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● 06.08.23

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● Links 08/06/2023: Cinnamon 5.8 and Leap 15.5 Release Mature

Posted in News Roundup at 12:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Kernel Space

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Zoned storage and filesystems

• a discussion of a few issues around using zoned storage for filesystems.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Cloud-storage optimizations

• discussion on I/O hints for cloud-based emulated block devices—and how to see them get implemented relatively quickly.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Atomic block-write operations

• discussion on support for atomically writing data in sizes that are multiples of a device’s block size.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Flexible-order anonymous folios

• the page cache can handle folios of multiple sizes; work is underway to bring the same flexibility to anonymous memory.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Optimizing single-owner memory

• a proposal to optimize the management of memory that will never be shared.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Mitigating vmap lock contention

• allocations in the kernel’s vmap area can be subject to significant lock contention; this session looked at the problem and a proposed way to improve the situation.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Improving page-fault scalability

• the 2023 version of this regular LSFMM+BPF discussion.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Code tagging and memory-allocation profiling

• for the second year in a row, the memory-management developers consider the code-tagging patches.

Applications

=> ↺ Peter Czanik: Introducing sngbench: a shell script to performance test your syslog-ng

• One of the returning questions I receive is how many log messages can a given hardware handle. My typical answer is that it depends on the configuration. I have now an answer, or rather a tool to answer your question sngbench.sh. It is a shell script that runs from localhost and uses loggen, the bundled benchmarking and testing tool of syslog-ng. It comes with two configurations: a performance-optimized and a realistic one. You are also free to extend sngbench with your own configurations.

=> ↺ Peter ‘CzP’ Czanik ☛ Introducing sngbench: a shell script to performance test your syslog-ng

=> ↺ Ubuntu Handbook ☛ HPLIP 3.23.5 Released with Driver for Many More HP Printers & Scanners

• HPLIP, the HP developed Linux driver for HP printers and Scanners, released version 3.23.5 this Monday! The new release features many new HP devices support.

=> ↺ TechTarget ☛ Compare two Linux security modules: SELinux vs. AppArmor

• Use SELinux or AppArmor to protect Linux servers, but examine the differences between them. AppArmor is easier to use but does not give admins as much control as SELinux.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Share folder between Windows 11 guest and Fedora 38 host (KVM Hypervisor) using virtiofs

• Web Cockpit Console on Fedora 38 was used to manage Win11 KVM Guest

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install Elasticsearch on Fedora 38

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Elasticsearch on Fedora 38. For those of you who didn’t know, Elasticsearch is a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine built on top of the Apache Lucene library.

=> ↺ Michael Ablassmeier: updating to bookworm

• Just updated to bookworm. Only thing that gave me headaches was OpenVPN refusing to accept the password/username combination specified via “auth-user-pass” option..

• Mystery was solved by adding “providers legacy default” to the configuration file used.

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ SQL Queries to Change Domain Name for WordPress Site

• There are times when you might need to change the WordPress URL in your website’s database. This could be due to moving your site to a new domain, changing your domain’s structure, or fixing a broken site after an update.

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ Getting Started with Linux: Tips for Complete Beginners

• Linux is an open-source operating system that has gained significant popularity in recent years.

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ How to Secure Linux Systems Effectively Using YubiKey

• You’re not alone if you worry about the ever-increasing threat of hacking. While authentication prompts and 2FA are sufficient to ward off most would-be hackers, thousands of breaches still succeed every day.

• One of the most commonly touted solutions to the authentication issue is YubiKey. But what is YubiKey, and how does hardware authentication work? Can you secure your Linux PC with YubiKey?

=> ↺ Network World ☛ Waiting for things to happen on Linux

• There are always things to wait for on a Linux system—upgrades to complete, processes to finish, coworkers to log in and help resolve problems, status reports to be ready.

• Fortunately, you don’t have to sit twiddling your thumbs. Instead, you can get Linux to do the waiting and let you know when the work is done. You can do this with a script or you can use the wait command, a bash built-in that watches for processes running in the background to complete.

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

• Dokku is a pioneering platform as a service (PaaS) solution, designed to streamline the software deployment process. Enabling developers to push their code directly to the server, it automates the process of building the application environment, removing the painstaking configuration typically associated with deployment. .

=> ↺ IT Pro Today ☛ How To Check Linux Disk Space Usage: Classic SysAdmin Tips and Commands

• This guide explains Linux commands and utilities for checking disk space and usage.

=> ↺ It’s FOSS ☛ Using tail Command in Linux

• The tail command is one of the several ways to display file contents or part of it. You can also live monitor changes made to files with it. Here are some common examples.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ How to Backup and Restore a PostgreSQL Database in Linux

• In a production environment, no matter how large or small your PostgreSQL database may be, regular backup is an essential aspect of database management.

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

• We explore free and open source alternatives to lsof, a utility that lists file information about files opened by processes.

=> ↺ Make Tech Easier ☛ What Is Parabola Linux and How to Install It

• Parabola is a Linux distribution that focuses on producing a secure and Libre version of Arch Linux. Unlike a regular distribution, Parabola distinguishes itself by only including software and libraries that you can inspect yourself.

=> ↺ Cloudbooklet ☛ Deleting Files and Directories in Linux: Step-by-Step Instructions

• Learn about the best practices and methods for deleting files on Linux. Explore various techniques, including the rm command, graphical file managers, and secure deletion methods. Regular file cleanup helps maintain system efficiency and data organization.

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

• Grub Customizer is an indispensible tool for Linux users, particularly those on Ubuntu-based systems. Acting as a comprehensive interface for managing the GRUB bootloader, this utility streamlines various processes, enabling users to tweak and adjust system startup options with precision and efficiency.

=> ↺ FOSSLinux ☛ Solving the ‘Cannot Find LVM Volume Group’ error in Linux

• Logical Volume Management (LVM) offers a flexible and efficient way of managing disk space in Linux, but it can sometimes throw perplexing errors. One such error is ‘Cannot find LVM volume group,’ which typically arises when the system can’t detect or access the LVM volume group during the boot process. Causes can range from an incorrectly defined boot configuration to problems with the physical volume.

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

• In the realm of web development, WebStorm stands out as a powerhouse Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Developed by JetBrains, a company recognized globally for crafting quality software tools, WebStorm offers a highly specialized platform tailored to the needs of web developers.

=> ↺ How to Install a Debian File in Linux?

• If you are new to Linux Operating System and having issues installing new applications using their Debian package on your PC, this guide has got you all covered. Installing Applications and Packages in Linux can be done using the Software Center, which can be called the store for Linux. However, not every application is present in the software center. That is why, oftentimes, you need to download the “deb” package file of the application from their download center. But once the Debian file is downloaded, installing the application may seem daunting to new Linux Users.

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ Install NixOS with Gnome Desktop on VirtualBox

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install NixOS with Gnome Desktop on VirtualBox.

=> ↺ Trend Oceans ☛ How to Extract initrd/initramfs to View Content in Linux

• It takes a few simple steps to extract the initramfs files on your Linux system to view their contents. There may be a couple of reasons why you need to extract initramfs or initrd images, such as to find the reason for boot issues or to explore what content is in them.

=> ↺ Seamless Sharing: Exchanging Data between Hosts and Docker Containers

• Docker containers are a form of virtualization that allows users to run applications on any environment, regardless of the underlying operating system. Containers are lightweight, portable, and can be easily moved across different hosts without requiring much configuration or setup.

=> ↺ Exploring Docker: A Comprehensive Introduction to Use Cases

• Brief overview of Docker and its popularity in the tech industry Docker is a platform that allows developers to easily create, deploy, and run applications in containers. Containers are lightweight virtualization units that package software and all its dependencies into a single unit, ensuring consistency across various environments.

=> ↺ Docker in Action: Streamlining Testing for Your Projects

• With the growth of software development, testing and delivering high-quality software has become increasingly important. Docker is one of the most popular tools in the field of software development that has made a significant impact on how developers build and deploy applications.

=> ↺ CI/CD Excellence: Leveraging Shippable and Heroku with Docker

• The software development process is a complex and ever-changing endeavor that requires continuous innovation and optimization to keep up with the demands of modern businesses. In recent years, CI/CD has emerged as a key strategy for achieving faster, more reliable, and cost-effective software deployments.

=> ↺ TravisCI Meets Docker: Enhancing CI/CD Workflows

• TravisCI is a popular continuous integration (CI) tool used by developers to automate the testing and building of software projects.

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

• Specifically engineered for C and C++ developers, CLion has cemented its status as an industry favorite due to a potent combination of ingenious features and an intelligent design approach.

