Leftovers

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Astronomers Reveal Stunning New Image of Unusual 'Sombrero Galaxy'

    It's much stranger than we expected.

  • Science Alert ☛ Giant Study Confirms The Milky Way Really Is an Unusual Galaxy

    One of these things is not like the others.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Rise of The Dinosaurs Can Be Tracked in Their Fossilized Poop

    Welcome… to Jurassic Poop.

  • Science Alert ☛ First Traces of Ancient Egyptian Hallucinogens Found in Old Jug

    Special ingredients for magic rituals.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Mind-Blowing Vision Is The Biggest Simulation of The Universe Ever

    Incredible!

  • The Register UK ☛ China starts building world's largest radio telescope

    Other radio telescopes with this capability include the defunct Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, and The Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico.

  • The Register UK ☛ What's it like to be an engineer on the Voyager project?

    As with much of the Voyager team nowadays, Kareem Badaruddin, a 30-year veteran of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), divides his time between the twin Voyager spacecraft and other flight projects. He describes himself as a supervisor of chief engineers but leaped at the chance to fill the role on the Voyager project.

    Suzanne Dodd, JPL Director for the Interplanetary Network Directorate, is the Project Manager for the Voyager Interstellar Mission.

  • Deseret Media ☛ Have You Seen This? Seriously impressive shooting star

    As I understand it, they're all technically meteoroids entering our atmosphere. Sometimes, they're small and quaint, while other times, they burn up with such intensity that they're known as "fireballs."

• Career/Education

  • Ness Labs ☛ 25 Reasons to Write Online and How to Start a Newsletter in 2025

    Today marks the 250th edition of the Ness Labs newsletter. Thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of words… When I started this project as a tiny experiment, I didn’t expect to keep going for so long. And I didn’t expect that it would change my life.

    In an age of video reels and generative AI, it may seem like text-based content is dead. But I’m convinced that writing online is still the highest leverage use of your intellectual and creative energy.

    To celebrate this big milestone, I’m going to share 25 reasons why you should consider writing online, as well as how I’d create a newsletter if I was getting started today.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Boss Byproducts: Corium Is Man-Made Lava

    So now we’ve talked about all kinds of byproducts, including man-made (Fordite), nature-made (fulgurites), and one that’s a little of both (calthemites). Each of these is beautiful in its own way, but I’m not sure about the beauty and merit of corium — that which is created in a nuclear reactor core during a meltdown.

  • Hackaday ☛ Would An Indexing Feature Benefit Your Next Hinge Design?

    [Angus] of Maker’s Muse has a video with a roundup of different 3D-printable hinge designs, and he points out that a great thing about 3D printing objects is that adding printable features to them is essentially free.

  • Hackaday ☛ DIY Pipe Inspector Goes Where No Bot Has Gone Before

    If you think your job sucks, be grateful you’re not this homebrew sewer inspection robot.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ HP’s stock sinks on lower guidance, despite optimism in the PC market [Ed: Well, "optimism" is pure nonsense (sentiments can be faked) when real numbers are down]

    HP Inc. delivered mixed financial results in its final quarter of fiscal 2024, and followed up with weak guidance for the current period. Investors recoiled, and the company’s stock tumbled more than 7% in extended trading.

  • Chuck Grimmett ☛ Turning Tenkara Line Spools

    One is slim and the other is a little larger with a smaller secondary spool in the middle for locking the line. Both have magnets for storing/drying out flies. Each spot can comfortably hold 3 flies each. They have small notches cut out for wedging in your line.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Blocking One Key Enzyme May Help Reverse The Effects of Alzheimer's

    A new avenue to explore?

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Dark Genes' Hiding Unseen in Human DNA Have Just Been Revealed

    We missed something big.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Vision Can Predict Dementia 12 Years Before Diagnosis, Study Reveals

    One of the earliest warnings of cognitive decline.

  • NYPost ☛ NYC schools bring back controversial pandemic-era policy —and experts warn it is ‘rewarding failure’

    The move is getting a failing grade.

  • New York Times ☛ Britain’s Emotional Debate Over Assisted Dying

    As lawmakers prepare to vote on legalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill in England and Wales, an intense public discussion has unfolded.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Prosecutors seek seven years in prison for K-actor Lee Sun-kyun’s blackmailers

    Lee, best known for his role in the film Parasite, died in an apparent suicide in December.

  • JURIST ☛ Google and Meta urge Australia to postpone bill banning social control media for children

    Google and Meta Platforms appealed to the Australian Government on Tuesday through written submissions to delay a bill imposing a social control media ban for children under 16 years old. In their submissions, both Surveillance Giant Google and Meta contended the bill should be delayed until the Government’s Age Assurance Trial results are obtained.

  • EcoWatch ☛ Air Fryers Offer Least Polluting Cooking Method, Researchers Find

    If you’re looking to keep your indoor air cleaner over the holidays, a new study has found that air fryers emit just a small portion of the indoor air pollutants produced by other cooking methods like pan and deep frying.

    Most people spend most of their time — 80 percent — indoors, and cooking is a big contributor to indoor air pollution. The energy efficiency of air fryers has been amply studied, but less is known about their environmental benefits, a press release from England’s University of Birmingham said.

  • Allen Downey ☛ Hazard and Survival

    But if that 2% is an average across people with different probabilities, the computation is a little more complicated – and the answer turns out to be substantially different, so this is not a negligible effect.

    To demonstrate both computations, I’ll assume that the probability for a given patient doesn’t change over time. This assumption is consistent with the multistage model of carcinogenesis, which posits that normal cells become cancerous through a series of mutations, where the probability of any of those mutations is constant over time.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Opinion | During Native American fall harvest, plant-based recipes take center stage

    Fortunately, Michigan’s fall harvest offers an abundance of apples, pumpkins, squash, root vegetables, and other nutritious staples that are far more sustainable. On any Thanksgiving table, the attractively arranged vegetable roasts steal the show with their vibrant colors and smells.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Why Are You Still Cooking With That?

    Schlanger: So the reason black plastic spatulas are particularly concerning, and I will caveat this by saying you should really throw out any plastic spatula you have of any color, but black plastic has this particularly noxious place in our product stream because it can’t be fully recycled.

    Recycling plants just ignore black plastic. They can’t really see the plastic that’s black, because they use optical sensors. So that means, instead of coming from a clean recycling stream, some black plastic products seem to be made out of dubious recycled products, particularly e-waste—electronic waste—often abroad with very little oversight.

  • The Hill ☛ TikTok imposes restrictions on appearance filters for under 18

    The restrictions will not apply to effects that are “obvious and funny,” like animal ear filters, but rather those designed to alter a user’s appearance, the social media site said Tuesday.

    These effects are usually harder to detect as they alter existing facial features including like skin, eyelashes or lips.

  • CBC ☛ Not everyone can afford a pacemaker, so these doctors are recycling them 

    "He said, 'Well, my wife was very much into recycling, and I really hope that you can really use it for somebody else," Crawdord told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.

    "We didn't think we could use it because it's not legal in the United States to reuse a pacemaker. But it did get us thinking about whether we could use this device anywhere else."

