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● 04.29.23
Gemini version available ♊︎
● Links 29/04/2023: Debian 11.7 and Wine 8.7 Released
Posted in News Roundup at 11:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GNU/Linux
Audiocasts/Shows
=> ↺ Linux Action News 290
- What we know about the Red Hat layoffs, highlights of Linux 6.3, and Canonical’s bold claim in Ubuntu 23.04.
=> ↺ Going Linux #439 · Listener Feedback
- Listener suggestions for Synology, ad blockers, and Bill’s boot issues. Troy needs a recommendation for a dual-boot gaming laptop.
- Episode Time Stamps 00:00 Going Linux #439 · Listener Feedback 02:13 Troy: Needs a new computer 13:05 George: For Liam’s Synology issues 16:40 Avait: Pihole ad blocker 19:23 David: ChatGPT 29:45 George: Bill’s boot problem 35:23 Rick: Ubuntu MATE install fail 43:24 goinglinux.com, goinglinux@gmail.com, +1-904-468-7889, @goinglinux, feedback, listen, subscribe 44:28 End
=> ↺ Hackaday Podcast 216: FETs, Fax, And Electrochemical Fab
- In this week’s podcast, non-brothers Elliot Williams and Al Williams talk about our favorite hacks of the week. Elliot’s got analog on the brain, courtesy of the ongoing Op Amp Contest, and Al is all about the retrocomputers, from a thrift-store treasure to an old, but still incredibly serviceable, voice synthesizer. Both agree that they love clever uses of mechanical parts and that nobody should fear the FET.
Kernel Space
=> ↺ Linux to Support Firewire Until 2029
- Linux is now the final operating system to continue supporting Firewire. Maintainer Takashi Sakamoto has stepped in to support the ancient connectivity standard for the next 6 years.
=> ↺ OverlayFS is still pathetic
- EasyOS, Quirky and before that, Puppy Linux, all use aufs union-filesystem. Though, some recent experimental releases of Puppy are using overlayfs.
- Back in 2003, Puppy used unionfs, and circa 2006 migrated to aufs — rough date estimates, I’m not really sure.
- The developer of aufs tried to get it mainlined in the kernel; however, met with opposition, and some kernel developers created overlayfs that was in the kernel right from the start.
- Over the years I have tested overlayfs, like about every few years, but always found show-stopper problems.
=> ↺ Adding bootloader support for USB 2.0 Host for Radxa ROCK 5B RK3588
- The beauty of Open Source is that we can reuse code written by many other people, keep their authorship, and credit them for their work, without needing to reinvent anything!
Applications
=> ↺ Alternatives to popular CLI tools: traceroute
- The software featured here is free and open source. All tools provide a CLI unless otherwise stated.
=> ↺ Alternatives to popular CLI tools: kill
- The software featured here is free and open source. All tools provide a command-line interface (CLI) unless otherwise stated.
=> ↺ Best Free and Open Source Graphical Data Hashing Tools
- Hashing is the process of passing data through a formula to produce a condensed fixed-value representation, called a hash value.
=> ↺ Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Microsoft Windows Terminal
- Windows Terminal is billed as “a modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application”. We recommend the best free and open source alternatives.
Instructionals/Technical
=> ↺ How to Install MySQL Server and Client Properly on Linux
- To install MySQL server on your Linux machine, follow this article step-by-step, which provides you with clear instructions on how to download and install MySQL as well as how to configure and secure it.>
=> ↺ How to Fix “-bash: sudo: command not found” in Linux
- Have you ever tried to run a Linux command using sudo only to see the warning “sudo command not found” splashed on your terminal?
=> ↺ How to Install Python on Ubuntu 22.04?
- Learn how to install Python on Ubuntu 22.04, the latest version of the Ubuntu operating system. Follow our step-by-step guide to get started with Python programming on Ubuntu.
=> ↺ How to enable data collecting for ‘sar -u’ on Linux
- The sysstat utility is a powerful tool for monitoring system performance on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. However, you may encounter an error when running ‘sar -u’, indicating that data collecting is not enabled.
=> ↺ How to Install GitHub Desktop on openSUSE Leap | Tumbleweed
- GitHub Desktop is a powerful and user-friendly graphical interface that enables developers and teams to manage Git repositories with ease. Designed by GitHub, this application streamlines the process of working with Git repositories, simplifying common tasks like branching, committing, and merging.
=> ↺ How To Install Apache on Fedora 38
- In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache on Fedora 38. Are you ready to learn how to install Apache on Fedora 38? Apache is a powerful open-source web server that has been widely used for web hosting for many years.
=> ↺ Multiple Ways To Rename Multiple Files At Once In Linux
- There are multiple ways to rename multiple files at once in Linux based operating system.
=> ↺ How to install Kubernetes on Rocky Linux 9
- In this post, you will learn how to install Kubernetes on Rocky Linux 9. Kubernetes is a portable and extensible open-source platform for managing workloads and services. Kubernetes makes it easy to automate and declarative configuration.
=> ↺ How To Install VirtualBox on Rocky Linux 9
- In this tutorial, we will show you how to install VirtualBox on Rocky Linux 9. Are you ready to unleash the power of multiple operating systems on your Linux machine? With VirtualBox, you can easily run different operating systems on your machine without the need for additional hardware.
=> ↺ Kubernetes Architecture: A High-level Overview of Kubernetes Cluster Components
- In this blog post, we will describe Kubernetes Architecture: a high-level overview of Kubernetes cluster components. Organizations are continually adopting cloud-native technologies with containerization becoming the de facto way of packaging and deploying applications. However, managing large scale number of containers can be challenging and thus, this is where Kubernetes comes in.
=> ↺ A beginner’s guide to creating Linux services with systemd
- Systemd has become the default init system for most Linux distributions, providing an efficient way to manage services and their dependencies. Creating a custom Linux service using systemd allows you to control the behavior and execution of your applications or scripts.
=> ↺ A step-by-step guide to installing GIMP on Ubuntu
- GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a popular, open-source image editing software that offers a wide range of tools and features similar to those found in premium applications like Adobe Photoshop. Installing GIMP on Ubuntu is a straightforward process, and in this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to do it.
=> ↺ Building the perfect development workspace in Pop!_OS
- Pop!_OS, a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, has been gaining popularity among developers due to its sleek design and user-friendly features. Setting up a development environment in Pop!_OS is a breeze, thanks to its robust package management system and compatibility with a wide range of development tools.
=> ↺ Fix: ‘Unable to Locate Package’ Error in Ubuntu and Debian
- While using Ubuntu or Debian, you may encounter the ‘Unable to Locate Package’ error during package installation. This error is often caused by missing or outdated package information, which prevents the system from finding the desired package.
WINE or Emulation
=> ↺ WineHQ – Wine Announcement – The Wine development release 8.7 is now available.
Games
=> ↺ Lil Alligator: Back to Childhood, Review on Linux and Steam Deck
- Here’s one unusual title for once. No killing enemies, no solving complex problems, just a simple story and setting to relax and enjoy.
=> ↺ ViewFinder: A Demo for a New Mind Bending Game, Previewed on Linux
- I have just stumbled today on the news of this demo (for Windows), and a few minutes later I was trying it out on Linux with Proton 7.06 without any issue, and with great performance.
