Leftovers

• Ted Unangst ☛ pipelined state machine corruption

  So now we rejected the MAIL FROM command and accepted the incorrectly addressed RCPT TO.

  It would of course be better, and correct, to remember more specifically where we are in the connection, but I can imagine assuming that if commands arrive one at a time, we can save a byte and rely on the ready descriptor to guide us through the state machine. If there’s a command pending, it must be because the client received our previous replay. If there’s a DNS answer pending, it’s the answer the client is waiting for. Etc.

  This is all speculation, but RFC 2920 offers some concrete examples. Mostly related to stdio buffers and fork/exec. If you read ahead on the stream, then exec a helper process, the eaten data disappears. This makes a lot more sense, given the time frame. I haven’t thought about stdio buffering bugs in a while, either.

• Thomas Rigby ☛ Where is the incentive to click?

  Where is my incentive to click? Should I just trust that I want to because of who shared the link?

• Robert Birming ☛ One step at a time

  One ongoing project for this new home of my blog is to move content over from my old platform—like I just did with the BlogBuddy shortcut. There’s quite a bit to go through, so it’ll probably take a while. I plan to bring over one or two posts every now and then; otherwise, it starts to feel unmanageable.

• Kivikakk ☛ famous estonian hospitality

  Estonians are renowned for their social charm, and for good reason are considered second to none in business. Here follows an exemplar of such, when an order from a motorcycle gear and accessory store was unable to be realised in full.

• Ruben Schade ☛ Music Monday: Wings, Must Do Something About It

  We haven’t had a Music Monday in a while. For those uninitiated, the series was one I pilfered from my university anime club, in which I regail people with musical information and a track on a prescriptive day of the week. That’s usually a Monday, though I’ve been known to forget and use a nonsense loophole about timezones to do it later.

• Science

  • Atlantic Council ☛ US global leadership in the age of electricity

    Amid shifting geopolitics and the emerging "age of electricity," the United States has an opportunity to assert global leadership in energy and security. Through foreign policy, the Convicted Felon administration can leverage US strengths in natural gas, nuclear power, and emerging energy technologies to engage allies in building a secure and resilient global electricity system.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Game-Changing Telescope Is About to Drop First Pics. Here's How to Watch.

    This is going to change everything.

  • Ned Batchelder ☛ Math factoid of the day: 63

    In fact, the number of cubes in a Haüy octahedron with N layers is the same as the number of Delannoy steps on a 3×N grid!

  • YLE ☛ [NATO] maritime drone startles sailor in Gulf of Finland

    Boaters in the Gulf of Finland have spotted remote-controlled maritime drones being used in [NATO] sea exercises over the weekend.

  • Daniel Lemire ☛ Don’t argue: build

    Not every question is empirical, but the critical ones often are. To make your case, build it and demonstrate its value. That is the heart of the scientific revolution

• Career/Education

  • Digital Camera World ☛ Photography education is a scam – I never studied sports photography, but still got to shoot the Olympics

    But let’s be honest: most photography degrees leave students in debt by the thousands, armed with the knowledge they could’ve learned faster and cheaper on YouTube, and saddled with the illusion that a degree guarantees a job. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ Bad brainwaves: ChatGPT makes you stupid

    That shouldn’t be surprising — if you’re not doing the work, you won’t remember the work.

    But then the researchers switched the groups up. The search-engine and just-their-brain groups did just as well when they switched to using the chatbot. But the chatbot group didn’t get any better when they switched to search-engine or just their brains. They were still stuck thinking as badly as they did when they were trying to write with the chatbot.

  • The New Stack ☛ Work Is Water: Beat Developer Infinity by Paying Attention to Flow

    The wicked part of drowning in work is that our water never reaches the sea. The more we bail out, the deeper we get. When you start so much work, it takes forever to finish it. In fact, the more time you spend switching tasks, rebuilding task context, and responding to the overheads of high work-in-progress (WIP), the less time you spend completing stuff.

    It’s time to reconnect with nature and discover that you must slow down to go fast.

  • Air Force Times ☛ Why Homer Simpson is a government fixture familiar to all troops

    These aren’t people you discipline. These are people you learn to work around.

    Homer Simpson isn’t a parody. He’s a composite sketch of every long-timer who outlasted five commanders, three reorganizations and the concept of accountability itself.

    Let’s stop pretending Homer Simpson is a comedic exaggeration. He’s not. He’s a federal fixture. He has survived scandals, lawsuits and direct exposure to radioactive waste — not because he’s lucky, but because he’s untouchable.

• Hardware

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Taiwan adds China’s Huawei, SMIC to export blacklist

    Taiwan has put Chinese tech giant Huawei and chip titan SMIC on an export blacklist, further squeezing Beijing’s access to the technology needed to build the most advanced chips.

  • TechRadar ☛ Intel set for huge factory job cuts as it makes a major policy shift

    Intel plans to lay off around 15-20% of its factory workforce as it looks to increase revenues and deal with ever-changing market conditions

    A report from OregonLive claims the cost-cutting effort, scheduled to begin as soon as mid-July 2025, will primarily affect Intel Foundry, one of its core business divisions.

    "These are difficult actions but essential to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position of the company. It drives pain to every individual," manufacturing VP Naga Chandrasekaran reportedly shared in a memo with employees over the weekend.

  • Hackaday ☛ Bringing An Obscure Apple Operating System To Modern Hardware

    During Apple’s late-90s struggles with profitability, it made a few overtures toward licensing its software to other computer manufacturers, while at the same time trying to modernize its operating system, which was threatening to slip behind Windows. While Apple eventually scrapped their licensing plans, an interesting product of the situation was Rhapsody OS. Although Apple was still building PowerPC computers, Rhapsody also had compatibility with Intel processors, which [Omores] put to good use by running it on a relatively modern i7-3770 CPU.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Bat Cave Footage Offers Clues to How Viruses Leap Between Species

    Video from a national park in Uganda depicted a parade of predatory species feeding on and dispersing fruit bats that are known natural reservoirs of infectious diseases.