  • Futurism ☛ Former Google CEO Alarmed by Teen Boys Falling in Love With AI Girlfriends

    Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt seems mighty concerned about today's youth becoming obsessed with AI girlfriends.

    During a recent interview on "The Prof G Show" podcast, Schmidt suggested that both parents and young people are ill-equipped to handle what he calls an "unexpected problem of existing technology."

  • Silicon Angle ☛ TikTok to block beauty filters over mental health concerns among the young

    It’s long been known – and let’s face it, it’s pretty obvious – that living in an online reality where you barely resemble your physical body has consequences in the real world, especially for young people who are often living in a competitive space with their hordes of online “friends.”

    TikTok now acknowledges this after sponsoring research resulting in the publication of the paper, “Unfiltered research report: Authenticity, belonging and connection in young people’s digital wellbeing.” It turns out, according to the report, that “authenticity” might be the way to go and the use of “effects” to shape appearance might be damaging to a kid’s self-esteem.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Hunger, nausea, exhaustion: Man replicates Donald Trump's diet for a week, wonders how president-elect ‘is still alive’

    Author Gareth Davies reportedly replicated Donald Trump’s diet of fast food, snacks, and Diet Cokes to illustrate the physical and psychological effects of it. The diet, during which he skipped meals, ate a lot of processed food and did not drink enough water, resulted in hunger, nausea, and exhaustion. In an article for The Telegraph, Davies wrote of Trump, “I don’t understand how the man is still alive.”

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Should Hey Hi (AI) Giants Be Required to Disclose Training Data? ‘TRAIN Act’ Proposes ‘An Administrative Subpoena Process’ for Rightsholders

    Should generative Hey Hi (AI) developers be required to disclose the protected materials upon which their models trained? At least one member of Congress believes so, and the lawmaker has introduced the “TRAIN Act” as a result. Short for the “Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks Act,” that straightforward bill comes from Senator Peter Welch (D-VT).

    [...]

    Unsurprisingly, given that a number of generative AI developers have allegedly trained their products on protected music without permission, industry companies and organizations are supporting the TRAIN Act. That includes the RIAA, the Recording Academy, and the American Federation of Musicians.

    Notwithstanding this backing, however, time will tell whether the measure picks up congressional momentum and becomes law. As things stand, different AI bills – chief among them the NO FAKES Act, which, in a nutshell, would establish federal voice and likeness protections – have made seemingly little legislative progress despite multiple industry pushes.

  • The Register UK ☛ Authorities probe Oracle Cerner project in Sweden

    The case involved missing or lost words in health records, rather than a security breach or data being stolen, the regional government spokesperson said and added the incidents are "either linked to unforeseen technical problems with the start of operations and/or that routines for handling [data] have not been sufficiently implemented."

  • Futurism ☛ Change to Twitter Suggests Elon Musk Is Panicking Over Users Leaving for Bluesky

    In a surprising move last week, Musk announced that the platform would start allowing users to hide likes, shares, and reposts — a suspicious decision that feels like a bid to conceal the platform's waning energy.

  • El País ☛ ChatGPT is right-wing and Gemini is left-wing: Why each AI has its own ideology

    This research has used a new method to confirm something that was already accepted within the academic world dedicated to AI: “It is not the first one to do something similar. All these studies confirm that different models generate different ideologies when faced with the same inputs, and are more aligned with the values of their creators than with those of other geographical areas or cultures,” says José Hernández Orallo, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain.

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft patches the patch that broke Exchange Server

    The buggy update was particularly problematic for users with transport or data loss protection (DLP) rules configured as these could stop working after installation, requiring a service restart.

  • Sean Conner ☛ The continuing saga of receiving email for Sean Conner

    So, given this time I have a phone number, I decided to actually call myself to discuss this email I received. Needless to say, Sean Conner was rather confused at first getting a phone call from Sean Conner.

  • Mark Nottingham ☛ Platform Advantages: Not Just Network Effects

    Over the past few years, there’s been growing legal and academic interest in platforms — their functioning, potential harms, and advantages over competitors.

    On that last question, most of the literature that I’ve seen has focused on factors like network effects and access to data. However, a forthcoming book by Carliss Baldwin proposes some significant additional – and structural – advantages that accrue to those who control them. Design Rules Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations1 builds on Volume One (which I wrote about earlier) with a goal to ‘build and defend a general theory explaining how technologies affect the structure and evolution of organizations that implement the technologies.’

    Baldwin argues that “whether a technology will generate the most value through single, unified corporations, through platform-based business ecosystems, or through open source projects depends on the balance of complementarity within the technical system.” Let’s unpack that (in my words, with apologies for any misinterpretation of her work).

  • Jamie Zawinski ☛ Oh, Twitter, why can't I quit you?

    Seriously. Why can't I quit you?

  • Jason Velazquez ☛ Bluesky may have the juice, but we don't have to drink the Kool-Aid

    Just because the Bluesky team is friendly, writes in Internet slang, and doesn't repost race crime statistics, it doesn't necessarily make them the good guys-- I mean, I'm sure they are good guys (non-gendered), but this isn't a superhero movie. The war of competing interests isn't two platoons charging at each other from opposite ends of a desolate plain (sorry, I'm watching End Game while writing this).

  • Matt Birchler ☛ The “Bluesky feels like early Twitter!” vibe

    So yeah, the real question to me about new social networks isn’t really if they feel like the early days of Twitter, but what happens after they pass that first impressions period. In my opinion, Mastodon has leveled out to be a great place to talk with nerdy people (aka my core demographic!), Threads has turned into an engagement bait hell that I don’t enjoy browsing much at all right now, and Bluesky still has that “first week of school” energy. I don’t know how it’s going to play out in the long run, but the last few years have taught me that this “old Twitter” vibe will fade and the network will adopt its own identity.

  • Howard Oakley ☛ How to browse your Mac’s log from months ago

    I hope you like magic tricks, as this article shows how you can do the impossible with your Mac’s log: browse log entries from the distant past, from months or years past. My example is taken from my new Mac mini M4 Pro, which I set up on the afternoon of 8 November 2024, 19 days ago. To demonstrate that this isn’t a screenshot taken earlier, I’ve included a calendar widget to confirm that this was taken on 27 November, when all its logs from 8 November had gone.

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ OpenAI, Meta and Orange to collaborate on AI models for African languages

    The project, which also involves French telecommunications operator Orange, will start during the first half of next year, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. Initially, the companies will focus on two West African languages, Wolof and Pulaar, which are spoken by 22 million people in the region.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Citizen Lab ☛ Keynote Session by Kate Robertson at the 2024 APSIM Conference

      We are thrilled to announce that Kate Robertson, Lawyer and senior research associate at the Citizen Lab will deliver a keynote at the upcoming Access, Privacy, Security, and Information Management Conference (APSIM).  In her keynote, titled “In the World of Privacy Regulation, What’s the Constitution got to do with it? a>

    • The Strategist ☛ To pre-empt extremist violence, we need real-time social media data sharing

      Law enforcement and social media platforms must implement real-time data sharing to stop online extremism before it leads to violence. Using appropriate safeguards, we can achieve this without raising concerns about creating a surveillance state.