Desktop Environments/WMs
K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
Scarlett Gately Moore: KDE Snaps, Gear 23.04.0 available in snap storeIt has been another crazy busy couple of weeks. There are too many snaps released to list here, but you can track my progress here:https://invent.kde.org/packaging/snapcraft-kde-applications/-/issues/30Some notable releases are:Digikam 8.0.0KPhotoalbum ( New! )KDevelopKate ( Now classic )Arianna ( New! )KdenliveKommit ( New! )
GNOME Desktop/GTK
=> ↺ Shotwell 0.32.0 Released with HEIF/HEVC, WebP Support [Ubuntu PPA]
- Shotwell image organizer released version 0.32.0 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04 via PPA. After a few years of 0.31.x development releases, Shotwell 0.32 was finally released as new stable series. Compare to v0.30.x, it features: Webp, AVIF, HEIF/HEVC, CR3, JPEG-XL images support.
Distributions and Operating Systems
SUSE/OpenSUSE
Dominique Leuenberger ☛ openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2023/17Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,This week, Tumbleweed ‘only’ delivered 5 snapshots. Snapshot 0423 was tested in openQA when 0424 finished the building way faster than expected. As usual: nothing was lost and the delay added to get the goodies from 0423 was just a few hours.The five snapshots (0421, 0422, 0424, 0425, and 0426) brought you these updates:ffmpeg 4.4.4 and ffmpeg 5.1.3grep 3.10libxml 2.10.4pam 1.5.2.90Mozilla Firefox 112.0.1Linux kernel 6.2.12GNOME 44.1 (mutter and gnome-shell will follow over the weekend)KDE Gear 23.04.0Qt 5.15.9llvm 16.0.2Rust 1.69GCC 13RC3
Fedora Family / IBM
=> ↺ Remi Collet: ImageMagick and imagick extension
- RPM of the latest versions of ImageMagick library are available in remi repository for Fedora and Enterprise Linux (RHEL, Alma, CentOS, Rocky, and other clones).
- I’ve built these packages to get all the new features of imagick extension, installed by php-pecl-imagick-im7 (or php-pecl-imagick-im6) package and run local CI.
=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: Friday’s Fedora Facts: 2023-17
- Here’s your weekly Fedora report. Read what happened this week and what’s coming up. Your contributions are welcome (see the end of the post)!
- I have weekly office hours most Wednesdays in the morning and afternoon (US/Eastern time). Drop by if you have any questions or comments about the schedule, Changes, elections, or anything else. See the upcoming meetings for more information.
=> ↺ Remi Collet: PHP version 8.1.19RC1 and 8.2.6RC1
- Release Candidate versions are available in testing repository for Fedora and Enterprise Linux (RHEL / CentOS / Alma / Rocky and other clones) to allow more people to test them. They are available as Software Collections, for a parallel installation, perfect solution for such tests, and also as base packages.
=> ↺ Jon Chiappetta: Socks-like Proxy + VPN-like Tunnel [2-in-1 Experiment]
- For my current home network setup, I have a Mac Mini that is connecting to a Linux server with OpenVPN (backup) & WireGuard (primary). Due to some MTU issues with WG, I have also setup nginx as a socks-like transparent proxy which handles the connections on behalf of the client (so the server side can keep the internal MTU matching with the client as well as forcing a defragmentation of the packets before they enter the VPN tunnel).
Debian Family
=> ↺ The Upcoming Debian 12 (Bookworm) Got a Release Date
- Debian is among the world’s most popular and widely used Linux distributions. Known for its stability, security, and open-source nature, Debian has been a go-to choice for developers, system administrators, and enthusiasts alike.
- From this point of view, the release of the upcoming Debian 12 (Bookworm) is highly anticipated by the Linux community, as it brings many new features, bug fixes, and security enhancements.
=> ↺ Updated Debian 11: 11.7 released
- The Debian project is pleased to announce the seventh update of its stable distribution Debian 11 (codename “bullseye”). This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already been published separately and are referenced where available.
- Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 11 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old “bullseye” media. After installation, packages can be upgraded to the current versions using an up-to-date Debian mirror.
- Those who frequently install updates from security.debian.org won’t have to update many packages, and most such updates are included in the point release.
- New installation images will be available soon at the regular locations.
- Upgrading an existing installation to this revision can be achieved by pointing the package management system at one of Debian’s many HTTP mirrors. A comprehensive list of mirrors is available at…
=> ↺ Back in Cambridge – Debian point release for Debian Bullseye due this weekend – 11.7
=> ↺ Debian Bullseye 11.7 release weekend 202304291215UTC
=> ↺ Debian Disguised Work: Paul Tagliamonte & Debian Outreachy OPW dating
- Outreachy was formerly known as Outreach Program for Women (OPW).
- Here we have a discussion from the debian-private (leaked) gossip network about one of the candidates.
- We frequently discuss keysigning on public mailing lists. Why did Tagliamonte have this discussion on debian-private? Coincidentally, why are there so few women on debian-private to monitor these discussions?
=> ↺ Junichi Uekawa: Draw graph of number of commits.
- Draw graph of number of commits. I thought I had lots of commits this month for Chrome OS.
- To count those, all merged commits have committer Chromeos LUCI. To get the timestamp of the commits, git log --committer="Chromeos LUCI" --pretty=%ct . gives me the list of timestamps. UNIX timestamp can be parsed with datetime.fromtimestamp, and then that array can be processed with density graph plot or histogram plotting tool, such as plt.hist.
=> ↺ Enrico Zini: Handling keyboard-like devices
- I acquired some unusual input devices to experiment with, like a CNC control panel and a bluetooth pedal page turner.
- These identify and behave like a keyboard, sending nice and simple keystrokes, and can be accessed with no drivers or other special software. However, their keystrokes appear together with keystrokes from normal keyboards, which is the expected default when plugging in a keyboard, but not what I want in this case.
- I’d also like them to be useable via libinput and accessible by my own user.
=> ↺ Sven Hoexter: What’s wrong in IT: commit messages
- In my day job someone today took the time in the team daily to explain his research why some of our configuration is wrong. He spent quite some time on his own to look at the history in git and how everything was setup initially, and ended up in the current – wrong – way. That triggered me to validate that quickly, another 5min of work. So we agreed to change it. A one line change, nothing spectacular, but lifetime was invested to figure out why it should’ve a different value.
- When the pull request got opened a few minutes later there was nothing of that story in the commit message. Zero, nada, nothing.
=> ↺ AppImageLauncher in SparkyLinux
- There is a new application available for Sparkers: AppImageLauncher What is AppImageLauncher? AppImageLauncher is a novel and unique solution of integrating with the system. It intercepts all attempts to open an AppImage to provide its integration features. Being the launcher for AppImages, AppImageLauncher can control how the system treats AppImages.
Open Hardware/Modding
=> ↺ Meet the $1,000 ESP32 board with 512 GPIOs (12V/24V)
- The company also made sure it can run ESPHome open-source firmware and integrates well with Home Assistant open-source home automation framework.
Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications
=> ↺ Top 7 Fixes for Google Maps Timeline Not Working on Android and iPhone – Guiding Tech
=> ↺ How to free up storage on your Android phone and improve performance
=> ↺ How to install any add-on extension in Firefox on Android
=> ↺ OnePlus Pad Review: Finally, a Great Android Tablet | WIRED
Free, Libre, and Open Source Software
Programming/Development
=> ↺ Mike Blumenkrantz: Thinko
- Yep, it’s all merged. That means if your driver supports VK_EXT_shader_object, you can finally enjoy Tomb Raider (2013) without any issues.
- NVIDIA has just released a new beta driver that I need to test, but I’m hopeful it will no longer crash when trying to use this extension.
- Remember that time I mentioned how zink wasn’t allowed to use VK_EXT_vertex_input_dynamic_state on AMDVLK?