  • New York Times ☛ The Tick Situation Is Getting Worse

    As temperatures rise, ticks of several kinds are flourishing in ways that threaten people’s health.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Former Michelin-star restaurant owner in Japan arrested after food poisonings

    Norovirus was detected in some of the people, which a local public health centre determined was linked to food poisoning.

  • PHR ☛ ICE Immigration Raids Endanger Health and Human Rights: PHR

    In response to increased U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehensions of immigrants in the United States, the following statement is attributable to Katherine Peeler, MD, medical advisor at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR):  [...]

  • BIA Net ☛ The poor eat not for nourishment, only to be full

    “In poor segments of our population, obesity mostly results from diets heavy in bread, pasta, and similar foods. When economically inaccessible, nutritious foods like meat, milk, and yogurt are replaced by these alternatives,” said public health expert Prof. Gül Ergör.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China launches first-ever invasive brain-computer interface clinical trial — Tetraplegic patient could skillfully operate racing games after just three weeks

    China's first in-human clinical trials of an invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) have launched.

  • LRT ☛ No Chinese diplomats remain in Lithuania

    Chinese diplomats have not been present in Vilnius since mid-May, as tensions between Lithuania and China continue over how to restore formal diplomatic representation, reports BNS.

• Proprietary

  • Macworld ☛ If your out-of-warranty M2 Mac mini won't turn on, Apple will fix it for free

    Mac minis made between June 16, 2024 and November 23, 2024 may stop powering on.

  • The Register UK ☛ Google caused outage by ignoring its quality protections

    The outage struck last Thursday and meant that Google Cloud customers could not access their rented infrastructure for at least three hours. Among the customers impacted by the event was Cloudflare, whose services wobbled because of Google’s errors – meaning its customers also experienced disruptions.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • The Register UK ☛ Large Reasoning Models hitting limits, say Apple boffins

      Look at the suggestion that IT staff should make agentic digital twins of themselves to, ahem, reduce the amount of burdensome work they have to personally do. That's a room with enough elephants to restock Africa, if it worked. If your twin mucks up, who carries the can? What’s the difference between "burdensome work" and "job?" Who owns the twin when you leave? Have none of these people seen the Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of Fantasia? Fortunately, a better question leading on from that: whether the idea is science fiction or fantasy, and like all good speculative fiction there's both history and logic to help us decide.

    • Unmitigated Risk ☛ Conway’s Law Is Dying

      Yet while AI empowers outliers and small players, it might also entrench new kinds of monopolies. Big tech, with vast data and compute resources, could still dominate by outscaling everyone else, even if their org charts are messy. The question becomes whether organizational dysfunction will outweigh resource advantages, or whether sheer scale still wins despite structural problems.

    • IT Pro ☛ Report: OpenAI considered accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior

      The relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI could be set to get nasty, with the latter reportedly considering accusing its investor and partner of anti-competitive behavior.

      Microsoft was an early – and generous – backer of OpenAI, with an initial investment of $1 billion in 2019 since expanding to $13 billion in total, while Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella offered to hire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman when he was briefly ousted by the company's board.

      However, more recently the previously exclusive relationship has loosened by allowing OpenAI to work with other infrastructure providers when required, notably on the Stargate project, while the AI firm has signed a $12bn deal with infrastructure provider CoreWeave.

  • Social Control Media

    • CS Monitor ☛ International students scrub social media as US tightens visa checks

      International students are deleting social media posts and accounts as the Trump administration tightens visa rules and expands digital surveillance. The policy is raising concerns over unfair profiling and pushing young people to self-censor online.

    • The Guardian UK ☛ How a Pentagon account on X became Pete Hegseth’s personal cheerleader

      So far, it has already garnered criticism for its excessive and partisan attacks on reporters and cheerleading of Hegseth, in what appears to be a media strategy bent on going on the offensive. The result is an apparent information warfare tool that flirts with fascistic takes and merges religion with a cult of personality surrounding Hegseth.

    • CS Monitor ☛ ‘Someone is watching’: Foreign students clean up social posts amid visa crackdowns

      International students are deleting social control media posts and accounts as the Convicted Felon administration tightens visa rules and expands digital surveillance. The policy is raising concerns over unfair profiling and pushing young people to self-censor online.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Kubernetes Blog ☛ Changes to Kubernetes Slack [Ed: Kubernetes uses proprietary software and Microsoft; that says a lot about the projects vision of software freedom]

      Kubernetes Slack will lose its special status and will be changing into a standard free Slack on June 20. Sometime later this year, our community will likely move to a new platform. If you are responsible for a channel or private channel, or a member of a User Group, you will need to take some actions as soon as you can.

      For the last decade, Slack has supported our project with a free customized enterprise account.

    • LWN ☛ Changes to Kubernetes Slack (Kubernetes Contributors blog) [Ed: They should not have used this in the first place]

      The Kubernetes project has announced that it will be losing its "special status" with the Slack communication platform and will be downgraded to the free tier in a matter of days:

      On Friday, June 20, we will be subject to the feature limitations of free Slack. The primary ones which will affect us will be only retaining 90 days of history, and having to disable several apps and workflows which we are currently using.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Ben Congdon ☛ When Red Buttons Aren't Enough

      On June 12, 2025, most of GCP went offline. This led to downstream outages in a multitude of websites and services, such as Clownflare, Spotify, OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, and many others.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • New York Times ☛ WhatsApp Introduces Ads in Its App

      They will appear in only one part of the Meta-owned messaging service, it said. The move is potentially lucrative, while raising questions about user privacy.

