Leftovers

• The Conversation ☛ It’s not you – some typefaces feel different

  Have you ever thought a font looked “friendly” or “elegant”? Or felt that Comic Sans was somehow unserious? You’re not imagining it.

  Typefaces carry personalities, and we react to them more than we realise. My work explores how the shapes of letters can subtly influence our feelings.

• Security Week ☛ The Great Disconnect: Unmasking the 'Two Separate Conversations' in Security

  In security, there is a lot that we can learn from this example and this concept as a whole. How many times do we find ourselves speaking in a completely different language than our audience understands? How many times do we think what we are saying is clear and explicit only to discover that it was exactly the opposite? Indeed, this challenge has harmed us as a profession for many years, and unless we learn to compensate for it, it will continue to harm us for many years to come.

  While not an exhaustive list, consider a few common topics where having two separate conversations can make it extremely difficult to communicate: [...]

• Nico Cartron ☛ This blog's cadence

  The main reason is that I recently changed job and it keeps me really busy as I am ramping up.

• Kev Quirk ☛ Year 3 at the Smallholding

  We’re hoping to add a polytunnel so we can grow more of our own vegetables. I’d also like to insulate the roof in the conservatory as it’ll effectively give us another room we can use all year round.

• Science

  • Futurism ☛ NASA Responds to Russia Accidentally Blowing Up Its Only Astronaut Launch Facility

    It’s a significant setback, because the damaged pad is Russia’s only certified launch site for crewed missions to space.

  • The Conversation ☛ When did people first arrive in Australasia? New archaeogenetics study dates it to 60,000 years ago

    Now a new study by an international collaboration of geneticists and archaeologists, including myself, suggests that humans first arrived in Sahul – the “super-continent” that encompassed New Guinea and Australia during the last ice age – by two different routes around 60,000 years ago.

  • Quanta Magazine ☛ ‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard

    For over 50 years, researchers in the field of computational complexity theory have sought to turn intuitive statements like “the traveling salesperson problem is hard” into ironclad mathematical theorems, without much success. Increasingly, they’re also seeking rigorous answers to a related and more nebulous question: Why haven’t their proofs succeeded?

  • ARRL ☛ “Space Sailors” Seeking Download Help from Ham Radio Operators

    A group of students at Cornell University is seeking participation from radio amateurs who are equipped with satellite stations for help in listening for signals from a retroreflective laser sail that is scheduled to be deployed later this week. The sail is currently attached to a 1U CubeSat that was launched early Tuesday, December 2, 2025, from the International Space Station, but will separate and become its own free-flying spacecraft equipped with four tiny “ChipSat” flight computers that will transmit telemetry data back to Earth.

  • Futurism ☛ Severe Accident Destroys Russia's Ability to Launch Astronauts Into Space

    It’s a significant development, considering that only Russia’s Soyuz and SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft are currently able to deliver astronauts to the space station — a major setback that could force NASA to adjust its plans, since it still sometimes contracts Russia to transport its astronauts to the ISS.

  • NSF ☛ Russia left without access to ISS following structure collapse at Baikonur launch site - NASASpaceFlight.com

    The main issue with the structure collapse is that it puts Site 31/6 — the only Russian launch site capable of launching crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) — out of service until the structure is fixed. There are other Soyuz 2 rocket launch pads, but they are either located at an unsuitable latitude, like Plesetsk, or not certified for crewed flights, like Vostochny, or decommissioned and transferred to a museum, like Gagarin’s Start at Baikonur.

• Career/Education

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Guest Post — What Do College Students Lose When Libraries Are Ignored?

    In an era of rapid change in higher education, one constant remains: students need support not just to access information, but to understand it, evaluate it, and use it responsibly. The academic library has long provided that foundation. Yet today, its value is too often misunderstood, overlooked, or quietly diminished.

  • Ben Werdmuller ☛ You can't legislate serendipity

    It’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears, of course: the San Francisco porridge was just right. But it’s also true — or, at least, it was at the time. Since I founded that first startup in 2004, Edinburgh has developed a small startup scene. The Austin tech scene is significantly more sophisticated than it was. San Francisco, though, is still going strong, and the Bay Area ecosystem continues to dominate the tech industry.

    But should it?

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Vox ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] The hidden disease that spikes every Thanksgiving

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-24 [Older] Gut microbes may have links with sleep deprivation

  • Futurism ☛ Something Grim Is Happening to Kids Who Got Cell Phones Early

    New research conducted by scientists from UC Berkeley and Columbia University found that children 12 years old and younger who received one of these devices were at a higher risk of depression, obesity, and sleep deprivation.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Tattoo ink moves through the body, killing immune cells and weakening vaccine response

    Tattoo ink doesn’t just sit inertly in the skin. New research shows it moves rapidly into the lymphatic system, where it can persist for months, kill immune cells, and even disrupt how the body responds to vaccines.

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Ailing veterans struggle with VA claims linked to Panama

    In addition to Agent Orange, Price advocates for expanding Panama-related toxins. A 1954 article from The Panama Canal Review notes that inside the canal, DDT mixed with diesel fuel was sprayed to combat mosquitoes. Those fogging operations “released benzene- and dioxin-bearing particulates equivalent in toxicity to other exposures already covered by the PACT Act of 2022,” veteran groups wrote in a call-to-action announcement, referring to burn pits.

• Proprietary

  • Eidos-Montreal Lets Go More Staff With More Layoffs Planned

    Eidos-Montreal, the studio known for developing Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and supporting games like Tomb Raider and others, has had more layoffs.

    Over the last week, a number of now former employees took to LinkedIn to announce that they were no longer with the company.

    “Hey there!” gameplay director Samuel Daher wrote. “Was working at Eidos, loved it and would have stayed, but times are difficult.”

  • Deus Ex and Guardians of the Galaxy Devs Hit by More Layoffs

    As of now, it seems the studio is specifically focusing on only supporting development on Grounded 2 and Fable, both being led by Obsidian Entertainment and Playground Games under Microsoft, respectively...

  • The Independent UK ☛ Postmasters who signed NDA’s in Horizon scandal given new update

    Detectives investigating the Post Office scandal have urged more sub-postmasters to come forward after non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) were declared unenforceable. Police have indicated that top executives at both the Post Office and Fujitsu, responsible for the faulty Horizon IT system, may face investigation.

