Leftovers

• The Record ☛ Interpol identifies West Africa as potential new hotspot for cybercrime compounds | The Record from Recorded Future News

  In countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, scam centers are known for holding workers under nightmarish conditions. Law enforcement agencies say Chinese-speaking crime syndicates are often in charge.

• Heliomass ☛ More Computers of London

  Enter Electric Dreams, an exhibition at the Tate Modern which takes a look at art driven by computers and technology, but draws a line just before the dawn of the Internet. These are pieces created before computers were connected together across countries and continents (mostly… you’ll find several Mintel terminals in this exhibition, which did connect to remote servers to form a sort of proto-Internet in France).

• Martin Chang ☛ Late night producitve alcoholism - Martin's website/blog thingy

  There's just too much to be worked on while too little FOSS developers and time. And I don't mean the "nice to have" stuff like mainline kernel support for ARM SBCs, though that's important for many rations. But more serious issues like LLM taking too much power, internet surveillance, centralization of services, vulnerable IoT devices, disinformation, etc.. Each of them being a hard problem to solve in the own field.

• Small Cypress ☛ day 3 of #smallwebjuly

  A concrete goal has emerged from the less specific "more building/less scrolling" general goal: moving my art business from being centered around Instagram to fully on its own, handmade website. I want to create an RSS feed for those who don't care to subscribe to the newsletter, and a resource page for other artists who want to build websites and don't know where to start.

• Truthdig ☛ Farewell To Bill Moyers

  Bill Moyers died last week at the age of 91. His career began as a close aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, serving as LBJ’s de facto chief of staff and then his press secretary, but Moyers spent most of his life in journalism. After the Johnson administration, he was briefly publisher of Long Island’s Newsday, which won two Pulitzers under his tenure before he was forced out for being too left.

  Most of Moyers’ journalism, however, appeared on public television, an institution he helped launch as a member of the 1967 Carnegie Commission, which called for public TV to be “a forum for controversy and debate” that would “provide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard” and “help us see America whole, in all its diversity.”

• Stefano Marinelli ☛ Your Exit Strategy Dream Is My Customer Nightmare

  As I often do in these cases, I proceeded on two fronts: I opened a support ticket asking about the status of support for a specific operating system, and I sent a private message to the dev/founder/CEO on one of the platforms where the company is active, briefly explaining my idea.

  After a few minutes, the private message was declined (I'm not even sure if it was read), and the ticket received a terse reply, something like "that OS is not officially supported". Period. They didn't even get to the next part, the one where I would have funded development and provided my clients with the enterprise version.

• Science

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-06-26 [Older] Why evolution can explain human testicle size but not our unique chins

  • Federal News Network ☛ EPA puts on leave 139 employees who spoke out against policies under Convicted Felon

    The Environmental Protection Agency has placed on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a so-called “declaration of dissent” against the federal agency's policies. Thursday's action came after EPA employees declared the agency is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. Their letter made public Monday represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face blowback for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environment and health science programs. An EPA statement Thursday said the agency has a zero-tolerance policy for what it called career bureaucrats who are unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the Convicted Felon administration agenda.

  • New York Times ☛ Anna Ornstein, Psychoanalyst Who Survived the Holocaust, Dies at 98

    Despite the unspeakable horror of her youth, she embraced a school of psychotherapy that stresses empathy and the belief that everyone can change for the better.

  • The Register UK ☛ Cold without the compressor: Boffins build better ice box

    Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in conjunction with Samsung Research engineers, have devised thin-film thermoelectric materials that deliver a twofold boost in material-level thermoelectric performance compared with bulk alternatives.

  • Wired ☛ The EU Proposes New Rules to Govern the European Space Race

    According to the EU executive, the draft legislation will boost the expansion of companies in the bloc into other markets, as it is designed to simplify procedures, protect assets in orbit, and promote a level playing field. The regulation focuses on three key pillars: [...]

  • US Navy Times ☛ Navy to stop sharing satellite weather data with NOAA

    As of July 31, the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center will stop sharing satellite weather data with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to a NOAA release.

  • Axios ☛ NOAA plan spells out more deep Trump cuts

    Why it matters: The proposed budget would gut federal climate research efforts and spending at a critical moment in the fight to understand and address human-driven climate change.

• Career/Education

  • SusamPal ☛ Million Times Million

    Now imagine my disappointment when I left home for university, got access to computers and the World Wide Web, and discovered that the names I had learnt were off by several orders of magnitude compared with what everyone else was using. The long scale names I had grown up with were irrelevant in this new world I was stepping into. It was the short scale that had taken over most of the technology world, especially in computing. In the short scale, a million times a million is no longer a billion. Instead, somehow, it is a trillion! Similarly, a million multiplied three times is no longer a trillion. It is a quintillion! What on earth was going on?

  • W Evan Sheehan ☛ Abandoning My To-read List

    So I decided to stop. It was clear I didn’t need a TBR — I was reading plenty and enjoying it — and it has been great. I just let books come to me and I never have a shortage of things to read. Sometimes people give me books as gifts, or I hear about books from friends and family. There are also quite a few books I’d like to re-read (something I feel I don’t do enough).

  • Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Nick Simson

    This is the 97th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Nick Simson and his blog, nicksimson.com

  • Loura ☛ Hey Loura!

    I have gotten into some bad idle game habits on my phone leaving my potential project list to grow and grow. So that’s what I’m going to focus on replacing.

  • Farnam Street Media Inc ☛ Much of What You're Going to Do or Say Today is Not Essential

    Focus on what’s important and eliminate the rest.

    Before doing anything, ask yourself, “Is this necessary?” If not, ask yourself why you’re doing it in the first place.