    • Cory Dransfeldt ☛ Using Signal to communicate securely

      I would strongly recommend not using Gmail or other popular email providers. The following table contains a list of reputable alternatives.

    • GreyCoder ☛ An Optimal Privacy and Security Stack For Most People - GreyCoder

      Using the Greycoder setup boosts security, privacy, and customization. It does this by reducing tracking and blocking ads and malware. It also encrypts communications and gives you control over your data. It is one of the most robust consumer-grade stacks available.

    • EDRI ☛ Spyware and state abuse: The case for an EU-wide ban

      EDRi’s position paper addresses the challenges posed by state use of spyware in the EU. It also tackles how spyware should be legally defined in a way that shields us from future harms, as well as the dangers of the proliferation of commercial spyware in Europe. After conducting a values-based analysis into spyware, the paper concludes that the only human-rights compliant approach is a full ban.

    • Doc Searls ☛ Did tracking-based advertising just get blown up in Europe?

      As I read it (in an English translation here), an appeals court in Brussels ruled consent notifications on websites illegal in the EU. Your interpretation may vary. Here are some sources I’ve gathered to help with that: [...]

    • LRT ☛ Vilnius mayor orders tighter surveillance after bear spotted roaming city streets

      Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas has ordered enhanced monitoring of wild animals in Lithuania's capital after a bear was spotted wandering through the city's streets over the weekend.

    • NYOB ☛ WhatsApp is getting ads using personal data from Instagram and Facebook

      WhatsApp is getting ads using personal data from Instagram and Facebook

  • Confidentiality

    • RIPE ☛ End-to-End Encryption: Architecturally Necessary

      Good intentions don’t always result in good outcomes. This is especially the case with recent suggestions regarding end-to-end-encryption adaptability requirements for number independent communication services. Not only is security an issue, the suggestions themselves go against the design of the Internet, as well as digitisation itself.

• Defence/Aggression

  • JURIST ☛ Israel and Iran exchange air strikes, killing hundreds

    The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday attacked military and nuclear facilities in Iran, killing several top military leaders and nuclear scientists.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Cybercrime crackdown disrupts malware, infostealers, marketplaces across the globe

    A burst of global law enforcement actions during the past few weeks marked by a flurry of successful takedowns gives cybercrime experts a jolt of hope.

  • JURIST ☛ Austria poised to tighten firearm regulations following deadly school shooting

    Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker stated on Saturday that the country’s gun laws must be strengthened following a mass shooting earlier in the week. Stocker suggested multiple changes to the current gun policies, such as raising the minimum age for purchasing weapons and improving data sharing between officials to better identify warning signs.

  • New York Times ☛ Mike Lee Draws Outrage for Posts Blaming Minnesota Assassination on Far Left

    The Republican senator from Utah suggested in social control media posts that the killings were the work of “Marxists,” and mocked Minnesota’s Democratic governor. He later issued a more sober condemnation of the violence.

  • BIA Net ☛ A century later: A renewed open letter against the return of fascism

    In an age when fascism is once again on the rise a century later, 422 intellectuals from around the world have issued a call to defend democracy, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression.

  • Site36 ☛ Bundeswehr buys more huge strike drones from Israel and transfers training to Germany

  • France24 ☛ How do Iran's and Israel's military capabilities compare?

    Israel enters the conflict with Iran with a clear edge: a modern, battle-hardened force, backed by advanced Western weaponry and total air dominance. Iran’s arsenal, weakened by years of sanctions and recent precision strikes, is struggling to keep up. FRANCE 24's Yinka Oyetade has more on how the two rivals stack up against each other.

  • France24 ☛ Israel strikes state-run Iranian TV during live broadcast after Iranian missiles kill 8 in Israel

    Israel struck Iran's state-run television station Monday during a live broadcast, forcing a reporter to run off camera following an explosion, after Iran fired a new wave of missiles at Israel that killed at least eight people.

    FRANCE 24's Selina Sykes reports.

  • France24 ☛ Iran state TV announces new salvo of missiles aimed at Israel

    Iranian state media announced a new barrage of missiles targeting Israel on Monday night, as the two countries exchanged major strikes for a fourth day. The Iranian Red Crescent said Monday that three of its rescuers were killed by an Israeli air strike in northwest Tehran. FRANCE 24's Saeed Azimi reports from Tehran.

  • France24 ☛ Netanyahu says campaign 'changing face of Middle East' as Israel, Iran trade blows

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Monday that Israel's campaign against Iran was "changing the face of the Middle East", as the two countries traded heavy strikes for a fourth day. The remarks came hours after a dramatic Israeli attack on an Iranian state TV building that forced a presenter to flee mid-broadcast under a shower of dust and debris. FRANCE 24's Noga Tarnopolsky reports from Jerusalem.

  • France24 ☛ Iranian state-run television halts live broadcast after Israeli strike

    Iran fired a new wave of missile attacks at Israel early Monday, killing at least eight people, while Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of Tehran to evacuate ahead of new strikes. The national news agency reported that state-run television abruptly stopped a live broadcast after an Israeli strike. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Tehran, Saeed Azimi.

  • France24 ☛ Iran: What are the casualties following Israeli strikes on the country?

    With information only trickling out of Iran, what do we know about the casualties from the barrage of Israeli missiles that have hit the country? Details by Solange Mougin.

  • Latvia ☛ Scandinavian Astor Group buys Latvia's only ammunition producer

    Swedish defence and security company Scandinavian Astor Group (SAG) has signed an agreement to acquire Latvian small-calibre ammunition manufacturer Ammunity, representatives of Ammunity told the LETA news agency.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man EO pumps brakes on software security requirements

    Industry officials are now closely watching how NIST pulls together a consortium that will help develop software security implementation guidance.

