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● 06.01.23

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● Links 01/06/2023: KStars 3.6.5 and VEGA ET1031 RISC-V Microprocessor in Use

Posted in News Roundup at 1:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ 9to5Linux ☛ System76’s Galago Pro Linux Laptop Gets 13th Gen Intel H-Class CPUs, Faster 144Hz Screen

• It’s been ten months since System76 last updated its affordable Galago Pro Linux notebook and since the company is on a sprint to update most of its laptops to the latest generation Intel Core CPUs, the Galago Pro has now received the 13th Gen Intel Core “Raptor Lake” i5-13500H and i7-13700H processors.

• While the 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13500H processor has 12 cores, 16 threads, 18MB cache, and up to 4.7 GHz clock speed, the 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13500H processor has 14 cores, 20 threads, 24MB cache, and up to 5.0 GHz clock speed. Both processors come with integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics, WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Trend Oceans ☛ How to Install PipeWire on Debian 11/12

• Having some issues with PulseAudio, then install and replace it with PipeWire on your Debian machine.

=> ↺ kubectl get secret: Working with Secrets in Kubernetes

• Kubernetes secrets are objects in the Kubernetes ecosystem designed to store and manage sensitive information, such as passwords, API tokens, SSH keys or other credentials.

=> ↺ IT Pro Today ☛ How To Learn Linux: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

• IT professionals can advance their careers by learning Linux, a widely used and versatile operating system.

=> ↺ Linux Links ☛ Alternatives to popular CLI tools: sudo

• This article spotlights alternative tools to sudo, a command which lets you execute a command as another user.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KStar Development ☛ KStars v3.6.5 is Released

• KStars v3.6.5 is released on 2023.06.01 for MacOS, Linux, and Windows. It’s a bi-monthly bugfix release with a couple of exciting features.

• An instance of the sub-exposure calculator can be started from a new ‘clock’ icon on the ekos capture screen. Multiple instances of the sub-exposure calculator can be started concurrently so that side-by-side comparisons can be made for variations in inputs.

• Data for camera read-noise will be provided through individual xml files which will be user maintained and published in a repository. These camera data files persisted within a folder “exposure_calculator” under user/local/share/kstars. The calculator includes the capability to download camera files from a repository. Upon the initial start of the calculator at least one camera data file download will be mandatory before the calculator can be instantiated.

• The intent is that camera data file names will be used to allow the calculator to select an appropriate camera data file based upon the device id of the active camera. (But some of the initial camera files were named using educated guesses, and will likely need to be re-named).

Distributions and Operating Systems

Arch Family

=> ↺ 9to5Linux ☛ First Arch Linux ISO Powered by Linux Kernel 6.3 Is Now Available for Download

• Arch Linux 2023.06.01 is out today as the ISO snapshot for June 2023 and it’s the first Arch Linux ISO release to be powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.3 kernel series, which made its debut at the end of April 2023.

• Of course, Linux kernel 6.3 landed in Arch Linux’s stable repositories a couple of weeks after its initial launch, but it didn’t make it into last month’s ISO snapshot. The Arch Linux 2023.06.01 image ships with Linux kernel 6.3.5 by default, which arrived in the repos on May 30th.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Ubuntubuzz ☛ List of PPAs for Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy JellyfishList of PPAs for Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

• This list is a collection of third-party software repositories better known as Personal Package Archives (PPAs) for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish. With these, user can add versions of app and game to their Ubuntu computer system which are not available via official repositories. This article continues our tradition since version Xenial, Zesty, and Focal.

• We recommend below free software, that is, software with libre (unlimited) licenses for the users. Read Free Software Definition to learn more.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ 13 new Android games released May 2023 — from World of Goo to Torchlight Infinite

=> ↺ SlashGear ☛ 5 Tricks To Make An Old Android Phone Feel Like New

=> ↺ Lifewire ☛ 12 Ways to Fix Spotify Not Working on Android Auto

=> ↺ Android Central ☛ How to disable biometrics on your Android phone from the lock screen | Android Central

=> ↺ CNX Software ☛ MangoPi mCore-R818 module powers CyberPad 3.1-inch handheld android “tablet” – CNX Software

=> ↺ Android Central ☛ Nothing will deliver 3 years of Android OS updates for the Phone (2) | Android Central

=> ↺ Notebook Check ☛ Lenovo Tab Extreme: New Android tablet arrives with lower than expected launch pricing – NotebookCheck.net News

=> ↺ SamMobile ☛ The Galaxy F54 5G will be the first in the F series to get four Android OS upgrades – SamMobile

=> ↺ 9to5Google ☛ Samsung Android 14 beta seems to be coming along

=> ↺ XDA ☛ Android’s security has improved by leaps and bounds over the last 10 years: Here’s how

=> ↺ Android Authority ☛ Wallpaper Wednesday: Android wallpapers 2023-05-31 – Android Authority

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ Six annoyances Google needs to fix with Wear OS 4

=> ↺ Notebook Check ☛ Popular Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu now operable on select Android devices – NotebookCheck.net News

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Chromium

=> ↺ Chrome 115 beta

Content Management Systems (CMS)

=> ↺ WordPress ☛ People of WordPress: Stefano Cassone

• The People of WordPress feature series goes to Italy to interview web designer, photographer and translator Stefano Cassone.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Arturo Borrero ☛ Arturo Borrero González: Wikimedia Hackathon 2023 Athens summary

• During the weekend of 19-23 May 2023 I attended the Wikimedia hackathon 2023 in Athens, Greece. The event physically reunited folks interested in the more technological aspects of the Wikimedia movement in person for the first time since 2019. The scope of the hacking projects include (but was not limited to) tools, wikipedia bots, gadgets, server and network infrastructure, data and other technical systems.

=> ↺ Paul Wise: FLOSS Activities May 2023

• This month I didn’t have any particular focus. I just worked on issues in my info bubble.

=> ↺ CNX Software ☛ ARIES v3.0 development board features India-made VEGA RISC-V processor

• ARIES v3.0 is an Arduino-inspired development board with the made-in-India 100 MHz THEAJS32 ASIC with the VEGA ET1031 RISC-V microprocessor, 256KB of internal SRAM, and various I/Os.

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Downloading snapshots and creating stable R packages repositories using r-universe

• The new snapshot API lets you download a full copy of any CRAN-like repository on r-universe.

=> ↺ The Servo Blog: Adding support for ‘outline’ properties

• As mentioned in our last blog post, we’re currently working on selecting a layout engine for Servo between the original Layout 2013 and the newer Layout 2020.

• Our plan has been to start by implementing some small features in Layout 2020, to help us decide whether to switch to the new layout engine, and in turn tackle more complex features like floats. One of these features was ‘outline’, which is now supported in the new engine.

• A few days ago, we landed support for ‘outline’ and ‘outline-offset’. These properties are now fully supported in Servo, with two minor caveats: [...]

Leftovers

=> ↺ Pro Publica ☛ Anchorage Gave Her a $1.6 Million Grant Despite History of Fraud

• Two years ago, in May 2021, the Anchorage Assembly gave $1.6 million to a little-known charity that said it would help people find homes and addiction treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• At the time, local governments across the country were awash in money from a federal program known as the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. Anchorage city leaders had $50 million to hand out to local applicants, and the money moved fast. The nonprofit House of Transformations received one of the largest awards.

