Brent dives deep into Nextcloud's new release from inside their offices, and takes an unexpected dip in the local lake with a listener.
We wanted to let you know we postponed the recording of episode 19 due to a family emergency.
We’re thinking April 10th for the new release date, but can’t say that with absolute certainty.
If anything changes, we’ll update you again. In the mean time, we’ll publish a bit of the Shorts backlog and poke around the community a bit. So, hang tight! â¤ï¸ÂðŸâ¢Â
Memory
I got a report recently that Dota2 was using too much memory on RADV. Host memory, that is, not GPU. So how does one profile Dota2 memory usage?
On Linux, the ideal tool for memory profiling is massif. But does a flawless, unparalleled game like Dota2 run under massif?
Sort of maybe almost but not really.
And it’s not the best way to do it anyway since, for profiling, the ideal scenario is to run a static test. Thus, gfxreconstruct is the best way to test things here. Simply
VK_INSTANCE_LAYERS=VK_LAYER_LUNARG_gfxreconstructin your ultra secret Source Engine debug console and let it run.Then queue up a replay under massif and find something else to do for the next half hour since it’s not exactly a speedy process.
It Bad
A couple of days ago I upgraded my home server from Debian/Bullseye to Debian/Testing (soon to be Bookworm). Since then KDE sessions on that system have had problems of locking the input queue, the mouse can move and mouse-over events work but clicking the mouse or pressing the keyboard does nothing. Various web pages suggested that the xdotool program (in the xdotool package in Debian) can address this. The problem is apparently programs “grabbing” the input and not letting it go.
The command “xdotool key XF86LogGrabInfo” causes the xorg server to dump information on it’s “grabs”. After running that command I looked in /var/log/Xorg.0.log and found that active grabs were only held by /usr/bin/kwin_x11 and /usr/bin/kglobalaccel5. So it seems like a KDE issue. Other systems running X11 with Debian/Testing (such as the laptop I’m using to write this blog post) don’t have the problem, so it could be something related to the KDE configuration of the account used on that system.
The command “xdotool key XF86Ungrab” is supposed to break out of such a grab, but for me didn’t do so.
On the same system running KDE with Wayland works fine in this regard. Does Wayland do things differently and not allow this “grabbing” to block everything? Does KDE have an X11 specific bug? Is there a race condition that just gets triggered by the speed of Xorg on that system but not by the slightly different timings of Wayland? I might never find out.
I previously wrote about problems with Wayland/KDE on laptops [1]. Fortunately this bug happened to occur on a server so inability to reconfigure monitors isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, although being unable to use some of the high-DPI settings for the 4K monitor it has may be an issue. It will be really annoying if some of the laptop configurations I support get this grabbing problem. But since that time I have learned of the kscreen-doctor command which is included in Debian/Testing and can do some of the necessary things, it doesn’t have a man page so you have to run “kscreen-doctor -h” for documentation.
Version 3.2 of QSoas is out ! It is mostly a bug-fix release, fixing the computation mistake found in the eecr-relay wave shape fit, see the correction to our initial article in JACS. We strongly encourage all the users of the eecr-relay wave shape fit to upgrade, and, unfortunately, refit previously fitted data as the results might change. The other wave shape fits are not affected by the issue.
New features
Ventoy, which is a utility designed to create bootable USB, among others, has received its latest update earlier today. The new release improves Fedora performance, adds 1100+ ISO support, and more.
The popular Alacritty terminal emulator got a new release few days ago. Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu Linux. Alacritty is a free open-source GPU-accelerated terminal emulator written in Rust programming language. It features Vi mode motion and selection via keyboard, Vi search/normal search, hints, etc.
The $PATH variable is an essential part of Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It contains a list of folders with different executables on the system and advises the shell where to search for these programs.
Recently I have been interested in Alpine Linux and thought it would be nice to maintain some Rust packages in their repositories.
With sysupgrade you can perform a full NetBSD upgrade without breaking your system.
sysupgrade has a set of subcommands and each subcommand executes a specific step within the upgrade process, the auto subcommand performs a full upgrade by calling the rest of the subcommand in a specified order.
Tmux is a powerful tool for managing terminal sessions, and it can also be used with multiple users for real-time collaboration. However, setting up shared sessions and ensuring proper permissions and security can be challenging. In this guide, we will provide you with a comprehensive overview of how to use Tmux with multiple users, from setting up shared sessions to configuring permissions and security.
As an Ubuntu user, it's important to have a good understanding of your system's hardware and software specifications. This information can be helpful when troubleshooting issues, optimizing performance, or planning upgrades. In this article, we will share some tips and tricks for checking Ubuntu system information quickly and easily.
Learn how to manage your Tmux plugins like a pro with Tmux Plugin Manager (TPM). Our comprehensive guide will walk you through the installation and usage of TPM, helping you optimize your Tmux environment for maximum productivity.
In this easy-to-follow guide, we will cover how to customize the Pop!_OS desktop to make it your own. From changing the wallpaper and theme to adding applets and extensions, we will walk you through the process step-by-step. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced Linux user, this guide will provide you with the knowledge and skills to create a desktop environment that fits your needs and preferences.
H2Database (or simply H2) is an open-source, lightweight, and fast relational database management system written in Java. It is a pure Java database that can be used as an embedded database, or as a standalone database server.
In this tutorial, we will show you the ultimate guide to understanding UFW Logs. As a system administrator, it is crucial to know the status of your network's security at all times.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to install NumPy on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, NumPy is a popular Python library for scientific computing that adds support for large, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices.
A DMG is a type of image file developed by Apple to distribute software for macOS. The format also serves as a way for Mac users to compress and archive their files. Since macOS and Linux have some similarities under the hood, it may be possible to mount and even run some macOS apps on Linux.
If you are using Ubuntu and have a DMG file you want to open, the easiest way would be to convert the DMG to an ISO file. This way you can mount the file just like any other ISO file in Ubuntu.
Rancher Desktop is a free and open-source tool that is built on top of Docker Dekstop, which provides a GUI to manage Docker Images. We can create a virtual machine to run containerd or dockerd and Kubernetes using it.
KTorrent is a GNU General Public Licensed BitTorrent client for the KDE desktop environment on Linux and other Unix-like systems including Ubuntu.
Redmine is a free and open-source project management software and issue-tracking tool. It is written using the Ruby on Rails framework and can be integrated with various version control systems. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Redmine on a Debian 11 server.
re you a new Linux user trying to familiarize yourself with the system? Or are you a system administrator looking to manage users on your Linux server?
We're happy to announce the new release 5.10.0 of KPhotoAlbum, the KDE photo management program!
The ChangeLog for this version is as follows...
The fifth RC build of the 13.2-RELEASE release cycle is now available.
Please note that this is arriving unusually soon after 13.2-RC4; this extra release candidate was added in order to fix one more bug, but is expected to be the final release candidate before 13.2-RELEASE.
