Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 08/04/2023: ExTiX Deepin 23.4 and Moving from Rust to C++



  • GNU/Linux

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • IT TavernGetting started with nmap scripts

        This blog post will cover the general usage of nmap scripts, not the scripting itself. Check out the getting started with nmap post if you are new to nmap.

      • University of TorontoZFS On Linux (still) needs better ways to control the ZFS ARC

        The ZFS ARC is ZFS's version of a disk cache. For various reasons, ZFS on Linux keeps its ARC separate from the kernel's regular disk caches that are used for other filesystems, and ZFS tunes the ARC size and other parameters separately, instead of the whole thing being integrated into the kernel's general memory tuning.

      • Daniel MiesslerAI is the End of Tutorial Webpages

        Since 1999, most of my site traffic has been from technical tutorials. That’s going away.

        I’ve been writing technical tutorials for things like tcpdump, lsof, etc, for years. More broadly, I’ve been explaining technical topics in more approachable language.

      • OSTechNixHow To Manage Log Files Using Logrotate In Linux

        We already have published a guide that described how to setup centralized Rsyslog server on CentOS system. Today, in this guide, we are going to discuss what is Logrotate, how to install Logrotate and how to manage log files using Logrotate on Linux.

    • Games

      • Boiling SteamReviewing the Combined Top 5 Linux Gaming Predictions from 2022

        Every year we now have a traditions to gather predictions, to see if any of us in the Linux community have any idea where things may be going. We recently published the ones for the year 2023. Last year, we had numerous contributors and we compiled the Top 5 predictions based on the most common ones. In 2021, this approach worked great and most of the predictions were accurate. What about 2022? Did we do as well?

      • GamingOnLinuxThe Last of Us Part I got a juicy patch with Steam Deck improvements

        It's certainly no secret that The Last of Us Part I had a really bad launch overall and the developer is now trying to improve things. This new patch goes over crash bugs, does a little optimization of texture streaming to reduce CPU usage, some textures not rendering correctly was fixed and a whole lot more. So we're slowly getting closer to the state it should have released in.

      • GamingOnLinuxBattlestar Galactica Deadlock is free to keep this weekend

        If you enjoy strategy games, you don't want to miss the free giveaway of Battlestar Galactica Deadlock. The developer is currently giving it away to keep on Steam, with anyone able to claim a copy until April 9th, 9AM UTC.

      • GamingOnLinuxEVERSPACE 2 out now, devs focus on Proton for Linux - Steam Deck optimizations planned

        ROCKFISH Games have now launched EVERSPACE 2 and it looks awesome! One of their original Kickstarter promises did not make it though, with Native Linux support being cancelled as they will support it with Proton instead.

      • GamingOnLinuxReport: Steam Deck to pass 3 million sales during 2023

        A new report from Omdia currently doing the rounds is that the Steam Deck from Valve is set to hit 3 million sales during 2023.

      • TechdirtEverything Stadia Is Now Officially Dead, Project Head Exits Google

        It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Google’s Stadia product. What was originally billed as a forthcoming world class cloud video game streaming platform launched terribly, never gained much traction, and eventually was announced to be pivoting to serving as the backend platform for other companies that actually knew what the hell they were doing with game streaming. While most of Stadia and its team had been fully sunsetted, it was only a few weeks ago that Google finally gave up entirely and shut down its plans to be even a backend service for anyone else to use.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • Systemd 76COSMIC DE: First Spring Update!

        Ahh, spring. Sun is shining, birds are chirping, and COSMIC is blossoming into a beautiful desktop environment prototype. Carl (System76 CEO) is thoroughly enjoying daily driving it at work: “There’s nothing quite the same as feeling the design by using it daily.” It’s not quite ready yet for you or me, but Carl feels it’s close to being ready for the design team to use daily. For now, completed software pieces are being used alongside temporary engineering workarounds. Once those workarounds have been replaced by designed, implemented, and user-tested software, we’ll have an alpha release to play around in.

        That part is further away…but it’s exciting! Each month, more and more pieces are coming together for Pop!_OS’s new desktop environment. Read on to see what was added in March.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • New Releases

      • ExTiX Deepin 23.4 Live based on Deepin 23 Alpha 2 (latest) with Refracta Snapshot and kernel 6.3.0-rc4-amd64-exton :: Build 230403 |

        I’ve released a new version of ExTiX Deepin today (230403). This ExTiX Build is based on Deepin 23 Alpha 2 (latest version) released by Deepin Technology 230208. Please read the Release Notes… As you can see the developers urge people to try Deepin Alpha 2 in a non-production environment! I must say, though, that I haven’t discovered any “bugs”. And the installed programs won’t “crash” or anything like that. On the contrary ExTiX Deepin 23.4 with the Deepin DE 23 works pretty well I would say. I have nevertheless kept ExTiX 22.12 with Deepin 20.8 on the server. Deepin 20.8 is the stable version released 221208. ExTiX 23.4 uses kernel 6.3.0-rc4-amd64-exton. ExTiX 23.4 works in the same way as all other ExTiX versions. I.e. you can install it to hard drive while running the system live. Use Refracta Installer for that. You can also create your own live installable Deepin 23 system with Refracta Snapshot. (Using ExTiX 23.4 as a “base system”). So easy that a ten year old child can do it!

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • DebugPointXubuntu 23.04 "Lunar Lobster": Best New Features

        Xubuntu 23.04, based on the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster, is set to arrive on April 20, 2023. This latest release is built on the Linux Kernel 6.2, which brings the latest hardware, CPU, GPU, and file-system support.

        From revamped applets to a more powerful Thunar file manager, Xubuntu 23.04 offers numerous improvements and bug fixes for a more polished user experience via the "OG" of all Linux desktops - Xfce 4.18.

        Here's a roundup of the new features.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • HackadayPhotoplotting PCBs With A 3D Printer

        Do you ever wonder why your PCB maker uses Gerber files? It doesn’t have to do with baby food. Gerber was the company that introduced photoplotting. Early machines used a xenon bulb to project shapes from an aperture to plot on a piece of film. You can then use that film for photolithography which has a lot of uses, including making printed circuit boards. [Wil Straver] decided to make his own photoplotter using a 3D printer in two dimensions and a UV LED. You can see the results in the video below.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • SequoiaPGPBranching Out: `sq` Grows a Certificate Store, and More Convenient Trust Management

      Now that sq supports a certificate store, it is possible to import certificates, and then designate them by fingerprint or key ID: [...]

    • AdafruitRaspberry Pi rolls out a code editor for young people #PiDay #RaspberryPi @Raspberry_Pi

      Raspberry Pi is building a new online text-based Code Editor to help young people aged 7 and older learn to write code. It’s free and designed for young people who attend Code Clubs and CoderDojos, students in schools, and learners at home.

    • Tom's HardwareRaspberry Pi Launches Online Code Editor to Help Kids Learn

      The Raspberry Pi Code Editor, which is considered to be in beta, is available to everyone for free right now at editor.raspberrypi.org (opens in new tab). The editor is currently designed to work with Python only, but the organization says that support for other languages such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS is coming.

    • Ciprian Dorin CraciunMy biases when choosing open-source tools

      I reflect on my preferences when it comes to choosing open-source tools I need to rely upon.

