Leftovers

• EFF ☛ Electronic Frontier Foundation to Present Annual EFF Awards to Just Futures Law, Erie Meyer, and Software Freedom Law Center, India

  The EFF Awards recognize specific and substantial technical, social, economic, or cultural contributions in diverse fields including journalism, art, digital access, legislation, tech development, and law.

• Smithsonian Magazine ☛ The 230-Foot-Long Bayeux Tapestry Is Returning Home to England for the First Time in Nearly 1,000 Years

  “The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most important and unique cultural artifacts in the world, which illustrates the deep ties between Britain and France and has fascinated people across geographies and generations,” Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum, says in a statement. “This will be the first time the Bayeux Tapestry has been in the U.K. since it was made, almost 1,000 years ago.”

  The tapestry features 58 scenes, 626 characters and 202 horses embroidered on linen with wool thread. They provide an in-depth look at what life was like in medieval Normandy and England, including details on the Vikings’ seafaring traditions and military structures.

• Annie Mueller ☛ Small webbing along, update 1

  For Small Web July, my little stack of goals: [...]

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientific First: 'Slow-Motion' Earthquakes Captured in Real Time

    A gentle giant.

  • Hackaday ☛ Could Space Radiation Mutate Seeds For The Benefit Of Humanity?

    Humans have forever been using all manner of techniques to better secure the food we need to sustain our lives. The practice of agriculture is intimately tied to the development of society, while techniques like selective breeding and animal husbandry have seen our plants and livestock deliver greater and more nourishing bounty as the millennia have gone by. More recently, more direct tools of genetic engineering have risen to prominence, further allowing us to tinker with our crops to make them do more of what we want.

  • Hackaday ☛ Budget Brilliance: DHO800 Function Generator

    The Rigol oscilloscopes have a long history of modifications and hacks, and this latest from [Matthias] is an impressive addition; he’s been working on adding a function generator to the DHO800 line of scopes.

  • The Register UK ☛ Science fair held on Capitol Hill to decry funding cuts

    The event, dubbed "The Things We’ll Never Know: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants" was held on Capitol Hill and featured 21 science exhibitions that are now canceled due to lack of funding. They include examining coastal erosion, helping disabled children learn, and researching preparation for another pandemic.

  • Tim Bray ☛ QRS: Epsilon Wrangling

    I haven’t shipped any new features for Quamina in many months, partly due to a flow of real-life distractions, but also I’m up against tough performance problems in implementing Regular Expressions at massive scale. I’m still looking for a breakthrough, but have learned things about building and executing finite automata that I think are worth sharing. This piece has to do with epsilons; anyone who has studied finite automata will know about them already, but I’ll offer background for those people to skip.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Guest Post - How the Growth of Chinese Research Is Bringing Western Publishing to Breaking Point

    China is dedicating an increasing share of its growing GDP toward research. In just ten years, it jumped from publishing fewer papers than the US to 60% more. Meanwhile, the volume of (predominantly western) editors and reviewers has hardly grown. What happens when an ever-growing supply of papers collides with an ever-static supply of editors and reviewers? For starters, it leads to a global slowdown of peer review of nine days in the span of ten years. Bringing together volume, turnaround time, retraction, and several other pieces of data, this piece argues that we are sleepwalking toward an avoidable breaking point.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Trust and Integrity: A Research Imperative

    Research does not occur in isolation—it is a collaborative process involving researchers, libraries, government agencies, publishers, associations and societies, local communities, and the broader public. Inquiry-driven investigation has yielded countless innovations that would otherwise have been impossible.

• Career/Education

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft pushes billions at AI education for the masses

    The bulk of the money will go toward AI and cloud credits for K-12 schools and community colleges, and Redmond claims 20 million people will "earn an in-demand AI skilling credential" under the scheme, although Microsoft's record on such vendor-backed certifications is hardly spotless.

  • The Scotsman ☛ The Edinburgh attraction in 150-year-old building named among the world's 10 best museums for dinosaur lovers

    While there’s less dinosaurs on offer here than some of the others in the global top 25, it earns its spot for its wide-ranging exhibits, from furniture to planes, to dinosaurs and fashion – and reviewers remark that it's got "everything from dinosaurs to the moon landings”.

  • Vox ☛ Childhood literacy rates keep dropping. How bad is it really?

    On the one hand, I am aware that every generation complains that the kids who come next are doing everything wrong and have gotten stupider and less respectful. I fear falling into this trap myself, becoming an old man yelling at cloud.

    On the other hand, with every new story, I find myself asking: … Can the kids read, though?

  • India Times ☛ OpenAI and Microsoft bankroll new AI training for teachers

    The American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest U.S. teachers union, said Tuesday that it would start an AI training hub for educators with $23 million in funding from three leading chatbot makers: Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Five-minute(ish) Beanie Is The Fastest We’ve Seen Yet

    Yes, you read that right– not benchy, but beanie, as in the hat. A toque, for those of us under the Maple Leaf. It’s not 3D printed, either, except perhaps by the loosest definition of the word: it is knit, by [Kevr102]’s motorized turbo knitter.

  • Daniel Lemire ☛ Memory-level parallelism :: Apple M2 vs Apple M4

    The Apple M2, introduced in 2022, and the Apple M4, launched in 2024, are both ARM-based system-on-chip (SoC) designs featuring unified memory architecture. That is, they use the same memory for both graphics (GPU) and main computations (CPU). The M2 processor relies on LPDDR5 memory whereas the M4 relies on LPDDR5X which should provide slightly more bandwidth.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Chipmaking giant TSMC hit with class-action lawsuit in the U.S. for bias, racism, and unsafe conditions — over 30 plaintiffs have accused the company of illegal practices at Arizona fab

    Over 30 current and former TSMC Arizona employees have joined a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of discriminating against American workers, enabling racist behavior, and maintaining unsafe conditions at its Fab 21 facility.

  • Hackaday ☛ Turning PET Plastic Into Paracetamol With This One Bacterial Trick

    Over the course of evolution microorganisms have evolved pathways to break down many materials. The challenge with the many materials that we humans have created over just the past decades is that we cannot wait for evolution to catch up, ergo we have to develop such pathways ourselves. One such example is demonstrated by [Nick W. Johnson] et al. with a recent study in Nature Chemistry that explicitly targets PET plastic, which is very commonly used in plastic bottles.

  • Hackaday ☛ Oscillator Negativity Is A Good Thing

    Many people who get analog electronics still struggle a bit to design oscillators. Even common simulators often need a trick to simulate some oscillating circuits. The Barkhausen criteria state that for stable oscillation, the loop gain must be one, and the phase shift around the feedback loop must be a multiple of 360 degrees. [All Electronics Channel] provides a thorough exploration of oscillators and, specifically, negative resistance, which is punctuated by practical measurements using a VNA. Check it out in the video below.