      Social media companies have vast behavioural data, but their reluctance to share it with authorities means we’re left scrambling after an attack occurs. The resulting delay facilitates radicalisation and puts lives at risk. Rather than reacting to attacks, we should aim to prevent harm through a coordinated, data-driven approach. The current system is failing. Speed matters. Privacy concerns are valid, but when the stakes are this high, we need to ask: how many more lives are we willing to risk?

    • Techdirt ☛ You Can’t Do Mass Deportations Without Mass Domestic Surveillance And ICE Is Already Exploring Its Options

      ICE has never been opposed to mass surveillance. It has used everything it possibly can to locate Trump’s so-called “bad hombres” and subject them to family separation and a detainment infrastructure incapable of handling the former president’s (and now President-elect) masturbatorial fantasies about “border invasions.”

      ICE buys location info from data brokers to evade warrant requirements. It slurps data from utility companies to locate immigrants who need electricity, heat, and internet connections but would rather not be hassled for trying to exist and earn a living by providing this same information directly to the US government.

    • New Yorker ☛ The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone

      In September, the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) signed a two-million-dollar contract with Paragon, an Israeli firm whose spyware product Graphite focusses on breaching encrypted-messaging applications such as Telegram and Signal. Wired first reported that the technology was acquired by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—an agency within D.H.S. that will soon be involved in executing the Trump Administration’s promises of mass deportations and crackdowns on border crossings. A source at Paragon told me that the deal followed a vetting process, during which the company was able to demonstrate that it had robust tools to prevent other countries that purchase its spyware from hacking Americans—but that wouldn’t limit the U.S. government’s ability to target its own citizens. The technology is part of a booming multibillion-dollar market for intrusive phone-hacking software that is making government surveillance increasingly cheap and accessible. In recent years, a number of Western democracies have been roiled by controversies in which spyware has been used, apparently by defense and intelligence agencies, to target opposition politicians, journalists, and apolitical civilians caught up in Orwellian surveillance dragnets. Now Donald Trump and incoming members of his Administration will decide whether to curtail or expand the U.S. government’s use of this kind of technology. Privacy advocates have been in a state of high alarm about the colliding political and technological trend lines. “It’s just so evident—the impending disaster,” Emily Tucker, the executive director at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law, told me. “You may believe yourself not to be in one of the vulnerable categories, but you won’t know if you’ve ended up on a list for some reason or your loved ones have. Every single person should be worried.”

    • The Register UK ☛ Data broker leaves 600K+ sensitive files exposed online

      More than 600,000 sensitive files containing thousands of people's criminal histories, background checks, vehicle and property records were exposed to the internet in a non-password protected database belonging to data brokerage SL Data Services, according to a security researcher.

    • Tim Bray ☛ TV In 2024

      What really frosts my socks, though, is ACR, Automatic Content Recognition, where the TV sends hashed screenshots to home base so it (along with Netflix and MLB and so on) can sell your consumption habits to whoever.

      Anyhow, here’s what we do. First, prevent the TV from connecting to the Internet, then play all the streaming services through a little Roku box. (With the exception of one sports streamer that only does Chromecast.) Roku lets you turn off ACR, and Chromecast promises not to. Imperfect but better than nothing.

    • The Register UK ☛ Modern workplaces increasingly resemble surveillance zones

      The study, titled "Tracking Indoor Location, Movement and Desk Occupancy in the Workplace," looks at how motion sensing and wireless network technology in buildings is being used to monitor the movement and behavior of office workers and visitors.

      "As offices, buildings and other corporate facilities become networked environments, there is a growing desire among employers to exploit data gathered from their existing digital infrastructure or additional sensors for various purposes," the report says. "Whether intentionally or as a byproduct, this includes personal data about employees, their movements and behaviors."

  • Confidentiality

    • APNIC ☛ Post-Quantum Cryptography

      It may be useful to start this article by defining what I am talking about. No, ‘Post-Quantum Cryptography’ is not about using the next generation of computer processors that may come after quantum computing, whatever that may be, to perform cryptography. It’s not even about ‘Quantum Cryptography’, which is all about devising cryptographic algorithms based on quantum mechanics. Post-Quantum Cryptography is conventional cryptography using algorithms, key sizes, and applications running on today’s processors to generate cryptographic protection over data that is resistant to the use of quantum computers to attempt to break the cryptographic code.

    From Years to Seconds: Rethinking Public Key Infrastructure

    This isn’t a problem of public key infrastructure being inadequate but rather of applying it in a way that doesn’t align with modern workload realities. These new patterns challenge us to rethink how authentication and identity management systems should work—not just to ensure security, but to support the flexibility, performance, and speed that cloud-native infrastructure demands.

Defence/Aggression

• Hackaday ☛ Retrotechtacular: The Deadly Shipmate

  During World War II, shipboard life in the United States Navy was a gamble. No matter which theater of operations you found yourself in, the enemy was all around on land, sea, and air, ready to deliver a fatal blow and send your ship to the bottom. Fast forward a couple of decades and Navy life was just as hazardous but in a different way, as this Navy training film on the shipboard hazards of low-voltage electricity makes amply clear.

• France24 ☛ France's reckoning with rape: Will Mazan mass trial change attitudes to sexual violence?

  Will this trial be remembered as France’s reckoning with sexual violence in the digital age?

• New York Times ☛ French Intellectuals Decry Dissident Writer Boualem Sansal’s Arrest in Algeria

  An outspoken French-Algerian novelist returned to his homeland and was promptly taken into custody at age 75.

• New York Times ☛ 3 Americans Are Said to Be Freed From China in Prisoner Swap

  The Americans were freed in exchange for a Chinese intelligence officer who was serving a 20-year sentence in the United States, officials said.

• New York Times ☛ Israeli Forces Keep Striking in Gaza Alongside Cease-Fire in Lebanon

  While Israel and Hezbollah were finalizing a cease-fire to halt the fighting in Lebanon, Israeli strikes killed 33 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities.

• France24 ☛ Romania telecoms regulator calls for Fentanylware (TikTok) suspension after viral far-right candidate leads vote

  A senior official at Romania's telecoms watchdog called for Fentanylware (TikTok) to be suspended on Wednesday pending an investigation into the platform's possible role in the surprise victory of a far-right candidate in the first round of its presidential election. Romanian officials are also set to meet over possible cyber threats to its elections.

• France24 ☛ France said Netanyahu is “immune” to the ICC's arrest warrant. We did a legal deep dive

  The French government has claimed the Israeli Prime Minister has immunity from the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for war crimes -- on the grounds that Israel isn’t an ICC member. This position has garnered criticism, in contrast to Paris’s attitude towards the ICC warrant issued against another non-member Vladimir Putin. But does Netanyahu really garner immunity as a sitting head of state? Vedika Bahl does a deep dive into the legalities in Truth or Fake.

• Digital Music News ☛ TikTok’s Fate In the US to Be Determined By a Federal Appeals Court Next Week

  A US federal appeals court is expected to rule next week whether to uphold a law requiring ByteDance to divest TkTok by early next year.

• Cloudbooklet ☛ Criminals Using Fentanylware (TikTok) for Investment Scam Promotions

  Uncover the rise of Fentanylware (TikTok) for investment scam promotions and safeguard your finances.

