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● 05.11.23

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● Links 11/05/2023: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and AlmaLinux 9.2

Posted in News Roundup at 9:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Ubuntu Studio ☛ Ubuntu Studio: We Need Your Help

• It’s not very often that we come to you, our users, asking for financial donations, yet here we are. We have fallen on some rough times here at the Ubuntu Studio project.

• First of all, donations have dropped considerably. We understand the world financial climate has not been easy for any of us, and it has become harder for all of us to live. However, we do believe that if we all work together, we can help each other out.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Ubuntu 23.04 welcomes three more flavors, but hamburger menus leave a bad taste

• The “Lunar Lobster” release of Ubuntu has welcomed two new official remixes, as well as the first updated Ubuntu Kylin in a year or so.

• The 38th release of Ubuntu debuted late last month, and while this is an interim release which goes end-of-life next January, there are some significant changes to make it notable. The most visible are two new official flavors: Ubuntu Cinnamon and Edubuntu.

• All use the new Flutter-based “Subiquity” installer, which is a little prettier than the old “Ubiquity.” However, it’s not really much more functional. Like the old one, the new installer’s window still can’t be resized – so, for example, if you have lots of disk partitions, you can’t make the window big enough to see them all at once without scrolling. To use an existing partition, you must first choose the existing format – a redundant extra step. We’d hoped that the final version of the new installer would fix these minor issues, but we were disappointed.

=> ↺ Lenovo Refreshes ThinkStation and ThinkPad Workstations

• Windows 11 Pro / Ubuntu Linux / Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Kernel Space

=> ↺ LWN ☛ A kernel without buffer heads

• No data structures found in the Linux kernel — at least, in any version that escaped from Linus Torvalds’s development machine — are older than the buffer head. Like many other legacies from the early days of Linux, buffer heads have been targeted for removal for years. They persist, though, despite the problems they present. Now, Christoph Hellwig has posted a patch series that enables the building of a kernel without buffer heads — but the cost of doing so at this point will be more than most want to pay.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ 6.4 Merge window, part 1

• As of this writing, nearly 7,500 non-merge changesets have been pulled into the mainline repository for the 6.4 kernel release. The 6.4 merge window is thus clearly off and running, with a number of significant changes merged already. Read on for a summary of the most significant pulled so far.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Unprivileged BPF and authoritative security hooks

• When the developers of the Linux security module (LSM) subsystem find themselves disagreeing with other kernel developers, it tends to be because those other developers don’t think to — or don’t want to — add security hooks to their shiny new subsystems. Sometimes, though, the addition of new hooks by non-LSM developers can also create some friction. Andrii Nakryiko’s posting of a pair of BPF-related security hooks raised a couple of interesting questions, one of which spurred a fair amount of discussion, and one that did not.

=> ↺ Extreme Tech ☛ Linux Patch Adds Support for Intel Meteor Lake Desktop CPUs

• Intel’s 14th generation Meteor Lake CPUs are inching closer to reality. If you recall, a little while ago, it was unclear whether the company would cancel it or just offer it as a mobile-only part. Those rumors were followed by information indicating there would indeed be a desktop part, but it might only be midrange and budget CPUs. Now we have confirmation that desktop Meteor Lake exists, though its specs are still unknown. Proof has arrived via an unlikely source: Linux patch notes.

Applications

=> ↺ Lighttpd 1.4.70

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Fedora Magazine ☛ Fedora Magazine: Use FIDO U2F security keys with Fedora Linux

• A FIDO U2F security key is a small USB and/or NFC based device. It is a hardware security token with modules for many security related use-cases. There are several brands of FIDO compliant keys, including NitroKey, SoloKey v2, and YubiKey. FIDO, in contrast to proprietary protocols like Yubico OTP, is hardware token agnostic and the tools used are manufacturer independent.

• This post introduces the FIDO protocol(s) and shows how to install and enable a FIDO U2F security key as an alternative authentication factor for logging into a terminal, GDM, or authenticating for sudo.

=> ↺ It’s Ubuntu ☛ How To Enable RPM Fusion Repository In Fedora, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux

• Last Updated on May 11, 2023 by itsubuntu How To Enable RPM Fusion Repository In Fedora, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux RPM Fusion repository is a community-maintained third-party software repository. RPM Fusion provides packages that is not available to Fedora project and Red Hat due to the issues like propriety, closed-source, or any legal issues.

=> ↺ Bryan Lunduke ☛ How To: Build and run Serenity OS

• (In 5 easy steps)

=> ↺ Own HowTo ☛ How to install sSMTP on Debian 11

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install ssmtp on Debian 11. ssmtp is a mail transfer agent (MTA) that you can use to send emails to a smtp server from your server or computer.

• For example, If you want to be notified in real time about tasks on

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ How to Install and Use Monit on Ubuntu 22.04

• Monit is a versatile and powerful open-source utility for managing and monitoring Unix-based systems. It can be used to monitor system resources, services, and applications, allowing you to ensure that they are running optimally and remain available. Monit can also be configured to automatically restart services and send notifications when certain conditions are met.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Brightness Controller on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

• Brightness Controller is an innovative, open-source software solution designed specifically for Ubuntu users who seek enhanced control over their display settings. It enables users to manipulate the brightness levels of their screen to suit their specific needs or preferences, a feature often overlooked in many other systems.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install LibreCAD on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

• LibreCAD is a free, open-source 2D Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software that offers a feature-rich, high-quality alternative to other premium CAD software. With a robust suite of tools, LibreCAD enables users to create technical drawings such as plans for buildings, interiors, mechanical parts, or schematics and diagrams.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install SMPlayer on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

• SMPlayer is a versatile, user-friendly, and open-source multimedia player that’s made quite an impact in the sphere of digital media. Crafted on the MPlayer engine, SMPlayer provides a robust platform for all your audio and video playback needs.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Visual Studio Code on Pop!_OS [Ed: Visual Studio Code is Microsoft's proprietary spyware that helps violate GPL; it oughtn't be promoted to GNU/Linux users in any shape or form]

• Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is a multifaceted and versatile editor from Microsoft that brilliantly combines the simplicity of a text editor with the power of an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

=> ↺ LinuxTuto ☛ How to Install Portainer on Ubuntu 22.04

• Portainer is an open-source container management tool that provides a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) for managing Docker containers, images, networks, and volumes.

=> ↺ APNIC ☛ BGP route leak prevention and detection with the help of RFC 9234

• Route leaks can be accidental or malicious but most often they arise from accidental misconfiguration. By creating a route leak, the leaker becomes a link between different regions without obtaining income, but the main problem is not even the lost profit.

• First, packets must traverse a longer distance when a route leak happens in a third economy. And as we understand, it results in much bigger delays. Secondly, packets can be lost due to insufficient settings if they don’t get to the receiving party.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ How to Install and Configure VNC Server in CentOS and RHEL

• In this guide, we’ll explain how to install and configure VNC Remote Access in CentOS 7/8 and RHEL 9/8/7 desktop edition via the tigervnc-server program to access remote desktop machines.

• VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a server-client protocol that allows user accounts to remotely connect and control a distant system by using the resources provided by the Graphical User Interface.

=> ↺ Unix Men ☛ A Guide To Implementing Segregation of Duties (SoD) in Linux Environments

• In today’s ever-evolving cyber threats, organizations must implement robust security measures that safeguard their valuable data and resources. One such essential measure is the Segregation of Duties (SoD). It plays a critical role in mitigating the risks associated with unauthorized access, fraud, and errors.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ 8 Cut Command Examples [Cut Sections of Line in File]

• As Linux users, we interact with the text files on a regular basis. One of the common operations we perform on these files is text filtering. Linux provides many command-line utilities for text filtering, such as – grep, fgrep, sed, awk, and the list goes on.

• However, in this guide, we will discuss one more text-filtering utility called cut, which is used to remove a particular section from the input line. The cut command performs filtering based on the byte position, character, field, and delimiter.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ How to Install Google Chrome in Linux [RHEL-based Distros]

• Google Chrome is a most popular, fast, secure, and easy-to-use free cross-platform web browser developed by Google, and was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, later versions were released to Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.

• Most of Chrome’s source code is taken from Google’s open-source software project Chromium, but Chrome is licensed as proprietary freeware, which means you can download and use it for free, but you cannot decompile, reverse engineer, or use the source code to build other programs or projects.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ Install Google Chrome on Ubuntu, Debian and Linux Mint

• Google Chrome Browser developed by Google Inc. is a freeware web browser licensed under Google Chrome Terms of Service.

• As per Wikipedia (as of February 2023) statistics and trends Google Chrome Browser has a 65.76% usage globally and we can say it’s not an ideal alternative browser but it’s the best and most widely used internet browser, which uses the WebKit layout engine.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ How to Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras

• Ubuntu Restricted Extras is a software bundle for the Ubuntu operating system that allows users to install software that isn’t currently included for ethical or copyright reasons, such as regularly used media codecs and fonts.

• The Ubuntu Restricted Extras is a metapackage that has the following dependencies: [...]

=> ↺ Linux Handbook ☛ Integrating Ghost SSO With Discourse Forum

• Ghost is an open source CMS focused on membership and newsletter.

=> ↺ Linux Handbook ☛ LHB Linux Digest #23.06: Syslogs, Processes and Troubleshooting Slow Website

• Would you like to have a community forum for Linux Handbook? A place where you could seek advice and share your Linux server experience with other LHB members?

=> ↺ Klara ☛ OpenZFS – Understanding ZFS vdev Types

• The most common category of ZFS questions is “how should I set up my pool?” Sometimes the question ends “… using the drives I already have” and sometimes it ends with “and how many drives should I buy.” Either way, today’s article can help you make sense of your options.

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ 2 Easy Ways to Capture Bluetooth Traffic on Linux

• Bluetooth-powered devices surround us everywhere. From smart home appliances to speakers in a mall, you find Bluetooth being used everywhere.

• Although Bluetooth devices are now ubiquitous, not all devices are of the same quality, and you may experience trouble connecting to devices, especially if one of them is a Linux machine.

• Instead of repeatedly trying to connect to the device hoping for a miracle, a smart and quick way to troubleshoot Bluetooth errors is to inspect the Bluetooth traffic generated and received by your device. Let’s learn how to capture and inspect Bluetooth traffic on Linux.

=> ↺ Network World ☛ Four ways to view files and file permissions on Linux | Network World

• Viewing the content of files and examining access permissions and such are very different options. This post examines a number of ways to look at files on Linux.

=> ↺ Mac Observer ☛ How to Install Kali Linux on an M1 or M2 Mac – The Mac Observer

• Kali Linux is a popular choice for penetration testing or ethical hacking. It includes a number of tools for testing your network’s vulnerabilities as well as those of your computers and other devices. The Debian-based Linux distribution has long been run on Macs, but has become more difficult in recent years. Let’s dive into how you can install Kali Linux on an M1 Mac, or any other Apple Silicon-based computer.

=> ↺ Beebom ☛ How to Check System Uptime in Linux (5 Methods) | Beebom

• About 80% of all electronics in the world run on Linux, which speaks volumes about how well-optimized the Linux kernel really is. One of the areas where Linux is extensively used is servers, and you might have seen Linux server administrators using the command line instead of a GUI. Their daily task involves checking the uptime of these electronics. If you’re new to Linux, let’s look at how to check the uptime of your Linux system in this guide.

Games

=> ↺ Boiling Steam ☛ ArcRunner: Roguelike + Cyberpunk, Reviewed on Linux

• ArcRunner is a roguelike over the shoulder third-person shooter set in a Cyberpunk universe, developed by Trickjump Games Ltd and published by PQube. It works well with Proton, on both PC and Deck.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Get MONSTER HUNTER RISE and Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen in this game bundle

• Need even more games? You can’t possibly, you already have hundreds (thousands?) but a few more can’t hurt right? A fresh Humble Bundle is up to help you save some monies. This time it’s the Capcom Heroic Collection!

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Dead by Daylight gets Steam Deck Verified

• Well, I’ve been waiting to see what the public official word would be on Dead by Daylight and now it’s official. Dead by Daylight is now Steam Deck Verified.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ The Last of Us closer to playable on Steam Deck, but the Deck still has RAM problems

• The Last of Us Part I from Naughty Dog has another big performance patch out, and the result on Steam Deck is quite surprising. But the Steam Deck still suffers from a major problem.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Direct3D 8 to Vulkan translator D8VK ‘production-ready’ 1.0 is out now

• D8VK translates Direct3D 8 to Vulkan, just like DXVK for Direct3D 9 / 10 / 11 and VKD3D-Proton for Direct3D 12 used with Wine and Proton on Linux and Steam Deck. Fantastic to see the progress on this. I reported on an earlier release, but now the “production-ready” 1.0 is available for you to play with.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Humble Store’s Spring Sale 2023 has tons of great deals

• Here’s your next chance to pick up some absolute bargains, as Humble Store are running their Spring Sale for 2023 which is live until May 23rd. Every two days they will be putting up extra special discounts too, so keep checking back.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Stellaris: Galactic Paragons released, along with free 3.8 update adding co-op modes

• A big one for Stellaris is here with the Stellaris: Galactic Paragons expansion launched along with the 3.8 “Gemini” patch for all players. Stellaris: Galactic Paragons expands the political system quite a bit with some new features, allowing for a fair bit more role-play with specialized abilities.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Open source evolution sim Thrive adds prototypes for going on land

• Thrive is a free and open source in-development evolution sim, a bit like a more scientific version of EA’s Spore and Thrive 0.6.2 expands the gameplay even more with some new prototypes.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 re-implementation OpenRCT2 now lets trains go backwards

• Another wonderful update to OpenRCT2 is live, the re-implementation of the classic RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 bringing some new features and plenty of fixes. While it’s already fully playable and quite popular, that hasn’t stopped the community of developers constantly working to improve it further.

=> ↺ It’s FOSS ☛ Game Over for Roblox on Linux: The New Anti-Cheat Blocks Wine Usage

• Roblox is a popular game platform that has been around since 2006; it gained popularity for the freedom of creativity it provides players, letting them create their games using the proprietary engine.

• For years, Linux users could play it by using workarounds and the Wine compatibility layer.

• But that is all set to change as new anti-cheat software, ‘Hyperion’ is rolled out into Roblox.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Nate Graham ☛ Plasma 6: “Better defaults”

• The 2023 Plasma sprint is now finished! KDE Patron Tuxedo Computers were kind enough to open their offices to us for a full week to do the sprint. We had some great conversations with Tuxedo employees, who were very friendly and excited to work with us, and made us thoroughly aware of just how much more complicated modern keyboard backlighting is than we had imagined! I’d like to thank KDE’s Software Platform Engineer Nicolas Fella for organizing this sprint, and Tuxedo Computers for providing the space and free pizza for lunch yesterday.