Python
=> ↺ How to run Python on Android
- Python has made a name for itself as a versatile language, known for being beginner-friendly while also packing a powerful punch in the hands of experts. But why limit Python’s potential to specific scenarios? Why not unlock its full capabilities in any situation where computer instructions are needed?
Leftovers
=> ↺ Timestamps are all over the place
- I’ve done goofed something with my blogging setup since coming back from Japan. Blog post timestamps are all out of order, and all over the shop. I feel like I’m scrolling through Instagram again, before I stopped using it.
- I’ll let the site catch up, maybe. If you see posts published after this one on Friday the 28th of April, know that it was supposed to be the latest one. Maybe. I can’t even keep track. Where am I? Which one am I?
Science
=> ↺ Rising To The Occasion: A Brief History Of Crewed High Altitude Balloons
- We think of human flight as a relatively modern affair, with a few claims to the first airplane all around the turn of the last century. But people flew much earlier than that by using hot air balloons as well as gas-filled ones. While the Montgolfier brothers get most of the credit for hot air ballooning in 1783, there are some reports that a Brazilian priest may have lifted himself with a balloon as early as 1709.
=> ↺ Space Business: Hard Landing
- What does a failed Moon landing cost a company? For Japan’s ispace, more than $200 million. That’s about how much investors at the Tokyo Stock Exchange knocked off the company’s market capitalization the morning after its Hakuto-R spacecraft failed to land on the Moon.
Hardware
=> ↺ Building A Receiver With The ProgRock2 Programmable Crystal
- Crystals are key to a lot of radio designs. They act as a stable frequency source and ensure you’re listening to (or transmitting on) exactly the right bit of the radio spectrum. [Q26] decided to use the ProgRock2 “programmable crystal” to build a receiver that could tune multiple frequencies without the usual traditional tuning circuitry.
=> ↺ Auto Tape Wrapping Machine Is Amazing For Cable Management
- If you’ve dived under the hood of any car built in the last 40 years, you’ve likely noticed the bundles of neatly-wrapped cables making up the car’s wiring loom. [The Q] has built a tool for handling jobs like this yourself.
=> ↺ Soldering Station Designed Around Batteries
- Companies now are looking to secure revenue streams by sneakily locking customers into as many recurring services as possible. Subscription software, OS ecosystems, music streaming, and even food delivery companies all want to lock consumers in to these types of services. Battery-operated power tools are no different as there’s often a cycle of buying tools that fit one’s existing batteries, then buying replacement batteries, ad infinitum. As consumers we might prefer a more open standard but since this is not likely to happen any time soon, at least we can build our own tools that work with our power tool brand of choice like this battery-powered soldering station.
=> ↺ Transistors That Grow On Trees
- Modern technology is riddled with innovations that were initially inspired by the natural world. Velcro, bullet trains, airplanes, solar panels, and many other technologies took inspiration from nature to become what they are today. While some of these examples might seem like obvious places to look, scientists are peering into more unconventional locations for this transistor design which is both inspired by and made out of wood.
=> ↺ LED Matrix Displays Get New Look Thanks To SMD Stencils
- Even if surface-mount skills aren’t in your repertoire, chances are pretty good that most of us are at least familiar with SMD stencils. These paper-thin laser-cut steel sheets are a handy way to apply a schmear of solder paste to the pads of a PCB before component placement and reflowing. But are stencils good for anything else?
Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
=> ↺ Rejecting Tory Government Pay Offer as Inadequate, NHS Workers to Resume Strike
- A leading union that represents thousands of National Health Service workers in the U.K. announced Friday that its members voted to reject the right-wing Tory government’s latest pay offer, setting the stage for large-scale strikes to resume next week.
=> ↺ ‘I Will Never Forget His Face,’ Says Tortured Gitmo Detainee After DeSantis Denies Encounter
- Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday scolded a journalist for asking him about his time working as a naval judge advocate general at the U.S. penal colony in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
=> ↺ Police Search Offices Of Team Against Torture Group In Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod
- Police in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on April 28 searched the offices of human rights group Team Against Torture and the homes of three of its lawyers.
=> ↺ European Court Orders Russia To Pay Compensation After Georgia War
- Russia has been ordered to pay around 130 million euros ($143 million) in compensation to Georgia almost 15 years after the war in the South Caucasus, the European Court of Human Rights announced.
=> ↺ US Asked Brazil to Extradite Russian Suspected of Espionage
- “…apprehended after his unauthorized attempt to enter the Netherlands by means of counterfeit Brazilian documentation…”
=> ↺ North Carolina Group Asks UN to Probe Chemical Company’s PFAS Pollution
- A citizen-led organization in North Carolina on Thursday asked the United Nations to investigate several alleged human rights violations related to the release of “forever chemicals” from Fayetteville Works, a manufacturing plant previously owned by DuPont and now owned by a spin-off company called Chemours.
=> ↺ As American Life Expectancy Plunges, Political Bigwigs Stay Busy Not Noticing
- Life expectancy in the U.S. plummets down, down, down, driven chiefly by the multitudinous gun deaths of children. Amurica outstrips the world with its hordes of kids shot to death, whose blood hydrates the idiocy of a second amendment deformed into pimping for gun manufacturers and their great friend, the […]
=> ↺ Cheap Field Drug Tests Are Finally Getting Called Out By Courts As The Bullshit They Are
- Law enforcement loves cheap drug tests. First, they’re cheap, around $2/per. Second, they can turn a whole host of legal substances into probable cause for searches and arrests. Field drugs tests have converted everything from a deceased child’s ashes to bird poop (on a car hood, no less) into illicit substances justifying the removal of innocent peoples’ rights.
Proprietary
=> ↺ Microsoft Confirms Windows 10 Feature Updates Ending After 22H2
- Microsoft closes the door on further Windows 10 feature updates, so its bug fixes and security patches only from now until EOS on October 14, 2025.
Pseudo-Open Source
Openwashing
=> ↺ Open-source Ray 2.4 upgrade speeds up generative AI model deployment
- Ray, an ML technology for deploying and scaling AI workloads, released Ray 2.4 today, which specifically accelerates generative AI workloads.
=> ↺ Enterprise DB entices Oracle users to move to Postgres
Security
=> ↺ Brendan Gregg: eBPF Observability Tools Are Not Security Tools
- eBPF has many uses in improving computer security, but just taking eBPF observability tools as-is and using them for security monitoring would be like driving your car into the ocean and expecting it to float.
- Observability tools are designed have the lowest overhead possible so that they are safe to run in production while analyzing an active performance issue. Keeping overhead low can require tradeoffs in other areas: tcpdump(8), for example, will drop packets if the system is overloaded, resulting in incomplete visibility. This creates an obvious security risk for tcpdump(8)-based security monitoring: An attacker could overwhelm the system with mostly innocent packets, hoping that a few malicious packets get dropped and are left undetected. Long ago I encountered systems which met strict security auditing requirements with the following behavior: If the kernel could not log an event, it would immediately halt! While this was vulnerable to DoS attacks, it met the system’s security auditing non-repudiation requirements, and logs were 100% complete.
=> ↺ Devuan Users Are at Risk, Take Action to Protect Your System
- A newly discovered security issue in Devuan’s default installation allows for obtaining root privileges without a password.
=> ↺ Google Blocked 1.4 Million Bad Apps From Google Play in 2022
- Google says it prevented 1.4 million bad applications from being published on Google Play in 2022 and banned 173k developer accounts.
