Leftovers

• MWL ☛ 69: Classic GM Cruise Control

  My ears refuse to pop. Everything sounds flat. I hope this bit from the unnamed fiction WIP came out. Every three years, Dad paid cash for a brand-new Chevy C/K pickup with all the features. AM/FM/cassette stereo, rip-resistant seats, and the classic GM cruise control that worked perfectly on straight dry roads.

• Matěj Cepl: Distributed Storage

  I have an idea, but

  1. I don’t know if it isn’t too much even for a Master Thesis,
  2. I have absolutely no idea who could be a mentor for it.

     I have always been absolutely fascinated by the idea of distributed network storage. My wife was a PhD student at MIT, and it was fascinating to experience actually functional network storage. Any Athena desktop you sit at, you had your files in front of you. We both were at the time at humanities, so I have never had an experience to work with demanding applications (never compiled gcc on the top of that), but it seemed to work surprisingly well. I have never seen anything working that well. Yes, it was only campus-wide, I didn’t have an Athena computer at home, but our networking improved a bit since then.

The Guardian UK ☛ Man who falsely claimed to be bitcoin creator sentenced for continuing to sue developers

An Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the creator of bitcoin has been given a one-year suspended prison sentence after the high court in London ruled he was in contempt because he would not stop suing people.

Hardware

• CNX Software ☛ T-Keyboard-S3 Pro 4-Key USB mechanical keyboard adds rotary encoder, support for daisy-chaining up to six keyboards

  Last year, we featured the T-Keyboard-S3, a USB mechanical keyboard with ESP32-S3, and four mechanical keys each fitted with a 0.85-inch color display. The upgraded T-Keyboard-S3-Pro adds a rotary encoder and four magnetic interfaces on each side controlked by an STM32G030 MCU to daisy-chain the host keyboard with up to 5 slave keyboards in a 3×2 grid.

• New York Times ☛ Nvidia’s Global Chips Sales Could Collide With US-China Tensions

  The chipmaker expects more than $10 billion in foreign sales this year, but the Biden administration is advancing rules that could curb that growth.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ Chinese GPU designers received key technologies from British company Imagination Technology: Report

  Chinese owners could use technologies developed by Imagination Technologies for China's military, according to UK-China Transparency.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ U.S. gov't removes China's chip toolmaker AMEC from the list of 'military companies'

  The U.S. government no longer considers AMEC an ally of China's military, but this will not have any impact on its daily operations.

• Hackaday ☛ Measuring A Well With Just A Hammer And A Smartphone

  What’s the best way to measure the depth of a well using a smartphone? If you’re fed up with social media, you might kill two birds with one stone and drop the thing down the well and listen for the splash. But if you’re looking for a less intrusive — not to mention less expensive — method, you could also use your phone to get the depth acoustically.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• New York Times ☛ Oysters Sicken at Least 80 at Restaurant Event in Los Angeles, Officials Say

  The county Health Department said that the outbreak at the 101 Best Restaurants event was linked to a broader outbreak from oysters that have since been recalled.

• New York Times ☛ U.S. Files Murder Charge Against Mangione That Could Bring Death Penalty

  Federal authorities filed a total of four counts against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare.

• MIT Technology Review ☛ Digital twins of human organs are here. They’re set to transform medical treatment.

  A healthy heart beats at a steady rate, between 60 and 100 times a minute. That’s not the case for all of us, I’m reminded, as I look inside a cardboard box containing around 20 plastic hearts—each a replica of a real human one.

• Federal News Network ☛ How 21st-century data management can help leaders provide more effective correctional healthcare services

  The United States has one of the world’s largest correctional populations.

• Pro Publica ☛ How Do Abortion Bans Affect Miscarriage Treatment? What to Know

• Pro Publica ☛ Hospitals Give Doctors Minimal Guidance Under Abortion Bans, Report Finds

• NYPost ☛ ‘Yellowstone’ spinoff star reveals she died for 3 minutes during scary COVID-19 battle: ‘I had complete organ failure’

  She lived to tell the tale.

• New York Times ☛ Bird Flu Has Hit California Dairies So Hard That They’re Calling It ‘Covid for Cows’

  The virus has spread rapidly in California, the nation’s largest producer of milk. Farmers are frustrated that their herds are getting infected despite various precautions.