• Atlantic Council ☛ What Congress has in mind for the future of the Abraham Accords

  The National Defense Authorization Act has become one of the most potent legislative vehicles for policy related to national security.

• Defence Web ☛ Smart body cameras could assist SANDF, BMA

  One of the items brought to this year’s South African Army Exercise Vuk’uhlome Distinguished Visitors’ Day on 21 November by the defence and security industry was a smart body camera incorporating video and communications.

• Defence Web ☛ BMA ready to roll-out safe movement of people and goods over the festive season

  The Border Management Authority (BMA) has developed a comprehensive plan to deal with the movement of people and goods across South Africa’s ports of entry during the festive season, using collaboration, technology (including drones) and increased visibility.

• The Local SE ☛ Sweden sends 'formal request' to China for cooperation over cut Baltic Sea cables

  "Sweden has... sent a formal request to China to cooperate with Swedish authorities in order to create clarity on what has happened. That formal request was sent to China earlier today," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference."We expect China will choose to cooperate as we have requested."

• LRT ☛ Chinese ship suspected of deliberately cutting cables in Baltic Sea – media

  Investigators believe that the crew of the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 deliberately dragged its anchor for 160 kilometres to cut cables on the Baltic Sea floor, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

• NPR ☛ A TikTok sale under Trump? Experts say it could actually happen this time

  But according to analysts who study TikTok's battle with Washington, both the Chinese government and TikTok's Beijing-based owner ByteDance could be warming up to the idea of TikTok becoming majority-owned by an American company, or a group of U.S. investors.

• Digital Music News ☛ TikTok’s Fate In the US to Be Determined Next Week

  The Justice Department says TikTok, under Chinese ownership, poses a serious national security threat due to its access to personal data of Americans, with the assertion that China can covertly manipulate information that Americans consume through TikTok. The court could direct the US government to follow a process to potentially certify that TikTok is a national security threat, which would give the platform a lifeline or at least a significant delay in a potential ban.

• Greece ☛ TikTok, the clock ticks for the center

  On Sunday, we saw a political earthquake in Romania, in the first round of the presidential election. There, the independent Calin Georgescu (an ultranationalist friend of Moscow) defied the polls, which forecast him getting around 5%, to win the first round with 22.9%. He is now headed for the runoff on December 8. A large part of Georgescu’s unexpected success is put down to his viral campaign on TikTok.

• The Strategist ☛ It’s not too late to regulate persuasive technologies

  Social media companies such as TikTok have already revolutionised the use of technologies that maximise user engagement. At the heart of TikTok’s success are a predictive algorithm and other extremely addictive design features—or what we call ‘persuasive technologies’.

  But TikTok is only the tip of the iceberg.

  Prominent Chinese tech companies are developing and deploying powerful persuasive tools to work for the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, military and public security services—and many of them have already become global leaders in their fields. The persuasive technologies they use are digital systems that shape users’ attitudes and behaviours by exploiting physiological and cognitive reactions or vulnerabilities, such as generative artificial intelligence, neurotechnology and ambient technologies.

• Semafor Inc ☛ Australia bans social media for under-16s in world first

  The ban is expected to take effect in November 2025 and will force social media companies to implement age-verification protections or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) for breaches. Alphabet’s Google and Meta argued that the ban should be delayed until a trial of the age-verification system had been completed.

• El País ☛ Australia’s social media ban for children under 16: Understanding the world-first law

  Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week that excessive use of social media poses a significant risk to the physical and mental health of children, particularly girls, citing harmful representations of body image and misogynistic content. “For too many young Australians, social media can be harmful. Almost two-thirds of 14- to 17-year-old Australians have viewed extremely harmful content online, including drug abuse, suicide or self-harm, as well as violent material,” said Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in Parliament.

• New York Times ☛ Australia Bans Social Media for Everyone Under 16

  Australia has imposed a sweeping ban on social media for children under 16, one of the world’s most comprehensive measures aimed at safeguarding young people from potential hazards online. But many details were still unclear, such as how it will be enforced and what platforms will be covered.

• The Hill ☛ How Trump has changed and will change the Constitution

  If the answer to the second question is “no,” then the answer to the first question is “yes” — regardless of what the Constitution and the law actually say. We saw this happen on many fronts during Trump’s first term. After four more years of Trump, the nation’s charter will fundamentally morph again — and it won’t be for the better.

• JURIST ☛ Google and Meta urge Australia to postpone bill banning social media for children

  In their submissions, both Google and Meta contended the bill should be delayed until the Government’s Age Assurance Trial results are obtained. The Age Assurance Technology Trial would “include methods that verify a user’s identity credentials to accurately determine their age” using “biometric markers or digital usage patterns.”

• The Guardian UK ☛ Australia passes world-first law banning under-16s from social media despite safety concerns

  Australia’s parliament has passed a law that will aim to do what no other government has, and many parents have tried to: stop children from using social media. The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says is a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.”

• India Times ☛ Social media ban for under-16s passes Australian Senate, will soon be world-first law

  The Senate passed the bill 34 votes to 19. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation by 102 votes to 13.

  The House has yet to endorse opposition amendments made in the Senate. But that is a formality since the government has already agreed they will pass.

• Deutsche Welle ☛ TikTok, Meta slam Australia's social media ban for under-16s

  Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said young Australians should be "off their phones and onto the footy and cricket field, the tennis and netball courts, in the swimming pool."

  Albanese noted the ban may not be implemented perfectly, much like existing alcohol restrictions. Still, he said it was "the right thing to do."

• CBC ☛ Australia passes youth social media ban. Now, it has to figure out how it will actually work

  From late 2025, platforms including Meta's Instagram and Facebook, Elon Musk's X, TikTok and Snapchat must show Australians they are taking "reasonable steps" to keep out users under 16, or face fines up to the equivalent of $44 million Cdn.

  Messaging apps like WhatsApp, child-specific versions like YouTube Kids and those used for education delivery, such as Google Classroom, could get carveouts from the ban, government officials have said.

• JURIST ☛ Türkiye police detain dozens protesting violence against women

  Protesters on Monday voiced outrage at President Erdogan’s 2021 decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, a legally binding 2011 treaty aimed at preventing and combating violence against women. The convention, formally known as the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, classified such violence as a form of discrimination and required signatories like Türkiye to implement measures such as accessible rape crisis centers and laws to reduce gender-based violence.

• India Times ☛ Musk's Starlink ordered to cease operations in Namibia

  The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia said on Thursday it has issued a cease-and-desist order to Elon Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink for operating in the country without a license.

  Starlink, the satellite unit of SpaceX, operates in several African countries but has faced regulatory challenges in others and resistance from state telecom monopolies.

• Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Namibia orders Starlink to cease all operations in the country

  “The public is hereby advised not to purchase Starlink terminal equipment or subscribe to its services, as such activities are illegal,” the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia said in an e-mailed statement. “Investigators have already confiscated illegal terminals from consumers and have opened criminal cases with the Namibian police in this regard.”

