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● Links 08/04/2022: EasyOS 3.4.5

Posted in News Roundup at 2:54 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Applications

=> ↺ Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Autodesk Arnold

• Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software company that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. It bills itself as a “… leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software”.

• The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, who was a joint developer of the first versions of AutoCAD, the company’s best known software application. Autodesk is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, it has over 11,000 employees, and is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.

• While Autodesk develops many high quality applications they are proprietary software. And the vast majority of their products are not available for Linux. This series looks at the best free and open source alternatives.

=> ↺ Text-only user interface environment

• It is probably not an uncommon thing, nor am I the first. However, I might surprise myself that I am working this way now. My environment for spending free time in Geminispace and Gophersphere is text-only environment. Which I’ve set up from nothing, and without any special experience.

=> ↺ Seems like a nice place to relax

• I have no idea how I ended up here. Switched from Windows to Linux yesterday and had no idea what the Gemini protocol was.

=> ↺ Every Matrix Client Sucks

• I love the Matrix protocol, but it seems every desktop client for it sucks in some way. Clients like Element are the most feature-rich by far, but are webapps running on Electron.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Check Debian Version

• When we are using a computer that is not our own, or when we are providing technical support, it is useful to know different ways to check the Debian version that this computer is using.

=> ↺ How To Enable Virtualbox Shared Folder for Linux Distros (Windows Host) – DekiSoft

• Virtualbox is high in performance product that carries new and unique features for all its users. The best thing is that this is the only software available as open-source under terms of GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. It provides support to Linux, Windows, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD and Macintosh. You can now allow VirtualBox shared folders for Ubuntu or Debian on a Windows 10/11 host.

=> ↺ Install Firefox Sync Server on Debian 11

• Hello, friends. In this tutorial, I will help you to install Firefox Sync Server on Debian 11. Thanks to this, you will be able to have a private repository where you can synchronize your Firefox. This makes it ideal for companies and educational institutions that want to have full control of their data.

=> ↺ Activate the Dark and Light Wallpaper Variants in GNOME 42

• Basically, with this feature, if you select the light mode, the light version of the wallpaper is selected. When you switch to dark mode in GNOME, wallpaper changes to the dark version.

• Here’s a sample of such a wallpaper. You can move the slider to compare.

Distributions

=> ↺ Top 5 Most Stable Linux Distros To Try 2022 (Developers/Laptops) – DekiSoft

• If you are wondering why the term “stable” comes with a Linux operating system or distro then it is due to the availability of many of these variations per the requirement of the user. Few are fundamental such as Debian, some fork of a base distro such as Ubuntu, Arch, and many other fork-of-a-fork-of-a-fork like the Mint. The long story right?

• All these do not comply in terms of support and documentation from the community. Follow through as we list down the most stable Linux Distros which are well known, well supported, carry good repositories, update regularly, are user-friendly, as well as stay around us for quite a long time.

• Oh, and if you are a developer and have a laptop you will love them more!

• Join along.

New Releases

=> ↺ EasyOS Dunfell-series version 3.4.5 released

=> ↺ EasyOS Dunfell-series 3.4.5

• EasyOS was created in 2017, derived from Quirky Linux, which in turn was derived from Puppy Linux in 2013. Easy is built in woofQ, which takes as input binary packages from any distribution, and uses them on top of the unique EasyOS infrastructure.

• Throughout 2020, the official release for x86_64 PCs was the Buster-series, built with Debian 10.x Buster DEBs. EasyOS has also been built with packages compiled from source, using a fork of OpenEmbedded (OE). Currently, the Dunfell release of OE has been used, to compile two sets of binary packages, for x86_64 and aarch64.

• The latter have been used to build EasyOS for the Raspberry Pi4, and first official release, 2.6.1, was in January 2021.

Debian Family

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi OS removes default “Pi” username, adds experimental support for Wayland

• The Raspberry Pi Foundation has just released a new version of Raspberry Pi OS that removes the default username (pi) for security reasons, adds experimental support for Wayland, and lets people configure their Raspberry Pi with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

• The most significant change in the new Raspberry Pi OS is the removal of the default “pi” user as several countries have legislation against default credentials for security reasons. That includes the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill (PSTI) in the UK, and California’s SB-327 IoT devices security law. Those laws mostly target default passwords, but removing a default username can be useful too to prevent force brute attacks.

Devices/Embedded

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Three new reasons to register for Coolest Projects Global 2022

=> ↺ Stress-Testing An Arduino’s EEPROM

• Every time one of us flashes an Arduino’s internal memory, a nagging thought in the backs of our minds reminds us that, although everything in life is impermanent, nonvolatile re-writable memory is even more temporary. With a fixed number of writes until any EEPROM module fails, are we wasting writes every time we upload code with a mistake? The short answer is that most of us shouldn’t really be concerned with this unless we do what [AnotherMaker] has done and continually write data until the memory in an Arduino finally fails.

=> ↺ OpenMower: Open Source Robotic Lawn Mower With RTK GPS

• Robotic mowers are becoming a common sight in some places, enabled by the cost of motors and the needed control electronics being much lower, thanks to the pace of modern engineering. But, in many cases, they still appear to be really rather dumb, little more than a jacked up bump-and-go with a spinning blade. [Clemens Elflein] has taken a cheap, dumb mower and given it a brain transplant based around a Raspberry Pi 4 paired up with a Raspberry Pi Pico for the real time control side of things. [Clemens] is calling this OpenMower, with the motivation to create an open source robot mower controller with support for GPS navigation, using RTK for extra precision.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Android Tablet vs. Fire Tablet: Which One’s for You? – Make Tech Easier

=> ↺ Malicious Android apps found masquerading as legitimate antivirus tools | TechRepublic

=> ↺ Beware Of This Spyware On Android Phones

=> ↺ The 8 year old Samsung Galaxy S5 can now run Android 12L unofficially

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Re: The Theological Problem Behind Firefox in Ubuntu 22.04

• I fully agree that snap and flatpack are “yet another level of indirection”. Docker and kubernetes are in the group as well. I spent a week at dayjob to grok some of the details about dockers handling the network stack and fiddling with iptables, or lack thereof. Documentation always consideres a host system with only one network connection. Now we happen to have 6 ethernet interfaces, for a reason. And by not knowing, what we did, we exposed the internal network structure to the inhouse world without realizing. Of course, unwanted effects made their appearance and it took the greybeard a while to figure out, what is at play in this game.

• From afar, what happened is this: Person A suggested to use docker containers to solve problem at hand. Opinions were collected, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. So Person A put together just enough configuration to make it work. Among them “network_mode: “host””. Reading the documentation made it clear, that with this setting we give up the separation of the network stack between the containers and the host. Noone realized. An “it worked”. “On my machine”, that is. Needless to say: we had to do our homework now and come up with a bridged configuration and a few more entries to iptables. That seems to work better, for the time being.

• This is a perfect example of what ploum describes, docker being the level of indirection. We could add kubernetes, now that I think of it

=> ↺ Mozilla Localization (L10N): L10n Report: April 2022 Edition

• Please note some of the information provided in this report may be subject to change as we are sometimes sharing information about projects that are still in early stages and are not final yet.

=> ↺ New Release: Tor Browser 11.0.10 (Windows, macOS, Linux)

• Tor Browser 11.0.10 is now available from the Tor Browser download page and also from our distribution directory.

• This version includes important security updates to Firefox…

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Fortran newsletter: April 2022

• Welcome to the April edition of the monthly Fortran newsletter. The newsletter comes out at the beginning of every month and details Fortran news from the previous month.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Stop It!

=> ↺ Ari Brostoff’s Truth Is Out There

• Author and Jewish Currents editor Ari Brostoff’s debut essay collection, Missing Time, is difficult to describe. Or rather, to describe what it is about does little justice to the work the book does. The book is an eclectic mix of left-wing cultural criticism and personal essays on topics like The X-Files, Bernie Sanders and feminist desire, Jewishness, and communism. But taken together, the essays do something more than tackle these subjects. By scrutinizing childhood recollections, cultural ephemera, and recent political shifts, Brostoff elucidates what, borrowing from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, we might call a “form of life.” Through their essays, we see and share in the concepts, tendencies, and background apparatuses that allow them to make sense of the world. In Missing Time, Brostoff allows us to inhabit their rigorous, humorous, sometimes obsessive but always generous way of understanding this moment in history.

