Links 13/01/2025: Disinformation, Social Control Media Actively Promoting Nazism, and Catchup With Ukraine
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Career/Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Science
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Career/Education
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-28 [Older] India's trafficking claims against Canadian colleges reveal 'exploited' system, experts say
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-12-29 [Older] Indians Pay Up to £81K Each to Be Smuggled into the US from Canada After Arriving as International Students
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ARRL ☛ ARRL Teachers Institute: Coming to a Town Near You
The ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology is going mobile in 2025. In addition to the cohorts hosted at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, there will be several sessions around the United States this year. The first, hosted by ARRL model school Staten Island Technical High School in New York City, will be held January 21-24.
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[Old] Marc Scott ☛ Kids can't use computers... and this is why it should worry you — Coding 2 Learn
If you teach IT or Computing, this is a phrase that you'll have heard a million times, a billion times, epsilon zero times, aleph one times. Okay I exaggerate, but you'll have heard it a lot. There are variants of the phrase, all espousing today's children's technical ability. My favourite is from parents: 'Oh, Johnny will be a natural for A-Level Computing. He's always on his computer at home.' The parents seem to have some vague concept that spending hours each evening on Facebook and YouTube will impart, by some sort of cybernetic osmosis, a knowledge of PHP, HTML, JavaScript and Haskell.
Normally when someone spouts this rubbish I just nod and smile. This time I simply couldn't let it pass. 'Not really, most kids can't use computers.' (and neither can you - I didn't add.)
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India Times ☛ Malala Yousafzai: ‘Do not legitimise them’: Malala Yousafzai urges Muslim leaders to oppose Taliban’s ban on girls’ education
"Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings," said Yousafzai, condemning the Taliban's suppression of Afghan women’s rights. "They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification."
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France24 ☛ Malala Yousafzai urges Muslim leaders not to 'legitimise' Taliban
The two-day conference has brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, backed by the Muslim World League.
Since sweeping back to power in 2021, the Taliban government has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has labelled "gender apartheid".
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Hardware
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] Germany: Police and doctors urge national fireworks ban
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] German police detail influencer over NYE firework incident
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-01 [Older] Germany: 4 killed, warehouse fire amid New Year's fireworks
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Germany: Thousands sign petition for fireworks ban
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-27 [Older] Nordic spas booming amid 'unlimited' consumer appetite for wellness
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] Norovirus — highly contagious, really disgusting
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] India begins disposal of toxic waste from 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Stress fractures in sport: When stressed bones fight back
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-01 [Older] B.C. teen with avian flu off oxygen, no longer infectious, Canadian health officials tell medical journal
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Depression: You're predisposed to it or you're not
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] How India became a methamphetamine and cocaine hub
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Japan: World's oldest person Tomiko Itooka dies at 116
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] 'Steve is the guy to call': Anglo patients in Quebec City rely on 1 man to help navigate health system
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CBC ☛ 'Zombie facts' live on after black plastic and other studies get corrected or retracted
In October, the journal Chemosphere published a study by researchers in the U.S. and Netherlands that found brominated fire retardants (BFR) in black plastic household products sold in the U.S., including kitchen items.
But there was a math error when the study's authors calculated the risk — and it was off by an order of magnitude.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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NL Times ☛ Cyberattack disrupts classes at TU Eindhoven
The university has not disclosed further details about the cyberattack, and a spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
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Michael Kjörling ☛ Blocking known AI scrapers
TDM refers to Text Data Mining. In this case, tdm-reservation and tdm-policy work in tandem; the former indicates that a reservation against such use exists, and the latter points to the policy for such use. Although not technically a standard, it is a specification published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
The noai, noimageai robots tags are entirely non-standard, introduced by DeviantArt. However, I see no significant downside to including them; and including them clearly establishes intent in a machine-readable fashion.
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Futurism ☛ Dad Baffled When 6-Year-Old Daughter Turns Off AI Function on High Tech Doll and Plays With It Like Regular Toy
For better or worse, it's provided us a glimpse into the mind of the ardent techno-optimist realizing that others, especially those of uncorrupted minds, may not share in their enthusiasm for large language models.
"Would you like to play a game or maybe hear a fun fact?" asks the annoyingly chirpy-sounding AI in a video shared by Volkov.
"No," his daughter replies.