  • [Old] Medium ☛ Is This Necessary?. 2000 Year old advice more relevant than…

    Although what is most endearing about him for me is his philosophical work called Meditations, written by him in his latter years. It is still regarded by many as one of the leading works of philosophy, and it paved the way for the progression of the ideas of Stoicism. Indeed, many referred to him at the time as the Philosopher King, and through the ages he has been known as the Philosopher Emperor.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ Alabama schools to lose $68 million in federal grants under Trump freeze

    “These are programs already approved and funded by Congress,” Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey said in a statement. “They include programs integral to successful and supportive schools across Alabama, and districts have planned for the 2025-26 school year with an expectation that these formula-based funds would be flowing as normal. Since Congress had appropriated the money in the recent continuing resolution, we had no reason to believe otherwise.”

  • ARRL ☛ 2025 ARRL Field Day a Success

    Tens of thousands of hams are celebrating a successful 2025 ARRL Field Day! The largest annual amateur radio event is also one of the most beloved, as shown by countless social media posts. Activity was high, with 1536 sites in the ARRL Field Day Site Locator, and that doesn’t even count home stations, portable operations, or other participants.

• Hardware

  • Digital Camera World ☛ Has the film photography resurgence finally run its course?

    12 months ago, film seemed like it was back for good. Has it now disappeared as quickly as it came back?

  • Jeff Geerling ☛ Mini NASes marry NVMe to Intel's efficient chip

    One of the most difficult devices to downsize (especially economically) is a NAS. But as my needs have changed, I'm bucking the trend of all datahoarders and I need less storage than the 120 TB (80 TB usable) I currently have.

    It turns out, when you stop running an entire YouTube channel in your home (I'm in a studio now), you don't need more than a few terabytes, so my new conservative estimate is 6 terabytes of usable space. That's within the realm of NVMe SSD storage for a few hundred bucks, so that's my new target.

    Three new mini NASes were released over the past year that are great candidates, and I have relationships with all three companies making them, so I am lucky to have been offered review units of each: [...]

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : USAID Withdrawal Marks New Era for Zambian Agriculture

    “USAID enabled smallholder farmers to access financial services that transformed subsistence farming into viable commercial ventures,” Dr. Bulaya explained. “These interventions not only improved agricultural output but also strengthened community health and economic participation.”

  • Futurism ☛ People Are Taking Massive Doses of Psychedelic Drugs and Using AI as a Tripsitter

    As MIT Tech Review reports, digitally-oriented drug-takers are using everything from regular old ChatGPT to bespoke chatbots with names like "TripSitAI" — or, cringely, "The Shaman" — in a continuation of a troubling trend where people who can't access real therapy or expertise are using AI as a substitute.

  • US Navy Times ☛ Honolulu water agency sues US Navy over Red Hill fuel spill damage

    The suit filed in federal court Tuesday puts the agency’s total costs at $1.2 billion to clean up remnants of the spill plus guard the island’s drinking water wells against additional contaminants spreading underground.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Wastewater treatment plants channel ‘forever chemicals’ into waterways nationwide

    The study also found increased PFAS levels downstream of 80 percent of waterway-adjacent fields treated with “biosolids,” solid matter recovered from the sewage treatment process and spread on farmland as fertilizer.

  • Waterkeeper Alliance ☛ New Analysis Finds PFAS in 98% of Tested U.S. Waterways Across 19 States

    Building on the 2022 Phase I report—which revealed PFAS contamination in 83% of tested U.S. rivers, lakes, and streams—this second of a multi-phase monitoring initiative focused on sites downstream from WWTPs and permitted biosolids application fields, particularly in disproportionately impacted communities across 19 states. Using PFASsive™ passive samplers, developed by SiREM, these devices were deployed upstream and downstream of 22 WWTPs and 10 biosolids application fields, capturing PFAS levels over at least 20 days—providing more accurate insight than traditional “grab” sampling.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ These Cod Have Been Shrinking Dramatically for Decades. Now, Scientists Say They've Solved the Mystery

    Eastern Baltic cod grow to much smaller sizes than they did just 30 years ago, because overfishing altered their genes, according to new research

• Proprietary

  • Beta News ☛ Microsoft confirms KB5060829 update for Windows 11 causes worrying Firewall errors

    Microsoft has issued a warning about a recent update for Windows 11. The KB5060829 update was released late last month as a non-security preview update, and it has been found to be causing issues.

    Available for Windows 11 24H2, the optional KB5060829 update has been causing Windows Firewall With Advanced Security errors to be logged by the operating system. While error message relating to a security feature are likely to result in concern and fear, Microsoft is at pains to reassure users that there is no need to panic.

  • PC Gamer ☛ CWA union derides Microsoft layoffs when ‘the company is prospering’: 'We are living through a moment of profound corporate consolidation and disruption'

    Earlier this week, Microsoft announced around 9,000 layoffs—many of which gutted teams and canceled games all over Xbox Game Studios—and it hasn't gone over great with, well, anyone whose conscience is intact. The Communications Workers of America, a major media union with several locals within Microsoft, took the moment to address its disappointment with a formal statement.

    “We are deeply disappointed in Microsoft’s decision to lay off thousands more workers, including union-represented CWA members, at a time when the company is prospering,” said Communications Workers of America President Claude Cummings Jr. “We will be bargaining with the company over these layoffs, and CWA District Vice Presidents Mike Davis and Derrick Osobase will remain directly involved in ensuring that our members are supported and treated with dignity throughout this process.”

  • Security Week ☛ Cisco Warns of Hardcoded Credentials in Enterprise Software

    Cisco on Wednesday announced patches for a critical vulnerability in its Unified CM and Unified CM SME communication management software that could allow attackers to log in as the root account.

    The issue, tracked as CVE-2025-20309 (CVSS score of 10/10), exists because the enterprise management tools contain default, static credentials that can not be removed or changed.

  • Howard Oakley ☛ What’s the future for your Intel Mac?

    From its first announcement of Apple silicon Macs on 22 June 2020, there has been speculation as to when support of Intel models will cease. Now Apple has given exceptionally clear details of its future intentions, and we have a clearer idea of what’s coming in macOS Tahoe, we can make plans at last. This article looks at the years ahead. In each case, major events are scheduled to occur with the annual transition of macOS to the next major version, normally in September-October.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Only 3%* of US AI users are willing to pay a penny for it

      Let’s take the numbers seriously — probably more seriously than Menlo did. Let’s assume the sample is a fair sample, and this actually reflects how the American populace uses chatbots.