=> ↺ Cisco Working on Patch for Vulnerability Reported by NATO Pentester
- Cisco is working on a patch for an XSS vulnerability found in Prime Collaboration Deployment by a pentester from NATO’s Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
=> ↺ Overcoming the Cyber Security FUD Problem: Addressing Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
- Cybersecurity is a critical issue in today’s digital landscape. From personal information theft to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, the risks associated with online activities are numerous and ever-present. To address these risks, cybersecurity professionals often use fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to promote their services and products.
=> ↺ Critical Vulnerability in Zyxel Firewalls Leads to Command Execution
- A critical-severity vulnerability in Zyxel’s ATP, USG FLEX, VPN, and ZyWALL/USG firewalls can be exploited remotely for OS command execution.
=> ↺ RTM Locker Ransomware Variant Targeting ESXi Servers
- A newly identified variant of the RTM Locker ransomware is targeting Linux, NAS, and ESXi hosts.
=> ↺ FDA, CISA: Illumina Medical Devices Vulnerable to Remote Hacking
- FDA and CISA notify healthcare providers about a component used by several Illumina medical devices being affected by serious vulnerabilities that can allow remote hacking.
=> ↺ Top Secret: One year on, CERT-In refuses to reveal information about compliance notices issued under its 2022 Directions on cybersecurity
- To mark the first anniversary of the notification of the 2022 CERT-In Directions, we filed two Right to Information (“RTI”) applications with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, seeking details on the issuance of compliance notices under this new regulatory mandate.
=> ↺ South Africa in top five countries affected by cybercrime in 2022
- South Africa ranked number five globally in a list of countries worst affected by cybercrime in 2022, according to a new report, with 56 000 out of every million internet users being a victim.
Privacy/Surveillance
=> ↺ Tunisia’s digitization programs threaten the privacy of millions
- Tunisia’s recent digitization programs could pave way for mass surveillance, identity theft, data exploitation, and more. Here’s why.
=> ↺ Podcast: First impressions of the new Aqara mmWave sensor
- This week we start the show with my first impressions of the Aqara FP2 mmWave sensor. This $83 sensor can detect multiple people in a room, light settings, and falls.
Defence/Aggression
=> ↺ Harnessing allied space capabilities
- Forward Defense experts examine how US space strategy can recognize the comparative advantage of allies and partners in space and best harness allied capabilities.
=> ↺ Beyond launch: Harnessing allied space capabilities for exploration purposes
- Tiffany Vora assesses current US space exploration goals and highlights areas where US allies are positioned for integration as part of Forward Defense’s series on “Harnessing Allied Space Capabilities.”
=> ↺ Australia must prioritise building its own satellite launch facilities
- Australia’s burgeoning satellite industry faces a looming crisis: a shortage of launch facilities to put its technology into orbit.
=> ↺ The root causes of geopolitical fragmentation
- Geoeconomic fragmentation is on the rise. Policymakers need to address the root causes: inequality left in the wake of globalization, and the crisis of trust between major countries.
=> ↺ Not every North Korean missile needs a response. South Korea and the US should focus more on readiness and deterrence.
- The nuclear collaboration announced by the US and South Korean presidents this week is the type of strategic measure the allies need to focus on, rather than a reactive approach.
=> ↺ South African Army sappers restore water services in the Eastern Cape
- South African Army Engineers in the Eastern Cape have helped a local municipality fix burst pipes that had left many without water for days. The engineers are detached with 14 South African Infantry Battalion in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, in preparation for their deployment to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) under Operation Mistral.
=> ↺ Top Tajik Security Officer Killed In Shoot-Out Along Afghan Border, Sources Say
- The chief of the State Committee of National Security’s (KDAM) branch in Tajikistan’s southern city of Khorugh, Komron Rajabzoda, has been killed in a shoot-out with alleged drug and weapons traffickers along the Tajik-Afghan border.
=> ↺ Russian APT Hacked Tajikistani Carrier to Spy on Government, Public Services
- Russian espionage group Nomadic Octopus infiltrated a Tajikistani telecoms provider to spy on 18 entities, including government officials and public service infrastructures.
=> ↺ Russian War Report: Updated Google Earth imagery details destruction in Mariupol
- New satellite imagery reveals the extent of the Russian bombing of Mariupol that occurred in late March 2022.
=> ↺ International Celebrities Demand Russia Free Navalny Immediately
- More than 130 internationally recognized writers, artists, and scholars, including six Nobel laureates, have urged the Russian authorities to immediately release opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, emphasizing that he needs “urgent and immediate independent medical help.”
=> ↺ Minsk Court Hands Prison Term To Cousin Of Belarusian Platoon’s Deputy Commander Fighting With Ukraine
- A court in Minsk on April 27 sentenced to three years in prison a cousin of the deputy commander of the Kastus Kalinouski platoon, which is fighting alongside Ukrainian armed forces against invading Russian troops.
=> ↺ Death Toll Mounts After Night Of ‘Russian Terror,’ Zelenskiy Says
- At least 25 people, including several children, were killed in a wave of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, early on April 28, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned as “a night of Russian terror.”
=> ↺ Russia’s Wagner Group Could Soon Cease to Exist, Founder Tells Blogger
- Russia’s private Wagner militia, which is leading the assault on Bakhmut in Ukraine and has been active in Africa…
=> ↺ Zelensky to Yle: War in Ukraine cannot end like WWII did for Finland
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Yle and other Nordic news outlets in Kyiv.
=> ↺ Deadliest Russian Attack in Months on Ukraine’s Cities Kills at Least 25
- The first widespread barrage on civilian targets in more than a month underscored the vital role of Ukrainian air defenses.
=> ↺ E.U. Extends Tariff Waiver for Ukrainian Grain, Despite Some Protests
- The bloc will provide more than $100 million to farmers in eastern countries where tariff-free Ukrainian grain produced a supply glut and plunging prices.
=> ↺ Russian Missile Strikes on Civilian Buildings Kill at Least 25 in Ukraine
- Russian bombers launched two dozen cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities in the largest aerial strike in a month. One hit a nine-story apartment building in the city of Uman.
=> ↺ Germans Protect Memorials to Soviet Troops Who Defeated Nazis
- Such monuments have been toppled across Eastern Europe, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine. But in Germany, they are seen as a way to honor Nazi victims and grapple with history.
=> ↺ North Korea says US-South Korea agreement will worsen insecurity
- North Korea is convinced it must perfect a “nuclear war deterrent”, said the sister of leader Kim Jong Un.
=> ↺ Latvian Foreign Minister reiterates support for Ukraine in Odesa
- On April 28, during a visit to Odesa, Ukraine, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, together with his counterparts from the Baltic and Nordic countries (NB8) met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba and reiterated their support at the opening event of the Odesa Reconstruction Forum.
=> ↺ ‘No idea’: Former soccer hooligans from Española battalion give guest talk at St. Petersburg college — Meduza
- In St. Petersburg, two members of the Española battalion, a Russian military formation comprised of former soccer hooligans, visited a business college for an invited guest talk.
=> ↺ How a Climate of Fear Makes Us Less Safe
- A teenage boy rings the wrong doorbell and is shot in the face. A 20-year-old woman is fatally shot when she and her friends pull into the wrong driveway. Two cheerleaders are shot when one accidentally gets into the wrong car. And a six-year-old is shot when kids chase a basketball into a neighbor’s yard.
=> ↺ GOP Cynically Recast Progressive State House Protests as ‘Insurrection’
- Progressives are pushing back this week against Republicans’ conflation of peaceful protests by Democratic state lawmakers defending their constituents’ rights with the deadly insurrection effort on January 6, 2021 by supporters of then-President Donald Trump in service of subverting a presidential election.
