Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 03/06/2022: Steam Deck at 5% of GNU/Linux Users on Steam



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • uni TorontoSetting up Linux fair share CPU scheduling with systemd and cgroup v2

        In cgroup v2, fair share CPU scheduling for a cgroup is enabled by enabling the 'cpu' controller in that cgroup. However, systemd doesn't provide any good direct way to enable specific cgroup controllers; instead it seems to enable them when it thinks that it needs them due to some property that you set. In the case of the cpu controller, you get it enabled in a specific cgroup by setting CPUWeight to some value on a child unit. Normally you'll want to set CPUWeight to the default value of '100', so that that child unit and all of its peers get a predictable value for cpu.weight that's the same.

      • Jeff GeerlingUsing LibreELEC like a pro—management via SSH

        The default user is root and the default password is libreelec. No wonder they don't have SSH enabled by default :P

      • UNIX CopHow to install NodeJS on CentOS 9 Stream

        Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install NodeJS on CentOS 9 Stream.

        NodeJS is a JavaScript runtime environment (hence its .js ending, alluding to the JavaScript language). This real-time runtime environment includes everything you need to run a program written in JavaScript.

        Thanks to NodeJS, good functional applications have been created thanks to JavaScript. In addition, this interpreter allows us to somehow execute JavaScript on the server. Yes, as you read it.

        For many it is the most used software platform currently being above in execution environments, even above PHP and others.

    • Games

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Devices/Embedded

      • Linux GizmosICP NV1 Network Video Recorder features Tiger-Lake processor and iRIS Xe GPU

        Germany based ICP unveiled a Network Video Recorder built around Intel’s 11th Gen Core (Tiger-Lake) combined with Xe graphics processor unit. The NVI supports up to 64GB DDR4 RAM (dual SO-DIMM slots) available in commercial grade and industrial grade.

        The NV1 supports a wide variety of Intel processors including 11th Gen Core-i3, i5, i7 and even the CeleronTM 6305E. The device also incorporates Intel’s iRIS Xe graphic units which is capable of decoding/recording and playback in 1080p on up to 64 channels. Additionally, the NV1 has support for deep learning for up to 10 channels at 7.1 TOPS.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Old VCRSo long, home T1 line; hello, hacking the T1 router

        Floodgap has had a T1 line since I moved into this house in 2011. I'm one of those weirdos who runs my own hardware and prefers to avoid co-lo so that I can access things whenever I want despite the additional logistical complexity, and also acts as useful immunity against acquiring other expensive hobbies. The area was boonies-ish when I moved here (big house, cheap price, bottom of the market after the housing crash), arguably still is, and for at least several years there was no DSL due to its distance from the central office (fiber? hahahaha). Cable was around, but the only cable provider at the time refused to pull a run or even quote me a price to do so despite sending contractors on three separate occasions to scope out the site. After several weeks of downtime culminating in me making a formal complaint to the Public Utilities Commission, they agreed to stop messing around and released me from the contract. Of course, by then I was down for nearly a month.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • LibreBootMacBook2,1 and MacBook1,1

      There is an Apple laptop called the macbook1,1 from 2006 which uses the same i945 chipset as the ThinkPad X60/T60. A developer (Mono Moosbart) ported the Macbook2,1 to coreboot, working alongside Vladimir Serbinenko. The ROM images also work on the macbook1,1. Libreboot’s support and documentation for this is based on the Libreboot project, which also supports macbook2,1

      Some macbook2,1 models are late 2006, others are early 2007. You do not need to use external flashing equipment when flashing the MacBook2,1 but the MacBook1,1 requires external flashing equipment while running Apple EFI firmware.

      Macbook2,1 laptops come with Core 2 Duo processors which support 64-bit operating systems (and 32-bit). The MacBook1,1 uses Core Duo processors (supports 32-bit OS but not 64-bit), and it is believed that this is the only difference.

    • Education

      • BSDCanConference Schedule - BSDCan 2022

        You can find the full conference information at the conference website. This schedule is subject to changes. This page will be updated when any changes occur.

    • Programming/Development

      • On language package managers

        On one hand, I totally agree with Drew here. The fact that there are virtually no security measures in place for publishing packages to a registry is a source of our problems here.

        However, I'm also of the opinion that regardless of what protections a package manager puts into place for consumers, the ultimate responsibility falls on the consumer to properly vet their dependencies. I'm all for having standard practices put into effect to make it easier to follow a secure path, but that's about where I draw the line.

        [...]

        I know Drew uses golang quite a bit, I wonder what he thinks about the no-registry paradigm that golang employs. I think it's even easier to use than npm, but that comes with a big downside: there is no friction between creating a git repo with a golang package and a consumer using it. No review step and no further scrutiny.

      • Duncan LockSupply Chain Attacks & Package Managers

        I think I agree with this, essentially. We do need to change the way we do dependencies when developing - and having someone else review packages would help reduce supply chain attacks.

        I wanted to try and figure out if this solution - use official Linux distribution packages instead of language ones - would work in practice, what that might look like, and how that might scale.

      • NLNet FoundationOpen source R&D programme contributes 9.6 million € to "digital commons"

        Today a coalition of 12 not-for-profit organisations from across Europe launches the first open call for a large new research programme, NGI Zero Entrust. The ambitious programme is part of the Next Generation Internet initiative which was initiated by the European Commission in 2016. The programme is the next iteration of NGI Zero, which is one of the most ambitious funding programme designs of its kind — providing bottom-up funding to create digital commons such as free and open source software, libre hardware and open standards with a pipeline of tailored support to help mature the technologies in question.

      • Amos WengerThe curse of strong typing

        So whereas Python has an "integer" and "float" type, Rust has different widths of integer types, like C and other system languages.

      • Tom's HardwareHot Pi projects for hot weather.

        It’s hard to believe that summer is already here but it’s not hard to believe that makers have been super busy churning out some super cool Raspberry Pi projects. As the weather warms up for those in the northern hemisphere, so do the soldering irons of makers around the world.

        The makers featured in our list this month pulled out all the stops, using the best of the best Raspberry Pi accessories, HATs and more with some of the most creative concepts we’ve seen yet. Even if you don’t have cool accessories, these will show you how a little bit of ingenuity and programming can take your project to the next level.

      • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

        • Francesco MazzoliHow fast are Linux pipes anyway?

          Section 4 is the heaviest on Linux kernel internals, so it might be interesting even if you’re familiar with the other topics treated in the post. For readers not familiar with the topics treated, only basic knowledge of C is assumed.

  • Leftovers

    • RFERLRussian Journalist Muratov To Auction Nobel Medal

      The editor in chief of the independent Moscow-based newspaper Novaya gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, will be selling his Nobel Prize medal later this month to help Ukrainian refugees, Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions says.

      The current bid for the medal that will be auctioned on June 20 is $260,000, Heritage Auctions said.

    • The NationFirst Thought, Best Thought? Not for Elon Musk.

      I have to admit to a fleeting moment of sadness when I clicked on The Hill recently only to discover that the center-right political news site had stopped running comments on all its articles. The Hill didn’t give any reason for the springtime shutdown, merely suggesting that readers head to Twitter or Facebook if they wanted to “participate in the conversation.”

    • The NationRaw Speech, Raw Stories: A Conversation With Fernanda Melchor

      Fernanda Melchor says she’s done empathizing with her characters.

    • Education

      • CS MonitorBenjamin Franklin bankrolled 200 years of small business loans

        His plan was simple: Both cities were to lend the money in small amounts to tradesmen who needed funds to set themselves up in business. The borrowers were to repay the loans over 10 years at 5% interest. According to Franklin’s calculations, the fund would grow dramatically. After 100 years, some of the funds would be distributed by the city leaders and after 200 years, all the remaining money would be given away.