• —Natasha Lennard

=> ↺ Do Campus Crime Alerts Keep Students Safe?

• On Tuesday, September 21, 2021, over 50,000 New York University students’ phones buzzed at the same time. An identical notification appeared on their screens: “Safety Alert—Shots Fired.” A few minutes later, their phones buzzed a second time with an update: A shooting incident had taken place near the NYU Metrotech campus in Brooklyn, and a stray bullet hit an NYU student in the arm.

=> ↺ The Hollow Narrative of HBO’s Gilded Age

• There were about a million people living in Manhattan in the 1880s, of whom more than half resided in the one-mile stretch between Canal Street and 14th Street. As historian Richard White notes, many of these people lived 11 or 15 to a room in “filthy tenements” surrounded by “overflowing sewers” and were dependent for their barest sustenance on aid dispensed not by the government but by the Tammany Hall political machine. Even those who lived in less crowded neighborhoods uptown were surrounded by piles of garbage, stray animals, throngs of beggars, and an endless roster of street gangs such as ”the Gophers, the Dead Rabbits, [and] the Gorillas.” Neighborhoods had names like Rotten Alley, Cockroach Row, and Satan’s Circus. Those in crowded immigrant suburbs still farther uptown had to contend with streets that “stank from gasworks, stockyards, and tar and garbage dumps.”

Hardware

=> ↺ Upcycled Nixie Clock Fit For A Friend

• Building a clock from parts is a rite of passage for makers, and often represents a sensible introduction into the world of electronics. It’s also hard to beat the warm glow of Nixie tubes in a desktop clock, as [Joshua Coleman] discovered when building a Nixie tube clock for a friend.

=> ↺ Wireless Weather Station Gets Solar-Powered Supercap Upgrade

• When [knight-of-ni] bought an Acurite Atlas weather station to replace his earlier 5-in-1 model, he was initally happy with its performance. However, after just ten months the batteries in the outdoor unit died; since the previous model would happily run for several years on one charge, this was a bit of a bummer. Climbing up on the roof more than once a year just to replace batteries was becoming inconvenient as well, so [knight-of-ni] designed a solar power system with supercap backup and remote monitoring that should keep the sensors running 24/7, come rain or shine.

=> ↺ Remoticon 2021 // Rob Weinstein Builds An HP-35 From The Patent Up

• Fifty years ago, Hewlett-Packard introduced the first handheld scientific calculator, the HP-35. It was quite the engineering feat, since equivalent machines of the day were bulky desktop affairs, if not rack-mounted. [Rob Weinstein] has long been a fan of HP calculators, and used an HP-41C for many years until it wore out. Since then he gradually developed a curiosity about these old calculators and what made them tick. The more he read, the more engrossed he became. [Rob] eventually decided to embark on a three year long reverse-engineer journey that culminated a recreation of the original design on a protoboard that operates exactly like the original from 1972 (although not quite pocket-sized). In this presentation he walks us through the history of the calculator design and his efforts in understanding and eventually replicating it using modern FPGAs.

=> ↺ Inside An 11 Ton Clock With 1,000 Pieces

• We aren’t ashamed to admit it, but we like clocks. We’ve built quite a few and clock projects show up regularly in the pages of Hackaday. But there is one clock that is among the most famous in the world: Britain’s Big Ben. It has been getting some repairs and the BBC was nice enough to make a video of the giant mechanism.

=> ↺ Just What On Earth Is A Therm?

• With the news here in Europe full of the effect of the war in Ukraine on gas supplies and consequently, prices, there it was on the radio news: a unit of measurement so uniquely British that nobody uses it in the real world and nobody even has a clue what it really means. We’re speaking of the Therm, one of those words from our grandparents’ era of coal gas powered Belling cookers and Geyser water heaters hanging over the bath, which has somehow hung on in the popular imagination as a mysterious unit of domestic gas referred to only in the mass market news media. What on earth is a therm, and why are we still hearing it on the news in the UK?

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Comcast Demands $19,000 For Broadband In Yet Another Consumer Nightmare

• For decades the U.S. newswires have been peppered with stories where somebody bought a house after being told by their ISP it had broadband access, only to realize the ISP didn’t actually serve that address. Generally, the homeowner then realizes they have to spend a stupid amount of money to pay the local telecom monopoly to extend service… or move again.

=> ↺ 193 Heartless Bastards in the House of Representatives

• More than 10 percent of Americans are living with diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes, and millions of them need insulin to survive.

=> ↺ Americans Don’t Have the Luxury of Being Picky Eaters Anymore

• In 21st-century America, our mainstream foodways are fragile: Either we can buy anything we want, whenever we want, for cheap, or supply shortages portend total catastrophe. As the winners of the Cold War, we feel entitled to fresh avocados in December no matter where in this vast national tapestry we live. And if you don’t like squash, you don’t have to eat it. That’s what globalization was supposed to mean. A couple years of pandemic later, a diet built on an intricate transoceanic logistical system doesn’t seem like quite the prize it once did. With prices and supplies unpredictable, and a world situation that promises more of the different, Americans are going to need to get less picky.

=> ↺ Global Resistance to Vaccine Mandates Underreported – Validated Independent News

• The Defender reported that Mary Holland, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, condemned the violence. “We’re here today to reject the official narrative,” Holland stated. “We’re here to say no to the mandates, no to the passports, but yes to our fundamental rights,” including “the right to protest and petition the government as we were attempting to do today.”

=> ↺ Healthy Diet and Lifestyle Reduce Risk and Severity of COVID-19, Studies Find – Validated Independent News

• A December 2021 Harvard Health article reported on the findings of a study, published by the BMJ’s journal Gut in September 2021, on the connections between healthy diet and COVID-19. The study concluded that diets rich in “healthy plant-based foods was associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19.” As Harvard Health reported, study participants who reported eating “the most fruits, vegetables, and legumes had a 9% lower risk of getting COVID and a 41% lower risk of developing severe COVID during the study period.” (Noting that the study was “observational” and “doesn’t prove conclusively that a healthy diet prevents COVID,” Harvard Health reported that “getting vaccinated and wearing a mask in indoor settings are still the most important approaches to ward off the disease.”)

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

Pseudo-Open Source

Privatisation/Privateering

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ Looking Ahead: The CNF Certification Program

• The telecommunications industry is the backbone of today’s increasingly-digital economies, but it faces a difficult new challenge in evolving to meet modern infrastructure practices. How did telecommunications get itself into this situation? Because the risks of incidents or downtime are so severe, the industry has focused almost exclusively on system designs that minimize risk and maximize reliability. That’s fantastic for mission-critical services, whether public air traffic control or private high-speed banking, but it emphasizes stability over productivity and the adoption of new technologies that might make their operations more resilient and performant.

Security

=> ↺ Latest MITRE Endpoint Security Results Show Some Familiar Names on Top | eSecurityPlanet

• MITRE Engenuity has released the latest round of its ATT&CK endpoint security evaluations, and the results show some familiar names leading the pack with the most detections.

• The MITRE evaluations are unique in that they emulate advanced persistent threat (APT) and nation-state hacking techniques, making them different from tests that might look at static malware samples, for example.

=> ↺ Actions Target Russian Govt. Botnet, Hydra Dark Market

• The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has disrupted a giant botnet built and operated by a Russian government intelligence unit known for launching destructive cyberattacks against energy infrastructure in the United States and Ukraine. Separately, law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Germany moved to decapitate “Hydra,” a billion-dollar Russian darknet drug bazaar that also helped to launder the profits of multiple Russian ransomware groups.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Social Responsibility Organization Says Meta’s Embrace Of Encryption Is Important For Human Rights

• Encryption is under attack from all over the world. Australia already has a law on the books trying to force companies to backdoor encryption. The UK is pushing its Online Safety Bill, which would be an attack on encryption (the UK government has made it clear it wants an end to encryption). In the US, we have the EARN IT Act, whose author, Senator Richard Blumenthal, has admitted he sees it as a necessary attack on companies who “hide behind” encryption.

