Leftovers

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ Artemis II Astronauts Get a Break After Journey Around the Moon

    The crew of the NASA mission had a quiet day as they flew home toward Earth.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Artemis II Crew Has Sent Back Stunning Images From The Far Side of The Moon

    Earthrise, Earthset.

  • Futurism ☛ We’re In Utter Disbelief About the Photos the Moon Astronauts Just Sent Back

    Here are some of our favorites.

  • Science Alert ☛ Artemis II Crew Makes Long-Distance Call to International Space Station

    The first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Have Found a New Neurodevelopmental Disorder Hidden in Our Genes

    And it may be relatively prevalent.

  • New York Times ☛ How Psychedelics Affect the Brain

    An analysis of hundreds of images from several studies shows how hallucinogenic drugs drive activity in various regions of the brain.

  • France24 ☛ Antimicrobial resistance threatens the lives of millions on the African continent

    In tonight's edition, as leaders  gathered for the “One Health” summit in France, antimicrobial resistance emerges as a bigger killer in Africa than malaria, HIV or TB. Also, a woman seeking care was beaten by her doctor in Kinshasa. The video went viral and sparked outrage in the DRC,  exposing a crisis in delivery rooms and violence against women. And Rwanda marks the 32nd anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi.

  • Science Alert ☛ One Sleep Habit Could Boost Your Heart Health, Study Suggests

    A clear message.

  • Science Alert ☛ One Therapy Session Could Be Surprisingly Helpful, Research Shows

    "It helped me get unstuck."

  • Science Alert ☛ One of Earth's Most Explosive Volcanoes Is Quietly Refilling With Magma

    It unleashed the largest known eruption of the Holocene.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Breakthrough in Solar Cell Efficiency Hits 130% Quantum Yield

    The future looks bright.

• Hardware

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Assembling a new study desk from shelves

    Since buying our first apartment together in 2024, Clara and I have both been hunting for a good set of desks. It’s weird thinking about furniture we might use for a while, not something portable we can disassemble and pack every year when an overzealous landlord inevitably decided they want to squeeze us for more rent in Sydney’s overpriced market.

    We measured up the dimensions of the study, and decided we wanted shelves above the tables. For Clara this would her store her art and craft supplies, and for me it’d help me organise all my soldering kit and computer repair tools, especially when they’re not in use. We’d been using a couple of IKEA LISABO kitchen tables since our first studio apartment together, but they get messy quickly given we had nowhere to put things, especially projects that were in progress.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Electronics enthusiast begins breadboard-based defective chip maker Intel 386 system build — a large step up from their previous PC-XT and PC-AT breadboard projects

    Motherboards, who needs them? Not Breadboarding Labs, which recently drafted plans for a retro defective chip maker Intel 80386 (i386) PC build using solderless breadboards.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Mt Fuji heritage site struggles with water quality concern over coins in ponds

    About 50,000 coins have been recovered to date from the Oshino Hakkai spring ponds.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Tainted vitamin drips kill 7 at Sonora clinic: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped

    At Tuesday's presidential press conference, Health Minister David Kershenobich confirmed that 10 people became ill after receiving intravenous vitamin infusions in Sonora, resulting in seven deaths.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvians feel like they are getting healthier

    In 2025, about half of Latvian residents (aged 16 and over) rated their health as good (43.7%) or very good (4.5%), according to data published by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) to mark World Health Day on April 7th.

  • European Commission ☛ Commission announces new global health commitments at One Health Summit

    European Commission Press release Lyon, 07 Apr 2026 The European Commission intends to pledge €700 million to the Global Fund to defeat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

  • ADF ☛ Sudan Emerges as Production Hub for Synthetic Drug Captagon

    Since Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023, the production of synthetic drugs such as Captagon, a highly addictive, amphetamine-like stimulant, has drastically increased. Once considered a transit corridor for illicit drugs, Sudan’s emergence as a manufacturer of Captagon coincided with the 2024 fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria [...]