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Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] China slams claims of cyberattack on US Treasury
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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Defence/Aggression
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Liam Payne: Argentina charges 5 over singer's death
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Kenya police crack down on protests over alleged abductions
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Gisele Pelicot's convicted ex-husband won't appeal sentence
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Germany says Elon Musk seeking to sway February election
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] German election: Why Elon Musk is promoting the far-right AfD
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Germany: Scholz uneasy over Musk's support for far-right AfD
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] Musk's 'undignified' insults irritate German politicians
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] Elon Musk's insults pose challenge to German defamation laws
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] Germany: Nearly 190 members of far-right groups wanted
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] Trinidad and Tobago declares gang crime state of emergency
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] Pakistan sees surge in deadly attacks in 2024
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Defence Web ☛ 2024-12-27 [Older] Top EU diplomat condemns rape as a weapon of war
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] Ballots, Bullets, and Betrayal: How South Africa Sold Out Mozambique’s Revolution
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] What could global turmoil mean for Africa in 2025?
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Defence Web ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] Terrorism is spreading in west Africa – foreign and regional collaboration are needed to fight the threat
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Defence Web ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Child soldier recruitment rife in Africa
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Defence Web ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Countries use an alternative counterterrorism approach: Economic development
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-01 [Older] Montenegro: Shooting leaves several dead
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] UK channel crossings surge by 25% in 2024
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Why are Thailand and Cambodia clashing over Koh Kood island?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] US announces $8 billion arms sale to Israel
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The Local SE ☛ Sweden 'not at war, but not at peace either', says PM
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday his country was not at war but not living in peacetime either, citing hybrid attacks, suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea and a proxy war fought on its soil.
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Michigan Advance ☛ Skeptical Supreme Court justices weigh a rescue of TikTok from nearing ban
“Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” Roberts said.
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New Yorker ☛ Donald Trump Bemoans the Injustice of Facing No Consequences
What’s a fitting punishment for a President who breaks the law? America has never been quite sure. Last spring, when Trump sat through a weeks-long trial in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, it almost seemed like the rules would, finally, apply to him. Yes, he was the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, and, yes, the trial was held under oppressively tight security restrictions, and, yes, Merchan gave Trump leeway to viciously bash the court, the prosecutors, the witnesses, and the jury in ways not typically tolerated from criminal defendants. But inside the courtroom the proceedings proceeded. Testimony was heard, evidence was introduced, a verdict was reached: guilty on all thirty-four counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, as part of a scheme to suppress damaging evidence from becoming public during his first Presidential campaign. That was the unanimous decision of twelve of Trump’s peers on May 30th.
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New Statesman ☛ Silicon Valley’s bid to rewrite our laws
In the increasingly heated competition to see which Silicon Valley centibillionaire can show the least moral character, Mark Zuckerberg edged ahead of Jeff Bezos this week by announcing a bold plan to get rid of the fact-checking and content-moderation programmes behind his social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
Users who have immersed themselves in the rancid soup of scams and advertainment available on these platforms were shocked to learn that they could actually be made worse, but for British politics, Zuckerberg’s announcement did contain a serious message: Silicon Valley would like to rewrite our laws.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ As Musk pushes AfD, German officials consider ditching X
What do NBA star LeBron James, iconic horror writer Stephen King and left-leaning British newspaper The Guardian have in common? They have all quit X, the social network previously known as Twitter, since Donald Trump's election victory in November 2024. And they are far from the only ones. On Friday, more than 60 German-language universities announced that they would no longer be using X.
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SBS ☛ How Zuckerberg's turn towards Trump could impact Australia
While the changes are limited to the US at this point, he was clear in his criticisms of other countries' restrictions on Meta's platforms.
"We're going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world," Zuckerberg said.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Syria: Damascus Airport operational again next week
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] The Middle East After the Fall of Assad
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] German, French foreign ministers meet Syria's new leaders
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-01 [Older] Protesters in Syria Demand Justice for Disappeared Activists and Accountability From All Factions
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Syrian elections could be four years away, says country’s new de facto leader
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] TikTok Warns of Broader Consequences if US Supreme Court Allows Ban
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] TikTok fights looming ban in U.S. Supreme Court. What you need to know
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Supreme Court justices skeptical of TikTok's free speech arguments ahead of potential ban
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] US TikTok ban: Supreme Court considers appeal
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] 3 Takeaways From the Supreme Court Oral Arguments on TikTok Ban
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] US Supreme Court Justices Weigh in on TikTok Bid to Avoid Ban
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Mom! Dad! Can I Download TikTok? And RIP, Jimmy Carter.