    • Terence EdenSIP on Android - Sipgate and Linphone

      Three years ago, I wrote about how you could add SIP calls to Android for free. Android had a well-integrated system which made VoIP calling a first-class citizen on its handsets.

      Sadly, Google killed native SIP calling in Android 12. FFS!

      It's relatively easy to get it set up again, although you'll need to install a separate app.

    • Nzyme.orgDevelopment Update 001

      A key design objective was minimizing the overhead of operating multiple nodes. Consequently, I devised the cluster model with genuinely independent nodes, allowing any request to be sent to any node at any time. No designated “leader” node exists, and no calls must be made to specific instances. This adaptability lets you spin nodes up or down as required.

    • JoinupThüringen continues its support for open source alternatives Permalink

      The free state of Thuringia has already shown its support for open source projects. One example is by the creation of its open source award in 2019, winners of which include edu sharing, in.RET and IG Papiergraben. Another example is the state’s parliament’s adoption of a rule on public procurement, also in 2019, which defined open source as “software solutions whose source code is publicly accessible and whose licences do not restrict their use, distribution, and modification.” In the Thuringian Public Procurement Act (Thüringer Vergabegesetz), a preference has been given to open source software when technically possible and economical.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • Is your Postgres ready for production?

        You've been building your application for months, you've tested with beta users, you've gotten feedback and iterated. You've gone through your launch checklist, email beta users, publish the blog post, post to hacker news and hope the comments are friendly. But is your database ready for whatever may come on launch day or even 2 months in? Here's a handy checklist to make sure you're not caught flat footed.

    • Education

      • AdafruitFree Python book updated to second edition #Books #Python

        Think Python is an introduction to Python programming for beginners. It starts with basic concepts of programming; it is carefully designed to define all terms when they are first used and to develop each new concept in a logical progression. Larger pieces, like recursion and object-oriented programming, are divided into a sequence of smaller steps and introduced over the course of several chapters.

      • Green Tea PressThink Python 2e

        This is the second edition of Think Python, which uses Python 3. If you are using Python 2, you might want to use the first edition, which is here.

    • Licensing / Legal

    • Programming/Development

      • Moving from Rust to C++

        I’ve been involved in Rust and the Rust community for many years now. Much of my work has been related to creating infrastructure for building GUI toolkits in Rust. However, I have found my frustrations with the language growing, and pine for the stable, mature foundation provided by C++.

        [...]

        I’ll close with some thoughts on community. I try not to spend a lot of time on social media, but I hear that the Rust community can be extremely imperious, constantly demanding that projects be rewritten in Rust, and denigrating all other programming languages.

      • ACMCatch-23: The New C Standard Sets the World on Fire

        A new major revision of the C language standard, C23, is due out this year. We'll tour the highs and lows of the latest draft9 and then drill down on the mother of all breaking changes. Sidebars celebrate C idioms and undefined behavior with code and song, respectively.

      • Own Your Work

        One of the easiest ways to start sharing your work in the form of writing, designs, or photographs is by using the latest trendy platform in that space, especially when everyone else seems to be using it.

        How many Blogspot sites are you checking these days? They still work, but Google has killed one or two services, so who knows for how long?

        Medium was great for publishing content, but it doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

        Nowadays, many people start a Substack newsletter if they want to share content and monetize it too, but will it be around in five or ten years? What will happen with your content and your audience if they’re not?

        Imagine a billionaire buying one of the main social media services and some things not going as expected. What would happen with all the effort you’ve put into it that brought your followers and your content?

      • Slint 1.0: The Next-Generation Native GUI Toolkit Matures



        We're thrilled to announce version 1.0 of Slint, a comprehensive toolkit to build native user interfaces for desktop and embedded devices, implemented in Rust. This is a major milestone, the result of three years of work by 50 contributors. Compared to the previous release, version 1.0 introduces only minor API cleanups and bug fixes. For full details refer to the ChangeLog.

        Development of Slint (initially known as "SixtyFPS") started in May 2020 to address the needs of modern user interface (UI) development. Having worked tirelessly to build and refine it, we're proud to have reached the stage where paying customers and open-source users are selecting Slint over other UI toolkits to build their applications. The 1.x series signifies that Slint has now graduated out from "development mode" and is ready to be used in production projects.

      • Better ProgrammingGraphQL: From Excitement to Deception

        Are you wondering if you should use GraphQL in your project? Do your developers fight over arguments like “GraphQL is the future” and “REST is just simpler”? I had endless discussions with my team that I will summarize here.

      • An On-Ramp to Flow

        Millions of words have been written on the value of “flow” to engineers and other knowledge workers - a kind of work where you are able to hold multiple complex and abstract concepts in your head simultaneously and quickly make progress towards a goal. Over the course of a work week, it’s not surprising to find that a huge amount of the “work that gets done” happens within a few short bursts of time, a couple of hours at most, when builders are able to reach and stay in flow.

      • Python SpeedPolars for initial data analysis, Polars for production

        In this article we’ll use both two APIs and see how Polars lets you transition from looking at the data to something we can run even more efficiently in production.

      • Pipes-and-Filters

        The Pipes-and-Filters architecture pattern describes the structure of systems that process data streams.

      • Uwe FriedrichsenLet's (not) break up the monolith - Part 1

        Well, let us look at these two responses and see if microservices will help them to solve the aforementioned issues. As this post would be very long as a single post, I decided to split it up in two posts. This post will discuss the first response. The next post (link will follow) will discuss the second response and sum it all up.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Chrome ships WebGPU

        The Chrome team is thrilled to announce that WebGPU is now available by default in Chrome 113, which is currently in the Beta channel. WebGPU is a new web graphics API that offers significant benefits such as greatly reduced JavaScript workload for the same graphics and more than three times improvements in machine learning model inferences. This is possible due to more flexible GPU programming and access to advanced capabilities that WebGL does not provide.

  • Leftovers

    • TechdirtMetadud: Just 4% Of U.S. Teens Use VR Daily, 7% Plan To Buy A Headset Anytime Soon

      Despite several years of blistering hype about the rise of the “Metaverse” (read: Facebook’s clumsy attempt to dominate a market simply by rebranding video games, AR, and VR as…something else), new data from Piper Sandler indicates that there’s little real interest among younger Americans.

    • Jacob Kaplan MossFollow-ups to “Incompetent but Nice”

      I think this framing is terrifically important. Starting from the point of view that this is probably a management failure – rather than something inherent to the person – correctly puts the onus on the manager for letting someone get into a situation like this. Sure, there are situations where there’s not much the manager could have done, but those are rare.

    • The NationStop Gatekeeping Architecture

      A long time ago, way before I became an architecture critic, I was a person who looked at buildings. It never occurred to me that this was something one could do for a living. I grew up in a small town before the omnipresence of cell phones, meaning that if I was bored and didn’t have a book in hand, I had no choice but to gaze out at the world and occupy my time thinking about it. I believe that children are naturally attracted to buildings because they offer imaginative potential. Who lives in that house? Why do they live there? Why does the house look like that? Do poor people or rich people live there?