  • Federal News Network ☛ It’s time to update the cybersecurity information sharing framework

    "The bottom line is folks who don't think CISA is important are probably overlooking the fact and taking for granted what the law has helped," said John Miller.

  • Latvia ☛ Former MP Rosļikovs detained by State Security Service

    On Monday, 16 June, the State Security Service (VDD) detained Aleksejs Rosļikovs, a former member of the Saeima recently elected to the Rīga City Council, as confirmed to Latvian Television by Svetlana Čulkova, leader of the For Stability! faction in the Saeima.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Atomic Bombs’ Forgotten Korean Victims

    Survivors of the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still fighting for recognition.

  • New York Times ☛ Can Labubu, This Ugly Elf, Make China Cool?

    China has long struggled to improve its image, especially in the West. It may be scoring some victories now.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US aircraft carrier heads west from South China Sea amid Middle East tensions

    Data showed the carrier was moving west in the direction of the Middle East on the morning of June 16.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan targets blood-bag production as China steps up pressure

    Signs point to President Lai Ching-te stepping up preparations for a potential conflict with China.

  • New York Times ☛ What to Know About the G7 Summit in Canada: Who Attends, Agenda Items and More

    The Group of 7 nations and allies from around the world are meeting in a summit in Western Canada. Mr. Convicted Felon’s unsurprising comments about Russia have caused some commotion.

  • New York Times ☛ UK Spy Agency MI6 Appoints First Female Chief in 116-Year History

    A former “Q,” she will be the first woman to lead Britain’s foreign intelligence service in the agency’s 116-year history.

  • Bow Shock Systems Consulting ☛ Start your own Internet Resiliency Club – Bow Shock Systems Consulting

    Thanks to war, geopolitics, and climate change, Europe will have more frequent and more severe [Internet] disruptions in the very near future. Governments and businesses need to prepare for catastrophic loss of communications. Unfortunately, the necessary changes are risky and expensive, which means they won’t do it until a crisis is already here. However, small groups of volunteers with a little bit of time and money can provide crucial initial leadership to bootstrap recovery.

    An Internet Resiliency Club is a group of [Internet] experts who can communicate with each other across a few kilometers without any centralized infrastructure using cheap, low-power, unlicensed LoRa radios and open source Meshtastic text messaging software. These volunteer groups can use their radios, technical skills, and personal connections with other experts to restore [Internet] connectivity.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Niger Targets Jihadist Financing, Kills 13 in Illegal Gold Mine Raids

    An army statement said the raids took place last week in the Tagueye locality, near Niger's western border with Burkina Faso. It said 13 insurgents were killed and one arrested.

  • The Local SE ☛ More than half a million living in Sweden without a personnummer

    Around 110,000-185,000 people are living and working in Sweden without either a personnummer or coordination number, according to the Tax Agency’s estimate.

  • Paul Krugman ☛ Trump’s parade flopped. No Kings Day was a hit.

    This isn’t the end of the assault on American democracy. It isn’t even the beginning of the end. But it may well be the end of the beginning. Trump spent his first 6 months in office trying to steamroller over all opposition, creating the impression that resistance is futile. Clearly, he hasn’t succeeded. On the contrary, resistance is stiffening, and those who preemptively capitulated seem to be paying a higher price than those who showed some backbone.

  • The Nation ☛ The No Kings! Movement Trumped Trump

    While the president and members of his bedraggled cabinet sought to stifle yawns in DC, Americans filled the streets of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other great cities; they marched to town squares and stood along country highways, in an outpouring of opposition to an administration that is so at odds with the basic premises of democracy that one of its cabinet secretaries stood by on Thursday as a United States senator was thrown to the ground and handcuffed because he dared to perform the oversight responsibilities that are implicitly conferred by the Constitution and have historically been understood by legislators of both major parties.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Thousands attend Ann Arbor’s ‘No Kings’ rally against Trump

    “This isn’t the first time we, the people, have had to take to the streets, to gather together in parking lots of fields and stand shoulder to shoulder against those in power who try to marginalize and subjugate our collective will to stay together in one unified voice,” Anderson said. “We, the people, will bow to no king.”

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Shell Game of Fascist Gaslighting

    This is the shell game of fascist gaslighting, and you need to understand how it works.

    The game has three moves, executed simultaneously: [...]

  • RFERL ☛ Israel Strikes Iranian State TV After Warning Tehran Will 'Pay Price' For Attacks

    Israel has warned residents of some parts of Tehran to evacuate in a sign of imminent air attacks after earlier threatening the capital will "pay the price" for Iranian missile strikes hit Tel Aviv and Haifa, killing eight people.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan shuts border with Iran as Tehran trades strikes with Israel

    Crossing into Iran from Pakistan has been suspended until further notice.

  • The Straits Times ☛ India relocates students in Iran as Israel strikes

    There are around 10,000 Indian citizens in Iran, according to 2024 government data.

  • CS Monitor ☛ ‘What is this smoke, Mom?’ A Tehran schoolgirl discovers war.

    How Iranians are dealing with Israeli airstrikes, which are inflicting unexpected destruction on military and civilian targets.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Strikes Iran State Broadcaster, Widening Attacks

    Israel’s escalated offensive indicates that its aims go beyond dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.

  • New York Times ☛ Iranians Weigh Escaping Tehran as Israeli Strikes Continue

    In a city under attack, residents encounter gas stations that are closing because there is no fuel, and disruptions to internet and phone service.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Closed its Airspace After Attacking Iran, Leaving Thousands of Israelis Stranded Abroad

    Since its surprise attack on Iran, and subsequent strikes by Tehran, Israel has closed its skies to civilian air traffic, leaving its citizens stuck overseas indefinitely.