Installation images are available for:
o 13.2-RC5 amd64 GENERIC o 13.2-RC5 i386 GENERIC o 13.2-RC5 powerpc GENERIC o 13.2-RC5 powerpc64 GENERIC64 o 13.2-RC5 powerpc64le GENERIC64LE o 13.2-RC5 powerpcspe MPC85XXSPE o 13.2-RC5 armv6 RPI-B o 13.2-RC5 armv7 GENERICSD o 13.2-RC5 aarch64 GENERIC o 13.2-RC5 aarch64 RPI o 13.2-RC5 aarch64 PINE64 o 13.2-RC5 aarch64 PINE64-LTS o 13.2-RC5 aarch64 PINEBOOK o 13.2-RC5 aarch64 ROCK64 o 13.2-RC5 aarch64 ROCKPRO64 o 13.2-RC5 riscv64 GENERIC o 13.2-RC5 riscv64 GENERICSD
Note regarding arm SD card images: For convenience for those without console access to the system, a freebsd user with a password of freebsd is available by default for ssh(1) access. Additionally, the root user password is set to root. It is strongly recommended to change the password for both users after gaining access to the system.
Installer images and memory stick images are available here:
https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/
The image checksums follow at the end of this e-mail.
If you notice problems you can report them through the Bugzilla PR system or on the -stable mailing list.
If you would like to use Git to do a source based update of an existing system, use the "releng/13.2" branch.
A summary of changes since 13.2-RC4 includes:
o A fix to TCP checksum calculation on unmapped mbufs; in particular, this fixes a problem in sendfile(2).
A list of changes since 13.1 is available in the releng/13.2 release notes:
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/13.2R/relnotes/
SUSE One Partner Program Receives 5-star rating by CRN Partner Program Guide for third year€ SUSE has been recognized by CRN€®, with a prestigious 5-star rating in its 2023 Partner Program Guide, for the third year running, in recognition of our SUSE One Partner Program.€
SUSE steps up its focus around data protection and trust with a strong commitment to preserving data integrity from core to cloud to edge.€ SUSE is happy to announce we have joined Linux Foundation’s Confidential Computing Consortium...
The Beta version of our Immutable HostOS Leap Micro 5.4 is now available. The update brings SELinux in enforcing mode by default as well as tuned. Leap Micro is not a traditional distribution, but rather a lightweight HostOS for running virtual machines and containerized workloads.
Leap Micro is an openSUSE equivalent of SUSE’s SLE Micro.
In this article, I would like to show you how it can be practically used to enhance your daily ad-free experience at home. I was able to replicate the entire setup in the VM, including downloading the image, in under 15 minutes.
My personal use case for Leap Micro is to have as much ad-free browsing as possible, DNS entries for local services, and a Nextcloud instance as a bridge to share pictures and videos in between my wife’s iPhone, kids tablet and my Android phone.
openSUSE is doing well: downloads are increasing, and a new version of the stable-release-cycle openSUSE, Leap 15.5, is coming soon.
According to a tweet from the openSUSE project, it has seen sharp increases in its downloads recently. If you want to drill down a little, download statistics are available.
We can only speculate as to why there's been an uptick. Perhaps it reflects Ubuntu users' dissatisfaction with the increased focus on Snap in the distro, including the Snap-packaged Firefox. It may also be a continuing slow exodus of Red Hat users disenchanted by the termination of CentOS Linux, but looking for another stable, RPM-based distro.
For now, this doesn't seem to have hurt Red Hat's bottom line. The company is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. SUSE passed the same milestone slightly earlier, in September last year, as noted by departing CEO Melissa Di Donato.
The openSUSE project also recently released a beta version of the next release of its stable-release distro, openSUSE Leap 15.5. This is a relatively modest step over the existing version 15.4, as you might expect from an enterprise distro, but desktop users get to enjoy new features all the same.
Flatpak has been updated to 1.15.4. Yes, you can install flatpaks on PCLinuxOS. Snaps are not supported due to its dependency on systemd which we do not want or need. Flatpak is installable from the PCLinuxOS software repository.
Automate container and pod deployments with Podman and Ansible
Fedora test days are events where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed to Fedora before, this is a perfect way to get started.
There are five upcoming test days in the next two weeks covering three topics:
- Tues 28 March through Sunday 02 April, is to test the Fedora CoreOS.
- Wed March 28th through March 31st, is to test the Upgrade
- Monday April 03 through April 07 , is to test Fedora IoT .
Come and test with us to make Fedora 38 even better. Read more below on how to do it.
Fedora 38 CoreOS Test Week
The Fedora 38 CoreOS Test Week focuses on testing FCOS based on Fedora 38. The FCOS next stream is already rebased on Fedora 38 content, which will be coming soon to testing and stable. To prepare for the content being promoted to other streams the Fedora CoreOS and QA teams have organized test days on Tues, March 28, 2023 (results accepted through Sun , November 12). Refer to the wiki page for links to the test cases and materials you’ll need to participate. The FCOS and QA team will meet and communicate with the community sync on a Google Meet at the beginning of test week and async over multiple matrix/element channels. Read more about them in this announcement.
Am I alone?
Am I unreasonable?
I’m not sure, but I am highly caffeinated — massive props to all the wonderful folks who buy me a coffee (it really does get spent on coffee) — and I haven’t written anything for about 5 days.
Which is almost as long as my shutdowns seem to take…
Created and maintained by members of the Linux community, Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix is an Ubuntu derivative that features the modern Cinnamon desktop environment developed by the Linux Mint team. Cinnamon Remix aims to offer a traditional approach to the modern Linux desktop.
The Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix maintainers have applied for official Ubuntu flavor status several times in the past, but only now Canonical has decided to welcome it to the family of Ubuntu flavors starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 (Lunar Lobster) release, due out on April 20th, 2023.
Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 780 for the week of March 19 – 25, 2023. The full version of this issue is available here.
ELECFREAKS Wukong 2040 is a multifunctional breakout board designed for Raspberry Pi Pico. It is equipped with interfaces for four DC motors, up to twelve servos, a buzzer, A\B buttons, RGB “rainbow” lights, a Reset button, etc… The board can be powered by a single 18650 3.7V LiPo battery and integrates a power management IC that monitors the battery level and can also charge the battery via a USB charger. Battery life is typically 60 minutes per charge but can last over 120 minutes depending on the load.
Avnet RASynBoard is a tiny board that packs a lot of features in a 30x25mm form factor with a Renesas RA6M4 Cortex-M33 microcontroller, a Syntiant NDP120 Neural Decision Processor, a Renesas (Previously Dialog Semi) DA16600 Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 5.1 combo module, and a 6-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) and digital microphone from TDK. The RASynBoard is offered as part of an EVK with the Core Board described above plus an IO board with headers, a Pmod connector, a MikroE Shuttle Click header, a microSD card slot for storage, and a built-in debugger, plus two buttons and an RGB LED.
The great thing about having a 3D printer and open source CAD software is the ability to make accomplishing projects easier. In short, I had some electrical conduit to run and I wanted to mount it along a steel structural I-beam in CubicleLabs.
Ildar Rakhmatulin's PiEEG project is a brain-control interface HAT for the Raspberry Pi, which uses bio signals to control your projects.
In celebration of the tenth running of the Hackaday Prize, we had a fantastic weekend event in Berlin. This was a great opportunity for all of the European Hackaday community to get together for a few days of great talks, fun show-and-tells, and above all good old fashioned sitting together and brainstorming. Of course there was the badge, and the location – a gigantic hackerspace in Berlin called MotionLab – even had a monstrous laser-eye octopus suspended from a gantry overhead. Everyone who came brought something to share or to show. You couldn’t ask for more.
On March 31, Twitter is set to open source its recommendation algorithm. Until then, someone on a more urgent timeline has published Twitter code in public. A GitHub repo containing Twitter's "proprietary source code"was taken down by Twitter last Friday. TorrentFreak can confirm that Twitter is taking legal action to identify the leaker.