Science

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Moon Phase Lamp Uses Rotating Shade

• The Moon has fascinated humanity for centuries. These days, though, it’s a trial and a bore to go outside and stare upwards to check on the natural satellite. Instead, why not bring the Moon to your bedside with this rotating phase lamp?

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ How Scientific Publishers’ Extreme Fees Put Profit Over Progress

• On April 17, the premier journal NeuroImage’s entire editorial team, comprising more than 40 scientists, resigned over the “unethical fees” charged by the journal’s academic publisher, Elsevier. With more than $2 billion in annual revenue, the publisher’s profit margin approaches 40 percent—rivaling that of Apple and Google. “Elsevier has become kind of like the poster child for evil publishing companies,” said neuroscientist Kristen Kennedy, one of the recently resigned senior editors.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Radars scanning crowded skies yet no rule on space junk

• A regulatory black hole on space waste has been revealed as federal politicians quiz top officials about the recent budget.

• Australia is a signatory to all international space treaties, from exploration in outer space to the return of astronauts and objects, but there are no national regulations.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ We May Have Misunderstood Precisely What Makes Our Brains Tick

• Time for a rethink.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ Most of Us Carry a Virus Few Have Heard of. Here’s Why It’s Important.

• “If I had only known…”

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ World’s First X-Ray of a Single Atom Reveals Chemistry on The Smallest Level

• Oh no! Tiny skeletons!

=> ↺ France24 ☛ NASA holds first public meeting on UFOs, says better data needed

• The first public meeting of a NASA panel studying what the government calls “unidentified aerial phenomena,” commonly known as UFOs, kicked off on Wednesday to discuss findings since its formation last year.

Education

=> ↺ Project Censored ☛ The End of Community College?

• On Friday, March 13, 2020 the community college system as we knew it ended – and I’m not sure it will ever return.   

=> ↺ NYPost ☛ Taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for CUNY Law’s official antisemitism

• The situation does not pass the shoe-on-the-other-foot test: No reasonable person would support a taxpayer institution that officially espoused hated against African-American or Arab-American students.

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ How a student research project brought a unique pearl to market

• Perlas de Cortéz has cultivated an unconventional pearl that’s not only a hit globally but is also repopulating a native species in Sonora.

Hardware

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ A Simple Guide To Cams

• With the availability of precision controllable actuators, it’s easy to overlook the simple but versatile mechanisms that got us here. In the video after the break, [Teaching Tech] explores the basics of cams and how to use them in your projects.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Hackaday Prize 2023: This Challenge Makes It So Easy Being Green

• This year’s Hackaday Prize is our first nice round number – number ten! We thought it would be great to look back on the history of the Prize and cherry-pick our favorite themes from the past. Last year’s entire theme was sustainable hacking, and we challenged you to come up with ways to generate or save power, keep existing gear out of the landfill, find clever ways to encourage recycling or build devices to monitor the environment and keep communities safer during weather disasters, and you all came through. Now we’re asking you to do it again.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Hackaday Prize 2023: Low Cost Braille Embosser From 3D Printer Parts

• The limited availability of texts transcribed to Braille and the required embossing equipment is a challenge world wide, but especially in poorer countries. To alleviate this problem, a team makers from in Cameroon have been developing BrailleRAP, an open source Braille embosser.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Can Hobbyists Bring SGI’s IRIX OS Back To Life?

• Irix was the operating system developed by Silicon Graphics from 1988 to 1998. The OS supported the company’s high-end workstations and served in many serious roles. The company cut off support for the UNIX-based OS in 2006, but now a diehard community is looking to bring the ancient codebase back to life.

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ Australian PC shipments fell 19.1% in 1Q2023: IDC

• “The macroeconomic environment is currently experiencing high levels of inflation, and increasing interest rates, which is impacting PC demand from both commercial and consumer segments,” said Sharmishtha Bhatt, lead analyst PC Devices Research at IDC Australia.

• {loadposition sam08}HP remained the top-selling brand, taking 23.1% of the market with shipments down 4.1%, while Dell was second, down 9.3%.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ More Ideas For Setting Up An Electronics Workbench

• Setting up an electronics work area is a highly personal and situational affair, with many interesting problems to be solved, and for many of us, significant budget constraints. The requirements for electronics development vary wildly depending upon the sort of work to be undertaken, but there is core equipment that many of us would consider a bare minimum for usability. [Badar Jahangir Kayani] is at the start of his career as an electrical engineer, and has documented the kitting out of his personal work areas for others to learn from.

=> ↺ CNX Software ☛ eEver EJ523D chip enables 4Kp60 video capture or streaming over USB 3.2

• eEver Technology, a subsidiary of eTron Technology, has launched the EJ523D 4Kp60 audio and video capture and streaming processor with a USB 3.2 interface, along with a reference platform currently showcased at COMPUTEX 2023. Over the last few years, we’ve covered some low-cost HDMI to USB 2.0 dongles that capture video up to 1080p30, followed by HDMI to USB 3.0 dongles handling up to 4Kp30, but the latest eEver EJ523D chip will be found in USB 3.2 adapters to capture at up to 4Kp60 resolution with H.265 encoding or 4Kp30 in the NV12 format.

=> ↺ Bunnie Huang ☛ Winner, Name that Ware April 2023

• The ware for April 2023 is an X-rite DTP22 spectrophotometer. This one almost made it through the month without being guessed, but congrats to cpresser for figuring it out in the last week! email me for your prize.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Toxins and and monkey DNA and SV40, oh my! COVID-19 vaccines vs. a zombie meme

• I keep saying that, when it comes to specific claims made in the service of antivaccine misinformation, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories, everything old is new again. Whether it’s claims that vaccines cause horrible outcomes that include death (as in “dying suddenly,” too), infertility, neurologic damage, cancer, and chronic disease, are loaded with “toxins” and foreign DNA and/or “fetal cells,” will “permanently alter your DNA,” and generally don’t work, old antivax tropes have been furiously repurposed against COVID-19 vaccines beginning even before the vaccines were granted emergency use approval (EUA) and released to the public in December 2020. (It’s been a coordinated campaign, right from the beginning, too.) One might argue that it’s easy to see the parallels in a more general manner, such as how the claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause young people to “die suddenly” of clots compared to old claims that HPV vaccines caused young women to “die suddenly” of…something, but sometimes the resurrected tropes can be bizarrely specific. Such is the case with the latest antivax claim that’s been circulating around the antivax crankosphere, most recently at quack tycoon Joe Mercola‘s website in an article entitled Green Monkey DNA Found in COVID-19 Shots. The strange specificity comes from how the narrative repeats an old narrative about the SV40 supposedly being found in COVID-19 vaccines.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Individual Canadian Cigarettes to Be Labeled With Health Warnings

• Tobacco companies must soon label individual cigarettes sold in the country with a health warning, in what Canada is calling a global first.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ In Canada, each cigarette will get a warning label: ‘poison in every puff’

• Canada will soon become the first country in the world where warning labels must appear on individual cigarettes. The move was first announced last year by Health Canada. Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett says the bold step aims to help people kick the habit by making health warning messages virtually unavoidable. The wording will appear in English and French, warning smokers about harming children, damaging organs and causing impotence and leukemia. One of the messages says smoking is “poison in every puff.” Health Canada says tobacco use still kills about 48,000 Canadians each year. The labels are aimed at reducing smoking to less than 5% of the population.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Can Americans Really Make a Free Choice About Dying?