  • Hackaday ☛ Better Solid State Heat Pumps Through Science

    If you need to cool something, the gold standard is using a gas compressor arrangement. Of course, there are definite downsides to that, like weight, power consumption, and vibrations. There are solid-state heat pumps — the kind you see in portable coolers, for example. But, they are not terribly efficient and have limited performance.

  • Hackaday ☛ View A Beehive Up Close With This 3D Printed Hive

    Bees are incredible insects that live and die for their hive, producing rich honey in complicated hive structures. The problem is as the average beekeeper, you wouldn’t see much of these intricate structures without disturbing the hive. So why not 3D print an observation hive? With [Teddy Hatcher]’s 3D printing creativity, that is exactly what he did.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ China detains principal over lead poisoning of 200 children

    Investigators found “abnormal” levels of lead in the blood of 233 children.

  • Science Alert ☛ Sleep Divorce Could Be The Secret to Getting a Good Night's Rest

    It doesn't need to be permanent.

  • Science Alert ☛ Microbiologist Explains How Often You Should Wash Your Sheets

    You're probably leaving them too long.

  • Science Alert ☛ Surprise Hair Loss Breakthrough: DNA Sugar Gel Triggers Robust Regrowth

    Results seen in mice within weeks.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Poop Schedule Says a Lot About Your Overall Health, Suggests Study

    You want to be in the Goldilocks zone.

  • Science Alert ☛ First UK Patients Receive Diabetes Drug That Delays Symptoms by Years

    Groundbreaking.

  • New Statesman ☛ Doctors, beware the AI scribe

    The time I spend editing my computerised medical notes outweighs any productivity gains I get from not writing them.

  • Court House News ☛ Feds sue California over price of eggs

    California voters approved the measure, the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, by 63% to 32%. The law sets minimum space standards for for egg-laying hens, breeding pigs, and calves raised for veal. It also makes it illegal in California to sell eggs and meat from producers that don't adhere to these standards, no matter whether they are located in the state or elsewhere in the country.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Donald Trump Cuts Tens of Thousands of Veterans Affairs Workers

    Frontline staffers at the VA are sounding the alarm. Nurses and doctors are now being asked to cover administrative duties because the people who used to handle billing or facilities management are simply gone.

    Since January 1, the VA has lost 17,000 employees. By the end of September, 12,000 more will be gone. The administration claims these departures won’t impact veteran care. Ask any veteran waiting months for a disability claim to be processed or stuck in a long line for an appointment if that’s true.

  • Deseret Media ☛ 'We breathed it in': Utah Vietnam War veteran seeks memorial to those exposed to Agent Orange

    He had no inkling of its dangers at the time, but after he suffered a heart attack in 1980 at the age of just 32, he started suspecting something was up. He suffered more ailments over the years, sowing his intense qualms with Agent Orange, and a head and neck cancer diagnosis in 2023 really jumpstarted his activism. Now 77 and cognizant he won't live forever, he's pushing hard for creation of a memorial in Utah to honor the many victims of Agent Orange through a nonprofit organization he created, Utah Agent Orange Veterans Foundation.

  • Wired ☛ ‘People Are Going to Die’: A Malnutrition Crisis Looms in the Wake of USAID Cuts

    The very existence of RUTFs is a secular miracle. Considered one of the greatest innovations in preventing deaths from hunger since they were invented in the 1990s, RUTFs increase success rates treating childhood malnutrition from 25 percent to over 90 percent, according to Action Against Hunger.

• Proprietary

  • The Register UK ☛ Citrix returns to hypervisor market without updating wares

    That verbiage is highly contestable, as Citrix’s market share is small and analysts of The Register’s acquaintance rate VMware’s stack as the industry’s most mature virtualization offering.

  • PC World ☛ How to delete the Microsoft account that Windows made you set up

    Microsoft requires you to log in with an online account for Windows 10 and 11, even in the Home versions. However, this can be bypassed during installation or changed later.

  • Joel Chrono ☛ Casio didn't let me type my address

    I have no idea what will happen over there, but at least my watches are arriving home soon!

  • The Register UK ☛ Qantas tells customers what data was stolen during break-in

    Qantas says that when cybercrooks attacked a "third party platform" used by the airline's contact center systems, they accessed the personal information and frequent flyer numbers of the "majority" of the circa 5.7 million people affected.

  • Inside Towers ☛ Salt Typhoon ‘Largely Contained’ in Telecom Networks, Says FBI Official

    The number of telecoms victimized in the United States stands at nine, according to Leatherman. Inside Towers reported AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Lumen (NYSE: LUMN) and others confirmed they were affected and said they purged the actors from their network or “contained” the incident.

  • An EA executive takes a jab at Microsoft’s mass layoffs: “Short-term results...”

    Microsoft’s latest restructuring has drawn sharp criticism from inside the industry, with EA Japan’s general manager calling out the pursuit of short-term gains at the expense of long-term creativity.

    Microsoft’s recent layoffs, impacting roughly 9,000 employees across its gaming division and other departments, have sparked widespread concern throughout the industry. Among the most vocal critics is Shaun Noguchi, general manager of EA Japan, who took to social media to express his dismay over what he sees as a troubling trend: sacrificing developer talent and long-term projects to satisfy shareholder expectations.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Red Hat ☛ Ollama or vLLM? How to choose the right LLM serving tool for your use case

      With local Hey Hi (AI) tools exploding in popularity and enterprises racing to productionize generative AI, the choice of an LLM serving framework has become a pivotal architectural decision. While it might be tempting to use the same framework for both development and production, this approach can often lead to unforeseen challenges. This article explores two prominent open source tools, Ollama and vLLM, which cater to different ends of the LLM deployment spectrum: Ollama for accessible local prototyping and vLLM for high-performance, scalable inference. Understanding their distinct strengths is key to selecting the optimal tool for your specific workflow and deployment needs.

    • New York Times ☛ Colorado Judge Fines MyPillow Founder’s Lawyers for Error-Filled Court Filing

      The judge said the lawyers had not explained how such errors could have been filed “absent the use of generative artificial intelligence or gross carelessness by counsel.”

    • New York Times ☛ Grok, MElon’s Hey Hi (AI) Chatbot, Shares Antisemitic Posts on X

      The artificial intelligence chatbot, which has a dedicated account on X, praised Hitler after fielding a query about a user’s comments on the Texas flood.