  • New York Times ☛ Iranian Strikes Kill at Least 8 in Israel, Including 4 in Petah Tikva

    Dozens of others were injured overnight across Israel, the authorities said. Israel was striking military sites in Iran and the four-day-old conflict showed no sign of slowing.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US pushing Vietnam to decouple from Chinese tech, say sources

    Vietnam is home to large manufacturing operations of tech firms such as Fashion Company Apple and Samsung.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Troops in the streets and political violence: Americans grapple with a charged moment

    While Washington hosted a military parade, large crowds gathered across the country Saturday to peacefully protest President The Insurrectionist’s policies. The threat of violence – and news of a political assassination in Minnesota – added to tensions.

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man reportedly vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei

    US president The Insurrectionist has reportedly vetoed an Israeli plan to take out Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei… According to the AP news agency, Convicted Felon saw the move as too destabilizing for the region and risked inflaming tensions even further. Analysis by FRANCE 24 International Affairs Editor Philip Turle.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Russian Investigative Committee head orders criminal case after eight-year-old pours water on eternal flame on Russia Day — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Several injured in Kyiv and surrounding region in overnight Russian drone attack — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ A useless add-on Russia’s Wikipedia replacement is touting its integrated AI — but the results are underwhelming — Meduza

    • The Strategist ☛ The West should still look towards peeling Russia away from China

      As tensions grow between China and the West, and Moscow drifts further into Beijing’s orbit, a strategic question is emerging.

    • RFERL ☛ EU Plans Historic Moldova Summit But Stays Vague On Accession Timeline

      As Moldova prepares for its first EU summit, a draft declaration reveals cautious support for its membership bid, continued concern over corruption, and sharp criticism of Russia’s interference — but stops short of promising new sanctions or clear timelines.

    • LRT ☛ Girteka shareholders linked to Cyprus-based company controlling 16 Russian firms – media

      The shareholders of logistics giant Girteka Group have ties to a Cyprus-registered company that owns at least 16 firms operating in Russia, reports Delfi.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian MPs debate potential sanctions against Russia, Belarus

      Lithuania's parliament has opened debate on legislation that would allow the country to impose national-level economic sanctions on Russia and Belarus should the European Union fail to extend its bloc-wide measures.

    • LRT ☛ Russia expanding nuclear weapons sites near Europe, satellite images suggest

      Russia has expanded several of its nuclear weapons facilities close to Baltic borders in recent years, according to new satellite imagery obtained by Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

• Environment

  • Science News ☛ Fewer scavengers could mean more zoonotic disease

    Scavengers are the original sanitation workers. In the Americas and Europe, about 75 percent of all available carrion is partially or fully eaten by scavengers, with turkey vultures alone consuming 1.5 million tons of rancid meat per year. “I have personally observed a group of eight to 10 Andean condors (Vultur gryphus) removing an entire wild boar carcass in less than five hours,” says Pablo Plaza, an ornithologist and veterinarian at Universidad Nacional del Comahue in Argentina, who was not involved in the study.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Trade and Tax Policies Start to Stall U.S. Battery Boom

      Battery companies are slowing construction or reconsidering big investments in the United States because of tariffs on China and the proposed rollback of tax credits.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Citizen projects tear up pavement for plants, and keep solar panels going

      China, the largest producer and consumer of seafood, signs a safeguard against illegal fishing. And in Colombia, a program eases adoption of renewables.

    • International Business Times ☛ Will UK Ban E-bikes? MPs Say They're Illegal, Unsafe for Riders and the Public

      A cross-party group of MPs and peers is calling for immediate government intervention to halt the sale of illegal and dangerous e-bikes in the UK, following growing safety concerns and a sharp rise in fire incidents linked to these vehicles.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Contributor: Why California won't give up the dream of high-speed rail

      Despite the larger-than-life challenges, there are a few social issues that keep our state pounding away at this dream. Traffic is one of them. Californians clog their freeways up and down the state at nearly all hours. We subsidize highways to the tune of $32 billion a year, only to sit on them stewing. But we still love our cars, so would travelers give them up when going up and down the state? Apparently yes. In a recent survey, 54% of Californians still believe high-speed rail is worthwhile — suggesting that they would rather take a three-hour train trip than spend six to eight hours driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Besides the time savings for residents, it would cost roughly twice as much in new highway construction to provide the equivalent trip volume provided by high-speed rail, making it a financial win as well.

    • Low Tech Mag ☛ How to Dress and Undress your Home

      Thermal insulation is a cornerstone of policies aimed at reducing the high energy consumption for heating and cooling buildings. In many industrialized countries, building energy regulations require new and existing buildings to have insulated walls, floors, and roofs, as well as double- or triple-glazed windows. In cold weather, insulation slows down the heat loss from the interior to the exterior, reducing the energy use of the heating system. In hot weather, insulation delays the transfer of heat from the outside to the inside, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the air conditioning system.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Trump vs. Birds: Proposed Budget Eliminates Critical Research Programs

    • Omicron Limited ☛ Fish biofluorescence has evolved more than 100 times in 112 million years, researchers reveal

      The new work also reveals that in marine fishes, biofluorescence—which occurs when an organism absorbs light, transforms it, and emits it as a different color—involves a greater variety of colors than previously reported, spanning multiple wavelengths of green, yellow, orange, and red.

  • Overpopulation

    • France24 ☛ Overwhelmed Louvre workers strike to protest overtourism, shutting down world's most-visited museum

      A spontaneous strike at the Louvre shut down the world's most-visited museum on Monday after workers refused to take up their posts in frustration with what they described as "untenable" working conditions and chronic overtourism.

    • CS Monitor ☛ ‘It’s the Mona Lisa moan out here.’ The Louvre shuts, leaving thousands waiting.