    • Education

      • Sumana HarihareswaraTeaching, Entitlement, And The Verb "Need"

        "Hey, Sumana," you may be asking. "If you avoid using the word 'need' because you think that it's a magic override kind of word, and then when other people say they 'need' something you jump to fulfill those needs, doesn't that lead to a kind of unhealthy imbalance where you have a hard time expressing your own needs and getting them met, while also getting accidentally tangled up when other people use 'need' a lot more loosely than you?"

    • Hardware

      • HackadaySpice Up The Humble 16×2 LCD With Big Digits

        The 16×2 LCD display is a classic in the microcontroller world, and for good reason. Add a couple of wires, download a library, mash out a few lines of code, and your project has a user interface. A utilitarian and somewhat boring UI, though, and one that can be hard to read at a distance. So why not spice it up with these large-type custom fonts?

      • HackadayHackaday Podcast 213: Not Your Grandfather’s Grandfather Clock, The Engineering Behind Art, Hydrogen Powered Flight

        Join Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they review some of their favorite hacks and projects of the past week. The episode starts with a discussion about the recently announced Artemis II crew, and how their mission compares to the Apollo program of the 1960s and 70s.

      • HackadayString Operations The Hard(ware) Way

        One of the interesting features of the 8086 back in 1978 was the provision for “string” instructions. These took the form of prefixes that would repeat the next instruction a certain number of times. The next instruction was meant to be one of a few string instructions that operated on memory regions and updated pointers to the memory region with each repeated operation. [Ken Shirriff] examines the 8086 die up close and personal to explain how the 8086 microcode pulled this off and it is a great read, as usual.

      • HackadayShare Your Projects: Take Pictures

        Information is diesel for a hacker’s engine, and it’s fascinating how much can happen when you share what you’re working on. It could be a pretty simple journey – say, you record a video showing you fixing your broken headphones, highlighting a particular trick that works well for you. Someone will see it as an entire collection of information – “if my headphones are broken, the process of fixing them looks like this, and these are the tools I might need”. For a newcomer, you might be leading them to an eye-opening discovery – “if my headphones are broken, it is possible to fix them”.

      • Ruben SchadeAftermarket Commodore power supplies

        There are a bunch of aftermarket manufacturers, but the two most commonly seen by retrocomputer bloggers and video creators are Electroware (centre) and Keelog (right). To the left is an original “brick of death” from my Commodore 64C that got so hot and smelly after plugging it in, I haven’t dared touch it since: [..]

      • Vice Media GroupThieves Cut Through Coffee Shop Wall to Pull Off $500,000 Apple Store Heist

        When Apple store employees came into work the next morning, they saw that “an entire wall of iPhones (approximately 436) were gone,” according to Lynnwood Police, plus other merchandise like Apple Watches. According to police, they stole $500,000 worth of merchandise in total.

        The suspects managed to cut the hole without hitting any plumbing, and entered the Apple side through its back room. Mike Atkinson, CEO of Seattle Coffee Gear, tweeted a photo of the damage, showing the square hole right next to the toilet where the thieves crawled through.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • FAIRTrump’s Idling Plane Got More TV Coverage Than Biden Cutting Healthcare for 15 Million

        One analysis from Media Matters (4/3/23) found that over an hour-and-a-half period before Trump’s arraignment, CNN aired 48 minutes of B-roll of the idling Trump plane and motorcade, along with shots of Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. MSNBC aired 66 minutes of similar footage. As Media Matters noted, this kind of coverage is similar to when networks regularly aired footage of Trump’s empty podiums (FAIR.org, 3/16/16).

        The reader can decide what’s more important: A Democratic administration taking healthcare from 15 million, or a con-man war criminal being indicted for some of the least important of his crimes.

      • Scheerpost15 Million in the US to be Kicked Off of Public Health Benefits

        Millions are to lose Medicaid/CHIP benefits in the coming months as pre-pandemic income eligibility restrictions have returned.

      • Common DreamsBiden Just Took the First Step to Overhaul Medicare Advantage. Many More Must Be Taken

        The corporations that run Medicare Advantage plans are engaged in widespread waste, fraud and abuse, resulting in tens of billions of dollars of overpayments to them every year. The advocates and government agencies overseeing Medicare Advantage have spent nearly two decades reporting on this fraud and waste and urging Congress to overhaul the program. Few in Congress or the administration were listening. Now, the Biden administration is finally taking action, but it’s only a first step.

      • Taiwan NewsTaiwan uses drones to fight lychee pests

        Both lychee and longan fruit trees flower in April, which also corresponds with the spawning period for a major fruit tree pest, the lychee stink bug.

        Changhua County took extra precautions this year, using drones to release parastitic wasps (Anastatus fulloi), which are a natural nemesis of lychee stink bugs, according to LTN. Boxes of these wasps were transported by drone to hard to reach areas to engage in natural biological control.

    • Proprietary

      • India TimesConversational AI to become a part of Google search, says CEO Sundar Pichai: WSJ report

        This is where it went wrong as the first pictures of exoplanets were taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2004, as confirmed by NASA. This led to a massive rout in the share prices of its parent Alphabet, which lost $100 billion in market cap.

        Further, Pichai’s comments indicate that Google plans to allow users to interact directly with the company’s LLMs via its search engine — a move that would upend the traditional link-based experience.

      • TechdirtElon Musk Blocks Likes And Replies To Tweets That Link To Substack In A Pique Of Pettiness

        Poor Matt Taibbi. He destroyed his credibility to take on the Twitter Files, and did so in part to raise the profile of his Substack site, Racket News. Indeed, Substack has become a home for nonsense peddlers of all kinds to create their own little bubbles of nonsense. In congressional testimony, Taibbi admitted that having Elon Musk hand pick him to deliver the “Twitter Files” has increased the number of paying subscribers to his Substack (though he defended it by claiming that the money has all gone towards journalism).

      • Vice Media GroupTwitter Breaks Substack Links For Some Reason

        In the absence of an explanation from Musk or one of the Salacious B. Crumb-type minions with which he surrounds himself, this can only be presumed to be either another of the countless technical errors that have plagued the site since Musk fired most of its staff or an attempt to get attention for his struggling site, which has seen ad spending, which accounts for the vast majority of the company’s revenue, drop by at least 70% since his takeover last year.

      • TechdirtMehdi Hasan Dismantles The Entire Foundation Of The Twitter Files As Matt Taibbi Stumbles To Defend It

        So here’s the deal. If you think the Twitter Files are still something legit or telling or powerful, watch this 30 minute interview that Mehdi Hasan did with Matt Taibbi (at Taibbi’s own demand):

      • Safari releases are development hell - Ashley's blog

        Safari 16.4 rolled out last week, and for us it's been a nightmare. We make the browser-based game creation app Construct. Early versions of Safari 16.4 broke opening projects, previewing projects, and all existing content published with Construct, all in different ways. I wanted to share our experience so customers, developers, regulators, and Apple themselves can see what we go through with what is supposed to be a routine Safari release.