• The Age AU ☛ Australia social media ban: How the world reacted

  It is the worry of parents worldwide, hugely popular with voters and Australia’s crackdown could now potentially lead to a global domino effect of teenage social media bans driven by politicians eager to please a key demographic.

• The Guardian UK ☛ Iran says it could end ban on possessing nuclear weapons if sanctions reimposed

  Western officials will be concerned by Araghchi’s warning over the reimposition of sanctions, which were lifted when Iran signed the 2015 deal intended to limit its nuclear activities.

• The Local SE ☛ How 'crimfluencers' draw Swedish [sic] teenagers into a life of gang crime

  Swedish [sic] criminal gangs are increasingly recruiting children in their early teens, with many pulled in by promises of cash and belonging.

• Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

  • LRT ☛ Lithuania’s National Security Committee chair asks for more funding for intelligence

    Funding for Lithuania’s intelligence agencies should grow alongside military spending, says MP Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence.

Environment

• DeSmog ☛ Nitrates Derogation is a ‘Con’, Says Ireland’s Farmers

• Deutsche Welle ☛ Can suing fossil fuel companies slow plastic production?

  For years, experts and civil society groups have been sounding the alarm on the impossibility of recycling our way out of the growing mountains of plastic waste, calling instead for a cap on production. But for those same years, the wheels of the manufacturing machine have continued to turn — at an ever-giddier pace.

  And in an age of booming renewable energy sources, the increasing production volume of virgin plastic, has much to do with the oil and gas industries. The vast majority is made using fossil fuels.

• JURIST ☛ Maine attorney general sues big oil companies over climate change

  In the complaint submitted by the state, the attorney general emphasizes how large oil conglomerates, knowing the risks climate change posed to the public, fabricated a public-relations campaign to mislead consumers about the role of greenhouse gases and human action in climate change. The complaint cited internal memoranda and communications within companies like BP demonstrate awareness of the consequences of climate change. The complaint also included a video, in which an Exxon executive admitted limiting climate change policy for profit maximization.

• Los Angeles Times ☛ Why is a global treaty on plastic pollution dividing the world?

  • Plastic waste pollutes our oceans, food, even our bodies. This week, 175 countries are trying to create a treaty to reduce that waste.

  • Nations such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, who produce fossil fuels that provide the ingredients for plastic, oppose production limits, pushing a focus on recycling.

  • Others say that won’t solve the problem, that most plastic will never be recycled: “We have to stop making so much of it. It really is that simple.”

• Journées Mondiales ☛ Buy nothing day on November 29: challenging consumerism and embracing mindful living

  Let’s explore the significance of Buy Nothing Day, an international day of protest against consumerism that encourages us to pause and reflect on our spending habits. As we approach November 29, 2024, it’s time to discover the impact of this thought-provoking observance that challenges the very foundations of our consumer-driven society. In a world where shopping has become a pastime and Black Friday deals dominate headlines, Buy Nothing Day stands as a beacon of mindful consumption and environmental consciousness. But what exactly is this day all about, and how can it transform our relationship with material goods?

• Daily Maverick ☛ Buy Nothing Day: Consumers are reinventing Black Friday

  The best way to save money during Black Friday, the year’s biggest shopping bonanza? Buy nothing or if you do, buy green.

• New Jersey News ☛ Black Friday is a landfill’s dream. - nj.com

  But the extinction of beavers on Cape Cod after European colonization might have been a sign of things to come. Fast forward 400 years, and Americans now trample each other to death for doorbuster deals, making our nation the poster child for overconsumption and waste.

  Welcome to Black Friday, the turkey-fueled midway point of America’s holiday consumer frenzy, where people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have. This year, holiday shoppers are projected to spend nearly $1 trillion—double what they spent 20 years ago. Unsurprisingly, U.S. credit card debt has hit a staggering $1.66 trillion.

  But what if there’s a better way? What if you could find the perfect gifts, nurture goodwill, and avoid maxing out your credit cards?

• El País ☛ Why putting used clothes in a recycling bin does not allow you to have a clear conscience

  A pair of pants spends much less time in our wardrobe than in the African landfill where it may end up after we leave it in a container, comforted by the idea of giving it a second life. Very likely, the garment will travel thousands of miles, with the carbon footprint that this journey entails, and due to a collapsed and uncontrolled system and the poor quality of its materials, it will never be used again. Its ‘second life’ will ultimately be a mountain of garbage in countries of the Global South or a polluting open-air bonfire, where 40% of the clothes we send to Africa end up. This is the alarming picture drawn by Greenpeace Spain coinciding with Black Friday, in an investigation published on Wednesday.

• Energy/Transportation

  • DeSmog ☛ Industry Group Pre-Wrote Comments for ‘Workers’ Opposing Vancouver Gas Ban

  • Hackaday ☛ Could Nuclear Be The Way To Produce Synthetic Fuel On The Cheap?

    Fossil fuels can be a bit fussy to access, and geopolitics tends to make prices volatile. Burning them also takes carbon out of the ground and puts it into the atmosphere, with undesirable climate implications. The hunt for a solution has been on for quite some time.

  • Greece ☛ Another near-miss puts spotlight on ailing railway system

    Following the incidents of the last week that resulted in great inconvenience to passengers due to the breakdowns and subsequent delays of the services, train conductors reported a near-miss incident at the Korinos station in Pieria, with OSE not denying the incident and announcing an investigation into the incident to identify failures in the signaling system. Unlike other parts of the network, which still remain without safety systems, the signaling in that area as well as remote operations have been working since August 2023.

  • Renewable Energy World ☛ Minnesota tribe’s solar-powered resilience hub would provide cost savings, backup power to local community

    The Pine Point Resilience Hub would serve an elementary school and community center in Pine Point, an Anishinaabe village of about 330 people on the White Earth Reservation.

    In June, the project was selected to receive $1.75 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Storage for Social Equity (ES4SE) Program, which helps underserved and frontline communities leverage energy storage to make electricity more affordable and reliable. It’s part of a slew of Biden administration funding related to grid resilience and energy equity that has spurred several tribal microgrid projects across the country.

  • Renewable Energy World ☛ U.S. solar generation continues to make huge gains in 2024

    Solar continues to grow the fastest in the U.S. During the first nine months of 2024, utility-scale solar power generation (thermal and PV) output increased a whopping 30.1% from the same period in 2023. Estimated total solar from all facilities (utility- and smaller-scale) increased 25.1% during this same period.

    In the month of September 2024 alone, utility-scale solar (thermal and PV) increased 29% from the month of September 2023.

  • The Register UK ☛ Investors all-in on datacenters despite AI power concerns

    Operators of data facilities face a growing number of challenges, not least of which is getting enough power for expanding their infrastructure or building new sites, as The Register has detailed in various articles over the past year or so.

    But a report from law firm DLA Piper claims that 70 percent of investors expect to see funding continue to rise for bit barn projects, including debt. This is despite almost every single one of them – 98 percent of respondents – voicing concerns about the availability and reliability of power to supply those projects.

  • Renewable Energy World ☛ The Biden Administration has spurred $1 trillion in clean energy investments

    New data released this week shows the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda has catalyzed a staggering $1 trillion in manufacturing, infrastructure, and clean energy investments since taking office.