    • Hardware

      • Hackaday3D Printed Protection Against “Under-Door” Attacks

        “Under-door” style attacks are when an attacker slides a tool through the gap underneath a door, hooks the interior handle from below, and opens the door by pulling the handle downward. This kind of attack works on the sort of doors and locks commonly found in hotels, where turning the handle from the inside always results in an open door. [Michal Jirků] found himself in a hotel room with a particularly large gap underneath the door, and decided to quickly design and print a door guard to protect against just such an attack.

      • HackadaySurprisingly Stomp-able Soft Switches

        Competition sure brings out the brute in people, doesn’t it? So what do you do when you need a bunch of switches you can let people fist-pound or stomp on repeatedly without them taking damage? You could look to the guitar pedal industry and their tough latching switches, or you could simply build your own smash-resistant buttons as [wannabemadsci] has done.

      • HackadayLED Heart Keeps Tabs On Your RuneScape Character

        The MMORPG RuneScape holds a special place in the hearts of those who played it in the early 2000s. Sure it might seem exceptionally quaint by modern standards, but at the time it was groundbreaking stuff. Plus you could play it for free, which certainly helped get people onboard. While there’s a more modern build available, many who played the game from the early days prefer to stick with what they know, and continue to run a version of the game that has now become known as Old School RuneScape.

      • HackadayPractical Transistors: JFETs

        Transistors come in different flavors. Tubes used an electric field to regulate current flow, and researchers wanted to find something that worked the same way without the drawbacks like vacuum and filament voltages. However, what they first found — the bipolar transistor — doesn’t work the same way. It uses a small current to modulate a larger current, acting as a switch. What they were looking for was actually the FET — the field effect transistor. These come in two flavors. One uses a gate separated from the channel by a thin layer of oxide (MOSFETs), and the other — a junction or JFET — uses the property of semiconductors to deplete or enhance carriers in the channel. [JohnAudioTech] takes a decidedly practical approach to JFETs in a recent video that you can watch below.

      • Hackaday3D Printing With Sound, Directly

        Canadian researchers at Concordia University want to change how you do 3D printing. Instead of using light or thermal mechanisms, they propose using ultrasound-activated sonochemical reactions. Sounds wild? You can see a video about it below, or read the paper in Nature.

      • HackadayPower Up Your Pencil With The 30,000 RPM Erase-O-Matic

        There are some inventions that look completely pointless to the untrained eye: who would ever need a motorized garbage can, an electric pencil sharpener or a battery-powered eraser? Quite often, it turns out that there is some niche use case where such tools make complete sense, as is the case for motorized erasers. Having a tiny piece of rubber spinning at high speed gives artists and drafters a way to very precisely delete or lighten bits of their drawing, something that’s nearly impossible to do with a regular eraser.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Inspector General, AMA and AHA Agree: Some Medicare Advantage Plans Are Endangering Their Enrollees' Lives

        Medicare Advantage plans are endangering the lives of older adults and people with disabilities. The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which works to fight waste, fraud and abuse, recently issued a devastating report showing that these corporate health plans, which contract with the government to deliver Medicare benefits, are denying large amounts of care inappropriately.€ 

      • ABCNightclub needle attacks puzzle European authorities

        The police official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to national police policy, said: "At this stage, we can’t talk about a specific modus operandi. There aren’t any similarities between the cases. The only thing similar is that people are being injected with a needle in a festive context in different places in France."

      • Counter PunchEpidemic on Wheels: Rising Deaths and Injuries from Road Crashes

        Around 1.35 million people die each year on the world’s roads, and another 20 million to 50 million are seriously injured. Half of these deaths and many of the injuries involve pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – the most vulnerable users of roads and streets.

        Around the world, someone dies from a road accident every 25 seconds. The head of the United Nations Road Safety Fund has called road deaths and injuries a “silent epidemic on wheels”.

      • The RevelatorOn the Clean Water Act’s 50th Birthday, What Should We Celebrate?
      • The Nation550… and Counting

        In March 1983, Larry Kramer published a piece in the New York Native called “1,112 and Counting”—a call to arms about a new virus circulating among gay men in the United States. One thousand one hundred and twelve was the number of cases at the time of this new disease, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Larry’s piece is a classic of what would be his over-the-top style throughout the AIDS epidemic, right up until a few months before his death in the midst of another plague, Covid-19. He takes aim with unsparing ire at everyone and anyone who might be implicated in the spread of this new disease, from the Centers for Disease Control to New York’s City Hall to the National Institutes of Health, Congress, and the White House—and then gay men themselves for sitting on their hands, ignoring the burgeoning crisis, underplaying the risk of what was unfolding in real time.

      • TechdirtAutomated Moderation Means Distance Learning Students Are Being Called Cheaters Because Reasons

        The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in America was, at best, inadequate. Many voters who felt subservient to a failed businessman chose to view the pandemic as a conspiracy meant to unseat Donald Trump. Millions died. Many more millions continue to suffer.

    • Proprietary

      • Matt RickardProduct Velocity of Alternative Cloud Platforms

        Product velocity is the number one indicator of a successful platform. One source of product velocity comes from having a differentiated backbone that creates the opportunity to bolt on existing functionality in a new way quickly. You built a differentiated backbone by holding one primitive constant (the network, database, metrics, etc.) and optimizing around that.

      • Silicon AngleSerious Windows diagnostic tool vulnerability allows [crackers] to take over a computer [iophk: Windows TCO]

        Known as CVE-2022-30190 in the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool, it was first reported May 27 by Nao Sec and then further detailed May 29 by security researcher Kevin Beaumont, who dubbed it “Follina.” The vulnerability primarily relates to Office but also spills into a core Windows function.

        The vulnerability, in this case, allows hackers to target Windows users via malicious Word documents. The malicious Word document uses the remote template feature to fetch an HTML file from a remote server. The download exploits the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool protocol scheme to download additional code and execute malicious PowerShell code.

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • Common DreamsCivil Rights Groups Demand Google End Complicity in 'Criminalization of Abortions'

          More than 40 civil rights groups on Thursday warned that Google's practice of collecting and storing the location data of its customers is likely to endanger people who seek abortion care if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, as it's expected to this summer, and demanded the company put human rights ahead of its profit-driven marketing tools.

          "Google's collection and storage of location data will make the company complicit in the criminalization of people seeking abortions in a post-Roe world," said the groups, including Fight for the Future, MediaJustice, and Amnesty International. "The company must immediately stop unnecessary collection and retention of our location data."

        • TechdirtBeing A Supreme Court Clerk Now Hazardous To Your Privacy

          As you certainly remember, last month Politico published a draft opinion, written by Justice Alito, overturning Roe v. Wade. The final ruling has not yet come out, but is expected soon (as the Supreme Court session is nearing its conclusion). There has been tremendous speculation over who leaked the draft (and why). There has been lots of pointing fingers and assumptions, but the truth is that almost no one actually knows other than whoever leaked it, and the journalists who received it. Much of the speculation has fallen on the law clerks at the Supreme Court — the recent law school grads who often do a lot of the work on the cases that come before the court.

        • Adventure RiderUK, EU Cars (But Not Bikes, Yet) Fitted With Speed Limiters

          This comes as part of the General Safety Regulation passed in the EU. Mandates state “new models/types of vehicles introduced on the market,” beginning in July 2022, must arrive outfitted with this software. It will be mandatory for all new cars beginning in July 2024, ostensibly to give manufacturers time to retrofit their existing production models.

        • NYOBStatement on 4 Years of GDPR

          GDPR did not change a culture of non-compliance. When the GDPR became applicable on 25 May 2018, it was perceived as a watershed moment. Comments were somewhere between the EU getting serious about privacy and the internet breaking down at midnight. The past four years have shown that a law alone does not change business models that are based on the abuse of personal data and a culture within the privacy profession that is often focusing on covering up non-compliance. After a first moment of shock, large part of the data industry has learned to live with GDPR without actually changing practices. This is mainly done by simply ignoring users’ rights and getting away with it.