        Most browsers provide pre-release versions for early testing. For example Chrome Canary and Firefox Nightly update daily, and there's also less frequent dev and beta releases. Apple provide Safari Technology Preview (STP), but it's only for macOS, and does not update to any public schedule. It seems to be about once every 2 weeks. Pre-release browsers are usually pretty rocky with obvious issues that get sorted out soon enough. However when things start making their way to beta, it's time to look more closely. So when Safari 16.4 beta 1 was announced on February 16th (also not to any public schedule), we started taking a closer look - and there were a lot of problems.

      • Layoffs are ramping up among hospitals and health systems. Here are 34 examples from 2023

        Layoff announcements have increased this year as hospitals and health systems limp out of a financially devastating 2022.

      • Make Use Of5 Ways the Rising Costs of Games Are Affecting the Industry

        However, 343 Industries were hit hard by layoffs at Microsoft, so Microsoft may have been unhappy with Halo Infinite despite its monetization. But this does highlight rising costs as having a curious effect on the industry: pushing developers to incorporate profitable monetization regardless of the potential damage to the game itself.

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • CBCWhy regulators in Canada and Italy are digging into ChatGPT's use of personal information

          As governments rush to address concerns about the rapidly-advancing generative artificial intelligence industry, experts in the field say greater oversight is needed over what data is used to train the systems.

          Earlier this month, Italy's data protection agency launched a probe of OpenAI and temporarily banned ChatGPT, their AI-powered chatbot. On Tuesday, Canada's privacy commissioner also announced an investigation of OpenAI. Both agencies cited concerns around data privacy.

        • NL TimesCourt orders software supplier to provide more information on massive data leak

          The reason for the lawsuit was a hack in Nebu’s computer systems last month. The personal data of possibly several million Netherlands residents leaked. Blauw wants more information about what exactly happened, how big the data leak was, and what the consequences are.

          According to Blauw, the information that Nebu has provided so far is entirely insufficient. The court shares that view. “In the agreement between both parties, Nebu is obliged to inform Blauw about incidents related to the processing of personal data and to follow Blauw’s instructions in such a case. In the opinion of the preliminary relief judge, Blauw’s right of instruction and Nebu’s obligation to comply must be interpreted broadly.”

        • NDTVTikTok Hit With Nearly $16 Million Fine In UK For Misusing Children's Personal Data

          A spokesperson for TikTok told CNN that the company "invest[s] heavily to help keep under 13s off the platform" and that it disagreed with the ICO's decision.

        • TechdirtIndian Government Looking To Buy NSO-Esque Malware, But Not From NSO

          When NSO Group began making the wrong kind of headlines all over the world, suddenly lots of governments began at least feigning an interest in caring about what third-party tools their intelligence and security agencies were using to conduct surveillance.

        • TechdirtHow Reckless Cops Relying On Questionable Facial Recognition Tech Can Destroy Lives

          The use of facial recognition far outpaces its proven track record. Prone to false positives and negatives, especially when it comes to anyone else but white males, the tech continues to make inroads with the law enforcement community which has never seen a black man it can’t prosecute for crimes he didn’t commit.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Insight HungaryBiden urges Hungary to welcome Sweden to NATO without delay

        U.S. President Joe Biden€ issued a statement welcoming Finland’s accession to NATO, stressing that it was " the fastest€ ratification process in NATO’s modern history". In the same statement, Biden urged Hungary and Turkey to Sweden to "conclude Sweden's NATO ratification processes without delay".

        Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán formally asked MEPs to support Finnish and Swedish accession at an off-site meeting of the Fidesz parliamentary group in Balatonfüred at the end of February. However, Gergely Gulyas, Orban's chief of staff pointed out that Sweden's involvement in an EU lawsuit against Hungary "does not help" the ratification process.€ 

      • The NationPreparing for War in the South China Sea

        “Imagine you have a visitor who comes into your house,” Corazon Valdez Fabros said over Zoom from Quezon City in the Philippines. “You welcome this visitor. But this is a visitor who has all the guns, all the materials, that basically you cannot object to because they are fully loaded. And you cannot even tell this visitor to get out of your house when you want them to get out.” This article is a joint publication of The Nation and Workday Magazine, a nonprofit newsroom devoted to holding the powerful accountable through the perspective of workers.

      • Mexico News Daily2023-04-06 [Older] National Guard deployed to reinforce security at tourist destinations
      • Counter Punch2023-04-06 [Older] War Criminals and Military Aggressors Who Occupy Seats in the Security Council
      • Atlantic Council2023-04-04 [Older] Atlantic Council convenes formalized task force focused on Black Sea security
      • NL Times2023-04-03 [Older] Cabinet presents new national security strategy for entire Dutch kingdom
      • New York TimesUkraine War Plans Leak Prompts Pentagon Investigation

        Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive against Russia were posted this week on social media channels, senior Biden administration officials said.

      • NPRTop-secret Pentagon documents on Ukraine war appear on social media

        "We are aware of the reports of social media posts and the department is reviewing the matter," said Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

        The documents include maps of Ukraine and charts on where troops are concentrated and what kinds of weapons are available to them. The online posts show photos of physical documents that were folded and creased in some instances.

      • Scoop News GroupWhat we know about Russian [crackers] — and how to stop them — after a year of cyberwar in Ukraine

        Following the retreat of Russian troops from Kyiv, we started detecting an increasing number of attacks aimed at gathering information for espionage purposes. Russian military hackers are interested in any information they think can help Russia win this war. They prioritize quiet and long-term campaigns allowing them to stay inside systems and to maintain access data for as long as possible. This distinguishes them from so-called Russian “hacktivists” whose primary goal is informational impact, so they promptly disclose details of their attacks.

      • India TimesSenior Twitter lawyer resigns, the latest in a series of executive departures

        The lawyer, Christian Dowell, rose to the top of Twitter's legal department in recent months after the company's legal leaders resigned or were fired by Musk. Dowell had been intimately involved in Twitter's recent negotiations with the Federal Trade Commission, two people familiar with those discussions said.

      • VOA NewsPast, Present and Future

        Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has made its mark worldwide, funding projects as far-flung as power plants in Ecuador and high-speed rail in Laos. But exactly what is the Belt and Road Initiative?

      • Democracy NowPalestinian Poet Mohammed El-Kurd on Israeli Apartheid, Growing Tension in Region & Raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque

        Israel has bombed southern Lebanon and Gaza as tension soars in the region days after Israeli police repeatedly attacked Palestinian worshipers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem. In response to the raids on the mosque, militants in southern Lebanon and Gaza fired dozens of rockets into Israel. It was the largest rocket attack from Lebanon in 17 years. Meanwhile, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a vehicle near an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday, killing two Israeli settlers. This all comes as Israel continues to impose a violent crackdown in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has killed at least 94 Palestinians so far this year. Israel’s raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan have sparked international condemnation. For more, we speak with Mohammed El-Kurd, the Palestine correspondent for The Nation, who is from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem and says the escalating violence in Palestine cannot be separated from “the larger settler-colonial enterprise” of the decades-old Israeli occupation.

      • Common DreamsFears of 'Serious Escalation' Grow as Israel Bombs Lebanon and Gaza

        Fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East mounted Friday after Israel bombed Lebanon and the occupied Gaza Strip in the early hours of the morning, an assault that followed two consecutive nights of violent raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

      • MeduzaArmed man tries to enter Russian Defense Ministry building in Moscow — Meduza

        A man armed with a pistol tried to get into the Russian Defense Ministry’s building in central Moscow, according to the state news agency TASS and the Telegram channels Shot and 112.