• This won’t be a retrospective of the entire sprint, because I don’t want to steal anyone else’s thunder! People will be blogging and making videos about their own personal work and experience, so this one will be about mine.

• The first thing was to get a Plasma 6 session working for daily driving. My colleagues have been working unbelievably hard on this, and I’m happy to report that I was able to live on Plasma 6 for the entire sprint without major showstoppers (from the perspective of a technical developer, of course). Almost everyone else there was as well, and I expect this to lead to extremely rapid stabilization despite the heavy code refactoring underway. I plan to continue living on Plasma 6 until its eventual release, and I encourage any adventurous developers to do so as well. If you try it out and submit any bug reports, make sure to add the “qt6” keyword to it.

=> ↺ 9to5Linux ☛ KDE Plasma 6 to Ship with Floating Panel by Default, Double-Click for Opening Files

• Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about KDE Plasma 6, a massive update to the Plasma desktop environment that will bring numerous new features and improvements. During the Plasma 6 sprint event, the devs managed to make some interesting changes for the upcoming Plasma release.

• These changes are related to the way you will be interacting with the Plasma 6 desktop. For example, Plasma 6 will default to double-click for opening files rather than a single click, and the Floating Panel introduced in Plasma 5.25 will be enabled by default as well.

=> ↺ KDE ☛ KDE Gear 23.04.1

• Over 120 individual programs plus dozens of programmer libraries and feature plugins are released simultaneously as part of KDE Gear.

• Today they all get new bugfix source releases with updated translations, including…

• Distro and app store packagers should update their application packages.

=> ↺ 9to5Linux ☛ KDE Gear 23.04.1 Is Out to Improve Kdenlive, Spectacle, Dolphin, and More

• KDE Gear 23.04.1 is here to improve the Kdenlive video editor by fixing an issue causing project files to be corrupted when opened, a recent regression where sequence clip duration was not updated, various sequence issues, a crash when the speech engine was left configured, as well as a concurrency crash in thumbnails.

• The Spectacle screenshot utility has been improved in this release by fixing the Rectangular Region selector to work as expected on multi-monitor setups where one of the displays has a scale factor below 100%. Moreover, Spectacle will no longer affect the window below it when it’s closed with the Esc key.

Distributions and Operating Systems

BSD

=> ↺ nixCraft ☛ FreeBSD List and Find Out All Installed Hard Disk Size Information

• How do I find out all installed hard disk drive names under a FreeBSD operating system without rebooting the server? How do I use the equivalent of fdisk -l in Linux, with FreeBSD to list all hard disks drives? How can I find hard disk size in FreeBSD?

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Business Wire ☛ Red Hat Delivers Latest Releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

• Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 and the forthcoming availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8. These new releases further Red Hat’s efforts to simplify and streamline complex Linux platform tasks across the hybrid cloud, from datacenters to public clouds to edge deployments, helping IT teams to better overcome staffing and skill shortages and improve efficiency in critical infrastructure areas.

=> ↺ Red Hat Official ☛ What’s new in the web console in RHEL 9.2 and 8.8

• The Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) web console is a simplified web-based management tool that lets you manage many aspects of RHEL more efficiently. For more information on the web console and how to get started with it, refer to the Managing systems using the RHEL 9 web console documentation.

• RHEL versions 9.2 and 8.8 have a number of new features and enhancements related to the web console, including:

=> ↺ Red Hat Official ☛ Speed innovation with new features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 and 8.8

• It’s no secret that IT organizations are asked to do more than ever before. While earlier digital transformation efforts were often limited in scope to a single business unit or platform, today’s initiatives are frequently far more expansive. IT teams are now expected to execute end-to-end transformation projects, connecting technology, people and processes across their organizations. These projects encompass a broad spectrum of infrastructure, tools, operations and requirements, significantly increasing complexity and risk.

• That’s where Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comes in. Trusted by IT organizations for more than 20 years, RHEL provides a more flexible, stable and consistent platform for building and deploying applications and services across hybrid environments with less effort. And, with RHEL 9.2 and 8.8, we’ve added more features and capabilities to help you innovate more quickly, streamline your infrastructure, better protect your workloads and data, and operate with confidence. RHEL 9.2 is available today on the Red Hat Customer Portal for all customers with active Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions. RHEL 8.8 will be available soon. 

=> ↺ Red Hat Official ☛ Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions 9.2 – Just Use It

• In the 1990s, Nike staked its claim on innovative athletic performance with the iconic marketing campaign Just Do It. Today, many memes exist with a throwback to this vintage slogan with visions of brains and the command of Just Use It. Those of us working on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) think the same thing for optimal performance without worry when it comes to RHEL for SAP Solutions and our 9.2 release. 

• The new capabilities in RHEL are dedicated to helping organizations attack the complexity of the hybrid cloud, with features that deliver a more repeatable, scalable, easy to manage Linux estate across the footprint-agnostic, multi/hybrid cloud. This alone makes the life of the administrator easier and more efficient, and lowers the bar to entry for new administrators.

=> ↺ Red Hat ☛ How the new RHEL 9.2 improves the developer experience

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.2 is now Generally Available (GA). This release provides a flexible and stable foundation to support hybrid cloud innovations. Build, deploy, and manage applications and critical workloads faster and more efficiently with a consistent experience across physical, virtual, private, public cloud, and edge deployments. You can download RHEL 9.2 at no cost as part of the Red Hat Developer program subscription.

• In this article, you will learn what’s new in RHEL 9.2 and how it improves the developer experience.

=> ↺ CIQ Mountain Launch Enables Rocky Linux Users to Securely Manage Solutions Throughout the Software Lifecycle

• CIQ, the company behind Rocky Linux, added a new service to its portfolio aimed at enhancing how organizations manage complex software infrastructure and solutions.

• CIQ Mountain is a “mountain of solutions” that provides software and artifact delivery and lifecycle management for turnkey solution management at any scale.

• From small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises with large fleets of diverse infrastructure, CIQ Mountain provides capabilities for efficient management of your software infrastructure whether on premise or in the cloud, allowing more mission focus, according to the company.

=> ↺ DebugPoint ☛ AlmaLinux 9.2 Released, with Enhanced Security and Performance

• AlmaLinux 9.2 brings security updates, enhanced application streams, streamlined system management, containerization capabilities, and updated components, empowering users to optimize their infrastructure.

• The AlmaLinux OS Foundation has announced the release of AlmaLinux 9.2, the latest version of its free and open-source enterprise-grade operating system. Being a binary compatible with the recently released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 (RHEL 9.2), this release brings a few improvements and updates.

=> ↺ Linuxiac ☛ AlmaLinux 9.2 Is Now Available for Download, Here’s What’s New

• Just 24 hours after RHEL 9.2 release AlmaLinux 9.2 followed suit, offering expanded capabilities, security updates, and other fixes

• AlmaLinux has become a popular replacement for Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s free version since CentOS’s entry into the “stream.”

• The new stable AlmaLinux 9.2 release for x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, and s390x architectures, powered by Linux kernel 5.14, is ready for production and to power the computing needs and workloads. So let’s see what’s new.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ ZDNet ☛ Lubuntu is Linux for those looking to simplify and speed up their desktop experience | ZDNET

• The LXQt desktop might not be one of the most popular Linux desktops, but it’s one that any user, regardless of experience, would feel right at home on. It’s simple, fast, keeps the effects and animations to a minimum, and is as reliable a desktop as any you’ve used.

• And it can be found as the default desktop on the official Ubuntu spin, aptly named Lubuntu.

• Because Lubuntu is an official spin, you can rest assured it has all the usual Ubuntu underpinnings. That means it includes the Snap universal package manager, all the repositories you could need, a stable kernel, and most of the pre-installed software you’ll need to be productive.

• But is this official spin the right operating system for you? Let’s dive in and find out.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ It’s FOSS ☛ Ubuntu Now Available on the World’s First High-Performance RISC-V SBC with GPU

• Single-board computers (SBC) have been rising in popularity ever since the likes of Raspberry Pi, and Arduino came into the spotlight.

• These boards are relatively compact and have varying levels of processing power that both tinkerers and hobbyists alike enjoy exploring.

• And now.

• Canonical has announced that Ubuntu is available on the World’s first high-performance RISC-V SBC with an integrated GPU, called the StarFive VisionFive 2.

• Let’s dive in and take a look at more details.

=> ↺ peppe8o ☛ How to use Heart/Pulse Rate Sensor with Arduino Uno

• In this tutorial, we will use a heart rate sensor with Arduino Uno. The heart rate sensor uses to measure the pulse. The finger places

=> ↺ Tom’s Hardware ☛ HDDs Will Be Extinct by 2028, Says Pure Storage Exec

• HDDs will go the way of the dodo before the decade is over, predicts a top exec at Pure Storage. a flash, software, and cloud storage company. Shawn Rosemarin is the VP of R&D within the Customer Engineering unit at Pure, and in discussion with Blocks & Files he predicted that “no more hard disk drives will be sold after 2028.” This controversial prediction from Pure, a flash-centric storage tech company, might be little more than wishful thinking, but warrants a closer look at issues which might shorten the lifespan of HDD technology.

=> ↺ Kenneth Finnegan ☛ Building the Micro Mirror Free Software CDN

• How Linux distros get around this budget issue is that they host a single “golden” copy of all of their project files (Install media ISOs, packages, repository index files, etc) and volunteers around the world who are blessed with surplus bandwidth download a copy of the whole project directory, make it available from their own web server that they build and maintain themselves, and then register their mirror of the content back with the project. Each free software project then has a load balancer that directs clients to nearby mirrors of the content they’re requesting while making sure that the volunteer mirrors are still online and up to date.

• At the beginning of 2022, one of my friends (John Hawley) and I were discussing the fact that the network who used to be operating a Linux mirror in the same datacenter as us had moved out of the building, and maybe it would be fun to build our own mirror to replace it.

=> ↺ Arduino ☛ Training embedded audio classifiers for the Nicla Voice on synthetic datasets

• The task of gathering enough data to classify distinct sounds not captured in a larger, more robust dataset can be very time-consuming, at least until now. In his write-up, Shakhizat Nurgaliyev describes how he used an array of AI tools to automatically create a keyword spotting dataset without the need for speaking into a microphone.

=> ↺ Andrew Hutchings ☛ Acorn Archimedes A3000: Restoration Part 2

• In the first post of this series I removed the leaky battery and cleaned up underneath. Now it is time to see if this machine boots and if there are any hardware issues before going further.

=> ↺ Gabriel Sieben ☛ Sorry Purism, I’m not investing. It’s (possibly) not even legal. – Gabriel Sieben

• Excuse me… does this almost look like some form of Ponzi scheme if the anecdotes are true? Purism raised $2.1 million from orders from the Librem 5. Then they sold this form of “stock” to get more cash in 2019, and 2021, and now 2023. They are openly saying right now the cash raised will go to ordering parts for a large production run, which will complete orders from 2019.

• [...]

• Now, I can’t go on anything more than a hunch. But my hunch is that Purism is using investor funds to subsidize orders, and selling “convertible notes” to do the job. Is that illegal? I am not a lawyer, and at least it’s pretty clear if you really go digging, so it probably is legal. But is it shady? Or at least Unsustainable? Plus, if I am an investor… how does it feel, knowing your cash is most likely just going to dig them out of a money pit and not actually work on growing the company otherwise? Is that not just a tiny bit misleading, for being a morally superior “Social Purpose Company”?

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Supercon 2023 Is On, We Want You!

• We’re absolutely excited to be able to announce that the Hackaday Supercon is on for 2023, and will be taking place Nov 3 – Nov 5 in sunny Pasadena CA. And with that, we’d like to open the floodgates: we’d like to hear your proposals for talks and workshops! The Call for Speakers and Call for Workshops forms are online now, and you’ve got until July 18th to get yourself signed up.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Express ☛ Android users must delete these popular apps now or pay a very high price | Express.co.uk

=> ↺ Giz China ☛ Google AI now creates Android apps without having to learn to code

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ Google Pixel 7a vs. Samsung Galaxy A54: Which Mid-Range Android Phone Is Better?

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ Android 14′s beta program is now open to more phones

=> ↺ India Times ☛ This is the first foldable smartphone to get Android 14 beta update – Times of India

=> ↺ Notebook Check ☛ NPad X Android 13 tablet with MediaTek G99 SoC now shipping for US$149 – NotebookCheck.net News

=> ↺ Sony Xperia 1 V sounds like the perfect Android phone for content creators | Trusted Reviews

=> ↺ Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Control Your Screen Time on Android – Make Tech Easier

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ Google will debut Wear OS 4 for Android smartwatches this fall

=> ↺ CNET ☛ Google Unveils Android 14 for Phones, Wearables and Tablets – Video – CNET

=> ↺ Engadget ☛ Android 14 will add more customization to your home and lock screens | Engadget

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ BBC ☛ Carnegie Mellon University researchers place among $1 million top spot in XPRIZE Digital Learning Challenge

• Science researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are among a team of winners that won the $1 million national XPRIZE Digital Learning Challenge. UpGrade, a free and open-source platform developed by Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Learning, also placed as one of two finalists in the competition.

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ Live streaming LibreOffice bug triaging – your experiences (part 1)

• LibreOffice’s QA (Quality Assurance) community helps to identify and fix bugs in the software. Every week, Ilmari Lauhakangas from The Document Foundation (the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice) live-streams bug triaging sessions, so that others can see how he works on bug reports, and ask him questions.

Education

=> ↺ Sumana Harihareswara ☛ Maintainer Burnout: PyCon US 2023 Followup

• At PyCon US 2023, David Lord facilitated an open space discussion of “maintainer burnout, how to survive it, and maybe how to prevent it.” Here are some notes (incorporating his; thanks, David!), my analysis, and useful links.

=> ↺ University of Toronto ☛ Mailing lists versus forums, some thoughts

• In theory, mail clients can group messages by thread, let people mute entire threads that aren’t of interest to them, and layer on additional things for topic areas and so on. In practice this relies on mail clients both being pretty sophisticated and doing the right thing on replies, which means that in practice it can be fragile. The default experience of an active mailing list with a mail client is a steady rain of relatively undifferentiated email. By contrast, forums don’t give you any choice about the matter; your message or reply will be associated with a specific, distinct thread (and possibly in a specific topic area). This is more or less enforced by both the software and the social expectations; even if you can technically do otherwise with enough work, it won’t get you the results you want.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ The future of open source in the age of AI: Analysts break down Open Source Summit insights

• The recent surge in artificial intelligence presents a challenge to open source and could potentially topple generations of open-source work.

• “No one wants to bet against open source,” said industry analyst John Furrier (pictured, left). “However, open source is in trouble right now because of the AI wave. We’re seeing a lot of signals where there are pressure points coming in this tornado of open source that puts a lot of things at risk.”