      Louvre staff launched a strike on June 16 over “untenable” working conditions tied to overcrowding at France’s greatest cultural treasure. Every day, more than 20,000 people squeeze into the museum’s largest room to snap a picture with the Mona Lisa.

• Finance

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Mwave going into voluntary administration

    According to Athina Mallis in CRN Australia:

    In a filing registered on Friday June 13 2025 via the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, it shows the company’s status is in external administration.

    In documents seen by CRN Australia, Mwave’s parent company Esel Pty Ltd filed last Friday. The filing was made by Antony Resnick, a registered liquidator at DVT Group in Paramatta.

    I thought my colleague David put it best this afternoon in our company chat: [...]

  • Bryan Cantrill ☛ College Baseball, Venture Capital, and the Long Maybe

    So what does it look like? Early on in my own son’s journey — as he was navigating different junior college options in the spring of 2022 — it struck me that the experience of the college athlete does have a clear analogue, and it is in fact one in which I do have recent and germane experience: becoming a college athlete (especially for revenue sports at the highest levels of play) looks uncannily like raising a round of venture capital.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea to introduce second extra budget for 2025

    It is to support an economy weighed down by US tariffs and sluggish consumer demand.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Mobile Phone Company Announced by President’s Family, but Details Are Murky

    The new company says it will manufacture its Android phone in the United States but it has not said how it could do that.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia’s Albanese says he will focus on Aukus, Indo-Pacific security at Convicted Felon meeting

    He said raising the number of nuclear-powered subs operated by Australia, Britain and the US is in the US’ interests.

  • Party chief To Lam’s son promoted to top ranks within Vietnam’s police force

    Analysts see To Long's promotion in the public security ministry as a power consolidation move by To Lam.

  • LRT ☛ ‘Society did not collapse’. What can Lithuania learn from Estonia legalising civil unions?

    "When marriage equality was adopted in Estonia, life went on, society did not collapse – it simply became a little more equal," said Christian Veske, Estonia’s Commissioner for Gender Equality and Equal Treatment. In an interview with LRT.lt, he said marriage equality brought same-sex couples not only legal security but also emotional support and a sense of equality.

  • Android Police ☛ Meta just ate Google's lunch by purchasing a 49% stake in Scale AI

    That's all changed now, though, after Meta announced opening a 49% stake in the up-and-coming data provider. The deal roughly doubles Scale AI's value to $29 billion — which is a lot of money and market power — but that might not be the investment's biggest effect. In addition to forcing Google to cut ties with the data provider, the investment has sent ripples through the development industry, causing AI leaders to rethink what companies they partner with.

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Grift Economy

    Let me be specific about what I mean. Take Benny Johnson—one of the leading “conservative” influencers with millions of followers across social media platforms. His track record is publicly documented: serial plagiarist fired from BuzzFeed, conspiracy theorist suspended from multiple outlets, abusive manager who made women cry, and most recently, a Russian asset who took nearly $10 million in foreign money to produce propaganda videos.

    All of this is on Wikipedia. All of it is documented in mainstream reporting. None of it is hidden or disputed.

    Yet his audience doesn’t care. They don’t see his record as disqualifying—they see it as credentials. Because in the grift economy, being a proven liar isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

    This isn’t an accident. It’s a business model.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Yahoo is going big at Cannes Lions for its 30th anniversary

    Semafor sat down with Yahoo Chief Revenue Officer Rob Wilk to discuss why Yahoo is going big at Cannes this year, why the company decided over the last year to rebuild to “every single pixel on Yahoo properties,” the advantages of advertising near news content, and how economic and political uncertainty is affecting ad budgets.

  • The Nation ☛ When It Comes to Understanding the Dangers Posed by Big Tech, We’re Lost in the Cloud

    We understand, almost intuitively, that geography is not an afterthought to politics, but the substrate on which political life is built. The flat, fertile land along the Hudson River enabled large estates and semifeudal tenant farming in the 18th and 19th centuries, which in turn led to hierarchical systems of local government. The stony hills of Vermont, by contrast,

    discouraged such consolidation and lent themselves to smallholder farming, Congregational churches, and democratic wrangling through town meetings. The geographies themselves didn’t have meaning, but they were not side issues: They created the material conditions that made it easier for certain systems to flourish while others faltered.

    The same is true for information technology. And yet too often, we treat IT as abstract and neutral, obscuring our ability to see power itself and to fight the necessary battles we need to govern ourselves.

  • Tracy Durnell ☛ Back to “normal”

    Not to pick on this person, it’s a funny protest sign — but it seems like a lot of people are thinking like we’re in a “one weird trick” (impeachment) scenario and, once we get that done, we’ll magically return to some type of “normal” and we can all go home… but the concept of normality is doing some heavy lifting here.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese President Pooh-tin in Kazakhstan for Central Asia summit

    Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping arrived in Kazakhstan on Monday to attend the second China-Central Asia Summit, Beijing’s state media reported. State news agency Xinhua reported at around 12:30 pm Kazakh time (0730 GMT) that the Chinese leader had touched down in the capital Astana.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • New York Times ☛ Banned From YouTube, Sneako Is Welcomed by Eric Adams

    Mayor Adams did an hourlong interview with Sneako, a streamer who has made remarks many consider antisemitic. The conservative influencer Amber Rose was also present.

  • The Zambian Observer ☛ Free speech is not just for the people or thoughts we like or agree with; it is also for people we despise and opinions that we do not support- Sishuwa Sishuwa

    One thing I will never do in response to any criticism of my opinions or of me as a person is to block any person, to mute them on social media and consequently shut myself from the knowledge of their views, or to interfere in any way with their right to express themselves fully, even in instances where the person is saying nothing substantive or rational. The right to free speech would be meaningless if it was accompanied by a requirement to only give expression to reasonable or sensible thoughts.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ WSJ Memory Holes Trump's Near-Assassination of His Vice President

    None of these outlets have the simple journalistic courage to say that Trump nearly got his Vice President assassinated, that Trump incited a brutal attack on a co-equal branch of government, and that his reward for the people who did this has fostered violence against Trump’s adversaries.

