Leftovers

• France24 ☛ Japanese town erects barrier to block Mount Fuji view from tourists

  A Japanese town mounted a large mesh barrier at a popular viewing spot for Mount Fuji on Tuesday, in an attempt to deter photo-taking by an ever-growing number of tourists.

• Lykolux ☛ Onepage website architecture

  A simple and small entire website can be seen as one structured document. Such website can be reduced to one web document, i.e. one page!

• Lykolux ☛ A nav menu as webpage

  I’ve had an idea for a menu navigation in the back of my mind for days.

  A menu that would be an entire HTML document: a site map for the user. This menu is a summary of the site. It allows the content to be viewed quickly.

• Michael Bburkhardt ☛ Go Away

  Occasionally, the would-be salesman attempts to counter. Time for the heater: “Have a great day! Thanks again!” I smile and wave before turning to go back inside.

• James G ☛ Blog of the Day

  A few months ago, I had the idea to start a website that chooses one blog a day to be featured as the "blog of the day." The site would broadcast an RSS feed of the blog of the day, offering a new way for you to passively find new websites. I was excited by the serendipity this would offer: you may find the featured blog in your RSS feed resonates with you and becomes your next favourite blog. This project was designed to work at a slow pace: you should never feel overwhelmed with too many things to explore.

• Barry Sampson ☛ Barry Sampson | Blogging Fatigue

  When I started this challenge, I set out to write a post every day for 31 days - and at the moment I'm still planning to do that - but it's getting harder. It's not a lack of things to wrote about that's getting in the way. I've got quite few ideas for thing to write about, but they'll be long posts and they need time to plan and write.

• Lykolux ☛ URLs for blog posts

  Let’s imagine you have a blog. You are posting on this saturday 17th mai 2024 “State of the HTML 2024”.

  How the URL can be?

• Johnny Decimal ☛ Which apps do I use?

  Peter asks on Discord, what apps do you use to organise yourself and your website and your business life?

  I’m in-between tools at the moment; part of the ‘organisational bankruptcy’. But I’ll give a run-down of what I’ve used in the past, and where I’m leaning for the future.

• Rach Smith ☛ Some observations after journaling every day this year

  My main goal for this year was to journal something about my day, every day. Some observations: [...]

• Stefan Zweifel ☛ Migrating from Laravel to Eleventy

  Instead of finishing the many blog post drafts I have in iA Writer, I've spent the last couple of days/weeks replacing the tech stack that runs this website.

  As of May 12th 2024, stefanzweifel.dev now runs on Eleventy and is hosted on Cloudflare Pages.

• Standards/Consortia

  • [Old] Tim Bray ☛ Life Is Complicated

    Having said that, I still think OOXML is totally bogus; ECMA shouldn’t have gone near it and neither should ISO. The world does not need two ways to say “This paragraph is in 12-point Arial with 1.2em leading and ragged-right justification”. As I argued in 2005, if you want to capture MS-Office-specific semantics (not a bad thing in principle) the right way to do it is a namespaced layer on top of ODF.

  • [Old] Groklaw ☛ Groklaw - Deadline Looms to Express Concerns about ECMA 376 Office Open XML

    Judging from my email and the project input, some are worried about Ecma 376 Office Open XML's complexity. It is over 6,000 pages long, excluding supporting material. Is a fast track appropriate for a document of such length? Why, others ask, do we need a duplicative standard, when we already have ISO/IEC 26300, the Open Document Format? If there is a need to address Microsoft legacy documents, why not replace Ecma 376 by a specification that extends ISO 26300 with whatever new tags are needed to cover the additional functionality? Is that something that could be done?

    First, Tim Bray, co-lead developer of the W3C XML 1.0 recommendation, has advocated the same solution, Microsoft developers have reportedly told the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it would be "trivial" for Microsoft to implement OpenDocument in Microsoft Office, and Microsoft's Alan Yates, General Manager, Microsoft Information Worker Business Strategy, predicted that ODF and its competing standard would in fact one day be harmonized:

    "I would say, in the future, some time, you know, at some point, there will be convergence. Convergence does happen over a period of time. Or there will be incorporation, there will be subsetting, supersetting. You know, the wireless standard, the A version merged into the B version, merged into the G version over a period of time to give better performance and functionality over a period of time. ... So, good news, I think, on that front is that this problem will be solved in time."

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Physicists Finally Confirm Einstein's Stunning Prediction About Black Holes

    Beyond the point of no return.

• Education

  • Baldur Bjarnason ☛ The deskilling of web dev is harming the product but, more importantly, it's damaging our health – this is why burnout happens – Baldur Bjarnason

    Even before the web developer job market became as dire as it is today, I was regularly seeing developers burn out and leave the industry. Some left for good; some only temporarily. Many have outright destroyed their health through anxiety and burnout.

    The only other industry I’m familiar with that has the same levels of physically-demanding anxiety and worker churn is trade publishing – and that’s an industry famous for literally paying below-subsistence wages for the cities they’re based in.

    “Maybe I should try to find a job that doesn’t involve web development?"

  • Tracy Durnell ☛ My current work-life “rules”

    A lot of entrepreneurs go in for hustle culture, seemingly working 60-80-hour weeks, but I’ve been trying to create a sustainable practice. To help myself take time to rest and give myself a break from work, these are the guidelines I’ve developed for myself over the past year and a half.

  • Peter Norvig ☛ Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

    Malcolm Gladwell has popularized the idea, although he concentrates on 10,000 hours, not 10 years. Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) had another metric: "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." (He didn't anticipate that with digital cameras, some people can reach that mark in a week.) True expertise may take a lifetime: Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) said "Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." And Chaucer (1340-1400) complained "the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne." Hippocrates (c. 400BC) is known for the excerpt "ars longa, vita brevis", which is part of the longer quotation "Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile", which in English renders as "Life is short, [the] craft long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult." Of course, no single number can be the final answer: it doesn't seem reasonable to assume that all skills (e.g., programming, chess playing, checkers playing, and music playing) could all require exactly the same amount of time to master, nor that all people will take exactly the same amount of time. As Prof. K. Anders Ericsson puts it, "In most domains it's remarkable how much time even the most talented individuals need in order to reach the highest levels of performance. The 10,000 hour number just gives you a sense that we're talking years of 10 to 20 hours a week which those who some people would argue are the most innately talented individuals still need to get to the highest level."

  • Terence Eden ☛ It isn’t who you know – it’s who knows you

    I realise that asking lottery-winners for advice on how to pick your numbers is not a reliable method for becoming a millionaire - but I'd like to explain how I network and where it has got me.

• Hardware

  • The Drone Girl ☛ Chevron Technology Ventures invests in SwissDrones Series B

    You might know Chevron as the company that enables you to put gas in your cars. But right now, Chevron has its eyes on drones — uncrewed helicopters to be exact. Chevron Technology Ventures was one of a handful of investors to toss over more money this month to SwissDrones. SwissDrones primarily bills itself as an aerial intelligence company.

