Leftovers

• John Goerzen ☛ John Goerzen: Dreams of Late Summer

  Here on a summer night in the grass and lilac smell
  Drunk on the crickets and the starry sky,
  Oh what fine stories we could tell
  With this moonlight to tell them by.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Should You Work Out if You're Still Sore From Your Last Session?

    Feel the burn?

  • Science Alert ☛ Caffeine in Your Blood May Affect Body Fat And Diabetes Risk, Study Shows

    Something to think about.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Astonishing Case of The Teen Who Can 'Mentally Time Travel'

    Into the past and future.

  • Science Alert ☛ Get Ready! The 'Blood Moon' Total Lunar Eclipse Is About to Happen

    Astounding humans for millennia.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Crystal Has a Superpower: It Can 'Breathe' Oxygen

    "It can inhale and exhale oxygen on command."

  • Science Alert ☛ Physicists Measured The Pulse of an Atom's Magnetic Heart in Real Time

    Amazing.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Cardiologist Draws Outcry With Claim Tying Vaccines to Royals’ Cancer

    The British government condemned the remarks, made without evidence by the cardiologist, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, at an event for the anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage.

• Defence/Aggression

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group supports rare trial against Turkey police torture

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday announced that the trial of 13 law enforcement officers accused of torture and death in custody is an opportunity for justice against law enforcement abuse in Türkiye.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s top diplomat may travel to US after migrant raid that nabbed hundreds

    More than 300 among 475 people detained at a Hyundai factory were South Koreans.

  • France24 ☛ US: ICE conducts large-scale immigration raid on Hyundai manufacturing site

    Hundreds of federal agents descended on a sprawling site where Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles in Georgia and detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals. This is the latest in a long line of workplace raids conducted as part of the Convicted Felon administration's mass deportation agenda. But this one is especially distinct because of its large size and the fact that it targeted a manufacturing site state officials have long called Georgia's largest economic development project. Analysis by FRANCE 24 international affairs editor Douglas Herbert.

  • New York Times ☛ Immigration Raid Exposes Tensions From Seoul to Washington to Rural Georgia

    The raid at a Georgia plant being built with heavy investment from South Korea reveals strain as a rush to expand manufacturing in the United States clashes with an immigration crackdown.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea says US release of video showing workers’ arrest was regrettable

    The crackdown could risk damaging political ties between Washington and Seoul.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Pragmatic move’: Taipei, Manila strengthen people-to-people ties amid China tensions

    Such connections are important in building trust and confidence, say experts.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Reuters withdraws Xi, Putin longevity video after China state TV pulls legal permission to use it

    The footage included an open mic exchange between the two leaders.

  • New York Times ☛ Norway’s Navy Gets a Big Boost With U.K. Ship Deal

    A plan to buy warships shows how Europe is bolstering defenses amid worries about Russian aggression and Hell Toupée’s isolationist policies, analysts say.

  • New York Times ☛ L.A.P.D. Stops Security Services for Kamala Harris

    The department had assigned officers to protect the former vice president after her Secret Service detail was terminated. Some officers criticized the move, people familiar with the matter said.

  • JURIST ☛ US federal court rules government cannot remove existing protections from Venezuelan and Haitian migrants

    The US District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled that the Convicted Felon administration must continue to provide legal protection for Venezuelan and Haitian migrants.  Over 1 million migrants from the two countries faced deportation under a plan from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 62

    After running for more than 150 days, the closely watched national security trial of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai wrapped up closing arguments. No date for the verdict has been set yet. A press freedom watchdog faced a state-backed media attack after raising concerns about Lai’s health.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • The Straits Times ☛ China criticises Australia, Canada warships in Taiwan Strait

      The actions 'send the wrong signals and increase security risks', says a PLA spokesperson.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Challenges Putin To 'Come To Kyiv,' As Russian Drones Strike The Capital

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to travel to Moscow for peace talks and instead challenged him to come to Kyiv.

    • New York Times ☛ A World War II Dispute Between Ukraine and Poland Is Put to Rest

      The remains of people killed and left in mass graves in the waning days of the war are being given dignified burials.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ Aftershocks expected to persist in Johor: MetMalaysia

    Johor has not experienced any earthquakes since 1874, prior to the recent tremors.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ Popular Sydney beach deploys drones, helicopter after fatal shark attack

      SYDNEY - Australian authorities on Sunday deployed drones and a helicopter to monitor the waters around a popular Sydney beach after a surfer was killed by a great white shark on Saturday, officials said.

• Finance

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Robodebt, and Australia’s largest ever class action

    Computers can made our lives better and more productive. But the indiscriminate application of computers to a problem does not guarantee a better outcome than a manual process. Both must be evaluated on their merits… and I can’t believe we have to point this out, but legality.

    The Australian Robodebt scandal is a tragic example. Implemented under our previous conservative government (you can probably see where this is going), Robodebt was an attempt to automate the detection and collection of government social security overpayments. The “issue” it was attempting to solve was vastly overstated, but again, it’s easier for governments to kick vulnerable people than to address systemic issues. But I digress.

    Baked into the Robodebt pie of electronic hubris were a series of base assumptions about a victim’s income, which were extrapolated over an entire year. The difference could then be calculated, and social security recipients could be billed.

  • New York Times ☛ Air Canada Flight Attendants Overwhelmingly Reject Proposed Contract

    But the vote will not lead to a repeat of the walkout that snarled air travel in Canada last month.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ The law protecting fair trials: An obituary

    Readers may be fed up with me complaining about the erosion of the laws restricting the reporting of upcoming court cases. Well, some good news. The erosion has now reached the stage where there is nothing left. I shall not need to return to this topic again.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• JURIST ☛ EU fines Surveillance Giant Google $3.46B for antitrust violations

  The European Commission on Friday fined Surveillance Giant Google $3.46 billion (€2.95 billion) for abusing its dominance in the online advertising technology sector, marking one of the largest antitrust penalties ever imposed on a tech company in Europe.

• Copyrights

  • JURIST ☛ Anthropic agrees to $1.5B settlement in Hey Hi (AI) piracy lawsuit

    AI company Anthropic has agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement on Friday, aimed at resolving a sweeping class-action lawsuit brought by authors who alleged the company used pirated copies of their books to train its chatbot, Claude.