• On April 25, four disability rights organizations sued California state agencies and officials in an attempt to overturn the End of Life Option Act, a seven-year-old law that allows doctors to prescribe lethal medication to people who have six months or less to live.1This story is a collaboration with The 19th, an independent newsroom covering gender, politics, and policy.

=> ↺ Defence Web ☛ SAMHS assists in Tshwane cholera outbreak

• As local and national authorities attempt to establish where and how cholera broke out, killing more than 20 people north of Pretoria, the SA Military Health Service (SAMHS) via an area formation headquarters rolled up sleeves to ensure on-the-ground assistance.

=> ↺ Helsinki Times ☛ Monkeypox vaccine offered at all health centers [Ed: Offloading useless garbage that nobody wants or needs (anymore)?]

• Starting from June 1st, 2023, the monkeypox vaccine will be available at health centers in Helsinki for men aged 18 and above who are at the highest risk of contracting monkeypox. The vaccine will be provided by appointment only.

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ The Case That Being Poor and Black Is Bad for Your Health

• The public-health professor Arline T. Geronimus has spent a forty-year career researching how inequality takes a “weathering” toll on the body.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ How to Lower Deaths Among Women? Give Away Cash.

• Mortality rates fell by 20 percent among women in countries that began cash transfer programs to the poor. Children also benefited.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ This Woman Feels No Pain. Decoding Her DNA Could Bring Relief to Millions.

• Far out.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ U.S. Will Require All New Cars to Have Automatic Braking Systems

• The Transportation Department wants new cars to automatically stop when they detect an accident is likely.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ EU tech chief says AI code of conduct imperative

• The United States and European Union should push the artificial intelligence (AI) industry to adopt a voluntary code of conduct within months to provide safeguards while new laws are developed, EU tech chief Margrethe Vestager says.

• The European Union’s AI Act, with rules on facial recognition and biometric surveillance, could be the world’s first comprehensive legislation governing the technology, but is still going through the legislative process.

Security

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Amazon to Pay $25 Million to Settle Children’s Privacy Charges [Ed: A drop in the bucket. Amazon continues to spy for the state and for police.]

• Regulators said the tech giant kept children’s Alexa voice recordings “forever,” violating a children’s privacy law.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Amazon will pay more than $30M for Alexa and Ring privacy violation allegations [Ed: Slap on the wrist and Amazon continues to receive billions of dollars (subsidies) to spy for the police, the military, the state, and even advertisers]

=> ↺ EDRI ☛ €1.2 billion GDPR fine for Meta over US mass surveillance

• Today, a decade-long (2013 – 2023) case on Meta’s involvement in US mass surveillance has led to a first direct decision. Meta must stop any further transfers of European personal data to the United States, given that Meta is subject to US surveillance laws (like FISA 702). The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) had largely overturned the Irish Data Protection Commission’s (DPC) decision, insisting on a record fine and that previously transferred data must be brought back to the EU.

=> ↺ EDRI ☛ 5 years of the GDPR: National authorities let down European legislator

• On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force, promising to be the strongest set of data protection rules to enhance our privacy. While the contents of EU data protection rules stayed largely the same, the alleged big change was the GDPR’s strict enforcement. 5 years later, national authorities and courts largely leave the European legislator in the lurch – despite a budget of more than €330 million in 2022.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Israel Called Them ‘Precision’ Strikes. But Civilian Homes Were Hit, Too.

• Palestinians in Gaza say that Israel’s strikes against Islamic Jihad amount to a collective punishment aimed at making them fearful about who their neighbors might be.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Fascists’ Convictions Not a Cause for Celebration

• Dan Siegel explains the precedent being set following arrests of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Sudan army suspends truce talks with paramilitary rivals, says official

• The Sudanese army has suspended its participation in US- and Saudi-brokered ceasefire talks with its paramilitary foes, a government official told AFP on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Patrick Lawrence: Deaf, but Not Blind to US Decline

• In Fiona Hill’s recent speech it’s possible to detect the very faint signals of Washington’s policy elite responding to the immense global power shift that is underway.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ When Will US Join Global Call to End Ukraine War?

• Must our leaders take us to the brink of World War III, with all our lives on the line in an all-out nuclear war, before they will permit a ceasefire and a negotiated peace?

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ The Trauma and Resilience of Tulsa’s Greenwood District

• On May 31 and June 1, 1921, thousands of armed white Oklahomans terrorized, looted, and burned to the ground the Greenwood District, a thriving Black neighborhood in Tulsa, that spanned more than 35 city blocks and was home to nearly 11,000 residents. The violence stemmed from an accusation that a young Black man named Dick Rowland had assaulted a young white woman in a downtown elevator on May 30. The mob killed an estimated 300 Black people and reportedly buried many of them in unmarked mass graves. Despite white city leaders’ subsequent refusal to provide restitution to the victims, the survivors in Greenwood rebuilt their community. More than 100 years after what we now call the Tulsa Race Massacre, there are still lingering historical silences and unresolved questions. In his new book, Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street, freelance journalist Victor Luckerson brings into focus the key decisions and actions that led to the massacre. I met Victor Luckerson, a former staff writer at The Ringer and business reporter for Time, in 2021 when I was completing my own book on the massacre, which combined survivors’ oral testimony with photos of the destruction. More so than previous books on the massacre, Luckerson dispels mythologies about the creation of Greenwood, its destruction, and its aftermath. I recently talked with Luckerson about his reasons for writing the book and why it was important for him to publish it now.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Palau says Chinese vessel slowed over undersea cable during incursion into waters

• Palau has reported 4 unwanted forays into its waters by Chinese research vessels since 2018.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ North Korea vows to try again after failed satellite launch

• The rocket failed when the second stage did not ignite, state media said.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Evacuation alerts cause panic in Seoul after North Korea’s failed satellite launch

• A North Korean satellite launch on Wednesday ended in failure, sending the booster and payload plunging into the sea, North Korean state media said, and the South’s military said it had recovered parts of the launch vehicle.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ North Korean leader’s sister Kim Yo Jong promises more spy satellite launches, says KCNA

• Her remarks come after Pyongyang’s satellite launch on Wednesday ended in failure.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Mediterranean crossings: Tunisia and France ‘share lots of views’

• The Mediterranean migrants crisis was one of the main topics discussed by Tunisa’s foreign minister Nabil Ammar and his French counterpart Catherine Colonna during their first meeting in Paris. In an interview with FRANCE 24, Nabil Ammar said that the two nations “share lots of views”. He told Marc Perelman that stopping the migrants from crossing “cannot be the middle-term or long-term solution at all”. “It is rather about fixing the people in their countries, creating wealth”, he said.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Venezuela’s Maduro proves divisive at Lula’s South American unity summit

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for South American unity Tuesday as he hosted fellow leaders for a regional “retreat,” but drew barbs for his warm welcome of Venezuelan socialist Nicolas Maduro.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Triggered by North Korea, South Korea’s False Evacuation Alert Causes Chaos

• South Koreans said the alert, which was triggered by a North Korean rocket launch, showed that their country was unprepared to respond to a real emergency.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Body of Missouri ER doctor found in Arkansas lake had apparent gunshot wound