Games

=> ↺ Neowin ☛ Steam Client Beta update fixes crashes on Linux when using Nvidia GPUs

• The latest Steam Client Beta update fixes a crash on Linux that was being caused by Nvidia GPUs when hardware acceleration was switched on. There were also a bunch of other non-related fixes.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Humble Bundle have a Pixel Pride Bundle up

• Here’s a collection of wonderful inclusive games to celebrate Pride Month, with Humble Bundle putting up the Pixel Pride Bundle. Here’s what to expect for compatibility on Steam Deck and desktop Linux.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny to focus on Scandinavia and Finland

• Scandinavia and Finland are a big focus in the newly announced Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny expansion releasing later this year.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ GOG made it simpler to publish on their store, plus their Pride Month celebration

• GOG announced today they’ve taken a step towards making it easier to get games onto their store, and more clear on what they won’t accept.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Roguelite vehicle combat game REDLINE CROOKS is pure chaos

• REDLINE CROOKS from developer Alexander Golke is a top-down 2D roguelite about smashing vehicles into more vehicles. It’s pure unfiltered chaos and I love the idea.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ GE-Proton 8-4 is out now with game fixes and other upgrades

• GE-Proton 8-4 is the latest release of the community-made compatibility layer for Steam Deck and desktop Linux gaming. Here’s what’s new and changed.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Bullet hell game Survivors of the Dawn features mini campaign, text events

• “Embark on a glorious odyssey where survival depends on tactically combining diverse weapon classes to annihilate the hordes. Beware of your choices traveling through the stars, the next combat can determine your destiny.”

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Using Kirigami built with Qt6 without kdesrc-build

• I have a few blog posts planned, but the one I wanted to post involving KDE color schemes isn’t finished yet (it’s enormous and tedious). So instead, today I’m showing you how simple it is to compile Kirigami with Qt6 so you can start playing with it ahead of time.

• Kirigami, KDE’s library that extends QtQuick, is a Tier 1 KDE Framework. The cool thing about it is that it has effectively no dependency on any KDE libraries.

=> ↺ KDAB ☛ Object Lifetime

• Last time we discussed Value Semantics. However, I missed one topic that is super important for a better understanding of basic building blocks of C++. Today, we are going to talk about an object. Without further ado, let’s dive deeper!

• What is an object? According to the C++ standard, part 3.9.8 under the name of [basic.types]

• Now is int i an object? Yes.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ postmarketOS // v23.06: From the GNOME Mobile 2023 Hackfest

• Aiming for a 10 year life-cycle for smartphones

=> ↺ 9to5Linux ☛ Cinnamon 5.8 Desktop Released with Gestures, Dark Mode, Styles, and More

• The Cinnamon 5.8 desktop environment has been released and it’s already available in the stable software repositories of Arch Linux, so I wanted to give you guys a first look at the new features and improvements.

• There are several cool new features in Cinnamon 5.8 and one of them is XDG Desktop Portal support to provide better compatibility for Flatpak apps, as well as GNOME/libadwaita apps. This makes it possible for these apps to take screenshots.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Reviews

=> ↺ Russell Coker ☛ Russell Coker: PinePhonePro First Impression

• I received my PinePhone Pro [1] on Thursday, it seems in many ways better than the Purism Librem 5 [2] that I have previously written about. The PinePhone is thinner, lighter, and yet has a much longer battery life. A friend described the Librem5 as “the CyberTruck phone” and not in a good way.

• In a test I had my PinePhone and my Librem5 fully charged, left them for 4.5 hours without doing anything much with them, and then the PinePhone was at 85% and the Librem5 was at 57%. So the Librem5 will run out of battery after about 10 hours of not being used while a PinePhonePro can be expected to last about 30 hours. The PinePhonePro isn’t as good as some of the recent Android phones in this regard but it shows the potential to be quite usable. For this test both phones were connected to a 2.4GHz Wifi network (which uses less power than 5GHz) and doing nothing much with an out of the box configuration. A phone that is checking email, social networking, and a couple of IM services will use the battery faster. But even if the PinePhone has it’s battery used twice as fast in a more realistic test that will still be usable.

• Here are the passmark results from the PinePhone Pro [3] which got a CPU score of 888 compared to 507 for the Librem 5 and 678 for one of the slower laptops I’ve used. The results are excluded from the Passmark averages because they identified the CPU as only having 4 cores (expecting just 4A72) while the PinePhonePro has 6 cores (2A72+4*A53). This phone definitely has the CPU power for convergence [4]!

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ OpenSUSE ☛ Leap 15.5 Release Matures, Sets Up Technological Transition

• The release of openSUSE’s latest 15-series version marks years of maintenance and security that began more than five years ago..

• The maturity of Leap 15.5 comes into play as new technological changes of the last five years have been introduced, such as container technologies, immutable systems, virtualization, embedded development, and other high-tech advances.

• Entrepreneurs, hobbyists, professionals and developers use Leap as a go-to Linux distribution as seen by the increase in usage from each minor release. Traversing from legacy software to more modern systems is imminent.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ openSUSE Leap 15.5 released

• Version 15.5 of the openSUSE Leap distribution has been released. This is not intended as a feature release, but brings updated versions of many packages. The project has also announced that there will be one more 15.x release before that series ends and users have to migrate to whatever its successor will be.

=> ↺ OpenAPI 3.0.0 Specification for the Open Build Service HTTP API

• Starting today, the OpenAPI Specification presented through Swagger UI becomes the official API documentation for Open Build Service 🎉 Find it at https://api.opensuse.org/apidocs/ With OpenAPI we now provide an industry standard way to maintain the specification and with Swagger UI a tool that makes consuming the documentation easier for people who want to make use of the OBS API in their code. Now our journey to remake the API documentation has come to an end,…

=> ↺ SUSE’s Corporate Blog ☛ Digital Provenance Product Chronicle Arrives in SUSE Rancher Marketplace

• SUSE guest blog authored by: Csilla Zsigri, Chief Strategy Officer at BTP & Digital provenance is a force for good as it can bring trust and transparency to a wide range of markets.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Spend to save? [Ed: So The Register is not funded by a company it's supposed to be covering. Out goes unbiased coverage.]

• Sponsored by Red Hat.

=> ↺ Weekly status of Packit Team: June 2023

• Week 22 (May 30th – June 5th) # Packit will now filter the pull requests based on the target branch if the branch is specified in the particular job configuration. (packit-service#2074) Packit now supports manual_trigger in the configuration that allows you to make jobs run only when explicitly triggered by a comment. (packit-service#2069)

=> ↺ Filipe Rosset: Fedora rawhide – fixed bugs 2023/05

=> ↺ Remi Collet ☛ Remi Collet: PHP 8.3 as Software Collection

• Version alpha1 is planned to be released this week. It’s still in development and will enter soon in the stabilization phase for the developers, and the test phase for the users.

• RPM of this upcoming version of PHP 8.3, are available in remi repository for Fedora 37, 38 and Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9 (RHEL, CentOS, Alma, Rocky…) in a fresh new Software Collection (php83) allowing its installation beside the system version.

• As I (still) strongly believe in SCL potential to provide a simple way to allow installation of various versions simultaneously, and as I think it is useful to offer this feature to allow developers to test their applications, to allow sysadmin to prepare a migration or simply to use this version for some specific application, I decide to create this new SCL.

• I also plan to propose this new version as a Fedora 40 change (as F39 should be released a few weeks before PHP 8.3.0).

=> ↺ Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Community Blog: Flock 2023 CfP open now until 20 June

• Flock to Fedora returns in-person again after four years. This year is in Cork, Ireland from 2-4 August 2023. The CfP is open now. Will we see you there? This article introduces the new Flock CfP system and how to submit your proposal as a presenter this year.

• Apply now for the Flock 2023 Call for Proposals (CfP) at cfp.fedoraproject.org. This year, Flock is using a new CfP system. If you have ever submitted a proposal for a DevConf event, it will feel familiar. The deadline to submit is by Tuesday, June 20th, 2023.

=> ↺ Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Community Blog: Community Blog monthly summary: May 2023

• This is the latest in our monthly series summarizing the past month on the Community Blog. Please leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

Debian Family

=> ↺ OMG! Linux ☛ Armbian 23.05 Released, Based on Debian 12

• A new version of Armbian, a Debian-based Linux distro built for ARM and RISC-V hardware, is available to download.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Linux Magazine ☛ Linux Mint Finally Receiving Support for Gestures

• If you use the Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop, you’ll be thrilled to know that 21.2 is getting support for gestures on touchscreen devices and touchpads.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Oh Snap… Desktop Ubuntu Core to arrive in 2024

• Initially leaked in a forum comment, it has been confirmed in a blog post: Canonical will soon snappily jump aboard the immutable distro bandwagon.