• New York Times ☛ Trump’s Return May Worsen Financial Woes for Global Health Institutions

  The U.S. provides nearly half of the aid for global health, including childhood vaccination, H.I.V. treatment and disease surveillance.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Bryan Lunduke ☛ ChatGPT Can Not Say "Bryan Lunduke"

  Move over David Mayer, Lunduke joins the list of names which OpenAl will not display. Here's how this was accomplished.

• Cloudbooklet ☛ Will the US Ban TikTok? Latest Updates Inside

  US Ban TikTok: Supreme Court to decide on TikTok’s legal battle over national security.

• Cloudbooklet ☛ Apple Partners with Tencent, ByteDance for Hey Hi (AI) Features

  Apple partners with Tencent and ByteDance to integrate Hey Hi (AI) models into iPhones.

• Google to Cut 10% of Managerial Workforce, Signaling a Shift Towards Efficiency

  In a significant move to streamline operations, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has confirmed that the tech giant is cutting 10% of its managerial workforce.

  This decision is part of a broader effort to improve efficiency and achieve “durable cost savings” in 2024, amid an ongoing restructuring initiative that has already impacted thousands of employees.

• Business Standard ☛ Google layoffs: Sundar Pichai announces 10% job cuts in managerial roles

  Google has cut 10 per cent of its managerial positions, including directors and vice-presidents. Chief executive Sundar Pichai confirmed the decision during an all-hands meeting, underscoring the company’s ongoing efforts to streamline operations amidst growing competition from AI-focused rivals like OpenAI, which increasingly challenge Google’s dominance in search, reported Business Insider.

• India News ☛ Bad news for Google employees as Sundar Pichai announces major cuts in…

  Google layoffs: In a major setback for Google employees occupying top managerial positions, the tech giant has reportedly cut top management roles by 10 percent. The announcement was made by Google CEO Sundar Pichai during an all-hands meeting on Wednesday. Pichai stated the layoffs are a part of Google’s yearlong push towards efficiency aimed at simplifying the company’s operations and boosting productivity.

• ABP ☛ Google Layoffs: Tech Giant Plans To Cut 10% Management Positions, Says Report

  The tech giant Google has reportedly reduced its management positions by 10 per cent, impacting roles at the manager, director, and vice president levels as a part of its strategy. During a recent all-hands meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai provided updates on the company's ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency.

• New York Times ☛ Is the Tech Industry Nearing an Hey Hi (AI) Slowdown?

  Companies like Proprietary Chaffbot Company and Surveillance Giant Google are running out of the data used to train artificial intelligence systems. Can new methods continue years of rapid progress?

Pseudo-Open Source

• Openwashing

  • Open Source Initiative ☛ 2024 end-of-year review: policy and standards

    As 2024 draws to a close, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) reflects on an eventful year marked by significant achievements in advocating for Open Source principles in policy and standards development worldwide.

Security

• LWN ☛ Security updates for Thursday

  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (bluez, edk2:20220126gitbb1bba3d77, gstreamer1-plugins-base, gstreamer1-plugins-good, kernel, kernel-rt, mpg123, php:8.2, python3.11-urllib3, and tuned), Fedora (ColPack, glibc, golang-github-chainguard-dev-git-urls, golang-github-task, icecat, python-nbdime, python3.13, and python3.14), Mageia (kernel, kmod-xtables-addons, kmod-virtualbox, dwarves and kernel-linus), Red Hat (gstreamer1-plugins-base and gstreamer1-plugins-good), SUSE (curl, emacs, git-bug, glib2, helm, kernel, and traefik2), and Ubuntu (gst-plugins-base1.0, gst-plugins-good1.0, gstreamer1.0, libvpx, linux-gcp, phpunit, and yara).

