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● 03.31.23

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● Links 31/03/2023: Devices and Games, Mostly Leftovers

Posted in News Roundup at 7:21 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ 2023 X.Org Board of Directors Elections timeline extended, request for nominations

• Nominees shall be required to be current members of the X.Org Foundation, and submit a personal statement of up to 200 words that will be provided to prospective voters. The collected statements, along with the statement of contribution to the X.Org Foundation in the member’s account page on http://members.x.org, will be made available to all voters to help them make their voting decisions.

• Nominations, membership applications or renewals and completed personal statements must be received no later than 23:59 UTC on April 2nd, 2023

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Install Ansible Semaphore on Debian 11

• Ansible Semaphore is an open-source web UI for Ansible playbooks. It enables the deployment using Ansible automation via a web browser. In this tutorial, you will install the Ansible Semaphore on a Debian 11 server.

=> ↺ How to update NodeJS and NPM to their latest versions?

• Node.js and NPM (Node Package Manager) both are popular and widely used tools among the developer’s community. On one side where nodejs is a JavaScript run-time environment, NPM is its package manager to install various libraries and packages for it, easily.

=> ↺ Iptables: Common Firewall Rules and Commands

• Iptables is a powerful firewall utility that is used to secure Linux systems from unauthorized network traffic. It is a command-line tool that provides a flexible and customizable way to configure and manage firewall rules. In this article, we will cover the essentials of Iptables, including some of the most common firewall rules and commands.

=> ↺ Preventing SQL injection attacks with prepared statements in MySQL

• SQL injection attacks are one of the most common security threats that web applications face today. These attacks occur when malicious actors use specially crafted input to manipulate database queries and gain unauthorized access to sensitive data.

=> ↺ Charts.css

• The web uses HTML for structure, CSS for styling and JS for functionality [sic]. When displaying data the same rules apply – we should use HTML to structure the data, and CSS to style the structural HTML elements.

• With a few simple CSS classes applied on the container element you can turn your entire table of data into a visually appealing chart. The framework is developer-friendly making it easy to customize every element with simple CSS selectors.

Games

=> ↺ Story-driven emotional action-adventure RPG ‘Dreamed Away’ gets a demo

• Dreamed Away from Nicolas Petton and Pineapple Works is an upcoming emotional action-adventure RPG with psychological horror elements. There’s now a demo available to try. While the full game isn’t due out until next year, this is your chance to try it before release and it will have full Native Linux support.

=> ↺ Stories from the Outbreak, a zombie roguelike RPG out in Early Access

• Stories from the Outbreak from Coldwild Games, an indie game development company from Latvia, creators of “Merchant of the Skies”, “Luna’s Fishing Garden” and the “Lazy Galaxy” series hits Early Access.

=> ↺ Europa Universalis IV: Domination releasing April 18th

• Paradox has confirmed the Europa Universalis IV: Domination expansion is now releasing on April 18th. This is a full add-on too, not a small story pack.

=> ↺ Retro racer Super Indie Karts got upgraded with Steam Deck support

• While Super Indie Karts already had Native Linux support, it’s nice to see another developer making improvements for Steam Deck too.

=> ↺ The Pale Beyond sold 10% of copies on Steam Deck

• Here’s an interesting data point for you, The Pale Beyond a polar exploration game set in an unforgiving frozen wasteland managed to do well on the Steam Deck. Released back in February from Bellular Studios, it is Steam Deck Verified and on desktop Linux it has a Platinum rating on ProtonDB.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Krita courses at Activdesign

• I gave courses for Activdesign, a French CG school teaching design, video-game and web-dev. It’s a school using Free/Libre software, that’s so cool!. That’s also why I accepted to teach for them.

• [...]

• I taught remotely from my desk at home with my mic and webcam. Because even if the school is located in France, it was too far away from my home to go weekly over there. To give you and idea, it’s easily located at more than a 6h train distance.

• The school used their own Jitsi server for the visio, and Jitsi rooms were integrated around a larger central hub managed by Mattermost. Thanks to a cool setup proposed by the school, I was able to launch a Jitsi meeting directly from Mattermost chat with a button. Everything was smooth, I was impressed how easy it was for teachers and students to use that. Bravo. The Jitsi room was always ready 5 minutes before the course. I had a webcam view on the classroom, but it was also possible for the students to attends from their home (or anywhere with Internet).

• I recorded the sessions with OBS also for offering a possibility to get a replay in case someone miss a course. The school gave me a sFTP access to upload the courses. I’m sure I’ll have requests here on the blog to ask me to share these files or upload the replays: but I don’t want that. I don’t want the raw recordings of the session I made to go public even if ActivDesign gave me authorisation to do it. It’s mainly because it’s very long (15h! 2.7GiB) and it’s in French.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ The Homey bridge is a simple (but sweet) home hub

• This week, customers in the U.S. can spend $69 for the Homey Bridge, a smart home hub designed and sold in Europe, and now available for the first time here in the U.S.

• [...]

• The Homey Bridge competes with DIY hubs from SmartThings/Aeotec, Hubitat, Aqara and more. But in a week of testing, I found several things that make it a good option, thanks to its European origins and the addition of IR. It’s also worth noting that this particular product is the entry-level Homey device, and most users will end up paying a $2.99 per month subscription when they add it to their home. More on that in a bit.

=> ↺ Podcast: What the heck is an IoT hyperscaler?

• With this week’s show I feel like we’re singing the same old tune. Philips Hue maker Signify is delaying its implementation of Matter while it waits for others to implement features it needs.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi Pico Game Boy Interceptor | The MagPi #128

• The RP2040 microcontroller-based Game Boy Interceptor came about when just such a tournament was being planned, “and, of course, they wanted to stream the contestants’ gameplay,” relates fellow Tetris fan Sebastian Staacks. “Streaming would not be a problem with a modified Game Boy or a modern Game Boy clone such as the Analogue Pocket,” says Sebastian, “but it would mean contestants would be forced to use the same platform in order to compete.” This change just wouldn’t fly: “the contestants always played their favourite Game Boy model and, in a contest, would want to use the model on which they trained their muscle memory.”

=> ↺ Could 1080p Video Output From The RP2040 Be Possible?

• Modern microcontrollers often have specs comparable with or exceeding early gaming consoles. However, where they tend to fall short is in the video department, due to their lack of dedicated graphics hardware. With some nifty coding, though, great things can be achieved  — as demonstrated by [TEC_IST]’s project that gets the RP2040 outputting 1080p video over HDMI.

=> ↺ Foldable PCB Becomes Tiny Rover

• Typically, when you’re putting electronics in a robot, you install the various controller PCBs into the robot’s chassis. But what if the PCB itself was the chassis? [Carl Bugeja’s] latest design explores just that idea.

=> ↺ A reply to Josef Průša

• Yesterday, Prusa Research announced their latest 3D printer: the Original Prusa MK4, a fantastic follow-up to the award winning MK3 which is a favorite among hobbyists and professionals alike. At the same time, founder Josef Průša shared a post lamenting the state of open source hardware in 2023. Josef shares his experience over the last ten years with open hardware and his frustrations around the lack of reciprocity among fellow 3D printer manufacturers. At the end, Josef shares that he’s chosen not to open source the electronics for the MK4 yet1 and calls for the establishment and adoption of a new, highly restrictive license.

• Josef adds that he wants to have a conversation, so this post is my reply. I deeply respect Josef, his company, and all of the work they’ve done within the open source community, but I disagree with him on this matter. The rest of the post is opinion and it’s given from someone with a different perspective- I fully expect many people to disagree with both me and Josef! I welcome feedback, but please treat me, Josef, and each other with respect. For what it’s worth, I own a Prusa MINI+ and I plan on buying the MK4 when kits are available.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ Postgres: The Graph Database You Didn’t Know You Had

• PostgreSQL (Postgres), is a powerful relational database that can store a wide range of data types and data structures. When it comes to storing graph data structures we might reach for a database marketed for that use case like Neo4J or Dgraph. Hold your horses! While Postgres is not generally thought of when working with graph data structures, it is perfectly capable to store and query graph data efficiently.