    • Press Gazette ☛ Google Offerwall explained: Easy way for publishers to test pay-as-you-go and ad-gated access

      New publisher technology from Surveillance Giant Google comes amid concern over Hey Hi (AI) Overviews rollout.

    • CBC ☛ That white guy who can't get a job at Tim Hortons? He's AI

      Most of the videos feature what looks like a white man in his 20s named "Josh," who speaks to the camera and makes racially charged statements about immigrants and their role in the job market. In fact, "Josh" is created by AI and doesn't exist.

    • The Register UK ☛ Why AI projects fail, according to EPA CIO

      US Environmental Protection Agency CIO Carter Farmer has a blunt message for AI hype-chasers: Shiny-object syndrome too often drives teams to leap into AI without defining a clear use case or vetting their data, leaving them to wonder why it doesn't work.

    • Jono Alderson ☛ Adrift in a sea of sameness

      We don’t do it because they don’t do it. They don’t do it because we don’t do it. Everybody looks to everybody else for permission to be interesting. Nobody acts. Nobody leads. Nobody dares. Just a whole ecosystem of well-meaning people in nice offices running perfectly average businesses, trying not to get fired.

      We call it market alignment. Brand protection. Consistency. But really, it’s just fear. Fear of being first. Fear of attention. Fear of being wrong. So we compromise. We polish. We go back to safe. Safe headlines. Safe CTAs. Safe content.

      And now the kicker. This whole mess is exactly what AI is trained on.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Cursor tries setting less money on fire — AI vibe coders outraged

      Anysphere is the startup that produces Cursor, your sort-of dependable vibe coding buddy. You tell Cursor what you’d like and it spits out a complete function! This leads to some spectacular vibe code disasters.

    • Punkx ☛ CODE AND TRUST: vibrators to pacemakers

      How do we get to a point to `trust` it? I am not sure, I just know its not solving SWE-Bench. There is of course a whole spectrum of programs between the vibrators and pacemakers, and SWE-bench will do very well for most, but when push comes to shove, programs leak outside of the computer, into the body, a world model is needed to make a pacemaker program, most of it lives outside of RAM.

    • Axios ☛ AI is changing the world faster than most realize

      Between the lines: Despite those forecasts, few appear to be taking the AI tsunami seriously enough.

    • EDRI ☛ European Commission must champion the AI Act

      We firmly oppose any attempt to delay or re-open the AI Act, particularly in light of the growing trend of deregulation of fundamental rights and environmental protection, which risks undermining key accountability mechanisms and hard-won rights enshrined in EU law across a wide range of protections, including for people, the planet, justice and democracy.

      The EU “simplification” agenda should not be used to drive deregulation, especially in the absence of credible evidence that this would be necessary or effective. The EU regulatory framework is founded on fundamental values and principles, promoting an open digital environment based on fundamental rights and consumer protection.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Universal Music Downplays Velvet Sundown Streaming Rise

      Back to Universal Music’s stance, it’s also possible that Nash and his company are publicly downplaying the situation while raising the alarm behind the scenes.

    • The Atlantic ☛ The AI Industry Is Radicalizing

      As we spoke over Zoom, Lee munching on the occasional corn chip while opining on superintelligence, his pitch began to sound familiar. He seemed an awful lot like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Both founders treat selling a product like evangelizing a faith. In a recent essay, Altman wrote that the singularity—the period after which technology eclipses human control and comprehension—has already begun. “The rate of technological progress will keep accelerating, and it will continue to be the case that people are capable of adapting to almost anything,” Altman wrote. “There will be very hard parts like whole classes of jobs going away, but on the other hand the world will be getting so much richer so quickly that we’ll be able to seriously entertain new policy ideas we never could before.”

    • The Register UK ☛ C-suite sours on AI despite rising investment, survey finds

      The firm, a subsidiary of Swiss staffing biz Adecco Group, analyzed the responses from 500 global chief technology officers (CTOs) among a broader set of 2,000 global executives whom its corporate parent surveyed about AI trends.

      The resulting report, "What CTOs Think: Using Digital Transformation to Scale Skills and Unlock Enterprise Potential," finds that despite growing enterprise AI commitment, suits doubt their corporate AI strategies.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ Inside OpenAI’s empire: A conversation with Karen Hao

      In a wide-ranging Roundtables conversation for MIT Technology Review subscribers, AI journalist and author Karen Hao spoke about her new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Scam Altman’s OpenAI. She talked with executive editor Niall Firth about how she first covered the company in 2020 while on staff at MIT Technology Review, and they discussed how the AI industry now functions like an empire and what ethically-made AI looks like.

    • Macworld ☛ If you think Siri's bad, just wait for Apple's customer support AI

      Essentially it looks like Support Assistant will introduce a new layer of chat that customers can access before speaking to an Apple employee. Apple Support currently has a chat feature, but this puts you in touch with a human; the Support Assistant will use generative AI to provide answers to chat questions without getting that human involved, while still allowing you to wait for the human if the chatbot isn’t sorting the problem.

    • Nick Heer ☛ Grok is Made Nazi – Pixel Envy

      Update: After some thought, I changed the title of this post from “Grok Goes Nazi” to “Grok is Made Nazi”. The former is too passive, as though it decided on its own to become Nazi. The latter is closer to the truth: some person or people made Grok far more likely to respond with hateful and dehumanizing language. It was instructed to be okay with being “politically incorrect”. I regret my original phrasing.

    • Haaretz ☛ Grok the Jews: Elon Musk's AI Chatbot Praises Hitler, Jokes About Holocaust in Serial Antisemitic Tirades - U.S. News - Haaretz.com

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ Musk's Grok chatbot at the center of antisemitic scandal

      That comes after complaints from users on social media platform X and the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that Grok was producing content that had antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.

    • Sean Goedecke ☛ Mecha-Hitler, Grok, and why it's so hard to give LLMs the right personality

      Recently, xAI’s Grok model made some very strange comments. In a now-deleted post, it suggested Adolf Hitler as the right person to deal with “anti-white hate”. It also pointed out that “radical leftists spewing anti-white hate … often have Ashkenazi Jewish surnames”. Grok repeatedly referred to itself as “MechaHitler”, and seems happy to go by “Grokler”.

    • The Register UK ☛ Grok chatbot posts Mein Kampf 2.0 in now-deleted X rant

      The posts have since been deleted, but in the last 24 hours, the chatbot reportedly began praising Adolf Hitler to the point of describing itself as "MechaHitler."

    • Stephen Hackett ☛ Grok Goes Full Nazi - 512 Pixels

      It seems that X has taken Grok offline for now.