Twitter sent a copyright notice to code hosting service GitHub to request the removal of a repository that contained Twitter source code.
We want you to be among the first to know about the return of one of Public Knowledge’s signature events: Emerging Tech. Emerging Tech 2023 will take place on Monday, May 22 at Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC.
Anton Antonov published an introduction to their new DSL::FiniteStateMachines module, a work in progress since at least 2022! It also facilitates the conversion to Mathematica / Wolfram Language and Mermaid JS.
Optimizing compilers seek try to push as much of the computation as possible at compile time.€ In modern C++, you can declare a function as ‘constexpr’, meaning that you state explicitly that the function may be executed at compile time.
It’s no secret that Tech has faced some setbacks lately, namely on the headcount front. Despite these uncertainties, Collabora has had the privilege of increasing our roster with new teammates.
To perform Element Wise Multiplication in Numpy, use the multiply() method and pass in the arrays to be multiplied. Alternatively, use the “*” operator.
Use the isnumeric() method or the isdigit() method to check if the string is a number or not. Alternatively, use type conversion inside exception handling.
The json.dumps() is used to convert a Python List into a JSON string. The List variable can contain integers, strings, dictionaries, or even lists.
To check if the provided number is prime, the “sympy.isprime()” method, the “while” loop, and the user-defined function can be used.
The where() method of the Numpy library package is used to apply a condition on every list item and then perform an action depending upon the result.
Too many years ago, I started (but did not finish) a series of blog posts on the topic of Imaging Optical Media. I was writing it as I was figuring out the process to use whilst importing my own piles of home-made CD-Rs and DVD-Rs to a more suitable storage.
Back in 2018 Antoine Beaupré blogged about being inspired by my article series to sort out his optical media collection, and wrote up his notes so far.
When it comes to placing a project underwater, the easy way out is to just stick it in some sort of waterproof container, cover it with hot glue, and call it a day. But when you need to keep water out for several years, things get significantly harder. Luckily, [Patricia Beddows] and [Edward Mallon] from the Cave Pearl Project have written up their years of experience waterproofing data loggers for long-term deployment, making the process easier for the rest of us.
James Kibbie, professor of organ at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, will perform the last of 18 concerts featuring all 281 solo organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach on April 16 at Hill Auditorium.
We’ve uploaded everything anyone has ever known onto a worldwide network of machines. What if it doesn’t have all the answers?
Something doesn't add up!
A world unlike any we've ever seen.
It had to start somewhere.
Almost 300 billion tons!
NASA Goddard Chief Scientist James Garvin's controversial findings suggest that some past asteroid impacts were a lot bigger than we realized.
About 18 to 20 Earths wide.
The truth finally surfaces.
This can't be an accident!
The current battlefield for terrorism is not a faraway country but the computers and phones right next to us. Terrorists have taken advantage of this technology to allow conflict to transcend its geographic borders.
Ohio Capital Journal — Ohio college and university instructors could be barred from teaching climate science without also including false or misleading counterpoints under a sprawling higher education bill that received its first hearing last week.
When the microwave oven started to gain popularity in the 60s and 70s, supporters and critics alike predicted that it would usher in the end of cooking as we knew it. Obviously that never quite happened, but not because the technology didn’t work as intended. Even today, this versatile kitchen appliance seems to employ some magic to caffeinate or feed a growing hacker in no time flat. So, how exactly does this modern marvel work?
When we first started 3D printing, we used ABS and early slicers. Using supports was undesirable because the support structures were not good, and ABS sticks to itself like crazy. Thankfully today’s slicers are much better, and often we can use supports that easily detach. [Teaching Tech] shows how modern slicers create supports and how to make it even better than using the default settings.
For a brief moment in the late ’00s, netbooks dominated the low-cost mobile computing market. These were small, low-cost, low-power laptops, some tiny enough to only have a seven-inch display, and usually with extremely limiting hardware even for the time. There aren’t very many reasons to own a machine of this era today, since even the cheapest of tablets or Chromebooks are typically far more capable than the Atom-based devices from over a decade ago. There is one set of these netbooks from that time with a secret up its sleeve, though: Phoenix Hyperspace.
The amateur radio community often gets stereotyped as a hobby with a minimum age requirement around 70, gatekeeping airwaves from those with less experience or simply ignoring unfamiliar beginners. While there is a small amount of truth to this on some local repeaters or specific frequencies, the spectrum is big enough to easily ignore those types and explore the hobby without worry (provided you are properly licensed). One of the best examples of this we’ve seen recently of esoteric radio use is this method of using packet radio to play a game of Colossal Cave Adventure.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined healthcare campaigner Ady Barkan and others on Monday in sounding alarm over a recent investigation showing that Medicare Advantage insurers are using unregulated artificial intelligence systems to determine when to end payments for patients' treatments, a practice that has prematurely terminated coverage for vulnerable seniors.
The report named stillbirths a “major public health concern” that the U.S. must address through research and prevention.
Hong Kong’s first protest against a government policy in about two years went ahead on Sunday, but under strict rules including a cap on numbers and a requirement that everyone wear an identifying number tag.
If the internet were an animal what would it be? “It would be a chimera because it’s kind of strange and scary at times – especially if you don’t€ know what you’re doing – but it’s also pretty cool and beautiful.”€ Those are the words a 17-year-old Aboriginal girl used answering a question about€ online experiences.
Researchers have discovered that people with depression and anxiety who experienced a traumatic childhood often grow up to be angry adults, and the more severe the trauma, the more furious the adult. In addition to having an impact on social interactions and mental health, this makes treating depression and anxiety more challenging.
Apple today released updates for all of its operating systems. The updates also apply for some of the older versions of iOS and macOS. For iOS/iPadOS 15, Apple now patched an already exploited vulnerability (CVE-2023-23529). Current operating systems received a patch for this vulnerability mid January.
In this series of diary entries, I will analyze an HTA file I found on MalwareBazaar.
GitHub replaced the RSA SSH private key used to secure Git operations for GitHub.com after it was exposed in a public GitHub repository.
Security researchers raked in more than $1 million in prizes at this year's CanSecWest Pwn2Own software exploitation contest.
Several major organizations are confirming impact from the latest zero-day exploits hitting Fortra's GoAnywhere software.
Law enforcement in Australia announce the arrest of four individuals accused of running business email compromise (BEC) schemes.
Linux is a widespread OS known for its robust security. That being said, vulnerabilities are inevitable in any OS, and Linux system administrators must be vigilant about monitoring and verifying the security of their servers on an ongoing basis in order to protect sensitive data and prevent attacks. After all, the majority of attacks on Linux systems can be attributed to poor administration.
The only way to be sure your server is as well protected as you think it is - or as it needs to be - is to actually test it and verify it is working as you expect. This article will introduce LinuxSecurity’s top methods and tools for verifying the security of your Linux servers - specifically, port scanning, intrusion detection, penetration testing, reverse engineering and auditing - and will point you in the direction of some other valuable resources to help you get started on this journey.
Let's examine some great methods for verifying Linux server security.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warns that criminal actors are using business email compromise schemes to facilitate the acquisition of a wide range of commodities. BEC attacks, an attack method that involves fraud enabled by social engineering, are not new.
Following the discovery of serious vulnerabilities in the Snipping Tool app for Windows 11 and Snip & Sketch in Windows 10, Microsoft has released out-of-band updates to plug the security holes.