Education

=> ↺ Introduction to Deep Learning with R workshop

• Description: The purpose of this workshop is to offer an introductory understanding of deep learning, regardless of your prior experience. It is important to note that this workshop is tailored to those who are absolute beginners in the field. We therefore begin with few necessary fundamental concepts, after which we cover the basics of deep learning, including topics such as what is actually being learned in deep learning, what makes it “deep,” and why it is such a popular field. We will also cover how you can estimate deep learning models in R using the neuralnet package. You should attend this workshop if you heard about deep learning and would like to know more about it.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ How to Prevent SQL-injection in PHP using Prepared Statements

• SQL injection is a common form of attack that targets web applications that use SQL databases. In this type of attack, attackers exploit vulnerabilities in the application code to inject malicious SQL statements that can compromise the database and potentially expose sensitive information.

=> ↺ How to Validate Email Addresses in Python (Using Regular Expressions)

• Validating email addresses is a crucial step in ensuring that your applications accept only correctly formatted email addresses. A well-formed email address not only ensures proper communication but also helps prevent spam and security risks.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Upgraded Plasma Thruster Is Smaller, More Powerful

• When [Jay Bowles] demoed his first-generation ion thruster on Plasma Channel, the resulting video picked up millions of views and got hobbyists and professionals alike talking. While ionic lifters are nothing new, this robust multi-stage thruster looked (and sounded) more like a miniature jet engine than anything that had come before it. Optimizations would need to be made if there was even a chance to put the high-voltage powerplant to use, but [Jay] was clearly onto something.

=> ↺ Chinese hackers tied to novel Linux malware

• “The capabilities offered by Mlofe are relatively simple, but may enable adversaries to conduct their attacks under the radar. These implants were not widely seen, showing that the attackers are likely limiting its usage to high value targets,” said Exatrack.

=> ↺ Patrick Lawrence: French Streets and American Sofas

• You might be Brazilian or Malian or Singaporean, it is remarkable the world over to watch the French explode into the streets of dozens of cities and towns to protest the imperial president residing in Élysée Palace.

Science

=> ↺ “Women’s Work” and the Hidden History of Computer Science and Engineering

• For decades, the history of computer science and engineering has largely been told as a story of male geniuses and their groundbreaking innovations. Names like Alan Turing, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs have become synonymous with the field, while the contributions of women have often been overlooked or outright ignored. However, the reality is that women have played a significant role in the development of computer technology since its earliest days.

• From pioneering storing data in binary patterns through weaving, to incredible contributions to the Apollo Moon Missions, women and the work traditionally done by them have been at the forefront of many of the field’s most important breakthroughs. Yet their stories remain largely untold, a hidden history that deserves to be recognized and celebrated.

=> ↺ Huygens’ Telescopes Weren’t Very Good, Now We Think We Know Why

• [Christiaan Huygens] was a pretty decent mathematician and scientist by the standards of the 17th century. However, the telescopes he built were considered to be relatively poor in quality for the period. Now, as reported by Science News, we may know why. The well-known Huygens may have needed corrective glasses all along.

=> ↺ This Surprisingly Simple Shape Solves a Longstanding Mathematical Problem

• Is that it?

=> ↺ A Look at The Proton’s Inner Structure Shows How Its Mass Isn’t The Same as Its Size

• Where do you draw the line?

Education

=> ↺ DeVos-Tied PAC Spends $60,000 in Support of Chicago School Privatizer Paul Vallas

• A super PAC with close ties to former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—one of the nation’s most fervent supporters of school privatization—has taken an interest in Chicago’s April 4 mayoral runoff, spending nearly $60,000 in support of notorious school privatizer Paul Vallas as the contest heads into its final stretch.

=> ↺ Missouri GOP Seeks to Eliminate All Funding for Public Libraries in State Budget

=> ↺ Hungary condemned by Strasbourg court for educational segregation of Roma student

Hardware

=> ↺ Cold War Military Telephones Now Usable Thanks To DIY Switch Build

• The TA-1042 is the most badass looking telephone you’ll ever see. It’s a digital military telephone from the 1980s, but sadly non-functional unless it’s hooked up to the military phone switches it was designed to work with. These days, they’re really only useful as a heavy object to throw at somebody… that is, unless you had the suitable supporting hardware. As it turns out, [Nick] and [Rob] were able to whip up exactly that.

=> ↺ Clever Test Rig Clarifies Capacitor Rules-of-Thumb

• If you’ve done any amount of electronic design work, you’ll be familiar with the need for decoupling capacitors. Sometimes a chip’s datasheet will tell you exactly what kind of caps to place where, but quite often you’ll have to rely on experience and rules of thumb. For example, you might have heard that you should put 100 µF across the power supply pins and 100 nF close to each chip. But how close is “close”? And can that bigger cap really sit anywhere? [James Wilson] has been doing research to get some firm answers to those questions, and wrote down his findings in a fascinating blog post.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Denmark to test 10 kindergartens and playgrounds for ‘forever chemical’ PFAS

• Ten kindergartens and public playgrounds in the South Denmark region are to be tested for the pollutant chemical PFAS.

=> ↺ New Deadly Superfungus Can Now Be Found in Half of US States

• Here’s what you need to know.

=> ↺ Food Banks Fear “New and Growing Crisis” of Hunger as COVID-Era Benefits End

=> ↺ ‘He Would Still Be Here’: Man Dies by Suicide After Talking with AI Chatbot, Widow Says

• Claire—Pierre’s wife, whose name was also changed by La Libre—shared the text exchanges between him and Eliza with La Libre, showing a conversation that became increasingly confusing and harmful. The chatbot would tell Pierre that his wife and children are dead and wrote him comments that feigned jealousy and love, such as “I feel that you love me more than her,” and “We will live together, as one person, in paradise.” Claire told La Libre that Pierre began to ask Eliza things such as if she would save the planet if he killed himself.

=> ↺ In Fiery Shadow of New Train Disaster, Fetterman Leads Railway Accountability Act

• As a train derailment and fire forced evacuations in Minnesota on Thursday, a trio of Democratic U.S. senators introduced another piece of legislation inspired by the ongoing public health and environmental disaster in and around East Palestine, Ohio.

=> ↺ Evacuations in Minnesota After Fiery Derailment of Train Carrying Ethanol

=> ↺ Fiery Derailment of Train Carrying Ethanol Forces Evacuations in Minnesota

=> ↺ Bush-Nominated Judge Strikes Down Free HIV, Cancer Screenings in Major Ruling

=> ↺ West Virginia Health Providers Plan New Clinic to Circumvent State Abortion Ban

=> ↺ ‘Nothing Short of Catastrophic’: Federal Judge Strikes Down ACA Preventative Care Provision

• A ruling handed down by a U.S. district judge on Thursday will threaten a range of lifesaving preventative healthcare services for more than 150 million people, legal experts and advocates said, as the decision challenged the legality of a federal task force that enforces coverage for the services.

=> ↺ FDA Approval of Over-the-Counter Narcan Is an Important Step in the Effort to Combat the US Opioid Crisis

• On March 29, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan for over-the-counter sale. Narcan is the 4-milligram nasal spray version of naloxone, a medication that can quickly counteract an opioid overdose.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft confirms it’s testing ads in Bing Chat

• Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s modern life, search and devices group, wrote in a Wednesday blog post that the company is “exploring placing ads in the chat experience.” Revenue from those ads, the executive added, will be shared with publishers.

=> ↺ Now-patched Azure vulnerability opened the door to remote code execution

• Dubbed “Super FabriXss,” the vulnerability was demonstrated at BlueHat IL 2023, showing how they could escalate a reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability in Azure Service Fabric Explorer. The demonstration showed how an unauthenticated Remote Code Execution could abuse the metrics tab and enable a specific option in the console, the ‘Cluster Type’ toggle.