    • Futurism ☛ AI-Generated Music Is Starting to Crowd Out the Real Stuff on Streaming Platforms

      Now, the rising tide of generative AI is boxing out real artists as those same music algorithms become infested with gobs of computer-generated slop.

    • Futurism ☛ Rocket Scientists Hooked Up ChatGPT to the Controls of a Spaceship, and the Results Were Not What You Might Expect

      As part of the program, scientists pitted various autonomous systems against each other in several different scenarios.

    • The Register UK ☛ AI models just don't understand what they're talking about

      The academics are differentiating "potemkins" from "hallucination," which is used to describe AI model errors or mispredictions. In fact, there's more to AI incompetence than factual mistakes; AI models lack the ability to understand concepts the way people do, a tendency suggested by the widely used disparaging epithet for large language models, "stochastic parrots."

    • Wired ☛ Despite Protests, Elon Musk Secures Air Permit for xAI

      In June, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce announced that xAI had chosen a site in Memphis to build its new supercomputer. The company’s website boasts that it was able to build the supercomputer, Colossus, in just 122 days. That speed was due in part to the mobile gas turbines the company quickly began installing at the campus, the site of a former manufacturing facility.

    • Futurism ☛ Cops Post AI Slop Image Of "Drug Bust," Then Lie and Say It's Real When They're Called Out

      As Portland, Maine's WMTW reports, police in the suburban city of Westbrook have apologized after not only posting an obviously AI-generated photo of a purported narcotics seizure, but also lying to the public about it.

    • Futurism ☛ Crunchyroll Accidentally Left AI Slop in Anime Subtitles

      The slipup was made in the premiere episode of a new series called "Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show" — and trust us, there's no guesswork involved in sniffing out the AI here.

      Around the 19:12 mark, the show's German subtitles feature a big fat "ChatGPT said:" jammed into the dialog. A classic, lazy error. (We double checked, and it's still there as of this morning.)

  • Social Control Media

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Report: Meta is developing chatbots that will send unsolicited messages to users

      Meta Platforms Inc. is working on more proactive chatbots that can send friendly yet unsolicited follow-up messages to users on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, without being prompted to do so first.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Register UK ☛ Hunters International announces closure, free decryptors

      Ransomware gang Hunters International has shut up shop and offered decryption keys to all victims as a parting favor.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • [Old] Eric Daigle ☛ Breaking into dozens of apartments in five minutes

      A few months ago I was on my way to catch the SeaBus when I walked by an apartment building with an interesting looking access control panel. I wrote down the “MESH by Viscount” brand name and made a note to look into it when I had a chance. I ended up just missing my ferry (the 30 minute Sunday headways are brutal), so I decided to see if I could find anything promising on my phone while waiting at Waterfront for the next boat.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Verge ☛ Laid-off workers should use AI to manage their emotions, says Xbox exec

      In a now-deleted LinkedIn post captured by Aftermath, Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Turnbull said that he would be “remiss in not trying to offer the best advice I can under the circumstances.” The circumstances here being a slew of game cancellations, services being shuttered, studio closures, and job cuts across key Xbox divisions as Microsoft lays off as many as 9,100 employees across the company.

    • Don Marti ☛ practical tips for limiting web tracking

      From the California Privacy Protection Agency: Understanding Website Tracking and How to Limit It by Tom Kemp.

      A good start, but I understand that a state agency can’t recommend specific software, and the surveillance business has changed tactics quite a bit recently. So here are some related links and comments. Remember, privacy is a cooperative project. Even if you’re not the intended victim of an attack using data broker data, anything you can do to protect your info is going to limit the amount of "training" that surveillance AI can do, which will help keep other people safer.

    • Sedishj Authority for Privacy Protection ☛ Administrative fines against two companies in the SL Group

      The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY) has fined Aktiebolaget Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL) and Waxholms Ångfartygs AB (WÅAB) for processing personal data relating to sobriety tests conducted by employees in breach fo the GDPR. IMY issues an administrative fine of SEK 75, 000 against each companies.

    • Sedishj Authority for Privacy Protection ☛ Administrative fines against Apoteket and Apohem for transferring personal data to Meta

      The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY) has decided to impose administrative fines of SEK 37 million on Apoteket AB and SEK 8 million on Apohem AB. This comes after the companies used the so-called Meta Pixel on their websites and transferred sensitive personal data to Meta.

    • SBS ☛ Why Australians will soon need to verify their age to log in to search tools

      So what's the new code about? How will it work in practice? And how exactly will it affect kids — and adults — in Australia who use search engines such as Google?

    • EFF ☛ 🤫 Meta's Secret Spying Scheme | EFFector 37.7

      EFFector 37.7 covers some of the very sneaky tactics that Meta has been using to track you online, and how you can mitigate some of this tracking. In this issue, we're also explaining the legal processes police use to obtain your private online data, and providing an update on the NO FAKES Act—a U.S. Senate bill that takes a flawed approach to concerns about AI-generated "replicas."

• Defence/Aggression

  • International Business Times ☛ Kanye West Officially Banned from Australia Following Shocking Nazi-Glorifying Song Controversy

    In 2023, Education Minister Jason Clare had already condemned West's offensive statements on Hitler and the Holocaust, suggesting that entry denial was a possibility. Now, following Heil Hitler, the government has acted decisively.

  • SBS ☛ Kanye West's Australian visa cancelled over Hitler song, Tony Burke says

    US rapper Kanye West has had his Australian visa cancelled over a controversial song referencing Adolf Hitler in which the singer claims to be a Nazi.

  • The Verge ☛ The American system of democracy has crashed

    The Declaration pronounces these rights to be so important that it’s worth overthrowing a government over them. But one should not undertake revolution against a tyrannical government lightly, the Declaration says, going on to provide a massive litany of complaints as justification. In modern times, the full list was considered to be the boring part of this document, lacking the vim and vigor of “we hold these truths to be self-evident” and other such bars from the preamble. But this year, it’s become a… bracing read.