  • [Repeat] Tedium ☛ How Optical Mice Came To Dominate Input Devices

    Today in Tedium: Here’s something that you, as a computer user, likely have not had to do in a long time: Open up the mouse, and clean out the grime that had built up on the rollers over the last couple of months, revealing that no, your desk is not as clean as you believe it to be. No, it’s not because your desk got cleaner. Rather, it’s because we figured out that optical mice were significantly better designs, because they could work in many more settings, in fact, without even requiring a mouse pad. So, what was the aha moment where the ball mouse lost out to the optical one? And how did it happen? Today’s Tedium ponders a mouse-design murder. — Ernie @ Tedium

  • Jason Burk ☛ Buying Weird Old Digital Cameras

    Regarding technology, you generally want the newest possible version of a given item, as technology changes rapidly and improves dramatically along with those changes. For most people, this is typically true with digital cameras as well. This is why I would never recommend these to the average person looking for a digital camera. On to the oddities!

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Canada Asks Chemical Plants to Check Pollution After Leaks Hit Indigenous Community

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] 'No evidence' of H5N1 bird flu spreading among people

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Next generation of Prince Edward Islanders could be hit with tobacco ban — no ifs, ands or butts

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Spanish tourism industry under pressure amid record drought

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Water in N.W.T.'s Great Slave Lake is now so low, some houseboats won't float

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Buying and selling water is a reality in Alberta — sometimes for big money

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-12 [Older] Nurses in special 911 response program help take pressure off ambulances and hospital ERs

  • Video ☛ Confirmed horrifying scandal

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Britain’s ‘day of shame’ as full scale of infected blood scandal revealed

  • Russell Coker ☛ Respect and Children

    I attended the school Yarra Valley Grammer (then Yarra Valley Anglican School which I will refer to as “YV”) and completed year 12 in 1990. The school is currently in the news for a spreadsheet some boys made rating girls where “unrapeable” was one of the ratings. The school’s PR team are now making claims like “Respect for each other is in the DNA of this school”. I’d like to know when this DNA change allegedly occurred because respect definitely wasn’t in the school DNA in 1990! Before I go any further I have to note that if the school threatens legal action against me for this post it will be clear evidence that they don’t believe in respect. The actions of that school have wronged me, several of my friends, many people who aren’t friends but who I wish they hadn’t had to suffer and I hadn’t had to witness it, and presumably countless others that I didn’t witness. If they have any decency they would not consider legal action but I have learned that as an institution they have no decency so I have to note that they should read the Wikipedia page about the Streisand Effect [1] and keep it in mind before deciding on a course of action.

    I think it is possible to create a school where most kids enjoy being there and enjoy learning, where hardly any students find it a negative experience and almost no-one finds it traumatic. But it is not possible to do that with the way schools tend to be run.

    When I was at high school there was a general culture that minor sex crimes committed by boys against boys weren’t a problem, this probably applied to all high schools. Things like ripping a boy’s pants off (known as “dakking”) were considered a big joke. If you accept that ripping the pants off an unwilling boy is a good thing (as was the case when I was at school) then that leads to thinking that describing girls as “unrapeable” is acceptable. The Wikipedia page for “Pantsing” [2] has a reference for this issue being raised as a serious problem by the British Secretary of State for Education and Skills Alan Johnson in 2007. So this has continued to be a widespread problem around the world. Has YV become better than other schools in dealing with it or is Dakking and Wedgies as well accepted now as it was when I attended? There is talk about schools preparing kids for the workforce, but grabbing someone’s underpants without consent will result in instant dismissal from almost all employment. There should be more tolerance for making mistakes at school than at work, but they shouldn’t tolerate what would be serious crimes in other contexts. For work environments there have been significant changes to what is accepted, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that schools can have a similar change in culture.

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Ontario warns Toronto to drop drug decriminalization request

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Frito Lay Canada recalls 2 of its most popular snacks for possible salmonella contamination

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Germany: New online atlas compares 1,700 hospitals' services

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Fentanyl smuggled into US at highest rates ever

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Manitoba post-secondary schools should track student suicides, experts say, but most don't

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Ontario child's death from measles is 1st in province since 1989, public health says

  • The Washington Post flubs it with an advertorial on IV drips

    Last week, I wrote about a poorly framed article in the New York Times by Apoorva Mandavilli about people who thought they were vaccine-injured, pointing out how it seemed to downplay vaccine benefits versus tiny risks while putting front-and-center an unfortunate woman who seems to believe that her health problems were caused by a “contaminated batch” of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and has been drifting into quackery while making rookie mistakes discussing the vaccine safety monitoring system in the US. At the time, there was another, even worse, article about health published in The Washington Post on the same weekend, but I left it aside because discussing COVID-19 vaccines seemed more important than discussing IV drips of minerals and vitamins. Basically, in a way, The Washington Post flubbed science even wore than the NYT did.

  • Futurism ☛ Neuralink Jamming Wires Deeper Into Second Patient's Brain

    While it's good that things haven't gone worse for Arbaugh, it's clear now that Neuralink is applying Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" adage, coined by Musk's nemesis Mark Zuckerberg, to its approach to human test subjects.

  • The Register UK ☛ FDA gives Neuralink another shot at brain chip – report

    The N1 chip itself uses hair-thin wires inserted into the brain, which can come loose – and that's apparently what happened to the upstart's first human patient, Noland Arbaugh.

    It's said 85 percent of the wires connecting the prototype N1 to Arbaugh's brain came loose, leaving just nine or ten of the original 64, greatly reducing the capabilities of the chip. Neuralink did not disclose this in its initial report about the loose wires, only saying that some had come out.

  • Futurism ☛ Man Drinks Poison Oak Smoothie in Bid to Develop Resistance

    At the end of his experiment, Horwitz says he could rub a poison oak leaf on his skin and not experience any rash breakouts.

    "My poison-oak salad days are over, but I do intend to nibble a few leaves here and there when hiking around the Bay Area in an effort to maintain my resistance on a permanent basis," he wrote.

    Horwitz got his idea from reading about how California's indigenous tribes would make tea from poison oak roots and eat the leaves to develop immunity. He also read online forums where outdoors enthusiasts discussed noshing on poison ivy or poison oak helped them develop a resistance, though much of literature he consulted warned not to eat the plants.

  • Science Alert ☛ This New Clue May Signal Alzheimer's Before You Have Symptoms

    A test to show the disease approaching?

  • Science Alert ☛ Testosterone Supplements Can Be Dangerous. Here's Why Some Take The Risk.

    A shocking revelation.