        • Site36New regulation: Europol becomes the Big Data police

          Comparatively quickly, EU member states and the Parliament have launched a new Europol regulation. Once set up to fight drug trafficking, the agency is being given even more powers. However, the agency in The Hague is still not a „European FBI“.

          At the end of 2020, the Commission had presented its proposal for the new regulation; in May this year, the three EU decision-making bodies agreed on a final version. After the Parliament, the EU interior ministers also confirmed the final version last week. Now only the publication in the Official Journal is missing, then the new law will apply.

        • Patrick BreyerData Retention: NGOs call on German Minsters to Stop Mass Surveillance

          In an open letter to the German Conference of Interior Ministers 13 organisations call for an end to mass data retention of citizen‘s connection and location data in Germany and the EU. Patrick Breyer, Member of the European Parliament (Pirate Party/Greens/EFA group) and digital rights activist comments:

          „The large-scale collection of information on day-to-day communication and location data of innocent citizens is an unprecedented attack on our right to privacy. This is the most intrusive method of the mass surveillance. For effective child protection we need child protection officers, child protection programme as well as competent and fast investigations – mass surveillance is not the solution. The steady violation of fundamental rights through the continuation of data retention policies, governmental pressure on judges and ignoring facts is an attack on the rule of law, which we need to stop.“

        • Site36EU instead of EC: New directive facilitates cross-border data exchange

          The 2006 „Swedish Initiative“ is being replaced by a new set of rules. This „Lisbonization“ of EU-wide information exchange comes with a uniform case management system and file format, and requires shorter deadlines for processing requests.

        • EFFSan Francisco Police Nailed for Violating Public Records Laws Regarding Face Recognition and Fusion Center Documents

          The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force further ordered SFPD to conduct a fresh search for records and respond point-by-point to EFF's original records request within 5 days or potentially face sanctions.

          In the summer of 2019, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban government use of face recognition, a technology that extracts information about a person's face and compares that data to a database of images in order to establish identity. SFPD's compliance with the ban came into question in September 2020 when the San Francisco Chronicle reported that SFPD had circulated a bulletin containing a surveillance camera image of a suspect, and in response, NCRIC staff used face recognition on the image and forwarded the results to SFPD. EFF and other organizations were concerned that this practice could constitute an end-run around the ban.

          EFF followed up by submitting a public records request to SFPD under the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance asking for 11 different categories of documents, ranging from original bulletins and correspondence regarding the original case, general discussions over face recognition between SFPD and external parties, and all documents that establish the relationship between NCRIC and SFPD.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • MeduzaA Russian man with a facial birth defect signed a military contract to pay for plastic surgery. He died in Ukraine.

        Anton Fedoseyev, a 21-year-old from Russia’s Leningrad region, died near Kharkiv in May 2022. Fedoseyev was born with a birth defect that affected his face and had long dreamed of getting plastic surgery. He signed a contract with the army to earn money to pay for the operation. He spoke to Sever Realii, a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, before his death.

      • MeduzaWhat has been achieved? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is about to mark 100 days. Meduza sources say the Kremlin told state media ‘not to focus attention’ on this fact.

        Tomorrow, June 3, will mark 100 days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On the eve of this milestone, sources tell Meduza that Putin’s administration has “asked” state-controlled and pro-Kremlin media outlets “not to focus attention” on the duration of the “special military operation.” Meduza’s sources say this is an attempt to elide the fact that Russian troops haven’t been able to make significant gains after more than three months of war.

      • Atlantic CouncilRussia’s war on global food security

        Russia has blocked and mined all of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and hindered nearly all of Ukraine’s exports, notably of grain.

        Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s grain exports may cause starvation of up to 47 million people.

      • SpiegelHow Russia Is Slaughtering Civilians on the African Front

        Moscow has become deeply involved in Mali, with its notoriously brutal Wagner Group showing little signs of restraint. The country is collapsing and the people live in fear. Meanwhile, Germany's military may soon follow the French out of the country.

      • CNNOpinion: The Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election

        That objective is not somehow to rescind the 2020 election, as they would have us believe. That's constitutionally impossible. Trump's and the Republicans' far more ambitious objective is to execute successfully in 2024 the very same plan they failed in executing in 2020 and to overturn the 2024 election if Trump or his anointed successor loses again in the next quadrennial contest.

        The last presidential election was a dry run for the next.

      • Paul Schaubfoss – vanitasvitae's blog: Europe Trip Journal – Entry 30: Thank You for Traveling with Deutsche Bahn

        So the obvious solution is less weapons. However, how does this solution apply to Russias war against Ukraine? Isn’t it double-standard to call for less weapons in the USA, while at the same time demanding delivery of weapons to Ukraine?

      • ScheerpostDestroying the Town Is Not Saving It

        Although the keynote speaker at this year's Air Force Academy graduation was delivered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, historian and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel William Astore gives his own speech to the class leaving the institution where he once taught.

      • ScheerpostCorporate Media Hypocrisy Revealed in Buffalo Shooting Coverage

        Mainstream media has taken a political approach to exposing the ideologies, rather than searching for objective truth...Digging deeper into Gendron’s manifesto, it becomes questionable whether Carlson had anything to do with inspiring the bigoted views.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | 10 Negative Consequences of Boundless US Militarism and Imperialism

        In recent years, the U.S. has seen great numbers of people and mass movements take to the streets to challenge the status quo. While domestic outrage grows, resistance to the U.S. war machine remains limited, even as President Joe Biden is looking to pass a military budget of $813 billion. This bloated budget proposal comes as inflation makes basic products unaffordable and funds for the ongoing pandemic are gutted.€ 

      • Democracy NowMass Shootings at Home, Mass Arms Exports Abroad: A Look at Deadly Role of U.S. Weapons Across Globe

        As U.S. lawmakers struggle to reach a consensus on legislation to curb gun violence in the wake of mass shootings, the U.S. also remains the largest international supplier of arms, funneling billions in military weaponry into wars in Ukraine and Yemen. Until there is a serious curtailment of U.S. militarism, it will continue to prioritize U.S. lives over lives abroad, says Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, whose new piece is headlined, “How About Some Gun Control at the Pentagon?” International arms control advocate Rebecca Peters describes U.S. efforts to block weapons control efforts at the United Nations and adds that New Zealand’s swift action on gun control following the Christchurch mosque killings in 2019 should give the U.S. impetus to do the same.

      • TruthOutUS Arms Trade Fuels Mass Shootings at Home and Around the World
      • Common Dreams'Madness': Ohio GOP Passes Bill to Arm Teachers

        With Democrats decrying the proposal as "madness," Republican state lawmakers on Thursday pushed through House Bill 99, which would allow school districts to send teachers and other staff to school with firearms.

        The legislation, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said he "looks forward to signing," wold let school employees carry guns to school after undergoing just 24 hours of training.

      • Common Dreams'Let Us Finally Do Something': Biden Pleads for Gun Control Amid Mass Shooting Surge

        President Joe Biden on Thursday delivered an urgent appeal for what advocates say are common-sense firearm control measures in the wake of recent massacres and a national culture of violence in which guns have claimed more lives over the past half-century than all the wars in U.S. history combined.

        "For the children we've lost. For the children we can save. For the nation we love. Let's hear the call and the cry. Let's meet the moment."