  • France24 ☛ 'Europe remains committed': Commissioner Síkela announces 'new approach' in global health initiative

    François Picard is pleased to welcome Jozef Síkela, European Commissioner for International Partnerships. According to Commissioner Síkela, global health stands at a crossroads. The lessons of COVID-19 have made clear that pandemics are not isolated crises but systemic shocks with profound economic and social consequences. Today, we face a convergence of pressures: climate change sparking new diseases, declining global health funding, and fragmented governance structures. He argues that prevention must replace reaction as the organizing principle of global health.

• Proprietary

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ macOS has a 49.7-day networking time bomb built in that only a reboot fixes — comparison operation on unreliable time value stops machines dead in their tracks

    The macOS networking stack has a bug that creates a 49.7-day-long countdown to disaster that currently requires a reboot to fix, as discovered by Hey Hi (AI) service provider Photon.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • New York Times ☛ How Accurate Are Google’s Hey Hi (AI) Overviews?

      The company’s A.I.-generated answers look authoritative, but they draw on an array of sources, from trustworthy sites to Facebook (Farcebook) posts.

    • Futurism ☛ Scam Altman’s Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Machine Learning Concepts

      "I think there's a small but real chance he's eventually remembered as a Bernie Madoff- or Sam Bankman-Fried-level scammer."

    • The Straits Times ☛ Outcry in China over Hey Hi (AI) images in drama series

      Technological advancement must not infringe on personal rights, say regulators and legal experts.

    • Futurism ☛ Frontier Hey Hi (AI) Models Are Doing Something Absolutely Bizarre When Asked to Diagnose Medical X-Rays

      They call it the "mirage effect."

    • Futurism ☛ Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Instructs Staff to Welcome Hey Hi (AI) Sloplords

      Open wide!

    • Futurism ☛ College Students Losing Ability to Participate in Class Discussions Because They Offloaded Their Thinking to AI

      "Everyone now kind of sounds the same."

• Privatisation/Privateering

  • Federal News Network ☛ TSA budget cuts jobs in privatization push

    The Forrest Dump administration wants to cut airport security screeners and shift funding to private contractors under the Screening Partnership Program.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Straits Times ☛ Inside a scammer compound in Thailand: Jail cells, torture rooms and a vice empire exposed

      The Thai authorities described the compound as a vast operational base for transnational online crime.

    • New York Times ☛ ‘Definitely a Sham’: As Tariffs Climb, Trade Fraud and Accounting Tricks Proliferate

      U.S. imports from China have shrunk drastically. But billions of dollars of the change appear to be the result of accounting gimmicks and outright fraud.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • ADF ☛ ‘Invasive’ Surveillance Tech Violates Africans’ Freedoms

      A shadowy industry is thriving alongside Africa’s digital boom: mass-surveillance systems powered by artificial intelligence. As Chinese-built surveillance technology is proliferating across the continent, experts are warning that it is a dangerous threat to citizens’ rights.

    • Stanford University ☛ From the Community | Stanford must stop supporting the surveillance state

      Tim MacKenzie argues that Stanford's use of Flock undermines the public safety of community members.

  • Confidentiality

    • Trail of Bits ☛ What we learned about TEE security from auditing WhatsApp's Private Inference

      WhatsApp’s new “Private Inference” feature represents one of the most ambitious attempts to combine end-to-end encryption with AI-powered capabilities, such as message summarization. To make this possible, Meta built a system that processes encrypted user messages inside trusted execution environments (TEEs), secure hardware enclaves designed so that not even Meta can access the plaintext. Our now-public audit, conducted before launch, identified several vulnerabilities that compromised WhatsApp’s privacy model, all of which Meta has patched. Our findings show that TEEs aren’t a silver bullet: every unmeasured input and missing validation can become a vulnerability, and to securely deploy TEEs, developers need to measure critical data, validate and never trust any unmeasured data, and test thoroughly to detect when components misbehave.

• Defence/Aggression

  • ADF ☛ JNIM Retaliatory Ambush Kills Malian Soldiers

    About a dozen Malian soldiers and Russian mercenaries died in a recent ambush by terrorists near the city of Nampala near Mali’s border with Mauritania.