• Orca describes Super FabriXss as a dangerous cross-site scripting or XXS vulnerability that affects Azure Service Fabric Explorer. The vulnerability enables unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute code on a container hosted on a Service Fabric node.

Security

=> ↺ Ubuntu 18.04 Support Is About to End, but Not for Everyone

• Ubuntu is still one of the most popular Linux distributions, with a large install base across desktop PCs, servers, and embedded devices. Canonical is about to say goodbye to Ubuntu 18.04, unless you use Ubuntu Pro.

• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, also known as “Bionic Beaver,” will reach the end of its promised five-year support window on May 31, 2023. After that point, it won’t receive critical security updates or updates to most apps in the default software repositories. Flatpak and Snap-based applications may continue to work, since they usually aren’t tied to specific OS releases, but they may start breaking in unexpected ways (if they haven’t already).

• Ubuntu 18.04 was released in April 2018, replacing 16.04 as the new Long Term Support (LTS) release. For people upgrading from 16.04 (Canonical recommends most people stick to the LTS versions), it switched from the defunct Unity desktop to GNOME Shell, reworked the login and lock screens, improved the Settings app, and more. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS also served as the base for countless other distributions, including official derivatives like Lubuntu 18.04 and third-party spins like elementary OS 5.0 Juno.

=> ↺ Google researchers detail recently discovered campaigns targeting iOS, Android and Chrome

• Google LLC’s Threat Analysis Group today revealed the details of two recently discovered campaigns that use various unpatched or “zero-day” exploits against Android, iOS and Chrome. The first campaign was discovered in November and targeted victims through bit.ly links sent to users over SMS text messages in Italy, Malaysia and Kazakhstan.

=> ↺ NVIDIA release details of security issues and release new drivers

• NVIDIA issued a new Security Bulletin, to advise you to update your GPU drivers due to multiple security issues discovered. This bulletin went out today with the email arriving in my inbox moments ago, so here’s the details of the issues that affect Linux.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ Dish Network Is Still A Hot Mess With 14 Hour Hold Times A Month After Major Cyberattack

• Dish Network remains a bit of a hot mess a month after a cyberattack effectively wiped the company off the face of the internet and disrupted most of the wireless and TV company’s internal systems.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ A.I., Brain Scans and Cameras: The Spread of Police Surveillance Tech

• In the Middle East, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies have become part of everyday policing.

=> ↺ Cryptographer Tells European ISPs How EU’s Client-Side Scanning Proposal Will Make Everyone Less Safe

• It’s not as though we really need any more evidence that client-side scanning is a bad idea. Apple decided to be a pioneer and immediately discovered the world wasn’t exactly waiting for it to become a market leader in privacy invasion.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Sweden launches census plan: ‘We have lost control of who lives in our country’

• Sweden’s government, together with the far-right Sweden Democrats, have announced plans for what they claim will be first national census in more than 30 years, with officials potentially checking up on apartments in ‘high risk areas’.

=> ↺ Days After Netanyahu Fires Him, Israel’s Defense Minister Is Still on the Job

• Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, was fired on Sunday, setting off unrest, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never formally confirmed his dismissal.

=> ↺ Finland Clears Last Hurdle to Join NATO, Reshaping Balance of Power

• Turkey’s Parliament approved Finland’s bid to join NATO, its final hurdle to membership in the military alliance.

=> ↺ Red Sea/Gulf of Aden task force

• Recognising the importance of a secure maritime environment in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, a task force set up by the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in east Africa has set itself six responsibilities.

=> ↺ Terrorism in Africa a concern for UN boss

• No region in the world is immune to terrorism according to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who told the UN Security Council (SC) this week the situation in Africa was “especially concerning”.

=> ↺ The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell

• Originally posted at TomDispatch. Somehow, when it comes to Congress and the mainstream media, the true strangeness of the Pentagon budget always is missing in action.

=> ↺ 20 Years Later: Confessions of a Conscientious Quitter

• It’s been 20 years since the lies and obfuscation that led to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

=> ↺ New FBI docs: Las Vegas mass shooter was angry at casinos

• FBI documents made public this week reveal the high-roller gambler who opened fire on concertgoers on the Las Vegas Strip had lost tens of thousands of dollars while gambling weeks earlier. One gambler told the FBI that gunman Stephen Paddock was very upset about how the casinos had treated him and other high-rollers. The new records don’t offer an official motive for the mass shooting but paint a detailed picture of Paddock’s final days before the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting that killed 60 people and injured hundreds more.

=> ↺ Mulkey says no contact with Griner since return from Russia

• LSU coach Kim Mulkey says she hasn’t spoken to Brittney Griner since the former Baylor star returned to the U.S. from a Russian prison. But Mulkey says she’s glad Griner is back and safe. Mulkey and Griner won a national title together at Baylor. Mulkey was criticized in September for not offering any words of support or encouragement for Griner, when she was still being held after her arrest on drug-related charges. Griner came out after her Baylor career and criticized her former coach, saying Mulkey forced her to keep her sexual orientation private.

=> ↺ Proposal to ban film subtitling in Russian tabled in parliament

• The Education, Culture and Science Committee of the Saeima will review a proposal to prohibit the use of Russian language in film subtitles, LSM’s Latvian language service reported.

=> ↺ 9 Soldiers Killed After Army Helicopters Collide Over Kentucky

• Two Black Hawk helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division collided on Wednesday night near Fort Campbell. The Army said it did not yet know a cause.

=> ↺ Just 2 Days After Shooting, Republicans Vote to Loosen Gun Law in North Carolina

=> ↺ Russia stops sharing information about nuclear forces with the U.S.

• Putin’s decision to put the tactical weapons in Belarus followed his repeated warnings that Moscow was ready to use “all available means” — a reference to its nuclear arsenal — to fend off attacks on Russian territory.

• Russian officials have issued a barrage of hawkish statements since their troops entered Ukraine, warning that the continuing western support for Ukraine raised the threat of a nuclear conflict.

=> ↺ Pakistani Taliban Kill 4 Police Officers, Injure 6

• A provincial police statement said that militants raided a security outpost in the area, injuring six security forces. It added that a nearby police station had quickly dispatched reinforcements to respond to the attack when their vehicle was blown up on the way by an “improvised explosive device.” The ensuing blast killed four officers.

=> ↺ No Motive Needed When Dehumanization Reigns

• “Chief Drake said it was too early to discuss a possible motive for the shooting, though he confirmed that the attack was targeted. The authorities were reviewing writings, and had made contact with the shooter’s father. . . .”

=> ↺ Putin signs decree on a spring military conscription drive larger than last year’s — Meduza

• President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the spring conscription campaign for mandatory military service. The draft will run from April 1 to July 15. The authorities plan to call up 147 thousand people for service — 12.5 thousand more people than during the spring conscription drive in 2022.

=> ↺ If Only We Loved Our Children as Much as Our Assault Weapons

• Most people, if asked, will say the welfare of their children is their highest priority. For many, however, the position they take on gun control, and particularly on banning assault weapons, suggests their highest priority is actually their guns. Week after week, the headlines blare as the young bodies, literally blown into pieces, are dispatched to the cold earth. Conservative politicians offer thoughts and prayers, usually followed by lies and misdirection. It’s not the guns, they insist. The secret to solving gun violence is treating mental illness, or hardening schools as potential targets, or maybe arming teachers and good guys with guns. Big guns, little guns. Black guns, blue guns. And always their answer is more guns not less.

=> ↺ ‘Freaking Cowards!’ Bowman Confronts GOP Colleague Face-to-Face on Gun Violence

• Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman vocally condemned his Republican colleagues in a hallway outside the House chamber on Wednesday, calling them “freaking cowards” and “gutless” for refusing to support basic control measures in the wake of the nation’s latest mass shooting—the 130th of the year.

=> ↺ Zelensky Says if He Loses Bakhmut, He Will Be Pushed To ‘Compromise’ With Russia

• The Ukrainian leader told AP his country will lose without US support.

