛ Britain appoints first woman to lead spy agency MI6 in historic move

    Britain has appointed Blaise Metreweli, 47, as the first female head of the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6. Currently the agency’s head of technology, or “Q”, Metreweli joined in 1999 and has held key operational roles across the Middle East and Europe, the government said in a statement on Sunday.

  • Star Tribune ☛ Tolkkinen: Christian nationalism is neither Christian nor patriotic

    Called Christian nationalism, it’s neither Christian nor patriotic. It’s a powerful, focused ideology made up of 1 in 10 Americans that was created to spread the mistaken belief that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and that Christians need to take their country back in order to do God’s will. Christian nationalism seeks to fuse two identities, that of a Christian with that of an American.

  • [Old] PBS ☛ What is Christian nationalism and why it raises concerns about threats to democracy

  • CS Monitor ☛ Two lawmakers shot, one killed, in what is deemed a politically targeted shooting

    Hundreds of law officers fanned out across a Minneapolis suburb Saturday in pursuit of a man who authorities say posed as a police officer and fatally shot a Democratic state lawmaker in her home in what Gov. Tim Walz called “a politically motivated assassination.” Authorities say the same suspect also shot and wounded a second lawmaker and his spouse.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Millions across US turn out for ‘No kings’ protests against Donald Trump

    The protests, dubbed “No Kings”, took place at about 2,100 sites nationwide, from big cities to small towns. A coalition of more than 100 groups joined together to plan the protests, which are committed to a principle of nonviolence.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ No Kings protests around the nation denounce Trump’s actions

    “A lot of people here might be lifelong Republicans, but we’re standing here together because there is a line where tyranny shows up,” Farish said.

  • The Strategist ☛ Thinking about Chinese Australians: how to mention the war

    After the federal elections of 2022 and 2025, a certain supposed truth is taking root in Australian political discourse—namely, that discussion of potential conflict involving China is politically disadvantageous [...]

  • JURIST ☛ UN human rights chief: international support needed amid escalating gang violence in Haiti

    United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Türk expressed alarm over escalating violence in Haiti on Friday, as gangs expand territory and continue to commit extrajudicial homicides, kidnappings and rapes. Türk stated: Alarming as they are, numbers cannot express the horrors Haitians are being forced to endure on a daily basis.

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man says US 'could get involved' in Iran-Israel conflict

    US President The Insurrectionist said in a Sunday interview wih ABC News that the United States might get involved in the Iran-Israel conflict and expressed openness to having Russian President Vladimir Putin act as a mediator.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Chinese Foreign Minister holds calls with Israeli, Iranian counterparts: Ministry

    China’s top diplomat Wang Yi made clear to both Beijing’s support for Tehran.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s top diplomat Wang Yi holds calls with Israeli, Iranian counterparts, ministry says

    China’s top diplomat Wang Yi held phone calls with his Israeli and Iranian counterparts on Saturday, the foreign ministry said, in which he made clear to both Beijing’s support for Tehran.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's military conducts patrols in South China Sea, warns Philippines

    China's military held joint sea and air patrols in the South China Sea on Saturday, a spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command said.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US-China trade truce leaves military-use rare earth issue unresolved

    Beijing has not committed to grant export clearance for some specialised rare-earth magnets that US military suppliers need.

  • The Strategist ☛ Mapping India-Pakistan military power

    India strives to render Pakistan strategically irrelevant to better focus its attention on China. But neither Pakistan nor China has an interest in allowing that to happen.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia's Albanese says he will press AUKUS, Indo Pacific security in Convicted Felon meeting

    Increasing the number of nuclear powered submarines operated by Australia, Britain and the United States will make the Indo Pacific more secure and was in the United States' interests, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday.

  • New York Times ☛ How a manhunt works, according to security experts.

    The search is ongoing for suspect Vance Boelter, 57, who escaped on foot after a gunfire exchange with local officers.

  • New York Times ☛ Many Lawmakers Share Their Home Addresses. Political Violence Is Changing That.

    The Minnesota assassination is causing some state legislators to rethink home security and how much personal information they make public.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China security office flexes new power with Hong Kong probe

    The raids show Hong Kong’s clampdown on dissent is still expanding.

  • NYPost ☛ Minn. shooting suspect Vance Boelter ran bogus security company and faced ‘struggles’ after prolonged stint in Africa, roommate says

    "He came back and he was struggling a little bit. I thought it was normal struggles."