=> ↺ Ubuntu ☛ OpenInfra Summit Vancouver 2023 is coming

• The Canonical booth (B11) will see a number of exciting demos on a new open source project – K8s-native OpenStack. We will demonstrate how to quickly spin up OpenStack on Kubernetes, including both single-node installations and multi-node clusters. Another round of demos will walk you through the concept of leveraging an integrated open infrastructure stack consisting of OpenStack, Kubernetes and Kubeflow for AI/ML purposes. Our cloud experts will be happy to answer any questions about those technologies as well as discuss the current stage of your cloud migration strategy.

=> ↺ SparkFun Electronics ☛ A Weekend At The Open Hardware Summit

• SparkFun alum Priyanka Makin gives us a firsthand account of her experience at The Open Source Hardware Association’s Open Hardware Summit. Learn about the talks, demos, workshops, and more here!

=> ↺ Matt Rickard ☛ Unix Philosophy for AI

• Text processing was the initial pitch for the development of Unix at Bell Labs (see An Oral History of Unix). It became more than that. Spell checkers in ed used the sort command. Then there was AWK, the text processing language used by the awk tool by Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan. Then there were Unix pipes — the development that made the Unix philosophy a reality.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Sean Conner ☛ Proportional fonts for coding? No thank you

• There’s some back and forth in the Gemini community about coding with a proportional font. You can pry my monospace font from my cold dead hands.

• I’ve been coding for nearly 40 years now, and it’s always been some form of a monospace font, some pretty, like the character set for VGA on IBM PCs, and some not to pretty, like the character set on the TRS-80 Color Computer. Code in a proportional font just looks weird to me.

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Build an R package: the workshop

• With the “Build an R package” workshop, starting from a set of R scripts and functions, you will develop an R package along the way using usethis and devtools packages, you will learn how to deal with package dependency applying renv to the package framework, you will document functions using roxygen2, you will learn about unit tests and how to integrate them in your package using usethis and testthat.

=> ↺ Devever ☛ Binary formats and protocols: LTV is better than TLV

• In my view, LTV — Length-Type-Value — is the better construction. One reason for this is that if you arrange the fields like this, you can define the LTV construction as a composition of two different constructions: [...]

=> ↺ Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ Visualizing the FIDE World Chess Championship

• The day was structured nicely to help you push yourself to create something even if you haven’t done it before. (Which is great, because I haven’t!) The general structure was a kick-off call, then some hanging out together while we worked, and at the end we had presentations. The kick-off call was where we could meet each other and ask for help and share ideas. For me, this was a great place to validate that the idea I was working on was valid and interesting. Then in the hangout time, we just shared little updates (I was very excited when I got a line to draw) and could have some accountability by seeing someone else also working. The presentations at the end give you a nice target. They motivated me to finish something, which gave me a nice time constraint.

Python

=> ↺ Earthly ☛ Mastering the Art of Logging in Python: A Complete Guide

• Python’s logging module provides a powerful and flexible framework for implementing logging in software applications. With a wide range of built-in features and configuration options, the logging module enables developers to log events at different levels of severity, control the format of log messages, and route logs to different destinations such as files or email. By using the logging module, Python developers can easily integrate logging into their code and ensure that their applications are stable and reliable.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Ruff: a fast Python linter

• Linters are tools that analyze a program’s source code to detect various problems such as syntax errors, programming mistakes, style violations, and more. They are important for maintaining code quality and readability in a project, as well as for catching bugs early in the development cycle. Last year, a new Python linter appeared: Ruff. It’s fast, written in Rust, and in less than a year it has been adopted by some high-profile projects, including FastAPI, Pandas, and SciPy.

• Linting tools are often part of an integrated development environment, used in pre-commit hooks, or as part of continuous-integration (CI) pipelines. Some popular linters for Python include Pylint, Flake8, Pyflakes, and pycodestyle (formerly called pep8), which are all written in Python as well. Each linter checks whether the code violates a list of rules. Ruff reimplements a lot of the rules that are defined by these other popular Python linters, and combines them into one tool.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Namespaces for the Python Package Index

• The Python packaging picture is generally a bit murky; there are lots of different stakeholders, with disparate wishes and needs, which all adds up to a fairly large set of multi-faceted problems. Back in the first three months of the year, we looked at various discussions around packaging, some of which are still ongoing. A packaging summit was held at PyCon 2023 to bring some of the participants of those discussions together in one room. One of its sessions was on adding a namespaces feature to the Python Package Index (PyPI). It provides a look into some of the difficulties that can arise, especially when trying to accommodate a long legacy of existing practices, which is often a millstone around the neck of those trying to make packaging improvements.

Leftovers

Science

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Warning of AI Threat to ‘Human Existence,’ Health Experts Urge Halt to Unregulated Rollout

• While many experts agree that artificial intelligence holds tremendous potential for advancing medical science and human health, a group of international doctors and other specialists warned this week that AI “could pose an existential threat to humanity” and called for a moratorium on the development of such technology pending suitable regulation.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Exploring The Early Days Of QRP Radio

• Morse code might seem obsolete but for situations with extremely limited bandwidth it’s often still the best communications option available. The code requires a fair amount of training to use effectively, though, and even proficient radio operators tend to send only around 20 words per minute. As a result of the reduced throughput, a type of language evolved around Morse code which, like any language, has evolved and changed over time. QRP initially meant something akin to “you are overloading my receiver, please reduce transmitter power” but now means “operating radios at extremely low power levels”. [MIKROWAVE1] explores some of the earlier options for QRP radios in this video.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Open source at America’s famous Los Alamos Lab: Pragmatism as its nucleus

• “Some of this is arm’s length measurement to look at capabilities and failure modes. The fact that the code is inspectable, that it’s open source, is it quite a big deal.”

• The choice of MariaDB, as opposed to the related open-source alternatives such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, was also influenced by its ability to execute “fine-grained locking.”

Education

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Fee-free courses to train our way out of skill shortage

• Hundreds of thousands of Australians will be able to upskill for free as the Albanese government looks to drag the country out of a skills shortage.

=> ↺ Pro Publica ☛ Judy Eledge Resigns From Anchorage Public Library After Recorded Comments Surface

• The deputy director of the Anchorage Public Library is resigning, less than three weeks after the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica published an article that documented her history of inflammatory comments and social media posts.

• Mayor Dave Bronson announced Judy Eledge’s resignation Tuesday and said her last day will be Monday.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Helen Gym Has a Plan to Make Philadelphia Safe

• Cook County commissioner and former public school teacher Brandon Johnson won an upset victory last month over establishment favorite and former Chicago schools superintendent Paul Vallas in the Chicago mayoral contest. The election was a referendum on the direction of public safety and education. Chicago has been long afflicted by the stiff cocktail of poverty, violent crime, and hyper-segregation. Over the past decade, the city has seen the single largest school closure in American history, the ballooning of charter schools (privately managed, publicly funded institutions), the shuttering of most of its public mental health clinics, and the brutal murder of teenager Laquan McDonald and other acts of police violence. Powered by a multiracial coalition of labor unions and progressive groups and endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Jesús G. García, Johnson championed a tax-the-mansions-and-corporations agenda to pay for social and economic programs that address the root causes of crime and inequality and create a city where “no one is too poor to live.” He drew a sharp contrast to the revanchist, law-and-order demagoguery of Vallas, who called for hiring more officers in a city with one of the country’s biggest police forces per capita.

Hardware

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Op Amp Contest: Magnetic Core Memory The Dr Cockroach Way

• No matter how memory technology marches on, magnetic core memory is still cool. Radiation-hard, nonvolatile, and so pretty. What’s there not to love? [Mark Nesselhaus] is no stranger to fun in-your-face electronics builds — judging from his hackaday.io projects — and this entry to the Hackaday Op-Amp contest is no outlier. This is a sixteen-bit magnetic core RAM demonstrator built upon glass using copper tape and solder, which always looks great and is actually not all that hard to do yourself provided you grab a new scalpel blade from the pack before starting.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Exploiting Hardware-Level Parallelism In The Manticore Hardware-Accelerated RTL Simulator

• Before a chip design is turned from a hardware design language (HDL) like VHDL or Verilog into physical hardware, testing and validating the design is an essential step. Yet simulating a HDL design is rather slow due to the simulator using either only a single CPU thread, or limited multi-threading due to the requirements of fine-grained concurrency. This is due to the strict timing requirements of simulating hardware and the various clock domains that ultimately determine whether a design passes or fails. In a recent attempt to speed up RTL (transistor) level simulations like these, Mahyar Emami and colleagues propose a custom processor architecture – called Manticore – that can be used to run a HDL design after nothing more than compiling the HDL source and some processing.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Low-Frequency DC Block Lets You Measure Ripple Better

• We all know how to block the DC offset of an AC signal — that just requires putting a capacitor in series, right? But what if the AC signal doesn’t alternate very often? In that case, things get a little more complicated.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Tiny Microcontroller Uses Real-Time Operating System

• Most of the computers we interact with on a day-to-day basis use an operating system designed for flexibility. While these are great tools for getting work done or scrolling your favorite sites, they have a weakness when it comes to interacting quickly with a real-world environment. For these kinds of low-latency, high-reliability systems you may want to turn to something like freeRTOS which is optimized for this kind of application and which [Parikshit Pagare] has used to build his home automation system.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Hackaday Prize 2023: 65uino 6502 Learning In A Familiar Package

• [Anders Nielsen] presents his entry for the 2023 Hackaday Prize: The 65uino. Which as you might be able to guess, is a 6502-based microcomputer wedged into an Arduino Uno form factor (well, almost wedged in, but we’ll let it slide) The premise is simple, older micros are easier to understand, the board can be build up from new-old or salvaged stock, and that’s more chips on boards and less sitting on a dusty shelf. After all, even though the 6502 in its original form is long obsolete, it’s far better to be pushing some electrons around, than sitting there decaying.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuania to donate 5,000 coronavirus vaccines to Azerbaijan [Ed: But what's the efficacy and safety of these? So far the ones we've seen did not curb COVID-19, they just made a lot of money for patent stakeholders.]

• Lithuania’s government decided on Wednesday to donate nearly 5,000 coronavirus vaccines to Azerbaijan.

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ What Happens When the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Ends on Thursday [Ed: Well, people die in huge numbers and the government does not check why]

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ What Happens When the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Ends on Thursday [Ed: Well, people die in huge numbers and the government does not check why]

• Many will have to start paying for rapid coronavirus testing, and the controversial Title 42 immigration policy will end.

=> ↺ Off Guardian ☛ They’re Coming To Take You Away

• Suppose I tell you in advance that the essay you are reading is meant to startle you. And suppose I suggest, by way of demonstration, that two people as loosely connected as the leader of the “COVID Crisis Group” and Joe Biden’s “Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism”…

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ South Korea to drop mandatory 7-day quarantine for Covid-19 patients from June

• Health authorities will still recommend five days of self-isolation for infected people.

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ Former IRS Agent in California Charged in $3M Pandemic Relief Fraud Scheme

• Federal prosecutors say a former Internal Revenue Service agent and Oakland tax enforcement officer has been charged with a scheme that stole $3 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief money

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Saving African babies’ lives by banking mothers’ milk

• Facilities that donate breast milk could save tens of thousands of babies and young children in Africa every year.

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ Illinois Gov. Pritzker Signs Law That Gives Benefits to Chicago First Responders Disabled by COVID

• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a law providing full disability benefits to Chicago police officers and firefighters struck by COVID-19 before vaccines were available

=> ↺ Pro Publica ☛ Health Insurance Claim Denied? See What Insurers Said Behind the Scenes

• When a health insurance company is deciding whether to pay for your medical treatment, the company generates a file around your claim. All the records associated with your case should be part of your file. This includes documents explaining the reasons your claim was denied.

• You have a right to see this file. Federal regulations require most health insurance plans to give people an opportunity to review documents related to their claim for free. So if your insurer talks to your doctor, if a nurse takes notes, or if two people speak about it on the phone, all of those records should be available to you.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Indigenous Corn, Indigenous Resistance

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ YouTube, Waze, Zoom and other apps are coming to Android-powered cars

• Cars that have Google LLC’s Android Automotive operating system built-in will soon be able to access apps such as YouTube, Waze and Zoom through their in-car infotainment systems.

=> ↺ Kev Quirk ☛ Anti-Social Update

• I was feeling a bit shitty about social media. Honestly, I wasn’t getting a lot from it, so I decided to make some changes to the way I do things. In my last post on the topic I said:

• I don’t think I could follow in the footsteps of Nicolas and Manu [removing social media completely], as I do enjoy my time on the Fedi…sometimes. But something has to change.

• Well, something has changed and, true to form, I’ve contradicted myself. I’ve pretty much gone full Nicolas/Manu and stopped using social media.

=> ↺ Teen Vogue ☛ Cancer Alley: Pollution Is Making Louisianans Sick, and They’re Fighting Back

• My name is Kamea and I am 10 years old. I live in Sulphur, Louisiana near the Gulf Coast with my mom and my brothers and sisters. I love my home, but I’ve also learned that pollution from oil and gas is making me and the environment sick and it is also contributing to climate change.

• I had everything planned for my tenth birthday party. I had picked out the decorations and a cake. I was so excited. But one week before my party, everything changed. My skin started to burn, itch, and break out. We went to the doctor and they told me I had a skin disease that I can’t even pronounce. They told me that I couldn’t have my party, but that my skin would get better. It didn’t. The doctors ran more tests and they told me that my skin condition is caused by my environment— the air around me is peeling off my skin.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Compact no-bathroom flats increasingly popular among young in Japan

• Some seem to prefer a life without a lot of possessions.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Insurers, banks take interest in ADHD diagnoses

• Finland’s ADHD association says some people may hesitate to seek help for ADHD symptoms if having a diagnosis becomes a hurdle in accessing insurance.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft Portugal talks about “organizational adjustments” to justify layoffs

=> ↺ Microsoft will lay off in Portugal

• The US technology company has a plan to cut jobs in the Portuguese market, confirmed an official source. More than a hundred jobs may be at stake.

• However, another source familiar with the technology’s plans said that more than a hundred jobs may be at stake. Observador mentions 112 jobs affected by the cut.

• “We do not take decisions like this lightly. We are working closely with impacted employees to ensure they are treated with respect and have our full support during these transitions,” Microsoft’s official source said.

=> ↺ Computer World ☛ Steve Wozniak: ChatGPT-type tech may threaten us all

• Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been touring the media to discuss the perils of generative artificial intelligence (AI), warning people to be wary of its negative impacts. Speaking to both the BBC and Fox News, he stressed that AI can misuse personal data, and raised concerns it could help scammers generate even more effective scams, from identity fraud to phishing to cracking passwords and beyond.