• Authorities say a missing emergency room doctor from Missouri whose body was found in an Arkansas lake had died of an apparent gunshot wound. But they’re still investigating what happened in the week since Dr. John Forsyth was last seen. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that a kayaker discovered the 49-year-old’s body a day earlier. The department didn’t specify if the gunshot might have been caused by someone else or was self-inflicted. The body was found roughly 20 miles south of Cassville, Missouri, the town where he worked. The doctor’s unlocked vehicle had been found near an aquatic park in Cassville. Police told the family Wednesday an investigation was ongoing.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Australia warned war crime report could spark US action

• The United States raised concerns with Australia that alleged war crimes by special forces troops in Afghanistan could derail joint military operations. Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell revealed on Wednesday he was contacted about the allegations by an American senior official in March 2021.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ UN special envoy for Myanmar to step down: UN chief spokesman

• June 01, 2023 3:37 AM

• Noeleen Heyzer, a Singaporean sociologist, was named as envoy by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in 2021.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ German Court Convicts 4 Leftists in Attacks Targeting Neo-Nazis

• A 28-year-old woman and three accomplices were sentenced to prison for their roles in a series of attacks on people they considered neo-Nazis.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Adidas Kicks Off Massive Yeezys Sale — Fans Line Up to Buy An Estimated $1.3 Billion Worth of Sneakers

• Adidas has officially kicked off the sale of an estimated $1.3 billion in remaining Yeezy inventory – with a portion of the resulting revenue reaching Kanye West as well as “organizations working to combat discrimination and hate.” The German athletic-apparel and footwear company set the Yeezy selloff in motion today…

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Junta clamps down on displaying photos of Aung San Suu Kyi

• “Of course they have malice toward her.”

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ NATO Troops and Ethnic Serbs Clash in Kosovo: What to Know

• Clashes in northern Kosovo that injured dozens of ethnic Serbs and NATO soldiers are the latest flare up in a long-running standoff between Kosovo and Serbia.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ NATO troops on guard in northern Kosovo for third day amid protests

• NATO peacekeepers guarded town halls in ethnically divided northern Kosovo for a third day on Wednesday, as unrest prompted the alliance to send additional troops to the area and NATO and the West slammed Kosovo for not having done enough to stave off violence.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Sudan’s Army Withdraws From Cease-Fire Talks

• The move deals a blow to efforts to end the war and deliver humanitarian aid to millions of people nationwide.

War in Ukraine

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian missile attack on Kyiv leaves three dead, including nine-year-old girl — Meduza

• Russian troops carried out a missile attack on Kyiv on Thursday morning. The city authorities posted photos of damage in the Desnianskyi and Dniprovskyi districts.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian Volunteer Corps announces new raid in Belgorod region — Meduza

• The Russian Volunteer Corps, an armed formation that has claimed responsibility for multiple incursions into Russia from across the Ukrainian border, said in a video released Thursday morning that the group’s members were once again on Russia’s border and were approaching the “outskirts of Shebekino,” a village in the Belgorod region.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ ‘Patriotism must come before all else’: Residents of one of Russia’s poorest regions fundraise hundreds of thousands of rubles for the Russian military — even though some struggle to pay for food. — Meduza

• Zabaykalsky Krai, located in Russia’s Far East, is one of the regions with the lowest quality of life in the country. Despite widespread poverty, its residents regularly donate money to pay for drones used by the Russian military in Ukraine. In the past, they’ve raised 700,000 rubles (around $8,740) to help the Russian army. The independent Russian outlet Novaya Vkladka sent a reporter, Yakov Bykov, to the villages of Priargunsk and Novotsurukhaytuy, located near the Chinese border, to learn more about local life and why the residents give money to the army, even though some of them barely have enough to cover their own basic needs. Meduza is publishing an abridged version of Novaya Vkladka’s reportage.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Germany to shutter 4 out of 5 Russian consulates general in country, in series of tit-for-tat moves with Russia’s Foreign Ministry — Meduza

• The German authorities have decided to close four out of five Russian diplomatic missions in the country, TASS reports, citing a source in the German Foreign Ministry.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Belgorod region starts evacuating children from Shebekinsky and Grayvoron districts — Meduza

• Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced that children will be evacuated from the region’s Shebekinsky and Grayvoron districts beginning on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Two oil refineries attacked by drones in Russia’s Krasnodar region — Meduza

• The Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region was attacked by drones on Tuesday night, according to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ The latest from Arte Weekly: Bakhmut was „the city of roses”, but now it’s completely destroyed

• After almost 10 months of fighting, Russia says its taken full control of Bakhmut, an Eastern salt-mining city in Ukraine. But with schools, apartments, and shops all destroyed or severely damaged: what was the cost? ARTE Europe Weekly looks at the impact on a political, psychological, and human level. In the EU, a handful of countries have lowered the age of voting but as a wave of Gen Z voters prepare to head to the polls: how will this change the results? Finally, we meet French hip-hop artist Eesah Yasuke who takes on race and inequality in her music.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Video shows explosion near Three Sisters monument at intersection of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian borders — Meduza

• Video footage circulating on Telegram Wednesday morning showed an explosion near the Three Sisters monument on the border of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian lawmakers submit bill to allow people with criminal records to join military under contract — Meduza

• A bill has been introduced to the Russian State Duma that would allow people with criminal records and people declared “partially fit for military service” to join the military under contract.

Environment

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ Supreme Court Guts Clean Water Act as Conservative Justices Side with Polluters and Developers

• We look at how a new Supreme Court ruling awards a major victory to polluters and land developers. In a 5-4 decision last week, the justices sharply limited the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to protect and preserve wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The ruling ends protections for about half of all the wetlands in the contiguous United States, jeopardizing access to safe drinking water for millions. “That just defies science, physics, commonsense,” says Earthjustice’s Sam Sankar, who urges Congress to take action to once again protect the country’s critical water resources.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Supremes Declare War on Wetlands

• Seldom, if ever, will repercussions of a Supreme Court decision be so far-reaching and detrimental to life on the planet. It’s a dagger strike deep into the heart of the world’s most significant life source.

=> ↺ DeSmog ☛ Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns Joins Board of Climate Science Denial Group

• Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns has become a director of Net Zero Watch (NZW), a pressure group which denies climate science and campaigns for more fossil fuel extraction. 

• She is the latest high profile figure to ally with NZW’s parent organisation, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), which is the UK’s principal climate science denial group and part of the Tufton Street network of free market think tanks. Jenkyns, the MP for Morley and Outwood, will join NZW’s board, according to a press release.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Climate changing for financing fossil fuel expansion

• Australia’s gas giants Santos and Woodside Energy may find it harder to finance expansion plans as more lenders and investors opt for cleaner industries.

• The Asia-Pacific is a top consumer of oil and gas, which should make the region ripe for the adoption of new energy sources to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

=> ↺ DeSmog ☛ ‘Fire Weather’ Author Recounts Alberta Wildfire Disaster in Terrifying Detail

• The costliest disaster in Canadian history took place in May 2016, when a vicious wildfire swept through Fort McMurray, forcing roughly 90,000 people to evacuate a city at the heart of Alberta’s oil sands industry. Seven years later, out-of-control wildfires once again threaten the province, forcing tens of thousands out of their homes and causing air quality warnings across the Western U.S. and Canada — the smoke was even visible all the way in New York City.

• Vancouver-based author John Vaillant knows better than most the ultimate causes of these disasters and the lifelong impacts they have on communities. His new book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, which comes out June 6, tells the story of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in horrific, page-turning detail. He sees that inferno, and the current western Canadian blazes, as the inevitable result of an economic system reliant on petroleum energy — as well as political leaders, such as newly-elected Alberta premier Danielle Smith, who seem willfully blind to the dangers of a changing climate. 