  • New York Times ☛ What to Know About the New Head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

    Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was appointed to lead the group after his predecessor, Gen. Hossein Salami, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Diminished Iran’s Air Defenses in Rounds of Strikes

    Since last year, Israel forces have repeatedly hit Iran’s defenses. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had worked to “peel off the layers of protection” of Iranian defenses.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel and Iran Trade Attacks as Toll From Conflict Mounts

    The path to diplomacy appeared to narrow after officials called off talks that had been set for Sunday between Tehran and Washington on Iran’s nuclear program.

  • New York Times ☛ Monday Briefing: Israel and Iran Traded Missile Strikes

    Plus, the Dalai Lama’s succession.

  • New York Times ☛ As Israel and Iran Continue to Bomb Each Other, New Yorkers Fear for Their Loved Ones

    The conflict, the most intense fighting between the two countries in decades, has been met in the United States with feelings of “frustration and helplessness,” as well as heartbreak.

  • New York Times ☛ Diplomacy With Iran Is Damaged, Not Dead

    The push to do a deal on the country’s nuclear program could be revived, even after the Israeli strikes scuppered the latest round of talks.

  • New York Times ☛ Oil Prices Climb Further After Israel Strikes Iran’s Energy Assets

    U.S. oil prices already jumped last week, which could cause prices at the pump to rise about 20 cents a gallon in the coming weeks, according to one estimate.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man says he hopes Israel and Iran can strike deal

    President The Insurrectionist said on Sunday that he hopes Israel and Iran can broker a deal but said sometimes countries have to fight it out first.

  • RFERL ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Says 'Possible' US Could Get Involved In Iran-Israel Conflict As Air Strikes Continue For Third Day

    President The Insurrectionist said the United States is not involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel, but as the archenemies launched a fresh barrage of air strikes at each other, he admitted it's "possible" that will change.

  • France24 ☛ Israel and Iran trade more strikes as conflict escalates in the Middle East

    Catherine Norris Trent, France 24 International Affairs Editor, gives us her take on the situation.

  • France24 ☛ Middle East conflict escalates: Iran overnight strikes on Israel kill 10

    The Israeli military carried out a new series of strikes on Iran Sunday morning targeting sites linked to its "nuclear weapons program," including the Defense Ministry. On the third day of the war between the two countries, at least eight people have died and over 130 have been injured in Israel.

  • France24 ☛ Iran and Israel expand their attacks and exchange strikes overnight

    Iranians and Israelis woke to smoke and rubble on Sunday after the arch-rivals expanded their attacks overnight, with Israel striking Tehran's defence ministry, and Iran unleashing a deadly barrage of missiles across Israel.

  • France24 ☛ Israel PM Netanyahu has been pushing to bomb Iran since the 1990's

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nearly 20-year-old threat to strike Iran came true on Friday, as US President The Insurrectionist warned Tehran of further "brutal" attacks if it refuses to negotiate.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli military says struck over 80 targets in Tehran overnight

    Iran and Israel exchanged fire for the third day in a row on Sunday with both sides threatening even greater force as US-Iran nuclear talks, scheduled to be held in Oman, were called off. Iranian media said Sunday that the death toll from Israeli attacks was at least 128 while Israel put the number of people killed in Iranian strikes at 13. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.

  • France24 ☛ Tensions in the Middle East: Iran and Israel exchange strikes overnight

    Listen to our International Affairs Editor Andrew Hilliar's analysis.

  • France24 ☛ Hundreds reported dead as Israel and Iran trade strikes for a third day

    Israel and Iran exchanged fire for a third day Sunday and threatened even greater force. The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel's surprise bombardment Friday of Iranian nuclear and military sites killed several top generals and nuclear scientists. Neither side showed any sign of backing down.

  • France24 ☛ G7 leaders gather in Canada amid Mideast crisis, tariff woes

    Leaders of the Group of Seven nations arrived in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday for a summit overshadowed by escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, and US President The Insurrectionist's ongoing trade disputes. Israel’s strikes and Tehran’s retaliation added urgency to talks amid rising global instability and geopolitical uncertainty.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Receives Another 1,200 Bodies From Russia As War Rages On

      Russia has returned another 1,200 bodies it says belong to Ukrainians killed in the war, Ukrainian authorities said, while fighting continued and Russia claimed it seized control of a village in the Donetsk region.

    • New York Times ☛ As Convicted Felon Returns to G7, Rift With Allies Is Even Deeper

      In 2018, the president called for the group to embrace Russia and stormed out of the summit. Now he is seeking to shrink America’s military role abroad and embarking on a more expansive trade war.

    • The Straits Times ☛ G7 needs to raise pressure on Russia, von der Leyen says

      More pressure must be exerted on Russia to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday, and urged the G7 nations to ramp up sanctions to achieve that goal.