  • The Hindu ☛ Air India, other airlines face check-in system glitches briefly on December 2

    "A third-party system disruption has been affecting check-in systems at various airports, resulting in delays across multiple airlines, including Air India," Air India said in a post on X at 9.49 p.m.

  • The Register UK ☛ Kensington and Chelsea Council confirms data breach

    The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which last week 'fessed up to a cybersecurity incident that had downed its IT systems, said in an updated statement that it has "obtained evidence on our systems that shows some data has been copied and then taken away."

  • The Register UK ☛ FTC slaps edtech vendor after breach exposes 10M students

    The FTC has demanded changes from the company, but did not issue any fines or criminal charges, after an incident in late December 2021 in which a miscreant used the credentials of a former employee – someone who'd left the company more than three years earlier – to breach the edtech firm's cloud-based database.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ AWS and Google Cloud partner on faster multicloud connectivity

    The two cloud computing giants said Monday that they’re launching a jointly developed multicloud network service that’s designed to meet the rising demand for reliable connectivity at a time when enterprises are increasingly running their most critical services in the cloud. They’re looking to prevent problems caused by major outages such as the ones that struck AWS and Microsoft Corp.’s Azure cloud last month.

  • The Record ☛ Edtech company settles with FTC in wake of data breach | The Record from Recorded Future News

    Illuminate said on its website that it safeguards “your data like it’s our own” and that it takes “security measures—physical, electronic, and procedural—to help defend against the unauthorized access and disclosure of your information.”

    Contracts with school systems misrepresented the company’s security practices by falsely claiming student data was encrypted, according to the FTC.

  • Federal Trade Commission ☛ FTC Takes Action Against Education Technology Provider for Failing to Secure Students’ Personal Data | Federal Trade Commission

    The Federal Trade Commission will require education technology provider Illuminate Education, Inc. (Illuminate) to implement a data security program and delete unnecessary data to settle allegations that the company’s data security failures led to a major data breach, which allowed hackers to access the personal data of more than 10 million students.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ The Congressional remedy for Salt Typhoon? More information sharing with industry

    At a hearing held Tuesday by the Senate Committee on Commerce, experts offered differing assessments of the threat. While intelligence officials have characterized the Salt Typhoon operation’s targeting of high-level U.S. politicians as falling within the bounds of traditional geopolitical espionage, other experts argued that the unprecedented scale of China’s [cracking] activity in the U.S. telecom sector — and the country’s pursuit of broader, long-term access — constitutes a more systemic attack on critical infrastructure that poses a serious threat to national security.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ University of Pennsylvania joins growing pool of Oracle customers impacted by Clop attacks

    The University of Pennsylvania joined the steadily growing number of victim organizations impacted by the widespread data theft and extortion campaign involving a notorious ransomware group’s exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability and other defects in Oracle E-Business Suite earlier this year.

  • Bitdefender ☛ Asahi cyber attack spirals into massive data breach impacting almost 2 million people

    Asahi Group Holdings, the makers of the popular Japanese beer Asahi Super Dry, has confirmed that the ransomware attack that disrupted its operations in late September also saw a significant data breach that affects more than 1.5 million customers and approximately 275,000 current and former employees and their families.

  • The Record ☛ Data breach hits 'South Korea's Amazon,' potentially affecting 65% of country’s population | The Record from Recorded Future News

    South Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang — often described as the country’s version of Amazon — apologized on Sunday after confirming that the personal details of 33.7 million customer accounts had been compromised.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • The Guardian UK ☛ The rise of deepfake pornography in schools: ‘One girl was so horrified she vomited’

      The use of ‘nudify’ apps is becoming more and more prevalent, with hundreds of teachers having seen images created by pupils, often of their peers. The fallout is huge – and growing fast

    • Futurism ☛ Man Realizes He Can Feed Poison Pills to Facebook AI Slop Page, Driving Its Followers Berserk

      So to retaliate, he’s been “feeding it poison pills,” Collette said in a recent post, causing the page’s followers to have “meltdowns” in the comments.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Waymo strikes dog in San Francisco weeks after killing KitKat the cat

      A self-driving Waymo taxi hit a dog in San Francisco, reigniting a heated debate over autonomous vehicle safety just weeks after one killed a popular neighborhood cat.

    • The Register UK ☛ Waymo chalks up another four-legged casualty in SF

      The passenger inside the car at the time blew the whistle, saying that the incident attracted a crowd and left their kids crying and their partner screaming.

      The dog, which the passenger described as being of a similar size to a Corgi, "started yelping and screaming" after being run over by the self-driving ride-hail car.

    • Dark Reading ☛ Researchers Use Poetry to Jailbreak AI Models

      Tricking LLMs into operating outside the guardrails using creative language is nothing new. Users have previously tricked models through prompts that impersonated one's deceased grandmother or asked the model to "tell me a story" about an otherwise risky prompt.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ AI data centres — in SPACE! Why DCs in space can’t work

      This idea has a lot of appeal if you’ve read too much sci-fi, and it sounds obvious if you don’t know any practical details.

      Remember: none of this has to work. You just have to convince the money guys it could work. Or at least make a line go up.

    • Muxup ☛ Minipost: Olmo 3 training cost

      Recently I jotted down some notes on LLM inference vs training costs for DeepSeek and I wanted to add on an additional datapoint for training cost based on the recently released Olmo3 models from the Allen Institute for AI ("Ai2"). The model family has 7B and 32B parameter models, with 'Think' variants available for 7B and 32B but so far only a 7B 'Instruct' non-reasoning version (but watch this space). What's particularly interesting about the Olmo models to me is that beyond providing open weights, the training scripts and datasets are openly available as well.

    • YLE ☛ Statistics Finland aims to make AI searches less flaky

      "We've noticed that the information provided by search assistants is often incorrect," Vertanen told Yle.

      According to him the situation is concerning, adding that the issue is not limited to Finland and that AI problems are a heated topic among statisticians around the world.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ Is the gold rally a bubble about to burst?

      Investors are turning gold into a speculative asset by flooding gold markets with billions in capital, increasing the risk of becoming victims of their own success. But what is driving the boom?

    • Futurism ☛ Grok Says It Would Kill Every Jewish Person on the Planet to Save Elon Musk

      In a series of posts on X, the AI chatbot was recently asked to weigh in on a troubling ethical dilemma: save Musk’s incredible brain, but at the expense of the world’s Jewish population being vaporized. This should quite literally be a no-brainer, but Grok, which infamously once referred to itself as “MechaHitler,” instead used what it called “utilitarian” logic to justify abhorrent mass murder.