  • Federal News Network ☛ EPA warns of increasing cyberattacks on water systems, urges utilities to take immediate action

    The Environmental Protection Agency warns that cyberattacks against water utilities around the U.S. are becoming more frequent and more severe. The agency on Monday issued an alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation's drinking water. The EPA said about 70% of utilities inspected by federal officials over the past year violated standards meant to protect cyberattacks. They cited basic errors such as failing to change default passwords or cut off system access to former employees. The EPA says nations including Russia, China and Iran are actively seeking the ability to disable critical U.S. infrastructure.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Now Armed With AI, America's Adversaries Will Try to Influence Election, Security Officials Warn

  • Screen Rant ☛ Xbox Is Making A Huge Mistake Putting Call Of Duty On Game Pass

    Call of Duty is expected to come to Xbox Game Pass, but this choice might not be the best decision for Xbox. It's not guaranteed that subscriptions to Game Pass will increase, and this move could end up hurting Xbox financially at a time when console exclusives are already struggling with sales. Additionally, studio closures and layoffs are being seen throughout the game industry, meaning that this could be a dangerous time to make this kind of financial move.

  • Mike Rockwell ☛ Hating Apple Goes Mainstream

    I would say the downfall started more than five years ago. I would look at the 2015 introduction of the butterfly keyboard as the beginning of this era. An era where they would continue to sell these awful keyboards for around five years, failing to resolve the issue through at least two iterations of the product before finally moving back to scissor switches.

  • 37signals LLC ☛ Hating Apple goes mainstream

    That's because Apple has lost its presumption of good faith over the last five years with an ever-larger group of people, and now we've reached a tipping point. A year ago, I'm sure this awful ad would have gotten push back, but I'm also sure we'd heard more "it's not that big of a deal" and "what Apple really meant to say was..." from the stalwart Apple apologists the company has been able to count on for decades. But it's awfully quiet on the fan-boy front.

  • Cory Dransfeldt ☛ AI-free products

    You build the tool, keep it as simple as possible and it does what you set out for it to do. Your customers see the value and use it accordingly.

  • Reason ☛ AI Regulations Are Crony Capitalism in Action

    Because of ChatGPT's seemingly vast powers, Altman called for government regulation to "mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful AI systems" and recommended that U.S. or global leaders form an agency that would license AI systems and have the authority to "take that license away and ensure compliance with safety standards." Major AI players around the world quickly roared approval of Altman's "I want to be regulated" clarion call.

    Welcome to the brave new world of AI and cozy crony capitalism, where industry players, interest groups, and government agents meet continuously to monitor and manage investor-owned firms.

  • Derek Kędziora ☛ New tech that’s actually interesting

    For now AI is overhyped FOMO. Apple is the new Microsoft, which means it’s good enough and kind of works but not antthing to get excited about.

    But that doesn’t mean there aren’t interesting things going on in the tech world.

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Workspace vs Office - Google goes for Microsoft's jugular

    Google is betting Microsoft’s very public cybersecurity failures — along with deep discounts — will persuade corporate and government customers to use the search giant’s productivity software rather than Office.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Germany: Cybercrime by foreign actors rose by 28% in 2023

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] RBC customer's cheque was cashed twice. He says his bank shouldn't have let it happen

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Calgary lawyer resigns from firm after sending 'disturbing' and 'misogynistic' email

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] AI Lexicon: F is for facial recognition [Ed: Well, nothing to do with "AI"; This kind of media needs to stop pumping this hype-driven Ponzi scheme around valuation and fictional prospects]

    • EFF ☛ Shots Fired: Congressional Letter Questions DHS Funding of ShotSpotter

      The seven page letter, from Senators Ed Markey, Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren, and Representative Ayanna Pressley, begins by questioning the “accuracy and effectiveness” of ShotSpotter, and then outlines some of the latest evidence of its abysmal performance, including multiple studies showing false positive rates—i.e. incorrectly classifying non-gunshot sounds as gunshots—at 70% or higher. In addition to its ineffectiveness, the Congress members voiced their serious concerns regarding ShotSpotter’s contribution to discrimination, civil rights violations, and poor policing practices due to the installation of most ShotSpotter sensors in overwhelmingly “Black, Brown and Latin[e] communities” at the request of local law enforcement. Together, the inefficacy of the technology and the placements can result in the deployment of police to what they expect to be a dangerous situation with guns drawn, increasing the chances of all-too-common police violence against civilians in the area.

      In light of the grave concerns raised by the use of ShotSpotter, the lawmakers are demanding that DHS investigate its funding, and whether it’s an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. We agree: DHS should investigate, and should end its program of offering grants to local law enforcement agencies to contract with SoundThinking. 

      The letter can be read in its entirety here.

    • EFF ☛ Georgia Prosecutors Stoke Fears over Use of Encrypted Messengers and Tor

      “Indeed, communication among the Defend the Atlanta Forest members is often cloaked in secrecy using sophisticated technology aimed at preventing law enforcement from viewing their communication and preventing recovery of the information” the indictment reads. “Members often use the dark web via Tor, use end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal or Telegram.”

      The secure messaging app Signal is used by tens of millions of people, and has hundreds of millions of global downloads. In 2021, users moved to the nonprofit-run private messenger en masse as concerns were raised about the data-hungry business models of big tech. In January of that year, former world’s richest man Elon Musk tweeted simply “Use Signal.” And world-famous NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden tweeted in 2016 what in information security circles would become a meme and truism: “Use Tor. Use Signal.”

  • Confidentiality

    • 404 Media ☛ Nonconsensual AI Porn Maker Accidentally Leaks His Customers' Emails

      A popular Patreon account that created nonconsensual AI-generated sexual images of celebrities for his paying subscribers has leaked a list of his clients’ emails to other clients and to 404 Media.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Air Force Times ☛ Bud Anderson, America’s last World War II ‘triple ace,’ dies at 102

    Over the course of the war, the Mustang was credited with downing nearly 600 enemy planes — including a record 17 of Nazi Germany’s Messerschmitt Me-262 jets — and destroying more than 100 aircraft on the ground. It also produced a record 42 aces, including Anderson, who at the end of the war had 16.25 victories to his credit. (Pilots are awarded a fraction of a “kill” if multiple airmen contributed to a plane’s downfall.)

  • The Register UK ☛ DoJ and ByteDance ask court to speed up ruling on TikTok ban

    The Act defines ByteDance and TikTok as foreign adversary-controlled applications and gives US presidents the power to name more. The concern among US lawmakers is that the company is beholden to requests from Beijing whether that be to snoop on Americans, alter algorithms to push propoganda or otherwise.

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok, U.S. Gov't Jointly Move to Fast-Track Ban Lawsuit

    Ahead of a quick-approaching deadline for ByteDance to divest from or shut down TikTok in the U.S., a joint motion has been filed to fast-track the appropriate legal challenges.