• Lead Snap developer Oliver Grawert casually dropped the announcement in a comment in a story on the popular OMG Ubuntu site, but the news was confirmed the very next day in a lengthy and very detailed blog post by Ubuntu desktop product manager Oliver Smith. As of the next LTS release, which will appear next April, numbered as version 24.04, the standard Ubuntu desktop distro will be joined by a new immutable desktop version, based on the existing Ubuntu Core immutable distribution.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Linux Gizmos ☛ GEEKOM launches AS 6 and AS 5 AMD-based mini-PCs

• The company GEEKOM launched today two mini-PCs built around the Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 AMD processors. The AS 6 supports DDR5 memory, 8K video output, up to 2TB of storage and multiple I/O ports. The product page states that these new products were co-developed with ASUS.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ 9to5Google ☛ Google releases Android TV 14 Beta, ditches Android 13

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ Android 14 Beta 3 is here with finalized APIs and the latest tweaks

=> ↺ 9to5Google ☛ Android 14 Beta 3 for Pixel phones rolling out, 7a included

=> ↺ SlashGear ☛ Unihertz Jelly Star Review: A Small Android Phone Made To Be Basic

=> ↺ The Sun ☛ Google issues official warning to all Android users over ‘battery problems’ that won’t go away – 4 steps to boost charge | The US Sun

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Imply Data gives Apache Druid schema auto-discover capability

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ On theCUBE Pod: The MongoDB stock explosion and the continued AI debate

PostgreSQL ☛ pgAdmin 4 v7.3 ReleasedThe pgAdmin Development Team is pleased to announce pgAdmin 4 version 7.3. This release of pgAdmin 4 includes 5 bug fixes and new features. For more details please see the release notes.Ensure that SSH Tunnel should work properly after upgrading to 7.2 from 7.1.Ensure that the master password dialog should not be visible if the parameter MASTER_PASSWORD_REQUIRED is set to False.Fixed an issue where Foreign Key with 3 or more columns are shown in the wrong order in SQL and Properties.Fix an issue where editing a database object de-selects it on the browser tree.Fixed an issue where pgadmin is unable to take the defined role.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

=> ↺ Kiwi TCMS: Kiwi TCMS 12.4

• We’re happy to announce Kiwi TCMS version 12.4!

=> ↺ WordPress ☛ The Month in WordPress – May 2023

• May has been a month of celebrating WordPress and the open source community that makes it possible.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ How to improve your storytelling with R

• Your success as a Data Scientist isn’t because of your coding skills. Your success is determined by how well you can persuade decision-makers to take action. And that’s a powerful skill that I’m going to help you with today: It’s called Storytelling.

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Simplifying Data Transformation with pivot_longer() in R’s tidyr Library

• In the world of data analysis and manipulation, tidying and reshaping data is often an essential step. R’s tidyr library provides powerful tools to efficiently transform and reshape data. One such function is pivot_longer().

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Meeting the Stars of the R-Universe: PEcAn, an Open Source Project to Take Care of the Planet

• A new post of our interview series “Meeting the stars of the R-universe”. We aim to introduce the teams and people behind the development of software and packages many of us use and which are available through the R-Universe.

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Three useful (to me) R patterns

• I’m happy to report that I thought “oh but I know a better way to write that code!” a few times lately when reading old scripts of mine, or scripts by others.

=> ↺ Peter Hutterer: snegg – Python bindings for libei

• After what was basically a flurry of typing, the snegg Python bindings for libei are now available. This is a Python package that provides bindings to the libei/libeis/liboeffis C libraries with a little bit of API improvement to make it not completely terrible. The main goal of these bindings (at least for now) is to provide some quick and easy way to experiment with what could possibly be done using libei – both server-side and client-side. [1] The examples directory has a minimal EI client (with portal support via liboeffis) and a minimal EIS implementation. The bindings are still quite rough and the API is nowhere near stable.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 18 Open-source and Free Next.js Full-stack Starters For Enterprise and Startups

• What is Next.js?

• Next.js is an open-source React-based framework used for building server-side rendering (SSR) web applications. It provides an efficient and easy-to-use environment for developing web applications with minimal setup and configuration.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Julia 1.9 brings more speed and convenience

• Version 1.9 of Julia, which is an open-source programming language popular in scientific computing, was released in early May. There are a number of interesting new features this time around, including more work addressing the startup-time complaints and a number of improvements to the package system. Beyond that, there are a few interesting features from the Julia 1.8 release to catch up on.

• Julia is a general-purpose programming language which is just-in-time (JIT) compiled by the LLVM compiler. Since its public release in 2012, it has rapidly been adopted for scientific research, due to execution speed similar to Fortran combined with the convenience of REPL-based development. Julia has an expressive syntax as well as a high degree of composability of library code.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ American Car Companies Push Back on Proposed AM Radio Requirements

• Lobbyists in the U.S. auto industry are pushing back on lawmakers over proposed AM radio requirements in new vehicles. After bipartisan lawmakers introduced a bill requiring automakers to retain AM radio functionality in their 2024 model year vehicles, the lobbyist group Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AIA) is pushing back, arguing that the functionality is unnecessary.

Leftovers

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Miriam Silverman on Her Tony-Nominated Role in ‘The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window’

• In “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” the Tony Award nominee inhabits her character, a racist Upper Manhattan snob, in all her flaws.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Otkes: Many deficiencies in collapsed Espoo footbridge

• Many parts of the footbridge were weak, according to investigators.

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ ‘Your Balls Are Back Online:’ The $55 Semen Release ‘Ritual’ Where Bros Platonically Cum Together

• A look inside Will Blunderfield’s Manhood Academy session for “harnessing sexual energy” revealed a lot of dick-swinging, grunting, and vibrating of the balls.

=> ↺ Dhole Moments ☛ On Furries and the Media

• Recently, there has been a lot of misinformation and propaganda flying around the American news media about the furry fandom. Unfortunately, this seems to be increasing with time. Consequently, there are a lot of blanket statements and hot takes floating around social media right now about whether or not furries should talk with journalists.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Turkmen Students Forced To Buy Theater Tickets

• Students at the Turkmen Cultural Institute in Ashgabat have been forced by their teachers to go to theaters at least once a week.

Science

=> ↺ Steinar H Gunderson ☛ Steinar H. Gunderson: Faster accurate range reduction

• Pretty much everybody who learns geometry and trigonometry starts off by representing angles in degrees. One circle is 360 degrees; it’s a bit of a strange number, but it’s highly composite (so a lot of fractions can be represented as whole numbers) and has traditions supposedly going back to the Babylonians.

• However, there’s nothing “natural” about 360; you could just as well use e.g. 3600 and nothing would really get easier or harder. When going into trigonometry, thus eventually most people will end up into radians, where one circle is 2π radians. This does have a natural justification; angles are represented by their arc lengths on the unit circle, and using radians for the argument means the Taylor series of sin(x) becomes x – x³/3! + x⁵/5! – …, which is pretty much as nice as it gets. (Both facts independently mean that sin(x) ≈ x for small angles, whereas for degrees, it would mean we’d get sin(x) ≈ πx/180; hardly as elegant!)

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ OK, WTF Is Going on With the ‘Intact Craft of Non-Human Origin’ Allegedly Recovered by the U.S. Government?

• There are currently no public details on what evidence or documentation, if any, the whistleblower may have.

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ Archaeologists Discover Remnant of Lost Village Buried Under the Ocean for 600 Years

• The main church of Rungholt, a Medieval settlement that has been called the “Atlantis of the North Sea” because it was wiped out in a flood, has been found.

Education

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Millions of Chinese students sit gruelling college entrance exams

• A record nearly 13 million students are registered to take the exams in 2023.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Oklahoma school board approves nation’s first religious charter school

• The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted on Monday to accept the application for the establishment of the Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The school will operate as a public charter school, paid for by taxpayer dollars.

Hardware

=> ↺ Stacey on IoT ☛ ReelyActive is making Bluetooth sensors enterprise-friendly

• Middleware is so extremely boring that if I’m bothering to cover a company’s middleware product, it must be doing something pretty important. And in the case of ReelyActive, it really is. ReelyActive was formed in 2012 as a Bluetooth expert that built Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) location apps and services.

=> ↺ Russell Coker ☛ Russell Coker: Dell 32″ 4K Monitor and DisplayPort Switch

• After determining that the Philips 43″ monitor was too large for my taste as well as not having a clear enough display [1] I bought a Dell 32″ 4K monitor for $499 on the 1st of July 2022. That monitor has been working nicely for almost a year now, for DisplayPort it’s operation is perfect and 32″ seems like an ideal size for my use. There is one problem that both HDMI ports will sometimes turn off for about half a second, I’ve tested on both ports and on multiple computers as well as a dock and it gives the same result so it’s definitely the monitor. The problem for me is that the most casual inspection won’t reveal the problem and the monitor is large and difficult to transport as I’ve thrown out the box. If I had this sort of problem with a monitor at work I’d add it to the list of things for Dell to fix next time they visit the office or use one of the many monitor boxes available to ship it back to them. But for home use it’s more of a problem for me. The easiest solution is to avoid HDMI.