    • France24 ☛ World’s nuclear arsenals expanding, driven by US and Russia, researchers warns

      Most nuclear-armed states continued modernising their arsenals in 2024, raising the risk of a new arms race, researchers said Monday. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said the United States and Russia, holding 90% of global stockpiles, spent last year upgrading existing warheads and deploying new-generation nuclear weapons.

• Environment

  • TruthOut ☛ New Mexico Governor’s Drought Order Avoids the Words “Climate” and “Emergency”

    In late May, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office sent out a press release announcing an executive order that declared a drought emergency and state of emergency in New Mexico. The order itself was missing two things: It didn’t actually include an emergency declaration, and it didn’t say why the state was in the midst of the worst drought conditions in recorded history.

  • Futurism ☛ Climate Change Is Ruining Cheese, Scientists and Farmers Warn

    Researchers from the Université Clermont Auvergne, which is located in the mountainous Central France region that produces a delicious firm cheese known as Cantal, explained in a new paper for the Journal of Dairy Science that grass shortages caused by climate change can greatly affect how cows' milk, and the subsequent cheese created from it, tastes.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims

      Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing.

    • Science Alert ☛ NASA Teams Up With India to Launch First-of-Its-Kind $1.5 Billion Satellite

      A whole new way to look at Earth.

  • Overpopulation

    • Vox ☛ Do parents prefer sons over daughters? Not so much anymore.

      But in one of the most important social shifts of our time, that bias is changing. In a great cover story earlier this month, The Economist reported that the number of annual excess male births has fallen from a peak of 1.7 million in 2000 to around 200,000, which puts it back within the biologically standard birth ratio of 105 boys for every 100 girls. Countries that once had highly skewed sex ratios — like South Korea, which saw almost 116 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990 — now have normal or near-normal ratios.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Futurism ☛ Chinese AI Companies Are Using an Absurd Loophole to Get Around US Chip Restrictions

    As first observed in the Wall Street Journal, Chinese engineers are getting around Washington's chip restrictions by simply flying to other countries where US prohibitions don't apply.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea's Lee plans to hold bilateral talks at G7 summit, his office says

    South Korean President Lee Jae-myung plans to hold bilateral talks with the leaders of countries attending the G7 summit, with details still being coordinated, his office said on Sunday.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Change in S. Korean government leaves foreign domestic worker programme in limbo

    The programme drew concerns ranging from job scope and oversight to worker protection and cost.

  • Gizmodo ☛ Trump's Military Parade Will Be Brought to You by Big Tech

    Gizmodo reached out to Amazon, Palantir, and Oracle for comment on their commitments, including whether they will provide financial support for or will have a presence at the “grand military parade,” as none of the companies have outwardly advertised their involvement. Coinbase has been less quiet about its role. As The Verge reported earlier this month, Coinbase’s chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, announced on stage at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference that the company will be a “major sponsor of the America250 effort.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Saudi Arabia executes a journalist after 7 years in prison

    According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Saudi authorities maintained that Al-Jasser was behind a social media account on X that levied corruption allegations against Saudi royals. Al-Jasser was also said to have posted several controversial tweets about militants and militant groups.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • JURIST ☛ Reporters Without Borders requests California Attorney General to end police violence against journalists covering LA protests

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the California Attorney General Rob Bonta Thursday to end and to investigate police violence against journalists covering the recent Los Angeles protests against US President The Insurrectionist’s mass deportation raids.

  • JURIST ☛ China urged to release #MeToo journalist

    On the first anniversary of her sentencing, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued a renewed call for Chinese journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin’s immediate release. Huang, whose work helped ignite China’s #MeToo movement, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of inciting “subversion of state power.”

  • TechCrunch ☛ Researchers confirm two journalists were [breached] with Paragon spyware

    Two European journalists were [breached] using government spyware made by Israeli surveillance tech provider Paragon, new research has confirmed.

    On Thursday, digital rights group The Citizen Lab published a new report detailing the results of a new forensic investigation into the iPhones of Italian journalist Ciro Pellegrino and an unnamed “prominent” European journalist. The researchers said both journalists were [breached] by the same Paragon customer, based on evidence found on the two journalists’ devices.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘This is a culture’: Fentanylware (TikTok) murder highlights Pakistan’s unease with women online

    TikTok is popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Photos: 'No Kings' Protests Across America

    Yesterday, according to estimates by event organizers, millions marched in protest against the Trump administration, including its recent controversial immigration-enforcement raids. Hundreds of “No Kings” demonstrations took place in cities and towns throughout the U.S.