  • Becky Spratford ☛ RA for All: Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read

    Please note: this speech was directed at Horror authors, but I hope all of my readers use it as a template to speak to their community members about the importance of speaking out for the freedom to read and use the "how-to" component in the speech to give them the tools they need to take action.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Pussy Riot’s founder built a ‘police state’ in an LA art gallery. Then the national guard arrived

    The Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca) hastily decided to shut its doors. But Tolokonnikova, 35, whose political art has left her as a wanted criminal in Russia, chose to continue her performance inside the empty museum.

    “Police State Exhibit Closed Today Due to the Police State,” she posted on Instagram.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Site36 ☛ Journalist Peter Scholl-Latour worked for German foreign secret service, archive files prove

  • France24 ☛ AFP photographer recovers after being shot in face with rubber bullet at LA protest

    An Agence France-Presse photographer was recovering Monday after he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet by law enforcement during their standoff with protesters in downtown Los Angeles.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Digital Music News ☛ Nas’ Mass Appeal Settles Long-Running Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

    Nas’ imprint Mass Appeal settles a long-standing legal dispute over allegations of racial discrimination. New York rapper Nas’ label, Mass Appeal, has finally settled the 2023 racial discrimination lawsuit filed by former executive Melissa Cooper.

  • JURIST ☛ UK members of parliament to vote on decriminalizing abortion

    UK members of parliament (MPs) will vote on decriminalizing abortion on June 17, after an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill was tabled by a Labour MP. The bill would remove the threat of prosecution for women who seek an abortion without medical approval.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Federal Report Details NYPD Unit’s “Troubling,” “Unconstitutional” Conduct

  • Wired ☛ Companies Warn SEC That Mass Deportations Pose Serious Business Risk

    It’s highly unusual for companies to mention deportations in filings to the SEC. Between June 2020 and January 2025, just six SEC filings mentioned deportations. From June 2015 to January 2025, that number rose to 22.

  • The Register UK ☛ Eurocops shutter dark web drug shop Archetyp, arrest 8

    Its alleged administrator, a 30-year-old German national who has not yet been named, was cuffed by officers at his apartment in Barcelona, and "measures were taken in Germany and Sweden against one moderator and six of the marketplace's highest vendors," officials stated.

  • Nolan Lawson ☛ Selfish reasons for building accessible UIs | Read the Tea Leaves

    I personally find these arguments persuasive. But experience has also taught me that “eat your vegetables” is one of the least effective arguments in the world. Scolding people might get them to agree with you in public, or even in principle, but it’s unlikely to change their behavior once no one’s watching.

    So in this post, I would like to list some of my personal, completely selfish reasons for building accessible UIs. No finger-wagging here: just good old hardheaded self-interest!

  • Rolling Stone ☛ The Psychology Behind Tech Billionaires

    What Piff and his team found at that intersection is profound — and profoundly satisfying — in that it offers hard data to back up what intuition and millennia of wisdom (from Aristotle to Edith Wharton) would have us believe: Wealth tends to make people act like assholes, and the more wealth they have, the more of a jerk they tend to be.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Citizen Lab ☛ Unspoken Implications: A Preliminary Analysis of Bill C-2 and Canada’s Potential Data-Sharing Obligations Towards the United States and Other Countries

    On June 3, 2025, the Canadian government tabled Bill C-2, omnibus legislation that, if passed, would introduce a wide array of new federal agency and law enforcement powers, and would significantly reform substantive and due process laws in Canada for migrants and asylum seekers. Our preliminary analysis of Bill C-2 situates the legislation within the context of existing research by the Citizen Lab about two potential data-sharing treaties that are most relevant to the new proposed powers being introduced in Bill C-2: the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention (2AP) and the CLOUD Act. Both of which carry significant constitutional and human rights risks.

  • [Old] Paul Tagliamonte ☛ The Promised LAN

    The Internet has changed a lot in the last 40+ years. Fads have come and gone. Network protocols have been designed, deployed, adopted, and abandoned. Industries have come and gone. The types of people on the internet have changed a lot. The number of people on the internet has changed a lot, creating an information medium unlike anything ever seen before in human history. There’s a lot of good things about the Internet as of 2025, but there’s also an inescapable hole in what it used to be, for me.

  • Paul Tagliamonte ☛ Paul Tagliamonte: The Promised LAN

    The Internet has changed a lot in the last 40+ years. Fads have come and gone. Network protocols have been designed, deployed, adopted, and abandoned. Industries have come and gone. The types of people on the internet have changed a lot. The number of people on the internet has changed a lot, creating an information medium unlike anything ever seen before in human history. There’s a lot of good things about the Internet as of 2025, but there’s also an inescapable hole in what it used to be, for me.

  • Internet Society ☛ The Internet Society at IGF 2025 in Norway (The Who, What, When, Where, and Why)

    The Internet Society will be attending IGF 2025 in Norway. Find out what we'll be doing, why, and where you can meet up with us.

  • JURIST ☛ Gaza internet restoration allows resumption of humanitarian operations

    Internet access in the Gaza Strip was restored on Monday following a complete three-day internet blackout due to Israel’s alleged targeting of Palestine’s communications infrastructure, allowing civilians to access essential information and the resumption of humanitarian operations.