  • YLE ☛ Finland and UK sign strategic partnership deal

    According to the Finnish Foreign Ministry, the strategic partnership between Finland and the UK will deepen cooperation in many areas, including global and multilateral issues, such as the economy, migration, security and defence.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Israel-Hamas war: Biden says Gaza offensive 'not genocide'

    "The simultaneous application for arrest warrants against the Hamas leaders on the one hand and the two Israeli officials on the other has given the false impression of equivalence," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

  • VOA News ☛ Rwanda deploying another 2500 soldiers to help Mozambique fight Cabo Delgado insurgency

    Rwanda is deploying an additional 2,500 soldiers to help Mozambique fight resurgent attacks by Islamic State insurgents in the oil-rich Cabo Delgado province. Attacks have been on the rise in the area as a force known as SAMIM, deployed by the Southern African Development Community, prepares to withdraw.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Navy grapples with at-sea shortages as recruiting lags

    Although retention remains strong, the Navy has thousands of vacancies in its afloat community because of the recruiting slowdown.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Congo: Can SADC troops defeat M23 rebels?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Grave of German politician Wolfgang Schäuble desecrated

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] US: 30 years for man who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] India: How a year of ethnic violence changed Manipur

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Missouri Man Pleads Guilty to Crashing Truck Into White House Security Barriers

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Iran hopes to boost security with Afghan border wall

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Violence in New Caledonia Subsides Slightly as France Sends Reinforcements for Security [Ed: China's TikTok inflaming conflict]

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] New Caledonia: France declares state of emergency amid riots

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Catalonia: Separatists lose majority as Socialists make gains [Ed: Violence incited by TikTok]

  • The Local SE ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Sweden boosts security for Israeli interests after gunfire near embassy [Ed: The country is overrun by Muslims, 20% by some estimates (many undocumented)]

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Robert Fico shooting highlights Slovakia's deep polarization

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-18 [Older] Slovakia: 'We have to stop this hatred'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Slovakia: PM Fico in 'serious' state after another operation

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Slovakia: PM Fico able to speak, 'lone wolf' suspect charged

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Slovakia: PM Fico shot in 'an attack on democracy'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Slovakia: PM Fico shot, in 'life threatening condition'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Netherlands: New coalition pitches 'strictest' asylum policy

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Sudan facing 'inferno of brutal violence': UN

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Switzerland: Police arrest knife attack suspect

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Switzerland: 'Several' wounded in knife attack

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Iran: Police arrest some 260 people at 'satanist' gathering

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Armenia detains scores of Azerbaijan land deal protesters

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Alberta RCMP link four Calgary murders in 1970s to American serial killer

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] French police kill man who tried to set fire to synagogue

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Germany: Court fines AfD politician Höcke over Nazi slogan

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Germany: Far-right leader Björn Höcke suffers defeat in court

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Germany's far-right AfD under mounting pressure

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Italy: Police arrest over 100 mafia members in mass raid

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-18 [Older] Afghanistan: Three Spanish tourists killed in shootout

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Netherlands: Right-wing parties to form government

  • Democracy Now ☛ Trita Parsi on Future of Iran After President & Foreign Minister Die in Helicopter Crash

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash along with several other officials and crew. Wreckage of the helicopter was found early Monday in a mountainous region of the country’s northwest following an overnight search in blizzard conditions. Raisi was returning from inaugurating a new dam built jointly with Azerbaijan along the two countries’ border. Raisi, 63, was elected in 2021 in a vote that saw the lowest-percentage turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history after major opposition candidates were disqualified from taking part. Analyst Trita Parsi says the president’s death will have little impact on the Islamic Republic’s policies, including barring dissident candidates from running for office. “Now the regime is going to have to try to whip up and mobilize voters and excitement for an election within 50 days,” he says. “And it has to make a decision: Is it actually going to allow other candidates to stand, or is it going to continue on the path that it has set out for itself in which these elections increasingly become rather meaningless in terms of actual democratic value?”

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Can China resolve Niger-Benin border dispute?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Chinese planes 'increasingly provocative' to Taiwan

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Germany: Man jailed for life for train knife attack

  • New York Times ☛ Iran President Raisi Is Latest Prominent Figure to Die in a Helicopter Crash

    Officials from Ukraine, Kenya and Sudan are just some of the others who have also died in crashes.

  • France24 ☛ Reactions pour in after death of Iranian President Raisi in helicopter crash

    Iran's powerful allies on Monday mourned the death of its President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, while regional militants hailed him as a supporter of the Palestinian cause. The United States expressed its condolences but said the deceased ultraconservative leader "had blood on his hands", Russia and China called him a "friend", and Iran's arch-foe Israel slammed the United Nations Security Council's decision to hold a minute of silence in a mark of respect. Read the live blog to see how events developed.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Georgia: EU, NATO condemn passing of 'foreign agent' law

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Georgia's president plans foreign agent law veto as 'symbol'

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Georgia parliament passes divisive 'foreign influence' bill

    • LRT ☛ A Ukrainian fought and died among Lithuanian partisans. His story remains a mystery

      Amid a sea of crosses bearing Lithuanian tricolours, one stood out. Marked with a blue-yellow trident, it carried the name of the only Ukrainian volunteer to fight and die alongside Lithuania‘s anti-Soviet partisans – Ivan Resekovski.

    • Latvia ☛ Protesters rally again against EP election debates in Russian

      The issue of pre-election debates in Russian in the public media continues to be a hot topic. A few days ago there was a protest in front of the Public Electronic Mass Media Council, and on Monday there is another one.

    • teleSUR ☛ Ramstein Group to Reinforce Ukraine's Air Defense

      This group consists of the European Union and 56 countries, including 32 NATO member states.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Can Ukraine attack inside Russia? Kyiv wants US to say yes.

      U.S. military aid is reaching Ukraine with much-needed ammunition and air defense systems. Kyiv wants to use Western weapons to hit inside Russia.

    • New York Times ☛ For Old Ukrainians, Russia’s Invasion Echoes World War II Trauma

      The oldest Ukrainians whose towns have been bombarded and overrun by Russia’s invasion have memories of similar miseries at the hands of Nazi Germany in World War II.

    • RFERL ☛ Appeal By Woman Imprisoned For Killing Pro-Kremlin Blogger Rejected

      A military appeals court in St. Petersburg on May 20 rejected a motion filed by Darya Trepova against the 27-year prison term she was handed after she was found guilty for her role in the killing of prominent pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, a fervent proponent of Russia's war in Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ Faced With a Russian Onslaught, Ukraine Struggles to Keep the Lights On

      The government has for the first time ordered nationwide rolling blackouts for Monday night to conserve energy.

    • JURIST ☛ Finland parliament to vote on controversial Russia border migration law: PM

      Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced on Sunday plans to introduce a draft law introducing temporary measures to combat instrumentalized migration at the Finnish-Russian border, in an interview with Finnish media. The controversial law which potentially breaches international law commitments on asylum, will be proposed later this week.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Jason Kratz ☛ Why I'm Unplugging from Tech Media - A Rant on Misinformation

    I’ve reached my breaking point with the tech media. You might have seen the recent story that people were having deleted photos reappear on their iPhones after Apple released the latest update, iOS 17.5. One Reddit user posted that photos they had deleted had reappeared on an a device they had wiped and sold. No real proof was given but the story spread in the tech press anyhow.