      • TruthOutThe Gun Lobby Sponsors Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s Secretive Island Club
      • TruthOutDays After Uvalde, Mass Shooting in Tulsa Leaves 4 Dead
      • Common DreamsOpinion | The US Supreme Court Also Has Blood on Its Hands

        If you're looking for someone or something to blame for the mass shootings that have left our schools, streets and communities soaked in blood, don't just point your finger at the deranged punks who pull the triggers, or the NRA and their lackeys in the Republican Party. Save at least some of your ire for the Supreme Court.€ 

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Toxic Masculinity, A Root Cause for Mass Shootings

        In 2009, I wrote a short op-ed for The Oregonian on why men—and it is almost always men—become mass shooters. Re-reading the piece, I think it still holds up fairly well, though what is distressing is how 13 years later, we still find ourselves with this disturbing phenomenon. Considering the massacre of little children at Robb Elementary School and the Buffalo massacre, I felt compelled to re-visit my thoughts, amplify some key points. Most pointedly, like so many others, I am especially tormented by this recent atrocity, the killing of children aged 9 thru 11. Like how I felt about the Sandy Hook tragedy, I cannot fathom how such horrors can be inflicted on our children. And like so many others, I am with those who stress guns as the simplest way to ameliorate these mass shootings. Gun regulation is absolutely essential to at least cutting down on the number of mass shootings, legislation like background checks and assault rifle bans especially—obviously—key to keep weapons of war out of the hands of potential deranged killers.

      • Counter PunchWelcome, Children

        American children, welcome to the shame of a country that, outrageously, requires you to endure lock-down drills against a random lottery of death for the sake of Second Amendment “freedom.” Those in power fanatically deny the root cause of massacres, which is, obviously, the sheer number and availability of guns in our country—400 million of them.

        Welcome to a culture that is beyond embarrassing in its hypocrisy, that fusses and fumes and even kills over the rights of fetal life but is apparently indifferent to your safety in the classroom. Where an infantile ex-president panders to the NRA by nattering on about mental illness when he himself is in dire need of intervention for pathological malignant narcissism.

      • Counter PunchGuns in the U.S.: the Chronic Nightmare

        With all my 22 year-old wisdom, six weeks of teacher training and three months of actual experience, I responded: “My man, I have three options. One, I can go for the gun and one of us will probably get shot. Two, I can try to reach behind me for the telephone and call the police during which you may shoot me. Or, three, I could ask you to leave the room and go outside to get your fix. I’m going to continue teaching the class for five minutes and leave you the option. It’s up to you.” Always give them options, I had been instructed, during the very short lesson we novice teachers had been given about similar situations in our brief apprenticeship.

        I then turned back to teaching the class. There was no panic in the students’ eyes. The scene was familiar to them, perhaps not in school, but definitely in their daily lives.

      • Democracy NowAnatol Lieven on Why the U.S. Must Avoid a “Permanent Crusade Against Russia” over Ukraine

        Friday marks the 100th day of the Russian war in Ukraine, and the United States warns the war could continue for many more months. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His latest piece for The Atlantic argues that the U.S. is right to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia; however, without a clear strategy for peace and ending the war, the U.S. is at risk of repeating the mistakes made during the Cold War, when “containment of the Soviet Union in Europe was turned into a global crusade against communism.”

      • Meduza'An economic crisis will sober them up' Economist Andrei Yakovlev on the nature of Russia's ruling coalition — and why elites have failed to stop the war

        It’s been more than three months since Russia invaded Ukraine and there haven’t been any major resignations from the Russian government. Indeed, no top officials have publicly spoken out against the war. Meduza spoke to the economist and Gaidar Prize laureate Andrei Yakovlev about what Russia’s elites are thinking, why they aren’t trying to influence the President, where the war is headed, and why the ruling class replacement system fell apart as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed.

      • TruthOutChomsky: We Must Insist That Nuclear Warfare Is an Unthinkable Policy
      • Common DreamsOpinion | Putin's Foolish War, Poorly Waged

        A blitzkrieg Russian invasion of Ukraine it was not. Marshall Zhukov, the Soviet Union’s famed tank general, must be rolling in his grave. Had Stalin still been in the Kremlin, Russia’s generals and defense minister would have by now been shot. At that time, the Red Army and its 50,000 tanks were believed able to burst through Germany’s Fulda Gap and central Austria and reach the key US supply base at Rotterdam in a week.

      • EFFAxon Must Not Arm Drones with Tasers

        EFF has stated strongly before that drones and robots, whether they be autonomous or remote-controlled, should not be armed–either with lethal or “less-lethal” weapons. And we’re far from the only group to do so.

        Police currently deploy many different kinds of moving and task-performing technologies. These include flying drones, remote control bomb-defusing robots, and autonomous patrol robots. While these different devices serve different functions and operate differently, none of them—absolutely none—should be armed with any kind of weapon.

        Mission creep is very real. Time and time again, technologies given to police to use only in the most extreme circumstances make their way onto streets during protests or to respond to petty crime. For example, cell site simulators (often called “Stingrays”) were developed for use in foreign battlefields, brought home in the name of fighting “terrorism,” then used by law enforcement to catch immigrants and a man who stole $57 worth of food. Likewise, police have targeted BLM protesters with face surveillance and Amazon Ring doorbell cameras.€ 

      • Counter PunchWar as Terrorism: Conflicts We Can't Win, Suffering We Don't See

        We kids had no way of faintly grasping that, in its essence, war actually involves civilian deaths galore. And why should we have? In that era when the only foreign conflict most of us knew about was the 1991 U.S. tromping of Iraq, mainly an air-power war from the American point of view, we certainly didn’t think about what we would now call war crimes. It might have been cause for a therapy referral if one of us had taken a G.I. Joe and pretended to shoot a child, whether armed with a suicide bomb or not.

        Having lived through more than a century and a half of relative peace in our homeland while fighting endless conflicts abroad, only in the past 20 years of America’s post-9/11 war on terror, waged by U.S. troops in dozens of countries around the world, have some of our children begun to grapple with what it means to kill civilians.

      • Counter PunchBiden, Taiwan, and Strategic Ambiguity

        At a stopover in Tokyo during his Asia trip, President Biden was asked whether the US would “defend Taiwan” if it were attacked. He said yes, because “that’s the commitment we made.” Actually, there is no formal “commitment,” unlike defense obligations in US security treaties with Japan and South Korea. Biden has made the same incorrect assertion twice before, but this time it was in the context of the war in Ukraine, suggesting—but by no means confirming—what defending Taiwan might actually mean. Biden did, however, provide just enough fuel to raise questions about his adherence to previous policy based on “strategic ambiguity.”

        Let’s keep in mind that US presidents have supported Taiwan’s defense for many years, not just by way of substantial military aid and active responses in crisis situations, such as in 1996 when China deployed missiles in an attempt to intimidate Taiwan during a presidential election. Presidents are also bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which requires provision of defense assistance to Taiwan in the context of defining Taiwan as a US national security interest. The Act:

      • Counter PunchAn Unspeakable Crime

        Four months ago, two days before the civilized world celebrated one year since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force on January 22, officials here at the Kansas City National Security Campus hosted a virtual celebration of a different milestone with partners from across the National Nuclear Security Administration and U.S. Air Force. “With great pride and excitement,” they recognized the completion of the B61-12 bomb’s Life Extension Program’s first production unit. This plant is responsible for producing 39 major non-nuclear component assemblies of the B61-12.

        The trillion-dollar program of extending the lives of nuclear weapons is at odds with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratified into law by the United States, flouting Article VI of the treaty, which requires “all Parties undertake to pursue good-faith negotiations on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race, to nuclear disarmament, and to general and complete disarmament.” In the nine years since the B61-12 Life Extension Program was put into action, the life expectancy of humans in this country has plummeted. Undaunted, the NNSA boasts that it has extended the life expectancy of the B61-12 by at least 20 years!