    The administration credits its government-enabled, private-sector-led approach for positioning the United States to be competitive in key industries in the future.

• Wildlife/Nature

  • Pro Publica ☛ FEMA’s Plan for Maui Wildfire Survivors Lacked Safeguards for Residents

    When the federal government stepped in to rent housing for survivors of the devastating 2023 fires on Maui, officials said they didn’t want to drive up rental rates or give landlords an incentive to evict tenants in order to secure lucrative government contracts.

    On paper, the plan sounded good: It would rely on finding empty vacation rentals and second homes, which was consistent with Federal Emergency Management Agency policy.

• Overpopulation

  • teleSUR ☛ Brazil: Mato Grosso Police Attack Indigenous People Protesting Lack of Drinking Water - teleSUR English

    On Wednesday, the Military Police of Mato Grosso do Sul used tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets to suppress the Indigenous people of the Dourados Reserve, who were protesting for access to drinking water.

Finance

• Breach Media ☛ Competition Bureau investigating high tech price-fixing by Canadian landlords

  Tenant organizing and independent reporting has sparked quiet investigation of corporate landlords by corporate law enforcement agency

• New York Times ☛ Musk’s Slashing of the Federal Budget Faces Big Hurdles

  The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with Elon Musk as co-leader, has advantages that past budget-cutters did not, but laws and court challenges can still make change slow and difficult.

• EFF ☛ Tell the Senate: Don’t Weaponize the Treasury Department Against Nonprofits [Ed: EFF, a for profit]

  This bill is an existential threat to nonprofits of all stripes. Future administrations could weaponize the powers in this bill to target nonprofits on either end of the political spectrum. Even if they are not targeted, the threat alone could chill the activities of some nonprofit organizations.

  The bill’s authors have combined this attack on nonprofits, originally written as H.R. 6408, with other legislation that would prevent the IRS from imposing fines and penalties on hostages while they are held abroad. These are separate matters. Congress should separate these two bills to allow a meaningful vote on this dangerous expansion of executive power. No administration should be given this much power to target nonprofits without due process. 

  tell your senator

• The Spectator UK ☛ The rise and fall of Smithfield Market

  Smithfield has been the beating heart of London’s meat industry for more than 800 years. Located at the middle point of Farringdon, Barbican and St Paul’s, the capital’s only remaining wholesale meat market has survived bombings and fire, public criticism and a waning butchery industry; it has been pulled down and rebuilt, and adapted to changing times. In continuous operation since medieval times, to call it an institution is an understatement. But this week it was announced that it will be forced to close its shutters for the final time.

• Sky News ☛ Smithfield: Historic meat market to close after more than 800 years trading in London

  There has been a meat market on the site for more than eight centuries, but after 2028 that is set to change after a corporation vote put an end to its ownership.

• BBC ☛ London's 850-year-old food markets to close

  The oldest meat and fish markets in London, which date back 850 years, are facing permanent closure from 2028.

  Smithfield meat market, near St Paul's Cathedral, and Billingsgate fish market in Canary Wharf are to be closed after the City of London Corporation voted to withdraw support for them.

  The Corporation said it would now work with traders to help them find alternative premises.

• Financial Times ☛ Smithfield: last orders for London’s historic meat market

  Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/67e02eb0-e6b8-45b2-b23a-4585330ea7d2

  Just before midnight, floodlit rows of heavy lorries block the streets around Smithfield market in the City of London. Their open doors reveal rows of dangling pig carcasses waiting to be hooked on to overhead rails and delivered to the butchers inside.

  Well-dressed passengers in black cabs — the last of the daytime City dwellers — wait in the log jam of trucks. To the side of the road, one driver put down a paper cup of tea and reached to light a cigarette out the window of his white van, as he waited for a load of pork and lamb for his twice-weekly delivery to butcher shops in Essex.

  “When I first came here in 1957, one of the old-timers said to me: ‘Son, you better get another job. This market will not be here in a couple of years. They want to make it into a bus station’,” the 84-year-old veteran said.

• New York Times ☛ London’s 850-Year-Old Smithfield Meat Market Is Set to Close

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Pro Publica ☛ Maine Proposes Major Staffing Increases for Assisted Living and Residential Care Facilities

• Michael Geist ☛ When Antisemitism Isn’t Taboo: Reflecting on the Response to Nazi-Era Hate on the Streets of Montreal

  Last week, as Concordia students staged a “strike” to protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, video captured someone giving a Nazi salute to nearby Jewish students while repeatedly declaring the “final solution is coming your way.” Antisemitism has become far too common, but this incident, which had unmistakable Holocaust echoes, still had the capacity to shock. Soon after, the culprit was identified as Mia Abdulhadi, the co-owner of two Second Cup coffee cafe franchises improbably located in the Montreal Jewish General hospital.

• International Business Times ☛ Pelosi Sells 5K Microsoft Shares Ahead Of FTC Antitrust Probe, Marking Her Largest Sell In Years | IBTimes UK [Ed: Ongoing corruption]0

• Insight Hungary ☛ Far-right politician to receive statue in Hungary

  On 7 December, the statue of a controversial far-right politician, István Csurka will be revealed in Lakitelek. The ceremony is organised by the National Forum and the Young Conservatives for the Nation Association. Mária Schmidt, Director General of the House of Terror, and Kristóf Szatmáry, Fidesz MP will both give speeches at the event - 444 reports.

  A think tank close to the Orban administration called XXI Century Institute, (also led by Schmidt), held a commemorative conference on Wednesday to mark the 90th anniversary of Csurka's birth. The invitation to the event says "he became a victim of character assassination, and his opponents tried to discredit him in every way possible, in order to prevent a meaningful dialogue to achieve historical justice".

• Meduza ☛ Economy of errors Why the ruble is crashing — and what Russia’s Central Bank is doing to stop it

  On November 27, the U.S. dollar nearly hit 115 rubles on the Forex market, while the euro climbed above 120 rubles. Official rates from Russia’s Central Bank painted a milder picture — 108 and 113 rubles, respectively — but sanctions have made it nearly impossible to gauge the true state of the Russian currency. While economists may differ on the specifics, they agree on three points: the ruble is in steep decline, the situation is unprecedented, and there’s an urgent need for government intervention. Meduza examines how the ruble lost nine percent of its value in a single day and whether the Central Bank can regain control.

• YLE ☛ Google plans "historic" data centre expansion in Finland

  The expansion will involve the purchase of parcels of land in the municipalities of Muhos and Kajaani, which the government gave wildlife Agency Metsähallitus a green light to approve on Thursday.

• India Times ☛ Amazon-backed Anthropic introduces Google Gemini and Apple Intelligence-style features to Claude AI

  Anthropic's Claude AI assistant is receiving a major upgrade, with the Amazon-backed firm rolling out customisable writing styles. This feature empowers users with greater control over the chatbot’s responses—a capability already familiar to users of Google Gemini and Apple Intelligence tools.

• India Times ☛ Mark Zuckerberg meets with Trump at Mar-a-Lago

  The meeting, confirmed by three people with knowledge of the matter, was initiated by Zuckerberg, who has had a strained relationship with Trump over the past decade. Trump, who has long maintained that Meta has unfairly restrained him and other conservatives across its social media apps, has lobbed broadsides against Zuckerberg on social media and during stump speeches.