• A year ago I blogged about using DDC to switch monitor inputs [2], I had that running with a cheap USB switch since then to allow a workstation and a laptop to share the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Recently I got a USB-C dock that allows a USB-C laptop to talk to a display via DisplayPort as opposed to the HDMI connector that’s built in. But my Dell monitor only has one DisplayPort input.

• /blockquote>

=> ↺ Tom’s Hardware ☛ ‘TSMC Village’ Arizona Repeatedly Targeted by Hoodlums

• Reports of crime and poor security at these residential communities won’t be good for TSMC, which has reportedly had difficulty hiring engineers in Arizona.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ ‘Folded boy’ in China starts surgery in hopes of standing straight for the first time in 10 years

• Mr Jiang Yanchen has a disease that left him bending forward horizontally.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Subway plans to open 4,000 new locations in China

• Subway, one of the world’s largest fast-food chains, has announced a sprawling deal with a Shanghai development company to open nearly 4,000 new restaurants in mainland China over the next 20 years.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ The Missing Piece of the Foraging Renaissance

• My attempt to harvest hyperlocal produce led me to something perhaps even better.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ What is the Air Quality Index? Here’s How to Stay Safe

• Here’s what we know about pollution and a few tips to protect yourself.

=> ↺ Ruben Schade ☛ Avoiding coffee namespace collisions

• Speaking of coffee shops, I noticed something else fun recently.

• I was ordering takeaway for myself and a few others, like a gentleman. Two of them wanted a skim flat white, and another wanted soy. As the barista was writing the orders on the cups, she wrote B for me, S on two more, and Y on the other.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ Weight-loss medications need to be affordable

• Weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic have been garnering a lot of attention lately. With recent events such as Saturday Night Live opening with a sketch poking fun at Ozempic (no pun intended) or 2023 Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel making jokes about the medication in his opening monologue, weight-loss drugs certainly have become a hot topic…

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ AISR Says Influenza Cases Increase in Australia as Winter Comes

• “…children represent a significant part of the total number of infections…”

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ Get Phones Out of Schools Now

• They impede learning, stunt relationships, and lessen belonging. They should be banned.

=> ↺ Helsinki Times ☛ YLE: Arrival of Thai berry pickers to Finland in doubt this summer

• YLE on Thursday revealed that on 1 June not a single Thai worker had been confirmed to come to the country for the upcoming picking season. Finnish berry companies recruited nearly 4,000 pickers from Thailand in 2022.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Light Blue Touchpaper ☛ Will GPT models choke on their own exhaust?

• Until about now, most of the text online was written by humans. But this text has been used to train GPT3(.5) and GPT4, and these have popped up as writing assistants in our editing tools. So more and more of the text will be written by large language models (LLMs). Where does it all lead?

=> ↺ Bryan Lunduke ☛ The Apple Vision Pro: designed to make you less happy

• Creepy. Dystopian. And more than a little like a drug dealer.

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ Apple’s Vision Pro Is a $3,500 Ticket to Nowhere

• A decade after Facebook bought Oculus, VR still has no appeal except as an expensive novelty toy.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Microsoft has been fined $20 million for retaining children’s data without parents’ consent [Ed: Small fine and not a single person sentenced to prison, so they can do it again (more secretly)]

• Microsoft, which wants to lead the AI revolution, is struggling with a children’s online privacy protection problem.

=> ↺ Reuters ☛ Microsoft to pay $20 mln to settle US charges for violating children’s privacy

• Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that the tech company illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, the FTC said…

=> ↺ Reuters ☛ Microsoft 365 services back up after hours of outage [Ed: The real news is that it was down for a very long time, not that it is "back up"]

• Microsoft Corp said on Monday that it had restored its online services after an outage affected thousands of users of its 365 software suite, including Teams and Outlook…

=> ↺ Techstrong Group ☛ Microsoft’s 9th Outage in 2023 ¦ RISE of RISC-V ¦ Meta Ends WFH

• First up this week: The yo-yo nature of Microsoft 365 is causing great dissatisfaction. How can you avoid emulating the same mistakes?

=> ↺ MoneyControl ☛ Over 1,000 applications but not 1 job offer: Tech engineer on life after Microsoft layoff [Ed: Nobody wants to hire Microsofters?]

• A former Microsoft employee, who was laid off last week, has shared how difficult it has been to secure a new job in the last two months. Nicholas Knowlton has been on the job hunt ever since the tech giant announced the first round of layoffs, but even after sending out more than 1,000 applications. On his last day at work, the cloud solution engineer from North Carolina, US, wrote, “Today is my official last day after being impacted by the Microsoft layoffs in March. I’ve been on a journey for the past two months, giving my all to secure a new job.

=> ↺ OSI Blog ☛ The AI renaissance and why Open Source matters [Ed: Microsoft staff still writing Microsoft propaganda pieces in the OSI’s Web site, falsely characterising chatbots as “AI”]

=> ↺ OSI Blog ☛ The AI renaissance and why Open Source matters [Ed: Microsoft staff still writing Microsoft propaganda pieces in the OSI’s Web site, falsely characterising chatbots as “AI”]

=> ↺ MoneyControl ☛ ‘Felt sad to see Meta, Google lay off friends. Then, Microsoft laid me off’

• Samantha Dorai was feeling bad about her friends at Google and Meta when the tech giants began their mass layoffs. Little did she know that soon, she too would be laid off by Microsoft. The executive assistant to the general manager at Microsoft Singapore then took to social media to share how “real” the job loss felt. “After hearing my colleagues turned friends at Meta affected by the Meta layoffs, and then hearing friends from Google being affected by the Google layoffs to my current colleagues at Microsoft affected by the Microsoft layoff, I felt so sad to see them go and the layoffs were affecting them all,” Dorai wrote on LinkedIn.

=> ↺ India ☛ Layoffs Continue: Now This Company Is Reducing 3% Jobs From Its Global Workforce

• ZoomInfo, a US-based marketing technology company, has announced plans to reduce its global workforce by around 3%. In a clear sign of the layoff trend that is being witnessed across the globe, the company in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stated its employees about its intentions to streamline the organisational structure, expedite decision-making, and allocate resources to strategic growth opportunities while maintaining profitability.

=> ↺ India Times ☛ Reddit lays off 5% of its workforce, to reduce hiring

• Internet community discussion platform Reddit has laid off 90 employees, or about 5% of its workforce.

• The Wall Street Journal first reported the development, citing an email from chief executive Steve Huffman to his employees.

=> ↺ India Times ☛ Reddit to layoff 5% of its workforce, slow hiring process: Report

• Citing a report by Wall Street Journal, news agency Reuters said that company CEO Steve Huffman sent an email to employees saying that the layoffs will affect teams in multiple departments across the company.

Security

=> ↺ Yahoo News ☛ Wind River Security Scanning Service for Linux CVEs Offers Path to Remediation and Long-Term Maintenance Through the Full Lifecycle

=> ↺ The Machine Keyring [Ed: Oracle attacking the freedom of Linux]

=> ↺ The Machine Keyring [Ed: Oracle attacking the freedom of Linux]

• UEFI Secure Boot provides a security feature that ensures only trusted digitially signed binaries are executed in the boot chain. Secure Boot validates each digital signature before allowing anything to load during boot. Linux kernel modules are one of the final components of the boot chain. To maintain the signing validation requirement, all kernel modules must be signed and validated. Linux distributions enforce integrity lockdown mode when booting with Secure Boot enabled. Within lockdown mode, kernel module signature validation is enforced. With the mainline kernel, users who wanted the extra flexibility to load their own kernel modules had to go through a complex process to enroll their own keys. This is a thing of the past, as there is now a much simpler process which this blog will explain.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Security updates for Wednesday

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (c-ares), Fedora (curl and firefox), Oracle (cups-filters, kernel, and webkit2gtk3), Red Hat (emacs and kpatch-patch), Slackware (mozilla), SUSE (kernel and openssl-1_0_0), and Ubuntu (firefox and libreoffice).

=> ↺ Bleeping Computer ☛ Barracuda says hacked ESG appliances must be replaced immediately

• Email and network security company Barracuda warns customers they must replace Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances hacked in attacks targeting a now-patched zero-day vulnerability.

• “Impacted ESG appliances must be immediately replaced regardless of patch version level,” the company warned in an update to the initial advisory issued on Tuesday.