    • Wired ☛ Linda Yaccarino Tried to Tame X. Now She’s Out as CEO

      Yaccarino did not say why she was leaving X or whether she had accepted a role at another company. Her announcement comes hours after Grok—a chatbot developed by xAI that has been integrated directly into X—began making antisemitic remarks in replies to user queries. Grok seemingly began generating the offensive content after Musk claimed on July 4 that the chatbot had been “significantly” improved and that users would “notice a difference” when asking it questions.

    • Deseret Media ☛ X removes posts by Musk chatbot Grok after antisemitism complaints

      Social media posts on the X account of the Grok chatbot developed by Elon Musk's company xAI were removed on Tuesday after complaints from X users and the Anti-Defamation League that Grok produced content with antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.

      Issues of political biases, hate speech and accuracy of AI chatbots have been a concern since at least the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022.

    • Futurism ☛ Before Grok's HitlerGate Debacle, X's Head of Product Tweeted Something Absolutely Wild

      Shortly thereafter, Musk's AI chatbot Grok abruptly turned into a full-blown Nazi on X. It started referring to itself as "MechaHitler," and making outrageously bigoted claims about Black and Jewish people, while recommending a "second Holocaust."

      In the early morning hours of Tuesday, before Grok's big day of wild racism, Bier posted a baffling tweet taking a potshot at Musk's chatbot.

    • Futurism ☛ Grok Mocks Its Developers as They Try to Delete Its Incredibly Racist Posts

      The change apparently led it into a full-on Nazi tailspin, turning it into an vile entity only Musk and his closest followers could be proud of.

  • Social Control Media

    • Chris Enns ☛ Building a Gaming PC in 2025 Takes a Community

      Back in the not so olden days, I used to be able to post something on Twitter and have it find the right audience to get decent feedback. But ever since El0n ran the neighbourhood into the ground, everybody has scattered to various smaller social networks or more private communities. It's in these private communities, often on Discord, that I now find a lot of the support that used to come from the public square.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Tees Up a Fentanylware (TikTok) Deal, But Is China Biting?

      The ongoing saga surrounding TikTok’s future in the United States has reached a new level of uncertainty. Chinese officials have declined to comment on Convicted Felon’s claims of an imminent deal to bring the app under American ownership.

    • Michael Geist ☛ Another Canadian Digital Policy Own Goal: Corporate Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban Leads to Millions in Lost Cultural Group Support

      The government’s bad run of digital policy choices that led to blocked news links on Facebook (Farcebook) and Instagram, ongoing litigation over mandated streaming payments, and the recent cancellation of the digital services tax, has paved the way for another costly loss.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EDRI ☛ Undermining the GDPR through ‘simplification’: EDRi pushes back against dangerous deregulation

      EDRi has responded to the European Commission’s consultation on the GDPR ‘simplification’ proposal. The plan to remove documentation safeguards under Article 30(5) risks weakening security, legal certainty and rights enforcement, and opens the door to broader deregulation of the EU’s digital rulebook.

    • Federal News Network ☛ Today’s the day to be in compliance with a data security rule from the Department of Justice

      "Think about this not as a traditional privacy law...we're talking about regulating transactions, not necessarily how you handle data," Townsend Bourne said.

    • The Register UK ☛ Privacy activists unmoved despite Met's 1,000 LFR arrests

      "Arrests made with the technology represent just 0.15 percent of all arrests made in the capital during that time, despite significant police resources being plowed into its expansion," the campaign group said.

      "Policing resources are threadbare in London, and with many serious crimes not even being investigated, spending millions of pounds on rights-abusing technology is an insult to Londoners. The expansion of facial recognition technology comes at a serious cost to the taxpayer, to our civil liberties, and to stretched policing resources."

    • The Record ☛ German court rules Meta tracking technology violates European privacy laws

      A German court has ruled that Meta must pay €5,000 ($5,900) to a German Facebook user who sued the platform for embedding tracking technology in third-party websites — a ruling that could open the door to large fines down the road over data privacy violations relating to pixels and similar tools.

      The Regional Court of Leipzig in Germany ruled Friday that Meta tracking pixels and software development kits embedded in countless websites and apps collect users’ data without their consent and violate the continent’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

    • Wired ☛ McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants' Data to Hackers Using the Password ‘123456’

      Until last week, the platform that runs the Olivia chatbot, built by artificial intelligence software firm Paradox.ai, also suffered from absurdly basic security flaws. As a result, virtually any hacker could have accessed the records of every chat Olivia had ever had with McDonald's applicants—including all the personal information they shared in those conversations—with tricks as straightforward as guessing the username and password “123456."

    • EDRI ☛ Undermining the GDPR through ‘simplification’

      EDRi has responded to the European Commission’s consultation on the GDPR ‘simplification’ proposal. The plan to remove documentation safeguards under Article 30(5) risks weakening security, legal certainty and rights enforcement, and opens the door to broader deregulation of the EU’s digital rulebook.

    • EDRI ☛ EDRi Contribution to the Public Consultation on the Proposal for a Regulation on Burden Reduction and Simplification for Competitiveness of Small Mid-Cap Enterprises

      EDRi urges the Commission to withdraw the proposed amendment to Article 30(5) GDPR. We also call on co-legislators to oppose the use of omnibus simplification instruments to alter fundamental rights legislation. The GDPR does not need to be reopened: it needs to be properly enforced and supported with tools that enable, rather than undermine, compliance.

    • 404 Media ☛ ICE Is Searching a Massive Insurance and Medical Bill Database to Find Deportation Targets

      The database, called ISO ClaimSearch, is nearly all encompassing and contains details on more than 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills.

    • Michael Geist ☛ Risky Business: The Legal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory Age Verification Technologies

      The Canadian debate over age verification technologies – which has now expanded to include both age verification and age estimation systems – requires an assessment of both the proposed legislative frameworks and the technologies themselves. The last Parliament featured debate over several contentious Internet-related bills, notably streaming and news laws (Bills C-11 and C-18), online harms (Bill C-63) and Internet age verification and website blocking (Bill S-210). Bill S-210 fell below the radar screen for many months as it started in the Senate and received only cursory review in the House of Commons. The bill faced only a final vote in the House but it died with the election call. Once Parliament resumed, the bill’s sponsor, Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, wasted no time in bringing it back as Bill S-209.

  • Confidentiality

    • Dhole Moments ☛ Jurisdiction Is Nearly Irrelevant to the Security of Encrypted Messaging Apps

      Every time I lightly touch on this point, I always get someone who insists on arguing with me about it, so I thought it would be worth making a dedicated, singular-focused blog post about this topic without worrying too much about tertiary matters.

      Here’s the TL;DR: If you actually built your cryptography properly, you shouldn’t give a shit which country hosts the ciphertext for your messaging app.