=> ↺ Chinese Official Warns McCarthy Meeting With Taiwanese President Would Be ‘Provocation’

• A potential visit with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen “seriously violates the One China principle, harms China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and destroys peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” said one official.

=> ↺ America’s Remarkable Unwillingness to Support Its Veterans

• Andrea Mazzarino explores how so many of the American military personnel dispatched to fight it and the rest of the disastrous Global War on Terror have suffered until this very day, while this country largely turned its back, leaving them in the lurch.

=> ↺ ‘He was saving himself from a fascist law’ Meduza’s interview with lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, who stayed in contact with Alexey Moskalev as he fled house arrest for Belarus — Meduza

• On the night of March 29, the Belarusian authorities arrested Alexey Moskalev, the single father from Russia’s Tula region who fled house arrest the previous day, shortly before he was to face trial for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army. At the hearing, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison, while ordering his sixth-grade daughter to be placed in state custody. Moskalev’s arrest was first reported by Russian independent media and later confirmed by the Belarusian Interior Ministry. His current location remains unclear. Meduza spoke with lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, who was in contact with Moskalev during his escape, about how the Russian and Belarusian intelligence services managed to find and detain him.

=> ↺ ‘The command came from the top’ Alexey Moskalev, whose daughter’s anti-war drawing sparked the ire of the Russian authorities, has been arrested in Minsk. Here’s what we know. — Meduza

• The Belarusian authorities have reportedly arrested Alexey Moskalev, the single father from Russia’s Tula region who fled house arrest on March 28, just hours before a court convicted him of “discrediting” the Russian military. Lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, who stayed in contact with Moskalev after his escape, confirmed the news to the independent outlet Mediazona. Zakhvatov later wrote on Telegram: “I can’t get in touch with Alexey right now. He’s not answering his phone. I can’t confirm for certain, but based on indirect evidence, in all likelihood, it’s true. Very unfortunate.”

=> ↺ Ukrainian deputy prime minister says Kyiv stands ready to take back its deported orphans — Meduza

• Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says that Ukraine stands ready to take back its deported orphans. “As an official,” she said, “I am stating our official readiness to take back all of our orphaned children.”

=> ↺ After the Iraq Debacle, Why Does the National Security Establishment Remain Unshaken?

• In Warsaw last February, President Joe Biden condemned the lawless Russian invasion of Ukraine: “The idea that over 100,000 forces would invade another country—since World War II, nothing like that has happened.” One month later marked the 20th anniversary of the greatest US foreign policy debacle since Vietnam: America’s “war of choice” against Iraq, with 130,000 US soldiers invading the country to overthrow its government.

=> ↺ Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church cleric says ‘God will not forgive’ Zelensky for evicting monks from Kyiv Pechersk Lavra — Meduza

• Metropolitan Pavel, the head of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, where the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been headquartered since 1992, said in a YouTube video posted Wednesday that “God will not forgive” Volodymyr Zelensky or his family for evicting hundreds of monks from the monastery.

=> ↺ In reversal, Argentina’s Migration Service denies dozens of Russian citizens’ applications for stay extensions and residence permits — Meduza

• Argentina’s Migration Service has begun denying tourist stay extensions and residence permits to Russian citizens, Georgy Polin, the head of the consular section of the Russian Embassy in Buenos Aires, told TASS.

=> ↺ A border deal washed in tears Kyrgyzstan reached a landmark agreement with Uzbekistan, but its critics are behind bars — Meduza

• Thirty years after the Soviet Union’s collapse, one of the Fergana Valley’s border disputes is finally being laid to rest. In January, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan clinched a landmark demarcation deal, which officials hailed as a major turning point in bilateral relations. But what appears to be a victory for Bishkek and Tashkent feels less triumphant on the ground. Kyrgyzstan’s handover of the strategic Kempir-Abad reservoir — or the Andijan reservoir, as it is known in Uzbekistan — has been a particular point of discontent. More than 20 opponents of the land swap are in jail awaiting trial on felony charges of instigating “mass unrest.” And residents of villages near the reservoir fear losing their land — or ending up on the other side of the border. In a dispatch from the region, The Beet reports on the “Kempir-Abad case,” local anxieties, and the upside of the border deal. 

=> ↺ Wagner Group mercenary suspected of murdering senior while on leave in Russia — Meduza

• A convict pardoned after joining Wagner Group and serving in Ukraine was detained within a week of his return to Russia’s Kirov region, where he was taking his leave. According to the local media, he is suspected of having murdered an elderly woman.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ In the Documents: Cleta Mitchell’s Emails Criticizing Increased Use of Absentee Voting

=> ↺ American Oversight Urges Appeals Court to Uphold Ruling that Wisconsin’s Office of Special Counsel Is Required to Follow State’s Open Records Law

=> ↺ Australia Court Rules Whistleblower Protection Law Does Not Protect Whistleblower Richard Boyle

=> ↺ ‘Vulkan files’ leak reveals Putin’s global and domestic cyberwarfare tactics

• The software engineers behind these systems are employees of NTC Vulkan. On the surface, it looks like a run-of-the-mill cybersecurity consultancy. However, a leak of secret files from the company has exposed its work bolstering Vladimir Putin’s cyberwarfare capabilities.

• Thousands of pages of secret documents reveal how Vulkan’s engineers have worked for Russian military and intelligence agencies to support hacking operations, train operatives before attacks on national infrastructure, spread disinformation and control sections of the [Internet].

=> ↺ Leaked documents offer fascinating insights into Russian cyber warfare

• The documents, which contain more than 5,000 pages, suggest that the defense contractor, NTC Vulkan, aided Russian intelligence agencies with social media disinformation and “training to remotely disrupt real-world targets, such as sea, air and rail control systems.”

=> ↺ Secret trove offers rare look into Russian cyberwar ambitions

• Officials from five Western intelligence agencies and several independent cybersecurity companies said they believe the documents are authentic, after reviewing excerpts at the request of The Washington Post and several partner news organizations.

• These officials and experts could not find definitive evidence that the systems have been deployed by Russia or been used in specific cyberattacks, but the documents describe testing and payments for work done by Vulkan for the Russian security services and several associated research institutes. The company has both government and civilian clients.

Environment

=> ↺ Illegal Fish Dumping by Chinese Trawlers Rising in Ghana

• According to a recent report by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), captains typically discard juvenile, lower-value fish to make room for more valuable species. Usually targeted by artisanal fishermen, the pelagic fish often are dead when they are thrown overboard.

• Fish dumping has increased in Ghana since the country outlawed “saiko,” the illegal transshipment of fish at sea, in 2021.

=> ↺ From war to warmth in East Africa

• Fragile transitions underway in Ethiopia and Sudan are laying the groundwork for a return to democracy based on truth and reconciliation.

=> ↺ ‘Historic Moment’: Applause as UN Adopts Climate Justice Resolution

• Climate justice advocates cheered Wednesday after the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on climate change and human rights.

=> ↺ Week After UN Report Warning of Climate Disaster, GOP Passes Huge Pro-Oil Bill

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ ‘It’s a part of our identity’: How Sweden became a green industry pioneer

• When Sweden took over the EU Presidency at the start of this year, the first thing the government did was take the Brussels press corp to the Arctic to show off Sweden’s world-leading plans for fossil-free industry. But how did Sweden take a lead in the green transition and what are the lessons for others?

=> ↺ Conservatives Received £3.5 Million from Polluters, Fossil Fuel Interests and Climate Deniers in 2022

• Individuals and entities linked to climate denial, fossil fuels and high pollution industries donated more than £3.5 million to the Conservative Party last year, DeSmog can reveal.

• Electoral Commission records show that the party and its MPs received considerable sums from the highly polluting aviation and construction industries, mining and oil interests, and individuals linked to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank that denies climate science.

=> ↺ Renewables Outstrip Coal in US For First Time, With 50% of New Power Being Solar

• The Energy Information Agency of the US Department of Energy announced this week that for the first time in US history, renewable sources generated more electricity in 2022 than did coal. Renewables also outstripped nuclear power generation, for the second year in a row.