• “Barracuda’s remediation recommendation at this time is full replacement of the impacted ESG.”

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Perhaps victims shouldn’t be so quick to claim “no evidence so far…”

• In November 2022, Pearland ISD in Texas informed parents and employees about a breach and told them that ongoing investigation so far had shown no evidence that any sensitive information had been accessed by anyone outside of the district.

• In June 2023, Pearland sent letters to 55,486 people whose personal information had been accessed or acquired by the unidentified threat actor(s). The information affected may have included name, date of birth, address, and Social Security number.

=> ↺ Senate committee approves Phillips-Hill’s measure to protect student data, privacy

• The Senate Education Committee approved the Student Data Privacy and Protection Act, according to the measure’s sponsor Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York).

• Senate Bill 565 modernizes Pennsylvania law to accommodate student information being stored online, as well as students learning and attending school online. As is currently stands, student-related data is being generated, collected, and stored within our school systems, with no current protocols.

=> ↺ Data on as many as 100,000 Nova Scotia healthcare staff stolen in MOVEit breach

• Data on at least 100,000 employees in Nova Scotia’s healthcare sector were stolen as the result of the vulnerability in Progress Software’s MOVEit file transfer application, the province said Tuesday.

• Data stolen includes Social Insurance numbers, addresses and banking information of employees of Nova Scotia Health, the public service and the IWK Health Centre, which is a major pediatric hospital and trauma centre.

• The provinces uses MOVEit for transferring payroll information. It has begun notifying victims.

=> ↺ NPR ☛ Ascension Seton reports data breach of websites

• The Austin hospital system Ascension Seton experienced a data breach of two websites earlier this year, potentially exposing the personal information of certain users.

• Ascension Seton issued a statement Tuesday saying its legacy websites — Seton.net and DellChildrens.net — were breached on March 1 and 2. The hospital system said it has been working alongside Vertex, the third-party vendor that managed the sites, to understand the scope of the security violation. Vertex also alerted law enforcement and hired a forensic investigator to study the event.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ The 2023 Verizon DBIR is out — get your copy now

• 74% of all breaches include the human element through Error, Privilege Misuse, Use of stolen credentials or Social Engineering

=> ↺ Mayberry clients urged to increase vigilance after cyberattack

• With no indication of the extent of a data breach and cyberattack at investment firm Mayberry, the company yesterday urged clients to take immediate steps to protect themselves “against any possible adverse consequences”.

• In its second notice to its clients since Friday night, Mayberry yesterday asked them to actively monitor all accounts and contact their financial institution if they notice any suspicious and/or unusual activity. They were also asked to change passwords to all accounts that they operate. […]

• Mayberry says the data breach resulted in unauthorised access and the stealing of data to include personal data. The company also confirmed that some clients data has been put on the dark web, an area of the Internet where fraudsters lurk as they trade in stolen data to the highest bidder.

=> ↺ ABC ☛ Houston ISD investigating how students’ personal documents ended up on the street

• Several students’ records were found scattered on the road and sidewalks outside an elementary school in southwest Houston on Tuesday. Houston ISD is now working to learn how paperwork with personal information like student addresses ended up there.

• Documents like report cards, folders of completed field trip forms, parent phone numbers, and students’ personal information ended up outside Red Elementary School in the Willow Meadows area.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ WhichUK ☛ HMRC issues scam warning: how to spot a dodgy email or phone call

• Tax agency reports rise in scams ahead of tax credits renewal deadline

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Zoom Expands Privacy Options for European Customers [Ed: Zoom is the opposite of privacy; this is marketing junk at best]

• New options allow paid Zoom customers to specify certain data for meetings, webinars, and team chat to be stored within the EEA.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ ByteDance ‘god credential’ used to help China track Hong Kong activists: Former executive

• Bytedance also worked with the CPC to promote propaganda, said a former company executive in a court filing.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ DR Congo: Satisfaction of President’s Visit to China

• “Many things were done on the sidelines of this visit…”

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Philippine, US, Japanese coast guards carry out anti-terror drill in disputed waters

• The trilateral training focuses on collaborative mission planning – not China – Philippine Coast Guard says.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ How does northern Australia’s population affect the nation’s defence?

• In 2022, demographers demonstrated that parts of the north of Australia are among the most remote and sparsely populated areas in the world.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ Setting the scene for closer defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

• Being Australia’s foreign minister and then defence minister over six years gave Stephen Smith an opportunity to see changes coming in the region, and to assess the risks and opportunities they’d bring.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ How monarchies end

• Stephen R. Grand flips the analytical script on the spate of notable books covering “How Democracies Die.” Democracies can corrode and crumble, but so can autocracies. Why are there no books being published about how kings and queens, emperors and caliphs, cease to rule—either because their throne is transformed into a more ceremonial post or because they lose power entirely? For Arab monarchs, there are several apparent lessons to be learned.

=> ↺ TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Protesters call for arrest of white woman who fatally shot Black neighbor

• A Florida sheriff says detectives must investigate self-defense claims before any criminal charges can be brought against a white woman who fatally shot her neighbor last week in the violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2½-year feud. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said Monday that he’s not legally able to arrest the shooter unless he can prove that she did not act in self-defense when she shot Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four last Friday night. The women lived in a neighborhood in the rolling hills south of Ocala in north Florida.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ China military watch

• During China’s high-level ‘two sessions’ (两会) meetings this year, defence ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei (谭克非) disclosed that ¥1.58 trillion ($338 billion) had been allocated in the 2023 national budget for defence [...]

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Stop Piling Charges on Mom of 6-Year-Old Shooter

• Plus: Michigan Supreme Court takes up case on warrantless drone spying, Obamacare legal battles continue, and more…

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ U.S. Levies Sanctions On Iranian, Chinese Companies Over Ballistic Missile Programs

• The United States has sanctioned seven individuals and six entities from Iran, China, and Hong Kong who the U.S. Treasury Department says have helped Tehran get key technology for ballistic missile development.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ 7 Shot Outside High School Graduation in Richmond, Virginia

• Another five people were shot, the authorities said, and others were hurt in the ensuing chaos. A 19-year-old male suspect was in police custody.

=> ↺ ADF ☛ Ancient Sahel Trade Routes Used to Traffic Illegal Weapons, Drugs

• Crime organizations and terrorist groups have woven a complex trafficking network moving illicit goods such as assault-style rifles, ammunition, explosives and fake medicine throughout the Sahel region. Once used for legitimate trade, the routes cross porous borders in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

=> ↺ ADF ☛ Both Sides in Sudan Fight Seek Additional Weapons

• Sudanese military officials reported on May 26 that they had intercepted a cache of weapons as they were being smuggled from an unspecified foreign country through the Red Sea region to rebels in the eastern part of the country.

=> ↺ ADF ☛ Guinea Junta Turns to Military to Face Protesters

• ADF STAFF Less than two years after Guinea’s military seized power from then-President Alpha Condé, the junta is facing a wave of protests. Violence erupted in the capital of Conakry in May with anti-junta demonstrators throwing stones and burning makeshift barricades and tires. Police opened fire with tear gas and bullets.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ UK orders closure of all China-run ‘police stations’ and calls their operations ‘unacceptable’

• UK Minister for Security Tom Tugendhat updated Parliament on Tuesday about Chinese “overseas police service stations” on commitments made in parliamentary statements last November and reiterated by Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire Chris Philp in April.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Rudd foresees ‘seamless’ AUKUS defense industry

• Australia’s new ambassador in Washington says the security pact is about more than submarines.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Group Suspected Of Planning To Seize Power Apprehended, Officials Say

• Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee of National Security (UKMK) said on June 6 that a group of men and women suspected of plotting to seize power had been apprehended.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ Shaking Australia’s ‘state vs state’ attitude to innovation

• We need to address the elephants in the room. Yes, elephants. There are eight of them—each state and territory, and they are competing at the expense of improving Australia’s innovation economy and strategic objectives.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ The Shangri-La dialogues—20 years of agenda setting

• The Asia-Pacific’s premier defence dialogue uses the name of the mythical place ‘Shangri-La’, a utopia of peace high in the mountains in the 90-year-old novel Lost Horizon.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Dwindling junta defections pose challenge for Myanmar opposition

• Defections are a key part of opposition strategy, while the junta works to stop troops from switching sides.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Junta helicopter attacks school in Myanmar’s Sagaing region

• The military also shelled a nearby village, injuring locals.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Kazakhstan is Interested in Joining BRICS: FM Umarov

• At the meeting of foreign ministers in the BRICS+ format, they discussed prospects for cooperation and joining the alliance.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong to review car plate searches after journalist wins final appeal against conviction over accessing info for doc.