=> ↺ Google’s Radar Chip: Real-Time Biometric Data Collection

• Far more difficult to fend off is the surveillance of most online advertising. As numerous PIA blog posts have discussed, the websites you log in to routinely gather substantial amounts of data. This information is typically aggregated by companies like Facebook and Google into detailed profiles of who we are and what we do.

=> ↺ Law Enforcement Given Invasive Access To Internet User Information – Validated Independent News

• Use of subscribers’ data—including, for example, a person’s IP address and telephone number—is a special concern because police often use such information “to uncover people’s identities and link them to specific online activities that reveal details of their private lives,” Gullo and Rodrigquez reported. The draft treaty’s “dismissive characterization” of how subscriber data might be used “directly conflicts with judicial precedent, particularly when considering the Protocol’s broad definition of subscriber information,” according to their EFF article.

=> ↺ The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance: Tablet Advertising That Can Also Issue Discipline

• Imagine you’ve been arrested and are sitting in county lock-up. You need to make arrangements for bail, a lawyer, and a caretaker for your kids or pets. Maybe you need someone to bring your prescription or you need to talk to your AA sponsor. On top of that, you’re traumatized by the invasive booking process and scared to the bone of what might happen to you, all too aware that many people wind up injured or dead while awaiting trial.

• An officer hands you a digital tablet and assures you that you can use it to communicate to sort out your affairs. It’s a glimmer of a lifeline… but then you try to use the device.

• A pop-up opens on the tablet’s screen, and you’re forced to watch a commercial for a shady bail bond firm before being allowed to access the video call app.  When your family member picks up, you both have to sit through another advertisement. When you finally get to talk, both you and your relative have the logos of a local law firm hovering over your shoulder, like the worst Zoom background ever. Throughout the call, your conversation is interrupted with periodic video advertisements that you have to watch to keep the line open. There’s also, an ever-present scrolling text ad, and another ad that is bouncing around the screen trying to get your attention.

=> ↺ Brighter Stars and Persistent Gaps Mark New Paraguay’s “Who Defends Your Data” Report

• The report reveals a troubling trend among Paraguayan internet and telecommunications providers: most don’t publish reports with statistical data on such requests or disclose procedures they follow when handing user’s data to authorities. What’s more, companies still resist  making a public commitment to notify users about government data demands. Although this is usually a difficult  commitment to get from companies evaluated in the region, we see some strides in Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. In Paraguay’s report, however, all service providers failed in this category.

• This undermines users’ ability to make informed choices about which companies they should entrust their data to. Our reliance on internet connection providers to browse, access information online, and communicate with others puts vast amounts of highly sensitive data into the hands of service providers. TEDIC’s report shows they must address this weakness by giving users more information about how these requests are handled and revealing to what extent they have users’ back when the government demands their data.

• The new report looked at publicly available documents and policies of five companies: Tigo (Millicom), Claro (América Móvil), Personal, Copaco, and Vox. All have been assessed by TEDIC since the report’s first edition in 2017. Since then, Claro showed notable advances in  the privacy policy and transparency report categories. Tigo has also improved its privacy and data protection policies’ marks over the years. In this 2022 edition, Tigo kept its leadership position while Claro stayed firm in second place. Copaco, which didn’t receive any score in the last edition, shared third place with Personal this year. Finally, Vox lagged  far behind, getting only a minimum score in one of the evaluated categories. 

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Chomsky: US Policy Toward Russia Is Blocking Paths to De-escalation in Ukraine

=> ↺ Will Japan and Russia Tensions Over Contested Pacific Islands Spill Over Into War?

• Two startling changes appear in this draft text. First, the Bluebook refers to the Russian control over some islands north of Hokkaido as an “illegal occupation.” The last time the annual Bluebooks used this phrase was in 2003. Then, the Bluebook pointed out that Japan “renounced its right to the Kuril Islands” in the 1951 Treaty of Peace with Japan, signed in San Francisco (Chapter II, Article 2[c]); these islands were then part of the USSR. Nonetheless, the 2003 Bluebook said, “In the Four Northern Islands, the illegal occupation by the Soviet Union and Russia continues today.” Japan calls these “Four Northern Islands” Etorofu, Habomai, Kunashiri, and Shikotan (Russia calls the “Southern Kurils” Iturup, Khabomai, Kunashir, and Shikotan, respectively). Second, the 2006 Bluebook called the islands “inherently Japanese.” This phrase has not been used since then but has reappeared in the 2022 draft Bluebook. Phrases such as “illegal occupation” and “inherently Japanese” in the Bluebook suggest that the tensions between Japan and Russia will certainly increase.

• Japan’s Sanctions on Russia

=> ↺ War Kills Men, It Doesn’t Make Them

• Zelenskyy plays the role of Will Smith for liberals. Ukraine as a country is Jada Pickett Smith. It wasn’t many years ago that all these people were on TV. Smith, like Zelenskyy, is framed as the good man because he defends his wife with violence. While defending one’s wife and country is honorable the reason both men are celebrated is that there is a crisis in the West of impotency and incompetence.

• The American Right cruelly scapegoats transgender children thrown to the curbs by their parents who sexualize them for the state of post-industrial America. But the reason that men can’t be men anymore isn’t because of feminism, multiculturalism or the rise in gay and transgender rights. To the contrary men aren’t men because the world is run by machines.

=> ↺ Win the War. Invest in Peace. The Conversation We Need to Be Having Now

• One of my guests, Anastasiya Leukhina, a war refugee from Ukraine, has a degree in peacebuilding from Notre Dame. In regular times, she said, she’d describe herself as a sort of peacenik, but now, “considering the situation and the losses that we have on the ground, we really need military assistance and we really need modern warfare and we need as much of it as we can get, as soon as possible.”

• More warfare is certainly coming. Even if Russian forces draw back from Kyiv and negotiations reach a deal, the conflict has already seen massive growth in weapons spending by the EU and NATO, even by countries like Germany and Denmark who’ve been spending down for years. Russian spending is up, and the US leads the pack. The Biden administration’s proposed Pentagon budget for 2023 stands at $813 billion. It’s bigger in real terms than ever before, as bloated as ever and spending on Ukraine is only a tiny fraction of it.

=> ↺ Code Pink’s Panel on Media Censorship of Voices for Peace Featuring Abby Martin, Lee Camp and Chris Hedges – The Project Censored Show

=> ↺ Massacre in Bucha Meduza reconstructs the Russian occupation of Bucha — and debunks Kremlin lies about crimes against civilians

• On April 2, international journalists and Ukrainian military units entered Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv. The previous evening, videos showing the bodies of civilians lying on Yablonska Street had begun surfacing on Telegram, shocking people around the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to the Russian military’s actions as genocide; U.S. President Joe Biden called them war crimes. Meanwhile, the Russian government has given a number of contradictory explanations of what happened, none of which have acknowledged Russia’s own responsibility. Meduza has collected and analyzed all of the available information about the atrocities in Bucha. Here’s what we know for sure.

=> ↺ Meduza publishes new footage evidencing civilian murders in Bucha during Russian occupation

• Meduza has obtained new files containing high-quality drone footage of the southern districts of Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv that was recently freed from Russian occupation. According to the file metadata, these videos were recorded over the course of several days, from March 23–30, 2022. Like the satellite images recently published by The New York Times, the videos Meduza is publishing here are important pieces of evidence showing that the horrific civilian killings in Bucha took place before Russian troops retreated from the town.