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia to set up ‘war room’ to check water levels ahead of expected El Nino

• Fourteen districts around the country have so far been given a Level One heatwave warning.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ The DOJ is suing the son of West Virginia’s governor for millions in unpaid environmental fines

• The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the son of West Virginia governor Jim Justice, accusing him of failing to pay more than $5 million in civil penalties and other fees related to the 13 coal companies he operates.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Delta is being sued for claiming to be a carbon-neutral airline

• Delta Air Lines’ green credentials are facing a legal test.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ DeSmog ☛ Effort to Give Oil Companies $97 Million Tax Break in Louisiana Halted

• For the fifth time, a Louisiana lawmaker has introduced legislation to try to reduce the tax that fossil fuel firms pay on oil they produce in the state. The original version of the bill introduced by Rep. Phillip DeVillier this spring would have cost the state $97 million over the next five years, according to a Louisiana Legislative Fiscal Office report.

• “It’s just so much money,” said Rep. Mandie Landry, who voted against the bill in the House Committee on Ways and Means and again when it was before the full House. After it passed the House, the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee was scheduled to vote on the bill on May 22, but Rep. DeVillier voluntarily postponed the vote. DeVillier, who received more than $5,700 in donations from oil and gas interests last year, brought similar legislation four times between 2020 and 2022.

=> ↺ DeSmog ☛ Princeton Maps Reveal US Plans for Massive CO2 Pipeline Buildout

• I have been calling the carbon capture CO2 pipeline buildout plan a “publicly-funded sewer system for the fossil fuel industry” for some time. In fact it’s their only lifeline, and in the meantime it’s also really good for greenwashing and TV ads.A reality check is in order. New analysis here of a major report published by Princeton in 2020-21 reveals a “blueprint” for cutting carbon emissions that includes a Trans-Alaska Pipeline sized transmission pipeline running from New Jersey to Georgia and two or three 48 inch diameter pipelines running in tandem, for hundreds of miles, down the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and across the south.

• The Princeton mapping exercises have no apparent consideration of people who happen to be in the way. They are aimed at the cheapest solution, the least-cost, shortest distance between two points the pollution source and the dump. The CO2 pipeline buildout is shaping up to be the biggest environmental justice insult ever. Because where will these pipelines be built? Through communities and over people’s land who don’t have the clout to stop them.An unspoken global dilemma with the pipe dream of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is this: the carbon pollution coming out of smokestacks at power plants, refineries, chemical plants, cement kilns, steel mills, and ethanol plants is often nowhere near the proposed CO2 dumps – deep saline aquifers geologists have scoped out and where people theorize we can put the multi-gigaton CO2 genie back in the bottle.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Neural Network Helps With Radar Pipeline Diagnostics

• Diagnosing pipeline problems is important in industry to avoid costly or dangerous failures from cracked, broken, or damaged pipes. [Kutluhan Aktar] has built an system that uses AI to assist in this difficult task.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Renewable energy pipeline puts targets in jeopardy

• The renewable energy pipeline is drying up after a robust start to 2023 as “headwinds” increase, the industry warns.

• Data released by the Clean Energy Council for the first three months of the year shows eight projects commenced construction in the quarter.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian government creates state corporation called ’Novorossiya Railroads’ to manage trains in annexed Ukrainian territories — Meduza

• The Russian government has created a federal enterprise under the name “Novorossiya Railroads.” The relevant decree was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and published on the government’s website on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Crypto here to stay, must be regulated, Hong Kong treasury chief says

• By Holmes Chan Hong Kong has decided to let retail investors trade cryptocurrency under its new regulatory regime because “virtual assets are going to stay”, the city’s minister overseeing financial services said Tuesday.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ The One Thing Holding Back Electric Vehicles in America

• The biggest hurdle to mass adoption of electric cars is not the cars themselves.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Rise in Sightings of Honeybee Swarms Has U.K. Beekeepers Scrambling

• It’s swarming season in Britain, with honeybee colonies splitting in half in search of new homes. This year, beekeepers say they are getting an unusually high number of swarm sightings.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Everyday Divides

• Animals abound in the films of Kelly Reichardt. Some are loyal companions, such as the titular canine of Wendy and Lucy. Others are kept in servitude by their human owners, like the oxen that pull a wagon train in Meek’s Cutoff. Usually they occupy a more ambiguous place, like the horses cared for by a ranch hand in Certain Women: They are both a commodity she manages and her only source of companionship in the barren isolation of rural Montana.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia, Malaysia freeze trade talks with EU over palm oil, reports FT

• An EU law bans the import of products that come from land cleared of forests.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ The Temptation to Open Pandora’s Box Could Set Us Apart From Other Apes

• Can you resist?

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ Some Animals Have No Choice but to Live at Airports Now

• Vulnerable birds, snakes, and frogs are clinging to survival in the lawns next to taxiways and runways.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Brazilian lawmakers vote to limit recognition of Indigenous reserves

• Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved legislation Tuesday that would limit expanded demarcations of Indigenous lands, which are considered key to protecting the Amazon and its native peoples.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ These Animals Shouldn’t Be Alive, Much Less Sprinting

• Snow flies have adapted to keep running in subzero temperatures, but their time is running out.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ The World’s Deadliest Spider Can Tweak Its Venom Depending on Its Mood

• How do you say ‘calm down’ in funnel-web?

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ Adding a Touch of Gold to Our Wine Could Make For a More Pleasant Drop

• Ooh la la.

Finance

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ A Dirty Debt Deal: Biden Blasted for Backing Fast-Track Approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline

• As lawmakers push through the bipartisan deal to raise the debt limit, it is being called a “dirty debt ceiling deal” by opponents because it includes language meant to speed completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The controversial $6.6 billion pipeline would go through Virginia and West Virginia and carry 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas across more than a thousand streams and wetlands in Appalachia. Over 750 frontline communities and environmental justice organizations oppose its construction, but the project has long had the backing of powerful West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the biggest recipient of fossil fuel money in Congress. “They can’t build this pipeline and follow the law,” says Maury Johnson, a West Virginian who lives in the path of the massive pipeline and says approval of the deal would show corporations they can simply “throw a bunch of money to politicians” in order to overcome environmental concerns and local opposition from residents.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ House Democrats fracture on debt ceiling vote

• House Democrats were divided Wednesday on how they plan to vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling as the U.S. stares down a potentially historic default.

• Why it matters: Their votes will be necessary for the passage of the bipartisan agreement between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), given dozens of Republicans have vowed to vote against it.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ A Big Day for the Debt Ceiling

• The bipartisan debt limit deal still isn’t assured of passing.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Ireland Worries That Brexit Will Ruin Fishing Industry

• Along Ireland’s coast, fishing has been a way of life for generations. But changes to the industry — including a cut in quotas after Brexit and a government plan to scrap boats — may see a way of life disappear.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Big cities lead as property market rebound gathers pace

• The major cities are leading a fiery recovery in housing prices, while regional markets are also starting to pick up.

• After the residential property market tracked lower for much of last year, it’s now staging a comeback with the CoreLogic home value index recording a third consecutive monthly improvement.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ There’s Never a Debt Ceiling for the Military-Industrial Complex

• Regardless of what Americans on the left or the right may think about the debt ceiling agreement reached over the Memorial Day weekend by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) there can be no serious debate about the fact that the deal provides a good sense of what is on and off the table when it comes to budget priorities.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Labor coy on role of anti-corruption body in PwC saga

• The federal government has skirted around calls to refer the fast-evolving PwC tax scandal to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission. 