• SSSD: Weaknesses in Privilege Separation due to Issues in Privileged Helper Programs

• SANS ☛ Command Injection Exploit For PHPUnit before 4.8.28 and 5.x before 5.6.3

• Google ☛ The backdoored Windows Registry Adventure #5: The regf file format

  As previously mentioned in the second installment of the blog post series ("A brief history of the feature"), the binary format used to encode registry hives from backdoored Windows NT 3.1 up to the modern backdoored Windows 11 is called regf. In a way, it is quite special, because it represents a registry subtree simultaneously on disk and in memory, as opposed to most other common file formats. Documents, images, videos, etc. are generally designed to store data efficiently on disk, and they are subsequently parsed to and from different in-memory representations whenever they are read or written. This seems only natural, as offline storage and RAM come with different constraints and requirements. On disk, it is important that the data is packed as tightly as possible, while in memory, easy and efficient random access is typically prioritized. The regf format aims to bypass the reparsing step – likely to optimize the memory/disk synchronization process – and reconcile the two types of data encodings into a single one that is both relatively compact and easy to operate on at the same time. This explains, for instance, why hives don't natively support compression (but the clients are of course free to store compressed data in the registry). This unique approach comes with its own set of challenges, and has been a contributing factor in a number of historical vulnerabilities.

• Privacy International ☛ CrowdStrike: What the 2024 outage reveals about security

• Devices/Embedded

  • RIPE ☛ Daniel Kapellmann: Detecting Cyber Threats to Critical Systems

    It is no longer unusual for Operational Technology systems to be connected to IT systems and the Internet, but this leaves them increasingly open to cyber threats. Daniel Kapellmann, Security Engineering Manager at Google Threat Intelligence, talks about how convergence of OT with IT systems amplifies risk and what’s involved in detecting threats.

• Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

  • Cloudbooklet ☛ Hackers Use Surveillance Giant Google Calendar to Bypass Spam Filters!

    Hackers use Surveillance Giant Google Calendar invites to bypass spam filters and steal personal information. Learn how this new scam works and how to protect yourself.

• Privacy/Surveillance

  • Citizen Lab ☛ Rebekah Brown discusses the global abuse of commercial spyware on TaiwanPlus

    In this episode of Zoom In Zoom Out on TaiwanPlus, Rebekah Brown, senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, speaks with reporter Herel Hughes to unpack the alarming rise of commercial spyware and its misuse across the globe.

  • Hong Kong mulls Hey Hi (AI) police drones amid rise in public surveillance

    The city’s police force plans thousands more surveillance cameras and is looking at automated drone patrols.

Defence/Aggression

• New York Times ☛ More Than Twice as Many U.S. Troops Are in Syria as Previously Disclosed

  A Pentagon spokesman said the increase was unrelated to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad to rebel forces in early December.

• Junta forces are mobilizing in central Myanmar amid Shan state ceasefire, rebel say

  Airstrikes have intensified in recent weeks in Mandalay, Sagaing and Magway regions, officials say.

• BIA Net ☛ High court overturns life sentences in İstanbul airport suicide bombing, six released

  The decision led to a dispute between the Presidential Communications Directorate and journalists about whether the released defendants took part in the attack.

• France24 ☛ US Sudan envoy calls on combatants to get out of the way of peace

  In this episode of Eye on Africa, Georja speaks to Tom Periello, the US Special Envoy to Sudan, about the prospects for peace amidst a brutal and complex war that has displaced millions.

  Also, Nigeria reels as more details emerge of the circumstance and heartbreak caused by a fatal crush at a school event.

  And rediscovered cassettes preserve the identity of Somaliland, a self declared country that ‘doesn’t exist'.

• New York Times ☛ Maps: See Israel’s Moves in Syria Since al-Assad Was Toppled

  Israeli fighter jets have launched hundreds of airstrikes, while soldiers have seized a buffer zone and captured military posts in territory formerly under Syrian control.

• New York Times ☛ In Homs, Smiles and Tears Amid a Ravaged Landscape After al-Assad’s Fall

  The ancient city, an early stronghold of opposition to Bashar al-Assad’s oppressive regime, was ravaged by a government crackdown. New York Times correspondents in Homs spoke to people who were reacting to his fall with smiles and tears.

• New York Times ☛ Israel Launches Airstrikes Against Houthis in Yemen as Netanyahu Issues Warning

  The Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea for more than a year in what they have described as a campaign in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

• The Straits Times ☛ South Korean burger chain Lotteria caught in crossfire of martial law debacle

  One of its outlets is reported to have been the location where military commanders met to discuss the martial law plot.

• The Straits Times ☛ South Korea probe team issues Christmas Day summons for Yoon

  Yoon failed to attend a hearing he was summoned to on Dec 18 and gave no reason for his absence.