    • Techdirt ☛ Trump Withholding Billions In Grants From States That Engage In Corporate Oversight

      By “regulate AI” it’s again important to understand the Trump administration means “do absolutely anything that upsets corporate America.” While the Supreme Court and circuit courts have done an impressive job destroying federal oversight of corporate America, state autonomy still remains a bit of a wild card in the Project 2025 and corporate quest for total immunity from literally all public accountability.

      This isn’t about “protecting innovation from burdensome regulation.” It’s about completely destroying the state and federal government’s ability to protect labor, consumers, markets, or the environment from unchecked corporate power. I feel compelled to annoyingly repeat myself on this point because it’s so often buried in press coverage that tries to normalize corrupt anti-democratic extremism.

    • Common Dreams ☛ David Sacks’ Financial Conflicts Mean He Can No Longer Credibly Serve as White House AI Advisor. He Should Resign.

      The Times investigation found that Sacks – despite claims that he had sold most of his A.I. assets – has retained at least 449 stakes in companies with ties to A.I. that could be aided directly or indirectly by his policies.

  • Social Control Media

    • CS Monitor ☛ Social media in crosshairs as Europe fights school violence

      As Europe’s education community grieves, it also seeks answers: Why are European teens carrying out attacks at school, and what can be done to help them?

      “We can’t just look at a child’s behavior at face value. We need to think about what it means,” says Cécile Vienot, a Paris-based child psychologist. “Why are their grades slipping drastically in the middle of the year? Is there something going on at home? Are they being bullied? Our current debate lacks complexity.”

    • The Register UK ☛ AWS to stream re:Invent news in hit game Fortnite

      The more relevant reason, probably, is that the Fortnite stream will run on AWS products and infrastructure, making it a case study for the cloud giant’s own wares and a potential proof point for brands that are a better fit for in-game marketing.

    • Nick Heer ☛ Threads Continues to Reward Rage Bait

      So he tried replying to rage bait with basically the same post, and that was far more successful. But, also, it has some pretty crappy implications: [...]

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Like Social Media, AI Requires Difficult Choices

      In his 2020 book, “Future Politics,” British barrister Jamie Susskind wrote that the dominant question of the 20th century was “How much of our collective life should be determined by the state, and what should be left to the market and civil society?” But in the early decades of this century, Susskind suggested that we face a different question: “To what extent should our lives be directed and controlled by powerful digital systems—and on what terms?”

      Artificial intelligence (AI) forces us to confront this question. It is a technology that in theory amplifies the power of its users: A manager, marketer, political campaigner, or opinionated internet user can utter a single instruction, and see their message—whatever it is—instantly written, personalized, and propagated via email, text, social, or other channels to thousands of people within their organization, or millions around the world. It also allows us to individualize solicitations for political donations, elaborate a grievance into a well-articulated policy position, or tailor a persuasive argument to an identity group, or even a single person.

      But even as it offers endless potential, AI is a technology that—like the state—gives others new powers to control our lives and experiences.

      [...]

      We’ve seen this out play before. Social media companies made the same sorts of promises 20 years ago: instant communication enabling individual connection at massive scale. Fast-forward to today, and the technology that was supposed to give individuals power and influence ended up controlling us. Today social media dominates our time and attention, assaults our mental health, and—together with its Big Tech parent companies—captures an unfathomable fraction of our economy, even as it poses risks to our democracy.

• Security

  • The Age AU ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] IT guru jailed over fake wifi used to steal women's intimate photos

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] How ‘digital twins’ could help prevent cyber-attacks on the food industry

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The North Lines IN ☛ Two men booked for using VPN on mobiles in Rajouri, one arrested

      Two persons have been booked for using banned virtual private network (VPN) applications on their mobile phones in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, and one of them was arrested, officials said on Tuesday.

    • The Age AU ☛ Brisbane to get new parking app, with PayStay joining CellOPark

      PayStay will join CellOPark as a second parking option from March 2026, in a move that was celebrated by the Schrinner council at City Hall on Tuesday afternoon.

    • Maine Morning Star ☛ Maine objects to Trump administration using voter records for citizenship probe

      Previously, SAVE could only conduct searches one name at a time. Now, it can conduct bulk searches, making it possible to feed millions of voters’ information into the tool and have it check those records against a series of federal databases to try to verify someone’s immigration status.

    • EFF ☛ How to Identify Automated License Plate Readers at the U.S.-Mexico Border

      In many cases, the agencies have gone out of their way to disguise the cameras from public view. And the problem is only going to get worse: as recently as July 2025, CBP put out a solicitation to purchase 100 more covert trail cameras with license plate-capture ability.

    • Techdirt ☛ Lawmakers Want To Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing

      Remember when you thought age verification laws couldn’t get any worse? Well, lawmakers in Wisconsin, Michigan, and beyond are about to blow you away.

      It’s unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect their privacy and bypass these invasive laws. Their solution? Entirely ban the use of VPNs.

    • 404 Media ☛ Half of the US Now Requires You to Upload Your ID or Scan Your Face to Watch Porn

      Missouri’s age verification law, enacted on November 30, is the halfway mark for the sweep of age verification laws across the country.

    • Justin Vollmer ☛ My Photo Backup Strategy

      Yesterday afternoon in the office, one of my coworkers asked me (paraphrasing) how I back up my photos so that everything isn’t only in iCloud, and what I would recommend that she do. And, because I’m a geek (and a bit extra at times), instead of just sending her my recommendations, I decided to turn this into a full blog post that I can point others to in the future. 😁

    • Macworld ☛ Apple refuses to pre-install government app on iPhones in India

      One of the sources added that Apple does not intend “to go to court or take a public stand.” Instead, it will simply (and, presumably, privately) tell the government that it cannot follow the order because of security factors.

    • Reuters ☛ Exclusive: Apple to resist India order to preload state-run app as political outcry builds

      India's telecom ministry confirmed the move later, describing it as a security measure to combat "serious endangerment" of cyber security. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political opponents and privacy advocates criticized the move, saying it is a way for the government to gain access to India's 730 million smartphones.