The flaws are similar to the recently discovered aCropalypse bug affecting Pixel mobiles, making it possible to "uncrop" cropped images and potentially expose sensitive information. Having briefly tested updates with Windows Insiders, Microsoft has now made fixes available to all Windows 10 and Windows 11 users.
Crown Resorts has confirmed it is investigating a potential data breach after a ransomware gang claimed it had accessed the company’s data. In a statement posted on its website on Monday, Crown said it had notified law enforcement of the potential breach.
At least 50 devices belonging to U.S. personnel have been targeted by commercial spyware.
The Indian government needs to build a comprehensive, transparent, and accountable means of addressing data privacy and security risks.
While NSO Group made most of the headlines in the cell phone malware market, it had plenty of competition back at home. Israel is also home to its competitors. Candiru — another malware company with more talent than ethics — managed to make headlines of its own while being blacklisted by the US Commerce Department following weeks of negative press involving Israeli spyware companies.
Mail publisher Associated Newspapers is trying to stop the claims from going to trial.
AOP objects to "unscrupulous" vendors scraping website metadata and article text without permission.
Executive order will require the head of any U.S. agency using commercial spyware programs to certify that the program doesn’t pose a significant counterintelligence or other security risk.
The FBI previously purchased access to "netflow" data, which a company called Team Cymru obtains from ISPs. Team Cymru then sells it to the government.
Hungary's parliament on March 27 approved Finland’s bid to join NATO, putting an end to months of delays and bringing the Nordic country one step closer to becoming a full member of the Western military alliance.
The Hungarian parliament, dominated by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz party, ratified Finland's NATO membership Monday after months of diplomatically charged delay.
Russia failed on March 27 to get the UN Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry into explosions in September on the Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany.
Idaho Governor Brad Little Saturday signed into law a bill allowing execution by firing squad. With the bill signed, Idaho now permits death by lethal injection or firing squad.
The UN Sunday described the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay as “worrying” and called for the closure of the detention facility “without further delay.” The comments came in a newly released report from the UN Human Rights Council which outlined “systematic shortcomings in medical expertise, equipment, treatment, and accommodations” at Guantánamo Bay.
In 2021, Pentagon Papers’ whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg shared a copy of a top-secret study with New York Times reporter Charlie Savage on the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1958. It was presented by the newspaper as “another unauthorized disclosure” by the “famed source.”
A former SAS soldier charged with the war crime of murder has been granted bail.
March 28, 2023 7:21 AM
Taiwan's diplomatic office was previously the country’s second-biggest embassy after the US embassy.
Support groups say more can be done to support the defectors.
The military simulated a nuclear air explosion strike.
Kit Klarnberg reveals the industrial-scale corruption which allowed billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to flow into Afghanistan without supervision and for weaponry and aid to be misused, stolen or illegally sold off by Afghans, U.S. personnel and Pentagon contractors alike.
The head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said late Monday he would subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken for documents on the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On March 13th, the Pentagon rolled out its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The results were — or at least should have been — stunning, even by the standards of a department that’s used to getting what it wants when it wants it.
Marking the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq,€ The New York Times€ ran a feature-length article titled, “20 Years On, a Question Lingers About Iraq: Why Did the U.S. Invade?”
President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes on groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Three US outposts in eastern Syria were attacked the day after.
Besides clogging supply chains and sending prices for food and other goods skyrocketing, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may also be a boon for terrorists in some parts of Africa.
After the death of president Idriss Déby in April 2021, Chad started a transition process in which interim authorities committed to reconciliation and peace. But slow progress and an increased focus on military and security cooperation with external actors cast doubt on whether this commitment is genuine.
Lithuania prides itself on spending 2 percent GPD on defence, one of the few in NATO, but it still has a lot to do to defend itself, says retired General Ben Hodges, former commander of the US Land Forces in Europe.
China said on Monday that it was detaining a Japanese national on suspicion of espionage, after Tokyo urged Beijing to release one of its citizens. “Relevant Chinese authorities took criminal coercive measures this month against a Japanese citizen, in accordance with the law,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing.
Pope Francis: Ukraine war is “fueled by imperial interests of several empires.”
Fifteen of the twenty-three people arrested and charged with domestic terrorism on March 5 are now out of jail.
For the third time, a court in France rejects the Italian arrest warrant for the anarchist Vincenzo Vecchi. The 49-year-old Italian is to be imprisoned for summit protests in 2001. France’s prosecution can appeal one last time.
Dmitry Lisitsky, believed to be one of the organizers of the deadly “Ilovaisk cauldron” in the course of the Donbas conflict in 2014, has died under uncertain circumstances.
Maria Drokova, the former press secretary of the Kremlin-sponsored youth organization Nashi who subsequently moved to the U.S., has received Kyrgyz citizenship, according to a presidential decree published online by the Kyrgyz authorities.
A car bomb went off in Mariupol, in an assassination attempt on Mikhail Moskvin, the Kremlin-appointed police chief in the occupied Ukrainian city. TASS reported the incident, citing a law-enforcement insider from the Russian-annexed Donetsk “republic.”
A batch of 18 German tanks have been handed over to Ukraine, reports Der Spiegel.
Germany has transferred the€ 18 Leopard 2 battle tanks it pledged to Ukraine, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi on protecting the nuclear power plant at€ Zaporizhzhia, which is partially controlled by Russian forces.
Despite recent international efforts to broker a peace deal, the conflict has shown no signs of abating, as the Houthis continued to focus their attacks on strategic targets.
On Sunday, groups of settlers burned down a Palestinian-inhabited house in the town of Sinjil.
The Official Project Censored Show The US Addiction to War and Militarism Continues 20 Years after the Illegal Invasion of IraqPlay EpisodePause EpisodeMute/Unmute EpisodeRewind 10 Seconds1xFast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 /SubscribeShareThe Official Project Censored Show The US Addiction to War and Militarism Continues 20 Years after the Illegal Invasion of IraqPlay EpisodePause EpisodeMute/Unmute EpisodeRewind 10 Seconds1xFast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 /SubscribeShare
In addition to the NDAA authorizing $45 billion more for defense spending than President Biden had originally requested, the provision that Gledhill’s reporting highlighted allows for what she described as “potential sweeping price increases to Pentagon contracts,” based on inflation. The provision in Section 822 of the NDAA permits contract modifications in cases where costs have increased “due solely to economic inflation.” However, as Gledhill reported, “there are no requirements for military contractors to prove their costs increased because of inflation alone.”
“So important!” Norma Hale wrote in a March 8, 2018 Facebook post as she shared the petition that stated “Keep Guns Out of School.”
A young woman entered€ the Covenant Presbyterian Church through a side door, carrying two assault rifles and at least one handgun.
Police say a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, armed with two “assault-style” weapons and a handgun after elaborately planning the massacre by drawing out a detailed map and conducting surveillance of the building. Monday's massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville was the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country that has grown increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools. The victims include three 9-year-old children, the school’s top administrator, a substitute teacher and a custodian, and a familiar ritual played out in the chaos. Panicked parents rushed to the school to see if their children were safe and tearfully hugged their kids, and a stunned community planned vigils for the victims.
Three children and three adults have been killed in US school shooting.
A heavily armed 28-year-old fatally shot three children and three adult€ staffers on Monday at a private Christian school the suspect€ once attended in Tennessee's capital city before police killed€ the assailant, authorities said.