• The Straits Times ☛ North Korean hackers stole $1.8 billion in crypto in 2024

  This is more than double the amount for 2023.

• Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

  • France24 ☛ Putin says ready to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he had not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump for years but was “ready for negotiations and compromises” with him over the war in Ukraine. Trump has touted his ability to strike a Ukraine peace deal within hours of coming to office next month, without providing details.

  • France24 ☛ Zelensky says Trump and EU must work together to ‘stop Putin and save Ukraine’

    Ukraine’s Zelensky urged both the European Union and the United States for unity on Thursday ahead of Trump’s return to the White House, stressing that “European guarantees won’t be sufficient for Ukraine” and the importance to secure a durable peace.

  • RFERL ☛ 'In His Own Bubble': Zelenskiy Slams Putin Remarks, Urges More EU Military Aid

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told EU leaders gathered in Brussels on December 19 that continued support in the fight against Russia's invasion is urgent. Energy infrastructure is increasingly under attack, he said, before roundly rejecting the idea that Ukraine might negotiate an end to fighting with Russia.

  • RFERL ☛ Putin, In Annual Televised Show Of Control, Says Russia Nearing 'Primary Goal' In Ukraine War

    President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is nearing its primary goal in the war against Ukraine and challenged the United States to a missile "duel" involving Russia's new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile.

  • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Says Transatlantic Unity Fundamental To Halt Putin's Aggression

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that only transatlantic unity could eventually stop the war in Ukraine and lead to peace amid a change of administrations in the United States.

  • France24 ☛ Zelensky says Trump and EU must work together to ‘stop Putin and save Ukraine’

    Ukraine’s Zelensky urged both the European Union and the United States for unity on Thursday ahead of Trump’s return to the White House, stressing that “European guarantees won’t be sufficient for Ukraine” and the importance to secure a durable peace.

  • New York Times ☛ Putin Glosses Over Russian Setbacks, Including Syria

    The Russian president, in a marathon annual news conference, said that he had not yet met with Bashar al-Assad, the ousted Syrian leader who fled to Moscow, but that he planned to.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia appears to intensify YouTube throttling, possibly in connection with Putin’s year-end press conference — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Putin says he ‘hasn’t just protected Russia’ but brought it ‘back from the edge of the abyss’ — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ ‘We don’t need a truce; we need peace’ — Putin on the war in Ukraine — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ ‘The human side prevailed. And I don’t condemn him for that.’ — Putin on Biden’s decision to pardon his son — Meduza

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine seeks further progress toward EU membership in 2025

    With little prospect of an invitation to join NATO while the war with Russia continues, Ukraine will be hoping to advance further on the road toward EU integration in 2025, writes Kateryna Odarchenko.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Ukrainian sentenced to five years in jail for work on Raccoon Stealer

    Ukrainian national Mark Sokolovsky was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison for his role in operating Raccoon Infostealer malware, which infiltrated millions of computers worldwide to steal personal data. According to court documents, Sokolovsky, 28, was integral to operations that allowed the leasing of Raccoon Infostealer for $200 per month, payable via cryptocurrency.

  • RFERL ☛ Uzbek Man Charged With Terrorism In High-Profile Assassination Of Russian General

    A court in Moscow charged Uzbek citizen Ahmat Qurbanov on December 19 with terrorism and other charges in the high-profile killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces.

  • RFERL ☛ Crimean Tatar Leader Applauds Czech Recognition Of Soviet Deportations As Genocide

    Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev has praised the Czech Republic after it adopted a resolution recognizing the deportation of Crimean Tatars by Soviet authorities in 1944 as genocide.

  • Meduza ☛ Putin says he doesn’t know if the West understands Russia’s modified doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons — Meduza

  • RFERL ☛ Last Holdouts Cling To Life In Ukrainian Frontline Town

    The eastern Ukrainian town of Siversk has been bombed nearly flat by Russian artillery, but two residents of a badly damaged home are refusing to leave. Olena and Viktor are among about 700 residents who have remained in what they call "a dead city." They carry on raising chickens and offering shelter to the handful of neighbors.

  • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Raises Prospect of European Peacekeepers in Ukraine

    But many European leaders say that with no sign that Russia is interested in peace, it is too early to discuss the presence of peacekeeping forces.