  • Defence Web ☛ Sahel terror groups use forest safe havens to launch attacks

    Sahel terror groups have long used forests to hide, stock up on natural resources and establish bases.

  • Defence Web ☛ When GPS lies at sea: How electronic warfare is threatening ships and their crews

    The war in Iran has dominated headlines with reports of airstrikes and escalating military activity.

  • France24 ☛ Iran portraying ceasefire as 'victory against the United States and Israel'

    Reporting from Tehran FRANCE 24’s Reza Sayah says Iranian state media is portraying the ceasefire agreement as a “victory against the United States and Israel”. Despite the heavy losses inflicted by massive strikes, the assassination of top leaders, civilian deaths, destruction of infrastructure, “the Islamic Republic is still standing,” says Sayah. “For Iran, survival was always a victory,” he notes.

  • New York Times ☛ Britain Reinforces That U.S. Cannot Use British Bases for Attacks on Iran

    The U.K. government underlined its previous stance that the United States could only use British bases for defensive purposes, after Hell Toupée threatened to strike civilian targets.

  • New York Times ☛ Pakistan Says It Hit a Military Target. Investigations Suggest It Was a Rehab Center.

    After the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over, families searched among photos and remains for signs of their relatives.

  • The Strategist ☛ Japan is pushing hard on autonomous weapons

    Japan is going full steam in expanding its military use of uncrewed autonomous platforms and countering China’s.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea fires suspected ballistic missiles as Pyongyang dismisses Seoul’s diplomacy hopes

    South Korean and US authorities were analysing the launch.

  • The Strategist ☛ Taiwan matters. Australia needs to understand why

    When Australians think about Taiwan, the focus is often narrow: a distant sovereignty dispute in the Taiwan Strait, or a potential flashpoint between China and the United States.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan opposition leader in China: What you need to know

    KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun sees her visit as laying the foundation for “peace and stability” with Beijing.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan opposition leader pledges reconciliation at memorial for founding father in China

    Kuomintang chairwoman Cheng Li-wun pledged to channel the spirit of her party's founder Sun Yat-sen.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Nine policemen in India found guilty of murdering father and son in custody

    The victims were arrested for allegedly keeping their shop open beyond permitted hours during the pandemic.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘I Must Die’ movie billboards in Indonesia trigger backlash over suicide messaging

    The billboards feature the phrases “I Must Die” and “Sell My Soul for Wealth”.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • ADF ☛ Survivors of Russia’s War Bear Hidden Costs

      With his hands in bandages and his voice shaking, the Kenyan man wore a mask to hide his identity because he lives in fear of retribution from Russian authorities.

    • LRT ☛ Russian lawyer fights Lithuanian migration authorities: ‘Russians live in fear’

      Mikhail Benyash, a renowned Russian lawyer and activist residing in Lithuania under a humanitarian visa, was nearly expelled from the country because he travelled to Minsk to see his son. He successfully challenged the decision in courts – but warns that bending law to political passions risks pushing Lithuania down the path of his home country.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian presidential adviser dismisses claims ex-NATO chief weighed Baltic buffer zone

      Deividas Matulionis, national security adviser to the Lithuanian president, has dismissed as "typical disinformation" allegations that former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg privately entertained the idea of turning the Baltic states into a buffer zone for Russia in 2021.

    • JURIST ☛ Russia imprisons Tajikistan man for false abuse report in pretrial detention center

      A Russian court on Monday sentenced an incarcerated 30-year old Tajikistan man to three years imprisonment and a fine of 14,215 rubles (approximately US $180) for deliberate false accusation, after the man accused staff members at a detention center of physically beating him.

    • LRT ☛ Belarus cancels passport of Nobel laureate

      Belarus has cancelled the passport of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski and other recently deported political prisoners, in what rights groups say is a new form of pressure on exiled dissidents.