=> ↺ New Atlas ☛ Wendy’s to begin replacing drive-thru staff with AI chatbots

• The company has been working with Google on a number of machine learning and AI tools behind the scenes, and is now extending that partnership to begin deploying a Large Language Model (LLM) generative AI system built on the Vertex AI platform, that’s custom-trained to take over from human workers, taking drive-thru orders and talking with customers.

=> ↺ MIT Technology Review ☛ Google is throwing generative AI at everything

• Billions of users will soon see Google’s latest AI language mode, PaLM 2, integrated into over 25 products like Maps, Docs, Gmail, Sheets, and the company’s chatbot, Bard. For example, people will be able to simply type a request such as “Write a job description” into a text box that appears in Google Docs, and the AI language model will generate a text template that users can customize.

=> ↺ Teleport ☛ Explore the New Teleport 13 Features!

• Once again it’s time for everyone’s favorite announcement: a brand new Teleport release! This release marks version 13 of Teleport and is packed with features, including a brand new UI makeover. Let’s dive in!

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ The world of work is broken and it’s Microsoft’s fault

• As an eminent producer of “workplace productivity” tools, Microsoft is well placed to understand how they are used thanks to its data-harvesting proclivities.

• However, the software giant’s annual Work Trend Index report for 2023 [PDF] has revealed that “workplace productivity” could be a misnomer – think “massive timesuck” instead.

=> ↺ Gizmodo ☛ Microsoft’s CEO Says No Raises for Full-Time Employees This Year

• News of Microsoft’s decision was relayed to managers in an email from CEO Satya Nadella, whose yearly salary ballooned by 10% to $55 million last year, this morning, Insider reports. According to the email, Nadella informed managers that raises would not be granted to full-time employees this year, but hourly employees are still eligible to receive increased compensation. Likewise, the CEO wrote that while bonuses and stock awards are still on the table, they will not be “overfunded,” and employees will still be able to pursue promotions within the company.

=> ↺ GeekWire ☛ Microsoft won’t give raises to full-time salaried employees this year [Ed: Way to distract from many Microsoft layoffs this week?]

=> ↺ The Halo franchise is dying as fans are crying

• With so much controversy surrounding the beloved franchise, fans are left wondering where it all went wrong and many have been vocal about their displeasure with Halo: Infinite’s developer, 343 Industries. 343 took the reins on the franchise after original developer Bungie parted ways following the release of Halo: Reach in 2009.

• The studio itself has gone through many twists and turns throughout Infinite’s lifecycle, with a constant shift of leadership and staff alike. A recent round of lay-offs around Microsoft has put the studio in a tough bind.

=> ↺ [Repeat] New York Times ☛ LinkedIn Will Cut Over 700 Jobs Worldwide and Shut Its China App

• The company, owned by Microsoft, said it will lay off 716 employees worldwide, including teams dedicated to engineering and marketing in China, because of slumping demand. It did not say how many of those layoffs will be in China.

• LinkedIn will also shut its China job posting app, a bare-bones version of its international service, by August. Users of the app, called InCareer, could only search for jobs and not post or share articles the way they can on LinkedIn.

Windows TCO

=> ↺ [Repeat] Bruce Schneier ☛ PIPEDREAM Malware against Industrial Control Systems

• Another nation-state malware, Russian in origin: [...]

=> ↺ Wired ☛ Feds Uncover a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ for Hacking Industrial Control Systems

• On Wednesday, the Department of Energy, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the NSA, and the FBI jointly released an advisory about a new hacker toolset potentially capable of meddling with a wide range of industrial control system equipment. More than any previous industrial control system hacking toolkit, the malware contains an array of components designed to disrupt or take control of the functioning of devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that are sold by Schneider Electric and OMRON and are designed to serve as the interface between traditional computers and the actuators and sensors in industrial environments. Another component of the malware is designed to target Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) servers—the computers that communicate with those controllers.

=> ↺ CISA ☛ APT Cyber Tools Targeting ICS/SCADA Devices

• In addition, the APT actors can use a tool that installs and exploits a known-vulnerable ASRock-signed motherboard driver, AsrDrv103.sys, exploiting CVE-2020-15368 to execute malicious code in the Windows kernel. Successful deployment of this tool can allow APT actors to move laterally within an IT or OT environment and disrupt critical devices or functions.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Capita Says Ransomware Attack Will Cost It Up to $25 Million

• UK-based business process outsourcing and professional services company Capita said on Wednesday that it expects to incur costs ranging between roughly £15 million ($19 million) and £20 million ($25 million) as a result of the recent cybersecurity incident, but it has not clarified whether that includes a ransom payment to the [attackers].

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Dragos Says Ransomware Gang Accessed Limited Data but Failed at Extortion Scheme

• Industrial cybersecurity vendor Dragos on Wednesday said a known ransomware group breached its defenses and accessed threat intel reports, a SharePoint portal and a customer support system but ultimately failed in an elaborate extortion scheme that included private messages to company executives.

=> ↺ Scoop News Group ☛ Ranking ransomware: The gangs, the malware and the ever-present risks

• These are just two of the known ransomware attacks that occur daily around the world targeting small and large businesses, government organizations, nonprofits and medical facilities. Names like Royal and PLAY apply to both the strain of malware used in the attacks and the groups that create and operate the platforms behind them, but those names may signify little else to executives and other decision-makers on the frontlines of defending against ransomware.

Security

=> ↺ SANS ☛ Exploratory Data Analysis with CISSM Cyber Attacks Database – Part 2, (Tue, May 9th)

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Former Uber Security Officer Won’t Go To Prison For Covering Up A 2016 Data Breach

• A rather strange prosecution of a former Uber executive finally comes to an end. And the first tech company executive to be convicted of criminal acts related to a data breach won’t be going to prison, as Joseph Menn reports for the Washington Post.

=> ↺ UK Man Pleads Guilty To Hijacking Twitter Accounts Of Elon Musk, Joe Biden And Others [Ed: Rich people were threatened by this, so the US government took action. Only to protect rich people.]

• A British man has admitted to his role in a high-profile social media hack, a scheme that involved stealing the Twitter accounts of prominent U.S. political and corporate figures like Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and others.

=> ↺ Bleeping Computer ☛ New Linux kernel NetFilter flaw gives attackers root privileges [Ed: NetFilter showing the cost of adding far too much into a kernel]

• A new Linux NetFilter kernel flaw has been discovered, allowing unprivileged local users to escalate their privileges to root level, allowing complete control over a system.

=> ↺ Dark Reading ☛ Royal Ransomware Expands to Target Linux, VMware ESXi [Ed: The issue here is proprietary VMware, not "Linux"]

• The ransomware gang has also started using the BatLoader dropper and SEO poisoning for initial access.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ Scammer Made Thousands Selling ‘Leaked’ Frank Ocean Tracks That Were Fake, AI-Generated

• A scammer has managed to sell multiple leaked Frank Ocean tracks for thousands of dollars, but the tracks weren’t recorded by the famous R&B singer-songwriter. The tracks were made with AI and sold as leaked tracks on a bustling community of underground music collectors, according to Discord messages and forum posts reviewed by Motherboard, as well as interviews with victims and the scammer themselves.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Wladimir Palant ☛ Online Security extension: Destroying privacy for no good reason

• These days it’s typical for antivirus vendors to provide you with a browser extension which is meant to improve your online security. I’ll say up front: I don’t consider any such browser extensions recommendable. At best, they are worthless. At worst, they introduce massive security issues.

• As an example I took a brief look at the Online Security extension by ReasonLabs. No, there is no actual reason beyond its 7 million users. I think that this extension is a fairly typical representative of its craft.

=> ↺ EDRI ☛ Do you trust the police? CJEU Advocate General accepts access to phones for any type of crime

• A case (C-548/21) pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) may shed light on whether EU law can offer the protection of fundamental rights that’s often missing in the current legal framework and practices of Member States.

• Advocate General (AG) Campos Sánchez-Bordona published his opinion on the case on 20 April 2023. AG opinions are non-binding but influential on the final judgment of the Court.

• The dispute in the case stems from the seizure of and attempt by the Austrian police to access the data stored in a phone belonging to a person whose postal package containing 85g of cannabis was intercepted by the customs authorities. AG opinions are non-binding but influential on the final judgment of the Court.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Google Now Lets US Users Search Dark Web for Their Gmail ID

• Gmail users in the US can now run scans to find out whether their Gmail ID appears on the dark web, Google announced today at Google I/O, its annual developer conference.

• The feature was initially announced in March, when the [Internet] giant released it for Google One users only.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Google expands dark web reporting service to US Gmail users

• Google LLC is expanding its “dark web” reporting service to all Gmail users in the U.S. amid other new online safety features announced at its annual I/O conference today in Mountain View, California.

• The service was first announced for Google One subscribers in March and generates a report identifying stolen information listed on hacking sites and marketplaces on the dark web, a shady part of the internet reachable with special software. If any matching information is found on the dark web, the service provides guidance to users on how they might protect that information.

=> ↺ Interesting Engineering ☛ Now you can use your face and fingerprint to access and drive this EV

• The GV60 is the first pure electric model to be released by Genesis, the luxury vehicle arm of the Hyundai group. The variant features services called ‘Face Connect’ and ‘Fingerprint Authentication System’, with which the carmaker aims to offer convenience, security, and personalization, thereby enhancing the overall driving experience.

=> ↺ NYOB ☛ Clearview AI data use deemed illegal in Austria, however no fine issued

• The Austrian data protection authority has decided: Clearview AI, the company that sells facial recognition software to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. is no longer allowed to process biometric data of the complainant and must delete their existing data. The US based company scrapes photos from websites to create a permanent searchable database of biometric profiles. The decision follows similar decisions in Italy, the UK, France and Greece, however no fine was issued.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ The STOP CSAM Act: Improved But Still Problematic

• The amendments to the STOP CSAM Act make the bill similar to the EARN IT Act, which is to say, still highly dangerous for encryption. 

=> ↺ EFF ☛ Dangerous EARN IT Bill Advances Out of Committee, but Several Senators Offer Objections

• In the name of fighting crime, the EARN IT Act treats all internet users like we should be in a permanent criminal lineup, under suspicion for child abuse. If enacted, EARN IT will put massive legal pressure on internet companies both large and small to stop using true end-to-end encryption and instead scan all user messages, photos, and files. 

• The bill could now be voted on by the full Senate at any time, or worse, included as part of a different “must-pass” legislative package. We need you to contact your representatives in Congress today to tell them to voice their opposition to this bill, along with the STOP CSAM Act – another piece of legislation before the Senate Judiciary Committee that would treat all encrypted messages as possible evidence of a crime.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ Android TV Boxes Sold on Amazon Come Pre-Loaded with Malware

• By looking at the traffic being sent by these devices, the researcher was surprised to find a number of DNS requests being sent for domains publically known to be botnet Command and Control (C&C) servers. The researcher also extracted a Stage-1 payload for the malware and contacted Linode, who had been hosting some of the C&C servers, getting them to shut them down. Having reached out to AllWinner, the researcher received a response denying the presence of malware and attributing the malicious traffic observed to the presence of Logcat on the system—a fact which is wholly unrelated. EFF was able to independently confirm the researcher’s findings.

• What’s more, the T95 smart set-top box came out-of-the-box with the Android Debugger (adb) wide open and available over WiFi. The Android Debugger gives access to control a device, including issuing commands and installing apps. The device firmware was signed with a testing key, and no clean or production-ready firmware was made available to consumers. Without access to a clean version of the system firmware, consumers are left without a clear way to clean their system of the malware.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Quillette ☛ World War Z

• Garner’s book is titled Z Generation: Into the Heart of Russia’s Fascist Youth. The “Z” in the title refers to a symbol that has become something like an equivalent of the Nazi swastika since the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Today, it represents a sign of support for the Russian army, displayed everywhere and employed prominently in Russian war propaganda.

=> ↺ Copenhagen Post ☛ Former policeman shocked he can so easily find school kids dealing cocaine in Copenhagen

• “Why keep up with school when you can earn 10,000 kroner a week,” questions Andersen.

=> ↺ ADF ☛ Extremist Groups in Mali Drive Cattle Rustling to Unprecedented Levels

• As groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) compete to extend their spheres of influence and control supply lines in the country, they are turning to cattle rustling, according to a Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) report.

• “Cattle rustling is directly linked to the current armed conflict, as communities launch retaliatory attacks and counter attacks in Mali and in the border areas,” a village chief in northern Mali’s Timbuktu region told GI-TOC.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ Budget reveals pressures on Defence for savings to fund nuclear-powered submarines

• All arms of Defence are under pressure to make savings to help fund the nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) program while dealing with impact of inflation.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Suspect in Natalee Holloway Disappearance to Face U.S. Charges

• Joran van der Sloot has been a suspect in the disappearance of the teenager, Natalee Holloway, in 2005.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ How Australia and India can collaborate in the western Indian Ocean

• Deepening strategic and defence cooperation with India is one of Australia’s regional priorities, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent visit to India clearly demonstrated.