=> ↺ ‘We demand the torture cease’ Margaret Atwood, Jude Law, Salman Rushdie, and more than 100 other public figures call for Alexey Navalny’s release — Meduza
=> ↺ Investigators raid homes of lawyers from Team Against Torture in Nizhny Novgorod as part of ongoing criminal case — Meduza
- Criminal investigators raided the homes of multiple lawyers from the Team Against Torture (previously the Committee Against Torture) in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday morning, the organization reported.
=> ↺ Putin signs decree allowing deportation of residents of annexed territories who refuse Russian citizenship — Meduza
- Vladimir Putin has signed an executive order that will allow the Russian authorities to deport people who refuse Russian citizenship from Ukraine’s annexed territories.
=> ↺ Placing Russian nukes in Belarus could destabilize Putin’s last ally
- Vladimir Putin’s decision to place nuclear weapons in Belarus will strengthen Russia’s grip on the country but could also spark a new wave of opposition to Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka, writes Olivia Yanchik.
=> ↺ Mother in Uman Holds Out Hope Her Children Will Be Found After Russian Attack
- A Russian rocket slammed into a nine-story apartment building before dawn in the central Ukrainian city of Uman.
=> ↺ EU Extends Tariff-Free Ukraine Grain Policy, Despite Protests
- Five countries whose farmers have been hurt by the policy, including Poland, will get carve-outs and compensation, under an agreement reached Friday.
=> ↺ Russian airstrikes kill at least 25 across Ukraine
- Russian forces launched a barrage of missile strikes on cities across Ukraine Friday, killing at least 25 people, Ukrainian officials said.
=> ↺ A small step across the Dnipro River, a giant leap for Ukraine’s counteroffensive?
- The Ukrainian army not only succeeded in advancing across the Dnipro River in the Kherson region this week, it but also carried out strikes on Tokmak, a southern Ukrainian town occupied by Russia and at a strategic crossroads for a possible counteroffensive in the southeast.
=> ↺ Over two dozen killed as Russia strikes cities across Ukraine
- Russia attacked cities across Ukraine early on Friday, killing at least 26 people, according to local officials. Ukraine said it downed 21 Russian missiles and two attack drones overnight. Meanwhile a deal on Ukrainian food exports transiting across EU countries has been reached. Read our live blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
=> ↺ Lithuania’s crowdfunded radars to be delivered to Ukraine next week
- The first shipment of radars purchased during the Radarom crowdfunding campaign in Lithuania is expected to be delivered to Ukraine next week.
=> ↺ UN Body Deplores ‘Grave’ Rights Abuses By Russia In Ukraine
- A United Nations committee said on April 28 it was deeply concerned about human rights violations by Russian forces and private military companies in Ukraine, including enforced disappearances, torture, rape, and extrajudicial executions.
=> ↺ Bulgarian Director Refuses Moscow Film Festival Award In City Where ‘Murder Orders Are Issued’
- Internationally recognized Bulgarian-Canadian animator and film director Theodore Ushev has declined an award from the Moscow Film Festival to protest Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in an address that was banned by the Kremlin’s censors.
=> ↺ Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin says he visited Bakhmut and that ‘it can be restored’ — Meduza
- Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who oversees government construction projects, said Friday that he visited Bakhmut, the Ukrainian city that Russian forces have been trying for months to capture fully.
=> ↺ Russian-appointed ‘mayor’ of Donetsk reports shelling attack killed 7, including child — Meduza
- The occupation authorities in the Russian-annexed Donetsk region of Ukraine allege that the Ukrainian military has shelled central Donetsk, where civilian casualties occurred this morning.
=> ↺ Death toll rising after Russian missile strikes in Kyiv, Dnipro, and Uman — Meduza
- Russian troops carried out missile strikes on Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, and Kyiv regions on the night of April 27–28, including in the city of Kyiv.
=> ↺ Landmine kills four border village residents in Russia’s Belgorod region — Meduza
- A car exploded after detonating a landmine in Zhuravlevka, a village in Russia’s Belgorod region, according to multiple Russian Telegram channels. The blast reportedly killed four people.
Transparency/Investigative Reporting
=> ↺ John Roberts’ Wife Made Millions From Elite Law Firms, Major Companies: Whistleblower Docs
- A whistleblower from the legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa says Jane Sullivan Roberts, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, earned $10.3 million in commissions over seven years from her job as a headhunter at the company, where she placed attorneys with law firms—including at least one that argued a case before the Supreme Court after the placement was made.
Environment
=> ↺ Our Climate-Changing Diets
=> ↺ BlackRock Security, NYPD ‘Brutalize’ Climate Protesters
- BlackRock security guards and NYPD officers “brutalized” climate campaigners this morning, according to organizers, after activists succeeded in shuttering the entrance to the headquarters of the world’s largest fossil fuel investor for three hours.
=> ↺ A Security Camera for the Planet
- A new satellite, funded by a nonprofit, aims to pinpoint emissions of methane—a gas that plays a major role in global warming.
Energy/Transportation
=> ↺ California passes 1st-in-nation emission rules for trains
- The California Air Resources Board approved Thursday a first-in-the nation rule to cut emissions from diesel-powered trains. The goal of the rule is to ban the use of locomotive engines more than 23 years old by 2030 and increase zero-emissions technology to transport goods through ports and railyards. Supporters of the rule say they hope it benefits communities living near railyards and ports who are burdened by pollution. It will eventually have to be approved by the Biden administration before it can be implemented. Other states can sign on to try to adopt the California rule if it gets the OK from the Biden administration.
=> ↺ BP fended off a shareholder revolt backed by the UK’s largest pension funds
- BP’s annual general meeting (pdf) today (April 27), an angry, off-mic voice from the crowd began lobbing accusations at Helge Lund, BP’s chairman, as his face hardened into discomfort.
=> ↺ Global Warming Trend Is ‘Only One-Half of the Climate Model Simulations,’ Says New Paper
- A new satellite global temperature data series bolsters the case that climate models are running way too hot.
=> ↺ Climate protesters smear paint on Edgar Degas’ ‘Little Dancer’ sculpture in Washington D.C.
=> ↺ World Bank Approves $150 Million Loan to Panama for Green Development
=> ↺ US Supreme Court ruling could turbocharge lawsuits against oil companies
- A US Supreme Court ruling this week is set to open the floodgates for climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies that have been blocked for years by jurisdictional disputes. The decision comes on the heels of a bumper year for global climate litigation in 2022 and ahead of major climate rulings expected from international courts in coming months. As environmental disruption intensifies globally, is legal action an effective way to counter the climate crisis?
=> ↺ NY Fossil Fuel Ban for New Construction Must Avoid Gas Industry ‘Poison Pill’, Coalition Says
- A representative for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated Friday that a deal to pass a state-wide ban on fossil fuel in new buildings will not include any provisions allowing local officials to veto the law, but a climate coalition urged advocates to maintain pressure to ensure the measure contains no “poison pills” to weaken it before applauding the deal.
=> ↺ Exxon, Chevron Split Over How to Manage Rising Cash Piles
Finance
=> ↺ Crowning the King of Wall Street
- In addition to intimate associates of Leslie Wexner, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon’s ascent to the highest tier of Wall Street power also depended heavily on the Crown family – whose deep ties to organized crime and the military-industrial complex made them one of the richest, most powerful and most corrupt families in America.