    Listed among the reasons to boot the British monarch are: [...]

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ No Kings Day Reflections from an American-Irish in the Home of Her Ancestors

    This is a political battle. But even more it is a cultural one.

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Fight Continues

    The Declaration of Independence was not the end of a story, but the beginning of a fight. Not the achievement of independence, but the declaration of intent to achieve it. Not victory, but the choice to make victory possible.

    The Founders didn't sign the Declaration because they were free. They signed it because they were determined to become free. They put their names to a document that made them traitors to the existing order because they believed in a future that didn't yet exist.

    Today, 249 years later, that fight continues. The same struggle between those who believe people can govern themselves and those who believe people need to be governed by their betters. Between those who think human dignity is inherent and those who think it's earned. Between those who see consciousness as sacred and those who see it as exploitable.

  • The Atlantic ☛ America's Great Realignment Toward Putin

    Putin sees what everyone else sees: Slowly, the U.S. is switching sides. True, Trump occasionally berates Putin, or makes sympathetic noises toward Ukrainians, as he did last week when he seemed to express interest in a Ukrainian journalist who said that her husband was in the military. Trump also appeared to enjoy being flattered at the NATO summit, where European leaders made a decision, hailed as historic, to further raise defense spending. But thanks to quieter decisions by members of his own administration, people whom he has appointed, the American realignment with Russia and against Ukraine and Europe is gathering pace—not merely in rhetoric but in reality.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ ICE Is About to Get More Money Than It Can Spend

    Donald Trump’s ambitious budget reconciliation bill includes tax breaks for the rich, the single largest cut to food stamps as hunger hits a two-decade high, and a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid. Given this bevy of unpopular policy, it’s little wonder why few politicians have singled out the bill’s historic budget for immigration and border enforcement. But it would be a mistake to think that the bill’s significant expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is any less a threat to the working class than these bread-and-butter issues.

    To understand why, Jacobin sat down with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, where he works on issues of immigration policy and advocacy. We spoke about the bill’s provisions for expanded detention and deportation, ICE’s potential staffing issues, and how deportation at the scale Trump envisions would require a transformation of the relationship between law enforcement and the American people.

  • The Register UK ☛ UK eyes new laws over cable sabotage

    Cyberattacks and undersea cable sabotage are blurring the line between war and peace and exposing holes in UK law, a government minister has warned lawmakers.

    Earlier this year, the UK government published a Strategic Defence Review, which proposes a new bill to cover the prospect of state-sponsored cybercrime and subsea cable attacks.

  • The Local SE ☛ Swedish police confirm arrest of notorious gang leader Ismail Abdo in Turkey

    Internationally wanted Swedish gang criminal Ismail Abdo, also known as 'The Strawberry', has been arrested in Turkey, Swedish police have confirmed.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Six Booked for Threatening Principal Over Hijab Ban in Maharashtra College

    They also allegedly used swear-words and threatened him while shouting slogans. A case was registered on Tuesday under BNS sections 189 (2) (unlawful assembly), 333 (trespass), 352 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) and 351 (criminal intimidation), the police official said, adding that probe was underway.

  • US Navy Times ☛ Pentagon creates new military border zone in Arizona

    The U.S. Navy will control a new national defense area established across 140 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

  • C4ISRNET ☛ Space Force picks Boeing for $2.8B strategic communications program

    Boeing edged out Northrop Grumman for the contract, which funds two initial satellites with options for the Space Force to buy two additional satellites. The two companies have been building prototype satellites for the effort under 2020 contracts.

  • RFERL ☛ European Powers Alarmed As Iran Halts Nuclear Oversight

    Suspending cooperation with the IAEA means Iran will halt inspections, reporting, and oversight activities under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

    German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Giese said the decision sends a “disastrous signal,” insisting that cooperation with the watchdog is “crucial” for “diplomacy to succeed.”

  • The Lawfare Institute ☛ The Government’s Astonishing Constitutional Claims on TikTok

    Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release, we now have the letters that Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to major tech companies like Apple, Google, and Oracle regarding their continued business with TikTok. These letters provide a legal rationale (if it can be called that) for the Trump administration’s commitment not to enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACAA), the divestment-or-ban law that the Supreme Court upheld in January. The letters make two central claims, both of which are astonishing in their breadth and implications for executive power.

  • Nick Heer ☛ The U.S. Government’s Astonishing Constitutional Claims on TikTok

    [...] In continuing to provide access to TikTok despite its illegality, however, it is because of a mix of public pressure, group compliance — nobody wants to be the one company refusing to permit TikTok — and cozying up to a kingly president.

  • PC Mag ☛ TikTok Flooded With Racist AI Videos, Likely Made With Google's Veo 3

    The clips are designed to outrage users, encourage reactions, and therefore reach more people through TikTok's algorithm.

  • Ben Werdmuller ☛ America is a myth

    That was eighty years ago. Today, we’re building, running, and partnering with camps that are both visually and thematically similar. We own the sociopathically-named Alligator Alcatraz in South Florida; we partner with the Center for Terrorism Confinement in El Salvador; we’re trying to make deals with places like South Sudan and Rwanda to take deportees that echo plans from long ago. ICE, our anti-immigrant federal agency, is now better funded than most national militaries.