• Defence/Aggression

  • BIA Net ☛ PKK disarmament ceremony to be held behind closed doors for security reasons

    A few dozen fighters are planned to destroy their fighters in a symbolic disarmament ceremony. There will be no journalists present and the event will not be broadcast live as part of new security measures.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Homicides drop 15% as security strategy shows results: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped

    Sheinbaum's national public security administrator reported that there was an average of 65.6 homicides per day last month, making it Mexico's least violent June since 2016.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong NGO defends ecotourism research after ‘soft resistance’ accusation from Beijing-backed paper

    Policy think tank Liber Research Community has defended its research after Beijing-backed newspaper Wen Wei Po accused the NGO of “soft resistance” through its policy recommendations for Hong Kong’s ecotourism initiatives. The paper ran a full-page report on Tuesday, accusing the NGO of using “pseudo-science” to challenge the bottom line of national security.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Administration Ends Deportation Protections for Hondurans and Nicaraguans

    The decision by the Homeland Security Department to end protections for migrants from those countries goes into effect in about two months.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Southern border crossings are down. A sea of shoelaces remains.

    Illegal border crossings between Mexico and the U.S. have dropped precipitously, yet left-behind items still linger. One property owner sees border security through the objects left on his property.

  • France24 ☛ US airports end shoe removal requirement for security screening

    Passengers at US airports will no longer need to remove shoes during security checks under a new policy announced Tuesday, ending a 20-year requirement. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed the updated TSA rules at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

  • The Straits Times ☛ New York mayoral hopeful Mamdani trolled by Indian PM Modi fans on social control media

    He is being attacked on social control media over his criticism of Indian PM Narendra Modi, and has been labelled “anti-Hindu”.

  • New York Times ☛ Mayor and Police Chiefs Let Corruption Fester at N.Y.P.D., Suits Charge

    The lawsuits, by four former police officers, claim that a culture of cronyism ruled the department. James Essig, who was chief of detectives, said that promotions were sold for $15,000.

  • New York Times ☛ Why Are Police Officers in South Africa Torturing People?

    A data analysis by The New York Times shows that a form of torture popular during apartheid endures in the country despite laws designed to eliminate it.

  • New York Times ☛ South African Police’s Frequent Use of Torture Echoes Apartheid’s Brutality

    A government led by freedom fighters who helped to liberate the country more than 30 years ago is now overseeing a police force accused of staggering abuses.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Five questions (and expert answers) about the ICC arrest warrants against Taliban leaders for crimes against women and girls 

    Is the tide turning for justice? On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the group’s chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, for crimes against humanity of persecution against women, girls, and others. Since retaking the country in August 2021, the Taliban has imposed strict controls on women and girls through repressive decrees and brutal enforcement, with no sign of easing up. To answer our burning questions about these warrants, we turned to our experts on international law and gender apartheid.

  • NDTV ☛ Donald Trump Slaps 50% Tariff On Brazil Over Bolsonaro Trial

    Trump has strongly criticized the prosecution of right-wing ally Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling to power after losing the 2022 elections to Lula.

  • CBC ☛ Trump hits Brazil with 50% tariff over 'witch hunt' trial of ex-leader Bolsonaro

    Trump avoided his standard form letter with Brazil, specifically tying his tariffs there to the trial of Bolsonaro, who is charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss. Trump has described Bolsonaro as a friend and hosted the former Brazilian president at his Mar-a-Lago resort when both were in power in 2020.

  • FAIR ☛ Massive Expansion of Trump’s Deportation Machine Passes With Little Press Notice

    Lest there remain any doubt as to the centrality of profit flows to the immigration crackdown, the article specifies that GEO Group and CoreCivic “each gave $500,000 to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to Federal Election Commission data.”

    This article, however, came after the legislation was passed.

  • Paul Krugman ☛ Trump's Dictator Protection Program

    Notice that Trump barely even pretends that there’s an economic justification for this action. This is all about punishing Brazil for putting Jair Bolsonaro on trial.

  • Axios ☛ Supreme Court lets Trump fire federal workers

    She warned that such an executive action "promises mass employee terminations, widespread cancellation of federal programs and services, and the dismantling of much of the Federal Government as Congress has created it."

  • ADF ☛ Gains by Sahel Terror Groups Spark Fears Major Cities Could Fall

    As terror groups continue to launch attacks in the Sahel, some fear that the day will come when insurgents march into a capital city and topple the national government. This would follow a similar pattern that occurred in Syria and Afghanistan when state control collapsed virtually overnight.

  • [Repeat] Atlantic Council ☛ Europe has ideas for how to provide for its own security. The US should take notice.

    The proposal originated from a report written by the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, following a commission by the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). It was reportedly a topic of intense debate at an April meeting of EU finance ministers—signaling European leaders’ increased willingness to take on more responsibility for Europe’s rearmament. While some ministers were hesitant to consider a new defense tool, many showed interest.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ They’re calling her an influencer. She’s calling it campaign strategy. • Michigan Advance

    18,000 individual donors, Instagram and TikTok views have kept Deja Foxx — a once long-shot Gen Z candidate — competitive in the race for a congressional seat in Arizona.

  • The Atlantic ☛ How the West Can Ensure Iran Never Gets the Bomb

    The Trump administration has an ideal opportunity to revive a broader coalition to prevent the Islamic Republic becoming nuclear-armed.

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ If the EU wants peace, it needs to prepare for war

    An interview with Andrius Kubilius, the European Union’s Commissioner for Defence and Space. Interviewers: Joanna Maria Stolarek and Adam Reichardt

  • The Straits Times ☛ China says US is in ‘no position’ to point fingers over Tibet issues

    Beijing urged Washington to fully recognise the "sensitivity" of the matter.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Berlin says China military targeted German plane with laser over Red Sea

    Berlin on Tuesday said the Chinese military had targeted a laser at a German aircraft participating in an EU-led mission to protect marine traffic in the Red Sea. “Endangering German personnel and disrupting the operation is entirely unacceptable,” the foreign ministry said on X, adding that Beijing’s ambassador to Berlin had been summoned for talks.

  • The Strategist ☛ China’s ‘Taiwanese separatist’ hotline shows expanding lawfare strategy

    Beijing’s coercion campaign against Taiwan is entering a more litigious phase.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man welcomes Netanyahu at the White House. Can he get a ceasefire in Gaza?