=> ↺ ‘If President Putin wants less NATO on his borders, he will get more NATO at his borders’ An interview with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

• The Kremlin’s official propaganda myth asserts that Russia invaded Ukraine to prevent the country from joining NATO. At the same time, throughout the past six weeks of war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged NATO to provide his country with military assistance in countering Russian aggression — albeit unsuccessfully. As a result, Ukraine has called for building a new security system in the region, one that would hypothetically coexist with NATO. In his first interview with a Russian journalist, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke about how the Alliance’s relationship with Russia has changed in recent years, and who can bring an end to Moscow’s war against Ukraine. This interview was meant to appear in the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, however, threats from the authorities forced its editors to suspend operations. The NATO Secretary General was interviewed by Kirill Martynov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe (a brand new publication that announced its launch today, April 7). 

=> ↺ The clown prince of Russian politics is dead: Remembering Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the man who gave the Kremlin its blueprint for Russian nationalism and abrasive public diplomacy

• Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the long-time leader of the misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, died on Wednesday at the age of 75 after a long battle with the coronavirus. Though he lost six presidential races, Zhirinovsky nevertheless exerted colossal influence on Russian politics, helping to shape how the Russian state looks and behaves today. Earlier this year, shortly before he was hospitalized with COVID-19, Zhirinovsky publicly predicted Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, getting the date wrong by just two days. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev looks back at Zhirinovsky’s unique role in post-Soviet Russian politics.

=> ↺ ‘I prayed, I wept, I cursed’: In 2014, many Luhansk residents fled the city and built new lives elsewhere. In February 2022, war found them again.

• Viktoria Vualo lived in Luhansk until 2014, when she and many of her friends fled the armed conflict sparked by Russia. Eight years later, in February 2022, Russia’s war forced many of them to flee again. Viktoria now lives in France, but she’s been in touch with her friends in Ukraine since the war began. They answer intermittently; when they can, they send audio messages with updates about hiding from bombs, fearing for their loved ones, and trying to get to safety. With their permission, Meduza is publishing their messages to Viktoria.

=> ↺ Calling All Rwandans: Calling All Africans

• When the Tory government announced it was in talks with the government of Ghana over opening internment camps for asylum seekers in that country, I was quickly able to confirm with Ghanaian ministers that this was simply a lie; the subject had never been discussed and would not be discussed.

=> ↺ Opinion | Ukraine Is Not a Stage for American War Fantasies

• War is not a performance. Ukraine is not a stage. The death and destruction aren’t happening to so we can “take a stand” and feel better about ourselves. It is real, and we should all be thinking about how to stop it as quickly and effectively as possible.

=> ↺ UNICEF Warns Millions of Kids at Risk From Food Crisis Sparked by Ukraine War

• In addition to threatening the lives of millions of Ukrainians, Russia’s war on Ukraine is jeopardizing “the fragile nutritional status of children in the Middle East and North Africa,” a United Nations agency warned Thursday.

• “The world should not forget the millions of children in Middle East and North Africa.”

=> ↺ Opinion | There’s a Better Way to Serve Ukrainians Than Military Escalation

=> ↺ Opinion | A World of War: Ukraine in Perspective

• Excuse me if I wander a little today—and if it bothers you, don’t blame me, blame Vladimir Putin.  After all, I didn’t decide to invade Ukraine, the place my grandfather fled almost 140 years ago. I suspect, in fact, that I was an adult before I even knew such a place existed. If I could be accused of anything, maybe you could say that, for most of my life, I evaded Ukraine.

=> ↺ Anti-War Voices Say More Diplomacy—Not ‘Weapons, Weapons, Weapons’—Needed in Ukraine

• With atrocities continuing to mount as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on for the sixth consecutive week with no end in sight, Kyiv’s top diplomat told reporters Thursday that he had just three items on his agenda as he arrived in Brussels to meet with NATO allies: “Weapons, weapons, and weapons.”

• “The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. “This is my message to the allies. It’s very simple.”

=> ↺ Russian Extrajudicial Executions Described by Witnesses Amount to War Crimes: Amnesty

• Amnesty International on Thursday demanded thorough independent investigations into alleged extrajudicial killings of civilians in the Kyiv area by Russian forces, after the organization’s crisis response workers gathered harrowing on-the-ground testimony from witnesses and survivors.

• After interviewing more than 20 people in towns including Hostomel, Bucha, and Vorzel, the group said Russian forces have been extrajudicially executing people despite knowing they are civilians and called for the killings to be investigated as “likely war crimes.”

=> ↺ Not So Black and White: Belfast in the 1960s

• However, that was then and this is now. A quieter, slowly changing, more peaceful air hangs over Northern Ireland since 2005 when the IRA announced the end of its armed campaign.

• Despite some flare-ups, the peace is holding and hopefully creating the conditions for a more tempered mutual understanding of two communities that underwent so much division for so long. Branagh’s film sits neatly into that crevice arguing for a basic human understanding and empathy, to encourage unity and mutual acceptance.

=> ↺ From Korea to Libya: On the Future of Ukraine and NATO’s Neverending Wars

• On March 19, Iraq commemorated the 19th anniversary of the US invasion which killed, according to modest estimates, over a million Iraqis. The consequences of that war were equally devastating as it destabilized the entire Middle East region, leading to various civil and proxy wars. The Arab world is reeling under that horrific experience to this day.

• Also, on March 19, the eleventh anniversary of the NATO war on Libya was commemorated and followed, five days later, by the 23rd anniversary of the NATO war on Yugoslavia. Like every NATO-led war since the inception of the alliance in 1949, these wars resulted in widespread devastation and tragic death tolls.

=> ↺ Cash Bail For Non-Violent Offenders Is Costly, Harmful And Unconstitutional

• The answer is money. If a judge sets cash bail for someone accused of committing a crime but they cannot afford to pay, they have no choice but to wait behind bars until their rial date. On any given day, an estimated 445,000 people are held pretrial in jails across the US – all of them presumed innocent, but all of them incarcerated. They represent a whopping 67% of the entire jail population.

• Your tax dollars are going towards keeping people in jail who have not been found guilty of any crime. But even more worrying than the wasteful spending is the implications for justice.

=> ↺ A Vicious Cycle in Blue: Police Violence Kills Three People a Day

• Police shootings have not abated.

• Police reforms have largely failed.

=> ↺ No Right Arises From a Wrong

• “Getting away with it” does not render blatant aggression any less criminal.  Aggression remains a supreme crime, as Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson said in his opening statement at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945. Getting away with a crime does not and cannot legalize any crime, it only manifests the inadequacy of the administration of criminal justice and of the political institutions responsible for the enforcement of the “rule of law”.

• Surely the US aggressions against Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia 1963-75, the aggression of NATO countries against Yugoslavia in 1999, against Afghanistan in the 20-year war 2001-2021, the assault on Iraq by the “coalition of the willing” in 2003, the military interventions in Libya and Syria since 2011, Saudi Arabia’s on-going genocidal war against Yemen, Azerbaijan’s Blitzkrieg against the hapless Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh,  Russia’s  “special military operation”/waragainst Ukraine since February 2022 constitute very serious crimes of aggression that call for an objective investigation by the International Criminal Court and prosecution of those responsible for giving the orders and for implementing them.  Aggressive war is not only illegal – it is madness, the ultima irratio.

=> ↺ Is Europe Sleepwalking Into Another World War?

• The hundred years before 1914 offered Europe relative peace. What wars took place were of a short-lived nature. The reason for this was the Congress of Vienna (1814-15), which brought together the victors and the vanquished from the Napoleonic wars to create a lasting peace. The chair of the conference was Klemens von Metternich, who made sure that the defeated power (France) paid for its actions with territorial losses but that it signed the treaty along with Austria, England, Prussia, and Russia to secure peace with dignity.

• Negotiation or Total Defeat

=> ↺ Opinion | Will the U.S. Send Reaper Drones Into the Ukraine Whirlwind?

• Two retired U.S. Air Force generals who were deeply involved in the early development of the U.S. drone war program have suggested introducing the notorious MQ-9 Reaper, the most powerful U.S. killer drone, into the skies over Ukraine.

=> ↺ Opinion | Exploiting Ukraine Crisis to Ramp Up Fossil Fuel Expansion Is Dangerous and Deadly

• Here in Port Arthur, we know firsthand the cost of our country’s addiction to fossil fuels. As Ukranians fight for their country, the fossil fuel industry in the United States and its political allies have chosen to capitalize on the ongoing crisis. The same companies who made tens of billions of dollars working hand-in-hand with Putin for years in Russia—like BP, Exxon, and Shell—are now making record profits while gas prices rise, and pushing for increased drilling.