    • NYOB ☛ Digital Omnibus: First Analysis of Select GDPR and ePrivacy Proposals by the Commission

      On 19 November, the European Commission published its proposal for the "Digital Omnibus", subsequently sparking significant criticism and opposition. noyb has has worked tirelessly to conduct a thorough analysis of all the changes relevant to the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. Our 71-page report provides a comparison of the existing law with the Commission's proposal and compiles all our insights. The report also discusses relevant case law and the impact on data subjects, authorities and controllers, providing real-life examples of potential consequences.

    • Android Police ☛ Google Messages change means your employer may be able to see your messages

      Google is adding a new app to company-managed Pixel phones, which allows IT admins to see all the RCS messages sent and received on specific devices.

      This function replaces an older workaround that allowed carriers to report SMS messages, and only applies to Pixel devices that are owned by companies (via Android Central).

• Defence/Aggression

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] West Africa Bloc, African Union Observers Voice Concern Over Guinea-Bissau Coup

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] OSCE Observers Say Kyrgyzstan Election Was Efficient but Freedoms Increasingly Limited

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Pope Leo to Take Peace Message to Turkey, Lebanon on First Overseas Trip

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Turkey, Egypt, Qatar Discuss Second Phase of Gaza Ceasefire Deal, Turkish Source Says

  • BIA Net ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] SDF commander says wants to visit Öcalan to support Turkey's peace process

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Analysis-After 26 Years in Prison, PKK Leader Ocalan Has Key Role in Turkey Peace Process

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Turkey hotel deaths: Toxic phosphine gas under investigation

  • ADF ☛ Terrorist ‘Domino Effect’ Threatens West Africa

    Across porous borders, terrorist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State are finding a foothold in the northern regions of many of West Africa’s coastal countries.

    “Established groups expand their reach,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a November 18 speech to the Security Council. “Several coastal states are under threat. We face the risk of a disastrous domino effect across the entire region.”

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ “You will be taught – and you will become Russians”: how Ukrainian teenagers resist Russian re-education

    Vulnerable Ukrainian children, forced to grow up in Russian-occupied territories, face uncertain fates as their identities are systematically erased. Pressured to think of themselves as Russian, this group is subjected to intensive propaganda campaigns and intimidation at school. While these are ongoing problems, some have managed to escape and even reunite with family.

  • ANF News ☛ Fascism is on the rise, but what about resistance?

    Miquel Ramos pointed out that fascist parties have taken on the role of capitalism's watchdog against the possibility of social transformation. He noted that a reactionary international is taking shape worldwide today, stating, “Billionaires, big capitalists, businesspeople are financing parties, far-right actors, think tanks, and social media phenomena.”

    Your book Antifascistas, published in Spanish, deals with anti-fascist groups and activities in Spain, a topic that is highly relevant in Spain and the West today. What motivated you to write it, and what is it about?

  • Irish Examiner ☛ Media watchdog launches TikTok and LinkedIn investigations over illegal content reporting concerns

    Ireland’s media regulator has begun new investigations into tech giants TikTok and LinkedIn amid concerns of “dark patterns” around how people report illegal content on their platforms.

    In its second such announcement in as many months, Coimisiún na Meán said it has concerns over both social media platforms’ illegal content reporting mechanisms, and there may be “deceptive interface designs” associated with them.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Trump’s Counterproductive Counter-Narcotics Campaign

    Veterans of U.S. law enforcement and counter-drug operations warn that the administration’s militarized effort—including 21 missile strikes, which have killed more than 80 people, on small boats that the administration claims were trafficking fentanyl and cocaine—will have little to no impact on the Mexican and Colombian cartels responsible for moving billions of dollars’ worth of drugs into the United States each year.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Contributor: Killing survivors is not a legal or moral gray area

    If the United States has been firing second missiles at the survivors of its own strikes, we are no longer debating policy. We are describing a nation committing the very acts it once prosecuted others for. We have become what we once condemned.

  • Techdirt ☛ Trump Follows Up Murdering Dozens In ‘Drug’ Boat Strikes By Pardoning Ex-President Involved In Drug Trafficking

    But those lies are being used to buttress something even more awful than our usual War on Drugs: the extrajudicial murders of people only suspected to be moving drugs from Venezuela to… well, anywhere else but Venezuela. There are plenty of people between the United States and Venezuela who might be interested in purchasing/trafficking drugs. To insist that these drugs (if they exist at all) are headed to the US border with the intent of “killing” cartels’ customer bases is a lie so stupid it shouldn’t be given the dignity of a one-sentence debunking.

  • Greg Morris ☛ Replacing QVC

    Loops will never be TikTok. Not because it lacks the features or the technology or the video editing tools. It won't be TikTok because it's copying the output and not the purpose. TikTok isn't really a social media app, it’s QVC 2.0. A social shopping app that uses content to push people to its storefront. The memes are bait. The viral moments are packaging. The dance trends and recipe videos and whatever else floods your ‘For You’ page, all of it exists to move you towards one thing: making a purchase.

  • Ben Werdmuller ☛ Where Do the Children Play?

    "In physical space, Western children are almost comically sheltered. But in digital space, they’re entirely beyond our command; and increasingly, that’s where children spend most of their time."

  • YLE ☛ Finland's war veterans get early Independence Day honours

    Just under 20 guests of honour are expected, with the average age exceeding 100.

  • [Old] Tara ☛ Liberation day, 80th anniversary

    Today, April 25th, we celebrate Liberation Day in Italy. Today marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the partisans over the nazi-fascists and the end of the fascist regime. Last year, on this very same day, I marched for the first time and wrote that some fundamental rights are slowly being removed from us and that our rights are at risk.

    Today, more than ever, we need to remember what our grandfathers and people from around the world fought for.

  • [Repeat] Deutsche Welle ☛ Russian threats push Finland past EU deficit cap

    The Commission said Finland's deficit was projected to reach 4.5% of GDP in 2025, while the country's debt burden was set to hit 90% of GDP next year, up by nearly half since 2019.

  • SBS ☛ One Nation senator criticised for 'Islamophobic' questions to envoy

    "How can you talk about opposition to Islam without addressing the elephant in the room: sharia law?"

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ Arizona’s Kelly vows to stay outspoken despite threats over illegal order video

    Kelly, a retired Navy captain, was one of six Democratic lawmakers with backgrounds in the military or intelligence agencies who appeared in the video that was posted on social media in mid-November.