• The screws have been tightening on the consultancy giant since it came to light that a partner at the firm shared confidential tax information from Treasury to help clients swerve a crackdown on multinationals’ tax avoidance.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Businesses still planning to spend in coming months

• New private capital spending lifted a convincing 2.4 per cent in the March quarter.

• A 3.7 per cent increase in machinery and equipment spending fed into the solid quarterly result.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ BHP finds $430m public holiday backpay error

• BHP has conceded it owes up to $430 million in back pay after miscalculating public holiday leave for more than a decade.

• A preliminary review indicated about 28,500 current and former rostered employees across the mining giant’s Australian operations had leave incorrectly deducted on public holidays since 2010.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ ‘Crappy’ rate of return for taxpayers on $5b fund

• Taxpayers will get a “crappy” rate of return from a federal fund that is months away from investing in any Australian ideas, according to the coalition.

• The May budget allocated an initial $5 billion to be invested by the new National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, which comes into existence mid-year.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Latvia ranks low in EU for car ownership

• In 2021, the average number of passenger cars per inhabitant in the EU increased from 0.53 to 0.57, with Latvia’s equivalent figure (0.40) considerably below the EU average but nevertheless at its highest ever level. Among EU member states, only Romania had fewer cars per person.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ US House passes bipartisan bill to raise debt ceiling, avoid default

• Lawmakers agreed on a bill that looks to avoid a catastrophic default of the United States. The text will now go to the Senate for approval.

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ Inequality rising: a reflection on expats’ economic impact

• Writer and San Miguel resident Ann Marie Jackson offers perspective on how gentrification affects the colonial town she now calls home.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Business environment in Latvia declines in most sectors

• Data of business tendency surveys published on May 31 by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) show that the business environment in May 2023 continues to worsen in the manufacturing, construction and services sector, but retail trade is the only sector where the business environment is positive.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Latvia records GDP growth of 0.8% in Q1 [Ed: BS. Take inflation into account and it is a massive decrease in a single year. Inflation isn't growth, it's a deflation of monetary value. It's poverty for the working class.]

• Data published on May 31 by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) shows that in the 1st quarter of 2023, compared to the 1st quarter of 2022, gross domestic product of Latvia (GDP) rose by 0.8 % (according to seasonally and calendar non-adjusted data at constant prices).

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Business behemoths ramp up China diplomacy

• America’s biggest corporate titans are resuming trips to China and going out of their way to defuse — or at least downplay — tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ India Will Scrap 2,000 Rupee Notes, Echoing 2016 Demonetization

• The move to retire 2,000-rupee notes, worth $24, has triggered bad memories of a similar campaign in 2016. It has also left some businesses short of change.

=> ↺ Zendesk to lay off another 8% of its staff, cites macroeconomic issues

• CRM software provider Zendesk is reducing another 8% of its workforce citing macroeconomic uncertainty, just six months after the company laid off 300 staffers for the same reason.

• “All this is difficult news to share, but I’ve made the decision to reduce our workforce by 8% at Zendesk,” CEO Tom Eggemeier wrote in an email to all employees, which was later posted as a blog.

• The new tranche of layoffs, according to Eggemeier, can be attributed to continued macroeconomic uncertainty and increased competition from rivals.

=> ↺ Marvel’s Midnight Suns Developer Suffers Layoffs

• Following the poor commercial reception to Marvel’s Midnight Suns, developer Firaxis has reportedly faced layoffs. A source “familiar with the studio” told Axios that about 30 developers had departed yesterday.

=> ↺ Yahoo News ☛ Global tech sector getting pummeled – layoffs up eightfold in 2023

• The mass layoffs plague this year has affected even tech giants like Amazon, eBay, IBM, Microsoft, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

=> ↺ Workers World ☛ Walkout at Amazon set for May 31

• Amazon’s recent layoffs, return to office mandates and a lack of action in dealing with its massive carbon emissions are what’s leading workers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters to plan a walkout from their job on May 31. At least 1,000 workers have agreed to walk out at noon and rally at the Amazon Spheres, near the offices.

• The one-day walkout is being organized by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and another group opposed to Amazon’s recent return-to-office mandate. The workers, many of them software engineers, know that Amazon has abandoned its main climate commitments. Amazon’s “Shipment Zero” pledge, to make one-half of all carbon shipments net zero by 2030, disappeared recently from the company’s U.S. website. It was replaced by the link: “We’ve decided to eliminate it.”

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ The so-called “Great Resignation” has come to an end [Ed: The so-called "Great Resignation" never existed; a propaganda term (Bloomberg News et al, i.e. plutocracy) of failing companies, looking to blame low-level workers]

• A bit more than a year into the covid-19 pandemic, management professor Anthony Klotz spoke to Bloomberg News and warned of a coming “Great Resignation.” For a time, it looked like an excellent call.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ Erdoğan Reelected to 5 More Years in Turkey as His Government Grows More Authoritarian & Nationalist

• We look at the impact of the reelection of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Sunday in a tight runoff vote, extending his 20-year rule for a further five years. Erdoğan received just over 52% of the vote, beating challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, an economist and former civil servant who unified a broad coalition but failed to unseat Erdoğan despite growing dissatisfaction with his governance and deep economic pain within the country. We speak with Cihan Tuğal, UC Berkeley sociologist and author of The Fall of the Turkish Model: How the Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Liberalism.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ A Thing Called Fascism: Wake Up and Fight

• Unconscionably belated but still deeply germane, this week Biden urged Americans to “ensure our democracy (and) our decency endures” – this, in a nation now pivotally “muddling through fascism” while battling lies, fear, bigotry, Christofascist courts and savage attacks on the rights of many. Mournfully little has changed: Almost 80 years ago, the U.S. was warning World War ll soldiers to know and fight a startlingly similar enemy, born of “getting men to hate rather than to think,” of government “by the few and for the few.”

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Rastislav Káčer: Hungary is becoming a sick political entity in the European Union

• Rastislav Káčer, who served as Slovakia’s ambassador in Budapest for five years and headed the Foreign Ministry in Slovakia from September 2022 to May 2023, has expressed sharp criticism of the Orbán government. In an interview with Új Szó, Káčer said that although he was labelled a Hungarophobe after an interview in February in which he said that if Russia invaded Ukraine, Hungary would make territorial claims against Slovakia, he has no problem with Hungarians, especially given his Hungarian ancestry.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Orbán called to account in the EP: what is left of the old freedom fighter?

• Hungary was the topic of discussion in the European Parliament again on Wednesday afternoon, as MEPs debated a motion for a resolution. During the debate, they assessed, among other things, the state of the rule of law, the freezing of EU funds – and the Hungarian government’s suitability to hold the EU presidency in 2024.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Democrats Settled for a Raw Deal

• It’s still only May, but the deal-making enthusiasts in the DC commentariat are in high cotton: A tentative bipartisan accord has been reached on the encroaching federal debt ceiling, and the household gods of elite politics are restored to their traditional primacy. “Biden’s underrated deal-making prowess strikes again,” coos Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin. “Joe Biden is the master dealmaker America needs right now,” gargles The Daily Beast’s David Rothkopf. And so on.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ If Ken Paxton’s Staff Can Do It, Why Can’t Dianne Feinstein’s?