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Vox ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] What to know about TikTok’s fate in the US
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Vox ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] TikTok: The most exciting, and controversial, social media app on the planet
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Vox ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Has TikTok made us better? Or much, much worse?
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Vox ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] The Supreme Court doesn’t seem likely to save TikTok
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] TikTok's Fate Arrives at Supreme Court in Collision of Free Speech and National Security
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] ByteDance's Lemon8 Gains Traction Amid TikTok Ban Threat as Creators Push the App [Ed: Changing the name of the illegal drugs to dodge sanctions]
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Make Tech Easier ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] TikTok Alternative Lemon8 Could Be Banned Too
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] TikTok's Fate Divides Trump and Fellow Republicans as Supreme Court Action Looms [Ed: Trump for BRICS as it props up the far right in Europe.]
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-07 [Older] Will Donald Trump be able to save TikTok in the US? [Ed: Is that the goal? To keep ruinous influence operations? Because these ones have many lobbyists and addicts?]
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-05 [Older] TikTok Creators Left in Limbo While Awaiting Decision on Potential Platform Ban [Ed: Their fault. They devoted their lives to a platform controlled by CCP.]
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Sending EU arms back for repairs stalls Ukraine war effort
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Ukraine says 2 North Korean soldiers captured
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Trump's Ukraine Envoy Says World Must Reinstate 'Maximum Pressure' on Iran
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Ukraine Captures Two North Korean Soldiers in Kursk, Zelenskiy Says
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] U.S. SOF Must Act Now: Preventing Taiwan from Becoming the Next Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Biden Extends Deportation Relief for 900,000 Immigrants From Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Ukraine allies push for aid ahead of Trump's second term
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HRW ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] New Ukrainian Draft Laws on International Crimes Spark Concern
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International Business Times ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] German Couple Kills Ukrainian Refugee With Hammer and Steals Her Baby Amid Infertility Struggles
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Italy's Meloni Sees Trump Defending Western Interests, Engaging With Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Ukraine, Trump... Ants: Questions for Italy's Meloni Take Surprise Turn
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] US to Announce $500M in Weapons to Be Sent to Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] Over 12,300 Civilians Killed Since Start of Ukraine War, UN Says
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-07 [Older] German couple admit killing Ukrainian refugees for baby
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-07 [Older] Kursk: What is Ukraine trying to achieve with its new advance?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-06 [Older] Trump's Ukraine Envoy Postpones Kyiv Trip Until After Inauguration
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-05 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv launches fresh Kursk offensive
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NL Times ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Dutch Navy escorts Russian submarine and warship through North Sea
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] US, UK impose sweeping sanctions on Russia's oil industry
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Fire at 'Industrial Plant' After Drone Attack Under Control, Russia Says
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Russia Says It Captured Settlement Near Key Town of Pokrovsk in Eastern Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Russia Says It Will Continue Oil and Gas Projects Despite US Sanctions
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Russia Says Ukrainian Drones Injure Three in Tambov Region
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-11 [Older] Ukraine Says It Captured 2 North Korean Soldiers Fighting for Russia
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Germany says Russia 'shadow fleet' ship adrift in Baltic Sea
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Moldovans in Transnistria adjust to life without Russian gas
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New Yorker ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Do Russians Really Support the War in Ukraine?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Protesters Say Fico Dragging Slovakia to Russia in Ukraine Gas Dispute
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Thousands Rally Across Slovakia to Protest Prime Minister's Pro-Russia Policies
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-10 [Older] Zelenskiy: Sanctions on Russian Oil Significantly Affect Moscow's War Financing
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Montreal man sentenced in U.S. for exporting weapon components to Russia