The NYPD implemented a plan at the start of the year to try to stem the Big Apple’s soaring number of teen shootings, but the bloodshed continues.
In a speech on Saturday night, Putin said he would deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
In addition to denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to station so-called "tactical" nuclear weapons in Belarus, anti-war campaigners are calling into question the effectiveness of "nuclear deterrence" and reiterating their demands for global disarmament.
Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus? The exiled leader of Belarus’ pro-democracy movement, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, points to a different view of her nation’s future.
Russian and Belarusian athletes should be banned from the 2024 Olympics in Paris unless Moscow pulls its forces out of Ukraine, Poland said on March 27, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it plans to let them compete as neutrals.
Poland has detained a foreign citizen on charges of spying for Russia, prosecutors said on March 27, as the largest country on NATO's eastern flank finds itself increasingly targeted by Moscow's intelligence services.
Lithuania's Central Project Management Agency will buy 12 buses with higher off-road capability for almost 2 million euros and hand them over to the Ukrainian army as part of an EU-funded project.
After Russia announced it would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry said the move would "create another wave of tension and destabilisation in Europe". In a statement on Sunday, the ministry also said it would call for further sanctions.
Relations between the United States and China are spiraling dangerously downward, and neither side seems able to reverse the trend. Yet it is imperative that the world’s two biggest economies find a modus vivendi if the peace of the planet is to be preserved.
The announcement by President Vladimir Putin over the weekend that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus marked a further escalation of potentially cataclysmic tensions over the war in neighboring Ukraine. As the Associated Press reported, "Putin said the move was triggered by Britain's decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium."
A gun control activist who survived last year's massacre at an Illinois July 4th parade spoke out at a police press conference on Monday's mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school to make an impassioned plea for gun control legislation.
The investigative outlet The Insider reported Monday that it has identified one of the people involved in physically abusing children from Ukraine’s Kherson region who were forcibly deported to Russian-occupied territory as Valery Astakhov, a former member of Ukraine’s now-dissolved Berkut special ops police division.
On March 25, state-run television network Russia 24 aired an interview with Vladimir Putin by All-Russia Radio and Television Broadcasting Company correspondent Pavel Zarubin. In the interview, the Russian president spoke in detail for the first time about how he plans to respond to Western countries supplying Ukraine with weapons. The most striking part of the interview was Putin’s announcement that the Kremlin has decided to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Additionally, he said that 10 Belarusian air force planes have already been updated to carry nuclear weapons. Russia has also given Belarus an Iskander ballistic missile system capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons and plans to finish construction on a nuclear storage facility in the country by July 1. So far, the West has reacted to this attempt at escalation with restraint: U.S. authorities said they “have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”€
Russia is determined to proceed with its plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, regardless of possible new sanctions, says the Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.
Workers across Israel are taking part in a general strike Monday to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to disempower Israel’s judiciary. This comes after Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on Sunday over Gallant’s warning that the judicial overhaul represents “a clear, immediate and tangible threat to the security of the state.” Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken part in protests in recent days, shutting down large parts of the country and demanding the government withdraw its plan, which would give parliament more power to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and overturn its rulings. The Supreme Court is one of the few independent checks on the Israeli government, and critics warn Netanyahu’s judicial reforms would turn the country into a dictatorship. For more on the political crisis, we speak with journalist and activist Haggai Matar in Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced a pause to a set of divisive judicial reforms moving through parliament. The move came hours after the head of Israel’s top trade union called for a general strike following weeks of mass protests.
"Workers and employers will together halt the judicial overhaul,"€ Histadrut's chairman Arnon Bar-David said.
President Biden and his advisers bombarded the Israeli government with warnings that the country’s image as the sole democracy in the Middle East was at stake.
The Israeli prime minister called for dialogue as civil unrest and work stoppages reached a crisis point, grinding the country to a halt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stalling his judicial overhaul plan after two days of intensifying protests against it. He said Monday he wanted to seek a compromise and take a “timeout for dialogue” with his political opponents.
Israel collapsed into virtual chaos over the weekend, after Defence Minister Yoav Gallant made a dramatic televised address to the nation, calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to suspend his government’s extremist political plan.
The word “unprecedented” no longer accurately captures the magnitude of recent developments in Israel. No matter what happens next, we are witnessing history in the making. Never before have Israelis risen in such numbers with such commitment against their own government—to the point that they have effectively brought it to its knees. At the time of writing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trapped between the option of halting his plan to neuter the judiciary, putting the survival of the most far-right coalition, and his own political career, at risk—and the option of allowing the country to slip further into chaos, a constitutional crisis, and perhaps even civil war. This article was produced in collaboration with +972 Magazine.
A surge in attacks in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed more than 700 lives at the hands of militia fighters since December, the United Nations said Monday.
Russia said on Sunday that it plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a seemingly tit-for-tat response to the UK’s announcement last week that it would supply Ukraine with armour-piercing€ shells made from depleted uranium. Although the rounds contain trace amounts of radioactivity, Russia has falsely claimed the ammunition contains "nuclear components" to justify its move into Belarus.
Tiny pieces of plastic are everywhere. They’re in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. By one estimate, some people ingest around a credit card’s worth of plastic every week.
Two years ago, a profile appeared in ProPublica of an activist who had become convinced that the climate apocalypse was imminent. What made this man different from others was his fervor: After spending years writing op-eds about the urgency of the crisis, practicing “humanure,” and chastising his family members for having the wrong priorities, he’d put his wife through so much that she wondered if she had Stockholm syndrome. Although elements of his dedication to the cause were farcical, I was persuaded that there was something heroic and vital about his response that the rest of us were missing.1
Citizens of Berlin, Germany Sunday voted in a referendum to amend the Berlin Climate Protection and Energy Transition Act. However, the amendment was rejected as not enough voters supported the proposal to bring forward Berlin’s climate neutrality deadline to 2030.
GPU processing power can be used for much more useful things than mining cryptocurrencies, Nvidia CTO says.
Rooftop solar systems supplied more electricity to Australia during last summer than brown coal,€ setting a record, the€ Clean Energy Council says. The systems also provided more energy to the grid than all other renewable sources, including grid-scale wind farms and solar farms.
The official met with President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the Zaporizhzhia plant, amid worries that a Ukrainian offensive could raise the already-high risk of disaster.
As House Republicans prepare to vote on H.R. 1 this week, environmental advocates warned Monday that the sprawling package of fossil fuel-friendly legislation would worsen the climate emergency and biodiversity destruction while saddling U.S. households with higher energy bills.
In passing the Safeguard Mechanism Amendment Bill, Labor’s only major emission reduction legislation on the block, Labor has also agreed to rule out any spending on fossil fuel infrastructure from the $600 million Safeguard Transformation Stream.
While the Safeguard Mechanism has been widely criticised for permitting the expansion of new fossil fuel developments throughout the country, an amendment put forward by North Sydney independent Kylea Tink prevents the government from siphoning funds into fossil fuel subjects.
The value of Bitcoin and other crypto assets has surged since, or perhaps because of, the failure of banks with links to the crypto world.
DJ 3LAU is close to settling a lawsuit over the sale of his NFT album Ultraviolet.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made a surprise visit to frontline positions in the region of Zaporizhzhya, where he also met with UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to discuss the protection of Europe's largest nuclear power station.