=> ↺ Craig Murray ☛ Freedom of Speech: Elbit and Fascist Policing

• Update: Back protesting again today. I learn that 46 protestors who have been arrested have been released on the bail condition that they leave Leicestershire. Yes, the entire county.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Orbán’s good cop, who crosses doctors and teachers but pardons a terrorist

• “Those who say I will be a puppet in this office are not actually underestimating me, but women. They do not suppose that a woman can be a sovereign public figure capable of making independent decisions.” These were the words that launched Katalin Novák’s career as head of state after she was catapulted from the front ranks of Fidesz to the Presidential Palace, the seat representing the nation’s unity.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Four detained by dismantled Soviet monument in Uzvaras Park, Rīga

• During the night to Tuesday, May 9, four young people were detained in Rīga at the dismantled monument in Uzvaras Park, where flowers were placed, the Chief of State Police Armands Ruks said in an interview with Latvian Radio on May 9.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Southeast Asian leaders ‘deeply concerned’ about Myanmar violence

• Southeast Asian nations said Wednesday they are “deeply concerned” about the violence ravaging Myanmar, and condemned a recent attack on a convoy of diplomats delivering humanitarian aid in the country.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ ASEAN at a ‘crossroad’ as escalating Myanmar violence looms over summit

• Southeast Asian nations are at a “crossroad”, a senior Indonesian minister warned Tuesday, as escalating violence in junta-controlled Myanmar loomed over a regional summit.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Team Navalny finds luxury real estate in Czech Republic belonging to family of Russian Tactical Missiles Corporation CEO — Meduza

• According to a report by Anti-Corruption Foundation chairwoman Maria Pevchikh, the family of Boris Obnosov, the head of Russia’s Tactical Missiles Corporation, owns luxury real estate in the Czech Republic worth more than eight million euros. The report found his family members to own a four-story house worth six million euros, a penthouse worth over one million euros, and several other properties in Prague.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ ‘Security forces will put a stop to it’ Meduza’s sources say the Kremlin is losing patience with Evgeny Prigozhin’s outbursts — Meduza

• In recent weeks, Wagner paramilitary cartel founder Evgeny Prigozhin has begun publicly denouncing Russia’s military leadership more frequently and more furiously than ever before. In a May 5 video addressing Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, Prigozhin released a stream of obscenities, accusing the men of letting Russians die so they could “get fat in their offices of rich mahogany.” Four days later, on Tuesday, he posted a much longer video, this time accusing a Russian army unit of abandoning its positions in Bakhmut before referring to a “happy grandpa” who’s failing to save his country. Meduza has learned from sources close to the Putin administration that Kremlin officials are running out of patience for Prigozhin’s erratic behavior, which might be the result of his inability to keep a “personal promise” he made to the president.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ No more compromises How Evgeny Roizman went from a radical anti-drugs crusader to Yekaterinburg’s last mayor and an outspoken critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Meduza

=> ↺ France24 ☛ More than 600 people killed in Haiti gang violence in April, UN says

• More than 600 people were killed last month in violence in the capital of Haiti, which is in the grip of a political-economic crisis, the United Nations said on Monday.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Australia state police commissioner apologizes to Indigenous people for police harm

• Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Shane Patton Monday apologized to the Indigenous people of Victoria, Australia for harm they have experienced at the hands of Victorian police.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Australia capital state to raise age of criminal responsibility

• The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government Tuesday introduced a bill to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 14. The Justice (Age of Criminal Responsibility) Legislation Amendment Bill 2023  has been introduced in the Legislative Assembly…

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuanian military division to be formally established this year, says defence minister

• A division-level unit will be formally established in the Lithuanian Armed Forces this year, Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas has said.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Despite struggling to field full brigades, Lithuania to create a military division

• On Monday, Lithuania’s leadership approved plans to set up a division – the country has never fielded a military unit such size. Although the move looks good on paper, defence experts say the country’s military now resembles a one-battle army and much needs to be done for the plans to become a reality.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ America is better than the death penalty

• I first discovered Keith LaMar’s story on a visit to the Michigan State University Broad Art Museum, where a large sculpture of his is displayed. He dealt drugs as a teenager and was sent to prison after killing a man in 1989.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Indian villages in north-eastern Manipur state burnt to ashes in ethnic violence

• May 10, 2023 11:23 AM

• More than 50 people have been killed between the majority Meitei people and the Kuki tribe.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Texas Patrols Its Own Border, Pushing Legal Limits

• Gov. Greg Abbott is expanding state law enforcement on the border as some state leaders appear eager to test the waters on how far Texas can go in enforcing immigration law.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ What Jordan Neely’s Death Tells Us About the Subway

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Canada and Latvia to jointly train Ukrainian officers

• Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand and the Minister of Defense of Latvia, Ināra Mūrniece, announced May 10 that Canada and Latvia will jointly train Ukrainian combat leaders on Latvian soil, starting next week.

=> ↺ Russell Brand

• Russell Brand.

Ukraine’s Future Lies in the Great Reset.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine’s friends must show ‘we’ve got the grit’ in supporting its fight, says UK foreign secretary

• James Cleverly argued at an Atlantic Council Front Page event that if the West is saving its stockpiles in its “military cupboard” for a rainy day, “this is the rainy day.”

=> ↺ France24 ☛ 🔴 Live: France opens war crime probe into journalist’s death in Ukraine

• The French judiciary has launched a war crime investigation into the death of AFP journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, prosecutors said Wednesday. The reporter’s death comes as a senior Ukrainian military official said Russian forces had pulled back from some areas near the battleground city of Bakhmut after counter attacks by Kyiv’s forces. Follow FRANCE 24 for live updates on the war in Ukraine.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ AFP ‘devastated’ by loss of French journalist Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine

• AFP’s Ukraine video coordinator Arman Soldin was killed on Tuesday by rocket fire near Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, AFP journalists who witnessed the incident said.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Heraldry authority urges Lithuanian state bodies to stop using Ukraine flags on social media

• The Lithuanian Heraldry Commission has urged government institutions to stop using Ukrainian symbols on Facebook and other social media accounts, saying it creates unintended meanings.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuanian MPs propose equating Russia’s Ukraine invasion to Nazi, Soviet crimes

• Six conservative members of the Lithuanian parliament have proposed legislation equating Russia’s actions in Ukraine with the crimes of the USSR and Nazi Germany.

=> ↺ Press Gazette ☛ Journalists under attack in Ukraine: AFP journalist Arman Soldin killed by rocket strike

• A round-up of all the journalists’ lives lost, and others injured, while reporting from Ukraine.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ U.S. Attorney General OKs Transfer Of Russian Oligarch’s Funds For Use In Ukraine

• U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has authorized the first transfer of forfeited Russian assets for use in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Ukraine War Will Increasingly Pit Quantity Against Quality, Top NATO Official Predicts

• The war in Ukraine will increasingly pit large numbers of poorly trained Russian troops with outdated equipment against a smaller Ukrainian force with better Western weapons and training, NATO’s top military official said on May 10.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Russian Poet Gets Four Years In Prison For Reciting Verses Against Ukraine War

• A Moscow court has sentenced a poet to four years in prison for publicly reciting verses condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Kremlin Calls Polish Decision To Rename Kaliningrad A ‘Hostile Act’

• The Kremlin said on May 10 that Poland’s decision to rename the Russian city of Kaliningrad in its official documents was a “hostile act,” as bilateral ties continue to fray over the war in Ukraine.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Survey Shows Americans See Russia As An Enemy, With Positive Views Of Ukraine, NATO

• The majority of adult Americans have favorable views of Ukraine and the NATO military alliance while also seeing Russia as an enemy rather than a partner or competitor, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant Warns Of ‘Catastrophic Lack’ Of Workers Amid Russian Evacuation Plans

• Enerhoatom, the operator of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, has warned that Russia plans to forcibly “evacuate” about 3,100 employees of Europe’s largest nuclear station, which already faces a “catastrophic lack of qualified personnel.”

=> ↺ Ballots from a war zone: The journey of votes from Ukraine to Turkey

• For three days, I worked as a ballot box keeper from 9 am to 9 pm and along with a team, we delivered the votes in İstanbul.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ U.S. Will Provide Ukraine With $1.2 Billion Aid for Military Use

• A Pentagon spokesman also confirmed that Ukrainian troops using a U.S.-made Patriot air-defense system shot down a hypersonic Russian missile.

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ U.S. Attorney General OKs Transfer of Forfeited Funds From Russia Oligarch for Use in Ukraine

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Ground the Killer Drones and End the War Too

• As the Russian military intensifies its drone attacks on Kyiv and Ukraine’s troops increase usage of homemade drones to hit Russian targets, the region and the world acutely need a proposal calling on both sides to negotiate an end to the war. A first step could be for both sides to agree to stop using weaponized drones.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ ‘Death Is Everywhere’ in a Once-Jubilant Kherson

• No city in Ukraine has suffered the reversal of fortunes that Kherson has. Liberated in the fall, it was a symbol of hope. Now it is a kill zone.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Ukraine Claims Gains Near Bakhmut as Deadly Fighting Continues

• Ukraine’s military said it had reclaimed about three square miles outside the eastern city of Bakhmut, which would be its first significant gains there in weeks.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Ukraine Makes Gains Near Embattled Bakhmut, a First in Months

• The leader of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group confirmed the Ukrainian advance, and continued to air divisions among Moscow’s forces.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ At Ukrainian training ground, growing confidence about coming battle

• Ukrainian forces training for the critical spring counteroffensive know what they lack and need, but also what they have. Among their assets is growing confidence.

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ Yellen, at G7, to Underscore U.S. Commitment to Ukraine for ‘As Long as It Takes’

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ Ukraine Says It Routs Russian Brigade, Kremlin Acknowledges ‘Very Difficult’ Campaign

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ The US claimed a cyber victory against a Russian malware network

• A two-decade old Russian cyber espionage network has finally been dismantled.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ What is the G7 still exporting to Russia?

• One year into the Russia’s invasion G7 nations continue to export nearly $5B a month to Moscow. A new proposal by the US at the G7 could greatly reduce this.

=> ↺ Defence Web ☛ DA goes PAIA route for answers on Russian ship and aircraft in SA

• Last week’s arrival of a Russian Il-76 transport aircraft at Air Force Base (AFB) Waterkloof was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back for Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentarian Kobus Marais.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Russia withdraws from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

• Russia announced on Wednesday it withdrew from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe in a declaration that was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Judo Spectators Ejected For Wearing Russian Military Emblem

• The International Judo Federation (IJF) said on May 10 that it had ejected a group of spectators from the World Judo Championships in Doha, Qatar, for refusing to remove a Russian military symbol from their clothing.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ UN Expert Calls For Urgent Medical Care For Russia’s Imprisoned Navalny

• The UN’s special rapporteur on torture has called on Russia to provide jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny with “urgent and comprehensive” medical care following reports that his health is deteriorating.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Turkey, Syria, Russia, Iran In Highest-Level Talks Since Syrian War

• The foreign ministers of Turkey, Syria, Russia, and Iran met on May 10 in Moscow, marking the highest-level talks so far on rebuilding ties between Ankara and Damascus after years of animosity during Syria’s civil war.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Prosecutors Seek Suspended Sentence For Russian Woman Charged With ‘Desecrating’ Grave Of Putin’s Parents

• Prosecutors have asked a court in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, to convict and hand a suspended three-year prison term to a 60-year-old woman charged with the hatred-based desecration of the grave of the parents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Attempted Murder Trial Starts For Moscow Activist Who Threw Molotov Cocktails At National Guard Bus

• A 45-year-old Moscow activist, Vitaly Koltsov, went on trial on May 10 on a charge of attempting to murder 12 officers of Russia’s National Guard.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Popular Rock Musician Leaves Russia After Publicly Supporting Girl Who Drew Anti-War Picture

• The leader of Russia’s popular Naiv rock group, Aleksandr Ivanov, has left Russia for an unspecified country after he supported a 13-year-old girl, Masha Moskalyova, whose anti-war picture helped lead to her father’s prosecution, media reports said on May 9.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Poland Summons Russian Ambassador Over Fighter Jet Incident

• Poland has summoned Russia’s ambassador over an incident involving a Russian fighter jet and Polish border guard aircraft over the Black Sea on May 7, the Polish Foreign Ministry said.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Youngest Brother Of Self-Exiled Chechen Opposition Bloggers Added To Russia’s Wanted List

• Baisangur Yangulbayev, the youngest brother of self-exiled Chechen opposition bloggers Ibragim and Abubakar Yangulbayev, has been added to Russia’s federal wanted list.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Military Object Found In Polish Forest Was Reportedly Russian Missile

• The military object found in a Polish forest in April was a Russian CH-55 missile, Polish private media outlets RMF FM and Polsat News reported on May 10, citing unnamed sources.

=> ↺ Bruce Schneier ☛ FBI Disables Russian Malware

• Reuters is reporting that the FBI “had identified and disabled malware wielded by Russia’s FSB security service against an undisclosed number of American computers, a move they hoped would deal a death blow to one of Russia’s leading cyber spying programs.”

• …

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian authorities roll out electronic military summonses in some regions — Meduza

• Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee, says draft summonses for citizens in the military reserves will arrive electronically in a number of Russian regions.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ ‘Don’t stress, I’m doing fine,’ Zhenya Berkovich writes her supporters from pre-trial detention — Meduza

• Theater director Zhenya Berkovich, who was arrested in connection with a case on “justifying terrorism” arising from her production of the play Finist the Bright Falcon, has written a letter from pre-trial detention. 

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Hunt Murderers, Not Poets

• On May 4, Russian poet and film and theater director Evgenia Berkovich was arrested with her colleague Svetlana Petreychuck. The charge was “excusing terrorism.” Their new play Finist The Bright Falcom allegedly led to their detention and arrest.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Singer-songwriter Alexander Rosenbaum defends Berkovich and Petriychuk at Victory Day concert — Meduza

• During a Victory Day concert in St. Petersburg, popular Russian singer-songwriter Alexander Rosenbaum defended the theater director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, two theater artists arrested and jailed last week in Moscow.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Transneft reports attempted attack on Druzhba oil pipeline — Meduza

• The pipeline operator Transneft reported an attempted “terrorist attack” on the Druzhba pipeline system, at a fueling station in the Bryansk region.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ At least 10 servicemen injured in drone strike on military base in Russia’s Voronezh region — Meduza

• Two UAVs targeted the Pogonovo military base in Russia’s Voronezh region in the early hours of May 10. The Telegram news channel Astra reported on the incident.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russia moves to formally denounce Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe — Meduza

• Vladimir Putin has issued a decree appointing a presidential representative to take part in parliamentary proceedings on the issue of Russia officially denouncing the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ ‘He said there was nothing special about it’ Putin reportedly comments on Kremlin drone attack in closed meeting with journalists — Meduza

• Andrey Kolesnikov, a special correspondent for the Russian newspaper Kommersant and a member of the Kremlin press pool, said in his report on Moscow’s May 9 Victory Day parade that Vladimir Putin has privately commented on last week’s drone attack on the Kremlin. The Russian president reportedly spoke about the incident during a closed meeting with the heads of Russian media outlets on May 8. Independent journalist Farida Rustamova drew attention to Putin’s reported remarks in a Telegram post on Tuesday.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Men sitting by Putin in Victory Day parade were reportedly former NKVD and KGB officers, not WWII veterans — Meduza

• The veterans who sat next to Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Victory Day parade in Red Square on Tuesday did not fight in World War II but served in the Soviet Union’s security agencies, the independent outlet Agentstvo has reported.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ 26 people arrested in Latvia for celebrating Victory Day — Meduza

• Latvian police arrested 26 people for celebrating Victory Day on Tuesday, the Latvian outlet Delfi reported.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Azov Regiment founder Andriy Biletsky says Ukrainian forces defeated Russian brigade in Bakhmut — Meduza

• Andriy Biletsky, the founder of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment and the far-right National Corps party, said Wednesday that Ukrainian forces have eliminated Russia’s 72nd Motorized Rifle Brigade in Bakhmut.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ One shouldn’t side with the aggressor in a war – Polish ambassador outraged by Hungarian Chief of General Staff’s “pro-peace” falsification of history

• The Polish ambassador in Budapest was shocked by the statement of Gábor Böröndi, Chief of the Hungarian Army General Staff, on 9 May, the anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the European Day of Peace.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Provocation Is Not an Innocent Act

• Provocation is not an innocent act. Under specific circumstances, provocation constitutes a tort or even a crime, especially when it deliberately generates a violent response.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ US Announces $1.2 Billion in Long-Term Military Aid for Ukraine

• The arms include additional 155mm ammunition and air defense systems.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ EFF ☛ Court Accepts EFF’s Amicus Brief on the Right to Publish Code in Tornado Cash Case

• We are urging the court to recognize these actions for what they are—unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment—and hold the government to the appropriate higher standard. 