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Counter Punch ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Take Your Money and Shove it: The Second Long Telegram, US Aid, and Russia’s Economic Trauma
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Moldova: Orthodox Christmas without Russian gas
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Russia's influence in Africa may weaken after Assad's fall
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Moldovan President Visits Area Hit by Blackouts, Blames Russia's Gazprom
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] NATO Needs to Focus on Southern Flank to Counter Russia, Italy Says
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-09 [Older] Ukraine Says Russia Dropped Over 51,000 Guided Bombs Since Start of War
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NL Times ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] More and more Russian ships are being followed by the Dutch navy in the North Sea
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] Ukraine strikes Russian air force oil depot
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] Lithuania Boosts Power Grid Security Ahead of Russia Decoupling
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] Russian Strike Kills 13 in Ukrainian City of Zaporizhzhia
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-08 [Older] A Russian Missile Attack in Southern Ukraine Has Killed at Least 13 Civilians, Officials Say
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The Local SE ☛ 2025-01-07 [Older] Swedish navy recovers 'Russian shadow fleet' anchor suspected of cable damage
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-07 [Older] U.S. Accuses Russia of Funding Both Sides of Sudan's War
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-07 [Older] Russia's Orthodox Patriarch, Marking Christmas, Says West Trying to Smother Russia
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-07 [Older] Trump Says He Sympathizes With Russia's Opposition to NATO Membership for Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-06 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia claims to control key eastern town
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-06 [Older] Russia Claims It Has Captured Another Town in Eastern Ukraine but Kyiv Doesn't Confirm the Loss
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-01-05 [Older] Assad’s Fall: Fault-lines and Russia’s Geopolitical Gambit
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-05 [Older] More Than 30 Dolphins Have Died Since an Oil Spill Near Southern Russia, Experts Say
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-05 [Older] Moscow and Kyiv Say Ukraine Is Pressing Attacks in Russia's Kursk Region
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia says shot down 8 US ATACMS
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Russia-Appointed Officials in Crimea Declare Emergency as Oil Spill Reaches Sevastopol
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Fact check: AfD head called Hitler 'communist.' He was not
This claim is false and trivializes the atrocities committed under Hitler and the Nazis from 1933 through 1945. The AfD, which in Germany is often classified as far right to extreme right, has repeatedly tried to distance itself from Nazism. Right-wing politicians in the United States, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, have also spread false statements about Germany's Nazi history (read DW's fact check on these claims here). Many people online seem to believe the AfD leader's assertion nonetheless.
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Environment
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BIA Net ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] 2024: Ecological struggles in Turkey
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-28 [Older] Alberta drought conditions expected to improve heading into 2025
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-28 [Older] With walls, berms and raised roads, Fort McMurray, Alta., is working to keep its river from overflowing
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Pete Brown ☛ We keep talking about the wrong category of problems.
The failure is not how Los Angeles allocates firefighting personnel and equipment, or how much water is being sent to fire hydrants; the failure is that we as a society have done nothing significant in response to any of the decades’ worth of warnings we have had about the impact of climate change.
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Energy/Transportation
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Over a third of Deutsche Bahn long-distance trains late
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Germany: Airport border controls hit by IT outage
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] In 2025, German auto industry faces make-or-break year
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Why both Biden and Trump oppose Japan's takeover of US Steel
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Biden blocks sale of US Steel to Japan's Nippon Steel
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-29 [Older] Halifax airport reopens runway after fiery weekend landing
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-29 [Older] Passengers say plane filled with smoke after fiery landing in Halifax
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Ontario ER nurse nearly killed in road rage captured on dashcam says SUV rammed into his car more than once
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VOA News ☛ Final minutes of ‘black box’ data missing in South Korea plane crash
After analyzing the devices, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders stopped working about four minutes before the crash, the South Korean Transportation Ministry said.