  • New York Times ☛ Ukrainians Mourn the Loss of Viktoria Roshchyna and Her Stories

    Viktoria Roshchyna died in September in Russian custody. The reporter had been well-known for her stories about life in parts of occupied Ukraine.

  • Meduza ☛ Putin declines to set timeline for expelling Ukrainian troops from Kursk, says ‘rushing’ will lead to unnecessary losses — Meduza

  • The Straits Times ☛ Russian missile attack on Kyiv injures two and damages buildings, officials say

    KYIV - A Russian missile attack injured two people and damaged buildings in Kyiv, local officials said after explosions were heard in Ukraine's capital on Friday.

  • Meduza ☛ Volodymyr Zelensky says there are ‘positive signals’ in European discussions about peacekeepers in Ukraine — Meduza

  • LRT ☛ Interior minister to halt decision to scrap Russian-language driving tests in Lithuania

    Lithuania’s new Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovič will halt his predecessor’s order that driving tests in Lithuania could only be taken in Lithuanian or other official EU languages from January.

  • LRT ☛ Lithuania bans Russian, Belarusian, Chinese citizens from joining defence forces

    Persons with Russian, Belarusian, or Chinese citizenship will not be allowed to join the Lithuanian Armed Forces and Riflemen’s Union, the country’s lawmakers decided on Thursday.

  • Meduza ☛ Moscow says Ukraine attacked chemical plant in southern Russia with Western-made ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Massive Russian cyberattack hits Ukraine’s state registries, justice minister says — Meduza

  • RFERL ☛ Lawmaker Shot Dead In De Facto Parliament Of Georgia's Breakaway Abkhazia Region

    One lawmaker was killed and another injured in a shooting at the de facto parliament in Georgia's Abkhazia, a breakaway region supported by Russia.

  • New York Times ☛ Its Syrian Bases in Doubt, Russia Sends Cargo Flights to Libya

    A Libyan officer said the stepped-up flights from Russia and Syria delivered military gear.

  • Meduza ☛ North Korea first sent troops to Russia in October, according to Western intelligence. So why is there no clear footage of them on the battlefield? — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ U.S. allows Turkey to pay for Russian gas through sanctioned Gazprombank — Meduza

  • Latvia ☛ Re:Baltica reports on ownership switch at Daugavpils electronics plant

    The Baltic Center for Investigative Journalism, Re:Baltica, and its partner Buro Media reports that a company in Daugavpils that had been identified as being owned by Belarusian businessmen has switched its ownership structure into the hands of a single Latvian citizen.

  • Meduza ☛ Russian economic officials draft legislation to double overtime limits amid national labor shortage — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ ‘I’m ready anytime’; Putin says he’s open to talks with Trump, dismisses claims that he would be the ‘weaker leader’ — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Putin says Moscow achieved its goals in Syria, promises to ask Assad about missing U.S. journalist — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ ‘Territory is good, but it must be populated,’ says Putin, telling Russians, ‘We need more girls’ — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Putin challenges West to ‘21st-century high-tech duel’ against Oreshnik missile, with Kyiv as Russia’s target — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Russian soldier on leave kills teenage daughter and injures wife and son with knife before taking own life — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Enter, Pyongyang: Russian forces close in on Pokrovsk, threatening all of Donbas, as North Korean troops join the fight in the Kursk Region — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Five killed in fire at Russian detention center where soldiers who refused to fight were beaten and tortured — Meduza

Environment

• JURIST ☛ Montana Supreme Court affirms landmark climate ruling in favor of youth activists

  The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a state law violated the youth plaintiffs’ right to a clean and healthful environment under the state constitution.

• Energy/Transportation

  • European Commission ☛ Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Automotive Industry to start in January

    European Commission Press release Brussels, 19 Dec 2024 On 27 November 2024, in a speech to the European Parliament, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced her decision to convene a Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the Automotive Industry in Europe.

• Wildlife/Nature

  • NYPost ☛ 2 entangled right whales spotted off coast of Massachusetts

    A survey team said a thick rope was located over one whale's head and back, which could cause its eventual death.

Finance

• Digital Music News ☛ After Two Disastrous Years, Burning Man Faces a $14 Million Shortfall Heading Into 2025

  The Burning Man Festival is supposed to be a place to bring people together. But torrential rains in 2023 resulted in one death and thousands stranded in the mud mire—with the 2024 edition of the festival lighter than ever.