  • Standards/Consortia

    • RIPE ☛ Domain ASN Mapper: Understanding Domain Infrastructure

      The Domain ASN Mapper represents a critical foundational component of the Domain Reputation Measure project funded by RIPE NCC Community Projects. This component enables large-scale analysis of domain infrastructure by resolving DNS records and mapping them to Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs). This capability forms the backbone of our comprehensive domain reputation measurement system, providing essential data about domain infrastructure relationships that will inform reputation scoring in subsequent phases.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Apple’s iOS 26 Will Allow Third Party Music Apps to Display Animated Lock Screen Album Art

    Apple will allow third-party music apps to display animated album artwork on the lock screen in iOS 26—opening this feature to Spotify and others. Previously the animated artwork was only available to Fashion Company Apple Music, offering users an easy way to control their music while enjoying an album.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Security Week ☛ Google’s $32 Billion Wiz Deal Draws DOJ Antitrust Scrutiny: Report

  According to reports, the US Department of Justice will assess whether the deal would harm competition in the cybersecurity market.

• Jérôme Marin ☛ Meta’s disguised acquisition

  All in all, the agreement resembles a disguised acquisition aimed at securing highly sought-after talent. By structuring the deal this way, Meta is emulating Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, hoping to avoid scrutiny from antitrust authorities.

• Patents

  • Unified Patents ☛ Malikie Wi-Fi patent monopoly challenged

    On June 13, 2025, Unified filed its first ex parte reexamination proceeding in its new SEP Wi-Fi Zone against U.S. Patent 9,313,065, owned and asserted by Malikie Innovations Limited, an NPE and entity of Key Patent Innovations Limited.

  • Unified Patents ☛ K.Mizra network patent monopoly challenged

    On May 15, 2025, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 8,782,282, owned and asserted by K.Mizra LLC. 

  • Unified Patents ☛ Biogy authentication patent monopoly challenge instituted

    On May 28, 2025, three weeks after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,669,236, owned and asserted by Biogy, Inc., an NPE.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ An expanding court: The current capacities of UPC judges

      The Unified Patent Court is set for growth this year. The court has already appointed six new technically qualified judges in 2025. Furthermore, Jule Schumacher and Marjolein Visser were appointed as legally qualified judges for the Düsseldorf local division and the Paris central division, respectively. More appointments are expected.

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Kompetenz-Kompetenz at the UPC [Ed: UPC is illegal, why keep treating it like something with any real legitimacy? Money corrupts.]

      Maybe not all readers of this blog will know that there once was a “North German Confederation” which existed from July 1867 to December 1870, after which it became part of the newly to-be-founded German kingdom.

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Legal Inception: Harmonizing the UPC and the National Courts through EU Law [Ed: UPC is illegal and this is even more illegal: it's a hijack of the legal system by the litigation "industry" which is advancing and trying to legitimise unlawful patents]

      Diving into the labyrinth of intertwined dreams in Christopher Nolan’s Inception—where each dream level operates under its own rules while influencing the others—sharply illuminates the intricate structure of the European patent monopoly litigation system.

    • JUVE ☛ Düsseldorf local division confirms PI decision in 10x Genomics vs Curio

      US company 10x Genomics accuses competitor Curio Bioscience of infringing its European patent monopoly EP 2 697 391. The patent monopoly protects a method and product for localised or spatial detection of nucleic acid in a tissue sample.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ CAFC Reverses TTAB - Remands ECHO D’ANGÉLUS Opposition Due to Lack of Substantial Evidence Supporting Dismissal

    The CAFC reversed the Board's decision [here] dismissing in part an opposition to registration of the mark ECHO D’ANGÉLUS for wine, and remanded the case to the Board. The TTAB had found the mark not confusingly similar to opposer's mark ECHO DE LYNCH BAGES, also for wine, placing "great weight" on its finding that the marks "incorporate[d] different-appearing house marks as part of unitary expressions." The appellate court concluded that that finding was not supported by substantial evidence. Chateau Lynch-Bages v. Chateau Angelus S.A., Appeal No. 2024-1197 (Fed. Cir. June 13, 2025) [not precedential].

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Will the NMPA and X Settle? Judge Approves Pause for ‘Good-Faith Efforts to Fully and Amicably Resolve’ the Copyright Suit

    Will X and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) hammer out a deal in their copyright monopoly dispute? Possibly, as they’ve asked the court for a stay amid “good-faith efforts to fully and amicably resolve” the suit.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Supreme Court Decides Against Reviewing Ed Sheeran Copyright Case — High-Stakes ISP Petitions Take Center Stage

    The Supreme Court has decided against reviewing the Structured Asset Sales (SAS) v. Ed Sheeran copyright monopoly infringement case. The top court confirmed as much in an order list today, about one month after Sheeran’s legal team formally fired back against the cert petition.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Major Labels Fire Back Against U.S. Government in Cox v. Sony Music Infringement Battle

    Labels are “bewildered” by the US government’s view that an ISP isn’t automatically liable for not banning users for repeated copyright monopoly infringement. The latest shot has been fired in the landmark ISP piracy liability showdown between Cox and major record labels spearheaded by Sony.

  • Deseret Media ☛ Supreme Court rejects bid to revive copyright suit over Ed Sheeran hit 'Thinking Out Loud'

    The Supreme Court turned away on Monday a bid to revive a copyright infringement lawsuit accusing pop star Ed Sheeran of unlawfully copying from the late singer Marvin Gaye's 1973 classic "Let's Get It On" in his 2014 hit song "Thinking Out Loud."

  • Torrent Freak ☛ The 'Superlative' Injunction: India's Pirate Site Blockades Go Next Level

    The High Court in New Delhi, India, has granted a new type of pirate site blocking order, dubbed the "superlative" injunction. The blocking order was obtained by Star India, a subsidiary of American entertainment giant Disney. It aims to disrupt IPTV Smarters Pro and related pirate sites and apps in 'real-time', with a temporary carte blanche to add new targets.