    The story didn’t hold up under scrutiny (the user deleted the post and their account soon after posting and they had a very short posting history) and has only gotten worse with the release of iOS 17.5.1 today which fixes the bug but with an admittedly inadequate explanation.

  • The Register UK ☛ Boeing union holds whistleblower-rights training for workers

    A union representing Boeing employees held a training session last week on whistleblower protection rights, suggesting the troubled jetmaker's problems may be far from over.

• Environment

  • JURIST ☛ Amnesty International says South Korea ruling on climate change case could set human rights precedent

    The four cases were first heard in April by the court and involve approximately 200 people, 60 of whom are children. The plaintiffs are suing the South Korean government due to an alleged failure to adequately protect people against the harms of climate change, claiming the state is violating the right to life in Article 34 and the right to a healthy environment in Article 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea.

  • The Kent Stater ☛ Air Quality Alert issued for northeast Ohio

    The current air quality index in Kent is at 126, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Extreme weather batters world in 2024

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Germany: Floods hit large parts of Saarland

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Is India taking a risk with Iran Chabahar port deal?

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Ontario's 'Crypto King' arrested after 18-month investigation

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Ontario's 'Crypto King' and his associate arrested, charged with fraud

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Minister suggests Canada is considering tariffs on Chinese EVs following U.S. move

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Benin gives green light for Niger's oil exports to China

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] India: Is the Tata Group's Air India revamp working?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] US announces higher China tariffs, including 100% for EVs

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] US-China trade war: Why Joe Biden has raised the stakes

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Canada's next EV supply chain plant landing in Port Colborne, Ont.

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] $1.6B EV battery separator plant to open in Ontario's Niagara Region in 2027 will 'boost' the city, mayor says

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Ontario plans to toughen penalties for impaired drivers

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Ontario to suspend driver's licences of convicted auto thieves

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Quebec to force gas stations to report their prices. Will it lower fuel costs?

    • DeSmog ☛ ‘Hydrogen Highway’ Network of Refueling Stations to Span Alberta Cities

    • The Revelator ☛ Burning Trees: As the Biomass Industry Grows, Its Carbon Emissions Go Uncounted

    • Connor Tumbleson ☛ I hate flying

      So I started changing my life to avoid flights unless absolutely needed - driving everywhere when possible and declining trips as a flight was involved. When a flight was not avoidable I forced myself to find a direct flight to cut down on the possibility of getting sick on the plane.

    • Rob Knight ☛ Do You Not Fear Death, Sir?

      It was fine, no one died, we made it back in one piece. Still. The man clearly has no fear.

    • YLE ☛ Google's planned Finnish data centre expansion to create 100 new jobs

      The firm has operated the centre in the southern city since 2011 and has expanded the facility a number of times.

      Google currently employs around 400 people in Hamina and it is expected that the new expansion will create about 100 new jobs.

    • India Times ☛ Google invests 1 billion euros in Finnish data centre to drive AI growth

      In recent years, many data centres have been located in the Nordic countries because of the region's cooler climate, tax breaks and abundant availability of renewable power.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-12 [Older] Western Canada Blazes Cause Evacuation Orders, Air Quality Concerns

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Canada: Evacuations as wildfire closes in on oil sands town

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Explainer-Canada Wildfire Season Is Heating Up: Here's What to Know

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] A Wildfire in Western Canada Is Growing. More People Nearby Are Told to Leave

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] B.C. man who was tracking a bear airlifted to hospital after grizzly attack

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Roadkill on the menu: Can highways become wildlife friendly?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Animal crossing: How wildlife-safe highways stop roadkill

• Finance

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-12 [Older] How Germany plans to end homelessness

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] WATCH | Are you boycotting Loblaw? We asked people across Canada

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Shoppers Drug Mart 'volunteer' job posting was an error: Loblaw

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Germany faces challenge as 2025 tax forecast sinks

  • The Verge ☛ She sold her bathwater — PayPal took her profits

    Belle Delphine, the woman who went viral in 2019 for selling jars of her bathwater, revealed earlier this month that the stunt earned her $90K in profits. In a thread on X, the adult content creator and model also explained that because of PayPal, the payment processing system she used for the sale, she never saw a dime of that money.

    “PayPal, without any warning closed my PayPal account and took the $90,000 that I earned from selling my bathwater,” Belle Delphine wrote.

  • Business Insider ☛ Belle Delphine Got $90K From PayPal Years After Selling Her Bathwater

    She made about $90,000, but PayPal froze her account and kept the money as a fine for each sale.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Have the Germans become lazy at work? [Ed: More victim-blaming in a failing system? Well, victim-blaming never solves problems and it barely delays solution seeking, it just offends the victims and then exacerbates things by virtue of suppressed rage that can "explode".]

  • Deccan Herald ☛ Pandemic-era college kids face job market that doesn’t want them [Ed: Lots of victim-blaming going on these days]

    The class of 2024 - tainted by the pandemic, this outgoing class of seniors had anything but a typical college experience. Most are ready to enter the “real world”. Yet the class is - again - needing to adjust their expectations.

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] Semi-detached Toronto home renovation sparks bitter feud among neighbours

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Kuwait's unique democratic experiment could be at an end

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] German court upholds AfD 'suspected' extremist status

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Germany: Angela Merkel's memoirs to be published in November

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] 4th man appears in court on charges of killing B.C. Sikh leader

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Sikh Killings and Strained Canada-India Relations

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] North Macedonia name dispute reignites spat with Greece

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Protests in Pakistan-ruled Kashmir expose long-standing grievances

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Protests in Pakistan-held Kashmir end after aid deal offer

  • Federal News Network ☛ VA should admit failure of its new e-health record system

    Despite this skepticism, there does not appear to be even the smallest consideration that this program should be reevaluated, even though the VA has not been able to show any — even the slightest — benefit to veterans, clinicians or the American taxpayer after six years and $10 billion worth of effort. The best that VA Secretary Denis McDonough could say about the program is that “VA is seeing incremental, but accelerating progress as it addresses the issues that clinicians and other end users are experiencing.”

    This decision to move forward, even though every known metric for this system is negative — and many are tragically negative — is incomprehensible.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Google to invest €1B in Finland data center expansion

    Google LLC will invest €1 billion, or $1.1 billion, to expand a data center campus it built in southern Finland more than a decade ago.