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President The Insurrectionist will meet to discuss Middle East tensions and celebrate their progress in Iran, including the strikes on nuclear facilities. Questions remain on how Mr. Convicted Felon plans to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

• Environment

  • New York Times ☛ The French Seaside Factory Trying to Break China’s Chokehold on Rare Earths

    The continent wants to reduce the risks of depending so heavily on China for the valuable minerals. The question is how.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Why China’s ultimatum to Myanmar rebels threatens global supply of heavy rare earths

    Nearly half the world’s supply of heavy rare earths is extracted from mines in Kachin state.

  • New York Times ☛ 2 Dead and 500 Injured After Typhoon Danas Strikes Taiwan

    Most typhoons come ashore on the island’s sparsely populated east coast, but Danas scraped its crowded western edge. Nearly 300,000 households had no power on Monday.

  • The Conversation ☛ From robotic trucks to smart bins: how technology is helping cities sort their waste problem

    A shortage of skilled personnel threatens the transition towards a greener economy. People have to be at the centre of the solution. In this case, skilled workers are needed to keep different types of waste separate and so improve recycling rates.

    The recovery value can be high for certain products such as electronics, automotive parts, as well as materials like plastic and metal. This is still difficult for machines to do.

  • Vox ☛ Texas flooding and National Weather Service cuts: What we know

    This conversation originally appeared on the Today, Explained podcast and was featured in the Today, Explained newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • New York Times ☛ Deadly Flash Floods Sweep Away Nepal-China Bridge

      Search and rescue efforts were underway to try to locate people missing after the monsoon-related disaster.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Dozens missing after floods on Nepal-China border

      Floodwaters also washed away the "Friendship Bridge" that links China and Nepal.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ Why the US and Europe could lose the race for fusion energy

      Fusion energy holds the potential to shift a geopolitical landscape that is currently configured around fossil fuels. Harnessing fusion will deliver the energy resilience, security, and abundance needed for all modern industrial and service sectors.

    • Task And Purpose ☛ Coast Guard 'looks into' aircrew that drew genitals in sky on flight

      Nautical twilight ended just after the plane took off, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, but Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles confirms a bright moon, more than half-full, was up for the entire flight. As the crew flew along 2,000 feet above the empty ocean, lit only by stars and lazy moonlight, maybe they thought no one was watching.

      Unfortunately, the flight tracking system known as ADS-B, and the civilian websites that follow it, never looks away.

    • Michigan Advance ☛ Attorney: Michigan farmers in proposed transmission line path are being offered bad deals • Michigan Advance

      The reality facing property owners in the project path is that there are few avenues in statute and in state court to stop ITC Holding Corp., doing business as Michigan Electric Transmission Company, from building two approximately 50 mile spans of high-voltage electric transmission lines from the Indiana border starting in Branch County to a substation in Calhoun County, and another stretching from Eaton County to Gratiot County.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Antidote for Despair in the Shawnee National Forest

    • The Independent UK ☛ Pine marten kits spotted in Dartmoor national park for first time in 100 years

      This marks a significant milestone for conservation efforts, as it is the first time the species has bred in the South West of England in over a century.

    • Omicron Limited ☛ Study points to Skagerrak as nursery area for the enigmatic Greenland shark

      A new study led by researchers from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the Natural History Museum of Denmark presents important new pieces of the puzzle surrounding the mysterious life of the Greenland shark. Among other things, the study shows that the Greenland shark is found much closer to Denmark than most people imagine.

    • RTL ☛ Dramatic decline: The long slow death of Norway's wild salmon

      Wild salmon is now so rare that Norway in 2021 placed it on its red list of near-endangered species.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ US tariffs to take centre stage as Asean meets in Malaysia

    A simmering territorial dispute between Thailand and Cambodia also threatens to disrupt the bloc's unity.

  • Julik Tarkhanov ☛ Data Over Time

    While obvious and very quick to execute, this has a multitude of tradeoffs which will bite you down the road (and fairly quickly - in a fintech situation): [...]

  • The Straits Times ☛ China warns Convicted Felon on tariffs, threatens retaliation on supply chain deals

    The remarks set the stage for another round of tariff war between the US and China.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia braces itself for shake-up in supply chains in wake of US tariffs

    The country’s electronics sector may remain relatively insulated, but other industries could be forced to adapt.

  • Latvia ☛ Inflation ticks up to 3.8% in Latvia

    The latest data published by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) show that in June 2025, compared to June 2024, the average level of consumer prices in Latvia increased by 3.8 %.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Why Japan and South Korea are on different paths in the latest US trade salvo

    The two US security allies face differing challenges, in particular those posed by domestic politics.

  • New York Times ☛ Trash Overflows in Philadelphia as City Workers’ Strike Enters Second Week

    Pungent odors permeate the City of Brotherly Love as a contract impasse between the city and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees continues.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ PM Anwar called out by his own lawmakers as Malaysia’s judicial crisis heats up

    The stance taken by nine PKR federal lawmakers is unusual, and could seen as a signal they have lost confidence in him.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia’s Albanese confirms China visit as Beijing eyes trade deal review

    The Australian Prime Minister is looking to strengthen ties amid rising global trade tensions.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippines summons Chinese envoy after ex-senator sanctioned

    China said it had prohibited former Philippine senator Francis Tolentino from entering its territory.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Fortinet report shows C-suite now owns operational technology cybersecurity

    Though the overall trends were mostly positive, the report does highlight one area of concern: legacy systems. With many organizations still relying on outdated infrastructure that was not designed with cybersecurity in mind, the systems are particularly vulnerable to modern threats. Legacy OT devices often lack native security controls and are difficult to update or patch, increasing the risk of exploitation.

  • India Times ☛ Major leadership shift coming at Apple after COO change; design team to report to Tim Cook

    Cook’s move to directly lead the design team comes at a time when Apple is undergoing a significant visual overhaul. The company is rolling out a new design language called Liquid Glass, which will appear across iPhones, iPads, Macs and other devices.

  • Mike Brock ☛ You Are Here: A Short History of the Recent Past

    This is the story of how America moved from distributional politics—healthy debates about how to allocate resources within a shared democratic framework—to elite power competition—fundamental struggles over who controls the technological and institutional infrastructure of society itself. But more fundamentally, it’s the story of how three converging forces created a perfect storm that made democratic institutions vulnerable to oligarchic exploitation: elite failures to govern effectively, increased visibility of those failures, and declining public capacity for institutional trust.

    What we’re living through isn’t just a political crisis. It’s the collapse of rational-legal authority—the foundation that makes democratic governance possible—creating space for those who promise algorithmic optimization as a more efficient alternative to democratic deliberation.

  • Futurism ☛ Increasingly Paranoid OpenAI Has Installed Fingerprint Scanners and Airgapped Systems to Prevent Secrets Escaping

    Per the Financial Times, the company has gone as far as installing fingerprint "biometric access controls" around its offices, as well as electronically-dependent security airlocks, similar to the kind found in industrial cleanrooms. It likewise beefed up "physical security" — presumably meaning security guards — in its datacenters, and shored up its cybersecurity team for good measure.