=> ↺ Denmark to be the home to a new NATO centre

• As part of the NATO 2030 agenda, Copenhagen will soon host a test centre and acceleration site for quantum technologies.

• The development of new technologies is crucial in the global competition between great powers. Quantum technology, artificial intelligence, and other new and disruptive technologies will change the way we live.

=> ↺ Two D.C. men charged with impersonating feds, several Secret Service agents placed on leave

• The two men who were arrested by the FBI and charged with impersonating Department of Homeland Security agents made their first appearance in federal court Thursday afternoon.

• Prosecutors argued that Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, of Washington, D.C., are a flight risk and a danger to the community and should therefore be detained until their trial.

• Both men, who convinced real government officials that their fake employment was legitimate, face charges that they falsely impersonated federal agents as a way to ingratiate themselves with the U.S. law enforcement and the defense community dating back to February 2020, according to court documents.

=> ↺ When governments side with anti-Semites, bigots flourish

• Although it poses as a civil-rights group and pretends to be a victim of harassment, the truth is just the opposite. CAIR was founded as a front group for violent extremists and has, despite its sometimes successful public-relations efforts, continued to be a haven for anti-Semites and radical hatemongers. By contrast, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has a long record of exposing extremists. Its job is to ferret out the truth behind the lies put about by those organizations that purport to represent the interests of American Muslims, but which are instead led by a radical minority dedicated to pursuing an extreme agenda in which terrorists are excused and Jews are targeted for hate.

=> ↺ Suspect tells court he killed UK lawmaker over Syria vote

• Ali Harbi Ali, 26, is accused of murdering veteran Conservative lawmaker David Amess on Oct. 15 during a routine meeting with voters in a church hall in the town of Leigh-on-Sea in eastern England. Ali, who stabbed Amess repeatedly with a carving knife, denies charges of preparing acts of terrorism and murder.

• Giving evidence Thursday, Ali said he decided to take action in the U.K. to help Muslims in Syria because he couldn’t join the Islamic State group.

=> ↺ Ali Harbi Ali tells court he did not feel shame after killing David Amess

• Ali Harbi Ali, 26, stabbed Amess more than 20 times with a foot-long carving knife at Belfairs Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, shortly after midday on 15 October 2021, the Old Bailey heard.

• Telling the court he considered himself to be a “moderate Muslim”, he said he had previously hoped to kill Michael Gove, now the levelling up secretary.

=> ↺ Sir David Amess: Terror suspect tells court he killed MP over Syria vote

• Under cross-examination by Tom Little QC, Mr Ali told the court he had no regrets about killing Sir David, 69, during a constituency surgery at Belfairs Church – but denied being “utterly shameless”.

• He said: “I wouldn’t use the word ‘shameless’, but I don’t have any shame.”

=> ↺ ‘Incel’ gets no-jail sentence for threatening to bomb NYC restaurant

• In letters submitted prior to sentencing, the victims described how terrified they were when Sanchez ran up to them at a Flatiron District restaurant and said he was going to “enhance their meal.”

• “Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Bomb detonation in two, in two minutes. I take you with me and I kill all you. I kill all you right now. And I kill all you for Allah,” Sanchez seethed at the women in February 2021, according to charging documents.

Environment

Energy

=> ↺ Fossil Fuel ‘Philosopher’ Wrote About ‘Superiority’ of Western Culture, and Blamed Martin Luther King Jr. for Increase in ‘Black Crime’

• A prominent pro-fossil fuel author, who has argued for the “moral case” for fossil fuels, has a track record of disparaging writings about what he views as “inferior” cultures. 

• Alex Epstein, a self-styled “philosopher” and director of the for-profit Center for Industrial Progress, has long championed the use of fossil fuels as morally virtuous, and the shift to renewable energy as “immoral” because it would punish the “incredibly life-giving oil and gas industry.”

=> ↺ Debate over Solar Geoengineering Technologies – Validated Independent News

• Geoengineering technologies have been used in countries including China, as The Hill reported in December 2021. As Shirin Ali reported for the Hill, citing a previous report from the South China Morning Post,  the Chinese government used weather modifying technology to control precipitation and pollution in preparation for national anniversary celebrations in July 2021. The Chinese national Weather Modification Office also likely utilized similar techniques in attempts to reduce smog and avoid rain in anticipation of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Hill reported.

=> ↺ Why are Anti-Environmentalists Still Pushing for the Lake Powell Pipeline?

• And, nothing changes in this story by people opting not to believe in global warming. Their beliefs are not going to help the billions of people who will suffer the consequences in the decades ahead, just like it doesn’t help a shooting victim if the guy pulling the trigger doesn’t believe that bullets hurt people.

• A great example of nonsense antienvironmental beliefs affecting action is the effort to construct the Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP). This is a pipeline that would transport 83,800 acre-feet of water a year from Lake Powell to Washington County, Utah. Washington County has a rapidly growing population, and the argument is that it will need water from Lake Powell to serve its needs.

=> ↺ Bill McKibben: Latest IPCC Climate Report Underscores “Fossil Fuel Is at the Root of Our Problems”

• A new report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns the opportunity to mitigate the worst effects of global warming by maintaining global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius is quickly closing and that humanity has less than three years to slash greenhouse gas emissions. “Fossil fuel is at the root of our problems. It is at the root of the despotisms we see in Russia or in Saudi Arabia or indeed the Koch brothers’ efforts to deform our own democracy,” says Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org. It is time to demand world leaders sign a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty, says Ukrainian climate activist Svitlana Romanko. Romanko is also with the Laudato Si’ Movement, which exists to implement the second encyclical of Pope Francis about “care for our common home” and recognizes the war in Ukraine has been funded by fossil fuels. Pope Francis says he plans to visit Ukraine, and Romanko says his “leadership may create a difference in this war.”

=> ↺ Europe Buys $38B in Russian Energy Since Invasion; 30% of the Gas Comes Via Pipelines in Ukraine

• Over a month into Russia’s war in Ukraine and after multiple countries imposed sanctions on Russian fossil fuels, Ukraine’s pipelines are still carrying Russian gas into Europe. Ukrainian climate activist Svitlana Romanko says Ukraine cannot shut off the gas flow if EU governments refuse to implement an embargo on Russian imports. “There should be a collaboration on both sides of this supply chain,” says Romanko. A natural solution would be to urgently transition Europe to renewable energy sources, as “Vladimir Putin can’t embargo the sun” and “can’t interdict the wind,” adds Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org.

=> ↺ 1,000+ Scientists Worldwide Engaged in Civil Disobedience for Climate Action

=> ↺ Top Climate Scientists to Biden: ‘Follow the Science, Stop Fossil Fuels’

• In a powerful direct appeal to President Joe Biden urging him to follow through on his vow to listen to science, a group of over 275 scientists on Thursday called on the U.S. leader to urgently ditch fossil fuels and lead the country to a renewable energy transition.

• Written “in this moment of climate emergency… with utmost urgency,” the letter to Biden was coordinated by the advocacy group Food & Water Watch along with noted U.S. climate experts including Peter Kalmus, Sandra Steingraber, Robert Howarth, Mark Jacobson, and Michael Mann.

=> ↺ NOAA Says Atmospheric Methane Levels Set New Record in 2021

• Climate scientists on Thursday stressed the need for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions following new data showing a record increase in atmospheric methane levels for a second consecutive year.

• “We need to aggressively reduce fossil fuel pollution to zero as soon as possible if we want to avoid the worst impacts from a changing climate.”

=> ↺ Dozens Arrested as Scientists Worldwide Mobilize to Demand ‘Climate Revolution’

• More than 1,000 scientists across the globe chained themselves to the doors of oil-friendly banks, blocked bridges, and occupied the steps of government buildings on Wednesday to send an urgent message to the international community: The ecological crisis is accelerating, and only a “climate revolution” will be enough to avert catastrophe.