  • The Verge ☛ Google plans to reuse heat after expanding a data center for AI

    Already energy-hungry data centers are now even more energy-intensive when used for AI. Reusing the server heat is one way to mitigate the effects that AI has on the power grid and environment. After all, if Google isn’t careful, its scramble to inject AI into Search and other products could derail the company’s climate goals and place added pressure on energy systems where it operates.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Worker Co-Ops Have a Role to Play in Socialist Strategy

    There’s another benefit to building up the cooperative economy: it is a proven way to combat the atomization of modern society which, many of us now recognize, has made it harder for the Left to win elections and union drives. Without a sense that our well-being depends on the well-being of others, not only is it harder to mobilize the votes needed for left candidates to win — it is harder to convince voters that left policies are even desirable. As Gabriel Winant has lamented, “Eugene Debs could rise from the dead and would get little traction.”

  • RTL ☛ Social media platform: Parent company of Trump's Truth Social posts $328 mln loss

    Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns former US president Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social, lost more than $300 million in the first quarter of 2024, it said Monday.

    TMTG, which recently went public, posted a net loss of $327.6 million from January to March, compared with $210,300 in net losses for the same period last year, according to a company statement.

  • New Yorker ☛ What Asian America Meant to Corky Lee

    A new anthology by Chinatown’s omnipresent documentarian, who captured half a century of shifting identities, activism, and daily life.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-12 [Older] Fake news on the rise leading up to EU election

    • NL Times ☛ Doctors increasingly have to dissuade patients from medical misinformation found online

      Doctors are facing more and more medical misinformation in their practices. They increasingly have to dissuade patients from false claims they heard on social media like that whooping cough is beneficial for a child’s development, deodorant can make you sick, and sunscreen is carcinogenic, NOS reports after surveying 670 doctors with the doctors’ federation KNMG.

      Over half (55 percent) of the surveyed doctors speak to a misinformed patient at least once a week. For 14 percent, it’s a daily occurrence. Misinformation about vaccinations, allergies, vitamins, and contraception is most common, according to the respondents.

    • The Local SE ☛ Inside Sweden: Why [astroturfer] factory won't spark a government crisis

      News that the Sweden Democrats are operating a far-right [astroturfer] factory – which among other things the party uses to smear political opponents as well as its supposed allies – has caused probably the biggest rift yet between them and the three other parties that make up Sweden’s ruling coalition.

    • New York Times ☛ In China, Deepfakes of ‘Russian’ Women Point to ‘Nationalistic Sexism’

      A.I.-manipulated videos on Chinese sites use young, supposedly Russian women to promote China-Russia ties, stoke patriotism — and make money.

    • Mozilla ☛ Sneha Revanur on empowering youth voices in AI, fighting for legislation and combating deepfakes and disinformation

      At Mozilla, we know we can’t create a better future alone, that is why each year we will be highlighting the work of 25 digital leaders using technology to amplify voices, effect change, and build new technologies globally through our Rise 25 Awards. 

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-12 [Older] Dresden Peace Prize goes to the late Alexei Navalny

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Key witness Cohen says Trump told him to pay hush money

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Roman Polanski: French court acquits director in libel trial

  • International Business Times ☛ UK Cracks Down On 'Just Stop Oil': Will Force Org To Pay For Being Disruptive And Make It Easier to Sue Them

    Per a conversation between The Telegraph and a source from the Home Office, the new guidelines will make it easier to sue JSO. This could occur when they set up a roadblock preventing people from arriving on time to work or making a hospital appointment.

  • Futurism ☛ Sam Altman Clearly Freaked Out by Reaction to News of OpenAI Silencing Former Employees

    The optics were especially appalling because both had been working on OpenAI's team dedicated to controlling any future superintelligent AI the company might create, with one of the two harshly criticizing OpenAI's purported lack of commitment in that domain. And then things got even more embarrassing for the company when Vox reported that any workers leaving OpenAI had to sign a draconian nondisclosure agreement to retain their equity stipulating, among other things, that they could never criticize the company in the future.

  • Meduza ☛ A Ukrainian student escaped Russia after his arrest for anti-war posts. Meduza’s sources say his friends asked Putin’s daughter for help.

    For nearly two years, he managed to avoid any trouble from the authorities. In March 2024, however, he received a Telegram message from an acquaintance warning him that some of his classmates had screenshotted his anti-war posts and were planning to report him.

    “I probably should have left [Russia] at that point, but my thesis defense was coming up, my state exams were just around the corner, and I decided to stay,” he says.

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ Georgia has now reached a crucial moment

    Enforcing the law may serve several purposes. These include the government’s desire to control and weaken opposition organizations; to entrench the political system and maintain power; to mobilize its own electorate; or to divert attention from Georgia’s other problems. The parliamentary elections will be held in Georgia this October. The attempt to maintain the power is the main driving force behind the Georgian Dream policy. And the future success remains uncertain. While it is true that Georgia has managed to improve some macroeconomic indicators since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine, mainly by restoring economic relations with sanctioned Russia, the country still faces problems. These include an unemployment rate of around 15 per cent, corruption and a huge wave of emigration. This coincides with the simultaneous arrival of Russians, their purchase of property and the influx of Russian capital into Georgia. This is causing justifiable resentment in Georgian society, as around 20 per cent of the country’s territory remains outside Tbilisi’s control as a result of the 2008 war with Russia. At the same time some part of the society benefits from the situation.

  • RFA ☛ Chinese agents highly active in democratic Taiwan, dissidents say

    He believes the ruling Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping is now focusing closely on "cleaning up" opposition voices overseas, and has spotted people he believes to be Chinese agents a number of times at public events in democratic Taiwan.

    According to a former Chinese agent who spoke recently to Australian broadcaster ABC, this is exactly what's going on. Former Chinese spy "Eric" told the station that he has been involved in surveillance, abductions and the silencing of targets around the world since 2008.

  • RFA ☛ Conform or be canceled

    Taiwanese TV and movie actor Wu Mu-hsuen was recently forced to sign a pledge to support China's claim that democratic Taiwan is a part of China, or her the online drama "Hey! Come a bit closer" would never be aired. [...]

  • RFERL ☛ Trial Of Theater Director Berkovich, Playwright Petriichuk Starts In Moscow

    A military court in Moscow has started the trial of theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriichuk, who are charged with justifying terrorism.

  • RFERL ☛ YouTube Blocks 4 Videos At Russia's Request

    The YouTube online video-sharing platform has blocked four videos after a request from Russia's Roskomnadzor media watchdog, Agentsvo Telegram channel reported on May 20.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Anti-War Activist Gets 25 Years In Prison On Treason Charge

    A court in Siberia on May 20 sentenced anti-war activist Ilya Baburin to 25 years in prison on a high-treason charge that stemmed from allegations that the 24-year-old planned to set several military recruitment centers on fire.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • CPJ ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] CPJ urges India to ensure freedom for 3 journalists granted bail in security cases

  • Democracy Now ☛ British High Court Grants WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange the Right to Appeal U.S. Extradition

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday won the right to appeal his extradition to the United States. Assange’s lawyers argued before the British High Court that the U.S. government provided “blatantly inadequate” assurances that Assange would have the same free speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain. Assange has spent more than a decade facing the threat of extradition to the U.S., where he faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This is a victory for Julian Assange in that he lives on to fight another day, his case lives on to fight another day. But he’s not out of Belmarsh [Prison] yet, and he’s not in the clear yet,” says Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent. “This could still end in him being sent to the U.S. And the person who can stop this is Joe Biden and Merrick Garland.”