    We are still at the foothills of a bigger fascist movement in the United States. Notable experts in totalitarianism have already left the country. It seems big compared to where we’ve been, but it’s still small compared to where we’re going.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • CNN ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Russian authorities detain suspect over St. Petersburg cafe blast

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Why are Malaysia and Indonesia building Russia ties?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Ukrainian Drone Attack Kills One in Russia's Lipetsk, Regional Governor Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Crimean Tatars, Scarred by Past, Fear Homeland Will Be Ceded to Russia in Peace Deal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Russian Navy Deputy Head Killed by Ukraine, Says Moscow

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Exclusive-Jailed Russian Dissidents Call for Mass Prisoner Release as Part of a Peace Deal With Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Factbox-Senior Russian Commanders Killed by Ukraine Since Start of the War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Open Letter to World Leaders From Jailed Russian Dissidents

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Russian Attack Kills Two in City of Poltava, Ukrainian Officials Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Russian Missile Strike on Odesa Port Infrastructure Kills Two, Kyiv Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Russia Poses Growing Military Threat to NATO Members, Italy Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Russia's Putin Says He Will Speak to U.S. President Donald Cheeto Mussolini Later on Thursday

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Two Children Among Five Injured in Russia's Air Attack on Odesa, Ukraine Says

    • 2025-07-02 [Older] U.S. Sanctions Russian Bulletproof Hosting Provider for Supporting Cybercriminals Behind Ransomware

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Germany Says Russia Using Media Platform Red to Sow Discontent

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Azerbaijan Demands Punishment for Death of Brothers in Russian Police Custody

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Tensions Are Rising Between Russia and Azerbaijan. Why Is This Happening Now?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Ukraine Struggles to Contain Russian Summer Advances as US Aid Stalls

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] How does sending more troops to Russia benefit North Korea?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] North Korea: Kim Jong Un honors troops killed in Russia

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] US Uncovers $15bn Healthcare Fraud Network Tied to Russian and Eastern European Crime Rings

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] Russia's Ex-Deputy Defense Minister Handed 13-Year Sentence on Corruption Charges

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] Azerbaijan Detains 7 Linked to a Russian Media Outlet as a Rift Between Baku and Moscow Deepens

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] Russia Jails Senior Defence Official for 13 Years in Corruption Trial

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] Germany Launches Additional Measures Against Russia's 'Shadow Fleet'

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] Three Dead, 35 Injured in Ukrainian Strike on Factory in Russia's Izhevsk, Governor Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] Ukrainian Military to Boost Security at Training Centres After Russian Strikes

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Azerbaijan police raid Russia's Sputnik media offices

    • HRW ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Russia: Rising Toll of LGBT ‘Extremism’ Designation

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] China Is Quietly Supplanting Russia as Cuba's Main Benefactor

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Germany to Help Ukraine Make More Weapons Faster to Strengthen Its Hand in Peace Talks With Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Germany Expects EU's Russia Sanctions Package to Be Agreed This Week

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Tensions Between Russia and Azerbaijan Rise After Kremlin Condemns Baku's Reaction to Arrests

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] North Korea's Kim Seen Draping Coffins With Flag at Russia Treaty Anniversary

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Russian Forces Advance and Take First Village in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region, State Media Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Russia, Asked About Defence Spending, Says It Is NATO Spending That Risks Collapse of Alliance

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Russia Summons Azerbaijan Envoy Over Journalist Detentions, RIA Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Women Can Be Drafted Into the Danish Military as Russian Aggression and Military Investment Grow

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Russian threat sees Eastern Europe bring back land mines

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Ukraine loses F-16 and pilot during massive Russian strike

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Ukraine F-16 Pilot Killed in Large-Scale Russian Attack, Zelenskiy Calls for US Help

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Kremlin Says Europe Will Feel the Recoil From Its 'Illegal' Sanctions on Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Russia Launches the Biggest Aerial Attack Since the Start of the War, Ukraine Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Russian and U.S. Spy Chiefs Agree to Call at Any Time, SVR Director Says

    • CBC ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] 2 dead after Russian drone hits residential building, Ukrainian officials say

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Are interceptor drones Ukraine's best option against Russia?

    • The Local DK ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Inside Denmark: Danish paint in Russia and immigration policies gain momentum at EU

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Russian Culture Minister in North Korea Praises 'Unprecedented' Cooperation

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Russian Drones Kill 2 and Injure 17 in Odesa as Ukraine Destroys Helicopters in Crimea

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Russian Drone Strike Kills 2, Wounds 14 in Ukraine's Odesa, Authorities Say

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Iulii Martov Was the Russian Revolution’s Lost Prophet

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russian strike kills 5 in Dnipropetrovsk

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Russia's Drone Production Jumps in May After Putin Request, Think Tank Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Democrat Wyden Presses Bessent to Commit to US Sanctions on Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Germany Rejects Russian Allegations of Journalist Harassment

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Kremlin Says Estonia's Readiness to Host Nuclear-Capable NATO Jets Threatens Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Putin Says Russia Is Ready to Hold More Talks With Ukraine, Return More Bodies

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Russia and Ukraine Trade Long-Range Drone Attacks as Putin Says Moscow Is Ready for New Peace Talks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Russian Missile Attack Kills Five in Ukraine's Southeast

    • The Local DK ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Denmark wants to stop Hungary from vetoing Ukraine EU membership

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] How Ukraine Can Cope With the US Pause on Crucial Battlefield Weapons

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Denmark Backs Ukraine's EU Membership Quest as Zelenskyy Meets Key European Backers

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] Denmark Launches Its EU Presidency Facing War in Ukraine and Cheeto Mussolini Tariff Chaos

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-03 [Older] If the US Doesn't Give Ukraine What It Needs It Would Be a Big Setback for Ukraine, EU and NATO, Denmark Says

    • CBC ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Ukraine disappointed with U.S. decision to halt some weapons deliveries

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Ukraine updates: US halts some missile deliveries to Kyiv

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Air Defense Missiles Among Weaponry US Is Withholding From Ukraine, AP Sources Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-02 [Older] Military Aid Increasingly Focuses on Boosting Ukraine's Defence Industry

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-07-01 [Older] Putin, Macron Discuss Iran, Ukraine in First Phone Call in Nearly Three Years

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Ukraine 'most important task' in German foreign policy

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-30 [Older] Kremlin, Asked About US Sanctions Bill, Suggests It Would Impact Ukraine Peace Efforts if Implemented

    • CBC ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Ukraine on track to withdraw from Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv set to quit anti-land mine treaty