    • France24 ☛ Why Viktor Orban wants energy prices at the heart of Hungary’s elections

      Faced with the very real prospect of defeat in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has built his campaign around cheap and secure energy and outspoken opposition to EU support for Ukraine. An alleged plot to blow up a pipeline bringing Russian gas into Hungary – dismissed by Orban’s opponents as a “false flag” – seems almost tailor-made to give his campaign a last-minute boost.

    • France24 ☛ Europe's future on the ballot? Hungary's Orban in tight re-election race

      Is Europe’s future on the ballot in Hungary? In Budapest, the US vice president actively stumping for far-right incumbent Viktor Orban who trails in the polls ahead of Sunday’s general election. European politicians sometimes campaign for likeminded peers from neighboring nations but here, it’s the United States openly taking aim at the bloc using the same talking points as Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Putin’s Puppet Project in Peril

      JD Vance took time out of Convicted Felon's Crusades against Iran to tamper in Hungary's election not just because Viktor Orbán is the ideological figurehead of the far right, but because Hungary serves as a key vehicle laundering Russian money to the broader far right.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Ramps Up Attacks on Russian Oil, Aiming to Curb Iran War Windfall

      As the Persian Gulf conflict boosts the oil revenue that finances Moscow’s war against Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces are striking at Russia’s ability to refine and ship its crude.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Kazakhstan says CPC oil exports via Black Sea stable after Russia reports an attack

      Oil shipments via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium are stable, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said on Tuesday after Russia's military accused Ukraine of damaging loading facilities belonging to the group in the Black Sea.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Drone Targets City Bus in Ukraine; At Least 4 Killed, 16 Wounded

      A Russian drone strike on a civilian bus in the Ukrainian city of Nikopol has killed four people and injured 16 others, Ukrainian officials said, amid a wave of overnight attacks that left civilians, including children, dead or injured on both sides.

    • RFERL ☛ EU Presses Ukraine On Reforms As Funding And Membership Prospects Hang In Balance

      The European Commission is increasing pressure on Ukraine to adopt several key reforms it was expected to pass last year, in a bid to secure more EU funding and advance toward membership of the bloc.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian man jailed for stealing Ukrainian flag and vandalising car

      A Lithuanian man has been sentenced to a total of 90 days in prison after being convicted of desecrating a foreign national symbol, inciting hatred against a national group and disturbing public order.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania dismisses Moscow claims of Ukraine using Baltic airspace for attacks

      Lithuania’s military on Tuesday dismissed Moscow’s claims that Baltic states provided airspace for Ukrainian strikes against Russia as a coordinated propaganda attack.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ Heatwave in Malaysia: Critical hot spots under control with continuous monitoring, says DPM Zahid

    He said there are minor fire-related hot spots, but they are very limited.

  • The Strategist ☛ Timor-Leste and its partners need to step up as Chinese interest in Timorese waters increases

    Australia and its partners need to monitor the developments in China’s engagement with Timor-Leste carefully. Canberra should also, ideally, implement proactive initiatives to strengthen its own relationship with Dili.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia announces measures to address supply disruptions amid energy crunch

      The government has warned that Malaysia only has enough energy supplies until the end of May.

    • The Straits Times ☛ How China built its vast natural gas stockpile

      The stock has helped China cushion the supply shock caused by the war in the Middle East.

    • New York Times ☛ How China Built Its Vast Natural Gas Stockpile

      Natural gas is hard to store, but China has found a way to do it, while also developing alternate suppliers and expanding production at home.

    • Ruben Schade ☛ Adding tech to recycling is a nice idea in theory

      Here we have exibit A for why using technology to solve a social problem often doesn’t work, or has unintended consequences.

      There are cultures in the world that take recycling seriously, like Japan. There are those that pretend (until recently) that it doesn’t exist, like Singapore and Malaysia. In between sits Australia; the land girt by sea, and mostly on board with the idea that we should reduce, reuse, and recycle if and where we can.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New Yorker ☛ What Convicted Felon’s Reorganization of the Forest Service Means for Rural America

      Lots of room for lumber lobbyists, less for forest science.