• Hong Kong authorities will review the top court’s judgement that saw journalist Bao Choy’s conviction quashed to “improve” procedures related to accessing vehicle records, Chief Executive John Lee has said.

Environment

Axios ☛ Uninsurable America: Climate change hits the insurance industryDecisions by two major insurers to stop offering new homeowner’s policies in California highlight the growing portion of America that’s becoming close to uninsurable.Why it matters: The threat of climate change-related disasters is a large factor driving up consumer costs and putting insurers out of business in parts of California, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere.It is also bedeviling regulators. “I never thought I would see in my lifetime houses that are flat-out uninsurable,” says Robb Lanham, chief sales officer for insurance brokerage HUB Private Client, which works with about 500 insurers.Driving the news: The recent moves by State Farm and Allstate to stop offering new homeowner insurance policies in California have kicked off a national conversation on insuring risk in an increasingly perilous climate.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ A Summer Without Arctic Sea Ice Could Come a Decade Sooner Than Expected

• In a new study, scientists found that the climate milestone could come about a decade sooner than anticipated, even if planet-warming emissions are gradually reduced.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ D-Day’s Historic Beaches Face a New Onslaught: Rising Seas

• As climate change speeds coastal erosion in France, can memory be preserved if the famous landing sites of the Allied invasion disappear?

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Bridging Ecology, Statistics, and Data Science with R for Biodiversity and Climate Change Research

• Francisco Rodríguez Sánchez shared with the R Consortium how the R language has changed and improved his work as a computational ecologist, leading him to become a passionate advocate, professional,…

=> ↺ H2 View ☛ Shipping bodies team up to bridge digitalisation and decarbonisation gap [Ed: An exercise in greenwashing]

• The Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) has signed a Knowledge Partnership Agreement with the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) to help bridge the transparency gap between digitalisation and decarbonisation.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Global Action Needed to Reduce Plastic Pollution: Guterres

• “…the annual global production of plastic exceeds 400 million tons…”

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Mongolia: Dried Lake Restored After Several Decades

• “The Khodon River changing its course due to a heavy flood in 1971 negatively impacted the ecosystem of a group of lakes in Darkhad Valley…”

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ SEC Sues Coinbase, Accuses Crypto Platform of Breaking Market Rules

• The S.E.C. said the cryptocurrency platform allowed users to trade unregistered securities, a day after it accused the crypto platform Binance of mishandling funds.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Couchbase stock falls on wider loss and soft guidance

• Database company Couchbase Inc. beat expectations today thanks to solid revenue growth, but it offered light guidance for the coming quarter that sent its stock down after-hours. The company reported a wider loss for the first quarter of $21.8 million, compared with a loss of $19.8 million one year earlier.

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ SEC Sues Coinbase for Violating Securities Law, Exposing Customers to ‘Significant Risk’

• The crackdown on crypto continues just one day after the SEC sued competitor Binance.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Thai authority cuts electricity to 2 regions in southeastern Myanmar

• An armed ethnic Karen group threatened to close border crossings with Mae Sot in retaliation.

=> ↺ Erdoğan’s free gas pledge impacts inflation numbers, undermines wage negotiations

• TurkStat’s reported annual inflation rate of 39.6% in May will have implications for upcoming wage deal talks, a trade union asserts.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Natural gas reduced China’s urban pollution. Can it be a global climate solution?

• Greater uptake of natural gas has helped substantially reduce urban air pollution in Beijing. Ahead of COP28 discussions this year, the United States, China, and other countries should encourage responsible natural gas production as a solution for reducing global emissions and urban air pollution.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ SEC sues Coinbase alleging that it’s operating an unregistered exchange

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase Global Inc. today in the Southern District of New York, alleging that the cryptocurrency exchange has been operating as an unregistered securities exchange and broker. The SEC also charged Coinbase over its crypto asset staking rewards program, which it said the company failed to register with the regulator.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ No Immediate Risk to Zaporizhzhia Plant After Dam Damage: IAEA

• Earlier in the day, energy operator Energoatom said that the destruction of the dam may have negative consequences for the nuclear plant.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Gas prices for consumers in Lithuania to decrease

• On Tuesday, Lithuania’s National Energy Regulatory Council approved plans to cut natural gas prices for households by 4-5 cents per cubic metre for the second half of the year.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Drop in cogeneration energy production in Latvia in 2022

• The latest data compiled by the Central Statistical Bureau show that 2 015.8 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity were produced by combined heat and power (CHP) plants in 2022, which is 974.4 GWh or 33 % fewer than in 2021.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Government mulls state aid in case of energy crisis

• If energy prices were to rise rapidly during the heating season, the government is planning support for households whose total expenditure on housing, including energy, exceeds 30% of household income per person declared, the government agreed on June 6.

=> ↺ H2 View ☛ US unveils National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap

• The US on Monday (June 5) unveiled its long awaited National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, offering a framework in the hope to accelerate the production, processing, delivery, storage and use of the energy carrier.

=> ↺ Shirish Agarwal: Odisha Train Crash and Coverup, Demonetization 2.0 & NHFS-6 Survey

• Just a few days back we came to know about the horrific Train Crash that happened in Odisha (Orissa). There are some things that are known and somethings that can be inferred by observance. Sadly, it seems the incident is going to be covered up . Some of the facts that have not been contested in the public domain are that there were three lines. One loop line on which the Goods Train was standing and there was an up and a down line. So three lines were there. Apparently, the signalling system and the inter-locking system had issues as highlighted by an official about a month back. That letter, thankfully is in the public domain and I have downloaded it as well. It’s a letter that goes to 4 pages. The RW is incensed that the letter got leaked and is in public domain. They are blaming everyone and espousing conspiracy theories rather than taking the minister to task. Incidentally, the Minister has three ministries that he currently holds. Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEIT), and Railways Ministry. Each Ministry in itself is important and has revenues of more than 6 lakh crore rupees. How he is able to do justice to all the three ministries is beyond me…

Wildlife/Nature

Axios ☛ Mayor urges vulnerable New Yorkers to wear masks as smoke from Canada’s fires chokes cityAir quality across the northeastern U.S. and Canada has plummeted to unhealthy levels due to smoke from wildfires burning from Yukon to Nova Scotia, which caused a thick haze in New York and many other cities.Why it matters: Because of the smoke that drifted over Tuesday and other forms of air pollution, New York City, Detroit and Toronto had among the worst air quality of all cities around the world overnight.People hundreds of miles away from wildfires can still be negatively affected by hazardous microscopic particles they produce, which can trigger inflammation in the lungs when inhaled and can worsen medical conditions like asthma and heart disease.Threat level: Air quality advisories were affecting up to 100 million across the U.S. Tuesday, from the U.S. Northeast to the Midwest and Texas.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Why is it so smoky outside? Canada wildfires lead to air-quality alerts in northeastern US

• Canada is dealing with a series of intense wildfires that have spread from the western provinces to Quebec, with hundreds of forest fires burning. Wind has carried smoke from the fires southward, triggering air quality alerts throughout the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday issued a poor air quality alert for New England, a day after parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota received a similar advisory. Last week, U.S. officials as far south as Maryland, Baltimore, Virginia and Pennsylvania reported being impacted by the wildfires. Fine-particle pollution — known as “PM 2.5” — is what’s being measured. The tiny particles are small enough to get past airway defenses and cause breathing problems.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ In stronghold of Guinea-Bissau, endangered vultures soar again

• In rare good conservation news from the African continent, Guinea-Bissau’s hooded vulture population is slowly recovering.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuania moves to ban fur farming

• On Tuesday, the parliament voted approved a proposal to ban the breeding, rearing and killing of animals for their fur, with a transitional period and compensation for businesses. Seventy-nine MPs voted in favour, 11 against and 30 abstained.

Finance

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ What if We’re Thinking About Inflation All Wrong?

• Isabella Weber’s heterodox ideas about government price controls are transforming policy in the United States and across Europe.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ French pension protests enter day 14: Fatigue high, thousands remain

• French unions hope to reignite resistance to President Emmanuel Macron’s higher retirement age with what may be a final surge of nationwide protests and scattered strikes. Despite minor disruptions, turnout was much lower than in previous protests.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Get a job: After 100 years, states loosen child labor laws

• For the first time in history, both red and blue states are engaged in a nationwide discussion over relaxing rules around children’s work.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Students in Finland worry about escalating debt: “I’ve fallen off the property ladder”

• Young adults face financial distress over their student loans in the face of rising interest rates and living costs.

=> ↺ ADF ☛ As Chinese Loans Come Due, African Borrowers Face Economic ‘Midnight’

• After more than a decade of heavy borrowing from China, the bill is coming due for some African countries that find themselves teetering on the brink of economic collapse. China ranks as the largest single lender to African countries, holding more than $73 billion in debt across the continent.