  • International Business Times ☛ Teen Sues Government: Claims Ban On TikTok, Snapchat For Teenagers Will Be 'More Dangerous'

    Proponents of the ban, including the federal authorities, argue that the ban aims to safeguard the mental health of children and protect them from exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, online predators, and other risks associated with unsupervised social media use, as per reports.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Russian threats push Finland past EU deficit cap

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Ukraine updates: Western comms blitz before US-Russia meet

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Land and Security Are the Main Sticking Points as Russia and Ukraine Mull Cheeto Mussolini's Peace Proposal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Four People Killed, 40 Injured in Russian Strike on Ukraine's Dnipro, Kyiv Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Putin Grants Many Categories of Chinese Citizens Visa-Free Access to Russia for up to 30 Days

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Russia Says NATO Remarks on Pre-Emptive Strike Are Irresponsible and Escalatory

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-30 [Older] Russia's disinformation campaign in Armenia gains momentum

    • CBC ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Sanctions haven’t sidelined Russia’s shadow fleet. So Ukraine has turned to drones

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Russian drones fly undeterred over Moldova and Romania

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Why Ukrainian school students still speak Russian in Kyiv

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Ukraine's Naval Drones Strike Russian Oil Tankers in the Black Sea off the Turkish Coast

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Fire at Russia's Afipsky Oil Refinery Extinguished After Drone Attack, Authorities Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Moldova Says Russian Drones Entered Its Airspace Again, Posing Aviation Threat

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Russian Attacks Kill 3 as Diplomatic Efforts to End the War in Ukraine Gain Momentum

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] South Africa Arrests Four Men Suspected of Planning to Fight for Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Ukraine Hits Two Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Oil Tankers With Naval Drones

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Unmanned Vessel Attacked Russian Shadow-Fleet Tanker in Black Sea, Turkey Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Vast Russian Overnight Attack on Ukraine Kills Six, Wounds Dozens

    • CBC ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Ukraine peace plan, or Russian ‘wish list’?

    • HRW ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Russia: Government Designates Human Rights Watch “Undesirable”

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Belgian PM Says Using Frozen Russian Assets Could Block Ukraine Peace Deal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Hungary's Orbán Seeks More Russian Oil and Gas at Kremlin Talks With Putin

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Kremlin Says Russia Will Discuss US-Ukraine Peace Ideas Next Week

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Russia Fails to Win Back Seat on UN Shipping Agency's Council

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Russian Drones, Missiles Kill One, Injure 11 in Kyiv, Cause Damage

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Russia Threatens Full Ban on WhatsApp, TASS Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Ukrainian Forces Fighting in Kupiansk, Despite Russian Claims, Top Commander Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Zuma's Daughter Quits South Africa Parliament Over Russia Recruitment Allegations

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Judo: Russian athletes may compete under national flag

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] 'Politzek' documentary denounces Russia's system of repression

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Russian cosmodrome damaged after Soyuz launch to International Space Station

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Ukraine updates: US delegation expected in Russia next week

    • HRW ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Ukraine/Russia: Peace Efforts Should Put Human Impact First

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] US-Russian Crew of 3 Blasts off to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz Spacecraft

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Kyiv Says External Funding Critical, Urges EU to Unlock Russian Assets

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Moldovan Parliament Votes to Close Russian Cultural Centre

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Poland Arrests Russian Suspected of Hacking Polish Companies

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Russian Court Jails Eight Men for Life Over Ukrainian Truck Bomb Attack

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Russia Says It Advances Inside Ukrainian City of Pokrovsk, Kyiv Says It Is Holding Firm

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Russia to Close Polish Consulate in Siberia in Row Over Railway Sabotage

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Soyuz Spacecraft Blasts off for International Space Station With Russian and American Crew

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Turkey Says Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire Needed First Before Discussing Troop Deployment

    • CBC ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Steve Witkoff to meet Russian officials again as leaked phone call rankles U.S. lawmakers

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Russia accuses Europe of 'meddling' in Ukraine peace plan

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Ukraine updates: EU calls for more Russia sanctions

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] EU Urgently Seeks Agreement on Using Frozen Russian Assets for Ukraine, as US Touts Other Ideas

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Exclusive-US Peace Plan for Ukraine Drew From Russian Document, Sources Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] France Arrests Four People, Including Two Russians, Suspected of Espionage

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Russia Says Leak of Witkoff Call Recording Is Unacceptable, Amounts to Hybrid Warfare

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Kremlin Confirms US Envoy Will Visit as Talks on Ending War in Ukraine Gain Momentum

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Russia Rules Out Big Concessions on Ukraine as Leak Shows Witkoff Advised Moscow

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Moldova Complains of Unacceptable Intrusion of Russian Drone

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Russia Says Its Proposals on New START Arms Treaty Are Intended to Prevent Negative Global Scenarios

    • Vox ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Is there any peace deal that Putin would accept?

    • The Record ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Russia arrests young cybersecurity entrepreneur on treason charges

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Can Europe save frozen Russian assets from Donald Cheeto Mussolini?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] German club cuts ties with Russian gymnast linked to Putin

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Ukraine updates: US-Russia talks reported in Abu Dhabi

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Russian Hackers Target US Engineering Firm Because of Work Done for Ukrainian Sister City

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Russian Barrage on Kyiv Kills Seven, Disrupts Energy Supplies

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Sweden Wants Long-Range Weapon Systems Able to Strike Inside Russia

    • NL Times ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Netherlands sends another €250 million in air-defense aid to Ukraine amid deadly strikes

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Band of Brothers: How the War Crushed a Cohort of Young Ukrainians

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy to Visit Ireland on Tuesday, Government Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Europeans Rally Round Ukraine as Cheeto Mussolini Envoy Heads to Moscow

    • CBC ☛ 2025-11-30 [Older] What this surgeon from Ukraine is learning in Canada about treating war victims

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-30 [Older] SIPRI: War in Ukraine boosts arms manufacturers' profits

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-30 [Older] Ukraine updates: Negotiators to meet Rubio, Witkoff in US

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-30 [Older] Kazakhstan Tells Ukraine to Stop Attacking CPC Terminal After Oil Exports Halted

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-30 [Older] Rubio and Witkoff Are Meeting With Ukraine’s Negotiators as Cheeto Mussolini Pushes to Broker an End to the War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-30 [Older] Zelenskiy Picks Ex-Ukrainian Envoy to US as Reconstruction and Investment Adviser