      • ScheerpostAfrica ‘All Out,’ 54-0, Against Joining Biden’s Proxy War on Russia

        When President Biden announced sanctions against Russia over their February, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he called it a battle of democracy over tyranny. He expected Africa to rally to the US lead. Unsurprisingly, not one of Africa’s 54 countries as joined US sanctions against Russia. Many are neutral; some even […]

      • MeduzaPrigozhin blames St. Petersburg Governor Beglov for ‘irrecoverable losses of cultural heritage,’ instigates negligence case — Meduza

        Evgeny Prigozhin, founder of the mercenary Wagner Group, has returned to his rivalry with the St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov, head of the St. Petersburg municipality.

      • MeduzaJournalists confirm the deaths of nearly 20,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine — Meduza

        Journalists with Mediazona and BBC News Russian, working alongside a team of volunteers, have identified 19,688 Russian military service members killed during Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine.

      • ScheerpostAs Congress Considers Prolonging Cuba’s Designation as a Terrorism Supporter, Biden Dithers

        Although Cuba’s Revolution survived military invasion, guerrilla actions, terrorist attacks, and bacteriologic warfare, enough was not enough. Now there are pay-offs to dissidents, manipulation of worldwide media coverage, and weaponization of social media capabilities. The U.S. economic and financial blockade persists, after 60 years, and will continue. That’s mostly because […]

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • SalonJudge says Murdoch can be forced to testify — experts say he may spill Fox secrets out in the open

        "But one of the interesting things here, that Dominion has been doing, is fighting its case in the court of public opinion and so the Murdoch piece of the case is part of them litigating the case in the court of public opinion," Lidsky said.

      • Vice Media GroupTexas School Performs Worst-Ever Redaction of a Public Record

        Unfortunately for them, the names of the 10 students using the browser with a built-in VPN are easily readable, because for as much effort as the redactor expended covering these names up, they used a very light-colored marker. In an attempt to get the general impression across, a Motherboard staff artist has recreated the document, altering the names of all people and institutions involved partly to protect their privacy and partly to throw rival reporters suddenly inspired to see what kind of poorly-redacted documents they might be able to get from this school off the trail while we ourselves see what we can get: [...]

    • Environment

      • Common DreamsThe Willow Project Was a Key Climate Test. And Joe Biden Failed It.

        President Joe Biden’s recent approval of the Willow Project in Alaska has alarmed many young people and once again made us question his seriousness about addressing the climate crisis before it is too late.

      • Mexico News DailyMichoacán environmental activist found dead

        An Indigenous environmental and lands rights activist has been murdered in the state of Michoacán, less than three months after the disappearance of two other local activists.

      • The NationColombia Adopts an Unprecedented Energy Policy—but Needs Help to Pull It Off

        Gustavo Petro doesn’t just want to transform his own country; he wants to change the world. The new leader of Colombia, who took office last August, is targeting what he calls his nation’s “economy of death.” That means pivoting away from oil, natural gas, coal, and narcotics toward more sustainable economic activities. Given that oil and coal make up half his country’s exports—and Colombia is the world’s leading cocaine producer—that’s not going to be easy.

      • Common DreamsPotent Heat-Trapping Methane Emissions Saw 4th-Largest Annual Increase in 2022: Report

        Driven primarily by human activities including fossil fuel extraction, methane levels in the atmosphere had their fourth-largest annual increase in 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday.

      • Energy/Transportation

        • MeduzaRussia’s crypto mining capacity second only to U.S. — Meduza

          Judging by the first quarter of 2023, Russia is now second only to the U.S. in terms of its crypto mining capacity. The Russian business publication Kommersant reported the market change, citing the data center operator BitRiver.

        • Common DreamsThe Last Thing the Railway Industry Needs Is Another Giant Merger

          On March 15th, the Surface Transportation Board (STB)—the federal agency that regulates the U.S. freight rail industry—gave final approval to the acquisition of Kansas City Southern by Canadian Pacific. Approving this merger between America's sixth- and seventh-largest railroads was a dire mistake, which will have enormous economic and social costs that resound for decades.

        • The EconomistAmerica’s chance to become a clean-energy superpower

          A report by Climate Power, an advocacy group, found that over 100,000 new jobs were announced in 31 states between the passage of the IRA and the end of January, with the lion’s share of the 90-plus clean-energy projects in conservative states. Georgia, hardly a liberal stronghold, came top with over $15bn in investment. Bryan Fisher of RMI, a clean-energy non-profit, estimates that more than 75 decarbonisation projects worth $1bn or more are under development in deep-red Texas and Louisiana thanks to BIL and IRA inducements. ExxonMobil, once a highly climate-sceptical company, is now heading a $100bn project for CCS along the Gulf of Mexico.

          America’s new approach to energy rightly tackles the climate externality previously neglected by federal policy while mostly leaving the picking of specific technology winners to the private sector. Thanks to the insistence of Senator Ron Wyden, a wonkish Democrat from Oregon, the tax credits for clean power will shift to a technology-neutral approach. A geothermal entrepreneur gushes that his hitherto-overlooked technology will finally get a fair chance. As Mr Wyden explains: “This ties together markets with choice and competition…the more you reduce carbon emissions, the more tax credits you earn.”

        • HackadayRiding The Rails By Ebike

          As most developed countries around the world continue to modernize their transportation infrastructure with passenger rail, countries in North America have been abandoning railroads for over a century now, assuming that just one more lane will finally solve their traffic problems. Essentially the only upside to the abandonment of railroads has been that it’s possible to build some unique vehicles to explore these tracks and the beautiful yet desolate areas they reach, and [Cam Engineering] is using an ebike to do that along the coast of central California.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • HackadayThe Sounds Emitted By Plants Are Real But They Are Still Not Talking

          A recent paper published by researchers at the university of Tel Aviv in Cell on the sounds they captured from ‘stressed’ plants had parts of the internet abuzz with what this meant, with some suggesting that this was an early April Fools prank. The fun part here is the news item is not that plants make noise, but rather that this was the first time (apparently) that the noise made by plants was captured by microphones placed at some distance from a variety of plants.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • The NationPerp Time
      • Common Dreams'Oh, Please': Critics Scoff at Clarence Thomas' Defense of Secret Luxury Trips

        Under fire after reporting offered a detailed look at his decades of billionaire-funded luxury vacations, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas claimed Friday that he was "advised" by colleagues not to report personal hospitality gifts from friends, a story that drew immediate derision from lawmakers and legal analysts.

      • Pro PublicaClarence Thomas Defends Undisclosed Trips. Here Are the Facts.

        In a rare public statement, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas responded Friday to a ProPublica report that revealed that Thomas has, for decades, accepted luxury travel from billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and failed to disclose it.

        Thomas’ brief statement acknowledges joining Crow and his wife, who he described as among his “dearest friends,” on “a number of family trips” over the years. He also defended his failure to disclose them.