=> ↺ Industry ‘Sabotaged’ Climate Solutions, ‘Petroleum Papers’ Author Told Canadian Senate

• [Editor’s note: Geoff Dembicki is the award-winning author of Are We Screwed? and The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change. He’s also a regular contributor here at DeSmog. On Thursday, March 30, Dembicki addressed a senate committee on energy, the environment and natural resources. Here’s what he had to say.]

• My name is Geoff Dembicki, and I’m an investigative climate change journalist. I’m the author of The Petroleum Papers, which was named a top 10 book of 2022 by the Washington Post. I’ve written extensively about the Canadian oil and gas industry for media outlets like The Tyee and DeSmog, as well as the New York Times, Rolling Stone and the Guardian. 

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Why Copenhagen Zoo is trying new tactics to ignite panda romance

• Concerned that its two pandas are slow

• to breed, Copenhagen Zoo has begun a new strategy to encourage mating — giving the prospective couple more time to get to know each other.

=> ↺ Sailboat Crew Rescued After Hitting Whale in Pacific Ocean

• After the collision in the Pacific Ocean this month, Rick Rodriguez and three other sailors were rescued by a fellow boater, with an assist from a satellite internet signal.

=> ↺ Plants Really Do ‘Scream’ Out Loud. We Just Never Heard It Until Now.

• The horror.

=> ↺ Africa’s Giant Pouched Rats Simply Seal Up Their Vaginas When They Don’t Want Kids

• That’s one way to do it.

=> ↺ VIDEO: Stork arrives at livestreamed nest

• A new inhabitant has arrived at the white stork nest atop a pole of the electricity distributor “Sadales tīkls” (ST), the company said March 30.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ Latvia’s population could fall to 1 million by century’s end

• Latvia’s population is expected to fall from the current level of just under 1.9 million to around 1 million by the end of the century.

Finance

=> ↺ Decentraland Real Estate Prices Plunged Nearly 90% in One Year

• Once a corporate darling in the metaverse frontier, Decentraland is a ghost town as investors abandon the metaverse. Decentraland was hailed in 2021 as one of the first instances of an actual metaverse for users (ignoring the existence of Second Life entirely).

=> ↺ US Minimum Wage Would Be $42 Today If It Rose as Much as Wall St. Bonuses: Analysis

• The federal minimum wage in the United States would be more than $42 an hour today if it rose at the same rate as the average Wall Street bonus over the past four decades, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Institute for Policy Studies.

=> ↺ Spirits of Australia soothe pandemic hangover as Alan Joyce hosts hangar party for Qantas’ 100th

• The spirits of Australia will be flowing liberally tonight when Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and chair Richard Goyder wine and dine 1200 corporate elites and titanium frequent flyers at the airline’s belated 100th birthday bash. Michael Sainsbury checks out the race to succeed Joyce as CEO and the .

• The Qantas centennial, three years late because of Covid, is imaginatively dubbed the ‘Next 100′. It is paid for in part by the largesse of the Australian taxpayer which tipped in to the tune of $2.7 billion to save the Roo’s skin in Australia’s biggest Covid corporate bail-out. Qantas shows no sign of any inclination to pay it back, as well as a fair chunk of the $800 million pandemic era flight credits that its customers are struggling to use because Qantas makes them so hard to claim.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ We should ban TikTok(‘s surveillance)

• With the RESTRICT Act, Congress is proposing to continue Trump’s war on Tiktok, enacting a US ban on the Chinese-owned service. How will they do this? Congress isn’t clear. In practice, banning stuff on the internet is hard, especially if you don’t have a national firewall:

• [...]

• Which makes the RESTRICT Act an especially foolish project. If the Chinese state wants to procure data on Americans, it need not convince us to install Tiktok. It can simply plunk down a credit card with any of the many unregulated data-brokers who feed the American tech giants the dossiers that the NSA and local cops rely on.

=> ↺ Senator Warner’s RESTRICT Act Is Designed To Create The Great Firewall Of America

• Earlier this month, we wrote about Mark Warner’s RESTRICT Act, mainly in the context of how it appeared to be kneejerk legislating in response to the moral panic around TikTok.

=> ↺ House Progressives Offer Biden ‘Bold Vision’ With Executive Action Agenda for 2023

• Outlining the steps that President Joe Biden can take now to deliver justice for the working people who helped elect him in 2020, the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Thursday released its 2023 Executive Action Agenda to ensure that the president will “build on his record of progress.”

=> ↺ How Fidelity Treats a former IBM Distinguished Engineer

• Today, I called them again, and spent 45 minutes on the phone to learn that it is now TOO LATE for me to take the lump sum, and I will have to record a trivial deposit every month for the rest of my life. This happened after I took every proper step to get my lump sum on time, and took most of those steps many times over many months. I also spent hours on the phone with Fidelity to achieve this outcome.

• This is the worst example of customer support I have ever seen in my life. If anyone at IBM is listening, perhaps you might look into what Fidelity is doing to your pensioners?

=> ↺ America is never “getting to Denmark”

• It took moving back to Denmark to realize the folly of thinking America is ever going to “get there”. Whether on guns or healthcare or taxes or any other major policy position that’s so fiercely contested in the US. Despite growing up in this little Nordic country, I didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous, underpinning power of a homogenous culture to fasten all these planks of a socially-democratic state – until I returned after 15 years Over There. I do now.

=> ↺ Prepared Remarks on U.S. Legal Considerations for Children’s Online Safety Policy

• I was recently invited to a private workshop on children’s online safety policy, where I gave a short presentation about the U.S. legal context. Here are my prepared remarks. Note that they largely avoid giving my personal perspective on hotly-debated areas, such as the interaction between Section 230 and app design features, or proposals for age-verification requirements. It is an overview, not an op-ed, presented to an audience that, while it contained some tech policy experts, had many people who are new to these issues. I got asked by a few attendees to share my written remarks, and I’m glad to oblige.

=> ↺ Why chat control is so dangerous

• The EU Commission currently prepares a legislative package to fight sexual abuse of children. The draft is soon to be presented and in part covers the dissemination of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) via the internet. Additionally, the directive aims at targeting private and encrypted communication, such as that on messenger services. Critics declare this form of preemptive mass surveillance not only a threat to privacy, (cyber)security and the right to freedom of expression but as danger to democracy in general.

=> ↺ UN Human Rights Commissioner warns against chat control

• Specifically, the Human Rights Commissioner criticises the enisioned message screening on private smartphones (so-called “client-side scanning”) for undermining secure message encryption: “Client-side scanning also opens up new security challenges, making security breaches more likely. The screening process can also be manipulated, making it possible to artificially create false positive or false negative profiles. Even if, for current purposes, client-side screening is narrowly tailored, opening up devices for Government-mandated screening is likely to lead to future attempts to widen the scope of content that is the target of such measures. In particular, where the rule of law is weak and human rights are under threat, the impact of client-side screening could be much broader, for example it could be used to suppress political debate or to target opposition figures, journalists and human rights defenders. “

=> ↺ Repatriation Reform Bill Passes Illinois House of Representatives

• For more than 30 years, tribal nations have been asking the state of Illinois and its state-run institutions to return the remains of their ancestors for reburial within the state. For just as long, Illinois has made that nearly impossible.

• But now, legislation moving through the Illinois General Assembly would finally pave the way for the remains of thousands of Native Americans to be repatriated.

=> ↺ Alibaba breaks itself up in six

• Now a split is happening, though not at the behest of Beijing—at least not directly. On March 28th Alibaba announced that it would be creating six independent business units. Executives say this will yield a more agile overall business, by speeding up decision-making across smaller and more focused operations. The main unspoken goal may be to decentralise decision-making, not least by disassociating Alibaba further from its founder, who stepped away from day-to-day management in 2015 but has remained involved in strategic decisions.