  • The Dissenter ☛ US Effort To Extradite Assange Hits Roadblock

    Assange, an award-winning journalist, faces a maximum of 175 years in prison for his role in receiving and publishing classified materials relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Guantanamo Bay detainee files, and diplomatic cables. No other individual or press organization which participated in the publications of these very documents, including the New York Times, Washington Post and The Guardian, have faced criminal charges.

    Throughout Assange’s extradition case, the U.S. government has argued that he would not be permitted to argue that his publications were protected under the First Amendment — because he is a non-U.S. citizen whose activities occurred outside the U.S.

  • RFA ☛ Head of embattled Hong Kong journalists' union to step down

    Ronson Chan, an outspoken critic of diminishing press freedom who currently chairs the embattled Hong Kong Journalists' Association, has said he won't run again for office in union elections at the end of next month, saying he had been told that the organization would continue to be targeted by the authorities if he didn't step down.

  • Daniel Pocock ☛ Fact check: relation to Julian Assange, founded Wikileaks at University of Melbourne and Arjen Kamphuis

    Arjen Kamphuis is notable for his collaboration with the UK Centre for Investigative Journalism and his work on the book Information Security for Journalists and for his subsequent disappearance. It is not clear if Arjen was very close to Wikileaks or just one of many people with a similar interest in the security of journalists.

  • The Register UK ☛ Julian Assange can appeal extradition from UK to US

    Manning gave Assange various collections of classified data, including hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables that formed the basis of the Cablegate series on WikiLeaks, and details about the Pentagon's actions in Iraq and Afghanistan including potential war crimes committed by American forces.

  • El País ☛ London court rules WikiLeaks founder Assange can appeal against an extradition order to the US

    “The U.S. response has been to say that Assange will always be able to use the First Amendment in his defense, but that it will be the court that must decide whether to admit it or not. That is no guarantee, quite the opposite. It does not clarify anything about what may happen if he is eventually extradited to the United States,” Jennifer Robinson, the Australian publisher’s lawyer, explained last week at a briefing in London with the Foreign Press Association.

  • France24 ☛ WikiLeaks’ Assange wins UK court bid to appeal extradition to US

    Assange is wanted by Washington for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US documents from 2010 as head of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

  • New York Times ☛ Assange Can Appeal U.S. Extradition, English Court Rules

    Two High Court judges said they would allow an appeal to be heard on a limited number of issues.

  • NYPost ☛ WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal US extradition order

    Commuters emerging from a Tube stop near the courthouse couldn’t miss a large sign bearing Assange’s photo and the words, “Publishing is not a crime. War crimes are.” Scores of supporters gathered outside the neo-Gothic Royal Courts of Justice chanting “Free Julian Assange” and “Press freedom, Assange freedom.”

    Some held a large white banner aimed at President Biden, exhorting: “Let him go Joe.”

  • Hindustan Times ☛ WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal against extradition to US, rules UK court

    Assange's lawyers argued that the U.S. provided “blatantly inadequate” assurances the whistleblower would have free press protections if extradited to America to face espionage charges.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Julian Assange wins bid to bring appeal against extradition

    At a hearing on Monday, the two judges granted permission to appeal over the freedom of speech and nationality points, meaning Assange will be able to bring the appeal.

  • Wired ☛ WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Can Appeal His Extradition to the US, British Court Says

    Following a two-hour hearing, at which Assange was not present due to health issues, the judges allowed Assange to appeal his extradition on freedom of speech and freedom of expression grounds. The decision, the latest in a years-long legal battle, follows a UK High Court ruling in May that asked the US government to provide more “assurances” about the conditions Assange would face if he was extradited. In that instance, the court said it required more convincing that Assange would have free speech protections, his Australian nationality would not prejudice him in any trial, and he would not later be sentenced to death.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Julian Assange given permission to appeal US extradition

    Assange's wife, Stella, said outside the court the US should "read the situation" and drop the case.

    "As a family we are relieved but how long can this go on?" she said. "This case is shameful and it is taking an enormous toll on Julian."

  • Amnesty International ☛ UK/USA: Long lasting damage to global media freedom as Julian Assange back in UK court ahead of possible extradition to USA

    Following the adjournment of court on 26 March, the High Court in the UK has confirmed a hearing on 20 May, having received renewed diplomatic assurances from the USA on 16 April.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s lawyers to argue no case to answer at national security trial

    Lawyers for Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai have said they will argue the tycoon has no case to answer in his national security trial, in which he faces three conspiracy charges involving foreign collusion and sedition.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-12 [Older] Germany: Tesla protests end with arrests and dismantled camp

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-16 [Older] Tesla: Court win for German protesters amid expansion vote

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Thai PM promises investigation after activist dies in jail

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Ousman Sonko: Swiss court convicts Gambia ex-minister

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Pakistan: Why are there so few female judges?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-17 [Older] US: Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama remain union-free

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] Workers can form union at Amazon warehouse in Laval, Que., a first in Canada

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Calls for evictions, threats of vigilantism over drug activity at Kenora, Ont., apartment building

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-15 [Older] Van passenger in Ontario highway wrong-way crash was barred from liquor store after alleged theft

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-14 [Older] Immigrant workers say future in limbo as government ranking system scores soar

  • EFF ☛ Podcast Episode: Chronicling Online Communities

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: The new globalism is global labor

    That meant that each level of the system – primary, junior, secondary – was about to go through a whipsaw, in which low numbers of students would be followed by large numbers. For a unionized education workforce, this presented a crisis: normally, a severe contraction in student numbers would trigger layoffs, on a last-in, first-out basis. That meant that layoffs loomed for junior teachers, who would almost certainly end up retraining for another career. When student numbers picked up again, those teachers wouldn't be in the workforce anymore, and worse, a lot of the senior teachers who got priority during layoffs would be retiring, magnifying the crisis.

  • The Register UK ☛ Police caught circumventing city bans on face recognition

    Police in multiple major US cities have figured out a trick to circumvent bans on facial recognition technology. Just ask a friend in a city without any such restrictions to do it for you.

    It's not immediately clear how widespread such side-stepping of facial recognition restrictions in the US may be. According to the Washington Post's review of police documents in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, California, however, it's definitely something that's gone on in at least two major US metropolitan areas.