  • Deseret Media ☛ 'Innocent bystander' shot, killed by member of 'peacekeeping' group at Salt Lake rally

    Redd added that the two peacekeepers are not in custody and the one who fired the rounds is cooperating with police. But no other information about the men acting as peacekeepers was released, including whether they had been hired as security or what kind of training they have.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ Hundreds protest Donald Trump at Montgomery 'No Kings' demonstration

    The rally Thursday was the first of at least 14 similar protests scheduled around the state and among thousands taking place around the country. The protests also rejected a planned military parade Saturday coinciding with Trump’s birthday and Flag Day.

    Those who gathered at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, across from the Alabama State Capitol, said they were concerned the administration was not following the law, particularly on applying due process to immigrants facing deportation.

  • TruthOut ☛ LAPD Attacks “No Kings” Protesters in Los Angeles | Truthout

    On Saturday morning tens of thousands of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles as part of the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations. Organizers estimated there were over 40,000 people in the crowd. Protesters carrying signs denouncing Trump as well as Mexican, Palestinian, and U.S. flags (sometimes upside down) marched through the streets. They demanded “ICE Out of LA” and denounced Trump’s authoritarian maneuvers, including sending the National Guard to the city. The marches were at once political and festive, and National Guard soldiers could even be seen posing for pictures with protesters.

  • JURIST ☛ Pennsylvania dispatch: 'No Kings Day' in Philadelphia felt like a parade

    America is not an oligarchy, not if we don’t allow that. I am an American citizen, the equal to any elected official and perhaps a bit more than any lawmaker who cannot read a law, as I can. This country, at least in our enduring ideal, belongs to me just as much as any billionaire.

  • ANF News ☛ TAJÊ appeals to Baghdad and the UN for 19 Yazidi women burned alive in Mosul in 2016

    The Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (TAJÊ) Diplomatic Committee sent a letter to Executive Director of UN-Women, Sima Bahous, the UN Office on Women's Issues in Geneva, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Iraqi Cabinet Secretary Dr. Hamid Naeem Al-Ghazi, and Director-General for Missing Persons and Migration Affairs, Diaa Karim Taama.

    The letter reads as follows: [...]

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Our immigration cops have donned masks. Time to ask what they — and we — are hiding.

    More often than not, ICE agents have their faces covered with neck gaiters or balaclavas as if they were on a covert mission in Beirut. They’re outfitted in military kit as well, from tactical vests to sidearms in drop leg holsters, which all looks a bit weird when worn over T-shirts and blue jeans. But I suppose they might be going for a kind of undercover cowboy look.

    But the image the masked agents convey, more than any other, is secret police.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ How secure are my sessions? Part 2

    Guest Post: Why is TLSv1.3 a better fit for Zero Trust?

  • APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: BKNIX Peering Forum 2025 and ThaiNOG Day 7

    APNIC hosted a booth and delivered training on SRv6 at the BKNIX Peering Forum 2025, held in conjunction with ThaiNOG Day 7 in Bangkok, Thailand, from 22 to 23 May 2025.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• India Times ☛ Google comes out on top as years-long Mexico antitrust case closed

  The investigation focused on Google's advertising services via its search page as well as third-party websites, examining whether the company had an undue advantage over competitors in the digital advertising sector stemming from the design of its platform for buying online advertising.

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ USPTO Hiring Examiners (for non-union role without telework)

    After a six-month hiring freeze and DOGE strong push for voluntary retirements, the USPTO has announced that it is again hiring patent monopoly examiners.  There are some key changes: (1) the new examiners will work in the Alexandria HQ – these are explicitly designated as non-remote, non-telework eligible positions; (2) according to the announcement, these jobs fall outside the bargaining unit covered by the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA). 

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Federal Circuit’s Shifting Political Balance

    by Dennis Crouch

    The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stands today with a dramatically different judicial composition than at any point in its 43-year history. As of June 2025, the court comprises eleven active judges—only three appointed by Republican presidents and eight by Democratic presidents, representing a 73% Democratic majority. This represents a complete reversal from the court’s peak Republican era in the early 1990s, when Republican appointees held ten of eleven active seats.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ 'Immediate' Pirate IPTV Shutdowns? No Problem, Please Ask Us Yesterday

    Sports rightsholders have revised their calls for illegal streams to be taken down inside 30 mins. It must now happen much more quickly, with the word 'immediately' given the thumbs up. How much of this additional pressure is bargaining strategy isn't clear, but in site-blocking countries like Italy, the UK, and Canada, detecting pirate infrastructure isn't a last minute effort. Many targets earmarked for blocking are identified not just hours in advance, but in some cases days earlier.