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Ukraine on Track to Withdraw From Ottawa Anti-Personnel Mines Treaty, Zelenskiy Decree Shows

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-29 [Older] Ukraine Pilot Killed, F-16 Fighter Jet Lost, Ukrainian Military Says

    • The Local SE ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Almedalen special: Swedish red tape vexes Ukrainians

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Poland's Departing President Asks Ukraine to Be Patient as Successor Settles In

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-06-28 [Older] Top Ukrainian Commander Sees New Assault on Key Eastern City

    • CBC ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] NATO's history of running hot and cold on Ukraine is running cold again

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-06-27 [Older] Orban to continue anti-Ukrainian course after 'referendum'

• Environment

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Elon Musk confirms xAI is buying an overseas power plant and shipping the whole thing to the U.S. to power its new data center — 1 million AI GPUs and up to 2 Gigawatts of power under one roof, equivalent to powering 1.9 million homes

    The challenges only become more intense as the company moves forward — Musk faces a monumental challenge with powering his next AI data center, one that is predicted to house one million AI GPUs, thus potentially consuming the same amount of power as 1.9 million households. Here's how the data center could consume that much power, and how Musk plans to deliver it.

  • The Nation ☛ The MAGA Faithful Have Blood on Their Hands

    If the World Economic Forum is to be believed, deaths from flood, famine, disease, and other non-military consequences of a hotter, more violent global climate might reach 580,000 per year, or 14.5 million by 2050. And that may be a lowball estimate, according to the American Security Project. Its models assert that warming-induced fatalities are already running at 400,000 annually and are heading for 700,000.

    Any way you cut it, that’s a lot of misery. Given that the Trump regime is opening new areas for drilling, aggressively curtailing funding for climate-related programs, purging mention of climate change from government websites and publications, and disassembling the government’s capacity to track, let alone predict climate-change impacts, it makes sense to wonder WHY?

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Wired ☛ GM’s Cruise Cars Are Back on the Road in Three US States—But Not for Ride-Hailing

      GM spokesperson Chaiti Sen confirms to WIRED that the company is indeed “using a limited number of Cruise Bolt vehicles on select highways in Michigan, Texas and Bay Area for testing with trained drivers to further develop simulation models and advanced driver assistance systems.” She adds, “This is internal testing and does not involve public passengers.”

    • PC World ☛ On the road with a dead laptop? Your car can charge it!

      Most laptops need between 30 and 70 watts to charge. That means they need a lot more power than cellphones. Thankfully the average car battery, which has about 600 watt-hours of power, and recharges when the motor is running, is up to the task.

    • Jeremy Cherfas ☛ Transport summary Q2 2025

      Proof that this whole effort is too complicated for its own good is right here: I completely failed to do Q1 before Q2 was upon me. The reasons are many, and considering them in more detail, along with the data I would actually like to be aware of, might help to streamline things going forward. But let’s get the data out of the way first.

    • The Register UK ☛ Musk’s antics backfire as Tesla car business slumps

      The EV maker's sales had been sputtering for some time as concerns mounted over things like stale inventory, which the Cybertruck didn't help all that much, and Musk's distracting antics at X, which he bought a couple of years ago. The underwhelming delivery of Tesla's invite-only robotaxi pilot fleet in Austin, Texas, likely didn't help much.

    • Wired ☛ This Is Why Tesla’s Robotaxi Launch Needed Human Babysitters

      But there are plenty of caveats. For one thing, the program’s “early riders” appear to be Tesla influencers, online content creators who have financial stakes in the company or who run media businesses that tend to cheerlead for Tesla and/or electric vehicles. Tesla has not said when it will open the service to members of the public. (The company, which disbanded its PR team in October 2020, did not respond to any of WIRED’s questions.) For another, Tesla’s area of operations is notably smaller than Alphabet subsidiary Waymo’s, which began offering robotaxi service in the city through the Uber app in March.

    • The Atlantic ☛ The Most Perverse Part of the 'Big, Beautiful Bill'

      The Republican megabill could be setting America up for the worst energy-affordability crisis since the 1970s.

    • Truthdig ☛ June EV Sales in China Exceed U.S. Total Vehicle Sales

      We hit a milestone of sorts in this divergence last month as EV sales in China for June exceeded total U.S. car sales for the month. More than half the cars sold in China are now EVs. They are much cheaper than internal combustion cars and also cost less to drive and maintain. Charging is no longer a major issue as many cars have ranges of more than 300 miles and can be recharged in five or six minutes.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Georgia Recorder ☛ Georgia’s bald eagle population takes flight as rebound continues years after near extinction • Georgia Recorder

      This year’s survey focused on the coast and the southern part of the state and found the birds nesting at average on the coast to just below average levels in the southern part of the state. Of 176 active nests, 127 were successful, fledging an estimated 190 eaglets.

  • Overpopulation

    • JURIST ☛ Rights group raises concerns over water crisis in Guatemala amid government inaction

      The 88-page report, titled “Without Water, We Are Nothing: The Urgent Need for a Water Law in Guatemala,” highlights how decades of government neglect, weak infrastructure, and a lack of legal framework have left nearly half the population without access to clean, reliable water. This is despite Guatemala being an upper-middle-income country with more freshwater per capita than the global average. In July 2023, the UN reported that 2.2 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water, closing the gap would require a six-fold increase in global progress—an urgent challenge for countries with limited infrastructure and institutional strain.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Insight Hungary ☛ Denmark calls to suspend Hungary's voting rights in the EU

    Denmark wants the European Union to intensify legal action against Hungary over ongoing violations of the bloc’s fundamental values, including the Article 7 procedure. Politico reports . Danish European Affairs Minister Marie Bjerre emphasized the need to continue the Article 7 hearings on Hungary. She also called for exploring restrictions on EU funds for member states that breach European law.