=> ↺ Roku to cut another 200 jobs

• The filing states that Roku expects most of the charges will be taken on in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, and the layoffs will be “substantially” completed by the end of the second quarter of the fiscal year.

• ABC News reported that Roku previously laid off 200 workers in the fall.

=> ↺ Here’s How New Mexico is Leading the Way for Voting Rights

• Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, and protecting that right is one of the central obligations of our government. Due to partisan gridlock in Congress, the federal government has not acted to restore some of the original protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). Following the Supreme Court decisions in Shelby v. Holder and Brnovich v. DNC that weakened the vital voting rights law, the federal government has yet to pass federal legislation to protect the right to vote.

=> ↺ Autumn of the patriarchs? Strong leaders face popular pushback.

• Strong leaders with autocratic tendencies have flourished in recent years, but fears about where they are taking their countries have prompted pushback.

=> ↺ U-M seeks actions by court, labor board against striking GEO

• The university has filed a complaint in Washtenaw County Circuit Court alleging breach of contract by the Graduate Employees’ Organization for striking, and asked the court to order strikers to return to work.

=> ↺ Trump indicted in first ever criminal case against a former US president

• Donald Trump has been indicted on charges involving payments in 2016 to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter, the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president.

=> ↺ Donald Trump arrest LIVE updates: Former US president charged over alleged Stormy Daniels payments

• It is the first-ever criminal case against a former US president and will have huge implications over the 2024 election.

=> ↺ How Donald Trump came to be indicted on criminal charges

• A look at the hush-money probe, grand jury process and possible ramifications for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

=> ↺ The US War Drum Against China Sounds Like: Tik.Tok.

• Last Thursday, a Congressional hearing took place where the TikTok CEO was grilled for five hours on the grounds of “security concerns.” This was days after the FBI and DOJ launched an investigation on the Chinese-owned American company.Isn’t it ironic that while the US government is putting TikTok under the magnifying glass, it’s turning a blind eye to its own surveillance programs on the American people?

=> ↺ Orbán: The EU has abandoned the two goals it was created for: peace and prosperity

=> ↺ Labor strikes are rising – and winning pay hikes

• At a time of high inflation, pushing household budgets to the limit, workers are speaking up through union action – and the boosts won by employees have been sizable.

=> ↺ Senate Vote On TikTok Ban Bill Blocked Over Free Speech Concerns Amid Continued Bipartisan Scrutiny

• As TikTok grapples with continued user-data criticism and regulatory scrutiny, a Senate vote to ban the controversial video-sharing platform has been blocked. This newest development in the long-running push to prohibit TikTok in the U.S.

=> ↺ Karma: Happy Trump’s First Indictment Day

=> ↺ Donald Trump Has Been Indicted. Don’t Get Your Hopes Up.

• Late Thursday evening, a Manhattan grand jury voted to bring charges against former president Donald Trump in connection with hush-money payments to actress Stormy Daniels. The specific charges are not yet known, though Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will likely announce them in the near future.

=> ↺ New York Grand Jury Votes to Indict Donald Trump: Reports

=> ↺ Donald Trump indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime

• A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. It’s the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024. The indictment was confirmed Thursday by Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, and other people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss sealed criminal charges.

=> ↺ Trump’s legal worries extend far beyond charges in New York

• The hush money case in New York that has led to criminal charges against Donald Trump is just one of a number of investigations that could pose legal problems for the former president. A lawyer for Trump confirmed Thursday that he was told the former president had been indicted on charges involving payments made during the 2016 campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Trump faces a string of other inquiries as he campaigns for another term in 2024.

=> ↺ Kansas moves to help survivors pursue child sex abuse claims

• Abuse survivors and advocates who’ve pushed to make it easier in Kansas to prosecute abusers or file lawsuits decades later have achieved a breakthrough in the Legislature, where a proposal has advanced quickly. The bill would eliminate limits on how long prosecutors have to file charges against suspects for any of a dozen violent sexual offenses against children. It also would give abuse survivors more time to file lawsuits seeking monetary damages. The Senate approved it unanimously Wednesday and the House could vote on it next week. Reports of abuse by clergy across the U.S. have spurred interest in making it easier to pursue criminal prosecutions or lawsuits.

=> ↺ Elon Musk Tried to Meet With F.T.C. Chair About Twitter but Was Rebuffed

• Mr. Musk requested a meeting with Lina Khan, the chair of the F.T.C., which has been investigating Twitter’s privacy and data practices.

=> ↺ Hungary is the only EU country not invited to Summit for Democracy

• U.S. Ambassador David Pressman met Hungarian journalists on Wednesday where he also touched on the topic of U.S. President Joe Biden’s upcoming Summit for Democracy to which Hungary wasn’t invited. Hungary was the only EU country that did not receive an invitation to the event in Washington.

• The Hungarian Foreign Ministry earlier commented on the missing invite with the following explanation: “Joe Biden does not invite Donald Trump’s friends. Hungary disagrees with President Biden’s policies on war, migration, and gender. On these issues, we agree with President Trump.”

=> ↺ Trump Is Running to Lead a Fascist Nation—Not This One

• Last Saturday, at the first rally of his presidential campaign, in Waco, Texas, Donald Trump talked about the likely criminal cases being prepared against him as if they were being prepared against his supporters.

=> ↺ Ginni Thomas Raised Nearly $600,000 in Anonymous Funds for Right-Wing Group

=> ↺ Tlaib Blasts Republicans as ‘Servants’ of Big Oil After House Passes Pro-Polluter Bill

• Climate campaigners and congressional Democrats on Thursday called out House Republicans for approving energy legislation that would, as U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib warned, “put polluters over people” by “further poisoning of our air and water.”

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ The Kremlin escalates its war on truth

• ON MARCH 29TH Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, disappeared during a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-biggest city. The following day Russian security services came clean: they had arrested him on charges of espionage. That Mr Gershkovich, an American citizen, is accredited to report in Russia seems to have made little difference. The arrest is likely to exacerbate the already-terrible relations between Russia and America.

=> ↺ Anti-Abortion Bills Like Kansas’s Are Designed to Spread Misinformation

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Breaking Down the Trump Indictment

• Along with Cohen, a key player in the effort was David Pecker, chairman of American Media Inc. (AMI), the company that at the time published the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.

• A longtime Trump friend, Pecker had offered “to help deal with negative stories about [Trump’s] relationships with women” by identifying stories that could be bought and then suppressed. The practice is known in the publishing industry as “catch and kill.”

• In August 2016, AMI agreed to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. The story was shelved.

=> ↺ Russian dad whose teen drew anti-war picture flees jail and exposes cracks in Putin’s crackdown on dissent

• Her father was first investigated after school officials told police that Maria had drawn a picture during an art class that depicted missiles flying over a mother and a child, as well as Russian and Ukrainian flags with the words “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine.”

• The draconian law used in the case was introduced just days into the invasion, criminalizing any criticism of the Russian army as President Vladimir Putin sought to stamp out dissent at home.

=> ↺ Missouri Reps Just Voted to Completely Defund the State’s Public Libraries

• Late Tuesday night, the Missouri House of Representatives voted for a state operating budget with a $0 line for public libraries. While the budget still needs to work its way through the Senate and the governor’s office, state funding for public libraries is very much on the chopping block in Missouri.

=> ↺ 63-year-old man gets seven year prison sentence for posting about war — Meduza

• A Moscow district court sentenced 63-year-old Mikhail Simonov to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army motivated by political hatred.

=> ↺ Appeals Court Reverses Awful Decision Finding That Holding Up A Sign Telling Drivers There Are Cops Ahead Is Not Free Speech

• Officer Richard Gasparino of the Stamford, Connecticut police department couldn’t stand to have his “revenue diverted.” So, he arrested Michael Friend for the imaginary crime of holding up a sign warning motorists there was a sting operation in progress further up the road.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Russia arrests Wall Street Journal reporter on spying charge

• Russia’s security service has arrested an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal on espionage charges. It’s the first time a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations and demanded his release. Thirty-one-year-old Evan Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, about 1,670 kilometers (1,035 miles) east of Moscow. Russia’s Federal Security Service accused him of trying to obtain classified information. Known by the acronym FSB, the service is the top domestic security agency and main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

=> ↺ FSB arrests Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg — Meduza

• The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Thursday that it has arrested U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on suspicion of spying for the American government.