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been in office since 2015, and since 2015 he has been one of the most destructive forces in American law. He’s used his office as a Republican wish-fulfillment machine, trying to win through conservative courts the policies that Republicans cannot win at the ballot box. It was Paxton who organized a red-state challenge to the Affordable Care Act in 2018, trying to get Obamacare declared unconstitutional (he lost). Paxton also led the 2018 challenge to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and brought it all the way to the Supreme Court (he lost). And he challenged Obama’s Clean Power Plan in 2017 (he won). During the Trump administration, he turned his attention toward reproductive rights, and he’s been at the forefront of trying to implement Texas’s bounty-hunter law, which punishes anyone who tries to help pregnant people in Texas receive an abortion. So far, during the Biden administration, he’s sued the administration more than 50 times, mainly over Biden’s immigration policies and student debt-relief programs. For Paxton, there is simply no difference between the law and his conservative political agenda.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Audre Lorde

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ The EP would deny the Hungarian government a unique opportunity, but the real threat lies elsewhere

• Judit Varga’s statement shows what the Hungarian government expects from taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union from the middle of next year. And the excitement is not without reason, as she will be in a unique position to take on the background tasks that usually involve organisation, legal paperwork and the continuation of much of the inherited tasks. In a fortuitous coincidence, she will take over the post, which was first filled in 2011, at a time when there will be changes in other important EU bodies, and this will also provide a rare opportunity for the presidency.

=> ↺ Telex (Hungary) ☛ State Secretary from Orbán’s cabinet office discusses Ukraine’s future membership of NATO in Warsaw

• The Chief Advisor for National Security and State Secretary for National Information at the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office, Lieutenant General József Kovács, was present at the recent meeting of the Bucharest Nine in Warsaw, where the parties unanimously declared that they are ready to support Ukraine as long as necessary, hvg.hu reports.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Rishi Sunak Is Still Haunted by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss

• Boris Johnson’s misadventures still make headlines, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s bigger problem is high inflation and soaring bond yields reminiscent of those that toppled Liz Truss.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong sports teams told to boycott ceremonies if organiser refuses national anthem check under new guidelines

• Hong Kong sports teams are now required to boycott medal ceremonies at international competitions if the organiser refuses to let the team leader verify the Chinese national anthem or regional flags on site, according to amended guidelines issued by the top sports federation representing Hong Kong at the Olympics.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Tsitsipas, Alcaraz soar at French Open as Djokovic row simmers

• Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz cruised into the third round of the French Open on Wednesday, but all eyes were on Novak Djokovic as a political row sparked by the two-times Roland Garros champion intensified.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ At the French Open, Djokovic Storms the Court and Into Controversy, Again

• In recent days, the Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic has inserted himself into the mounting international crisis in Kosovo.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Iranian Judiciary Chief Defends Executions Of Protesters

• The head of Iran’s judiciary has defended issuing death sentences for several demonstrators involved in nationwide protests that erupted in September 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini soon after she was detained by morality police for allegedly violating the mandatory hijab law.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Turkmenistan & Iran Sign 5 Cooperation Agreements And 3 MoUs

• “…Raisi stated that the signing of these documents is indicative of the two nations’ determination…”

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Iran & Türkiye Presidents Looking to Expand Bilateral Relations

• “…the relations between Türkiye and Iran, in various fields, will “definitely” progress with enhanced vigor…”

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ European Citizens’ Initiative: Commission decides to register initiative on mutual recognition of final judgments within the EU

• European Commission Press release Brussels, 31 May 2023 Today, the Commission decided to register a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled ‘Effective implementation of the concept of judicial precedent in EU countries’.

=> ↺ EDRI ☛ EDRi-gram, 31 May 2023

• Here is what happened since we last touched base. The EDRi network met in Belgrade for our General Assembly. We strategised, got updates from national members about the state of #DigitalRights, and enjoyed personal connection time.

• A BIG welcome to EDRi’s newly elected Board members: Andrej Petrovski, Director of Tech at EDRi member SHARE Foundation, and Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director of TOR Project.

• In the last fortnight, we also celebrated 5 years of the General Data Protection Regulation. The anniversary was marked by the €1.2 billion fine for Meta issued thanks to EDRi member noyb’s work. The decision required 10 years and 3 court procedures against the Irish Data Protection Commission, which shows the need for better GDPR enforcement.

=> ↺ Turkey’s election body unveils official results of parliamentary polls

• The Supreme Election Council has released the final data regarding the parliamentary election on May 14.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Fear Sets In Among Turkey’s L.G.B.T. Community After Erdogan’s Attacks

• President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vilified gay people during his re-election campaign, calling them a threat to society and rallying conservatives against them. It has left people feeling threatened, and alone.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ In Turkey, secular women alarmed about future under new Erdoğan term

• Liberal Turkish women fear President Erdoğan’s election victory will spell further setbacks for women’s rights. Their devout Muslim sisters disagree.

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ AMLO says he supports activist’s peace deal offered to cartels

• The president says he would like to see Delia Quiroa’s recent call to Mexico’s 10 biggest cartels to end forced disappearances succeed.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Cite Landmark Gun Ruling in Bid to Stave Off Charges

• Hunter Biden’s legal team is invoking a Supreme Court decision his father has denounced as an affront to “common sense and the Constitution.”

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Twitter has lost 66% of its value since Elon Musk bought it

• In just six months since Elon Musk paid $44 billion to purchase Twitter in October last year, the company’s value has plunged by nearly two thirds.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Apparently Google isn’t responsible for the digital news echo chamber

• A new study found that Google’s search algorithm does not disproportionately lead people to click on partisan and unreliable news. Rather, people largely click on the news they seek out—no matter where on the internet they find it.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Twitter users could be criminally punished for death threats in the Netherlands

• The president of the Netherlands House of Representatives published an open letter on Wednesday (May 31) that called on Twitter to address toxic and illegal content on its platform.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Using Alternative Apps and Shared Albums Instead of Mainstream Social Media

• Alternative apps and shared photo albums let you set up your own exclusive club for online conversations and digital pictures.

Censorship/Libel

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Moment of truth and lies arrives for Ben Roberts-Smith

• A judge will decide whether Ben Roberts-Smith is a courageous war hero harmed by an untruthful media campaign or a murderous, violent war criminal.

• Mr Roberts-Smith, 43, sued The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation over reports in 2018 claiming he committed war crimes in Afghanistan, and acts of bullying and domestic violence.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Media herald Roberts-Smith finding critical for justice

• Publishers have heralded a historic win in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial as vindication and a “critical step for justice”.

• After an 11-month deliberation, Justice Anthony Besanko found The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times had successfully proved their allegations the Victoria Cross recipient committed war crimes.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Roberts-Smith broke moral and legal rules, judge finds

• Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith committed a slew of war crimes in Afghanistan, murdering unarmed prisoners, a Federal Court judge has found.

• Mr Roberts-Smith suffered a massive court loss, ending an almost five-year defamation battle between the former-SAS corporal and three media outlets.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Higgins’ support person fronts Lehrmann inquiry

• Tensions between the right to the presumption of innocence and support for someone who purports to be a victim of crime are under the microscope at an inquiry into the criminal justice system’s response to Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation.