Environment

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ US Has Already Seen 7 Different Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters This Year: NOAA

• Seven different billion-dollar or more extreme weather events struck the U.S. during the first four months of 2023.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuania adopts ‘green’ fuel taxes in bid to access EU funds

• Lithuanian lawmakers on Tuesday adopted a “green” package fuel excise duties. The new law will raise excise duty rates on polluting fuels, introduce additional pollution taxes and scrap exemptions.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Why airline flyers are fuming

• Customer satisfaction with air travel is way down for the second year in a row, heading into what could be another summer of nightmare travel, J.D. Power found in its annual survey.

• Why it matters: J.D. Power’s North America Airline Satisfaction Study — released today — sums up what most passengers have experienced: higher ticket prices, crowded planes and limited options.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ A Dutch University Just Set a Powerful Precedent for Climate Research

• As part of its commitment to furthering an energy transition, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, a research university in the Netherlands, announced on April 20 that it would reject research collaborations with any fossil fuel company that fails to demonstrate a commitment to the goals of the Paris climate accords.

=> ↺ India Times ☛ EV maker Rivian takes bold bet with higher-priced vehicles amid heating competition

• For now, he said, Rivian’s focus is on ramping up production and driving costs down even though the company said supply chain issues, sparked by the pandemic, continued to be the main limiting factor.

=> ↺ [Repeat] New York Times ☛ Battery Factories Are Driving Chinese Investment in Europe

• Battery makers from China are rapidly expanding in Europe, responding to a growing market for electric vehicles while bucking an overall contraction in Chinese investment on the continent.

=> ↺ NPR ☛ When it comes to cars, there is no housing crisis (just an existential one)

• Grabar lists some of the things we’ve sacrificed in order to create parking: front porches, more affordable housing, and plenty of time spent looking for a spot in the neighborhood.

• In fact, his research shows that by square footage, there is more housing for each car in this country than there is housing for each person. In 2016, Bloomberg reported that there were more three-car garages being built than one-bedroom apartments.

=> ↺ Is 100 thousand barrels of production possible in the newly discovered oil reserve in Gabar?

• The president of the Petroleum Engineers Chamber said, “This figure announced now will become clearer and will be updated as we have more data from the field. It may come down or increase after such updates.”

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Japan’s Shinkansen train operators dream up ideas to attract passengers

• JR Tokai allows passengers to charter a train car for various purposes such as having a wedding ceremony.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ The Revelator ☛ Youths to G7: Protect Our Generation

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Earthquake hits Japan’s Chiba prefecture, jolts greater Tokyo area

• There is no danger of a tsunami, according to the Japanese authorities.

Finance

=> ↺ France24 ☛ President Biden says US ‘default is not an option’

• President Joe Biden said Tuesday he made clear in a meeting with top Republican lawmakers that a US default “is not an option,” as both sides failed to reach a breakthrough on the country’s debt limit.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ ‘Debt Limit Chicken’: Is a Direct Result of Anti-Democratic US House Elections

• Amid rising fears that Republican lawmakers could soon force a catastrophic U.S. default, Fix Our House on Wednesday released a report arguing that “Congress lacks the incentive structure necessary to responsibly handle crucial tasks like raising the debt limit.”

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Inflation Ticks Higher in April as Rents Keep Rising

• Is this the new normal, and will Joe Biden pay a political price for it?

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Consumer price index rises 0.4% in April, pushed up by higher auto prices

• The consumer price index rose at a quicker monthly pace in April, pushed up by soaring costs for used cars and trucks — the latest sign of lingering inflation pressures across the economy.

• Why it matters: The CPI rose 0.4% in April, faster than the 0.1% rise the previous month. The measure that excludes energy and food prices continued to rise at a fairly quick pace.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ US inflation rose slightly slower than expected in April

• US consumer prices increased by 0.4% from March to April, marking a sustained increase in the cost of living. Year on year, the rate of inflation rose to 4.9%, slightly lower than the 5% recorded in March, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Finally a surplus, but Budget fine print reveals tough times to continue for households [Ed: But there is poverty in Australia and this "surplus" is only hypothetical or prospective; seems like gaslighting]

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has scraped together a budget surplus for one year thanks to raging commodity prices, but the prospect of an economic downturn makes the prognosis for households bleak.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Treasurer Chalmers plays down second surplus prospect

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers is playing down the prospect of a second consecutive budget surplus as he pitches his economic blueprint.  The government expects to book a $4.2 billion underlying cash surplus in this financial year – the first in 15 years. This will be followed by a better-than-expected deficit of $13.9 billion in 2023/24.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Amid Soaring Poverty and Hunger, Amnesty Demands ‘Universal Social Protection’ Worldwide

• With global poverty and hunger rising amid the intertwining crises of war, public health emergencies, and climate change, Amnesty International on Wednesday issued an urgent call for governments worldwide to implement universal social protections to ensure that healthcare, childcare, pensions, disability payments, and other benefits are available to all who need them.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ The latest from Arte Weekly: King Charles gets crowned, while pan-European crackdown on drug trade gets underway

• King Charles’s coronation raises questions about the monarchy’s role, including its colonial history and staggering wealth at a time of economic crisis for the UK. In the wake of massive police raids targeting the Italian mafia ’Ndrangheta, we look into Europe’s drug trade. In culture, we learn about the iconic Danish illustrator Ib Antoni, who put Copenhagen on the map.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ April inflation in Hungary at 24 percent, while energy prices 40 percent higher than a year ago

• In April this year, consumer prices in Hungary were on average 24% higher than a year earlier. Over the past year, household energy and food prices have risen the most. In the last month, consumer prices rose by 0.7 percent on average, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Hemorrhaging and oligarchs mentioned in EP report criticising the Hungarian government

• A delegation of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control is to visit Hungary between 15 and 17 May, where they will meet Tibor Navracsics, the Minister of Regional Development, László Windisch, the President of the State Audit Office of Hungary, Gergely Karácsony, the Mayor of Budapest, and investigative journalists, Népszava reports, based on sources in Brussels.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Plonk in the Room: Budget 2023 tax elephant and the third degree on Stage 3

• Government revenue, and the startling Budget surplus, are bolstered by surging commodity prices driving up company tax returns. Still, a quarter trillion-dollar tax elephant lurks in the corner and inflation menaces. Callum Foote on the Budget and tax.

• This Budget’s revenue results were higher across the board than forecasted in the October mini-budget, increasing by $46.7bn from $621bn to $668 billion. Almost $30bn of the increase came from company tax receipts bolstered by windfall commodity prices.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Jenny Craig’s Australian customers, staff await answers

• Jenny Craig’s Australian customers and workers have been told to sit tight as administrators try to restructure the company. FTI Consulting was on Tuesday appointed to lead the voluntary administration of the weight management brand’s Australian and New Zealand operations. It came after the Melbourne-founded business last week filed for bankruptcy in the United States.

=> ↺ The Telegraph UK ☛ US inflation falls as Britain is left further behind

• Prices in Britain are rising twice as fast as in the US, according to official data released on Wednesday as the Bank of England prepares to raise interest rates again to cool the UK economy.

• US inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI), rose 4.9pc in the year to April, down from 5pc in March, according to the US Labor department.

• The decline was driven by falling food prices, including fruit, vegetables, meat and milk. By contrast, food prices in the UK continue to rise at the fastest pace in 45 years, while the headline rate remains stubbornly high at 10.1pc in March.

• The tenth consecutive slowdown in US price rises will raise expectations that the Federal Reserve will pause its programme of interest rate rises just as Britain braces for more hikes.

=> ↺ Wall Street’s Hiring Binge Turns Into Bloat — The Information

• Morgan Stanley’s decision to cut roughly 5% of its staff, or 3,000 people, has drawn headlines as a sign of how banks are responding to the near-dead initial public offering and deal markets.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ US inflation is once again about used car prices

• For three years now, used cars have been at the center of inflation dynamics in the US. In 2020, there were several months where used cars kept the US from entering into disinflation. Then, in June 2021, as inflation began to kick off, used cars made up a third of the year-on-year inflation rate.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ The GOP Debt Ceiling Threat to Social Security Is Real

• In a May 4 article about the so-called debt ceiling crisis, the New York Times made this declaration about the looming showdown between House Republicans and the White House:

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ The Very Specific Ways the GOP Budget Will Deeply Harm Hundreds of Millions of Americans

• There are a lot of things you could say about the GOP’s proposed plan to reduce the deficit. But if we want to be more expansive than just calling it “batshit crazy” and washing our hands of the whole clown show, as we think Biden can and should,then we could point out that the GOP plan is an expression of profound hostility to the idea of a federal government that serves anyone besides war profiteers.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ A Legal Exploration—and An Answer—to the Debt Ceiling Crisis

• The United States is on course to a catastrophic default on its public debt within a matter of weeks if steps are not taken soon to head off that result. Speaker McCarthy and the House Republican caucus continue to hold the necessary increase to the public debt limit hostage to their bad faith demand for unacceptable budget cuts to discretionary programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Big Food Raking in Huge Profits From Price Hikes as US Hunger Persists: Analysis

• As the U.S. government on Wednesday released its latest inflation report, the watchdog Accountable.US put out a new analysis detailing how Americans face food insecurity while major food corporations are padding their profits with price hikes.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Fed Warned to Stop ‘Needless Rate Hikes’ as Inflation Cools for 10th Straight Month

• Progressive economists on Wednesday welcomed newly released U.S. inflation data as further evidence that price increases can be brought under control without crushing the labor market and throwing millions out of work.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Sanders Grills Big Pharma CEOs Over Years of Deadly Price Gouging

• U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday paid his respects to the victims of insulin price gouging in front of the Big Pharma CEOs who are responsible and reiterated the need to make all lifesaving prescription drugs affordable.

=> ↺ Forbes ☛ Spring 2023 Layoff Tracker: Akamai Technologies Cuts Hundreds Of Employees, Report Says

• Internet and cybersecurity company Akamai Technologies announced plans this week to cut nearly 300 employees, while biotech startup Twist Bioscience plans to slash a quarter of its workforce—making them the latest companies to reduce their head counts this year, following major cuts this week at Novavax, LinkedIn and Paramount Media Networks.

• May 9Tom Leighton, the CEO of Boston-area internet company Akamai Technologies, announced plans in a call with analysts this week to lay off roughly 3% of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees, or 300 staff members, the Boston Globe reported.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Dell reneges on remote work promise, tells staff to wear pants at least 3 days a week

• Less than three years after an exec promised the majority of Dell staff would forever work mostly from home, the company has called workers back into the office for at least three out of five days per week.

• The Register has confirmed that an internal memo from chief operating officer Jeff Clarke to workers this week stated that those living within an hour’s commute to a major Dell office should come in for those minimum three days.

=> ↺ GO Media ☛ Some Blizzard Devs Worry Departures Could Hurt World Of Warcraft And Other Games

• A return-to-office mandate is being blamed for loss of talent

• [...]

• Blizzard faces no shortage of new challenges right now following a 2021 workplace reckoning and in the lead-up to a possible acquisition by Microsoft. Brian Birmingham, a 17-year veteran and co-lead on WoW Classic, was fired in January after protesting the company’s new stacked-ranking system that forces managers to give a certain percentage of employees bad performance reviews.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Treasurer seeks to soothe budget relief inflation worry

• The treasurer maintains his second budget will not nudge inflation higher and trigger another interest rate hike next month.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Chalmers defends budget criticism of not enough support

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has defended the federal budget from criticism it didn’t go far enough to help middle Australians during a period of high inflation. Dr Chalmers said his second budget, which delivered a $4.2 billion surplus in 2022/23, had directly targeted Australians who were the most vulnerable to the rising cost of living.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Farmers warn budget will not curb rising food prices

• Farmers warn the federal budget will not stop the price of food from rising. National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson said Tuesday’s budget was a missed opportunity to address food price inflation. “The budget does nothing to get to the heart of rampant food price inflation,” she said.

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ Fed’s Barkin: Inflation Still ‘Stubbornly High’ and Isn’t Easing Fast Enough Toward 2% Target

• Inflation remains “stubbornly high” and is no longer making much progress toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, a top Fed official said Wednesday, hours after price data for April were released

=> ↺ Axios ☛ TPG’s Winkelried says he’s scared of debt default

• The prospect of a U.S. debt default is scarier now than it’s ever been, said TPG chief Jon Winkelried, speaking at the Axios BFD event in San Francisco on Wednesday.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ [Report] EDRI ☛ Will MEPs ban Biometric Mass Surveillance in key EU AI Act vote?

• The EDRi network, along with our wide range of partners in the Reclaim Your Face campaign, have advocated for over three years for the EU to ban biometric mass surveillance practices – and now, our call is one step closer to becoming a reality.

• Warning of the severe chilling effects on free expression, the threats of discrimination, and the wholesale violation of our democratic right to privacy, tens of thousands of people in the EU have joined us to reject these mass surveillance systems that treat us all as walking barcodes.

• Thursday 11th May 2023 promises to be a historic moment, as Members of the European Parliament’s internal markets (IMCO) and civil liberties (LIBE) Committees vote on whether they are willing to put human rights and freedoms first – or if they will prioritise surveillance, control and profits. In line with an October 2021 vote where MEPs across the political spectrum promised to ban biometric mass surveillance, we are counting on them to do the right thing once again.

=> ↺ Gannett ☛ GM hires former Apple, Twitter exec Mike Abbott to run its entire software development

• GM announced Tuesday that Mike Abbott, the former vice president of engineering for Apple’s Cloud Services division, will join GM as executive vice president of software starting May 22. Abbott will report to CEO Mary Barra.

• “His team will be responsible for the entire software ecosystem, from inception and development of both consumer and enterprise solutions through to the delivery of new exciting digital services and features,” GM spokesman Darryll Harrison told the Free Press.

=> ↺ Gizmodo ☛ Advertising on Twitter Means You Support Tucker Carlson Now

• In other words, if you buy an ad on Twitter, the money could go directly into Carlson’s pocket. Potentially a lot of money, if Carlson attracts a lot of viewers. At the very least, any advertiser on Twitter is keeping the lights on at Tucker’s new home. Recent history shows that’s an association that big brands don’t want.

=> ↺ Positech Games ☛ Is the age of big tech growth over?