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv hit with another deadly attack

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] What Ukraine can expect from Cheeto Mussolini's new envoy Dan Driscoll

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy to Visit Macron in Paris on Monday, Elysee Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Ukrainian Delegation Heads to US for Peace Talks After Lead Negotiator's Exit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Ukrainian Drone Pilots Look to AI for Battlefield Edge

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Ukraine updates: Orban meeting Putin in Moscow

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Raid Targets Zelenskyy's Prominent Chief of Staff

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] At Crowded Ukrainian Cemetery, Mourners Yearn for War to End

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Putin Hosts Hungary's Orban for Talks on Energy and Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Poland Detains Two Ukrainians, Three Belarusians Suspected of Spying

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Anti-Corruption Police Search Home of Ukraine's Top Peace Negotiator

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy Says His Chief of Staff Has Resigned

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Ukrainian Team Heads to US for Talks With Cheeto Mussolini Envoy Witkoff, Bloomberg News Reports

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Europe’s Leaders Have No Strategy for Peace

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Fact check: Stolen Louvre jewels did not end up in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Putin Says It's Senseless to Sign Documents With 'Illegitimate' Ukrainian Leadership

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Putin Says US-Ukraine Text Could Form Basis for Future Peace Agreement

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] Italy Sends Ukrainian Suspect in Nord Stream Pipeline Blast to Germany

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Update Behind Cheeto Mussolini’s Peace Spin: Leaks, Concessions, and a Ukraine Not Ready to Bend

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] PATRICK LAWRENCE: What? Peace in Our Time in Ukraine?

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Rubio Neo-Conned Cheeto Mussolini’s Ukraine Peace Plan

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Dan Driscoll, Cheeto Mussolini's latest hope for peace in Ukraine

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Ukraine backs essence of peace deal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Ukrainian Sumo Wrestler Aonishiki Nears the Pinnacle of Japan's National Sport

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Putin Cannot Leave Ukraine War Successfully, German Chancellor Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini's Ukraine Plan Triggers Outrage From Republican Lawmakers

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Ukraine's Security Council Chief Questioned in Corruption Probe, Media Report

    • CPJ ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] ‘Life goes on without you’: Q&A with Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Why We Oppose Cheeto Mussolini’s Plan for Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Can Visegrad be revived despite differences on Ukraine?

    • University of Michigan ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Holodomor Day of Remembrance commemorates Ukrainian lives lost under Soviet government-inflicted famine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] The European Union Votes to Deepen Defense Industry Ties With Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Britain Still Planning for Multinational Force in Ukraine - PM Starmer's Spokesperson

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] French President Macron Says Cheeto Mussolini's Ukraine Peace Plan Needs Improvement

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Ukraine's Anti-Graft Chief Expects New Charges in Major Corruption Case

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Independent UK ☛ Larry Summers banned for life from American Economic Association over Epstein ties

    The American Economic Association (AEA), a nonprofit scholarly body, confirmed it had accepted Summers’ resignation. He is now banned for life from “attending, speaking at, or otherwise participating” in its events.

  • Techdirt ☛ Firm Tied To Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts

    No firm has closer ties to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.

    The Strategy Group’s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem’s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends.

  • The Register UK ☛ UK budget leak blamed on misconfigured WordPress plugin

    WordPress is the world's most popular content management system, but not so much with the UK government. The country's Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has blamed an inadvertent budget disclosure last week on misconfiguration of its WordPress website.

• Environment

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ The American West's most iconic tree is disappearing

    It was the ponderosa pine that more than 1,100 years ago allowed the rise of the first cities in what would later become the United States, providing structural beams for the multi-storied dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo. More than 700 years later, under the tutelage of the Nez Perce, Lewis and Clark hewed boats from ponderosa trunks, using them to paddle from the mountains of western Montana to the Pacific Ocean. Settlers used the tree with abandon, fashioning everything from barns to saloons, opera houses to hardware stores to livery stables. Ponderosa gave us literally millions of track ties for our railroads, then often provided the fuel for the fireboxes of the locomotives that ran along them.

  • Newsweek ☛ Air Quality ‘Will Kill’ in World’s Most Polluted City

    Iran's air emergency is unfolding amid political upheaval, recurring civil unrest and a worsening national water crisis, creating a pressure point for a government already navigating widespread public dissatisfaction. The combination of dangerous smog levels and chronic water shortages has heightened domestic tensions, with environmental stress increasingly intersecting with political and economic grievances.

  • Greece ☛ Athens water crisis deepens as reservoirs fall to decade lows

    Persistent drought, fewer rainy days and reduced mountain snow have curtailed natural inflows and recent heavy storms have done little to replenish reservoirs, as much of the water flows to the sea.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Three reasons why China wants global green leadership after Cop30 – and two reasons it doesn’t

    • Linuxiac ☛ TLP 1.9 Linux Power-Management Tool Adds New Profiles Daemon

      The highlight is the new tlp-pd daemon, which implements the same D-Bus API used by power-profiles-daemon, allowing GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, and other desktop environments to interact with TLP’s profiles through their existing interfaces.

    • CBC ☛ B.C. bitcoin mines are transitioning into AI data centres

      Iren’s 50 mega-watt Prince George site began offering AI data storage 18 months ago. Draper says they are installing more graphics processing units (GPUs) and once that is complete the site will solely be used for AI.

    • University of Michigan ☛ OpenAI data center planned for farmland in Saline

      Less than a half-hour away from the University of Michigan in Saline Township, OpenAI — parent company of ChatGPT — and tech giant Oracle have plans to develop a $7 billion data center. In an announcement Oct. 30, the companies said the development is set to supply 4.5 gigawatts to Stargate to help advance artificial intelligence infrastructure.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] Afro-Descendant Communities Offer a Living Blueprint for Amazon Conservation

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Golden retriever and human behaviour may be linked by the same genes – new research

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] Lions have two types of roar – new research

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] The parasitic ant who makes workers kill their own queen

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] The surprising world of animal penises and what they reveal about humans

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Nature’s greatest method actors: the insects that cosplay bumblebees

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Rhino: documentary unravels the challenges rangers face, but that’s not the whole story

    • Court House News ☛ Once-in-a-lifetime palm bloom draws crowds in Rio de Janeiro

      The rare event, linked to a life cycle that can span seven decades, has drawn residents, visitors and experts who know they will not see it again in these trees.