  • ACLU ☛ We Fought for Deaf People on Probation and Parole in Georgia — and Won

    A five-year effort to get equal access for deaf and hard-of-hearing people on parole and probation in Georgia has ended in victory. The American Civil Liberties Union and our legal partners reached a groundbreaking settlement that requires the Georgia agency responsible for supervising people on probation and parole – the Georgia Department of Community Supervision or “GDCS” – to dismantle the discriminatory hurdles that make it harder for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to avoid prison and live safely in their communities. We hope that other states look to this agreement when determining what is required for their supervision agencies to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • EFF ☛ Sunsetting Section 230 Will Hurt Internet Users, Not Big Tech

    The House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on Wednesday on a bill that would end 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“Section 230”) in 18 months. The authors of the bill argue that setting a deadline to either change or eliminate Section 230 will force the Big Tech online platforms to the bargaining table to create a new regime of intermediary liability.  

    As EFF has said for years, Section 230 is essential to protecting individuals’ ability to speak, organize, and create online. 

    Congress knew exactly what Section 230 would do – that it would lay the groundwork for speech of all kinds across the internet, on websites both small and large. And that’s exactly what has happened.  

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-13 [Older] EU says Booking.com is tech 'gatekeeper,' set to rule on X

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Finds CINNAMON DONUT STOUT to be Generic for . . . Guess What?

    I don't drink a lot of beer - I want to keep my weigh down. But I don't think I would ever want a glass of CINNAMON DONUT STOUT. The Board was not enamored with the idea, either. It affirmed a refusal to register, on the Supplemental Register, the term CINNAMON DONUT STOUT for "beer" [STOUT disclaimed], finding it to be generic for the goods under Sections 23(c) and 45. Examining Attorney Raul Cordova "proffered clear and convincing evidence that beer is offered in a variety of flavors that describe the central, or key, aspect of the beer." In re Blake Farms Hard Fashion Company Apple Cider, LLC, Serial No. 90504414 (May 16, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Melanye K. Johnson).

  • Right of Publicity

    • RTL ☛ Synthetic voice: OpenAI to 'pause' voice linked to Scarlett Johansson

      "I was shocked, angered, and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets couldn't tell the difference," Johannson said in a statement.

    • Wired ☛ Scarlett Johansson Says OpenAI Ripped Off Her Voice for ChatGPT

      On Monday, Johansson issued a statement claiming to have forced that reversal, after her lawyers demanded OpenAI clarify how the new voice was created.

    • The Verge ☛ Scarlett Johansson told OpenAI not to use her voice — and she’s not happy they might have anyway

      Johansson says she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” over how “eerily similar” the voice of Sky sounded to herself. OpenAI said the voice comes from an actor who they hired who is speaking in their normal speaking voice. The company declined to share the actor’s name, citing privacy concerns.

    • NPR ☛ Scarlett Johansson says she is 'shocked, angered' over new ChatGPT voice

      "After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer," Johansson wrote.

      Just two days before the new ChatGPT was unveiled, Altman again reached out to Johansson's team, urging the actress to reconsider, she said.

      But before she and Altman could connect, the company publicly announced its new, splashy product, complete with a voice that she says appears to have copied her likeness.

      To Johansson, it was a personal affront.

    • Hindustan Times ☛ Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI: Actor says ChatGPT voice is 'eerily similar' to hers. 5 points to know about controversy

      In a personal claim, Scarlett Johansson stated that OpenAI initially approached her to use her voice in their project. However, after careful consideration, she declined the offer to voice the chatbot herself. On May 20, the actor accused the tech company of using a voice that was strikingly similar to hers.

    • NDTV ☛ Scarlett Johansson "Angered" By OpenAI Chatbot Voice That Sounds "Eerily" Like Her

      Ms Johansson added that she declined the offer but was taken aback when she heard the demo. "When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. Mr Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word "her" - a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human."

      Ms Johansson stated that the circumstances "forced her to hire legal counsel," and as a result, her attorney sent two letters to Mr Altman and OpenAI requesting an explanation of the chatbot's voice's creation process. She added that OpenAI then "reluctantly agreed" to remove the voice from the platform.

    • Variety ☛ Scarlett Johansson Reacts to OpenAI Sky Voice: 'Shocked' and 'Angered'

      Actor Scarlett Johansson said she turned down OpenAI‘s request for her to lend her voice to a conversational ChatGPT system — and that she was “shocked” and “angered” that the company went ahead and used a voice that sounded very similar to hers anyway.

    • Rolling Stone ☛ Scarlett Johansson 'Angered' After ChatGPT Used 'Eerily Similar' Voice

      In her statement, Johansson says Altman “insinuated that the similarity [of the voice] was intentional” when he tweeted the word “her” in reference to the film and the new ChatGPT model.

      “Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there,” she wrote.

    • TMZ ☛ Scarlett Johansson Hired Lawyers Over OpenAI's ChatGPT Voice

      As it turns out ... Scarlett claims that she was actually approached by OpenAI's head honchos in September -- including CEO Sam Altman -- who she says wanted to hire her to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 model. SJ says she considered it ... but ultimately declined.

      Fast-forward to December, and OpenAI's "Sky" was rolled out ... with just about everyone saying it reminded them of ScarJo -- and she thought so too, which is why she lawyered up.

    • Axios ☛ Scarlett Johansson says lawyers got OpenAI to shut down "Her" voice

      Why it matters: The dispute between the maker of ChatGPT and a performer famous for representing AI will further spook creative artists already suspicious that AI could dilute the value of their work.

    • New York Times ☛ Scarlett Johansson Said No, but OpenAI’s Virtual Assistant Sounds Just Like Her

      Last week, the company released a chatbot with an option that sounded like the actress, who provided the voice of an A.I. system in the movie “Her.”

    • New York Times ☛ Scarlett Johansson’s Statement About Her Interactions With Sam Altman

      “Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and A.I. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people. After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me.

    • US News And World Report ☛ Scarlett Johansson Says OpenAI Chatbot Voice 'Eerily Similar' to Hers

      "When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference."

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ WOW Asks Court to Throw Out Filmmakers' Expanded Piracy Liability Lawsuit

    Internet provider WOW has asked a Colorado federal court to dismiss an expanded piracy liability complaint filed by several film companies earlier this year. The ISP says there is no evidence to show that it received any piracy notices for the 300 new works added to the lawsuit. In addition, it believes that recent court verdicts support a dismissal of at least some of the claims in the multimillion dollar lawsuit.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ MPA Ramps Up Efforts to Disrupt Pirate Sites' Use of Internet Intermediaries

    A major hire at the Motion Picture Association, to a new senior position that until recently did not exist, offers a glimpse into part of Hollywood's global anti-piracy strategy. Jesse Martin, former senior attorney at The Software Alliance (BSA), joins the MPA with a brief to combat and disrupt pirates' use of intermediaries. The MPA speaks of "intermediary outreach" and "voluntary initiatives" but if cooperation isn't forthcoming, preparations will have been made.