      • Democracy NowShould Clarence Thomas Be Impeached? GOP Megadonor Gave Justice Free Luxury Vacations for 20 Years

        Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report frequent luxury trips paid for by a billionaire Republican megadonor named Harlan Crow, leading to renewed calls for the conservative jurist’s impeachment. According to ProPublica, Thomas has for decades accepted flights on Crow’s private jet, trips on his yacht and frequent stays at his exclusive lakeside resort, in apparent violation of a law requiring justices and other federal officials to disclose most gifts. “Justice Thomas has this extraordinary and apparently unprecedented relationship with this outside billionaire who is basically subsidizing his life,” says ProPublica reporter Justin Elliott. Thomas has previously come under scrutiny for conflicts of interest after he refused to recuse himself from cases about Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, even as his wife, Ginni, was pressuring officials to ensure Donald Trump’s victory.

      • Common DreamsWe Are 'Just Beginning,' Tennessee GOP Boasts in Fundraiser After Expelling Democrats

        The Tennessee Republican Party waited less than 24 hours to start fundraising off the expulsion of two progressive lawmakers from the state House—openly bragging Friday about what critics have called a blatantly anti-democratic move that shows the party's growing authoritarianism.

      • Common Dreams'Fascism, Full Stop': Progressives in Congress Condemn Expulsion of Tennessee Democrats

        "This is fascism," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). "Expelling your political opponents for demanding action on gun violence when children are dying is disgusting."

      • Common DreamsJones Says He Will Fight 'Unconstitutional' Expulsion as Reinstatement Votes Loom

        Former Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones said Friday that he intends to challenge his expulsion in the courts and at the ballot box amid uncertainty about the path ahead for him and fellow removed Rep. Justin Pearson, whose decision to stand in solidarity with constituents protesting the scourge of gun violence drew national attention and praise.

      • Common DreamsTennessee GOP Show That Revenge Is Fascism's First Instinct

        Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives are furious and out for revenge. Two Black Democratic members and a Democratic woman had confronted them — and embarrassed them — over their unwillingness to do anything about the slaughter of Tennessee’s children in that state’s schools.

      • Democracy Now“A Public Lynching”: Justin Jones, Black Tennessee Lawmaker, Responds to Expulsion from State House

        We speak with Justin Jones, one of two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by a Republican supermajority in the Tennessee state House of Representatives Thursday for peacefully protesting gun violence in the chamber last week as thousands rallied at the Capitol to demand gun control after the Covenant elementary school shooting in Nashville. A vote to expel their white colleague who joined them in solidarity failed. “They thought by expelling us they would silence us, they would silence our movements that we’re part of, but in fact they’ve amplified it, because the nation can see how racist they are. The nation can see how retaliatory and absurd and authoritarian they are,” says Jones.

      • The NationTennessee Goddamn
      • The NationTrump’s Indictment Is Not “Selective Prosecution”

        With news network helicopters hovering overhead, Trump’s motorcade made its way south through Manhattan on Monday, toward his long-awaited arrest and arraignment. Trump was, however begrudgingly, arriving in court to surrender himself to the judicial process and to hear details of the 34 felony counts that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was charging him with. Ever the self-promoter, Trump has seized the moment and refashioned himself as the outlaw ex-and-maybe-future president, the gangster folk hero, the desperado taking on the maleficent forces of the overweening state, the revolutionary so fearsome that the state has to resort to a show trial to shut him up.

      • Scheerpost5 Other Modern Presidents Who Should Have Been Indicted for Their Crimes

        Seeing Trump arraigned in New York on Tuesday was satisfying even if the outcome of the trial cannot be foreseen and he has a presumption of innocence. There is obviously evidence that he falsified his business records for the purpose of hiding material facts […]

      • The NationRobert F. Kennedy Jr. Bets on New Hampshire to Boost a Very Unlikely Presidential Bid

        The Kennedy name may not be so politically potent as it once was. But it still resonates in some Democratic circles, especially in northern New England, where a 1960 New Hampshire primary win set Massachusetts Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s course to win his party’s nomination and the presidency. Sixty-three years after that historic win, JFK’s most prominent, and most controversial, nephew is counting on New Hampshire Democrats to boost an unlikely bid by the latest in a long line of Kennedys to seek the nation’s highest office.1

      • The NationThe Tennessee GOP’s Shameful Expulsion of 2 Black Legislators

        In a juster, saner world, a Google search for the term “racist show trial” would promptly yield footage of the despicable vote in the GOP-led Tennessee legislature to expel two Black members for the offense of doing their jobs: using their position to advocate for desperately needed gun-control legislation. Justin Jones, a representative from Nashville, and his Memphis colleague Justin Pearson both helped escort a group of high school protesters into the state capitol last Thursday to demand action on gun control in the wake of the horrific killing of six people at a Nashville private school. Both men went to the “well” of the legislative chamber—the spot on the floor where lawmakers typically address the assembly—and helped lead chants of protest. At times, they each spoke through a megaphone. The crowd stayed briefly, and peacefully dispersed.

      • Pro PublicaIRS Strategic Plan Vows to Amp Up Audits of the Rich

        Flush with $80 billion in new funding, the IRS is aiming to ramp up audits of wealthy taxpayers and large corporations, according to a strategic operating plan it released Thursday. The 150-page plan also includes a lengthy list of proposed changes intended to improve customer service, upgrade the agency’s notoriously outdated computer systems, boost hiring and even “explore making it easier” to file tax returns directly with the IRS for free.

      • NDTVTwitter Verified Unfollows All Accounts Amid Confusion Over Blue Check

        Twitter's revoking of legacy verified accounts might finally be getting underway as it has begun a mass unfollowing and now follows 'no one.'

        On the 'Twitter Verified' account, the following has hit the rock bottom as it has reached 'Zero.'

      • NDTVUS Big Tech Companies Struggle To Reduce Headcount In Europe. Here's Why

        Both in France and Germany, where labor laws are among the strongest in the EU, Google is currently in negotiations with works councils - company-specific groups whose elected employee representatives negotiate with management about workforce issues, according to a person familiar with the matter. By law, companies are required to bargain with these councils before implementing layoffs - a sometimes lengthy process that includes information gathering, negotiations and the possibility of recourse.

      • The HinduTwitter takes down post on Home Minister globally

        In an apparent first, Twitter appears to have withheld a tweet globally in response to a “legal demand” in India. Journalist and Right to Information (RTI) activist Saurav Das posted a screenshot of two past tweets, one of which appears to quote Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, with a message from the social media platform stating that the content has been “withheld in Worldwide”.

        This is significant as Twitter has usually restricted access to posts following government requests only in the territory where such content is demanded to be blocked. The only instances where content has also been taken down globally is when it also violates Twitter’s own Terms of Service.

      • BIA Net'We cut the internet during the earthquake, because...'

        Two days after the devastating earthquakes, authorities restricted the bandwidth of Twitter for nearly an entire day. The restriction was lifted after widespread criticism that Twitter had an important role in rescue efforts.

      • CNBCLawmakers meet with Apple, Disney CEOs as part of talks on competition with China

        High-profile tech and media executives shared their experiences of working in and competing with China with lawmakers who visited California this week.

        Over the three-day trip that kicked off on Wednesday, lawmakers were scheduled to meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as high-level executives from Google, Microsoft, Palantir and Scale AI.