    Another key issue for Denmark is EU enlargement. Bjerre criticized Hungary’s blockade of Ukraine’s membership bid and said Denmark is open to all political and practical solutions to move the process forward. While Hungary’s opposition could potentially be overridden by stripping its voting rights through Article 7, such a move would require strong backing from major players like France and Germany. Bjerre also rejected the idea of handling Ukraine and Moldova’s EU bids separately, reaffirming Denmark’s goal to advance both countries together.

  • Mike Brock ☛ What You Should Do

    History doesn't remember those who hedged their bets or preserved their options; it remembers those who, when facing the abyss, decided that some principles cannot be compromised regardless of consequence. This isn't martyrdom—it's the highest form of self-interest, recognizing that a life of calculated moral compromise isn't worth protecting in the first place.

  • India Times ☛ Microsoft’s H-1B hiring spree draws criticism amid US job cuts

    According to US labour department filings, Microsoft put in 14,181 visa applications in FY2025 Q2.

  • The Record ☛ Estonia’s cyber ambassador on digitalization, punching upwards and outing GRU spies

    Recorded Future News spoke to the ambassador-at-large on the sidelines of the Tallinn Cyber Diplomacy Summer School — another of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ efforts to help build a platform for diplomats and experts to navigate cyber issues — about the country and his team. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

  • India Times ☛ Tech layoffs: Microsoft, TikTok lead latest round of job cuts

    Microsoft said on July 2 that it will cut nearly 4% of its global staff. The company had 228,000 employees as of June 2024. In May, it had laid off 6,000 workers. The company is planning to cut thousands of jobs, particularly in sales, Bloomberg News reported last month.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • El País ☛ Independence Day: This is how Trump plans to rewrite American history in time for the 250th anniversary

      In March, he signed a decree demanding the ideological cleansing of cultural institutions and calling for “restoring truth and sanity to American history.” “Rather than a return to sanity,” the Association of American Historians criticized at the time, “it is a whitewashing to destroy the truth.” As a result of Trump’s attacks on diversity policies, museums across the country dedicated to chronicling dark episodes of white supremacy have lost or are under threat of losing their federal funding.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Togo urged to end violent crackdown on protesters

    The organization urged the Togolese authorities to stop the unlawful use of force and ensure the release of those detained, calling for an investigation into the cases of alleged unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and abduction. Fabien Offner, a researcher for the rights group, stated, “All light must be shed on these deaths and the whereabouts of those who have disappeared. Those detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly must be released.”

  • TruthOut ☛ EPA Suspends Over 140 Employees for Signing Letter of Dissent

    The “declaration of dissent”, published by Stand Up for Science Monday, had been signed by 620 people as of Thursday. Addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, the letter accused the administration of “recklessly undermining” the agency’s mission under his watch. It accused the administration of “ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluters.”

  • RFERL ☛ Fears Of More Executions As Iran's New Espionage Bill Raises Alarm

    • Widening Use Of The Death Penalty: Over the weekend, Iran’s parliament passed a bill imposing significantly harsher sentences for espionage and collaboration with hostile foreign governments, particularly targeting activities linked to Israel and the United States. Legal experts and human rights organizations warn that the law’s broad definitions and severe punishments could lead to arbitrary accusations and mass executions, including for activities that previously carried lesser sentences or would not have been considered espionage.

  • PC World ☛ Best VPN for Georgia: Pornhub workarounds

    Beginning on June 30 of this year, residents in Georgia lost access to the adult site Pornhub. Earlier this year the Georgia state legislature passed SB 351, which requires all public websites with “a substantial portion of material that is harmful to minors” to use an age-verification system—and porn sites fall under this category.

    The law took effect on July 1, 2025, and Pornhub’s parent company Aylo began restricting access to its adult sites for residents in Georgia a day earlier in protest. Aylo and other privacy advocates claim that these laws not only violate free speech, but will infringe on personal privacy protections. By forcing individuals to hand over personally identifiable information to third parties, it creates the potential for government overreach and data misuse.

  • Open Caucasus Media ☛ How the media (cannot) cover trials in Georgia

    The new regulation does say that the High Council of Justice is entitled to grant permission after individual appeals from reporters, but so far, all appeals have been left unanswered — therefore, it’s been a week without any quality content from the important trials of detained protesters.

    According to local civil rights groups, over 65 people have been arrested during the ongoing anti-government protests, students, doctors, teachers, and politicians among them.

  • RFA ☛ Censor-busting dissident shines light on overworked Chinese students

    Li said he did not expect so many Chinese students to be willing to “climb over the firewall” and report to him on X, which is banned in China. Mainlanders need to use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access and comment on his posts.

    Li, who is based in Italy, has more than 2 million followers on X and is one of the most influential young Chinese dissidents overseas. During the pandemic, when many citizens chafed against authorities’ ‘zero’ tolerance of social interactions, people sent him videos and photos of protests against Chinese policies.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Court House News ☛ X can’t duck Media Matters’ abusive litigation suit

    Social media giant X failed to convince a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Media Matters of America, which claims that it's the subject of retaliatory and abusive litigations by X around the world for reporting that the platform placed ads by large corporations next to white supremacist posts.

  • [Repeat]JURIST ☛ Iraq authorities shut down news channel for covering 'sensitive topics'

    On July 1, a joint task force from Iraq’s Interior Ministry, National Security Service, and Communications and Media Commission entered the broadcaster’s headquarters and ordered an immediate halt to operations. Intervening authorities justified their entry on an unreleased court order. Staff members, speaking anonymously, said the closure likely stemmed from the channel’s coverage of sensitive topics, including government corruption.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The New Stack ☛ Cory Doctorow Reveals How He'd Fix Big Tech's Domination

    Doctorow had a ready answer when I asked him why this topic for a convention of Python programmers. Because big tech companies “are so pervasive, so structurally important, and so profoundly degraded that there is literally not an audience on Earth that they wouldn’t be appropriate for.”

    Traveling around the world, Doctorow’s shared the same examples when keynoting the UN’s International Year of the Co-Op launch in New Delhi, for the McLuhan Lecture in Berlin, and in upstate New York for the Neil Postman Award lecture. “They’re the examples in my upcoming book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It and the graphic novel adaptation that will come out the next year…” But he explains more than just how and why customers and businesses end up getting exploited by the gargantuan platforms in between.