=> ↺ The FDIC says it didn’t have the staff to regulate Signature Bank
- In a new report reviewing its supervision of the failed Signature Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said it didn’t have enough staff to properly regulate Signature, and that the bank failed because of bad management and the FDIC’s slowness to act.
=> ↺ US federal and state governments are spending so much they’ve been propping up GDP
- Most economics students understand that government spending boosts gross domestic product, but the latest GDP numbers in the US suggest that government spending also has resulted in increased private investment, compounding its influence on economic growth.
=> ↺ Federal Reserve will consider tougher rules for banks after Silicon Valley Bank failure
- The Federal Reserve is considering stricter regulations for banks after an internal review found that looser rules were one key culprit behind Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse — the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.
=> ↺ Key Takeaways From Regulatory Review of Bank Failures
- The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reviewed what went wrong with oversight of two regional banks. A watchdog agency released its own take.
=> ↺ Kevin McCarthy Doubles Down on the Debt Ceiling
- Let the brinkmanship begin. On Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy narrowly engineered a House vote to approve a $1.5 trillion spending package that would avert a breach of the debt ceiling—an outmoded, century-old spending threshold that saddles no other major economy but still possesses the power to trigger a potential default to US creditors, which in turn could produce a full-scale economic meltdown.
=> ↺ Does the Rise of China Mean the Fall of the United States?
- From the ashes of a world war that killed 80 million people and reduced great cities to smoking rubble, America rose like a Titan of Greek legend, unharmed and armed with extraordinary military and economic power, to govern the globe. During four years of combat against the Axis leaders in Berlin and Tokyo that raged across the planet, America’s wartime commanders—George Marshall in Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower in Europe, and Chester Nimitz in the Pacific—knew that their main strategic objective was to gain control over the vast Eurasian landmass. Whether you’re talking about desert warfare in North Africa, the D-Day landing at Normandy, bloody battles on the Burma-India border, or the island-hopping campaign across the Pacific, the Allied strategy in World War II involved constricting the reach of the Axis powers globally and then wresting that very continent from their grasp.
=> ↺ California’s Hypocritical Failure to Confront Poverty
=> ↺ Meta’s Reality Labs Burned Through $4 Billion Last Quarter — Or Roughly $44 Million a Day
- Will Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision ever materialize? Meta’s Reality Labs burned through $3.99 billion last quarter—around $44 million a day. In total, the division has lost a staggering $30 billion. Meta’s Q1 2023 saw sales up 3% with its $28.65 billion revenue beating Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
=> ↺ Do Charitable Write-Offs Pay Off?
- We’ve just passed through tax time again. (Unless, like me, you live in one of several states ravaged by recent extreme weather events brought on by climate change. In that case, you can wait until October.) It’s also that moment when the War Resisters League—slogan: “If you work for peace, stop paying for war”—publishes its invaluable annual “Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes” pie chart and publicizes a series of Tax Day events nationwide.
=> ↺ Omar Says Debt Limit Bill Shows GOP Only Cares About Rewarding ‘Billionaire Friends’
- Rep. Ilhan Omar argued Thursday that the House GOP’s newly passed debt ceiling legislation further demonstrates Republican lawmakers’ unwavering “commitment to transferring wealth from the working class to their billionaire friends.”
=> ↺ As Fed Probe Shows Deregulation Fueled SVB Crisis, Warren Says Powell ‘Must Be Held Accountable’
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Friday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other officials “must be held accountable” after an internal Fed investigation found that deregulation and major supervisory lapses were partly to blame for the market-rattling failure of Silicon Valley Bank last month.
=> ↺ Debt Ceiling Reminder for Democrats: ‘You Can’t Negotiate With Terrorists’
- U.S. progressives escalated their warnings this week as they accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of holding the debt limit “hostage” in service of the GOP’s pro-billionaire agenda, while urging President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats to firmly oppose GOP legislation linking any debt ceiling increase to painful spending cuts targeting poor and working people.
=> ↺ Ellen Brown: How the War on Crypto Triggered a Banking Crisis
- According to an article in American Banker titled “SEC’s Gensler Directly Links Crypto and Bank Failures,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler has asked for more financial resources to police the crypto market. Gensler testified at an April 18 House Financial Services Committee hearing: [Crypto companies] have chosen to be […]
AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
=> ↺ The King’s Cup is dead. Long live the King’s Cup! (Er, but where is it chaps?)
- The Governor General presided over a charity whose sole purpose appears to have been producing a trophy and medals for the King’s Cup rowing regatta, made from the melted down artefacts gifted by eight different nations. But where is the King’s Cup now? Jommy Tee and Ronni Salt with the investigation.
- Earlier this month, MWM highlighted the bizarre tale of man-about-town, Chris Hartley, a close associate Governor General David Hurley. Mr Hartley had managed to parlay his seemingly never-ending military and rowing connections to source significant artefacts from eight separate nations, including the Australian War Memorial (AWM). The artefacts were melted down to create a new trophy and medals for the eight nations competing in the 2019 King’s Cup regatta in the UK.
=> ↺ Mind Completely Blown
=> ↺ The Mouse Strikes Back: Disney Sues DeSantis For 1st Amendment Violations
- Almost exactly a year ago, we pointed out that Ron DeSantis deliberately trying to punish Disney for making some mild criticism of an (obviously unconstitutional) bill that he was endorsing was, itself, a 1st Amendment problem. And that was true even if the underlying idea to get rid of Disney’s control over the land in Orlando where Disney World existed might make some sense. The fact that it was done in retaliation for speech was a problem.
=> ↺ Ro Khanna Isn’t Running for President, Yet
- Joe Biden’s announcement that he will seek a second term in the White House has framed Democratic presidential politics in ways that will keep ambitious young Democrats on the sidelines for another four years. But it’s not impossible to campaign along the sidelines, as Ro Khanna is proving with considerable success.
=> ↺ No, You Absolutely Do Not Have to Hand It to Tucker Carlson
- Though Tucker Carlson’s abrupt departure from Fox News remains unexplained, it has all the earmarks of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s long-standing habit of dumping anyone, be it employee or wife, who no longer serves the interest of his personal fancy or vast business empire. Since Carlson was a leading voice of Trumpist populism, his humiliating ouster was predictably bewailed by his hard-right fans (including former Trump speechwriter Darren Beatie, known for spreading conspiracy theories about the January 6, 2021, coup attempt and for consorting with white nationalists). Conversely, many progressives, like my colleagues Joan Walsh and Elie Mystal, were understandably gratified by the sight of a racist, misogynist demagogue getting his comeuppance (for whatever reason).
=> ↺ Poetic Justice: On the Departure of Fox Hatemonger Tucker Carlson
- Things seemed hopeless for those wondering if Tucker Carlson ofFox News—who used his show to promote white supremacist hoaxes (Independent, 7/20/22) and degrading statements about immigrants (The Hill, 9/23/21)—would ever be held accountable for spewing hate on air. An advertiser exodus (New York Times, 6/18/20) and calls for his deplatforming from mainstream organizations (Anti-Defamation League, 5/25/22) seemed only to solidify the frozen-dinner heir’s position as cable news’ top-rated host. Last year, Carlson’s show “averaged 3.32 million viewers, nabbing the biggest audience in cable news among viewers ages 25 to 54,” according to the New York Post (4/24/23).
=> ↺ The Rise of China (and the Fall of the US?)
- Tectonic Eruptions in Eurasia Erode America’s Global Power.
=> ↺ John Kiriakou: Havana Syndrome — Paranoia or Reality?
- Gang-stalking. Extremely low frequency radiation. Voice to Skull (V2K) technology. None of these were terms the author had ever heard of during his 15 years at the C.I.A.