• NPR ☛ Zuckerberg dines with Trump in Mar-a-Lago

  Donald Trump dined on Wednesday with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, bringing together the Facebook founder and the former president who was once banned from that social network.

• The Guardian UK ☛ Mark Zuckerberg dines with Trump at Mar-a-Lago despite former feud

  On Wednesday, however, the incoming White House deputy chief of policy, Stephen Miller, told Fox News that Zuckerberg, 40, had dined with Trump at his Florida compound.

• Deccan Chronicle ☛ Zuckerberg dines with Trump in Mar-a-Lago

  Mark, obviously, he has his own interest, and he has his own company and he has his own agenda, Miller said in an interview on Fox News about the meeting. But he's made clear that he wants to support the national renewal of America under Trump's leadership. A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that Zuckerberg and Trump met on Wednesday, saying he was invited for dinner with the president-elect and other members of his team to talk about the incoming administration.

• International Business Times ☛ Pelosi Sells 5K Microsoft Shares Ahead Of FTC Antitrust Probe, Marking Her Largest Sell In Years

  California Representative Nancy Pelosi's investment portfolio has returned over 700% since 2014. While the former House Speaker's husband, Paul, executes the trades, his impressive track record of consistently timing the market has given rise to criticism that Nancy could be sharing confidential market information with him, something the politician has refuted for years. While she has hinted at supporting the ETHICS Act floored by bipartisan senators this year to ban Congressional trades, Paul, an investment banker, continues to carry out trades that continue to baffle investors worldwide.

• Los Angeles Times ☛ Capitol rioter's defamation suit against Fox News is dismissed

  Now based in Utah, Epps alleged his life was upended after former Fox host Tucker Carlson repeatedly described him as a federal agent who helped instigate the attack on the Capitol, which was an attempt to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden.

• Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Demands Ownership of InfoWars Social Accounts

  In case you're not up to speed, the satirical publication recently declared that it was buying Infowars, the website founded by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a bankruptcy auction.

  But the sale has hit a few snags, and a big one has come from the Musk camp. On Monday, lawyers representing X submitted a court filing arguing that The Onion couldn't buy Infowars' X accounts, because X — not Jones' media brand — owns them.

• The Register UK ☛ India invests $170M to digitize tax system

  The initiative, called the "PAN 2.0 Project," was approved on Monday by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), a government organization that evaluates proposals related to public investment, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

  Currently, the Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) database holds 780 million PANs and nearly 7.33 million Tax Deduction and Collection Account Numbers (TANs). PAN-related services are spread across three different platforms.

• Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

  • La Prensa Latina ☛ UN: content creators fail to verify media information

    A study published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) stated that one in three influencers does not verify content before sharing it.

    After surveying 45 countries, the first global analysis of motivations and practices concluded that some 62 percent of digital content creators have difficulty assessing the credibility of information they find online.

  • The Strategist ☛ To combat disinformation, Japan could draw lessons from Australia and Europe

    2024 was a tough year for Japan in countering disinformation campaigns. Immediately after the Noto earthquake in January, false rescue requests were widely spread on social media, diverting scarce resources of emergency services away from people who genuinely needed help. After record-breaking rainfall hit the Tohoku region in July, more than 100,000 spam posts disguised as disaster information appeared on social media. And ahead of the September election for the Liberal Democratic Party’s president and Japan’s October general elections, Japan Fact-check Center identified the spread of false and misleading information about political parties and candidates.

    Japan is in a delicate situation. It’s one of the countries at the forefront of Chinese hybrid threats due to its proximity to Taiwan and principled stance upholding the rules-based order. But Japanese society, accustomed to little political division and to passively receiving information, may lack the resilience to disinformation of countries such as the United States or Korea.

  • RFA ☛ Have 34 felony counts against Trump been dropped after US presidential election?

    A claim has been circulated in Chinese-language social media that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dropped the case against President-elect Donald Trump in which he was convicted of 34 felony counts involving falsifying business records, following his presidential election victory.

    But the claim is false. Documents released by the court on Nov. 19 show that the prosecution intends to proceed with post-trial sentencing and denies Trump’s impending presidency is sufficient grounds to dismiss the case.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK

    Discussion [sic] platform takes fifth place in rankings and is the fastest growing large social media platform in the UK

Censorship/Free Speech

• TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Federal court dismisses defamation lawsuit against Fox News for Jan. 6 conspiracy theory

  Raymond Epps, a former Marine, was falsely accused by Fox of being a government agent causing trouble near the Capitol that day so that it would be blamed on Trump fans.

• Digital Music News ☛ Marilyn Manson Drops Defamation Lawsuit Against Evan Rachel Wood

  Marilyn Manson drops his lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood as well as a related appeal aiming to revive his defamation claim against her. Marilyn Manson has dropped a lawsuit he filed against Evan Rachel Wood, as well as a related appeal aiming to revive his previous defamation claim against her.

• Press Gazette ☛ Lords slam government inaction on SLAPPs, calling for action by summer

  The government last week ruled out immediate legislation, saying SLAPPs were a "complex area".

• El País ☛ More than 10,000 books have been banned from public and academic libraries in the US

  The numbers presented in the study may be lower than real numbers because bans of this type are not usually reported. Also, not included are the numerous reports of soft censorship, such as ideologically motivated restrictions on the purchase of books by schools, the removal of collections from classrooms, and the cancellation of visits by certain authors and other activities linked to the promotion of reading.

• Deccan Chronicle ☛ Mobile [Internet] suspension extended for two days in Manipur

  The state government had conditionally lifted the suspension on broadband services (ILL and FTTH) on Tuesday, considering the hardships faced by common people, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, and other offices.

• RIPE ☛ The Internet Landscape in the Middle East

  The Middle East’s Internet landscape is diverse and complex, with big variations between the GCC countries and areas such as the Levant and North Africa. Ahead of MENOG 24, we look at the development of Internet technologies in the Arabic-speaking countries of the region that have the potential to become major players in the global digital revolution.

• Tor ☛ Tor in Russia: A call for more WebTunnel bridges | The Tor Project

  Recent reports from Tor users in Russia indicate an escalation in online censorship with the goal of blocking access to Tor and other circumvention tools. This new wave includes attempts to block Tor bridges and pluggable transports developed by the Tor Project, removal of circumvention apps from stores, and targeting popular hosting providers, shrinking the space for bypassing censorship. Despite these ongoing actions, Tor remains effective.

  One alarming trend is the targeted blocking of popular hosting providers by Roscomnadzor. As many circumvention tools are using them, this action made some Tor bridges inaccessible to many users in Russia. As Roscomnadzor and internet service providers in Russia are increasing their blocking efforts, the need for more WebTunnel bridges has become urgent.

• RFERL ☛ Jailed Former Moscow Anti-War Lawmaker Gorinov Faces New Trial

  A new criminal trial against imprisoned former Moscow municipal deputy Aleksei Gorinov, known for his outspoken criticism of Russia's war against Ukraine, began at a Russian military court on November 27.

  Before the hearing started, Gorinov displayed a hand-drawn message on piece of paper that said: "Stop killing. Let's stop the war."