    Doctorow also gives us a blueprint for fixing it…

  • The Nation ☛ Fake Patriots Are Destroying Everything That Made America Great

    The abolition of slavery hasn’t ended the sting or relevance of Douglass’s words. In 2025, America has a president who is hell-bent on demolishing the principle of birthright citizenship, one of the great achievements of Reconstruction that Douglass fought so hard to enshrine in the 14th Amendment.

  • The Nation ☛ Spineless Republicans Are Part of a Bigger Problem

    Although Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, believes that the ruling narrowing the use of nationwide injunctions will be destructive in the long term, regarding the specifics of the birthright citizenship case he is of the opinion that the Supreme Court left enough wiggle room for significant push back. When push comes to shove, he says, he thinks that children born in the US to undocumented immigrants or those on temporary visas won’t ultimately be denied citizenship and ordered deported soon after being born.

  • The Washington Post ☛ Denmark starts drafting women into military service amid Russia war fears

    Starting this week, Danish women turning 18 will be eligible to be entered into a draft lottery for military service that was previously mandatory for only men.

  • International Business Times ☛ 'TikTok Fired Me with a ChatGPT Message': Ex-Employee Slams Company's Brutal, Inhuman Culture

    Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding layoffs at TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, employees are stepping forward to openly criticise what they describe as a toxic work environment within the China-based firm.

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ For July 4: The Declaration of Independence

    Today is July 4, 2025. As a reminder of the nation’s foundational principles and ideals, we’re running the full text of the nation’s Declaration of Independence, which, 249 years ago on this day, helped chart a new course for the United States of America.

  • Vox ☛ How to save democracy: Value pluralism is America’s best defense

    Take, for example, justice and mercy. Both of these are equally legitimate values. But rigorous justice won’t always be compatible with mercy; the former would push a court to throw the book at someone for breaking a law, even if no one was harmed and it was a first offense, while the latter would urge for a more forgiving approach.

    Or take liberty and equality. Both beautiful values — “but total liberty for wolves is death to the lambs,” Berlin writes, “total liberty of the powerful, the gifted, is not compatible with the rights to a decent existence of the weak and the less gifted.” The state has to curtail the liberty of those who want to dominate if it cares about making room for equality or social welfare, for feeding the hungry and providing houses for the unhoused.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ A Rare Copy of the 13th Amendment Signed by Abraham Lincoln Sells for a Record $13.7 Million

    The buyer was billionaire art collector and hedge fund founder Kenneth Griffin, who intends to loan the document, which abolished slavery when it was ratified in 1865, to an American institution, according to Sotheby’s, the auction house that organized the sale. He also purchased a rare copy of the Emancipation Proclamation for $4.4 million, setting a new record for the 1863 edict that freed enslaved people living in the Confederate states.

  • US News And World Report ☛ The Two Panchen Lamas: China's Role in Tibet and the Clash With the Dalai Lama

    The child in Tibet who the Dalai Lama chose as the 11th Panchen Lama disappeared in May, 1995 and has not been seen since.

    A few months later, the Chinese government appointed Gyaltsen Norbu as the Panchen Lama.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Open Web Advocacy ☛ Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy

  TL;DR: On iOS in the EU, selecting a third-party browser from the choice screen replaces Safari in the hotseat (dock), ensuring the user’s choice is respected. This change has already led to meaningful gains in market share; Mozilla, for example, saw its daily active users double in France and Germany on iOS, where the hotseat change is implemented. DuckDuckGo’s findings suggest that replacing Safari in the hotseat boosted the iOS choice screen’s effectiveness by a factor of nine. Yet Google refuses to make an equivalent change on Android, relying on an unreasonably narrow and, in our view, incorrect interpretation of the Digital Markets Act. Even when users choose a different browser, Chrome remains prominently placed, undermining their decision and steering them back toward Google’s own product.

• GNU Taler ☛ 2025-07: "ApplePay vs. Alternative Payment Services"

  Imagine an airport which issues a frequent traveller card which millions of passengers have signed up for. This Airport demands from the shops in the airport mall to either only offer their traveller card for payments, or any other payment method, but not both. So if merchants offer alternative payment methods to customers, they may not offer the airport traveller card.

  This would be ridiculous, right? We expect that every merchant can offer their customers all payment methods they want - some merchants only accept cash, some accept debit but not credit cards, some accept all cards you can think of. An Airport should never demand that shops in their mall wanting to offer the traveller card are not allowed to offer other payment methods. Would the EU allow Visa or Mastercard to impose such exclusion rules on merchants who want to accept their credit cards? Definitely not.

• Copyrights

  • The Register UK ☛ Ousted US copyright chief claims her firing was unlawful

    Shira Perlmutter was ousted after the US Copyright Office released a report challenging the limits of the "fair use" defense used by AI companies to justify training their models on copyrighted material.

    In a filing [PDF] to support her attempt to obtain a preliminary injunction this week, Perlmutter argued that her removal was unlawful and caused her immediate and irreparable harm. It said that by firing her, the Trump administration threatened her office's ability to function in the manner that Congress intended.

  • India Times ☛ Google's AI Overviews hit by EU antitrust complaint from independent publishers

    Alphabet's Google has been hit by an EU antitrust complaint over its AI Overviews from a group of independent publishers, which has also asked for an interim measure to prevent allegedly irreparable harm to them, according to a document seen by Reuters.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Reddit Claims Anti-Piracy Subpoenas Are a "Publicity Campaign," Seeks $55K in Fees

    After successfully fending off three subpoenas from filmmakers seeking user data related to piracy discussions, Reddit is back in federal court. The company is now requesting over $55,000 in legal compensation, suggesting that these repeated requests amount to an "anti-piracy publicity campaign" that chills lawful speech by Reddit’s users.

    Reddit has gone head-to-head with a group of filmmakers over the past two years, aiming to protect the privacy of its users.