    • Science Alert ☛ World's Oldest Known 'Octopus' Turns Out to Be An Entirely Different Animal

      Oops.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • PNG-Australia defense treaty creates jobs, risks amid rising China influence

    Six months on, many youth see opportunity, but others warn ‘Pukpuk’ pact could draw PNG into Pacific tensions.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Vietnam’s To Lam plans China visit next week after winning presidency, sources say

    The trip is expected to take place from April 14 to April 17.

  • New York Times ☛ Kim Jong-un’s Daughter Drives a Tank as Talk Accelerates Around North Korea Succession

    Images of Kim Ju-ae at the helm of the military vehicle, with her father riding on top, added to speculation that she was being groomed to succeed him as North Korea’s leader.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Journalism job cuts in 2026 tracked: Associated Press offers buyouts to US journalists

  • Press Gazette ☛ Cafeyn finalises Readly merger to become ‘largest buyer of publishing content in Europe’

    Cafeyn now owns and operates Readly in the UK, Germany, Australia and Switzerland.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • JURIST ☛ US federal court rules platform Kalshi can continue offering sport event contracts during litigation

    A US federal appellate court on Monday held that the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) cannot enforce state sports-betting laws against financial services company and prediction market facilitator Kalshi while litigation is pending.

  • New York Times ☛ ‘D.E.I.’ Was Erased From N.Y.C. Racial Equity Plan to Avoid Conflict With Convicted Felon

    The changes came as Hell Toupée has moved to erase diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. A Justice Department official still said the report seemed “fishy/illegal.”

  • JURIST ☛ Florida allows state designation of domestic terrorist organizations

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday HB 1471, which grants the state’s chief of domestic security authority to designate domestic terrorist organizations. The chief may provide such a designation if they determine an entity operating in the state is engaged in terrorist activity, and the governor and cabinet approve the determination.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ A day in the life of RIPE Atlas

    On any given day, RIPE Atlas generates billions of measurement results, offering a comprehensive view of connectivity and reachability worldwide. Here, we focus on a single day to show how RIPE Atlas operates in practice.

  • Latvia ☛ Police: internet taking over from TV to access illegal channels

    People who access illegal television channels in their homes can be issued a warning or, in theory, fined up to 700 euros for installing or using illegal systems. Amendments to the law were introduced four years ago with the aim of protecting Latvia's information space.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• International Business Times ☛ Big Tech Abandons Multi-Billion Dollar Data Centres in US as Investors Demand Energy, Water Usage

  Amazon, Microsoft, and Google hit a wall as shareholders demand site-by-site environmental audits amid fears that AI energy demand is outstripping the planet's resources

• Essel Group ☛ Is Amazon cutting 14,000 jobs? Company break silence to viral layoff rumours

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Moving Target: When Amended Claims Outrun Your Standing Declaration

    Federal Circuit dismisses PGR appeal in ironSource v. Digital Turbine, holding petitioner must link injury in fact to substitute claims, not just originals.

    >

  • JUVE ☛ Lundbeck and Biogaran fight in Milan and Paris over drug for alcohol dependence

    Nalmefene is an opioid antagonist used in the EU to reduce alcohol dependence. The active ingredient works by antagonising those receptors in the brain responsible for producing the body’s feel-good chemical, dopamine. This prevents the alcohol-induced release of this chemical, resulting in reduced desire to continue drinking.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Supreme Court Wipes Away $47 Million Grande Communications Copyright Verdict, Remands to Appellate Court ‘For Further Consideration’ Following Cox v. Sony Decision

    The Cox v. Sony Music decision’s aftershocks aren’t finished yet: Now, the Supreme Court has wiped away a verdict that originally included a $47 million willful copyright monopoly infringement penalty against Grande Communications.

  • Digital Music News ☛ The Kanye Blowback Intensifies — Are Gamma Investors A24, Apple, Eldridge, and Alpha Wave Next to Feel the Heat?

    In the wake of an abrupt Wireless Festival shutdown, more industry voices are questioning whether re-platforming Kanye West was really the right move. But will this ultimately impact the music industry’s most sophisticated backers? The high-stakes gamble on Kanye West’s redemption is hitting a brutal reality check.