      • Counter PunchNew York Times Admits Truth of Haitian Coup

        French ambassador Thierry Burkard admits that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s call for the restitution of Haiti’s debt (ransom) of independence partly explains why he was ousted in 2004. Burkard told the Times the elected president’s removal was “a coup” that was “probably a bit about” Aristide’s campaign for France to repay Haiti.

        Other major outlets have also investigated the coup recently. In 2020 Radio-Canada’s flagship news program “Enquête” interviewed Denis Paradis, the Liberal minister responsible for organizing the 2003 Ottawa Initiative on Haiti where US, French and Canadian officials discussed ousting the elected president and putting the country under UN trusteeship. Paradis admitted to Radio-Canada that no Haitian officials were invited to discuss their own country’s future and the imperial triumvirate broached whether “the principle of sovereignty is unassailable?” Enquête also interviewed long time Haitian Canadian activist and author Jean Saint-Vil who offered a critical perspective on the discussion to oust Aristide.

      • Counter PunchLove in Vain

        On this Memorial Day, 2022, I found myself thinking, as we are asked to do, of those people who lost their lives to war. Memorial Day is dedicated specifically to those in the military who lost their lives but my mind cannot think of them without thinking of all the others who died in war, the civilians, men, women, children and not just here In the US as our waving flags would suggest that we should but, again, seeing the over-all connection between each and every one of us, from here to there, around the globe and across time, I think of them.

        I thought of my father and my grandfather, your fathers and grandfathers. I thought of wars being fought today and of those wars that we have been fighting throughout time. I thought of the Lakota brave fighting against the Cree, I thought of the Chinese peasant being over-run by the Mongol hoards. I stretched my mind to consider any and every battle that has ever been fought and the dead.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Why This Google Shareholder Wants an End to Project Nimbus

        Yesterday, for the first time in company history, Google shareholders like me voted on a resolution that calls into question a contract with the Israeli government and military known as Project Nimbus. Hundreds of Google’s own employees have spoken out against this controversial contract, which provides advanced technology that will be used to further oppress and harm millions of Palestinians.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | The Ethnic Cleansing of Masafer Yatta: Israel's New Annexation Strategy in Palestine

        The Israeli Supreme Court has decided that the Palestinian region of Masafer Yatta, located in the southern hills of Hebron, is to be entirely appropriated by the Israeli military and that a population of over 1,000 Palestinians is to be expelled.

      • The NationWar Is a Form of Terrorism

        Anyone who grew up in my generation of 1980s kids remembers G.I. Joe action figures—those green-uniformed plastic soldiers you could use to stage battles in the sandbox in your backyard or, for that matter, your bedroom. In those days, when imagery of bombed-out homes, bloodied civilians, and police violence wasn’t accessible on TV screens or in video games like Call of Duty, war in children’s play took place only between soldiers. No civilians were caught up in it as “collateral damage.”

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Supreme Court Sides With Government Secrecy Powers in Torture-Related Case

        The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently on the government’s use of the state secrets doctrine in an opinion that will make it easier for intelligence agencies to evade accountability in future individual rights cases. In U.S. v. Zubaydah, government torture policy and state secrets converge. A torture victim requested information related to his treatment at a CIA “black site,” and the government blocked that request, citing national security interests. Seven members of the Court joined parts of an opinion siding with the government, with only Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch dissenting. The case has implications for other torture-related cases and for government accountability more broadly as it expands state secrecy powers based on a doctrine that was already overbroad, and suspect in its origins.

    • Environment

      • NPRCalifornia cracks down on water use as it sees its most severe drought ever

        About 27 million Californians get their water from the State Water Project, "a multi-purpose water storage and delivery system that extends more than 705 miles — two-thirds the length of California," according to the California Department of Water Resources.

      • Common DreamsScientists Urge 'Transformative Change' to Stave Off Climate, Biodiversity Collapse

        Building on a landmark report from last year, 18 top scientists this week emphasized "the need for transformative change" to take on the connected biodiversity and climate crises—and that "bringing about transformative change requires transformative governance."

        "We need urgent and decisive action amidst the accelerating climate and biodiversity crises."

      • Democracy NowClimate Crisis, Ukraine War Worsen Food Crisis in East Africa; Someone Dies of Hunger Every 48 Secs

        In a devastating new report, Oxfam says one person is likely dying from hunger every 48 seconds in drought-ravaged Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. We speak with Shannon Scribner, director of humanitarian work at Oxfam America, about how the hunger crisis has worsened since an earlier report was released 10 years ago. She says climate change and the recent war in Ukraine have worsened already dire conditions in East Africa. Researchers have been warning for years that drought and famine would be on the horizon, says Scribner. “We really need a system that is more responsive to those early warnings.”

      • Common DreamsCritics Warn GOP Climate Plan 'Farce' Is Recipe for Planetary Disaster

        Climate campaigners and progressive U.S. lawmakers reacted with disdain and derision Thursday to news that House Republicans would put forth a purported climate strategy that calls for increased fossil fuel production and sets no targets for reducing planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.

        "This stunt is a not-even-thinly veiled attempt to bullshit the press and the public. It's time to stop falling for it."

      • Energy

        • Helsinki TimesForum for fossil-free transport focused on the green transition in heavy transport

          The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications organised a round table on the green transition in heavy transport on 30 May 2022, to hear the views of various interest groups on the needs of heavy-duty vehicles and heavy transport in general when transport is moving towards a fossil-free era. The discussion also focused on the current situation in the fuel markets, EU legislation related to fuels and vehicles as well as forms of support that promote the green transition in heavy transport.

        • Common Dreams'Atrocious': Green Groups Blast UK Approval of Jackdaw Gas Field

          Climate activists in the U.K. announced emergency protests in London and Edinburgh for Thursday in response to the government's regulatory approval of Shell's new Jackdaw gas drilling project in the North Sea.

          "Approving Jackdaw was a desperate and destructive move from [Prime Minister] Boris Johnson's government," said Greenpeace U.K., declaring its intention to "fight back and stop" the gasfield including through possible legal action.

        • HungaryEU Russian oil ban held up because Hungary objected to sanctioning Patriarch Kirill

          After long negotiations, the European Union finalized its decision to ban purchases of all seaborn Russian oil and refined products for six to eight months on Monday. The deal exempts Hungary from the embargo, allowing it to continuously purchase crude from Russia, which has invaded the neighboring country, Ukraine. Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban celebrated the outcome of the negotiations on his€ Facebook page: “Hungary is exempt from the oil embargo!”

          Since Hungary accounts for only a fraction of the flow of Russian oil to the European Union, the ban means billions of dollars in loss for Russia.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Counter PunchWho Cashes in After a California Wildfire?
        • Common DreamsCodify Arctic Refuge Protections, Say Campaigners Amid Big Oil Exodus

          Conservationists and climate campaigners on Thursday welcomed the news that another fossil fuel company has canceled a controversial Trump-era lease to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while calling on policymakers to permanently protect the pristine wilderness from future threats.

          "As oil companies terminate and cancel leases, it's time for Congress to stop the leasing program for good."

      • Overpopulation

        • The Guardian UK‘Consequences will be dire’: Chile’s water crisis is reaching breaking point

          In hundreds of rural communities in the centre and north of the country, Chileans are forced to rely on emergency tankers to deliver drinking water.

          “Water has become a national security issue – it’s that serious,” said Pablo García-Chevesich, a Chilean hydrologist working at the University of Arizona. “It’s the biggest problem facing the country economically, socially and environmentally. If we don’t solve this, then water will be the cause of the next uprising.”

        • OverpopulationWhat have you learned in school about population? Please tell us!

          Many of our readers may have memories from their school years of lessons about population growth – or perhaps memorable situations when population talk was avoided. As far as we know, there are few studies regarding how population is taught around the world. TOP wants to know more about this, whether your memories are from elementary school, university, or any level in between.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The NationTalk Me Down Here: Can This Country Be Saved?