      • MeduzaFormer presidential candidate Valery Tsepkalo tried in absentia and sentenced to 17 years in Belarus — Meduza

        The Belarusian politician Valery Tsepkalo (also spelled “Tsapkala”) has been sentenced to 17 years in a high-security penal colony. A Minsk court tried him in absentia.

      • The NationDemocrats Can Win on Trans Issues—but Only if They Fight

        In his campaign to become a Supreme Court Justice in Wisconsin, Daniel Kelly relied heavily on transphobia, accusing his rival, Janet Protasiewicz, of being a hostage to “trans ideology.” Such attacks have become the norm among Republican candidates, especially since 2022, when targeting care for trans kids and the participation of trans people in sports became staple culture-war issues. One text message Kelly’s campaign sent to voters on election day read: Politicians are ignoring parents and jeopardizing the safety of our children. Woke activists backing Janet Protasiewicz are destroying parents rights and forcing trans ideology into our schools. She will do nothing to stop the sexualization of our children. Today, vote for Judge Daniel Kelly to end the trans madness in our schools and protect parents rights!

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • France24Ukraine debates ways to prevent military leaks after 'secret plan' ends up online

          Reuters was not immediately able to review the leaked documents. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

          Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters earlier that the document leak looked like a Russian disinformation operation to sow doubts about the counter-offensive.

          He said the leaked data contained a “very large amount of fictitious information” and that Russia appeared to be trying to seize back the initiative in its invasion, now in its 14th month.

        • The Gray ZoneLeaked documents expose US-NATO Ukraine war plans
        • ABCUkraine, North Korea and Iran included in leaked documents online

          Those postings of what appeared to be U.S. military documents triggered a Pentagon review into how the documents ended up on the [Internet].

        • NBCThe Pentagon is reviewing the alleged leak of classified U.S. documents about Ukraine’s war effort and military strength

          The documents, posted in recent days as photos on Twitter and Telegram, outline Ukraine’s military strength, the state of the conflict, casualty figures and the burn rate for HIMARS long-range rocket systems. Some of them carry a March 1 date.

          “We are aware of the reports of social media posts, and the Department is reviewing the matter,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in an email, without elaborating.

        • QuartzTwitter labeled NPR a “state-affiliated media” despite its guidelines clearly stating otherwise

          NPR is the second US media organization whose credibility has been targeted by Twitter. The New York Times’ main Twitter account lost its verified badge on Sunday (Apr. 2). According to the Washington Post, the decision came directly from Musk, after he learned the publication had no intention of paying to retain the golden tick that had recently been assigned to accounts belonging to organizations.

        • NPRElon Musk says NPR's 'state-affiliated media' label might not have been accurate

          "The operating principle at new Twitter is simply fair and equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as govt, then we should do the same for US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate here," he wrote.

        • GannettChatGPT falsely accused me of sexually harassing my students. Can we really trust AI?

          AI promises to expand such abuses exponentially. Most critics work off biased or partisan accounts rather than original sources. When they see any story that advances their narrative, they do not inquire further.

          b What is most striking is that this false accusation was not just generated by AI but ostebnsibly based on a Post article that never existed.

        • RTL'Infecting minds': US book sent to teachers seeks to sow climate doubt

          From crops to corals, a book circulated by a controversial US think tank is riddled with misleading claims about established climate science, in what campaigners slam as a bid to "infect" young minds.

          The free-market Heartland Institute drew outrage from campaigners and educators, but applause from climate skeptics, when it sent the book to more than 8,000 American school teachers this year "to present facts" it said were ignored or distorted by pundits and the media.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • EFFDecoding the U.N. Cybercrime Treaty

        Given that existing cybercrime laws are, as stated by the U.N.General Assembly, “in some instances misused to target human rights defenders” and “endanger their safety in a manner contrary to international law,” these widened parameters amplify the potential implications for billions of people—particularly stifling free speech, increasing government surveillance, and expanding state investigative techniques.

      • EFFUN Cybercrime Draft Treaty Timeline

        October 2017 The Russian Federation presents a letter to the UN General Assembly containing a draft of the United Nations Convention on Cooperation in Combating Cybercrime, intended for circulation to Member States.€ 

        November 2019 A resolution, sponsored by Russia—along with Belarus, Cambodia, China, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria, and Venezuela—to set up an international convention to combat cybercrime passes in the UN General Assembly. The resolution was opposed by the US, the EU, and other nations. Human rights organizations, including the Association for Progressive Communications and EFF, urged the General Assembly to vote against the resolution, citing concerns that it “could undermine the use of the internet to exercise human rights and facilitate social and economic development.”€ 

        December 2019 The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution to create an Ad Hoc Committee (AHC) to draft a UN Convention “on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes.” Participation in the AHC is open to all Member States of the world, as well as non-member state observers (like the EU and the Council of Europe), civil society, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to varying degrees. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), through the Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking Branch, Division for Treaty Affairs, serves as Secretariat for the Ad Hoc Committee. However, the timing of this effort was controversial, as another UN General Assembly Resolution had raised concerns that cybercrime laws “are in some instances misused to target human rights defenders or have hindered their work and endangered their safety in a manner contrary to international law.”

      • The NationTheir Loved Ones Were Killed by Police. Why Are Officers Still Harassing Them?

        Los Angeles, Calif.—Standing near a memorial for her son, at the site where he was killed in 2019, Leah Rea is still distraught.

        “She acts like she’s better than us when she drives by.”

      • Pro PublicaPolice Step in When Foster Kids Break Down in NM Homeless Shelters

        Near the pumps of a gas station in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a teenager in foster care sat in the back of a squad car, sobbing and gasping for air. Her hands were cuffed and her legs were bound in a “wrap restraint” to prevent her from thrashing about. A protective foam helmet covered her head.

        The police had been called to find her after she ran away from a nearby youth homeless shelter, where she had been placed by the state child welfare agency.

      • Hong Kong Free Press2023-04-07 Who was ‘affected’ by Hong Kong’s national security law? More than 30 of us, Mr Lam
      • Hong Kong Free Press2023-04-06 [Older] Man arrested by Hong Kong national security police for allegedly assisting fraud group linked to ‘extremist gang’
      • Hong Kong Free Press2023-04-04 [Older] Rallies must not harm national security or public safety, Hong Kong’s John Lee says
      • NPRFeds barged into the wrong hotel room during a drill, then detained the guest inside

        The man had been asleep in his room at the Revere Hotel when agents began banging on his door and demanding to be let in, according to WBZ-TV. It says the agents handcuffed the man, put him in the shower and interrogated him for more than 45 minutes before they realized their mistake, uncuffed him and apologized.

      • The AtlanticThe Poisonous Atmosphere That Pervades Iran

        The government’s double-talk planted confusion among the public and suggested that there was no consensus among officials. Such contradiction—one official offering an explanation, only to be undermined by another—is characteristic of Tehran’s damage-control tactics. At times, an impression of division can reflect real tensions within the ruling elites. At others, it can be fabricated to project a false sense of behind-the-scenes competition between hawks and doves, as if the elites were somehow responsive to public opinion.

      • Democracy for the Arab World NowAre Mass School Poisonings in Iran Trying to Stamp Out Girls' Education?