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Wildlife/Nature
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Finance
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] Toys 'R' Us Canada closing 5 stores in Ontario, revamping others and expanding HMV
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Ex-Ontario MPP who became homeless says it's 'humbling' politicians rallying to move him out of shelter
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-01 [Older] Senior faces possible renoviction from home of 50 years as Hamilton unrolls new bylaw to protect tenants
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-02 [Older] Advocacy group welcomes reduction in child-care fees in Ontario, fears far too few families stand to benefit
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] Jasper's challenge next year is providing housing for those who want to return, says mayor
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-28 [Older] Toronto man creates tiny mobile homes to help unhoused people escape the cold
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Why B.C. cities struggle to respond to the ongoing tent encampment problem
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] 'Feeling the pinch': Some businesses report lagging sales as international student numbers decline
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-28 [Older] Museum of Bad Gifts an homage to the awkward, the unwanted and the inappropriate
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-12-31 [Older] Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt reach divorce settlement after 8 years
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] German unemployment rate sees small rise in December
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Pickering, Ont., mayor says he's moving council meetings online due to threats stemming from 1 councillor's actions
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Austria: Centrist Neos party quits coalition talks
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] US: Trump sentencing set for Jan. 10, judge signals no jail
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-12-30 [Older] Jimmy Carter Worsened the American Malaise He Decried
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Ohio Governor Vetoes Medical Free Speech Clause He Says Would Gut State's Regulatory Power
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-01 [Older] Romania, Bulgaria drop EU border checks, join Schengen
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-01 [Older] Ivory Coast asks French forces to leave
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India Times ☛ Inside Mark Zuckerberg's sprint to remake Meta for the Donald Trump era
Meta said it was overhauling speech on its apps by loosening restrictions on how people can talk about contentious social issues such as immigration, gender and sexuality. It killed its fact-checking program that had been aimed at curbing misinformation and said it would instead rely on users to police falsehoods. And it said it would insert more political content into people's feeds after previously de-emphasising that very material.
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Nicolas Magand ☛ The age of insecure billionaires
My reaction in September when I learned about all this was that it was, of course, bullcrap. The CEO of Meta, whatever he says, whatever he does, is inherently involved in politics. If Zuckerberg wanted to really “wash his hands of it all,” he would quit, and he would stop being involved.
Distancing oneself from politics, whether they are progressive or not, is perfectly fine. But don’t pretend to not care while keeping your job as Meta CEO, arguably one of the most politically involved jobs in the world, outside politicians. It’s like saying you’re done talking about air quality and health while being the CEO of an oil company.
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The Guardian UK ☛ Why Mark Zuckerberg turned to Dana White to secure Maga’s favor
Zuckerberg’s frantic efforts to appease Trump seem to have paid off. Earlier this week, the president-elect praised Meta for changing how it moderates political content, even speculating whether the policy shift was a direct response to the threats he directed at Zuckerberg.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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ANF News ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] DFG report: 118 journalists detained, 26 imprisoned in Turkey in 2024
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ANF News ☛ 2024-12-29 [Older] Amnesty International protests arrest of journalists in Turkey
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] German public broadcaster nixes hiring presenter accused of sexism
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VOA News ☛ As Maduro takes office, advocates condemn latest journalist arrest in Venezuela
The arrest of Correa rocked Venezuela’s media community, many of whom are in exile because of a repressive media environment.
“The journalistic community is shocked that the regime would cross the line of detaining such a prominent human rights advocate,” said documentary maker Juan Ravell.
“Most journalists that have been harassed and persecuted in Venezuela know of Carlos’ work because he is usually the first you go to when something happens,” Ravell told VOA.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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CBC ☛ 2024-12-29 [Older] Online child exploitation spiked in B.C. in recent years. Police worry it's here to stay
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Germany's gymnastics abuse scandal: What you need to know
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-04 [Older] Myanmar junta to release prisoners to mark Independence Day
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-03 [Older] Do passports make us free?
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Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Motown Records, Founded on This Day in 1959, Broke Racial Barriers in Pop Music With Its Beloved Hits | Smithsonian
The limited returns—one royalty check Gordy received is said to have been for just $3.19—are part of what motivated him to start Motown. “Back in those days, especially if you were Black, nobody was paying you what you should be paid, if they paid you at all. So Berry decided to start his own record company and gave us that outlet,” Robinson told AARP Magazine in 2018.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Harpers Magazine ☛ The Ghosts in the Machine, by Liz Pelly
For years, I referred to the names that would pop up on these playlists simply as “mystery viral artists.” Such artists often had millions of streams on Spotify and pride of place on the company’s own mood-themed playlists, which were compiled by a team of in-house curators. And they often had Spotify’s verified-artist badge. But they were clearly fake. Their “labels” were frequently listed as stock-music companies like Epidemic, and their profiles included generic, possibly AI-generated imagery, often with no artist biographies or links to websites. Google searches came up empty.
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Copyrights
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Torrent Freak ☛ Nhentai Asks California Court to Dismiss Piracy Lawsuit
Nhentai.net, a popular adult site with dozens of millions of monthly visits, has asked a California federal court to dismiss a piracy lawsuit filed last year by publisher PCR Distributing. Among other things, the site argues that PCR lack sufficient ownership of the copyrights in question and has previously granted permission for the use of the content.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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