        May was an awful month. From the leak of the draft Supreme Court ruling striking down abortion rights in the United States on May 3, to the massacre of 10 Black people in Buffalo, N.Y., by a white supremacist May 14, to the slaughter of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., just last week, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that we are, increasingly, two nations, where the minority is trampling the rights of the majority, and is literally willing to kill some of us to establish its rule.

      • ANF NewsTurkish occupation discussed in Sulaymaniyah

        The meeting in Sulaymaniyah's Mêrgepan region drew a large number of writers, journalists, academics, activists, and politicians from Southern Kurdistan, as well as members of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Representative Office and representatives of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).

        The meeting discusses the dangers of the occupation on the status of the Kurdistan Region, as well as the attacks of the Turkish state.

      • France24‘End of an era’: Facebook No. 2 Sheryl Sandberg steps down after 14 years

        Meta’s second most powerful executive Sheryl Sandberg made the shock announcement Wednesday she will leave after a 14-year tenure that included helping steer scandal-prone Facebook to advertising dominance.

      • Lee Yingtong LiA conceptual primer on the single transferable vote – 1: Building a fair voting system

        The single transferable vote (STV) is a family of multiple-winner voting systems which provide proportional representation by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

        This series provides a primer on the principles of STV, from its conceptual foundations through to contemporary developments in STV systems (such as the weighted inclusive Gregory and Meek methods of STV).

      • Lee Yingtong LiA conceptual primer on the single transferable vote – 2: Andrae's and Hare's methods

        At the end of part 1, we provided an outline of STV:

        a voting system which mimics the effect of repeated SNTV, where each voter has only 1 vote at a time, but where the voting system automatically redirects wasted votes from candidates elected with more votes than they need, and from candidates with no hope of election, without voters needing to physically vote again

        In this part, we turn this outline into a complete (albeit primitive) implementation of STV.

      • Lee Yingtong LiA conceptual primer on the single transferable vote – 3: Refining random transfer STV

        In part 2, we described the original 1873 implementation of STV by Thomas Hare, noting that the method then proposed was highly influenced by the effect of random chance. In this part, we will introduce some strategies to reduce this effect somewhat.

        For the sake of illustration, we will slightly adjust the votes in the Suburbia Pet Owners' Association election to be slightly less homogeneous: [...]

      • Lee Yingtong LiA conceptual primer on the single transferable vote – 4: Exclusive Gregory method

        In part 3, we discussed a refinement to random transfer STV, noting that even in refined form it is still subject to random effects. In this part, we introduce a method which eliminates randomness from STV completely.

      • PurismIs Ethical Advertising Possible?

        Is ethical advertising possible? We all certainly know unethical advertising is possible, we live with it every day. The ad-driven Internet has created an insatiable hunger for personal data and as a result most of what the average person does in their web browser, or on their phone, and in real life is being measured, tracked, and sold to some degree. Yet if a company actually cared about your privacy and wanted to advertise its products, could it do so ethically? Can you track what a visitor does on your website without violating their privacy? We have been thinking about these issues heavily at Purism as we consider how to expand our marketing and in this article I’m going to explore where we currently are in our thinking.

      • HungaryOrbán: Hungary’s stance on sanctioning Patriarch Kirill has been well known
      • Common DreamsProbe Aimed at Trump-Appointed Social Security IG Who Targeted Poor and People With Disabilities

        An independent watchdog group launched a probe into Trump-appointed Social Security Inspector General Gail Ennis and her staff this week after reporting shined light on the massive fines they have imposed on poor people and people with disabilities, ostensibly in an effort to punish "fraud."

        The fines in question were levied as part of the Civil Monetary Penalty Program, an obscure anti-fraud initiative run by Ennis' office. Documents obtained by the Washington Post show that over a seven-month period ending in mid-2019, 83 people were charged a total of $11.5 million in penalties under Ennis' watch.

      • TruthOutLeaked Tapes Reveal GOP’s Plan to Train Right-Wing Operatives to Be Poll Workers
      • Counter PunchElection Gambit: Australia, Sri Lanka and Politicising Asylum

        When it comes to policy Down Under, the United Nations Refugee Convention is barely worth a mention.€  Politicians are proudly ignorant of it; the courts pay lip service to the idea while preferring rigid domestic interpretations of the Migration Act; and the United Nations is simply that foreign body which makes an occasional noise about such nasties as indefinite detention.

        It should therefore have come as no surprise that, in the dying days of the Morrison government, another chance to stir the electorate by demonising refugees arose – somewhat conveniently.€  As voters were, quite literally, heading to the polls, the commander of the Joint Agency Task Force Operation Sovereign Borders, Rear Admiral Justin Jones, revealed that a vessel had “been intercepted in a likely attempt to illegally enter Australia from Sri Lanka.”

      • TruthOutProgressive Jamie McLeod-Skinner Triumphs Over Big Pharma Ally Kurt Schrader
      • The NationBiden’s Executive Order on Police Reform Is Too Little, Too Late

        Last week, a day after local police in Texas threatened to Taser parents instead of going into Robb Elementary School to stop a mass murderer from killing their children, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on police reform. The order came two years after a police officer in Minnesota crushed the life out of George Floyd in broad daylight, and many months after Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema joined every Republican in the Senate to protect their precious filibuster and kill the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

      • The NationMAGAhead
      • Meduza'It’s lucky we managed to open up at all' Russia’s most audacious cultural project in recent years, GES-2, opened in Moscow last December. On February 24, its future was forever altered.

        Six months ago, GES-2, an arts and culture center housed in a decommissioned Moscow power station, opened on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Embankment. It was the brainchild of Leonid Mikhelson, one of Russia’s richest businessmen, and was initially headed by Italian curator Teresa Iarocci Mavica. The building, which was originally built in 1907, was reconstructed by influential architect Renzo Piano. In December 2021, after seven years of design and construction work followed by a private showing for Vladimir Putin, the center was officially opened to the public. GES-2 instantly became the center of Moscow’s cultural life — until Russia launched its war in Ukraine. Cut off from the West, the institution found itself in isolation, while its philosophy suddenly appeared incompatible with Russia's new reality. The staff, from curators to executives, began to resign. Ksenia Korobeynikova, an art critic and author of the Ku-ku Telegram channel, spoke to Meduza about the center’s uncertain prospects.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation

        • AxiosInfowars' bankruptcy law shell game

          Context: It’s not uncommon for companies to file for bankruptcy as a way to consolidate and settle onerous litigation damages (think Purdue Pharma’s opioid liabilities, and the wildfire-related claims against PG&E).

          Why it matters: Still, Infowars' April bankruptcy — filed by three corporate entities related to Jones and the publication — seeks to use a new section of the law in a way that could break through previously understood boundaries of what the bankruptcy code is intended to accomplish.

        • CISSARWar on Ukraine: Tackling disinformation

          Disinformation threatens democracy, security, social cohesion and public health worldwide. The ongoing war in Ukraine is the latest example of disinformation being weaponized to sow confusion and division both at home and abroad. Experts discuss the threat of disinformation to peace and democracy in Ukraine: [...]

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • MeduzaMeduza’s brief guide to accessing VPNs blocked by the Russian authorities

        On June 2, Russia’s censorship agency confirmed that it is working to block VPN services that allegedly “violate Russian law.” Given the high degree of Internet censorship in Russia today, many people rely on VPNs (virtual private networks) to circumvent online blocks. As of this writing, users in Russia are already reporting problems accessing several services, including ProtonVPN, Lantern, and Outline VPN.€ 

      • TechdirtLawsuit Alleges Massachusetts School Officials Violated First Amendment By Abusing State’s Wiretap Law

        An interesting case involving the First Amendment right to record is working its way through the federal court system. It involves a man who recorded his interactions with public school officials, posted that video to Facebook (along with his commentary), and was subsequently threatened with prosecution under Massachusetts’ oft-abused wiretap law.