• “World leaders are still expanding the fossil fuel industry as fast as they can, but this is insane.”

=> ↺ Making a Killing: Big Oil Reaps Record Profits Using Ukraine War as Pretext to Hike Gas Prices

• House Democrats grilled CEOs of Big Oil companies, like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell, Wednesday about rising gas prices and profiteering from the Ukraine war. We get response from environmentalist Bill McKibben and speak with Ukrainian environmental lawyer Svitlana Romanko about how the war in Ukraine is impacting energy markets around the world. “These are predatory companies that have used every excuse — and this is one of the grossest — to try and increase their profit margins,” says McKibben. “Dismantling and ending Putin’s horrific war against Ukraine will dismantle the system that enables this fossil fuel industry to overprofit,” adds Romanko.

=> ↺ Fake meat will not save the planet – Experts

• Technologies such as cultured and fake meat, plant-based substitutes, and precision livestock and fish farming are on the rise and promising reduced damage to the climate; however the evidence for these claims is limited and speculative, says IPES-Food. These technologies only appear to be viable thanks to relentless marketing, misleading claims about a global protein shortage, and ignoring key aspects of sustainability such as biodiversity and livelihoods, finds the report. Indeed, they may cause more harm than good – resulting in hyper-processed food, dependency on fossil fuel energy, and loss of livelihoods for livestock farmers in the global South.

=> ↺ Estonia to stop importing Russian gas by end of 2022

• Estonia will stop importing Russian gas by the end of 2022, the government agreed in principle on Thursday. Liquified natural gas (LNG) storage capacity in the form of a floating terminal will be created in Northern Estonia in fall.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Yellowstone at 150

• In the post-Civil War era, the United States suffered from enormous debt and had onerous taxation. To revive and expand the national economy, Congress enacted laws like the Homestead Act, Mining Act of 1872, Timber and Stone Act, and numerous railroad land giveaways to expand settlement and development in the West.

• Within a general attitude that if you couldn’t mine it, log it, ranch it, or farm it, the land had no value, and remarkably Congress withdrew the Upper Yellowstone River country from commercial and private development.

=> ↺ Re: Rat in the Engine

• Then I remembered the time when I visited a relative’s farm in South Dakota. They had a small wooden building that they would fill with corn to feed to animals during the winter. The building was built on supports so it was about a foot off the ground. I remember looking underneath it one time and was shocked to find the place crawling with rats that were so packed together that I could not see any light from the other side of the building. They had built tunnels underground going to the building so they could get at the corn in the building.

Finance

=> ↺ We Need Student Debt Cancellation: Astra Taylor Responds to Biden Extending Payment Moratorium

• President Biden announced Tuesday he would extend the pandemic pause on federal student loan payments until August 31, but debtors are demanding total cancellation. We speak with Astra Taylor, co-director of the Debt Collective, who discusses the implications of the latest extension, economically and politically. Taylor says Biden should stop letting loan servicers profiteer from borrowers and cancel student loans, which would immediately narrow the racial wealth gap.

=> ↺ Sanders: US Shouldn’t Give Bezos a “$10 Billion Bailout” for His “Space Hobby”

=> ↺ They Faced Foreclosure Not From Their Mortgage Lender, but From Their HOA

• In a year when it felt like everything had gone wrong, a knock at Miesha Ross’ door one December day brought more bad news.

• “There was a process server who came and knocked on my door and served me with a foreclosure notice,” Ross said, “and of course I freaked out.”

=> ↺ Attention! Deficit Disorder!

• Oddly, The Hill reports, the White House’s big brag on the proposal is that it would  reduce the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next ten years.

• Usually when a politician pitches a plan to do something over the  course of a decade, I expect a bunch of rosy projections that won’t ever come to pass. It’s easy to make promises now and leave them to another president and other Congresses to keep.

=> ↺ In Jab at Manchin, Sanders Demands ‘Strategic Pause’ in Corporate Welfare

• Repurposing a phrase right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin recently used to obstruct social spending and climate legislation, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday called for a “strategic pause” in corporate welfare, referring specifically to a bill that would hand around $53 billion in subsidies to the U.S. semiconductor industry.

• “The time has come to take a strategic pause when it comes to providing tens of billions of dollars in corporate welfare.”

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Gretchen Whitmer Sues to Block Michigan “Trigger” Law That Would Ban Abortion

=> ↺ The DOJ Has Opened an Investigation Into the 15 Boxes Trump Took to Mar-a-Lago

=> ↺ Most Voters Say Clarence Thomas Should Not Be Involved in 2020 Election Cases

=> ↺ Hungary’s Far Right Prime Minister Victor Orbán, a Trump Ally, Wins Fourth Term

=> ↺ Hungary’s Far-Right Nationalist PM Viktor Orbán, an Ally of Putin & Trump, Wins 4th Consecutive Term

• Far-right nationalist prime minister and longtime Putin-ally Viktor Orbán won his fourth consecutive election in Hungary, aided by biased media coverage and campaign regulations that favored the sitting prime minister. We speak to historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the future of Hungary under the Fidesz party, which, aside from passing anti-LGBTQ legislation and stoking xenophobia, has also been an important ally for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He’s very much a conduit for the infiltration and spread of Putin ideas in a more palatable frame,” says Ben-Ghiat. She also discusses how Orbán has become a model for many Republicans in the United States, and notes the Conservative Political Action Conference will be held in Istanbul next month.

=> ↺ EARN IT Act Threatens Online Freedom of Expression under Guise of Policing Child Pornography – Validated Independent News

• The EARN IT Act aims to hold tech companies responsible for the online spread of child pornography. As Mathew Ingram reported for the Columbia Journalism Review, the Act would establish a national commission for developing “best practices for the elimination of child sex-abuse material (CSAM).” Under the act, “any online platforms hosting such material would lose the protection of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives electronic service providers immunity from prosecution for most of the content that is posted by their users,” the CJR reported.

=> ↺ Justice Department Investigates Discrimination in Alabama Wastewater Crisis – Validated Independent News

• Hardy was removed in June 2021, after the chairman of the Lowndes County Commission, Charlie King, claimed that had she never been formally appointed. Hardy—who “volunteered hundreds of hours over the past decade to raise awareness about insufficient wastewater treatment in her home county and push for remedies,” according to AL.com—was also designated as the incorporator and authorized agent of the nonprofit organization, the Lowndes County Unincorporated Wastewater Program Sewer Board, designated as the recipient of the USDA funding.

=> ↺ Senate Confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson as First Black Woman Supreme Court Justice

=> ↺ The Ketanji Brown Jackson Strategy

• Democrats worried about President Biden’s plummeting polling numbers and the party’s prospects in the midterm elections have stumbled on the solution to their problems: nominating and defending Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. By unapologetically championing racial equality in the form of finally putting an African American woman on the Supreme Court, they have both energized their base and garnered the support of a meaningful majority of the American people.

=> ↺ UN General Assembly Suspends Russia From Human Rights Council

• A majority of United Nations member states on Thursday voted to suspend Russia from the U.N. body charged with promoting and protecting human rights around the world in response to the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and mounting war crime allegations.

• The final vote in the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) on the resolution to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council (HRC) over “gross and systematic violations of human rights” was 93-24, with 58 nations abstaining.

=> ↺ ‘Truly a Joyful Day’: Progressives Hail Jackson’s Historic Supreme Court Confirmation

• Progressive politicians, activists, and advocacy groups on Thursday cheered as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to the United States Supreme Court, becoming the first Black woman and first public defender to serve on the nation’s highest judicial body.

• “Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s rise to the Supreme Court is a moment unlike any other in our nation’s history.”

=> ↺ Mass Action Planned at Heart of Joe Manchin’s Coal Empire

• Hundreds of people in West Virginia on Saturday plan to blockade a coal waste power plant that directly benefits right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin while contributing to the planetary emergency, with dozens of activists planning to risk arrest.

• “We chose this plant specifically because we need the world to know how corrupt Joe Manchin is.”