Researchers said the animals may be under stress, adding there is a risk of exchange of pathogens.
A remote wilderness village will rely on a solar-powered micro-grid to drive ecotourism, research and electric cars. The Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges showcases almost two billion years of geological history, offers dark skies for stargazing and is slated for world heritage listing.
Some crows “cry wolf” to snatch food from their neighbors; some caterpillars trick ants into treating them like queens. What can we learn from beasts that bluff?
A new report by the United Nations warns that a quarter of humanity lacks access to safe drinking water, and nearly half of the global population has no access to basic sanitation. Unless action is taken, 60% of the world’s population could face water supply issues by 2050. At the U.N. Water Conference in New York last week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the report’s findings and warned of the potential link between water scarcity and war. From Abuja, Nigeria, we speak to Boluwaji Onabolu, president of the Network of Female Professionals in WASH in Nigeria, which focuses on water, sanitation, hygiene and public health. We’re also joined from Phoenix, Arizona, by Mohammed Mahmoud, the director of the Climate and Water Program at the Middle East Institute.
At the U.N. Water Development Conference, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland delivered the U.S. statement and called for Indigenous governance of shared waters, underscoring the importance of Indigenous-led conservation in addressing the climate and drought crises. This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last Monday on whether to allow the Navajo Nation to argue the federal government must address the Native American tribe’s water rights. For more, we are joined in Fort Defiance, Arizona, by Crystal Tulley-Cordova, principal hydrologist for the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources, water management branch, covering 27,000 square miles of reservation land that straddles New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, much of which borders the Colorado River. She talks about what must be done to address the ongoing lack of access to water there now as the west battles a historic drought.
Residents of Philadelphia and the surrounding area demanded clarity about the safety of their drinking water from city officials on Monday, three days after chemicals leaked from a plant into a tributary of the Delaware River, which provides water for about 14 million people in four states.
After a series of winter storms replenished California’s water sources, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state will no longer ask people to cut their water use by 15%. He was careful, however, not to say the drought is over.
Beijing is emerging as a new heavyweight in providing emergency funds to debt-ridden countries, catching up to the I.M.F. as a lender of last resort.
Employees and retirees in the southwestern Iranian city of Shush have gone on strike to protest living standards and to push the government to approve wage and social payment increases in the Iranian New Year.
Australia’s banks are in a strong position to ward off turbulent conditions overseas, the financial services minister says. Stephen Jones allayed fears of contagion from US and European banks following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, crediting stronger regulatory conditions for stronger resilience in the domestic financial market.
Norwegians have long been crossing the border and filling their shopping baskets in Sweden. However, thanks to soaring food prices, Swedes are now heading to Norway to try and slash their grocery bills.
Swedish supermarket chains Ica and Coop vowed to lower prices on a range of items, following a similar move by Lidl last week.
A weak krona, soaring inflation and the impacts of war in Ukraine - things are getting more expensive in Sweden, but there are ways to save money on your food shop. Here are our top tips.
Taking out a loan can be an essential financial tool for achieving various goals, such as buying a home, financing education, or starting a business. However, it's crucial to make informed decisions and manage loans responsibly to prevent them from becoming a burden.
According to the confidence indicator from Statistics Finland, household confidence in the economy is still weak. The chief economist of the Central Chamber of Commerce notes that there are currently no signs that confidence will return to normal anytime soon. However, strong employment growth has supported households' purchasing power, but there is still little willingness to make expensive purchases.
As Western countries face a growing nursing shortage over the next decade, they will have to compete for healthcare professionals to fill the gap. The winners and losers in this race will depend on how well they attract and retain international healthcare workers.
Finland, like other Western countries, will likely have to compete for healthcare professionals from countries like the Philippines, India, and some African nations.
Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) is offering children awaiting heart surgeries the opportunity to undergo procedures in Nordic countries. The first letters inquiring about families' willingness to travel to Copenhagen for surgery will be sent this week.
The New Children's Hospital in Helsinki is exploring the possibility of pediatric heart surgeries in Copenhagen due to delays in providing care for children awaiting surgery in Finland.
Finland is facing an escalating shortage of skilled workers, according to a recent study by ManpowerGroup. The study found that 81% of Finnish employers are struggling to find the necessary skills to fill their job vacancies. This is up from 70% the previous year.
The shortage is most severe in Eastern Finland, where 85% of employers report difficulty finding the right talent.
The significance of foreign-owned companies in the Helsinki region is on the rise, constituting over a quarter of the area's total turnover, according to a recent report by the Helsinki City Council. Although foreign-owned companies account for only a few percentages of the entire corporate landscape, their economic weight is considerable. In 2021, a quarter of the workforce in the Helsinki region's corporate sector was employed by foreign-owned companies.
A GROWING NUMBER of employers are struggling to attract suitable candidates to apply for job openings, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
In Uusimaa, the most populous region of Finland, the share of unresolved recruitment problems has increased from roughly 25 per cent in 2019 to almost 60 per cent in 2022, reveal employer interviews compiled for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment by Statistics Finland.
By Ralph Nader Once again, government socialism – ultimately backed by taxpayers – is saving reckless midsized banks and their depositors. Silicon Valley Bank (S.V.B) and Signature Bank in New York greedily mismanaged their risk levels and had to be closed down. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in return, to avoid a bank panic […]
“The€ Federal government and local authorities have categorically rejected a socially balanced collective agreement,”€ the Verdi leader Werneke revealed.
Airports and bus and train stations across Germany were at a standstill on Monday morning, causing disruption for millions at the start of the working week during one of the largest walkouts in decades as Europe's biggest economy reels from inflation.
Image Credit: David Rodrigo, Unsplash One statement in the Al Jazeera documentary on corruption and looting in Zimbabwe stuck with me. One guy said ‘Dubai is Africa’s financial capital’ or something to that order.
The Mexican Supreme Court Friday suspended President Andrés Obrador’s proposed legislative reform package regarding the nation’s electoral system, following a challenge from the National Electoral Institute (INE) who argued that the reforms were unconstitutional. Minister Speaker Javier Potisek also allowed a freeze on the legislation, keeping the current provisions in force.
But observers say the military has already done its worst, with little to show for it.
Some towns are creating paper flowers to make up for a shortage of real ones.
Ma’s visit comes as his opposition Kuomintang chooses rapprochement with Beijing despite rejecting Chinese rule.
Police detained three Kazakh activists in Almaty on March 27 after they demonstrated near the Chinese consulate to demand the release of their relatives from China’s Xinjiang Province.
Chicago voters will decide the nation’s biggest mayoral race of 2023 in barely a week, and progressive Brandon Johnson is surging—thanks in part to a string of endorsements that have helped the former teacher and union activist close the gap with front-runner Paul Vallas.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says an investigation into banning TikTok will move forward.
Sweden's military said on Monday it was banning staff members from using Chinese-owned TikTok on work devices due to security concerns, following a slew of similar decisions from authorities in Western countries.
The CEO of TikTok just testified on Capitol Hill. It was a shitshow.
By the measure of evidence submitted in the trial of his co-conspirator, alleged John Podesta hacker Ivan Ermakov has been enjoying life in the years after his indictment by Robert Mueller. But the record of those exploits helped to convict his Vladislav Klyushin in a hack-and-trade conspiracy.
Despite a possible indictment, President Trump’s support among conservative voters looks rock solid – and building. But one place shows softening: Some followers feel abandoned by him after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and won’t protest to support him.