      • BloombergTurkey’s Digital ‘Fake News’ Proposal Fuels Censorship Fears

        Turkey’s ruling party has sent to parliament a draft bill seeking prison terms of as much as three years for the spread of “disinformation” and “fake news” on digital platforms, a move government critics say would enable censorship and stifle dissent.

      • YLERussia blocks access to [YLE] websites

        Russia's federal communications supervision authority, Roskomnadzor, has blocked most [YLE] services in Russia. The yle.fi website appeared in Roskomnadzor's register of banned sites on Thursday. The decision to block the yle.fi domain was made by the office of the Prosecutor-General of Russia on 27 May.

      • RiskyBizRisky Biz News: Russia orders Google to remove Tor Browser from Russian Play Store

        Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecommunications watchdog, has ordered Google to remove the Tor Browser Android app from the Russian version of the Play Store, the agency said in a message posted on its official Telegram channel on Tuesday.

        The agency said that the Tor Browser allows users to access the Tor network, which it had previously ruled that it contains "content prohibited in Russia."

      • RFATiananmen massacre vigil organizer says Hongkongers 'refuse to forget' despite ban

        Chiu Yan-loy, a community officer in Hong Kong's Tsuen Wan district and former leading member of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, won't be lighting candles in Victoria Park this year. The once-annual vigil commemorating those who died at the hands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as it crushed a weeks-long peaceful protest on Beijing's Tiananmen Square has been effectively banned for the third year running. Chiu has already served eight months in prison for taking part in an unauthorized vigil in 2020. Instead, Hongkongers will be remembering the dead in private, amid a city-wide crackdown on public dissent under a draconian national security law.

      • RFERLHomes Of Moscow Anti-War Activists Searched Amid Crackdown

        Police in Moscow have searched the homes of several journalists and activists who have openly protested Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

        The June 2 searches were linked to a probe launched into the alleged distribution of false information about the use of Russia's armed forces for the war in Ukraine.

      • The GamerMagic: The Gathering Censors Demon Nipple In New Card

        Artist Sam White shared their original piece on Twitter, nipples and all. They followed up by noting that Wizards of the Coast censored the card itself. "Cant say im shocked tbh," White tweeted.

      • SCMPTencent restructures its news team as online censorship and competition with short video outfits such as Douyin grows in China

        Intensifying online censorship and mounting competition from Douyin and others have changed the newsroom’s focus

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • Sydney Morning HeraldPressure on Anthony Albanese to stick to his word on Julian Assange

        Government MP Julian Hill has urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to stick to his principles and encourage the United States to drop its extradition of Julian Assange.

      • Dawn MediaSpeech and censorship

        Pakistan’s ranking fell a further 12 places on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index released earlier this month. This has to be a point of introspection for Pakistanis, especially those who wield power in the civil-military bureaucracy as well as political leaders in the recent merry-go-round of governments.

      • CPJTaliban intelligence agents detain four media workers in Kabul, Herat, and Paktia provinces

        Taliban authorities must investigate the beating and detention of journalist Roman Karimi and the detention of his driver, who goes by the single name Samiullah, and immediately and unconditionally release radio station owner Jamaluddin Dildar and former radio station owner Mirza Hasani, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Business InsiderElon Musk said working from home during the pandemic 'tricked' people into thinking they don't need to work hard. He's dead wrong, economists say.

        provider NordVPN Teams suggested that in many economies, working from home meant people worked longer hours.

        Albrecht Ritschl, an professor of economic history, also said cutting out commuting was a bonus to worker productivity, and added that working from home led to fewer hours spent in "pointless meetings."

      • YLEIllegal sales calls made by robots still a problem, says consumer authority

        Sales calls made through automated calling systems, or "robocalls," are on the rise in Finland. However the recipients' consent is not always obtained even though this is required by law, according to the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority.

        In contrast to human telemarketers, non-human callers must obtain the recipient's consent before contacting them.

      • Counter PunchThe Culture Wars After Roe

        On a bitter cold day, the newly installed president held a signing ceremony for the new law in the White House Rose Garden.€  Literally freezing, Trump signed the bill into law before a large gathering of pro-life campaign supporters and leading Republican politicians as well as friends, family and major doners.€  Giant overhead heaters had been installed so that some of those attending were actually sweeting. Like a world-championship sporting event, the ever-attentive media carried the event live, including on TV, radio and innumerable streaming services.

        One commentator noted that Trump reminded him of former Pres. Ronald Reagan.€ “Reagan was dubbed the ‘Evangelist in Chief,’” recalled the reporter. “Like Reagan, Trump is the leader of the so-called ‘Christian Nation movement.’”[1] € Another excited journalist reminded her audience that some Republicans considered the new legislation “moderate” because it allows individual states to determine the degree of anti-abortion enforcement that would be maintained. “Some states adopted an absolutist approach, prohibiting all abortions under any circumstance,” she noted.€  “Others were more moderate, permitting abortions for medical reasons or due to rape, whether by a stranger or parent.”

      • TruthOutMost Americans Identify as "Pro-Choice" Ahead of Midterms, New Poll Finds
      • TechdirtProsecutors Lose Drug Conviction After Appeals Court Reminds Them They Can’t Ignore The Presumption Of Innocence

        There are several things prosecutors can’t do when handling criminal trials. They still do them, of course. They suborn perjury. They deny defendants access to exculpatory evidence. They present junk science as actual science. And, every so often, they ignore the presumption of evidence that’s supposed to be the foundation of the American justice system.

      • TechdirtDOJ Updates Force Policy, Creates Affirmative Duty To Intervene When Officers Violate Rights

        A little more than a week ago, the Department of Justice updated its policy regarding CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) prosecutions. For years, the DOJ had been complicit in the punishment of security researchers for doing their jobs, reasoning that unauthorized access was the only criminal element it needed to satisfy. The guidance — which had not been completely updated for years — reversed this course, affirmatively stating the DOJ would no longer seek prosecution of good faith security research efforts, making it a bit less dangerous to be a security researcher.

      • The NationHow We Brought Ethnic Studies to My High School

        Two summers ago, I was going through old binders when I came across a worksheet from my fifth-grade social studies unit on Christopher Columbus. A chart took up most of the page, dividing it into two sections: one for the pros and one for the cons of Columbus’s colonizing voyages. My thick, slanted, 10-year-old writing was clustered on the “cons” side, where I listed five negatives, including “Christopher Columbus put the Taínos into enslavement and if they could not give him gold they were executed.” I wrote just one positive: that “he discovered most of Central America,” which, of course, is not true.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Internet Society“Old Rules in New Regulations” – Why “Sender Pays” Is a Direct Threat to the Internet

        The basic idea of the Internet is a network of independent networks that interconnect to form a shared system of connectivity across all participants. This model has proven its value time and time again over the last decades, and most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic. The voluntary inter-networking arrangements allows network operators to optimize their connectivity with others to meet their customers’ needs. The result has been an efficient and resilient network that is able to evolve to host new applications (like voice calls or gaming), and to deploy innovative services at a global scale. And this happens without prior contracting with everyone in the system.

        It’s quite literally the result of the Internet “way of networking”.

      • Techdirt6G Hype Begins Despite Fact 5G Hasn’t Finished Disappointing Us Yet

        Fifth-generation wireless (5G) was supposed to change the world. According to carriers, not only was it supposed to bring about the “fourth industrial revolution,” it was supposed to revolutionize everything from smart cities to€ cancer treatment. Simultaneously, conspiracy theorists and internet imbeciles declared that 5G was responsible for everything from COVID-19 to€ your migraines.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Digital Music NewsSocial Messaging App TIYA Integrates Spotify Music Sharing

        TIYA is a subsidiary of LIZHI INC., which has created an audio-based social ecosystem like Clubhouse. The Spotify update enables TIYA users to listen to music or podcasts together in a room by sharing Spotify features between mobile devices in the app.