=> ↺ Texas Gov. Abbott Plan to Bus Migrants to Washington, DC Met With Fury

• Progressive critics are lashing out after GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday threatened to take migrants and refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border and then put them on buses to the nation’s capital as a show of political opposition to President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

• “Scapegoating migrants does nothing to keep our border communities safe.”

=> ↺ Vera Jourová: Orbán is fully aware that if he wishes to stay in the EU, he needs to abide by its rules

=> ↺ Orbán: On Europe, Hungary’s place within it, Russia, and more

• Viktor Orbán held an international press conference early Wednesday afternoon. This was his first such appearance since his party’s landslide victory in Sunday’s election.

=> ↺ Of Course Elon Musk Wanted Twitter

• Dip into Musk’s history, though, and you’ll find that his commitment to free speech has been less than absolute. He might like to be able to say anything he wants, but he bristles when what others want to say goes against his own preferences. He will grace his fans with engagement, but he has little interest in critics. And he has not always shown himself to be someone who welcomes people speaking their mind, especially not at his own companies. Musk’s version of free speech, in practice, seems to be one in which only powerful people can say what they please and escape any negative consequences.

Misinformation/Disinformation

=> ↺ Russian-backed [astroturfers] spreading disinformation on Facebook

• The report, released on Thursday, said the [astroturfers] targeted the Ukrainian telecom industry, defense and energy sectors, tech platforms, journalists and activists.

• Facebook said it disrupted a disinformation campaign linked to the Belarusian KGB, which posted that Ukrainian troops were surrendering, and that the nation’s leaders were fleeing the country the day Russia invaded. The tech company said it disabled the account and stopped the campaign that same day.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ How Israel’s ‘Facebook Law’ Threatens Free Speech – Validated Independent News

• Critics refer to this bill as the ‘Facebook Law’ because it targets online content on social media sites including but not limited to Facebook. Two groups, the Palestinian Digital Rights Coalition and the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations, have tracked Israeli censorship of Palestinian content online since 2016, when Sa’ar introduced the first version of his bill. In a joint statement responding to the newly proposed legislation, the two groups reported that Israel’s Cyber Unit has requested the removal of more than 20,000 Palestinian items. As Baroud reported, according to the two organizations, the new legislation “would only strengthen the relationship between the Cyber Unit and social media companies.”

=> ↺ Nigeria atheist Mubarak Bala jailed for blaspheming Islam

• A group of Muslims had filed a petition to the authorities accusing Bala of posting uncomplimentary messages about Islam on social media.

• Kano has a majority Muslim population. It is one of around a dozen states in northern Nigeria where Islamic law is practised alongside secular laws.

=> ↺ Turkish state agency cancels student’s loan for attending Women’s Day march

• The state-run Student Loans and Dormitories Institution (KYK), under the Youth and Sports Ministry, has canceled an education loan granted to a university student after she attended a feminist march organized in the Mediterranean province of Antalya on International Women’s Day March 8.

Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Eric Boehlert Got Everything Right About Our Petty, Self-Congratulating Media

• His first case study (to my knowledge) was on the lameness of most national political reporters as they covered Vice President Al Gore’s run for president. First, they puffed up his lackluster Democratic primary opponent, former senator Bill Bradley, and then fell in love with George W. Bush. That double-barreled campaign presaged the way the Beltway media would cover imperfect establishment Democratic leaders, from Gore (won the popular vote but lost the presidency) to Hillary Clinton (oh, same thing) to Joe Biden today (whew, won that popular vote—though unlike them, he faced a coup attempt). All with heinous consequences for our country and our democracy. Eric covered Gore and Clinton and Biden, too; it became his beat until his untimely death.

• If we want to honor his memory, more of us should commit to his unflinching attention to the role of the media in creating the mess we’re in today.

=> ↺ Columnist for left-wing daily indicted on Erdoğan insult charges due to article on forest fires

• A columnist for the left-wing Evrensel newspaper has been indicted on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in an opinion piece in which he criticized the government response to wildfires in the country in the summer of 2021, Evrensel reported.

• Columnist Ender İmrek faces charges of insulting the president in an article titled “Türkiye yanıyor, saray izliyor” (Turkey burns, the palace [a reference to Erdoğan] watches” dated July 31, 2021.

=> ↺ Turkey suspends trial of Saudi suspects in Khashoggi killing

• The Istanbul court’s decision comes despite warnings from human rights groups that turning the case over to the kingdom would lead to a cover up of the killing, which has cast suspicion on the crown prince.

• It also comes as Turkey, which is in a deep economic downturn, has been trying to repair its troubled relationship with Saudi Arabia and an array of other countries in its region. Some media reports have claimed that Riyadh has made improved relations conditional on Turkey dropping the case, which had inflamed tensions between two countries.

=> ↺ ‘I Will Not Stop,’ Says Khashoggi Fiancée as Turkey Moves Murder Trial to Saudi Arabia

• The fiancée of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi vowed to fight a Turkish court’s decision Thursday to move the trial of 26 Saudi suspects in the gruesome 2018 killing to Saudi Arabia, a ruling that human rights groups fear will spell an end to the case.

• Hatice Cengiz, who has been relentlessly campaigning for justice in the years since Khashoggi’s murder, said Thursday that her fight “is not over.”

=> ↺ Turkey suspends trial of Saudi suspects in Khashoggi killing

• Last week, the prosecutor in the case recommended that the case be transferred to the kingdom, arguing that the trial in Turkey would remain inconclusive. Turkey’s justice minister supported the recommendation, adding that the trial in Turkey would resume if the Turkish court is not satisfied with the outcome of proceedings in the kingdom. It was not clear however, if Saudi Arabia, which has already put some of the defendants on trial behind closed door, would open a new trial.

=> ↺ Turkey transfers Khashoggi murder trial to Saudi Arabia in move that likely ends case

• A Turkish court ruled Thursday that the trial in absentia of 26 suspects accused of murdering Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi can be moved to Saudi Arabia, in a move that could effectively end the case.

• Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 triggered a global outcry against the kingdom and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Turkish officials said Khashoggi, a prominent critic of bin Salman, was killed and dismembered inside the consulate in an operation had been approved by the “highest levels” in Riyadh. US intelligence assessed that the Crown Prince himself approved the operation, though he has denied the allegation.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Clothing Brands Becoming More Oriented to Children with Disabilities – Validated Independent News

• One in four people in the United States have a disability, and yet clothing that is convenient to them, clothing that makes them feel comfortable and happy, is extremely limited. A lot of people in this world do not see adaptive wear as essential products because they do not have to worry about it, but the parents of these children want to spread the word and let everyone know that there is a way to help make these kids’ lives a bit easier, and many close to this issue believe these adaptive clothes are the answer they’ve been waiting for. While some small businesses were able to supply these clothes, most of the prices ranged anywhere between $30 to $100 per piece making it difficult for parents to afford it. Emily Medrano, a mother to a two-year-old son says, “Few people realize how much needs to be budgeted for clothing when raising a child with a disability.”

=> ↺ People are More Likely to React to a Black Person’s Story of Injustice, Even If It Happened to Someone Who is White

• We wanted to observe whether and how the race of the person telling a story of racial injustice affects the reaction of their audience. So we conducted three studies that manipulated details about the race of the storyteller and victim to isolate the role the storyteller’s race plays.

• In the first study, we recruited 370 white male participants using a crowdsourced academic research panel. We asked them to watch a video in which a professional male actor portraying a consumer describes shopping in a store with his family and being unfairly suspected of shoplifting.

=> ↺ Liberals Are Adopting an Old Soviet Tactic: Painting Dissent as Mentally Ill

• Back in the dark days of the Soviet Union, dissidents risked being locked up – but not, officially at least, on the grounds that they had committed a political crime. In the Soviet regime’s imagination, treason and mental illness were often two sides of the same coin.