Edward Felsenthal will become executive chairman and contributing editor at Time in June.
Press Gazette found more than 180 UK journalists with above 100,000 followers.
The Declaration Of Independence is about independence, not human rights.
The great TikTok moral panic of 2023 is€ largely a distraction. It’s a distraction from the fact we’ve refused to meaningfully regulate dodgy data brokers, who traffic in everything from your€ daily movement habits€ to your€ mental health diagnosis. And it’s a distraction from our corrupt failure to pass even a baseline privacy law for the internet era.
We’re supposed to believe that Donald Trump chose Waco, Tex., for his first official campaign rally only because of logistics. It’s easily reached by folks in Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Of course, Trump intended no connection to the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidian tragedy, when a right-wing cult provoked a government standoff that resulted in the death of 86 people, including 28 children of the cult.
Protests against the construction of an 85-acre police training facility—dubbed “Cop City”—in a suburban Atlanta forest turned deadly when police shot and killed a demonstrator occupying the area. The police mobilization against the occupation involved the Atlanta Police, DeKalb County Police, Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the FBI (Guardian, 1/21/23). Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, a protester known by most as “Tortuguita,” was shot at least a dozen times.
“All the way to repeal!” That’s one of the many rallying cries being shouted across France since March 16, when President Emmanuel Macron resorted to Article 49, Section 3, of the French Constitution to force an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64.1
For months, Elon Musk has been promising the rapidly dwindling workforce at Twitter that he’d give them stock grants. He’d promised that those grants would come on March 24th, and I can tell you that when normal business hours ended on the 24th with no details, some of those remaining employees were pissed off. However, it was just Musk in typical fashion, being late. Late at night an email was sent to employees on “the state of Twitter 20” which also included the details of the grants.
Ever since Elon Musk made his initial bid to buy Twitter, he’s talked about “open sourcing” the algorithm. He mentioned it last April in the first interview he gave, on the TED stage, to talk about his plans with Twitter. And since taking over the company at the end of October, he’s mentioned it over and over again.
The Moscow authorities have decided to change the prospective name of the Moscow Central Diameters commuter rail system’s fourth line, which is slated to open this year, from the “ââ¬â¹Ã¢â¬â¹Kyiv–Gorky Diameter” to the “Kaluga–Nizhegorodsky Diameter,” according to the city’s transport department.€
John Whitehead “There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few.” Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor It is easy to be distracted right now by the bread and circus politics that have dominated the news headlines lately, but don’t be distracted.
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world. 1. “Ghost Children” We’re in the season of lockdown revisionism, where voices of the establishment sheepishly admit to making a couple of mistakes...
After a short but bitter leadership contest, Humza Yousaf was elected the new leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) on Monday and will soon take over from the formidable Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland's first minister. FRANCE 24 takes a closer look at how Yousaf successfully won over party members to clinch the top job in Scottish politics and usher in the post-Sturgeon era, which promises to be a challenging one.
Some commenters on my Large Libel Model posts have argued that the reason I got false output from my prompts is that I had "primed" the model to suggest that I was looking for something negative.
This week and likely next, I'll be serializing my€ Large Libel Models? Liability for AI Output€ draft. I had already posted on why I think such AI programs' communications are reasonably perceived as factual assertions, and why disclaimers about possible errors are insufficient to avoid liability.
Another sketchy-seeming financial scheme exposed in bankruptcy court.
The Indian government under Narendra Modi has become an even worse version of itself. It has expanded its power unilaterally to silence critics and oppress citizens Modi doesn’t care for. It has continued to do this despite courts finding these actions illegal.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s legislative crusade against Black history in Florida’s K-12 curriculum is nothing short of a frontal assault on Black Americans’ sense of reality and identity. History in American education is not, as DeSantis suggests, an impartial assemblage of the “cut and dried” facts. It is, rather, the way we test and refine various narratives of our collective identity and national aspirations—and, crucially, interrogate the enabling fictions that make up the American dream. James Baldwin underlined the central fact that DeSantis’s campaign against Black learning sidesteps during his 1965 debate with William F. Buckley Jr. at the University of Cambridge when he declared, “The American dream is at the expense of the American Negro.” Fifty-eight years later, Ta-Nehisi Coates reiterated the same point in his landmark book Between the World and Me: “Historians conjured the dream.”
Just published in volume 2, issue 2 of the Journal of Free Speech Law, and available here; here's the Introduction: The academy is rife with contention over the conditioning of faculty ap€pointments on an attestation to or a record of support for a secular trinity: "Di€ver€si€ty, Equity, Inclusion."
The guidance that forces "should" name suspects on charge has been reinstated.
Lower wages and lack of work experience opportunities may be impacting journalism recruitment.
The prosecution has completed its questioning of the former chief editor of shuttered independent Hong Kong media outlet Stand News after 26 days. Chung Pui-kuen, Stand News’ former chief editor, Patrick Lam, the outlet’s former acting chief editor, and Stand News parent company stand accused of conspiring to publish “seditious” publications.
Sanitation workers to decide today whether to continue strike, which has seen trash piles mounting high on the streets and back alleys of the capital€
The town of Saint-Ouen on the northern edge of Paris has become the first French municipality to grant paid medical leave to female staff suffering from period pain, hoping to “break a taboo” on the subject and inspire similar moves at the national level.
Trade union protesters angered by President Emmanuel Macron's move to raise the French retirement age without a final vote in parliament blocked the Louvre museum in Paris on Monday, frustrating crowds of visitors.
French Prime Minister Ãâ°lisabeth Borne on Monday is set to start a series of consultations over the next three weeks with opposition MPs, political parties and local leaders after weeks of protests over pension reforms.
A 20-year-old man has been sentenced to a training centre for his participation in a riot linked to the police siege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) during the 2019 protests and unrest. The judge said the case reflected how young people were easily swayed by peers or netizens.
Hong Kong prosecutors have alleged a former district council chairman – who has not been arrested or charged – as a “co-conspirator” in a landmark national security case against 47 pro-democracy figures.
Annie Ernaux, the 2022 Nobel literature laureate, has backed calls for a thorough investigation after four female students said they were sexually assaulted by police in the western city of Nantes following a protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply contentious pension reform.
The US Supreme Court Monday granted certiorari to hear Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer, a civil rights “tester” case that considers a challenge to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations. Acheson Hotels is the only new case from Monday’s order list that the court agreed to add to its docket for the current term.
Indian law students are reporting for JURIST on law-related developments in and affecting India.
Phan Kim Khanh served a six-year sentence for conducting propaganda against the state.
An Iranian parliamentarian says the government's new strategy to enforce the compulsory wearing of the hijab will eliminate physical punishment for women and instead carry financial and administrative penalties that have been approved by the leader of the Islamic republic.
Italian authorities on Sunday seized a migrant aid ship financed by renowned British street artist Banksy after the vessel allegedly violated a decree by Italy's far-right cabinet by refusing to head to port following a rescue operation.