• What I find interesting is the divide between many mainstream media reports of the potential catastrophe around firing 50% of the staff….and both the reality, and the barely-heard discourse from some experienced developers who took a different view. Those views are often shared in private, between friends, because sharing any opinion other than ‘firing people is awful’ online is an invitation to horrendous abuse…

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ A New Southern Strategy to Repair Our Democracy

• The decades-long Republican stranglehold on power and policy in the South is a product of manipulation masquerading as mythology. When President Lyndon Johnson, a Southern Democrat, signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he famously declared that it meant his party had “lost the South” for a generation. But it’s not that Southerners, universally, didn’t support civil rights—it’s that white conservative Southerners, the people with the most political and financial power in the region, didn’t support civil rights.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong gov’t lashes out at Ming Pao cartoon satirising small-circle committees

• A Hong Kong government bureau has lashed out at a newspaper cartoon which satirised small-circle government committees that will hold District Council seats under a proposed reform of the city’s local-level administration.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ CNN Showcases Trump. He Brutalizes One of Its Stars—and the Truth.

• “That’s not true, Mr. President, and you know that.”—CNN Donald Trump town hall moderator Kaitlan Collins.

=> ↺ Robert Reich ☛ The First Step to Fixing the Electoral College

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Is This the Most Dangerous Right-Wing Think Tank You’ve Never Heard Of?

• Republicans want nothing more than to strip vulnerable Americans of their hard-won rights—but they can’t get that done at the federal level. Instead, they rely on the states to advance their unpopular extremist agenda.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Jury Finds Twice Impeached, Indicted, Insurrectionist, Lying, Losing, Degenerate Creep Is A Convicted Sexual Predator

• Amidst the world’s sorrows, we celebrate the small legal and moral victory of a civil jury – which even included one MAGA-ite – finding crooked, loathsome former President McCheeto liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, which leaves unpunished only his crimes against at least 26 women, human decency, financial accountability and democracy itself. Still, social media echoed the sentiment of Joe’s famed Big Fucking Deal: The GOP’s presumptive candidate to lead the country is now officially a rapist.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Senate Finance Chief Blasts Clarence Thomas’ Billionaire Friend for Obstructing Gift Probe

• The Democratic chair of the Senate Finance Committee said Tuesday that billionaire GOP megadonor Harlan Crow is trying to obstruct the panel’s investigation into his gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is facing growing calls to resign for failing to disclose luxury vacations and other largesse from an individual with business before the high court.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ $5 Million in Damages

• Donald Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong officials leave District Council meeting mid-way, after councillors try to discuss electoral reform

• Government officials prematurely exited a meeting of the Sham Shui Po District Council on Tuesday after councillors attempted to discuss the proposed reforms of the district-level elections. They claimed the discussion was “out of the scope” of the District Councils’ remit.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ New York jury rules Trump sexually abused writer, assesses $5M damages

• A New York jury on Tuesday found US President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and found that he defamed her by branding her a liar, assessing the damages at $5 million.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ #MeToo’s legacy lives on in the E. Jean Carroll verdict

• E. Jean Carroll’s win in her lawsuit against former President Trump is also a victory for a #MeToo-era New York law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on sexual abuse complaints.

• Why it matters: Carroll’s success in court will likely lead to more litigation — victims have until November 2023 to file civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers — and possibly even more state laws modeled on New York’s.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Trump calls E. Jean Carroll a “whack job” at CNN town hall after lawsuit loss

• Former President Trump mocked writer E. Jean Carroll as a “whack job” Wednesday evening in his first TV appearance since a jury found him liable of sexual abuse and defamation in a civil lawsuit she brought against him.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Jury finds Trump sexually abused, defamed writer E. Jean Carroll in civil case

• A New York jury on Tuesday found former US president Donald Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll and then defamed her with his denials, awarding her $5 million in damages. The nine-member jury reached a unanimous verdict in the civil trial.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ E. Jean Carroll’s Big Win for Women

• The first time disgraced former president Donald Trump faced genuine legal consequences for his many crimes over the years came just this March. He was charged with falsifying business records to cover up hush money he paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, so she wouldn’t reveal their affair on the eve of the 2016 election. He wasn’t charged in connection with his treatment of the woman he mocked as “Horseface,” too unattractive to merit attention from the wealthy windbag, even though she told believable details of a brief and crude 2005 dalliance with Trump that occurred only months after his third wife, Melania, gave birth to his son Barron. The charges had to do with business fraud and campaign finance rules.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ “The World Finally Knows the Truth”: Jury Finds Trump Sexually Abused & Defamed E. Jean Carroll

• A Manhattan jury on Tuesday sided with the writer E. Jean Carroll in her civil case against former President Donald Trump, finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, and awarding her $5 million in damages. The jury did not find that Trump had raped her, as she has claimed. Trump says he will appeal. The closely watched trial stemmed from an incident in the 1990s, when Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in New York. “Today, the world finally knows the truth,” Carroll said in a statement, reacting to the verdict. “This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.” We speak with columnist Moira Donegan, who covers gender and politics for The Guardian and who calls it “a really significant moment for American women, and specifically for the #MeToo movement.”

=> ↺ Q&A WITH HDP’S DANIŞ-BEŞTAŞ: ‘We will celebrate the end of a long-lasting coup’

• The well-known Kurdish politician, who narrowly avoided a life-threatening traffic accident while on the campaign trail, reflects on her “virtual election campaign,” as well as Erdogan’s rhetoric and his attacks on the opposition.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ Trump Accuser Jessica Leeds “Really Pleased” with Verdict After Testifying in E. Jean Carroll Case

• A jury on Tuesday found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. We speak with one of the people who testified at trial: Jessica Leeds, a retired businesswoman who says Trump sexually assaulted her on an airplane in the 1980s — one of dozens of women who has accused him of sexual misconduct over the years. Leeds tells Democracy Now! she is “really pleased” with the verdict and that she hopes it will encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to come forward, although she is not personally interested in bringing a case against Trump. “This was a good outcome, and I’m very thankful,” says Leeds.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ The Fury of #MeToo Finally Comes for the Man Who Inspired It

• After more than a dozen allegations of sexual abuse, Donald Trump is held accountable.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ George Santos pled not guilty to 13 criminal charges, including claiming covid benefits fraudulently

• New York’s Republican congressman George Santos pled not guilty to 13 federal criminal charges, including money laundering and wire fraud, at a Long Island federal courthouse on Wednesday (May 10).

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ GOP Rep. George Santos Arrested on Charges of Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, and More

• Republican Rep. George Santos of New York, whose brief tenure in Congress has been dominated by scandal, was arrested by federal authorities Wednesday on a slew of criminal charges including money laundering, wire fraud, theft of public funds, and lying to Congress.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ George Santos Is Charged With Fraud

• Also, Inflation slowed again. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ US bolsters border as pandemic-era asylum rule expires

• Tens of thousands of US law enforcement personnel have been deployed to the border with Mexico, officials said Wednesday, as waiting migrants voiced confusion and anger over a looming change to entry rules.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Feinstein Returning to Senate, Bringing Democrats Back to Full Majority

• The monthslong absence of the California Democrat, 89, who was hospitalized for shingles in February, threatened to deprive her party of the votes to advance President Biden’s judicial nominees.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Asean must stay cohesive and united, given troubled external environment, says PM Lee

• PM Lee stressed that economic integration must always remain Asean’s priority.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Iranian Court Reduces Sentence Of Activist Arash Sadeghi After Retrial

• After holding a retrial, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran has reduced the sentence for Iranian rights activist Arash Sadeghi, who has been diagnosed with cancer, to four years and three months in prison on charges for his activities related to nationwide protests.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Iranian Students, Teachers, Activists Team Up In Rallies Decrying State Of Education

• Students and teachers’ rights activists across Iran joined forces to stage nationwide rallies on May 9 against what they call the deteriorating state of the educational system and the systematic suppression of students, teachers, and parents.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ A TikTok Trend is Driving Americans to Smuggle Fruit Roll-Ups

• Travelers have attempted to sneak in hundreds of pounds of the snack after a TikTok trend drove up demand and emptied store shelves.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Do You Have Something to Share About TikTok?

• The Times would like to hear from current and former employees, avid TikTok users, educators and parents.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ State of Florida Bans TikTok for Government & Educational Institutions

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that bans TikTok and other ‘foreign-controlled’ apps on government and educational institution devices.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Russia Lifts Ban On Direct Flights To Georgia, Cancels Visas

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has lifted a ban on direct flights between Russia and Georgia after Tbilisi’s de facto withdrawal of direct support for Ukraine.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Russian President Restores Visa-free Regime With Georgia

• Russia has decreed the reestablishment of a visa-free regime and the resumption of flights with Georgia.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Russia eases travel restrictions on Georgian nationals, in the latest sign of thawing ties.

• President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday ordered the restoration of direct flights from Russia to Georgia and abolished visas for Georgian nationals.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Putin cancels visa requirement for Georgian citizens and removes ban on direct flights to Georgia — Meduza

• Vladimir Putin has signed decrees canceling the visa requirement for Georgian citizens to travel to Russia and removing the ban on flights from Russia to Georgia that was imposed in June 2019.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ The Wagner Leader Escalates Criticism of Russia’s Military Leadership

• Yevgeny V. Prigozhin has recently recorded expletive-laden videos accusing senior generals of denying his forces necessary supplies, but he has denied criticizing President Vladimir V. Putin.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Trump digs in on election lies, insults accuser during CNN town hall event

• Former President Donald Trump dug in on his lies about the 2020 election during a tense CNN town hall. He also downplayed the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, and repeatedly insulted the woman whom a civil jury this week found him liable of sexually abusing and defaming. During the contentious back-and-forth Wednesday night in early-voting New Hampshire, Trump also refused to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war against Russia’s invasion and said the U.S. “might as well” default on its debt obligation, despite the potential devastating economic consequences. The former president was cheered on and applauded by an audience of Republican and unaffiliated voters.

=> ↺ Helsinki Times ☛ Popularity of EU membership remains at record-high level in Finland

• OVER 60 PER CENT of Finns feel positively and 17 per cent negatively about the Finnish membership in the EU, reveals a value and attitude study conducted by the Finnish Business and Policy Forum (Eva).

• The popularity of the membership has thus remained at the record-high level it climbed to after Russian launched its unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ When it Comes to the Suffering of Palestinians, Which Side Is Biden On?

• Just last week, a few representatives in Congress introduced a bill that would require Israel to disclose its operations in the West Bank, along with the intention of U.S. taxpayers’ money not being used for assistance in war crimes.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ ‘We Will Not Be Silenced’: Tlaib Headlines DC Nakba Event Despite McCarthy Meddling

• An event featuring U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib commemorating the Nakba—the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland during Israel’s War of Independence 75 years ago—went ahead as scheduled Wednesday evening in Washington, D.C, despite an attempt by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to derail it.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ Variety ☛ Donald Trump Opens CNN Town Hall by Repeating False Claims, Calls Moderator Kaitlan Collins ‘Nasty’

• Trump’s comments were repeatedly punctuated by Collins’ interjections, fact-checking the former president’s claims about the election. Asked by an audience member if he would suspend “polarizing talk of election fraud” during his campaign, Trump answered: “Yeah, unless I see election fraud.”

=> ↺ VOA News ☛ In Town Hall, Trump Digs in on Election Lies, Downplays Capitol Riot

• During the contentious back-and-forth in early voting New Hampshire — where moderator Kaitlan Collins sometimes struggled to fact-check his misstatements in real time — Trump continued to insist the election had been rigged, even though state and federal election officials, his own campaign and White House aides, and numerous courts have rejected his allegations.

=> ↺ Broadband Breakfast ☛ Overreporting on State Broadband Maps Could Hinder Spread of Connectivity to Communities

• Providers tend to inflate coverage claims, which represents the most fundamental issue of broadband coverage maps, Hunt claimed. Unfortunately, the areas in which speed claims are inflated are left out of funding opportunities, he said.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Twenty-six detained in relation to May 9 in Latvia

• Until Tuesday 23:30, police had detained a total of 26 persons throughout Latvia in relation to May 9 provocations. 38 administrative and four criminal cases have been launched, the State Police said.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ India Continues Its Attacks On Free Speech By Banning Element

• The Indian government really is showing the world what government censorship is all about lately. The country used to be somewhat better about speech issues online, but for years now we’ve been following the country’s descent towards censorship. Things really ramped up with the Modi government, where he seems ridiculously thin-skinned and unable to deal with even mild criticism. Under Modi, India has passed a series of increasingly draconian laws that have increased censorship online.

=> ↺ Variety ☛ Heather Armstrong, Blogger Known as ‘Dooce,’ Dies at 47

• She had returned to her maiden name Heather Hamilton, but used her married name Heather Armstrong for much of her career. She became known as “queen of the mommy bloggers,” with a large audience of readers across the country. But before she had children, she was fired in 2002 from her Los Angeles web development job for blogging about her company and co-workers. The internet dubbed her firing for blogging as getting “dooced,” which became shorthand for being dismissed for writing about a workplace. Her co-workers had given her the nickname “Dooce” for a typo she made while writing “dude.”

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Heather Armstrong, ‘Queen of the Mommy Bloggers,’ Is Dead at 47

• A year later, her blog candor got her fired, an experience that inspired a popular internet phrase, “Dooced,” referring to people who find themselves scanning job listings after posting ill-advised comments online. The term even found its way onto “Jeopardy!”

• [...]

• Feeling pressure from all sides, she scaled back her blogging efforts and put more focus on her mental health.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ National newswire AAP receives $5m in federal budget

• Australia’s national newswire will work with the government to develop a long-term plan for the news media sector after the federal budget earmarked $5 million for the agency.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ New Defamation Suit Against Fox Signals Continued Legal Threat

• The suit, brought by a specialist in Russian disinformation, cites parallels with the recently settled Dominion Voting Systems case against Fox.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Glenn Greenwald: Reflections on Family Health Crisis

• ScheerPost is deeply saddened by the news of David Miranda’s passing and we offer our heartfelt condolences to Glenn Greenwald and his family. In remembrance of David, we are publishing this reflective piece from Glenn, which was written in November 2022.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ David Miranda, Who Went From Rio’s Slums to Brazil’s Congress, Dies at 37

• Before he pursued politics, he helped Edward Snowden reveal classified documents and lobbied for his asylum in Brazil. In Congress he was a leading gay-rights advocate.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Ukraine’s ‘Press Freedom’ Score Increases Despite Martial Law, Banned Media

• Changing the standards because Ukraine has been invaded endorses the idea that freedom of the press ought to be limited in times of danger.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ France opens war crime probe into journalist’s death in Ukraine

• The French judiciary has launched a war crime investigation into the death of AFP journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, prosecutors said Wednesday. The reporter’s death comes as a senior Ukrainian military official said Russian forces had pulled back from some areas near the battleground city of Bakhmut after counter attacks by Kyiv’s forces. Follow FRANCE 24 blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2). xs

=> ↺ VOA News ☛ Taliban Release 4 Journalists Detained for Entertainment Shows

• Sakhi Sarwar Miakhil, editor in chief of Gharghasht TV; Pamir Andish, editor in chief of Cheenar Radio; Abdul Rahman Ashna of Nan FM, and Mohammaduddin Shah Khiali, editor in chief of Wolas Ghag Radio were released by the Taliban, according to a statement by the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee.