=> ↺ Turkey’s currency woes exacerbate following recent elections

• For the first time, the Euro/TRY exchange rate surpassed 23.

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ Peso hits new 7-year high against the US dollar

• The Mexican peso hit its strongest level against the U.S. dollar in more than seven years on Tuesday, reaching 17.37 pesos to the greenback.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Expenses scandal broke Britain, will it also break Lithuania?

• British MPs were caught spending thousands on second homes, bath plugs, light bulbs, and even a “duck island”. At the time of the post-financial crash austerity, it resulted in a wave of anger, landing nine politicians in prison. Now, a scandal of a similar scale has reached Lithuania.

=> ↺ Zimbabwe ☛ Gold tokens have already surpassed gold coin sales, the interbank rate empowered to succeed and more monetary policy tweaks

• Day by day, the Zimbabwe government is admitting that the forex auction was a mistake. It is the main reason for the Zimdollar tanking. They won’t come out right and say that but their changing tune when it comes to monetary policy is revealing.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ UK Strikes Continue as Pay Disputes Escalate

• Households have felt the squeeze amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis. Widespread strikes broke out in summer 2022 and still continue.

=> ↺ After the Goldman Rush

• At Goldman Sachs, high-level departures are a normal course of business, and part of the reality of ascending Wall Street’s greasiest pole. But the firm is on its third round of layoffs since last September, and a number of recent exits have turned more heads than usual. Somehow, this feels different.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Hard Right Grinds House to a Halt, Rebuking McCarthy for the Debt Deal

• Members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus effectively shut down the House floor for several hours, calling the speaker’s fiscal compromise with President Biden a betrayal.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Mark Meadows Testified to Grand Jury in Trump Special Counsel Investigation

• Mr. Meadows, the final White House chief of staff under Donald Trump, is seen as a potentially key witness in the documents and Jan. 6 inquiries.

=> ↺ Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Dog Drained My Pool to Try to Destroy Surveillance Video

• Jack Smith reportedly wants to know whether Trump’s long-time maintenance guy drained the swimming pool in an attempt to destroy surveillance footage.

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ Does R.F.K., Jr., Need a Time-Out?

• He’s been a very naughty and disruptive scion.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ From Tel Aviv to Riyadh

• My recent journey through the Middle East was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in a region that has long been my second home.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Through Ties to Saudis, Golf Deal Promises Benefits to Trump

• The new alliance between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is the latest example of how the former president’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has yielded gains, and criticism, for both.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ PGA Tour and LIV Golf Agree to Deal to End Fight Over Sport

• In a stunning announcement, the tour, along with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, said the rivals had agreed to create a “new, collectively owned, for-profit entity.”

=> ↺ NYPost ☛ Senate Democrats rip PGA Tour-LIV Golf deal, call on regulators to examine merger

• Senate Democrats on Tuesday blasted the PGA Tour’s shocking decision to merge with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf league, calling on US regulators to probe the deal.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ The PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger is anything but a win for competition

• In a stunning about-face, the PGA Tour is merging with LIV Golf, ending both the flamewar between the two tours and an ongoing antitrust battle over the PGA’s market dominance.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Grand Jury in Florida Hints at Unknown Complexities in Trump Documents Inquiry

• Prosecutors have started calling witnesses to a federal grand jury in Miami after months in which activity in the investigation was centered on a separate grand jury in Washington.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Stopping culture wars in their tracks: How one city did it

• In Middletown, Ohio, the day-to-day work of building trust in the community set the stage for defusing the culture wars confronting the city’s public schools.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Mike Johnston Declares Victory in Denver’s Mayoral Election

• Mr. Johnston, a former Colorado state senator, benefited from far more outside spending than his opponent, who conceded on Tuesday night.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Iran Reopens Its Embassy In Saudi Arabia

• The two nations announced last March 10 an agreement to resume diplomatic relations.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Iranian Embassy Reopens In Saudi Capital

• Iran reopened its embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 6, Saudi media reported, months after the two regional rivals agreed to end a diplomatic rift under a China-mediated deal.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ US Secretary of State Blinken visits Saudi Arabia, meets Crown Prince Bin Salman

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Tuesday in Saudi Arabia and later met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid strained relations between Riyadh and Washington.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ The US has learned to work with governments that the president isn’t close to. Saudi Arabia is no different.

• Given their different historical experiences, relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States will always be a work in progress.

=> ↺ ADF ☛ Eritrea’s Iron-Fisted Leader Marks Three Decades in Power

• Few countries are controlled as tightly by one man as is Eritrea. Having recently marked 30 years of independence, Eritrea has never held a national election and has only ever known one head of state

=> ↺ ADF ☛ Chinese Training for Foreign Police Raises Human Rights Concerns

• In 2021, Kenya launched a program to send 400 police officers each year to China for training, despite concerns that China’s authoritarian approach to policing conflicts with Kenyan laws protecting free speech and human rights. In recent years, China has signed policing agreements with 40 African countries to train thousands of law enforcement…

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ UK MP charged with racially-aggravated speech regarding statements to Bahrain national

• The UK Metropolitan Police Service confirmed Monday that they charged a conservative member of the UK’s Parliament (MP), Bob Stewart, with two public order offenses. Stewart is charged with racially-aggravated speech in relation to statements he made at an incident outside of a Bahraini embassy event in 2022.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ What the new US visa policy for Bangladesh means

• The US visa restrictions alone will not guarantee a free and fair election or restore democracy in Bangladesh. However, the new policy sends a loud and clear message.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Bulgarian Parliament Approves Coalition Government After Five Elections In Two Years

• Bulgaria’s parliament on June 6 approved a coalition government led by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, giving the Balkan member of the EU and NATO a new government after five elections within two years.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ FBI issues warnings about explicit deepfake images

• Deepfake still photos and videos have plagued the online world for several years, but now the stakes are getting higher.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Why Macron is reading sci-fi thrillers to prepare for the wars of the future

• As parliament gears up for a vote Wednesday on plans to boost military spending, the French Armed Forces look set to continue hiring science fiction authors to imagine future threats to national security. So far, sci-fi novelists from the Red Team Defense project have written more than a dozen stories and published two books dealing with warfare based on mass disinformation, bioterrorism and a pirate nation – and even President Emmanuel Macron is reading them.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Big Tech rolls back misinformation measures ahead of 2024

• Ahead of the 2024 election cycle, the world’s largest tech companies are walking back policies meant to curb misinformation around COVID-19 and the 2020 election.

• Why it matters: Social media platforms are arguing that the risk of harm no longer outweighs the benefits of political dialogue, drawing concerns from lawmakers and consumer advocacy leaders.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ The epidemic of self-diagnosing

• Recently, I have been subject to a lot of conversations in which people announce that they have Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. This declaration, however, is almost always prefaced or followed by, “I haven’t been diagnosed, but I definitely have it.” In the past few years, millions of people have sought comfort in social media posts…

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Loosening Its Paywall and Access to 20-Minute Videos

• TikTok is loosening its paywall and access to 20-minute videos with its Series functionality, initially open only to select creators. Users can charge money for access to exclusive content. TikTok is expanding access to its Series feature, initially unveiled in March and available only to select creators.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Journal of Free Speech Law: “The New Gatekeepers?: Social Media and the ‘Search for Truth,’” by Prof. Ashutosh Bhagwat

• Just published as part of the symposium on Media and Society After Technological Disruption, edited by Profs. Justin “Gus” Hurwitz & Kyle Langvardt.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 2 arrested by Hong Kong national security police over alleged ‘seditious’ posts, forged signatures

• Six people have been arrested by Hong Kong national security police for allegedly conspiring to forge signatures, two of whom were also suspected of breaching the colonial-era sedition law over allegedly “seditious” online posts.

=> ↺ Neritam ☛ Example of Google censoring free speech

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Accounts of Hong Kong opposition party members terminated by HSBC and other banks, League of Social Democrats says

• Four members of the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats (LSD) party have seen their personal bank accounts terminated by Hong Kong’s HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and the Bank of China, the party has said. It came after the party said that HSBC closed three bank accounts they had used for receiving donations without specifying reasons.