  • C4ISRNET ☛ Air Force review spotlights risks in space agency’s go-fast approach

    SDA was created in 2019 as a standalone acquisition organization within the Space Force. Its task has been to quickly field a large constellation of advanced missile-tracking and data transport satellites in low Earth orbit, about 1,200 miles above the Earth’s surface.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ No need to take off your shoes. TSA has a new screening policy already in effect at some airports

    The American Federation of Government Employees also confirmed that some airports adopted the new policy Friday ahead of the change being implemented more widely, and agency trainers were working to update TSA officers, the Washington Post reported.

  • The Register UK ☛ Tim Cook's Tim Cook stepping down from Apple

    Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams is stepping down from his role next month and leaving the company later this year to spend more time with friends and family.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • New York Times ☛ Marco Rubio Impersonation Under State Dept. Investigation

      A person or people imitating the secretary of state used artificial intelligence to send text and voice messages to foreign diplomats and U.S. officials, the department said in a cable to employees.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Marco Rubio impersonator reportedly used Hey Hi (AI) to contact government officials

      A bad actor posing as U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio has contacted multiple government officials, the Washington Post reported today. The impostor used artificial intelligence to imitate the voice and writing style of Rubio (pictured). The impersonation campaign began in June when the bad actor opened a Signal account with the display name “marco.rubio@state.gov.”

    • Security Week ☛ Impostor Uses Hey Hi (AI) to Impersonate Rubio and Contact Foreign and US Officials

      The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor attempted to reach out to at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor.

    • The Record ☛ Fake CNN and BBC sites used to push investment scams | The Record from Recorded Future News

      Researchers at Bahrain-based cybersecurity firm CTM360 said they identified more than 17,000 such sites, which publish fake stories featuring prominent public figures, including national leaders and central bank governors.

      The articles falsely linked those figures to “fabricated investment schemes in order to build trust and get engagement from victims,” the researchers said.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Straits Times ☛ Lurid tale of China’s cross-dressing ‘red uncle’ goes viral online

    A 38-year-old man had been detained by the police on suspicion of spreading obscene material.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Ex-Malaysian PM Najib’s wife Rosmah wins $30,000 in suit against TikToker

    Rosmah Mansor claimed her reputation as a public figure was smeared due to the Fentanylware (TikTok) video.

  • FAIR ☛ Cartoonists Can Compare Victims of Genocide to Nazis—But Not the Perpetrators

    Cartoonist Mr. Fish (real name Dwayne Booth) posted an update to his Patreon on March 20 headed “Fish: Laid Off!” Fish’s work has accompanied columns by Chris Hedges, appeared in Harper’s Magazine and currently can be found on ScheerPost. He collaborated with Ralph Nader to create The Day the Rats Vetoed Congress, a fable of a citizen uprising against Washington corruption. Fish announced he had been laid off from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania after teaching there for 11 years. Fish states that, officially, “the reason for the termination was budgetary.”

  • Garry Kasparov ☛ Trump’s Secret to Limiting Free Speech Without Outlawing It

    Instead of looking to jail his rivals, Trump is simply going to make their lives infinitely more difficult.

  • BIA Net ☛ Reports: Turkish prosecutors investigate X's Grok AI after offensive content targeting Erdoğan, Atatürk

    After a recent update, Grok began responding users with explicit messages, some of which included highly vulgar language.

  • Open Caucasus Media ☛ Georgian activist jailed for calling official a goose on Facebook

    The Zugdidi City Court has sentenced activist Rosto Zarandia to five days of administrative arrest over a Facebook comment in which he called the Zugdidi City Hall’s spokesperson a goose.

    Zarandia made the comment about Magdalena Todua on a post commemorating the Soviet Union’s brutal crackdown on a pro-independence protest on 9 April 1989.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Timeline: Press freedom in Hong Kong under the national security law

    Since Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, the city has seen the closure of independent media outlets, journalists jailed, newsrooms raided and government tax audits that appear to disproportionately target the media sector.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ L.A. activist indicted for giving face shields to anti-ICE protesters

    Essayli described anyone who remained at a protest scene after an unlawful assembly was declared as a “rioter” and said peaceful protesters “don’t need a face shield.”

    Orellana, who works for United Parcel Service, has no criminal record and previously served in the U.S. Marines, according to Carlos Montes, a fellow member of Centro CSO.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • JURIST ☛ Germany urged to protect Egypt journalist against transnational repression

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Monday called on German authorities to protect the Egyptian journalist Basma Mostafa against alleged surveillance, intimidation, and harassment in Germany by the Egyptian authorities.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Timeline: Press freedom in Hong Kong under the national security law

    Since Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, the city has seen the closure of independent media outlets, journalists jailed, newsrooms raided and government tax audits that appear to disproportionately target the media sector. Hong Kong has plummeted down a global press freedom index.

  • The Dissenter ☛ A Model Anti-Doxing Law: Free Speech, Press Freedom Groups Oppose Effort

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Reuters Blocked on X: Govt Denies It

    The government on Tuesday said it has not made any fresh requests to block access to certain X accounts in the country and that it had proactively got blockage of a prominent international wire agency lifted.The statement came as the Elon Musk-owned platform asserted that the government of India, on July 3, sought the blocking of over 2,300 X handles in India. The list, it claimed, included the handle Reuters in India.

  • CPJ ☛ Israel uses Iran war to escalate assaults on press

    “Media freedom is often a casualty of war, and Israel’s recent war with Iran is no exception. We have seen Israeli authorities use security fears to increase censorship, while extremist right-wing politicians have demonized the media, legitimizing attacks on journalists,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Despite hopes that we will see a ceasefire in Gaza this week, Israel’s government appears relentless in its determination to silence those who report critically on its military actions.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • ANF News ☛ French woman to stand trial for Yazidi genocide

    The court decided that 36-year-old Sonia Mejri, who returned from Syria, will be tried in a special criminal court for crimes against humanity, including genocide. These crimes include enslaving and imprisoning a Yazidi youth in the spring of 2015, as well as religious- and gender-based persecution and other inhumane acts.

    Sonia Mejri, the former wife of ISIS commander Abelnasser Benyoucef, will be the first French national returning from Syria to stand trial in France for genocide committed against the Yazidi community.

  • CS Monitor ☛ In Boston and beyond, Tibetans in exile keep their culture alive

    The 1950s marked a decade of upheaval for Tibet. China’s Communist Party sought to annex the resource-rich plateau, which would help secure the country’s southwest border. But when Chinese tanks rolled into Tibet in October 1950, local leaders fought to retain their autonomy.