• BIA Net ☛ Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Çomak released from prison after 30 years

  Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Çomak was released late yeserday after spending 30 years in prison.

  His family members and officials from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party were among those who greeted Çomak outside the Marmara Prison in Silivri in the outskirts of İstanbul.

• International Business Times ☛ Muslim Schoolgirl Apologises To Family Of Beheaded Teacher She Falsely Accused Of Islamophobia

  The campaign began when the schoolgirl falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave the classroom before showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during an ethics class. These images, originally published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, were part of a lesson discussing freedom of expression and the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack.

  In reality, Paty had not singled out Muslim students. Instead, he had warned his class in advance and offered those who might find the images offensive the chance to look away. Crucially, the girl making the allegations was not even present in the classroom that day.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• Press Gazette ☛ Mirror merger with OK! mag not about reducing headcount but concerns remain

  Move aims to reduce doubling up on reporting certain stories.

• Press Gazette ☛ News media job cuts 2024 tracked: Hearst Magazines and Now This latest hit

• BIA Net ☛ Press freedom organizations denounce detention of journalists

  Eighteen press and free expression groups from Turkey and around the world have issued a statement condemning the detention of journalists during operations centered in Eskişehir.

  The groups criticized the confidentiality order placed on the investigation and the denial of access to lawyers for the detainees.

• ANF News ☛ Journalists and writers taken into custody in Amed appear in court

  Journalists and writers detained in the police operations carried out in Amed within the scope of the investigation launched by the Eskişehir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office were referred to court. Journalists and writers whose statements were taken at the Diyarbakır Provincial Police Department on Wednesday upon the instructions of the Eskişehir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office were referred to the Diyarbakır Courthouse on Thursday to give their statements to the prosecutor's office.

• ANF News ☛ Stop the repression of journalists, say media organizations

  231 opposition members were arrested in Turkey on Tuesday. In addition to local politicians, human rights activists, trade union members and activists, the arrested also include a number of media workers and intellectuals, including journalists Erdoğan Alayumat, Havin Derya, Tuğce Yılmaz, Bilge Aksu, Ahmet Sümbül, Roza Metina, Bilal Seçkin, Mehmet Ücar and Suzan Demir, film director Ardın Diren, author Ömer Barasi, poet Hicri Izgören and caricaturist Doğan Güzel, who are accused of having links to the PKK. Representatives of journalists' associations have spoken to Mezopotamya Agency (MA) about the repression against free media and called for the release of their colleagues.

• ANF News ☛ Journalist Havin Derya taken into custody

  The number of journalists detained as part of an investigation launched in Eskişehir has increased to 9.

  It was reported that journalist Havin Derya was taken into custody in Antalya and taken to Eskişehir, where the investigation is ongoing.

• VOA News ☛ UN report: Taliban have detained Afghan journalists more than 250 times

  From the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021, to September 30 of this year, the Taliban have detained journalists 256 times and 130 cases of torture and poor treatment have been documented, according to the report published Tuesday by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.

  The report documents the “arbitrary arrests, torture, and violence” that journalists have been subject to since 2021, according to Freshta Hemmati, of the Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization.

  “They are working under the severe pressure of censorship and restrictions,” she told VOA.

• CPJ ☛ Russia expels 2 German journalists in retaliatory response

  Berlin’s migration authorities confirmed the journalists’ residence permits were denied in connection with European Union sanctions imposed on Pervyi Kanal in December 2022. German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christian Wagner denied that German federal authorities were behind the decision.

• TruthOut ☛ Israel Fired on Journalists in Lebanon Just Hours After Ceasefire Began | Truthout

  Lebanon’s news agency reported that Israeli forces opened fire on two journalists in the southern town of Khiam. Both journalists, one working for The Associated Press and the other for Sputnik, were wounded and have been hospitalized for their injuries.

• CPJ ☛ Journalist killed in mass shooting in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province

  Unidentified shooters opened fire on civilian vehicles, killing at least 42 people, including Janan Hussain, a journalist for the independent digital outlet 365 News and general secretary of the Parachinar Press Club, on November 20 in the Ochut area of Kurram district in northern Pakistan.

Civil Rights/Policing

• Site36 ☛ EU civil protection for sea rescue: Organisations want to deploy Brussels mechanism in the Mediterranean

  A dozen organisations are proposing an EU-led rescue programme in the Mediterranean. The Left Party in the Bundestag had already campaigned for this in 2020. However, there is one obstacle.

• Jailed Chinese dissident Xu Zhiyong ends prison hunger strike

  Xu was jailed this time around after penning an open letter to President Pooh-tin Jinping, calling on him to step down.

• New York Times ☛ Pakistan’s Capital Is Turned Upside Down by Unending Protests

  Residents of Islamabad are tiring of regular demonstrations demanding the release of the former prime minister Imran Khan, with the marches leading to clashes with security forces.

• RFERL ☛ Nearly 1,000 Khan Supporters Arrested As Police Break Up Islamabad Protest

  Supporters of Imran Khan have called of their massive protest in Islamabad demanding the release of the jailed former Pakistani prime minister after security forces launched a sweeping midnight operation in the capital, arresting hundreds of people.

• The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan deploys army in its capital as protesters and police clash

  The government said at least six members of the security force had been killed in the violence.

• The Straits Times ☛ Bangladesh steps up security, arrests six for lawyer's killing amid protests

  Bangladesh stepped up security in the port city of Chittagong on Wednesday as police arrested six people in connection with the murder of a lawyer, who was killed during clashes following the arrest of a leader of the country's Hindu minority.

• JURIST ☛ Cambodia frees climate activists arrested near national park

  Six environmental activists have been released from police custody in Cambodia on Monday after they were detained over the weekend for trespassing in the Vern Sai Siem Reap National Park.

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 4 Hong Kong democrats seek to challenge conviction and sentence in landmark subversion case

  Four Hong Kong democracy campaigners who were jailed for up to seven years and nine months in the city’s largest national security case to date have sought to challenge their convictions and sentences.

• The Walrus ☛ How the 1980s Engineered the Collapse of the Working Class

  The obsession with the ’80s isn’t new. There has long been a superficial fixation on the era. In Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America, Kurt Andersen writes, “We [aren’t] experiencing ‘an eighties revival’ . . . in fact the ‘eighties never ended’ . . . the character of the American 1980s [was] ‘manic, moneyed, celebrity obsessed.’ None of that really changed in the 1990s or in the 2000s or in the 2010s.”

  But the crisis of the 2020s is something different than a lingering cultural stasis. The reality is that the political, environmental, and economic forces unleashed in the 1980s have finally caught up to us.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• The Register UK ☛ Starlink gets FCC go-ahead for satellite phone service

  SpaceX's satellite operations biz can, according to the US comms regulator, operate its constellation of Gen2 satellites in the relevant frequency bands for what the FCC calls Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS).

  In Starlink's case, this means parts of the PCS G Block (1915 MHz for Earth-to-space and 1990-1995 MHz for space-to-Earth). This is spectrum allocated to T-Mobile US, Starlink's terrestrial cell network partner, with which it plans to operate its direct-to-cell service.