=> ↺ Seymour Hersh: Confessions of a Political Flack
- What I learned in my few months as Eugene McCarthy’s press secretary.
=> ↺ Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options
- Today is six months since Elon took over Twitter and began this bizarre speedrun of the content moderation learning curve in which he seems to repeatedly… not learn a damn thing. Over and over again he makes ridiculous choices that have made the entire platform less welcoming for speech, more willing to obey government demands, and even when he finally comes around to realizing that what Twitter was doing before was a sensible approach, he reimplements it in the dumbest possible manner. It’s uncanny that one guy could be so bad at this.
=> ↺ What Is Bluesky and Could It Replace Twitter?
- Some Twitter users are rushing to join Bluesky, a social platform funded by Jack Dorsey, a founder of Twitter.
=> ↺ New York’s Transit Agency Quits Sharing Updates on Twitter
- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it would no longer provide service information on Twitter because the “reliability of the platform can no longer be guaranteed.”
Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
=> ↺ Tucker Carlson Repackaged the Internet for His Terrified, Elderly Audience
- Racism, meditations on cattle mutilation, interviews with fringe figures: Carlson created a one-man YouTube channel for the Fox crowd.
Censorship/Free Speech
=> ↺ Russia’s Oldest Rights Group Loses Appeal Against Liquidation
- A court of appeals in the Russian capital has rejected the Moscow Helsinki Group’s appeal against its liquidation, amid a relentless Kremlin campaign to muzzle criticism of its war against Ukraine.
=> ↺ Moscow Confectioner Charged With ‘Discrediting’ Armed Forces Over Anti-War Cakes
- Police in Moscow have charged confectioner Anastasia Chernysheva with “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces involved in the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
=> ↺ Russian-language track to disappear from TV in Latvia
- As of May 1, amendments to the Electronic Media Law will enter into force, which essentially provide that Russian language audio tracks will disappear from television, Latvian Radio reported on April 28.
=> ↺ Twitter Submissions To Lumen
- A note to the Lumen community.
- As of April 15th, 2023, Twitter has not submitted copies of any of the takedown notices it receives to Lumen.
- According to Lumen’s persons of contact there, Twitter’s 3rd party data sharing policies are under review, and they will update Lumen once there is more information.
=> ↺ Hong Kong courts should step in when national security committee oversteps power, argues lawyer for media tycoon Jimmy Lai
- Hong Kong courts have the power and duty to ensure that the Beijing-imposed national security law is properly applied, and to step in when the city’s national security committee has overstepped its power, a senior barrister for media tycoon Jimmy Lai argued on Friday.
=> ↺ China lawmakers broaden scope of anti-espionage laws
- China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (SNPC) Wednesday introduced revised amendments to the nation’s anti-espionage laws.
=> ↺ Bearded Bloggers Beware: Facial Hair May Be Interpreted As National Security Threat, Tajik Official Warns
- The head of Tajikistan’s Committee for Youth and Sports, Abdullo Rahmonzoda, has urged bloggers not to wear beards and stay away from promoting beards online, saying they might be interpreted as “an expression of solidarity with terrorist groups” such as the Taliban.
Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
=> ↺ A change at Telex
Civil Rights/Policing
=> ↺ Tehran’s gold market is a reminder that Iranians have lost confidence in a future with the Islamic Republic
- Iranians do not believe in the ability of the Islamic Republic to bring either economic stability or prosperity as a governing body, which is why they are looking for ways to reduce financial risk.
=> ↺ NY judges will get more power in setting bail, governor says
- Judges in New York will be getting more discretion to jail people awaiting trial. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday night announced that a legislative deal is in place to tweak the state’s bail laws, a policy change fiercely resisted by some of fellow Democrats. The governor held a state Capitol news conference to announce a “conceptual agreement” on a $229 billion state budget with legislative leaders. Besides setting targets for state spending, the budget includes a range of policy proposals including the bail changes, a minimum wage hike and allowing more charter schools in New York City.
=> ↺ Russia’s FSB Detains Member Of Liberal Think Tank On Bribery Allegations
- Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a leading member of the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, a liberal think tank, on bribery allegations.
=> ↺ Another Jehovah’s Witness Gets Eight Years In Prison In Russia’s Far East Amid Crackdown
- A court in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok has sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to eight years in prison amid a crackdown on the religious group.
=> ↺ In Hungary, Pope Warns Of Rising Nationalism In Europe, Appeals For Migrants
- Pope Francis arrived in Hungary on April 28 at the start of a three-day trip where the war in Ukraine, migration, and Europe’s Christian roots are expected to top the agenda in his public addresses and talks with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
=> ↺ Putin Targets Political Opponents, Ukrainians In Occupied Territories With New Laws
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed bills into law that dramatically increase punishments for citizens opposed to his war in Ukraine and authoritarian rule, his latest move to crush any trace of dissent in the country.
=> ↺ New decree makes public hearing without the public present possible in Hungary
=> ↺ Fourth Circuit: TSA Agents Are Law Enforcement Officers And Of Course They Can Be Sued For Molesting People
- Grope. Grope. Grope grope grope. Grope. Andddddddd… some humiliating of people with rare medical conditions just because.
=> ↺ As GOP Fears Political Backlash, Stricter Abortion Bans Falter in Nebraska, South Carolina
- Reproductive justice advocates applauded late Thursday as state legislatures in Nebraska and South Carolina voted against advancing and passing two abortion bans—unexpectedly protecting the right to abortion care in the two red states for the time being.
=> ↺ E. Jean Carroll and Other Survivors Don’t Need an Excuse for Not Screaming
- The E. Jean Carroll vs. Donald Trump rape trial is, no doubt, eliciting a lot of understandable reactions in sexual assault survivors.* I’m a psychotherapist who, for years, has been privileged to work with many survivors. I used to consult to a rape crisis center. I don’t need to hear one word of a trauma story to do trauma work, but I’ve heard countless stories. Stories of hope, of shame, of fear, of anger, of grief and betrayal. Stories of atrocious violence. Stories of glorious resilience.
=> ↺ ‘Blatant Attack on Democracy’: NC Supreme Court Greenlights Partisan Gerrymandering
- In what voting rights advocates called a “blatant attack on democracy,” the North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday issued a ruling that allows partisan gerrymandering, reversing earlier decisions that outlawed rigged maps.
=> ↺ See We One Another Clearly, Turn the World Around
- We mourn the loss of legendary musician, dauntless activist and “lionhearted civil rights icon” Harry Belafonte, who for seven decades used his celestial voice and righteous rage to “lift people up,” wielding his fame, fortune and connections to fund bedrock civil rights efforts from SNCC and the Freedom Riders to babysitters for MLK’s kids. Giving us “a piece of his fire,” he kept doggedly at it so he could tell his children, “In my lifetime, I did all that I could.”
=> ↺ Florida GOP Send ‘Egregious’ Voter Suppression Law to DeSantis
- Voting rights defenders on Friday condemned the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature’s passage of a bill that critics said will make it harder to register Black and Latino voters while easing the way for Gov. Ron DeSantis to seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
=> ↺ I Raised My Kids From Prison. Soon, I’m Coming Home to a Grandson.
- Chanell Burnette’s two sons were very young when she was incarcerated 18 years ago. “It’s funny how things come full circle,” writes the first-time grandmother. “This is two generations of me.”
Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
=> ↺ Washington State Requires That Broadband Infrastructure Subsidies Be Used For Competitive, Open Access Fiber Networks
- Between COVID relief and the recently passed infrastructure bill, there’s an historic influx of more than $60 billion being thrown at this country’s substandard broadband networks. And, as you might expect, there’s a lot of heavy lobbying and maneuvering by various parties to obtain that money, and/or ensure that it’s actually utilized for the greater good.
=> ↺ Eshoo, Booker Bill Would Kill Dumb, Monopoly-Backed State Bans On Community Broadband
- We’ve noted for decades how telecom monopolies convinced corrupt state legislatures to pass counterproductive bans on creative community broadband networks. The bills are protectionist crap that are ghost written by telecom giants like AT&T and Comcast, and designed to protect their regional broadband monopolies from grass roots competitive disruption on a town by town level.
Monopolies
=> ↺ Google lost its bid to dismiss a wide-ranging antitrust case in US federal court
- A district court in Virginia denied Google’s motion to dismiss a Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust lawsuit on Friday (April 28), renewing a federal investigation into the company’s dominant advertising business.
Patents
=> ↺ Functional Claims: Morse, Halliburton & Amgen
- In the patent context, functional limitations describe inventions in terms of their function or intended use, rather than their specific structure or components. Such claims have been subject to much debate and litigation throughout the history of the US patent system. Notable Supreme Court cases like O’Reilly v. Morse, 56 U.S. (15 How.) 62 (1854) and Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co. v. Walker, 329 U.S. 1 (1946) significantly impacted patent practice and the balance between functional and structural claim drafting.
=> ↺ The Proposal for a Regulation on the “unitary SPC” published earlier today: the Long and Winding Road to Luxembourg
- When the European Commission earlier today published the legislative proposals aimed at introducing a unitary SPC to be examined by a central examination procedure, one of the Beatle’s most beautiful songs immediately sprang to mind: The Long and Winding Road.
=> ↺ FRAND Determination is Center Stage in EC Proposed Standard Essential Patents Regulation
- The Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) Regulation Proposal also known as the IP Action Plan formally issued by the European Commission today suggests groundbreaking changes to the standard essential patent landscape as we know it. The SEPs Regulation Proposal indicates the European Commission’s desire to establish four major requirements for SEPs holders and implementers.
=> ↺ BREAKING NEWS: Draft EU legislation on unitary SPCs and new centralized SPC examination procedure unveiled
- After years of preparation, the European Union’s draft legislation for a sweeping reform of the existing legal regime on supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), which includes the establishment of a centralized SPC filing and examination procedure as well as the introduction of a unitary SPC, has finally been published today on April 27, 2023.
Software Patents
=> ↺ Supreme Court Refuses To Hear Case Over AI’s Right To A Patent; AI Inventions Remain Unpatentable
Trademarks
=> ↺ Recommended Reading: The Trademark Reporter’s Annual Review of European Trademark Law
- The Trademark Reporter has issued its Annual Review of European Trademark Law, presented by Tom Scourfield of the UK, with contributions by an impressive roster of authors from across Europe.
Copyrights
=> ↺ Plaintiff in Ed Sheeran Copyright Infringement Trial Collapses in the Courtroom
- As Ed Sheeran’s high-stakes copyright infringement trial continues, the plaintiff collapses suddenly in the courtroom.
=> ↺ A Photographer Tried to Get His Photos Removed from an AI Dataset. He Got an Invoice Instead.
- A German stock photographer tried to get his photos removed from the AI-training LAION dataset. Lawyers replied that he owes $979 for making an unjustified copyright claim.
Gemini* and Gopher
Personal
=> ↺ On finding my equilibrium
- It is not easy to be neurodivergent. Even more, it is not easy to understand a neurodivergent human if you’re neurotypical. Casual observers who don’t know me well and only come in contact with me infrequently may find me an enigma; or worse, a dishonest and deceptive individual who appears to change my beliefs and opinions so frequently that I give them a whiplash; or, perhaps they think I lack principles and thus I lack character. Like a chameleon, I slither into all sorts of places and infiltrate them. There’s something about me that most people seem to find repulsive and repugnant.
=> ↺ You can’t do that (sit) in public
- This summer I visited two different European countries: Germany and Denmark. In Berlin, I was shocked to see how many public parks were in the city. I used a city bike program while I was there and biked all over the city. Parks were plentiful, large, well-maintained, well-used, covered in trees – like mini forests. There were public pools and adventure playgrounds, concert areas, picnic grounds, public workshops. Of course in addition are many public plazas. Most plazas have shopping all around, but the parks were usually a respite.
- Here in New York City and frankly most cities and suburbs in the US it’s impossible to find public seating in most places. If anything, there might be a bench in front of a business, for use temporarily by customers, but even that is rare to find.
- I live near a major, beautiful public park, and moved to this neighborhood largely because of the park. The park does have benches, but not that many, and even those often feature anti-homeless features to prevent homeless people from sleeping. This is (written cynically) ostensibly cheaper than providing mental health and housing support services.
- So where can you sit? You can sit on your own porch if you’re lucky or wealthy enough to have one. You can sit on a restaurant’s chair or bench while you’re a paying customer. You can sit on the ground in a park, which is difficult for the elderly and disabled. Or you can purchase a portable camp chair for $$ and carry to a public place, but usually a parking lot outside a concert or stadium, a beach, or campsite.
=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: YHKMNOB Wordo: FURZE
=> ↺ Things; Date: April 29, 2023
- Tonight, I’m sitting back on my futon with my feet propped up, typing on my MacBook while listening to some music. I’m still having problems with relaxing at all, but I’m making progress at least. And one piece of progress was getting my partner to finally deal with something I’d been bugging them about for about a month: upgrading the router.
=> ↺ Hello, world
- Surely any religion/philosophy worth more than the morass of its verbiage acknowledges something more fundamental and worth pursuing/knowing/experiencing than the so-called “world”.
- And yet how often do we encounter self-proclaimed adherents far more obsessed with matters pertaining to the world than anything allegedly spiritual?
=> ↺ Fast Food Staff Screwed Up My Order
- I ordered for myself and my three kids.
- Had to go back because we only got three chicken nuggets despite ordering nine.
- Then had to go back because they’d only given us three servings of fries instead of the four we ordered.
- Had to go back one last time because they’d forgotten to add cucumber to one of our burgers.
Technical
=> ↺ Musings on Linux distros and homelab setup
- The following are just thoughts and musings that I’m share “out loud”, to try to get a better handle on the situation.
Internet/Gemini
=> ↺ First Week Retrospective
- So I’ve been posting to gemspace for a little over a week. I have opinions! But nothing too drastic.
- The thing you can’t know, because I haven’t said, is that as well as posting daily I’ve traded my Guardian-and-Slashdot-focused daily browsing habits for reading gemlogs.
- Like Gemtext, the protocol seems to make a lot of sense. The lack of a referer header is a big deal; it plays a critical part in the “promote your content” loop on the web. I don’t think I’ll miss it.
Programming
=> ↺ Git Foo
- Anyways, an advantage of git (or really any not-so-terrible version control software) is that little test repositories can be created, various commands tried out, and then hopefully suitable commands can be applied to the real repository with lower odds of totally breaking everything. Let’s say you create a new repository with the default branch of “green”, but at some point changed the branch to the more correct “purple”, but then accidentally pushed the latest changes to “green”.
- Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink Send this to a friend
=> Techrights
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Proxy Information
- Original URL
- gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/04/29/wine-8-7-released
- Status Code
- Success (20)
- Meta
text/gemini;lang=en-GB
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- 350.436113 milliseconds
- Gemini-to-HTML Time
- 44.625712 milliseconds
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