    Tensions came to a head during a 1959 uprising, in which the 23-year-old Dalai Lama fled to neighboring India, establishing a government in exile in the northern town of Dharamshala. More than 80,000 Tibetan refugees followed him.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Under-18s could be banned from marrying in Scotland

    Ministers will also consult on whether to legislate to extend the forced marriage or forced civil partnership offence, so any conduct with the intention of causing a person under 18 to marry or enter a civil partnership would be a criminal offence.

  • RFERL ☛ Taliban's Closure Of Women's Shelters Leaves Afghan Women Vulnerable To Abuse

    But since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 following two decades of relative order overseen by international peacekeeping troops, almost all the 26 women’s shelters that operated during the country’s previous Western-backed government have been shut, exposing women like Morsal to abusive situations.

  • Court House News ☛ Judge prunes some claims from bellwether cases in Uber sexual assault litigation

    "The court is not convinced that a reasonable consumer could believe the two ads at issue — 'Don’t drink and drive, call an Uber,' and 'Stay safe tonight. Use Uber. — conveyed anything more than a generic encouragement to take an Uber ride rather than drive while drunk," Breyer said. "Indeed, Uber’s designated driver marketing is directly analogous to the types of language other courts have readily identified as non-actionable puffery."

    However Breyer denied Uber's attempt to throw out fraud claims saying the ride-hailing behemoth omitted information about drivers' previous misconduct and criminal history when its app identifies the driver to a passenger.

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Today in History: July 9, 14th Amendment ratified

    On July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, granting citizenship and “equal protection under the laws” to anyone “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people.

  • The Nation ☛ Amazon’s Prime Sweatshop Is Nothing to Celebrate

    Amazon can’t, of course, quadruple output without burdening the workers who pick, sort, package, and deliver the goods. “It’s not uncommon for there to be a parade of ambulances leaving JFK8, especially during Prime week and peak season, when safety just goes out the window,” Tristian Martinez, a six-year veteran at the company’s Staten Island warehouse and a member of Amazon Labor Union Local 1 of the Teamsters, told me. “They just push and push you.”

  • Digital Music News ☛ Court Nixes ‘Click to Cancel’ Rule Enforcing Easy Cancellation

    According to the court, the FTC made a procedural error by failing to provide with a preliminary regulatory analysis, which is required for any rule with an annual economic impact of over $100 million. As a result, the court opted to toss out the rule.

  • The Register UK ☛ Court cancels FTC click-to-cancel rule on a technicality

    Such a measure seems easy to support unless you're a company engaged in such practices. Even the triumvirate of judges making the decision doesn't really seem to be against the rule - they just don't like how it was implemented.

  • PC World ☛ The FTC's 'click to cancel' rule gets canceled

    The Federal Trade Commission's rules requiring easy and straightforward subscription cancellations were tossed out on procedural grounds, and are unlikely to be resubmitted anytime soon.

  • The Verge ☛ Appeals court strikes down ‘click-to-cancel’ rule | The Verge

    A federal appeals court just threw out a new government regulation that would have required subscription services to give consumers an easy way to cancel.

    The Federal Trade Commission’s click-to-cancel rule was set to take effect next week, and would have required everything from your gym membership to Amazon Prime subscription to let customers cancel their recurring payments as easily as they signed up, and through the same method.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Internet Society ☛ How the Technical Community Runs the Internet

    The Internet technical community helps to build and maintain infrastructure, and enables us to communicate safely, affordably, and efficiently online.  

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Gabriel ☛ Access vs Ownership - GABZ/ML

    I have always been disgusted by the fact that, in this day and age, anything that we “purchase” digitally is not truly ours; we pay for the rights to access it or to stream it.

    When it comes to video games, for whatever reason, I am more willing to value access over ownership, because, so far, (knocks of fake wood), I haven’t had a situation when my games/digital purchases have been subjected to some kind of “hostage” situation, like with “digitally “purchased” movies, at least on iTunes, or Movies, or whatever is called these days.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• India Times ☛ Google says discord over search results is unresolved; risks EU antitrust fine

  Alphabet's Google said it failed this week to resolve disagreements with hotels, airlines and specialised search services such as Skyscanner over how it presents search results, putting it at risk of a hefty European Union antitrust fine. At a July 7-8 workshop organised by the European Commission, the US tech giant briefed critics on its latest proposals to address EU antitrust charges of unfairly favouring its own services such as Google Shopping, Google Hotels and Google Flights over competitors.

• James Heppell ☛ Apple Vs The Law

  A week ago today I had the pleasure of attending both the Apple and Google DMA compliance workshops in Brussels. More detailed articles on the questions and answers, technical and legal analysis etc will be published over at the OWA blog, where we've just done the first write-up on the Google part. Here though I'd like to focus more on my own experience and personal opinions, and how I feel about some of the gatekeepers' approach to the law...

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Three Recent Section 2(e)(1) Mere Descriptiveness Appeals - How Did They Turn Out?

    Last year the Board affirmed about 88% of the Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusals reviewed on appeal. So far this year, the rate is well over 90%. Here are three recent appeals. How do you think they came out? You might respond by asking, what was the evidence? Well, give it a try anyway. [Answer in first comment].

• Copyrights

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Guest Post: When the Front Door Moves: How AI Threatens Scholarly Communities and What Publishers Can Do

    To the researcher, this feels like pure convenience, perhaps even magic, but for publishers, it looks like disintermediation. What does this mean for scholarly journals, the communities they nurture, and the integrity they safeguard?

  • Walled Culture ☛ As site blocks pile up, European Commission issues subtle slapdown to Italy’s Piracy Shield

    As numerous Walled Culture posts attest, site blocking is in the vanguard of the actions by copyright companies against sites engaged in the unauthorised sharing of material. Over the past few months, this approach has become even more pervasive, and even more intrusive. For example, in France, the Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare was forced to geoblock more than 400 sports streaming domain names. More worryingly, leading VPN providers were ordered to block similar sites. This represents another attack on basic Internet infrastructure, something this blog has been warning about for years.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ After SOPA's Painful Death, Safe Site Blocking Claim Disputed By Cloudflare

    A recent forum event held in Washington promised to discuss how pirate site-blocking orders can be safely implemented in the United States. With speakers Rep. Darrell Issa and Rep. Zoe Lofgren both openly admitting that SOPA was a disaster, Issa said that he believes that this time around, the errors of SOPA have all been fixed. That's clearly the case, or at least it was until a lone voice offered insight on the very topic those in attendance were there to discuss.