=> ↺ Opinion | We Urgently Need an Economic Bill of Rights—One That Includes the Disabled

• Professor Harvey Kaye and Alan Minsky, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, recently launched a proposal here on Common Dreams calling for a 21st century Economic Bill of Rights. It is a necessary proposal that creates a clear agenda for Progressive Democrats that distinguishes them from centrists. The policy implications can’t be understated either, if adopted these proposals would lift millions out of poverty. I’m writing this response article to emphasize the importance of bringing the disabled into the forefront of the conversation, and shed light on the struggles we face engaging with society. Discrimination against the disabled is often hard to see, especially as it relates to our participation in the economy. We’re discouraged from seeking the American dream by our laws, the economy, and physical barriers. We’re discouraged from living independently, owning a home, even from marriage.

=> ↺ Amazon plans to object to union victory in New York

• Amazon is planning to object to the results of the election where workers at a New York warehouse voted to organize with the Amazon Labor Union, according to a deadline extension request the company filed with the National Labor Relations Board (or NLRB). In the document, which you can read in full below, Amazon says that it’s gathering evidence to show that the union “threatened employees to coerce them into voting yes,” “electioneered and interfered with employees waiting in line to vote,” and “threatened immigrants with the loss of benefits if they did not vote.”

• Amazon hasn’t yet filed its final, official objections, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the NLRB. It will have until 11:59PM ET on Friday to do so, though the company has until April 22nd to file the proof it claims to be gathering.

=> ↺ Amazon warehouse workers in New York made history voting for a union. Here’s what could happen next

• The win is striking for a number of reasons, including that ALU is a scrappy effort unaligned with an established labor union. It scored a decisive victory while a drive done in tandem with an 85-year-old labor union in Alabama has stumbled. (The results of an election at Bessemer one year ago favored Amazon but were scrapped after a National Labor Relations Board regional director determined Amazon had illegally interfered, a decision the company called “disappointing.” A do-over election currently remains too close to call.)

=> ↺ Amazon objecting to union’s victory in New York, alleging interference

• The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is giving Amazon until April 22 to back up its objections to last week’s election in New York, in which Staten Island workers voted to form the company’s first U.S. union. Amazon had requested extra time to provide evidence because its objections are “substantial,” it said in a filing Wednesday.

=> ↺ How to Unionize at Amazon

• Their win was instantly remarkable: the first Amazon union outside of Europe. More remarkable still, the Amazon Labor Union was new and completely independent. It had none of the money or political connections of traditional organized labor.

=> ↺ Amazon Workers Who Won a Union Their Way Open Labor Leaders’ Eyes

• After the stunning victory at Amazon by a little-known independent union that didn’t exist 18 months ago, organized labor has begun to ask itself an increasingly pressing question: Does the labor movement need to get more disorganized?

• Unlike traditional unions, the Amazon Labor Union relied almost entirely on current and former workers rather than professional organizers in its campaign at a Staten Island warehouse. For financing, it turned to GoFundMe appeals rather than union coffers built from the dues of existing members. It spread the word in a break room and at low-key barbecues outside the warehouse.

• In the end, the approach succeeded where far bigger, wealthier and more established unions have repeatedly fallen short.

=> ↺ New Amazon Employee Chat App Bans Terms Like ‘Grievance’ and ‘Living Wage’

• Despite a massive amount of spending and tactical maneuvering to derail the effort, Amazon factory workers just successfully voted to form the company’s first union on Staten Island, New York.

=> ↺ Labor Group Files Objections to Amazon’s Conduct During Alabama Union Election

• With hundreds of ballots still being challenged from an inconclusive union vote at an Amazon facility in Alabama, a national labor organization on Thursday called for possibly setting aside the results due to alleged illegal behavior by the e-commerce giant.

• “We will continue to hold Amazon accountable and ensure workers’ voices are heard.”

=> ↺ ‘The Union Once Again Cleans Starbucks’ Clock’: Worker Wins Against Coffee Giant Continue

• The wave of Starbucks worker organization continued to sweep the U.S. this week as employees of the global coffee chain voted to unionize in three New York stores and took steps to form unions in numerous other states.

• “I think that we are going to continue to see this momentum.”

=> ↺ Union Filings Have Increased 57 Percent in the Last Six Months, Labor Board Says

=> ↺ Labor Board’s Top Counsel Argues Anti-Union Meetings Are “Inherently” Illegal

Monopolies

=> ↺ Shifting Sands In The Tech Sector

• In the U.S., politicians are itching to disrupt Big Tech. In January, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, introduced by Senator Klobuchar in October 2021, which would prohibit large technology companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google from preferencing their own products and services.

Patents

=> ↺ ’3 Man Chess: In The Round’ in APL (NARS2000). Part 1.

• ’3 Man Chess: In The Round’ was once created by Clif W. King, the board set used to be US-patented but the patent expired.

Trademarks

=> ↺ UFO Magazine Sues Showtime Networks Over ‘UFO’ Series For Trademark Infringement

• Long, long time readers here may remember that I have had something of a fascination in the past with subjects such as conspiracy theories and UFOs. Not that I’m much of a believer in the former, mind you, but I consider these forays into the occult to be wildly interesting on a variety of levels. Hell, 10 years ago Techdirt made 3 novels I wrote available, one of which absolutely dove into the UFO topic. UFO topics are everywhere in popular media and I would probably want to argue that the acronym is one of the most commonly used and understood acronyms of all time.

=> ↺ Lauren Boebert Threatens Disney’s ‘Mickey Mouse Trademark’ Extension, Which Isn’t A Thing

• This seems to be becoming a thing here in America, this desire by those in power to punish private companies for their stances and speech on controversial topics. Mike recently wrote about how this effort to exert legislative influence on private actors is one of the few bits of bi-partisanship we have these days. And, of course, how it’s absolutely the morally wrong thing to do when either of side of the aisle engages in this sort of thing. Still, I won’t pretend that it isn’t a spotlight of hypocrisy when one particular side crusades against “cancel culture” only to literally attempt to cancel specific forms of culture merely over speech their side of the political spectrum doesn’t like.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Episode 20: Open Culture VOICES – Marco Rendina

• Welcome to episode 20 of Open Culture VOICES! VOICES is a vlog series of short interviews with open GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) experts from around the world. The Open Culture Program at Creative Commons aims to promote better sharing of cultural heritage in GLAMs collections. With Open Culture VOICES, we’re thrilled to bring you various perspectives from dozens of experts speaking in many different languages on what it’s like to open up heritage content online. In this episode, we hear from Marco Rendina, the Managing Director of the European Fashion Heritage Association, and senior consultant at Istituto Luce Cinecittà. Marco has been working with museums, archives and libraries across Europe for two decades to support them in their digital transformation, advocate open access, gain extensive experience in the design and implementation of digital libraries, and promote innovation in the cultural heritage sector in Europe.

=> ↺ Episode 19: Open Culture VOICES – Dafydd Tudur

• Dafydd began his career supporting cultural heritage organizations to digitize their collections and publish them online. He also led the formation of the National Library of Wales’s (NLW) policy on open access and its successful collaboration with Wikimedia.

=> ↺ Bungie vs Fake DMCA Notices: Google Refuses to Hand Over User Data

• Chaos ensued last month when fraudulent DMCA notices sent to YouTube resulted in Destiny content creators’ videos being taken down for alleged copyright infringement. Bungie responded with a lawsuit to identify the culprits but at least as things stand, Google is refusing to comply with a subpoena demanding user data.

=> ↺ 1337x.to is Unreachable After Domain Name Expired (Updated)

• 1337x.to, one of the world’s most-visited torrent sites, has become unreachable over the past few days. The site’s DNS records have been wiped which makes it impossible for browsers to resolve the domain. It’s not clear why this is happening, but it could very well be related to the fact that the 1337x.to domain expired.

=> ↺ Ed Sheeran Gets It: As He Wins His Copyright Lawsuit, He Decries ‘Culture’ Of Bogus Copyright Suits

• We’ve covered a variety of recent copyright lawsuits against songs that sound vaguely similar, noting this ridiculous war on genres, and basically outlawing the idea of an homage. Even in cases where the lawsuits fail (which is frequently, though not always), it’s still an extremely costly waste of time that can still have massive chilling effects on creative people. Ed Sheeran has been sued a few times with these kinds of claims, and thankfully, just won a case in the UK.

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