        The first person arrested in connection with the poisonings was not a suspected perpetrator but a journalist who reported on the attacks: Ali Pourtabatabaei, the editor of a local news website who covered the targeting of schools in Qom. He was taken into custody on the morning of March 5. An official reason was not given for his arrest, but it is widely speculated that the authorities detained him for his role in breaking the story of the first school poisonings in Qom, Iran's religious center, which is home to half of the country's Shia's clerics. His arrest was a testimony to the fact that the Islamic Republic perceives the news of the crisis as the real concern, rather than the crisis itself.

      • ScheerpostIran 1953: The Birthplace of Western Backed Coups

        Despite its unique circumstance and history, the Iranian coup in 1953—as explored by Taghi Amirani in his film Coup 53—proved to be a template for the West’s exploitation of the world.

      • The NationCaitlin Clark’s Lesson for White Athletes: Don’t Be a MAGA Pawn

        In a less-sexist version of this country, we would all be talking about the number 9.9 million. That was the size of the television and streaming audience watching the NCAA Women’s Basketball Finals between Iowa and victorious LSU. It was 12.6 million at its peak—that’s more than watched the World Series. One wonders if in the wildest dreams of Lusia Harris and Nancy Lieberman, they ever saw a day when the game they made would be relished by so many. And yet in these ailing United States, the commentariat has spent days—in highly overheated fashion—debating whether LSU star Angel Reese, a Black woman, should have made a “you can’t see me” gesture to Iowa’s galactically talented guard Caitlin Clark, who is white, as the fourth-quarter clock wound down. The gesture is one Clark has made famous in hoops circles by using in previous games.

      • The NationThe End of Business Unionism at the United Auto Workers—and Beyond?

        The Stellantis Belvidere Assembly Plant built its last Jeep Cherokee in February. The company’s decision to indefinitely idle the Illinois plant came in December, bringing an end to the slow bleed of over 5000 jobs over the past five years. The 25,000-person town of Belvidere was struggling already from the secondary effects of the plant’s downsizing, but this latest blow threatened to be the final nail in the coffin for what remains of the local economy. The members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1268 might have reasonably given up on their union. After all, the UAW had been in talks with Stellantis just months earlier, discussing whether the plant would be transitioned to electric vehicle production, and took no action when the company announced its verdict.

    • Monopolies

      • Trademarks

        • Digital Music NewsJazz Trumpeter Takes on Apple Music’s Trademark Overreach — And Wins in US Appeals Court

          The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit allowed trumpeter Charlie Bertini to block Apple’s bid for a federal Apple Music trademark covering live performances, arguing that the name would cause confusion with his “Apple Jazz” branding he has used since 1985.

          The court rejected Apple’s argument that it had priority over Bertini’s trademark rights based on its ownership of a trademark through the Beatles’ music label Apple Corps Ltd.

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakTPB Founders Are Not Involved in the "The Pirate Bay" TV Series

          The six-part "The Pirate Bay" series will start filming this fall, a year later than expected. The production is in the hands of B-Reel Films, a renowned studio with offices in Sweden and L.A., and the 'rights' for the project are already being sold globally. The Pirate Bay's founders won't see a penny and inform us that they are not in any way involved.

        • Torrent Freak60-Year-Old Music Pirate Faces Prison in a Country Part-Run By Pirates

          A 60-year-old man is facing a potential two-year prison sentence for placing 1,000 music albums on a server open to the public. While not extraordinary in itself, the man is from the Czech Republic, where Pirate Party politicians are part of the coalition government. The same Pirate Party previously ran at least three pirate sites, and a court even declared the most recent one legal.

        • Walled CultureSomebody wants to copyright a rhythm – get ready for the dembow tax if they succeed

          One of the most pernicious effects of today’s copyright maximalism is the idea that every element of a creative work has to be owned by someone, and protected against “unauthorised” – that is, unpaid – use by other artists. That goes against several thousand years of human creativity, which only exists thanks to successive generations of artists using and building on our cultural heritage. The ownership model of art is essentially selfish: it seeks to maximise the financial gains of one creator, at the expense of the entire culture of which they are part. A good example of this clash of interests can be seen in yet another lawsuit in the music industry. This time, somebody is trying to copyright a rhythm: [...]

        • IP Kat2023-04-03 [Guest Post] Nigerian's new Copyright Act 2022: how libraries can benefit
        • If we lose the Internet Archive, we’re screwed

          If you’ve ever researched anything online, you’ve probably used the Internet Archive (IA). The IA, founded in 1996 by librarian and engineer Brewster Kahle, describes itself as “a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.” Their annals include 37 million books, many of which are old tomes that aren’t commercially available. It has classic films, plenty of podcasts and — via its Wayback Machine — just about every deleted webpage ever.

          Four corporate publishers have a big problem with this, so they’ve sued the Internet Archive. In Hatchette v. Internet Archive, the Hachette Publishing Group, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Wiley have alleged that the IA is committing copyright infringement. Now a federal judge has ruled in the publishers’ favor. The IA is appealing the decision.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • The Practiced Art of Idling

        I first got into MUDs in 1995 or 96. Finding an article on them in Internet World magazine, I used my friend's older brother's university shell account to telnet in. And the first two I tried were very different. The first was FurryMUCK, and I used it for a bit before realizing that people were very into their fursonas and all the roleplaying meant something more to them than me. And the second was Dark Castle, a DikuMUD that in retrospect represented everything I now dislike in an online game: open PK, clans that demanded you treat your char like a second job, a mostly-absent group of imms (immortals, admins). But it also had, now lost to the web, an incredible starting guide put together by a more design- and high-minded player. It was a website that was half story, half tutorial. I fell in love, decided I'd keep at it. I even wrote and maintained a newbie guide of my own, and uploaded it to my ISP website. It probably got zero hits. Search sucked in those days, and nobody outside of my high school knew about my home page. I was the only MUDder. But I made it with love and I was proud of it. For all the usual reasons, I can't link it here.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



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IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 22, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 22, 2024
Gemini Links 23/11/2024: 150 Day Streak in Duolingo and ICBMs
Links for the day
Links 22/11/2024: Dynamic Pricing Practice and Monopoly Abuses
Links for the day
Topics We Lacked Time to Cover
Due to a Microsoft event (an annual malware fest for lobbying and marketing purposes) there was also a lot of Microsoft propaganda
Microsofters Try to Defund the Free Software Foundation (by Attacking Its Founder This Week) and They Tell People to Instead Give Money to Microsoft Front Groups
Microsoft people try to outspend their critics and harass them
[Meme] EPO for the Kids' Future (or Lack of It)
Patents can last two decades and grow with (or catch up with) the kids
EPO Education: Workers Resort to Legal Actions (Many Cases) Against the Administration
At the moment the casualties of EPO corruption include the EPO's own staff
Gemini Links 22/11/2024: ChromeOS, Search Engines, Regular Expressions
Links for the day
This Month is the 11th Month of This Year With Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (So Far It's Happening Every Month This Year, More Announced Hours Ago)
Now they even admit it
Links 22/11/2024: Software Patents Squashed, Russia Starts Using ICBMs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 21, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 21, 2024