In the last few weeks, the Biden administration has announced new border policies, proposed new asylum ban rules, considered bringing back family detention, and submitted a budget request to Congress increasing funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), agencies with horrific track records of racism and abuse. In its most recent move, the Biden administration signed an agreement with Canada that would turn asylum seekers back at the Northern border. These moves are an outgrowth of Trump-era policies meant to shut down US borders. But more than that, they represent a continuation of cruel and harmful immigration policies, tracing back 20 years to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Through multiple presidential administrations representing both political parties, the DHS has targeted and criminalized Muslim, Black, brown, and immigrant communities under the guise of “homeland security,” at a cost of $1.4 trillion to taxpayers over its lifetime. Today, it is clear we must dismantle this agency that has actively harmed migrant communities at home and abroad. Instead, the Biden administration has just proposed giving ICE and CBP more money to carry out their harmful agendas.
The five Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right to abortion last year presented themselves as great defenders of democracy. The cornerstone of their arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Woman’s Health Organization decision was that the court’s earlier affirmation of a right to abortion, enshrined in Roe v. Wade (1973) and reaffirmed in Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992), improperly settled by judicial fiat a matter that required deliberation by voters and lawmakers. Writing for the majority in Dobbs, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito insisted,€ “The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who disagreed with Roe.”
The statue of Buddha that was up for sale at Christie’s auction house was, according to art experts, an early test: Would recent controversy around objects once owned by two prominent Chicago collectors hinder its sale and send a signal about how the art market views the renowned collection?
The answer came quickly. The 7 1/4-inch copper-alloy Buddha from 9th-century Nepal, which had been on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago until last year, failed to sell last week, a Christie’s spokesperson said.
Conservative Christian nationalism has erupted into the public eye in recent years. Local clergy say the American church must do what it can to combat the rise of hatefulness and violence in the church –which they say is being co-opted by America’s political right.
The author discusses “Alisa,” her story from the latest issue of the magazine.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Monday urged the Biden administration to consider rescinding its proposed anti-asylum rule, which critics have compared to former President Donald Trump's "transit ban" that denied asylum to anyone who had traveled to the United States through a third country.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday led two dozen House Democrats in urging Congress to allocate at least $1.2 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen—whose people have suffered eight years of U.S.-backed Saudi war—in next year's budget.
Democracy defenders on Monday sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's agreement to place the country's National Guard under the control of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right extremist who has advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
We remember the human rights activist and lawyer Randall Robinson, the founder of TransAfrica, who died Friday at the age of 81. Robinson played a critical role in the anti-apartheid movement in the United States and was a prominent critic of U.S. policy in Haiti. In 2004, he helped expose the U.S. role in the coup that ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We air excerpts from a 2013 interview Robinson did with Democracy Now! about his work.
A Senate committee headed by Bernie Sanders of Vermont released a report late Sunday aimed at debunking Starbucks' narrative that it supports workers' rights and has not committed large-scale violations of U.S. labor law—claims that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will likely repeat when he testifies before the panel later this week.
It’s the decades-long human rights tragedy next door that Australia avoids. Abuses in Myanmar, Syria, Palestine, Ukraine and other hate hotspots get stern condemnation sometimes backed by sanctions, arms and sanctuary for refugees. But Indonesia’s brutal suppression of separatists in West Papua goes untouched. It’s a story likely to end badly – then contine, Duncan Graham reports.
It’s easy being morally upright when the brutalities and agonies are far away. When adjacent, and the offender is big, powerful, outnumbering us 11-to 1, and a vital trader, concerns get muted. President Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘big stick’ foreign policy advice has been tweaked by Canberra to: ‘Speak softly and carry a small twig’.
Video surveillance shows the homeowner trying to knock the driver's phone from his hand.
The Rajya Sabha Committee on Subordinate Legislation is meeting on March 27, 2023, to consider the IT Rules, 2021 and its subsequent amendments. We wrote to them expressing our gratitude for their consideration of the Rules, while citing our concerns as well as the impact on online free speech.
Recently, the European Commission (EC) adopted a new proposal intended to enable and promote the repair of a range of consumer goods, including household devices like vacuum cleaners and washing machines, as well as electronic devices such as smartphones and televisions. Depending on how the European Parliament and Council vote in the next steps, this proposal may shape many details of how devices we regularly interact with work, and how they can be repaired when they no longer do.
We’ve spilled a great deal of ink thus far on the subject of Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard. The discussion around this whole thing began with the acquisition itself, before quickly moving into the topic of how Microsoft was going to get past the narrow glares of several regulatory bodies that all made noises about antitrust concerns and hand-wringing over competition within the video game market itself. In the intervening weeks, the placation of the EU regulators by Microsoft’s 10-year deals to keep Call of Duty specifically on multiple platforms seems to have worked, whereas the outcome of the UK’s CMA body and the United States’ FTC are less clear.
On 16 March 2022, the High Court of England and Wales handed down its judgment following the FRAND trial in InterDigital v Lenovo.€ This is the second judgment containing a substantive FRAND determination issued by the English Courts and the UK remains one of the few jurisdictions...
The European Patent Office (EPO) received 193 460 applications in 2022, an increase of 2.5% on the previous year and a new record.
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Illumina’s EP 3 002 289, which the Boards of Appeal revoked due to added subject matter, is one of several patents protecting “modified nucleotides for polynucleotide sequencing”. The BoA judges argued that the literal claim construction could not be amended by reference to the description.
In another step that will make TTAB proceedings as complicated and expensive as civil litigation, the TTAB has announced its implementation of a pilot program for holding a Final Pretrial Conference in selected cases. [Announcement here]. The Board will focus on cases with large or unwieldy records, "overly contentious" proceedings, and cases in which the parties or counsel are unfamiliar with TTAB practice. The parties will be required to file a detailed Final Joint Pretrial Order [Model Format here] setting forth the issues, witnesses, exhibits, objections, etc., etc.
More than eleven years after the shutdown of Megaupload, the U.S. Government's criminal case against founder Kim Dotcom is still pending. The same applies to civil lawsuits filed by the movie and music industries. Following repeated delays, a Virginia federal court has decided to strike the civil cases from the active docket pending new developments.
A federal judge has officially dismissed a copyright lawsuit filed against Childish Gambino (real name Donald Glover) and others over 2018’s “This Is America.” District Judge Victor Marrero just recently granted a motion to dismiss from Childish Gambino, his fellow “This Is America” writers, Sony Music, Kobalt, and several additional defendants.
Last month, amid TikTok’s long-running licensing talks with the major labels, it came to light that the ByteDance-owned platform had started limiting the availability of certain music in Australia.
Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast to British cinemas for the first time ever. This year, the Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast live in cinemas across the UK for the first time.
Plus: "Sensitivity readers" rewrite Agatha Christie, a Little Free Library battle, and more...
IA was sued for lifting lending limits on ebooks it had scanned itself.
Last Monday was the day of the oral arguments in the Big Publishers’ lawsuit against libraries in the form of the Internet Archive. As we noted mid-week, publishers won’t quit until libraries are dead. And they got one step closer to that goal on Friday, when Judge John Koetl wasted no time in rejecting every single one of the Internet Archive’s arguments.
Anonymous individuals have created fake copies of the articles they seek to censor, with publication dates preexisting those of the original articles. These individuals then issue a copyright infringement claim under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to the servers that host the original articles. Under US law, “any online author saying that their content has been stolen can seek to have what they claim is the infringing material ‘taken down’ by triggering a formal legal process through web servers who host the material.” The process differs depending on the server, but the bogus complaints can keep content blocked for weeks while the original author proves their credentials.
It is been a year since I started using a new note taking application and it is due time I write a bit about the topic. Logseq[1] is a desktop and mobile application with a wide plugin ecosystem for the desktop version and lots o features.
* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.