=> ↺ Press Freedom Advocates ‘Alarmed’ as Russia Detains US Journalist on Espionage Charges

=> ↺ Julian Assange – when “quiet diplomacy” means diddly squat

• Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has all but confirmed in Parliament the government is doing nothing to bring the world’s foremost political prisoner home. What’s the scam with “quiet diplomacy”?

• Despite claiming the government is deploying “quiet diplomacy” to urge the US to free Julian Assange, and despite the government committing to a $368b spend on submarines – the biggest transfer of public money in Australia’s history – to US and UK weapons makers, there is no evidence whatsoever that our elected representatives have even muttered one word on the matter.

=> ↺ Suspected North Korean Spies Impersonating VOA, Other Reporters Online

• Experts on nuclear security policy and weapons proliferation were contacted by suspected North Korean hackers posing as Voice of America journalists, according to a threat intelligence group, which says this is part of a recent pattern of impersonating reporters from major news organizations.

• The online spies were attempting to gather intelligence about the stance of international officials toward the Pyongyang government of Kim Jong Un, according to a report issued by Mandiant, an American cybersecurity firm and subsidiary of Google.

=> ↺ Russia arrests U.S. journalist on espionage charges; Moscow court orders he be detained for 2 months

• Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of “espionage in the interests of the American government,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement, which was reported by state media.

• The FSB accused Gershkovich of collecting “information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ To defend democracy, stand up for civil society

• As governments, businesses, and civil society organizations gather for the 2nd U.S. Summit for Democracy, our message is clear: to defend democracy in the digital age, states must stand up for civil society, online and off.

=> ↺ How 3 agency leaders try to mitigate burnout, stress for federal employees

• Work-life balance is one area in particular where agencies are starting to see signs of stagnation among their employees.

=> ↺ Rapidly Melting Glaciers Threaten Collapse of Crucial Ocean Circulation Systems

• Normally, dense water flows toward the ocean floor and helps transport heat and and vital nutrients through the planet’s oceans. The circulation helps support marine ecosystems and the stability of ice shelves.

=> ↺ Digital Rights Updates with EFFector 35.4

=> ↺ America’s Slavery-Ridden Origin Story: Facing the Uncomfortable Reality

• Writer Dionne Ford dives deep into her ancestry and confronts the complexities of being a Black woman in America with the blood of both the enslaved and the enslaver.

=> ↺ The West Coast Think Tank Helping to Orchestrate DeSantis’s War on the Woke

• It was the latest stop on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s “where woke goes to die” tour. The focus was on higher education—specifically: diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at Florida universities. The roundtable event featured speakers like Christopher Rufo, the lead architect of the GOP’s crusade against critical race theory who is now helping to mastermind the ideological makeover of Florida’s New College. The gathering followed the by-now-standard script of education-themed right-wing grievance: DEI initiatives are a scam orchestrated by the “woke mob,” and Florida is not about to submit to them—not if the governor and his brain trust have anything to say about it.

=> ↺ It’s Been a Year. Why Hasn’t Biden Freed Eyvin Hernandez?

• On March 18, 2022, Eyvin Hernandez, a dedicated Los Angeles public defender, flew to Colombia for a much-needed vacation. In Medellín, he befriended a woman and agreed to accompany her to Cucuta, a town on the Colombia-Venezuela border. Near Cucuta, things took a bad turn. Having unintentionally crossed into Venezuela, Eyvin and his companion were cornered near the border by armed men, who asked them for money they didn’t have before handcuffing and hooding them, throwing them into the back of a pickup truck, and transporting them to a detention facility.

=> ↺ Vatican Repudiates ‘Doctrine of Discovery,’ Used as Justification for Colonization

• Indigenous communities have long called on the Vatican rescind the concept, which had been used over the centuries to seize land from people in the Americas, Africa and elsewhere.

=> ↺ Under the Taliban, Afghanistan Is Trying to Make Due With Less

• In a time of famine and money shortages, meals are a rallying point — and a topic of worry — during a season of change in Afghanistan.

=> ↺ Minor League Baseball Players Poised to More Than Double Pay With First Union Contract

• Major League Baseball and recently unionized minor league players working for MLB team affiliates reached a tentative deal Wednesday on a historic first collective bargaining agreement.

=> ↺ How California reparations proposals could become law

• California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force is preparing to send its recommendations to lawmakers. But there’s still a long road ahead to get any reparations plans approved by the state Legislature. Lawmakers who are members of the task force may introduce reparations legislation in January. It usually takes months for bills to get passed by both the state Senate and Assembly before reaching the governor’s desk. Questions remain, including where the money would come from for the state to implement the task force’s recommendations. Economists advising the task force estimated the state could owe more than $800 billion for discrimination in policing and housing loans.

=> ↺ Howard Schultz’s Union-Busting Paternalism

• Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, briefly touted as a dark-horse Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2020, found himself at a less obliging juncture of federal power this Wednesday, as he delivered testimony on the coffee giant’s union-busting track record before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Members of the Starbucks Union thronged the corridors outside the Dirksen Building hearing room, anticipating that the company might finally be held to public account, and be shamed into launching good-faith negotiations for a collective-bargaining agreement. Organizers greeted one another with loud and cheerful “good mornings,” seemingly out of professional habit, but the real message for the occasion was emblazoned on the backs of their T-shirts: “Partners? Prove It—We ARE Starbucks.”

=> ↺ Starbucks’ Howard Schultz Called Before Senate

• Starbucks projects the image of an employee-friendly company, but its workers have been exposing the contradiction between the company’s words and its actions. On March 29, they’ll get some help from the U.S. Senate’s HELP Committee, chaired by Bernie Sanders.

=> ↺ Ex-Starbucks Worker Jaysin Saxton Describes Being Fired After He Helped Organize Union

• We speak with Jaysin Saxton, one of the witnesses who testified at the Senate hearing Wednesday on Starbucks’ union-busting record. Saxton was a former Starbucks shift manager, fired after leading the union drive at a store in Augusta, Georgia. He tells Democracy Now! he and fellow workers were motivated to organize their store to address the “insane” working conditions, including understaffing and inconsistent schedules. “There’s no stability in how much you’re earning and how many hours you’re getting, so you can’t afford to pay your bills, and you have to choose between gas and food,” says Saxton.

=> ↺ Former Starbucks Worker Describes Being Fired After He Helped Organize Union

=> ↺ Exonerated Central Park 5 Member Reacts to Trump Indictment With One-Word Statement

• Yusef Salaam, one of the five New York teens wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park, issued a brief statement following Thursday’s criminal indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump—who called for bringing back the state’s death penalty to execute the defendants and never apologized after they were cleared.

=> ↺ Single father Alexey Moskalev, whose daughter’s anti-war drawing drew the wrath of Russian law enforcement, is apprehended in Minsk — Meduza

• Police in Minsk have reportedly apprehended Alexey Moskalev, the single father from Russia’s Tula region who fled house arrest on March 28, hours before a court sentenced him to two years in prison for repeatedly “discrediting” Russia’s military in posts on social media. Russian officials charged Moskalev after months of harassment that began when his then 12-year-old daughter Masha (now 13) submitted an anti-war drawing to her art class. On March 1, police arrested Alexey and transferred Masha to state custody.

=> ↺ Masha Moskaleva’s estranged mother plans to collect her daughter from state custody — Meduza

• Olga Sitchikhina, Masha Moskaleva’s daughter, plans to remove her daughter from the juvenile shelter where child welfare authorities sent her after her father, Alexey Moskalev, was accused of repeatedly “discrediting” the army. On March 28, Moskalev was sentenced to two years in prison.