• The Straits Times ☛ Two South Korean colleagues win nearly $1 million lottery within minutes of each other

  Their luck came with a scratch-off lottery that allows players to instantly verify their prize.

• The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian influencer Ady Hu detained by Taiwanese cops for alleged fraud: Taiwan media

  A request for Hu’s detention has reportedly been approved.

• France24 ☛ Starbucks workers to strike in three US cities, threaten nationwide action

  Starbucks employees will strike on Friday in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle, escalating labor tensions during the pre-Christmas rush. The strike, organized by Starbucks Workers United, targets improved pay and conditions following stalled negotiations. The action coincides with an Amazon walkout, amplifying holiday season disruptions.

• New York Times ☛ Starbucks Workers Say They Will Begin a Strike in 3 Cities on Friday

  The planned walkout in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle comes after talks between the company and the workers’ union failed to produce an agreement on raises.

• France24 ☛ Amazon workers strike days ahead of Christmas

  With just days to go before Christmas, thousands of Amazon workers across the US walked off the job. European stocks fell on the Fed’s inflation outlook, while US stocks rebounded after being rattled on Wednesday. Meanwhile the US is once again facing the prospect of a government shutdown. Plus, you can now call Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot on the phone.

• CS Monitor ☛ Amazon workers are on strike. Will your gifts arrive on time?

  The strike – spanning seven facilities across the United States – is the largest against Amazon in U.S. history, according to the Teamsters. More are “prepared to join,” says the union, which represents nearly 10,000 workers at the online retailer.

• Mexico News Daily ☛ Mexico to impose new protective tariff on finished textile imports

  The 35% tariff on finished textiles won't apply to the USMCA countries and appears to be an attempt to curb cheap clothing imports from China.

• Digital Music News ☛ SiriusXM Shares Are Down More Than 60% YTD — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Is Snapping Shares Up

  SiriusXM stock has fallen more than 60% over the past year, but Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has continued snapping up shares at the discounted price. Other hedge funds are joining in as SiriusXM re-focuses on its auto-listening segment.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• The Straits Times ☛ Legal experts to consider clemency requests for convict repatriated from Indonesia: Philippines’ Marcos

  Indonesia did not set any conditions on her return of Mary Jane Veloso, said Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

• New York Times ☛ Chinese National Charged in California After Aiding Local Candidate, Prosecutors Say

  The man is charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent. The move is part of an effort by the authorities to prevent China from influencing American politicians.

• New York Times ☛ Macau Is the Casino Capital of the World. For China, That’s Not Enough.

  A quarter century after the former Portuguese colony was made a Chinese territory, Macau’s economic boundaries with the mainland are being blurred.

• The Straits Times ☛ Chinese President Pooh-tin urges bigger international role for gambling hub Macau

  He called for Macau to develop new industries and connect with China’s national development strategies.

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s Pooh-tin Jinping swears in new Macau leader Sam Hou-fai on 25th anniversary of ex-colony’s return to Chinese rule

  Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping on Friday presided over the inauguration of new Macau leader Sam Hou-fai, capping off a three-day visit as the former Portuguese colony marks 25 years since being returned to China.

• The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia will strengthen territorial defence while keeping diplomatic channels open in South China Sea

  It has allocated $6.38 billion for the Defence Ministry in the 2025 budget.

Civil Rights/Policing

• EFF ☛ UK Politicians Join Organizations in Calling for Immediate Release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah

  During a debate on detained British nationals abroad in early December, chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Emily Thornberry asked the House of Commons why the UK has continued to organize industry delegations to Cairo while “the Egyptian government have one of our citizens—Alaa Abd El-Fattah—wrongfully held in prison without consular access.”

• Pro Publica ☛ How Segregation Academies Have Changed Amite County, Mississippi

• China’s farm sector more tainted by forced labor than previously known, report says

  Dozens of Western companies are identified as having direct or indirect supply-chain links to Xinjiang.

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Corruption in China’s military may hamper its modernisation, Pentagon report says

  Corruption in China’s military has led to the removal of top leaders and may hamper the country’s efforts to modernize its armed forces, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.