• Ms Higgins alleges she was raped inside a ministerial office at Parliament House by her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann after a night out.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ After grueling jungle trek, Chinese social media satirist to apply for U.S. asylum

• Posting video updates, ‘Brother Tian’ is closer to his dream of living in a free country

=> ↺ uni Stanford ☛ From the Community | A parable of academic freedom

• Writing in response to an article by Jonathan Berk, Branislav Jakovljević argues that “one of the key differences between academic freedom and freedom of speech is that the former is inseparable from responsibility: responsibility to students, to the field, and to the public in general.”

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ AKP council member assails journalist at İstanbul Municipal Council meeting

• Journalist Macit Korkmaz was physically assaulted by the council member while he was filming an argument.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ British Police Detain Journalist Kit Klarenberg, Interrogate Him About The Grayzone

• British counter-terror police detained journalist Kit Klarenberg upon his arrival at London’s Luton airport and subjected him to an extended interrogation about his political views and reporting for The Grayzone.

=> ↺ Craig Murray ☛ The Twilight of Freedom

• Three British journalists I know personally – Johanna Ross, Vanessa Beeley and Kit Klarenberg – have each in the last two years been detained at immigration for hours on re-entering their own country, and questioned by police under anti-terrorist legislation.

=> ↺ The Dissenter ☛ British Counter-Terrorism Police Detain And Interrogate British Journalist At Airport

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Matt Taibbi: A Brief Note on Writing

• Setting down a lifetime of this trade’s tricks, one at a time.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Green Left MP candidate remanded in custody

• Yıldırım is charged with “membership in an illegal organization.”

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Pakistan Courts Challenge Military With High-Profile Rulings

• Long seen as kowtowing to the military, the judiciary has defied it in recent rulings, signaling an important shift in Pakistan’s political landscape.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Let’s Hear It for the Strippers’ Union

• By 10:30 am., the atmosphere inside the National Labor Relations Board conference hall on May 18 was raucous—and for good reason. After a 15-month strike, the locked-out strippers of Star Garden Topless Dive Bar had voted to form the first strip-club dancer’s union since the ’90s. As the ballots came in 17-0 in favor of the union, the dancers filled the room with squeals, hugs, and tears. “It feels like a dream come true,” Velveeta, a lead organizer, said.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ India’s response to wrestlers protesting sexual misconduct was forceful removal and detention

• Indian wrestling’s #MeToo movement is about to enter its sixth month of protest and shows no signs of wavering in its resolve to seek justice.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Female Wrestlers in India Threaten to Toss Olympic Medals in Protest

• Their protest dispersed, female wrestlers who have accused a powerful official of sexual harassment went to the Ganges intending to throw away their Olympic medals.

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ ‘This Is What Happens’: Landlord Lobbyist Apologizes for ‘Insensitive’ Comment About Tenant Murder

• A young couple was shot and killed by their landlord in Canada. One lobbyist said it reflected the plight of landlords.

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ Commission proposes to better guarantee the rights of adults in need of protection or support in cross-border situations

• European Commission Press release Brussels, 31 May 2023 Today, the Commission is proposing new rules aimed to ensure that the protection of adults is maintained in cross-border cases, and that their right to individual autonomy.

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ Questions and Answers: Commission proposes to better guarantee the rights of adults in need of protection or support in cross-border situations

• European Commission Questions and answers Brussels, 31 May 2023 Who is covered by these proposals?

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Section 230 Protects Public Records Portal, Says Judge While Tossing Bogus ID Theft Lawsuit

• Section 230: not just for those irascible tech giants politicians keep grandstanding about. We all may have a love/hate/really hate relationship with various social media services, but Section 230 also protects the little guys. So, while it might be momentarily satisfying to cheer on the latest comeuppance attempt by political opportunists, remember it’s going to be the little guys who get hurt the most.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ How 236,471 Words Of Amici Briefing Gave Us The 565 Word Gonzalez Decision

• There has been a lot said about Gonzalez v. Google, the first Supreme Court Section 230 case in 22 years. Of course, in those 2+ decades Section 230’s “twenty-six words that created the internet” have generated their fair share of courtroom and political controversy. But even given 230’s lightning-rod status for free speech and the internet, interest in the Gonzalez case was extreme. Experts and interest groups filed a total of 78 different amici in Gonzalez alone1, totaling 236,471 (!!!) words. In light of the volume, the Court extended oral arguments to 70 minutes and then still blew through that time limit by an hour and 34 minutes. 

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ OnlyFans Throws The Open Internet Under The Bus

• It’s always disappointing when an internet company that should know better decides to throw the open internet it relies on under the bus.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Community-Owned Broadband Network Again Tops List Of Most Popular ISPs

• For two decades, frustrated towns and cities all over the country have responded to telecom monopolies by building their own fiber broadband networks. Data routinely shows that not only do these networks provide faster, better, and cheaper service, the networks are generally more accountable to the public — because they’re directly owned and staffed by locals with a vested interest in the community.

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ Telecom operators in EU and Republic of Moldova agree on lowering roaming tariffs from 1 January 2024

• European Commission Press release Brussels, 31 May 2023 The Commission welcomes the Joint Declaration from EU and Moldovan telecom operators for lower roaming charges.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Childproofing the Internet

• How online “child protection” measures could make child and adult internet users more vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, and snoops.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ EFF ☛ The Right to Repair Is Law in Minnesota. California Should Be Next

• The right to repair movement has a lot of momentum. In 2022, Colorado passed a law that gave wheelchair users access to the resources they need to repair their own chairs, and the state followed that up with another targeted bill giving farmers and ranchers the right to repair agricultural equipment. Massachusetts has passed several measures around car repairs. Last year we also got the first broad consumer right to repair legislation in New York, though that bill took a big step backward at the last moment.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Biden’s NTIA Says EU Telecoms’ ‘Big Tech Tax’ A Blisteringly Dumb Idea

• We’ve noted several times how European ISPs have somehow convinced European Commission that technology giants should repeatedly give them billions of dollars… for no coherent reason.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ California Legislature Bribes Big Media Journalists With Big Tech Money To Support Link Tax Bill

• A few months back, we wrote about California Rep. Buffy Wicks’ blatantly corrupt plan to use the California legislature to simply make Google and Facebook hand cash over to news orgs (the same news orgs she needs endorsements from to keep getting elected).

Patents

=> ↺ France’s local UPC division offers English as a language option [Ed: This is not a legal court, it's the product of organised crime, corruption, and lobbying. It should and probably will be dismantled ASAP, but the EU will suffer from this EPO blunder of kangaroo courts and regulatory (even court) capture.]

Trademarks

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Jack Daniel’s Loses Opposition To ‘Jack And Victor’ Whisky In UKIPO Smackdown

• Jack Daniel’s, the famous whiskey maker out of Tennessee, is not a complete stranger to silly trademark battles. But it appears that the company may be getting into the trademark bullying game, or at least the trademark lack of comprehending the law game, more and more these days. This post will serve as another example of that, but some throat-clearing is in order, so stick with me here.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Public Domain Review ☛ The Black Dandy of Buenos Aires: Racial Fictions and the Search for Raúl Grigera

• A mysterious staple of Buenos Aires nightlife in the 1910s and 20s, Raúl Grigera was an audacious Afro-Argentine dandy, an eccentric bohemian icon, a man who called himself el murciélago (the bat). Paulina L. Alberto examines the racial stories told by photographs, comic strips, and newspaper articles about a person many knew only as “el negro Raúl”, searching for the life behind the legend.

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