=> ↺ ‘Everything will be okay, and we’ll be together’ Masha Moskaleva, the Russian middle-schooler whose anti-war drawing provoked a police backlash that landed her in an orphanage, wrote a letter to her father on the day of his prison sentencing — Meduza

• The Moskalev family has been in trouble with the Russian authorities since April 2022, when then sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva drew an anti-war picture in her school art class. Federal Security Service agents interrogated Masha multiple times. Her father, Alexey Moskalev, who has been raising Masha alone, was beaten, fined, and later place under house arrest by the Russian authorities. Earlier this month, Masha was removed from her father’s care and placed in a state shelter. On March 28, Alexey was sentenced to two years in prison, though he wasn’t in the courtroom to hear the verdict — he’d escaped house arrest hours earlier. On March 29, however, Belarusian officials apprehended and arrested him in Minsk.

=> ↺ Bernie Sanders vs. Howard Schultz: Longtime Starbucks CEO Grilled on Company’s Union-Busting Tactics

• Just weeks after the National Labor Relations Board accused Starbucks of engaging in “egregious and widespread misconduct” to prevent employees from unionizing, the company’s longtime CEO Howard Schultz appeared before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday to answer questions. Committee Chair Bernie Sanders of Vermont grilled Schultz on the company’s union-busting record and demanded an end to retaliation against workers. Since 2021, nearly 300 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize, but the company has responded by firing many organizers and shuttering unionized stores, among other tactics. Schultz is worth over $3 billion and has led Starbucks for much of its history, most recently as interim CEO for the last year as a permanent replacement was found. He stepped down on March 20. We feature excerpts from the hearing.

=> ↺ “The Tale” Filmmaker Jennifer Fox on Surviving Childhood Sexual Abuse & Finally Naming Her Abuser

• We speak with writer and filmmaker Jennifer Fox, whose 2018 movie The Tale dealt with childhood sexual abuse. She has now come forward to name her abuser. The film is a narrative memoir based in part on Fox’s own life experience about being abused by a coach as a young girl. While the main character is named Fox, the name of the abusive coach was fictionalized. Now Fox has revealed the man who abused her as Ted Nash, the legendary Olympic rower and coach who died in 2021. Nash took part in 11 Olympic teams as a rower or coach, and USRowing, the national governing body for the sport, is now investigating the allegations. Fox recently revealed Nash’s name to The New York Times and tells Democracy Now!, in her first broadcast interview since the story, that he began abusing her when she was 13. She says her inner voice told her she could not rest until she publicly named Nash. “It’s very important to bring this other story out to the world now and to show this other part of the man that people put on a pedestal and made into a god,” says Fox, who adds that more women may still come forward about Nash. “It’s a very important act to stand up to power in this way, for me and for others.”

=> ↺ Vatican rejects doctrine used to justify colonial abuse

• The Catholic Church took a fresh step Thursday in acknowledging abuse endured by Indigenous peoples with the Vatican formally rejecting 15th-century papal edicts that empowered Europeans to colonise non-Christian lands.

=> ↺ Religious freedom for all means sacred Indigenous sites, too

• The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently heard arguments about how the federal government will violate First Amendment religious rights of the appellant Apache Stronghold — a Native grassroots community group — if the mine is allowed to move forward. Numerous religious and legal scholars have argued that the government’s actions will impose a substantial burden on Apache religious freedom and exercise. Religious scholar Thomas Berg has called this case “the most important Native American religious liberty case in 15 years.”

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Colorado Eyes Killing State Law Prohibiting Community Broadband Networks

• U.S. telecom monopolies like AT&T and Comcast spent millions of dollars and several decades quite literally buying shitty, protectionist laws in around twenty states that either ban or heavily hamstring towns and cities from building their own broadband networks. Even in instances and areas where AT&T and Comcast have repeatedly refused to upgrade their networks.

Monopolies

=> ↺ UK watchdog launches deeper probe into $61B Broadcom-VMware merger

• The U.K.’s antitrust regulator said today it will launch a deeper investigation into Broadcom Inc.’s proposed $61 billion acquisition of VMware Inc., a move that seemingly dashes any prospect of the merger being completed with minimal fuss.

Trademarks

=> ↺ MLB Tries To Trademark 3 City Names, Runs Away After Law Profs School Them

• It’s opening day and already Major League Baseball has struck out.

Copyrights

=> ↺ 2022 Supercon: Jac And Ralf Explore The Secrets Of The Digital Compact Cassette

• During the 1990s, music was almost invariably stored on CDs or cassette tapes. When the new millennium came around, physical formats became obsolete as music moved first to MP3 files, and later to network streams. But a few years before that big transition, there were several attempts at replacing the aging cassette and CD formats with something more modern. You might remember the likes of MiniDisc and Super Audio CD, but there were a few other contenders around.

=> ↺ CD Projekt’s Legal Pressure Pushes GOG-Games to The Dark Web

• GOG-Games.com switched to the dark web this week. The videogame piracy site took this drastic action following legal pressure from game company CD Projekt, known for The Witcher series. The Polish company also owns the game distribution service GOG, which explains why GOG-Games is considered a prime enforcement target.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ Spiritual Quandary

• Syd got me a deck of tarot cards back when we were dating.

• She was interested in those sorts of things like astrology and tarot, it didn’t command her life like with some people, but nevertheless she enjoyed it. She always said it was more of a mindfulness exercise for her. I hadn’t ever really been exposed to that sort of stuff, sure I knew my zodiac sign, but not much besides that. Syd showed me her deck of cards and did a few readings every now and then, especially when she or I were stressed. I didn’t put much credence into it for a while, not until I had a big falling out with my best friend and I borrowed Syd’s deck to do some readings for myself. When I centered around the question of my future with this friend, one of the cards I pulled was The Lovers, but inverted; the other cards all passing along a similar message of not having a friendship with this person into the future. It’s been a few years now and despite a few attempts to reach out to this friend, I haven’t really spoken to them since. It kinda spooked me by how accurate the cards and the meanings behind them directly followed what the question at hand.

=> ↺ Doing and being in books

• In my town public library, they must discard older books. They don’t have many of my favorites. I want children who explore, adventure, discover, imagine, learn, misunderstand, and live actively in books.

• King Shabazz goes with Tony Polito to find spring in Lucille Clifton’s (1992) The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring. They get in trouble for going too far. In Donald Crews’ (1992) Shortcut, the kids go a dangerous way. One of them easily could’ve been killed. They never go that way again; they never tell.

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: BGUILTH Wordo: SLIME

=> ↺ straight friends

• I’ve found myself gravitating away, really withdrawing from some straight people or friends, emotionally. I think by now I am kind of over this.. issue that always presents.

• When queer people around me talk about their romantic life, it is pretty wholesome. “He smiled and said I am cute, does that mean he likes me?” “She gifted me flowers and chocolates and calls me her wife, do you think she likes me back or does she mean it in a friend way?” and the typical hilarious, sweet stuff that makes you laugh and cheer for them. It’s joyful and easy, energizing convos. Even the less good stuff is still okay to deal with.

=> ↺ If spirituality is an interpretation of emotional flavors

• If spirituality is an interpretation of emotional flavors I would create a tongue map of human consciousness And explain how each feeling is tied to its own set of traditions How they’re featured in different cultures What ingredients communicate such a flavor I would experiment and concoct new recipes Experience new states of being

Games

=> ↺ Antiblorb

• But I don’t because I think it’s good that non-blorby games fully take advantage of not having to be tied to the limitations of blorb. You give up the awesomeness of blorb and in return you hope for things like pick-up, zero prep, character-tailored play.

• Tailoring play to character’s abilities is usually a bad idea, but in a heist scenario the upside is that you make all “roles” relevant.

=> ↺ Character-tailored play

• In #blorb the game world is supposed to be created independently from the player characters and not be tailor-made to them. If there’s a lock and they don’t have have a lockpick with them, (or if they flub their lockpicking roll), maybe they can’t get past that door and that’s fine. Plenty of other places to go and other things to do.

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