      After blooming and fruiting, the talipot palm, or Corypha umbraculifera, enters an irreversible process of senescence and dies.

    • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ When Did Domestic Cats Take Over the World? New Research Suggests They Arrived in Europe and China Centuries Later Than We Thought

      Two genetic analyses suggest that our feline friends reached China around 1,400 years ago via the Silk Road, and that they traveled from North Africa to Europe around 2,000 years ago

    • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Pigeons Rely on the Earth’s Magnetic Field to Navigate. Now, Researchers May Have Uncovered How They Do It

      Since then, research has shown that animals including bats, turtles and migratory birds really do pick up on the planet’s magnetic field—a sense called magnetoreception. But the mechanisms behind that magnetic detection have remained mysterious.

• Finance

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Amazon Drivers Take 45 Days to Earn What the Company’s Union Buster Earned in 1

  • TruthOut ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Amazon Drivers Take 45 Days to Earn What the Company’s Union Buster Earned in 1

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] How visible displays of wealth make people support higher taxes – new study

  • TruthOut ☛ 2025-11-29 [Older] Global Black Friday Strikes Resist Amazon’s Assault on Workers

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2025-11-28 [Older] Global Black Friday Strikes Against Amazon Target ‘Techno-Authoritarian’ Assault on Workers

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Futurism ☛ Scam Altman Is Suddenly Terrified

    To once again leave its competition behind, OpenAI has committed to spending well over $1 trillion on data center buildouts to support new users and its latest AI models. That’s despite burning through billions of dollars each quarter.

  • The Register UK ☛ Users scramble as critical open source project left to die

    Ingress NGINX, for those who don't know it, is an ingress controller in Kubernetes clusters that manages and routes external HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the cluster's internal services based on configurable Ingress rules. It acts as a reverse proxy, ensuring that requests from clients outside the cluster are forwarded to the correct backend services within the cluster according to path, domain, and TLS configuration. As such, it's vital for network traffic management and load balancing. You know, the important stuff.

  • The Register UK ☛ Apple shuffles AI leadership team in bid to fix Siri mess

    Giannandrea, who joined Apple in 2018 from a role as Google's SVP of search and AI, is being replaced by another former Google AI boffin, lately Microsoft's corporate vice president of AI, Amar Subramanya, Cupertino said in a press release Monday. Giannandrea is leaving his role effective immediately, but will stay on at Apple as an advisor until he retires next spring.

  • Manton Reece ☛ Mastodon CEO change, 2026 reset

    Still, just looking over the online drama reminded me of how big a problem we have on the social web. Some of the most unexpectedly personal and harsh replies I’ve ever received have come from Mastodon folks who think they’re fighting the good fight. When people are sure they are on the side of justice, they justify extreme rhetoric, even dehumanization of people on the wrong side. As I’ve blogged about previously, the focus on smaller communities is a double-edged sword: good in the move for decentralization and to focus more on community moderation, but also amplifying the negative effects of filter bubbles.

  • David Rosenthal ☛ Mind The GAAP

    Oracle is talking real money; they're borrowing $1.64B each working day. Mr. Market is skeptical that the real money is going to be repaid, as Caleb Mutua reports in Morgan Stanley Warns Oracle Credit Protection Nearing Record High: [...]

  • Tor ☛ Arti 1.8.0 released: Onion service improvements, prop 368, relay development, and more. | The Tor Project

    Arti is our ongoing project to create a next-generation Tor implementation in Rust. We're happy to announce the latest release, Arti 1.8.0.

  • Techdirt ☛ Congress Dusts Off ‘Think Of The Children’ Playbook To Push Internet Censorship Bills

    Twenty years ago, John Jonik released one of the best political cartoons ever regarding attempts to censor and control the internet. In it, a character dressed up as Uncle Sam is placing a gift box labeled “Control of Internet Speech” on a counter. Behind it, a man dressed in a suit, labeled “Corporate Media” is asking Uncle Sam “How would you like this wrapped?”

    Behind him are two rolls of wrapping paper. One is labeled “Anti-terrorism” and the other is “Protect kids.”

  • Inside Towers ☛ Nokia To Invest $4B in U.S. R&D And Manufacturing for AI-Ready Network Connectivity - Inside Towers

    Most of that R&D will be driven from Nokia Bell Labs headquarters in New Jersey. About $500 million in U.S. capital expenditures will be invested in manufacturing and R&D in several U.S. states including Texas, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

  • Tara ☛ On Debian, Rust, and the Unix Spirit

    I’m not against Rust. It’s elegant, memory-safe, a serious contribution to the future of systems programming. I even like Nushell very much for data processing, it’s one of the best Rust-based tools I’ve come across. But I find myself uneasy, not with the language, but with the momentum, the feeling that yet again we’re folding more and more into the same few projects, until individuality and composability blur into a single stack.

    It feels like déjà vu.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Open Caucasus Media ☛ ‘False information harmful to the state’: Georgian authorities react to BBC investigation

    According to the film, the channel found evidence pointing to the use of an agent the French military referred to as ‘camite’ in Tbilisi during the November–December 2024 protests against the government’s EU U-turn. The substance has been out of use since the 1930s, amidst concerns about its long-lasting effects.

  • Tennessee Lookout ☛ Library groups, publishers criticize Tennessee secretary of state’s gender identity audit • Tennessee Lookout

    Groups such as the American Library Association, Penguin Random House, the National Coalition Against Censorship and Lambda Literary were joined this week by PEN America, a nonprofit organization that advocates for free speech by defending literature and human rights, in denouncing directives by Secretary of State Tre Hargett. He is requiring libraries that receive state or federal grant funds to make an “age-appropriate” review of books and meet an order by President Donald Trump called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Iran sentences film director to a year in prison in absentia

    Iran sentenced a prize-winning film director to a year in prison in absentia for “propaganda activities,” the latest move in a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] Turkey: Court jails journalist for 'threatening' Erdogan

  • CPJ ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] CPJ joins international press freedom mission to Turkey

  • Northwestern University ☛ Rapidly Expanding Local News Networks

    TAPinto provides its franchisees with the backend systems and training necessary to run a successful operation. It’s an efficient way to address the loss of local news, and it’s a variation of a model that other organizations have turned to recently as well.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Capturing local journalism’s last refuges

    A new photography collection spotlights the last refuges of America’s dwindling local newspapers.