    • Monopolies

      • Counter PunchThe Invisible Power vs. The Invisible Hand

        Herein lies the real promise of wealth: that capitalism will make everything so cheap that material goods approach the cost of zero. Forbes describes this situation as “bad news.” The magazine of “affluent lifestyles,” Forbes argues, “If it costs less to produce goods, companies can make more of them for the same price. This can result in more supply than demand and lower prices.” Sounds like a disaster, doesn’t it?

        The only thing stopping capitalism from reaching this goal is capitalism. Successful corporations have taken over the mechanism of the state to gain unfair competitive advantage, which they use to suppress or eliminate competitors, including competition from their own employees and contractors for an equitable share of the revenue.

      • Common DreamsHouse Dems Say Amazon 'Obstructing' Probe of Warehouse Collapse That Killed Six

        A trio of Democrats from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday accused Amazon of "obstructing" its investigation into the December 2021 collapse of a warehouse in Illinois that killed six employees.

        "The committee's investigation is of crucial importance to the American people."

      • Copyrights

        • Deutsche WelleGermany: YouTube could be sued for failing to tackle illegal uploads, court rules

          While the BGH largely ruled in Peterson's favor, it didn't make a final decision on whether YouTube was liable. The matter will return to the Higher Regional Courts of Hamburg and Munich for re-examination considering the guidelines now provided.

        • Creative CommonsEpisode 35: Open Culture VOICES – Josée Plamondon

          Welcome to episode 35 of Open Culture VOICES! VOICES is a vlog series of short interviews with open GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) experts from around the world. The Open Culture Program at Creative Commons aims to promote better sharing of cultural heritage in GLAMs collections. With Open Culture VOICES, we’re thrilled to bring you various perspectives from dozens of experts speaking in many different languages on what it’s like to open up heritage content online. In this episode, we hear from librarian and digital information consultant, Josée Plamondon, from Québec, Canada. As a digital information consultant, Josée conducts diagnoses and proposes methods to improve the organization of information for digital environments, such as search engines, relational databases and semantic web.

        • Torrent FreakYouTube and Uploaded Could be Liable For Pirating Users, Court Rules

          Platforms such as YouTube and Uploaded could be directly liable for the copyright-infringing uploads of their users. The German Federal Court of Justice came to this conclusion based on advice from the EU's top court. Several liability lawsuits will now besent back to the lower court to decide whether damages are indeed warranted.

        • Torrent FreakShueisha & VIZ Media Target Massive Manga Piracy Site 'Manganato'

          Manga publishing giants Shueisha & VIZ Media are preparing legal action against two large manga piracy platforms. The primary target is Manganato.com, a massive site pulling in 167 million visits per month, more than The Pirate Bay and Fmovies combined. The second target, Manganelo.com, is a comparatively smaller player with 'just' 24 million visits per month.

        • TechdirtNintendo Does Another DMCA Blitz On YouTube Video Game Music Not Available Elsewhere

          Earlier this year, we discussed Nintendo — dubbed by me as “the Disney of video gaming” — having gone on a DMCA blitz on YouTube videos that are essentially just new and classic video game music. This has been something Nintendo has ramped up over the years, taking down 100 videos in 2019, more than that in 2020, and then over 1,300 in 2022. That last one mostly targeted a single YouTube account, that of GilvaSunner, who later shut down his account due to all this nonsense.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Another Dose of Fake 'Articles' About Linux
Don't give visibility to the nonsense of Microsoft
Synthesised Voices Aren't a New Technology (the Hype Might Be, They Call It "Hey Hi" Now)
I still consider this an extension of the "hey hi" (AI) hype
 
[Meme] Driver Issues
Where do you want to drive today?
The Problem Isn't That New Cars Use Electricity But That They Use Too Many Bits of Electronics
"...and proprietary software wrapped in proprietary APIs and protocols all without a modicum of compartmentalisation," an associate adds
We're Turning 18 in 30 Days
30 days from now the site turns 18
GNOME Foundation Says It's Nearly Broke (Again), It's Getting Rid of More People (Only Women Get the Boot), and It Will Improve Communications and Transparency Even Though It Secretly Ousts People From the GNOME Foundation Board (for Secret Reasons)
It only talks about this months later (under strict gag orders, only public shaming of a person)
Links 08/10/2024: Australian Fines for Twitter (X), Fake Patent Courts Still Not Scuttled
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Guilt by Association, Workers vs Owners
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: War Updates, Samsung's Layoffs, and Gemini
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: Microsoft Deleting Office Documents Instead of Saving Them, "Threads Still Sucks"
Links for the day
gemini.techrights.org and techrights.org (Same Server, Not the Same Protocol)
We're reminding readers that everything in this site is fully accessible via gemini.techrights.org in Gemini Protocol
X Has Axed Itself. This is Great News and Further Affirmation of Everything We've Said About Social Control Media.
Don't waste any more time on social control media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 07, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, October 07, 2024
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Contingency Begets Complexity, Playing With Bezier Curves
Links for the day
Almost Half the Web Users Connecting to Your Site Are Using Linux
almost 1 in 2 Web-connected devices runs Android and about 2% run "proper" GNU/Linux
The Web Has Severe Amnesia Problems, But We Still Remember How Gilberto Gil Promoted Free Software in Brazil
The Digital Tipping Point (DTP) is years behind us now
LLM Hype is Already Descending, Apple Stopped Investing in the Money Furnace
Wall Street is a perverse force in the technology market, incentivising the most harmful (and mostly useless) things
Change Control and What Will Come After Git (If That's Still Possible at All)
It would be wrong to believe (at least misguided) Git can be a "standard" skill 30 or 50 years from now.
On the Web, HTTPS Has Actually Become a Privacy Problem (Broadcasting Usage/Access to the All-Seeing CA Eye). Geminispace Doesn't Have This Problem.
Down to 23 capsules: the rapid demise of Certificate Authority (CA) Let's Encrypt in Geminispace
Links 07/10/2024: Politics, Education, Wars, Financial Crunch
Links for the day
Munich Was Having Real Difficulties Moving From GNU/Linux to Windows
How many are still using GNU/Linux?
Links 07/10/2024:China’s 'Deflation' (Price Decreases), Brazil Still Bars Twitter ("X")
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2024: "Creative Computing" Turns 50, Long War in Middle East Turns 1
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/10/2024: Luck and Dishonesty, Gaming Getting Worse
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 06, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, October 06, 2024
EPO: We Give Recognition to Frauds
Good to see some frank recognition right there in the EPO's own Web site
Even Though We Don't Focus on statCounter for Now (Not Our Top Priority) GNU/Linux Reaches New Highs This Month:
We caught GNU/Linux at 4.86% before, but only temporarily
Links 06/10/2024: Ham Radio for Recovery, Health Problems Worldwide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/10/2024: Special Interest Galore and Religion
Links for the day
Keeping Control Out of Dictators' Hands
When people are just "numbers"...
Links 06/10/2024: Misinformation Growing on the Web, "Hey Hi" Hype Waning for Lack of RoI
Links for the day
[Meme] Years Have Passed and EPO Management Still Isn't Obeying a Ruling From a Court Regarding Communications Between Staff
Representatives talking to their staff is "privacy violation"?
Presentations of the Staff Union of the European Patent Office in Its Headquarters Tomorrow After Work
Annual General Meeting and reports
Gemini Links 06/10/2024: SSH Keys and Hobby Game Development
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 05, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, October 05, 2024