• AJSC stated that these journalists were detained Monday by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice after they were summoned for “a seminar.”

• “Officials at the Directorate of the Promotion of Virtue (of the Taliban) in Khost Province told the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee that the editors of the mentioned outlets were summoned for a reform seminar,” added AJSC’s statement.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Scotland lawyers to boycott plans to conduct rape trials without juries

• Lawyers in Aberdeen, Scotland Monday stated they will join a boycott of plans to pilot rape trials without juries in Scotland.

=> ↺ Shadowproof ☛ Protest Song Of The Week: ‘I Know How It Feels’ By Dropkick Murphys

• After discussions with Woody’s daughter Nora, the band recorded an entire album of Guthrie lyrics in 2022 called “This Machine Still Kills Fascists.” During the same session, they also recorded a second album of Guthrie-penned lyrics, Okemah Rising, which will be released on May 12, 2023.“Every night, when the audience is singing along with Woody’s words, his steadfast defense of the working class, and his fight against social injustice and the abuse of political power comes across loud and clear,” said vocalist Ken Casey, the band’s founder. “So as long as Dropkick Murphys are involved, Woody’s message will always be heard.”

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Critics Warn Biden Is ‘Finishing Trump’s Job’ With New Attack on Asylum-Seekers

• U.S. President Joe Biden’s newly unveiled plan to crack down on asylum-seekers, which his administration is expected to implement following the scheduled expiration of the pandemic-era Title 42 policy on Thursday, is being denounced for entrenching a bipartisan abandonment of international human rights law.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ US congressional committee seeks disclosure of gifts to US Supreme Court Justice Thomas

• The US Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday sent a letter asking conservative billionaire Harlan Crow to reveal previously undisclosed gifts he and his companies made to US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Crow is a well-known Republican mega donor who built his fortune through real estate development.

=> ↺ The Dissenter ☛ Atlanta Photojournalist Arrested While Covering ‘Black Lives Matter’ Protests Receives Settlement

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ South Dakota Journalist’s Extremely Ill-Advised Prank Call Being Treated As A Criminal Act

• First off, full disclosure: I live in this state. It’s one of those upper Midwestern states no one seems to live in and yet they do. I continue to endure the Trump-loving antics of our current governor, Kristi Noem, who somehow managed not to kill off a large percentage of the state’s population with her years of inaction during the COVID crisis.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ NYPD Arrest Photojournalist Who Was Covering Their Response to ‘Justice for Jordan Neely’ Vigil

• Independent photojournalist Stephanie Keith, who was covering the New York Police Department’s response to a planned “Justice for Jordan Neely” vigil, was arrested by police on May 8, 2023.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ New Report Shows Mass Incarceration Doesn’t Stop at the Prison Walls

• Report ranks states’ use of “correctional control” to provide the full picture of mass supervision in the U.S.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ “Solito”: Salvadoran Writer Javier Zamora Details His Solo 4,000-Mile Journey to U.S. as a 9-Year-Old

• As President Biden ends Title 42, the Trump-era policy blocking asylum seekers, and plans stronger enforcement measures on the border, we speak with Salvadoran poet and writer Javier Zamora, whose best-selling memoir, Solito, details his odyssey as a 9-year-old child traveling unaccompanied through Guatemala, Mexico and eventually through the Sonoran Desert, before he makes it to Arizona and reunites with his parents with the aid of other migrants. “We’re all just human beings trying to have a chance at a better life,” says Zamora about his work humanizing the people caught in the migrant crisis.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Another Side of W.E.B. Du Bois

• One of the most significant American political thinkers of the 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois is perhaps best known for his books The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and Black Reconstruction in America (1935). The former is considered a classic sociological study of the Black experience in the United States, while the latter is a landmark history of the Reconstruction era. Du Bois was also one of the founders of the NAACP in 1909. As all this suggests, Du Bois is principally known for his domestic activism and his works addressing racial inequality in the United States. But his criticism of racial inequality at home was always rooted in the international realities of European and US economic imperialism. Indeed, a recent collection of Du Bois’s writings, edited by Adom Getachew and Jennifer Pitts, shows him to be an essential thinker of international relations. W.E.B. Du Bois: International Thought consists of 24 of his essays and speeches on international themes, spanning the years from 1900 to 1956. In them, readers will encounter Du Bois’s unique perspective on the relationship between empire and democracy, the development of his anti-imperial thought, and his vision for transnational solidarity. To further understand this side of Du Bois’s thinking, I interviewed Getachew and Pitts about their new book. This exchange has been edited for length and clarity.1

=> ↺ VOA News ☛ As More Women Forgo the Hijab, Iran’s Government Pushes Back

• Authorities have made legal threats and closed some businesses serving women not wearing the hijab. Police and volunteers issue verbal warnings in subways, airports and other public places. Text messages have targeted drivers who had women without head coverings in their vehicles.

• However, analysts in Iran warn that the government could reignite dissent if it pushes too hard. The protests erupted at a difficult time for the Islamic Republic, struggling with economic woes brought on by its standoff with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Latvians call and text less, browse Internet more

• Last year, mobile Internet users consumed an average of 42 GB per month – 18% more than in 2021, while the duration of call minutes and the number of SMS messages sent decreased, according to data published on May 9 by the Public Utilities Commission (SPRK) on the figures of electronic communications operators in 2022.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Appeals Court Tosses Another Dumb FOSTA Lawsuit Against Twitter

• Over the last few years we’ve covered a number of different very, very questionable civil lawsuits brought against internet companies under FOSTA. We had predicted that there would be these vexatious lawsuits, looking to hold companies liable in a sort of cash grab, where people would just go after the companies with the deeper pockets, rather than whoever was actually responsible for whatever bad thing had happened.

=> ↺ APNIC ☛ [Podcast] How much buffer is enough?

• How do we maximize the use of a given network path, without knowing everything about its size along the way?

=> ↺ CoryDoctorow ☛ Two principles to protect [Internet] users from decaying platforms

• Internet platforms have reached end-stage enshittification, where they claw back the goodies they once used to lure in end-users and business customers, trying to walk a tightrope in which there’s just enough value left to keep you locked in, but no more. It’s ugly out there.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ FCC Low Income Broadband Program A Huge Windfall For Monopolies Causing The Broadband Affordability Problem We’re Pretending To Fix

• During the COVID crisis, the FCC launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB program), giving lower income Americans a $50 ($75 for those in tribal lands) discount off of their broadband bill. Under the program, the government gave money to ISPs, which then doled out discounts to users if they qualified.

=> ↺ Tedium ☛ News of the Monoculture

• While this network and this show was supposedly about popular music, MTV News and The Week in Rock quickly became about culture at large. Soren, a former NYU student who appeared briefly in one of MTV’s most famous videos, The Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party),” often found herself doing political coverage. As a 1992 New York Magazine article noted, the fact that MTV was doing campaign trail coverage caught fellow journalists off-guard at times:

Patents

=> ↺ JUVE ☛ Haseltine Lake Kempner grows patent litigation team with Gowling partner [Ed: JUVE is still reposting PURE SPAM for its sponsors. It's meant to look like an article, but it doesn't cover anything important, it's just mindless marketing. Sites like these perish and go offline faster due to a lack of audience.]

=> ↺ Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Opening ceremony local division Unified Patent Court in The Hague [Ed: Unified Patent Court is illegal. What is being celebrated? A crime? This delegitimises the EU.]

Copyrights

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ NYC Musician Coalition Announces Fair Pay at SXSW Protest at Penske Media Offices

• A coalition of music groups and allies have announced a May 31 protest outside the NYC offices of the SXSW festival, Penske Media Corporation (PMC). The coalition includes the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, Music Workers Alliance, New York Working Families Party, NYC-DSA, Bandcamp United, and Secretly Group Union.

=> ↺ Torrent Freak ☛ Bungie Wins $16.2m, Destiny 2 Cheat Dev Violated DMCA, RICO, CFAA

• With the ink yet to dry on a $6.7m judgment against LaviCheats this week, Destiny 2 developer Bungie hit the jackpot Tuesday with a damages award of $16.1m in another case. A court in the U.S. found that a defendant behind the ‘Wallhax’ cheat violated the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, the copyright act, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ Federal Appeals Court Gets It: Fair Use Protects Security Research Tools

• Here’s how the case came about: Corellium, the defendant, created a software platform that simulates an iPhone, allowing developers and researchers to test Apple’s iOS operating system for vulnerabilities without having to get permission from Apple or pay for the privilege of finding flaws in the system. Corellium’s platform lets researchers peer closely into the workings of iOS in ways that can’t be done on an actual iPhone. Apple sued for copyright infringement, and lost in district court on fair use grounds. Apple appealed. EFF, along with Public Knowledge and a number of security experts, filed an amicus brief supporting Corellium.  We explained that the public can’t protect itself from security flaws if independent testers aren’t allowed to find them—or if Apple gets to control who can do research.

• The court begins by calling out the purpose of copyright: the “utilitarian goal” of stimulating the production of new works. This is a necessary rebuke to ongoing efforts to frame copyright’s limited but lengthy monopoly as a kind of natural right or reward. After all, the Constitution defines copyright’s purpose as promoting progress. Fair use serves this purpose by giving follow-on creators the ability to build on what has come before.

• Turning to the merits, the court concludes that while Corellium’s use is clearly commercial, it is also (moderately) transformative because it adds features that are designed to serve the needs of researchers, rather than consumers. Apple had argued that Corellium might integrate consumer-oriented features down the line; the court rightly declined to speculate about these hypothetical facts. The court also rejected Apple’s complaint that security research wasn’t the only use of Corellium’s software, noting that that the purpose of a use may overlap at least partially with that of the original creator, as long as the work has some new and different purpose.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Appeals Court Sides With Corellium in Apple Copyright Case

• The lawsuit was initially filed by Apple against Corellium in 2019, when the tech giant accused the Florida-based virtualization company of copyright infringement related to a product that replicates the iOS operating system.

• Corellium provides a virtual iPhone — including the graphical interface and the underlying code for the iOS operating system — that is advertised as a tool designed for finding vulnerabilities and other types of bugs, as well as for testing mobile applications on different versions of devices and operating systems.

=> ↺ Torrent Freak ☛ Court Sentences Man for Selling Pirated Textbook PDFs

• Danish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance is reporting more success in its crackdown on textbook piracy. In a criminal proceeding, a 25-year-old man was found guilty of selling pirated textbook PDFs to 12 people. Ironically, the total fine appears to be lower than the cost of purchasing all of the books legally.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ On What Basis Can Coachella Issue A Takedown Of Stitched Together Frank Ocean Concert?

• Last month there was a lot of attention paid to Frank Ocean’s performance at Coachella, which has been described as “so bizarre.” Apparently there was supposed to be an elaborate ice rink involved in the set, which was scrapped at the last minute, and then everything about the actual performance, including that it was difficult to see Ocean, went off… weirdly.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Stung By ‘Zelda’ Leak, Nintendo Decides To Go To War With Switch Emulation

• And here we go. Fresh after Nintendo got a pie in its face when, by intent or by confused retailers, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaked early, you just knew that the company would completely wig out. At first the company took the sort of useless actions it always takes in the face of leaks: DMCA the leaks, DMCA the listings for the game, and DMCA to hell anyone that streamed any content from the unreleased game. That’s the normal playbook, despite none of it really working all that well. Once the leak is out, it’s out and bottling up the leak on the internet is an exercise in futility.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Microsoft can’t stop injecting Copilot AI into every corner of its app empire

• Copilot has been injected into things like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as a Business Chat bot. Now Microsoft is putting Copilot in Whiteboard for Teams, with participants being able to ask the AI system to generate and organize ideas, create designs, and summarize the content of a meeting or session.

• Copilot in Outlook will help with clarity and tone in emails, we’re promised. It’s also coming to OneNote (drafting plans, generating ideas, organizing information for customers), Loop (summarizing content on a Loop page), and Viva Learning (which will include a national language chat interface).

• Redmond also bringing DALL-E, an AI image generation technology from OpenAI, into PowerPoint to help users create custom images for presentations.

=> ↺ uni Stanford ☛ Why Neighborhood T was robbed of ‘Truffula’

• Despite winning its students’ votes for Neighborhood T during the naming process, the name “Truffula” was blocked by copyright ties to the Seuss estate, according to an email from Senior Director of Communications for Student Affairs Pat Lopes Harris. Neighborhood T’s second-most popular tree name, “Hyperion,” has entered official use instead.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ life update

• At work, I have successfully prepared and went through with the launch of the new database we’ve been building for a while. My boss is supportive and encouraging of my plans to further my education and certification and get some interesting side projects I wanted. Same with her boss. They’re putting a lot of trust in me and it feels good to be seen as competent and valuable. I now also have better access to database development and some learning material, and a project in mind that will help me increase my development skills while also doing something to alleviate a problem we have. I feel a little bit of impostor syndrome. I feel infantilized and patronized by my coworkers a lot of times due to age difference and only working there for 2 years.

=> ↺ Quotes

• “Everyday life,” properly speaking, first comes into being only at the moment, midway through the nineteenth century, when European cities began to swell with the arrival of large numbers of newcomers, the moment—and this is crucial—when Marx conceptualized and systematized the “work day” of the wage laborer. When the lived experience of those new urban dwellers became organized, channeled, and codified into a set of repetitive and hence visible patterns, when markets became common between the provinces and the capital, when everything—work hours, money, miles, calories, minutes—became calculated and calculable, and when objects, people, and the relations between them changed under the onslaught of such quantification, then and only then and only there, in large Western metropolises, did the world, in Lefebvre’s words, “turn to prose.”

=> ↺ The Horror of Life

• I remember the first time in my life when I understood. It was a powerful experience, and a huge shock to my 3- (or maybe 4-) -year-old mental system. I am not sure I ever got over it.

• I was busying myself looking at a tear-off calendar – leafing through the pages and looking at numbers and pictures. What are these pictures of? — I asked someone, most likely my grandmother who spent more time with me than anyone else. It was the Moon, I was told, and the pictures represented the phases of the Moon I saw in the sky.

=> ↺ Bad Investments

• The first thing to know about investing your hard-earned money is how to avoid bad investment advice.

• Fortunately, there is a simple principle that you can use to cut through 99.999% of it.

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: DEFYITG Wordo: PODIA

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