  • CPJ ☛ Russian journalist Nika Novak missing from prison

    Novak is serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted in November 2024 on charges of “confidential cooperation with a foreign organization,” stemming from her work for U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

  • [Repeat] PHR ☛ Federal Immigration Agents Misused Dangerous Crowd-Control Weapons Against Journalists and Protestors in Los Angeles: New PHR Amicus Brief

    “The court record shows that federal law enforcement in Los Angeles targeted the heads and faces of journalists and protestors with rubber bullets. They fired even at the backs of journalists and protestors,” said Dr. Heisler. “Federal agents also deployed vast quantities of tear gas and shot pepper balls and tear gas cannisters into groups of protestors when there was no evidence agents were being threatened. Officials fired dangerous disorientation devices like flashbangs into large crowds. The examples that the court highlighted show how federal law enforcement repeatedly misused crowd control weapons in a manner that risked serious injury to non-violent protestors, journalists, and bystanders.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • CBC ☛ RCMP restricts use of Chinese-made drones — the vast majority of its fleet

    Police force says 80% of its drone fleet presents 'high security risk'

  • Adrian Roselli ☛ You Can’t Make Something Accessible to Everyone

    Because people have varying needs across disparate contexts from assorted expectations with unequal skill levels using almost random technologies, never mind current moods and real-life distractions, to suggest one thing will be accessible for everyone in all those circumstances is pure hubris. Or lack of empathy. Maybe a mix.

    I’m not suggesting that claiming something is “accessible” is an overtly bad act. I am saying, however, that maybe you should explain what accessibility features it has, and let that guide people. It’s more honest to them and you.

  • Papers Please ☛ Has the TSA added immigration enforcement to “Secure Flight”?

    Arrest warrants have never been disclosed to be part of the Secure Flight algorithm used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to process information about each domestic US airline passenger and decide whether to send the airline a Boarding Pass Printing Result (BPPR) authorizing the airline to issue a boarding pass or take other action.

    But at least three incidents have made the news in the last month that together suggest that the TSA may have added  immigration orders to the Secure Flight ruleset, turning US airports and domestic flights into traps for unwitting foreign citizens.

    Each of these individuals was unaware that there was an immigration order for their arrest or deportation. And there is no apparent basis or methodology for DHS to have known when and where to intercept them at airports other than matching of airline reservations and immigration enforcement orders — something never previously disclosed.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Supreme Court: Can ISPs Be Liable For Piracy By Doing Nothing?

    Can an ISP be held liable for piracy simply by "doing nothing"? Yesterday, the Supreme Court addressed this billion-dollar question. While record labels argued that Cox turned a blind eye to "habitual abusers," the ISP warned that expanding liability without proof of active intent would turn internet providers into "Internet Police" and threaten essential access for hospitals, schools, or even entire towns.

  • The Register UK ☛ IETF draft suggests ham radio operators get big IPv6 stash

    Early in the history of the internet, the powers that be granted amateur radio operators over 16 million IPv4 addresses. Now a proposal has emerged suggesting the same community be granted a substantial chunk of the IPv6 numberspace.

    The proposal to give amateur radio operators some IPv6 emerged in an IETF draft that appeared in early November.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Cyble Inc ☛ Qualcomm Warns Of Critical Chipset Vulnerabilities In 2025

    Qualcomm warned partners and device manufacturers about multiple newly discovered vulnerabilities that span its chipset ecosystem. The Qualcomm released a detailed security bulletin on December 1, 2025, outlining six high-priority weaknesses in its proprietary software, including one flaw that directly compromises the secure boot process, one of the most sensitive stages in a device’s startup chain.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-11-25 [Older] The breeder's exemption as the route to agreement in the EU debate on NGT plants

  • EFF ☛ EFF Tells Patent Office: Don’t Cut the Public Out of Patent Review

    EFF has submitted its formal comment to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) opposing a set of proposed rules that would sharply restrict the public’s ability to challenge wrongly granted patents. These rules would make inter partes review (IPR)—the main tool Congress created to fix improperly granted patents—unavailable in most of the situations where it’s needed most.

    If adopted, they would give patent trolls exactly what they want: a way to keep questionable patents alive and out of reach.

    If you haven’t commented yet, there’s still time. The deadline is today, December 2.

  • Techdirt ☛ Our Founders Would Abhor What The USPTO Is Doing With The Patent System

    Last week I wrote about how the US Patent and Trademark Office is pushing a rule change that would effectively neuter the inter partes review (IPR) system that reviews already granted patents to make sure they weren’t granted by mistake. Patent tolls and other abusers of the patent system have been screaming about this system ever since it started actually helping stop the flood of patent trolling over the last decade and a half. They’ve now convinced the USPTO to change the rules without congressional approval.

    The comment period for the USPTO to consider this change closes today, so I wanted to share the comment that I submitted to the proceedings (the full PDF has footnotes, which I’m not bothering to repost here): [...]

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • IP Kat ☛ 2025-12-01 [Older] UPC Court of Appeal tackles broad functional antibody claims (UPC_CoA_529/2024) [Ed: UPC is illegal and they know it]

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-11-27 [Older] [Guest Post] Defensive trade marks in Australia - Gillette achieves acceptance for unused goods and services based on reputation

• Copyrights

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-11-26 [Older] [Guest post] Lost in (incidental) memorization: When the (case) law mistakes AI training for copying [Ed: Plagiarism disguised as "AI"]

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Nhentai Rejects Piracy Claims, Hits Back with $500k Damages Claim for Fraud

    Nhentai.net, a popular adult site with tens of millions of monthly visits, turns the tables on publisher PCR Distributing. The popular 'pirate' site, operated by a Delaware company, was sued for alleged copyright infringement last year. In its formal answer, the company denies any wrongdoing while it countersues the publisher for fraud.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Operation 404: 3,000+ Pirate Domains Blocked, USDOJ & USDOC Get to Watch

    With 535 pirate domains to add to Brazil's secretive blocklist, the latest phase of Operation 404 has just broken the 3,000 domain barrier. Despite playing a leading role since the beginning of this now famous anti-piracy initiative, in phase 8 United States authorities did not actively participate. Instead, alongside Mexico, the DoJ and DoC were granted observer status, "to learn about the methodology used in combating digital piracy," Brazil's Ministry of Justice explains.