=> ↺ AccessNow ☛ #KeepItOn: Community feedback on data collection and verification

• As the #KeepItOn campaign enters into its eighth year, Access Now is committed to revamping the Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project (STOP). In order to improve our collective advocacy and rapid

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Vietnam court sentences music teacher to 8 years in prison

• He was convicted of spreading propaganda after anti-corruption posts on social media.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Belarusian Prosecutors Seek 25 Years In Prison For Self-Exiled Activist

• Prosecutors have asked the Minsk City Court to sentence self-exiled opposition activist Vadzim Prakopyeu to 25 years in prison on multiple charges,/

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Jailed Kazakh Journalist’s Father Joins Son’s Hunger Strike

• Jailed Kazakh journalist Duman Mukhammedkarim’s father, Almaz Tilepov, has joined his son’s hunger strike to demand his immediate release.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Hong Kong court quashes conviction of journalist who probed Yuen Long attacks

• Bao Choy had used license plate records to investigate perpetrators

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Journalists walk out: Hundreds strike against major paper chain

• Hundreds of journalists across two dozen local papers owned by Gannett, the biggest newspaper chain in the U.S., went on strike on Monday. They demanded an end to painful cost-cutting measures and a change of leadership at their parent company.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ A Reporter Investigated Sexual Misconduct. Then the Attacks Began.

• After publishing an exposé, journalists in New Hampshire faced broken windows, vulgar graffiti and a legal brawl, with important First Amendment implications.

=> ↺ ADF ☛ China Exporting State-Controlled Media Model to Africa

• As a journalist in Kenya, a doctoral student at the Communication University of China and a professor in South Africa, Dr. Bob Wekesa has decades of intimate experience with China’s media and information landscape.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Hong Kong court quashes conviction of award-winning journalist

• The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal quashed the conviction of journalist Choi Yuk-ling on Monday regarding her investigation into the 2019 Yuen Long attack. The court unanimously quashed Choi’s conviction by adopting a more liberal approach, which took into account Choi’s journalistic background.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Uzbek Supreme Court Denies Appeals Of Karakalpak Journalists

• The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan has rejected appeals by Karakalpak journalists Dauletmurat Tajimuratov and Lolagul Kallykhanova against the lengthy prison terms they were handed over mass anti-government protests in the country’s Karakalpak Autonomous Republic last year.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Restaurant poster deemed misogynistic reignites debate about sexism in China

• Advertising laws in China ban gender discriminatory content, but enforcement remains challenging.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Iranian Students Say Authorities Ratcheting Up Pressure On Campus Over Dress Code

• Iranian student organizations have reported a significant wave of summonses at the University of Science and Technology in Tehran in a continued tightening of supervision of the dress code after months of unrest sparked by the death of a young woman for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ There Is One Group the Roberts Court Really Doesn’t Like

• It is difficult to overstate the court’s hostility to organized labor and the rights of American workers.

=> ↺ ACLU ☛ How Housing Segregation Shaped America’s ‘Gayborhoods’

• For much of the last century, the “American dream” has centered on homeownership by married, white families. Alongside explicitly racist policies like racial segregation enforced by redlining, banks and realtors routinely rejected applications for mortgage loans and housing from single or divorced adults of any race, prizing the married heterosexual white man as the most “deserving” debtor and homeowner. The further away from this ideal someone happened to live — by virtue of their race, gender, marital status, or sexuality — the less likely they were to find housing outside of the country’s growing and strictly segregated urban centers.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Atlanta’s “Cop City” approved after marathon city council meeting

• Atlanta’s controversial police and fire training center got the green light just before sunrise Tuesday as city council voted to approve $31 million in public funding for the project.

=> ↺ Off Guardian ☛ Moving Toward a Global Empire: Humanity Sentenced to a Unipolar Prison and a Digital Gulag

• David Skripac “COVID is critical because this is what convinces people to accept, to legitimize, total biometric surveillance.”

=> ↺ Mint Press News ☛ The Truth About Britain’s “Grooming Gangs,” with Ella Cockbain

• Dr. Ella Cockbain, associate professor at University College London, exposes the dangerous rhetoric behind British Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s false claims about Britain’s so-called “grooming gangs.”

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ North Macedonia police arrest 10 suspected members of international people smuggling ring

• The Police of North Macedonia announced Monday they arrested ten men who are suspected members of an international people smuggling ring. The arrests were the culmination of an investigation that lasted from July 2021 to May 2023. 

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Protesters in Poland decry government’s recent actions as anti-democratic

• Large crowds gathered in Warsaw, Poland on Sunday to protest against the nation’s government. The protest, led by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his party the Civic Coalition (KO), gathered to protest a recently proposed law, the cost of living, inflation and women’s rights—among other issues.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese officials met Elon Musk to discuss AI risks, Tesla chief says

• Top Chinese officials told Elon Musk about plans to launch new regulations on artificial intelligence on his recent trip to the Asian giant, the tech billionaire said Monday, in his first comments on the two-day visit.

=> ↺ Supreme Court upholds decision stopping UberXL’s activities

• Uber will continue its activities with its taxi hailing application in Turkey.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ California’s Newsom threatens Florida’s DeSantis with kidnapping charges over migrant flights

• California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) accused Florida officials on Monday of misleading migrants over their transportation from the Texas border to Sacramento.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Adidas Quickly Selling Remaining Yeezy Stock, Analyst Reports

• Adidas is now selling through its remaining Yeezy stock at a rapid pace. It seems the rapper’s controversial statements and acrimonious split with several institutions haven’t put a damper on public demand. Adidas recently launched a website selling through its remaining Yeezy stock it produced in 2022 for 2023.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ ULAM employee fired, alleges hostile work environment

• Erika Ventura, former animal husbandry technician at Michigan Medicine’s Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine, was terminated from her position on May 8. Ventura alleges the termination was a result of her discussing LGBTQ+ issues in the break room while at work.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ Mexico must expand radio spectrum to bridge digital divide, say experts

• High franchising costs are deterring investment in Mexico’s 5G network, and deepening the urban/rural technology gap, say experts.

=> ↺ Ruben Schade ☛ Spam about emotional intelligence

• I got an email this morning describing a new management course. It was a bit eye opening:

• Emotional Intelligence (EI) is now widely recognised as the fundamental quality of effective leadership and management.

• Delegates explore topics that fall under the two main areas: social awareness and social facility. Within these two areas a range of EI competencies are explored such as empathy, attention, rapport building, understanding others, influencing, acting and more.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Spotify Podcast Layoffs Will Affect Gimlet and Parcast Workers

• Spotify said it was cutting 2 percent of its work force and absorbing two popular podcast studios, Gimlet Media and Parcast, into Spotify Studios.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Podcasting Unions Slam Spotify for Parcast, Gimlet Mismanagement — ‘Whether Spotify Studios Has a Vision Remains to Be Seen’ [Ed: Spotify loses a billion dollars a year. Is this the beginning of the end?]

• Podcasting unions for Gimlet and Parcast slam Spotify mismanagement as the company lays off 200 employees: “Whether Spotify Studios has a vision remains to be seen.” Streaming giant Spotify announced Monday its plans to lay off around 200 employees, including workers at much-loved podcast studios Gimlet Media and Parcast.

Monopolies

Patents/EU

=> ↺ UPC’s PPI to come into force for Slovenia [Ed: UPC is illegal. This law firms spent years lobbying for a crime and spread lies to mislead politicians into becoming participants in the crime.]

=> ↺ All local UPC divisions offer English as a language option [Ed: This is still unconstitutional. They're still trying to sell an illegal system that will explode and harm the EU's reputation on law.]

=> ↺ JUVE ☛ President of the Austrian Patent Office moves to the EPO [Ed: Europe's most corrupt institution, EPO, receives puff piece from a Team UPC-bribed publisher in Germany that spent years promoting a crime (UPC)]

• The Austrian Patent Office is looking for a successor for long-time president Mariana Karepova (53), who is moving to the European Patent Office as of July 1. She has held the position in Vienna since 2015, during which time she sustainably reformed the authority.

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ Opening statement at the 4th debate on rule of law issues “Pravo na pravdu”, Sarajevo [Ed: They have the audacity speak speak of "rule of law issues" after what they did with Unified Patent Court, in effect violating laws, constitutions and conventions in order to appease lobbyists. EU/EC has severe corruption issues of its own.]

• European Commission Speech Brussels, 06 Jun 2023 Distinguished guests [...]

=> ↺ Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Nike’s Patent Saga Highlights Controversial PTAB Practices

• However, the case intrigue has recently heightened due to a somewhat chaotic saga involving the PTAB. Key figures involved include former PTAB Chief Judge Ruschke, current Chief Judge Boalick, and Judge Michael Fitzpatrick, who was recently justified as a wronged-whistleblower.

• The Supreme Court petition was submitted amidst revelations of secretive maneuvers within the Board. These questionable practices include an abrupt panel expansions and judge replacement without notifying involved parties. Specifically, in the Nike v. Adidas IPR, the Board panel was first expanded to include Chief Judge Ruschke and then Deputy Chief Judge Boalick after all parties had finished their arguments and opinion writing had begun.

=> ↺ Further Extension of Non-DOCX Filing Fee Date Highlights USPTO’s Lack of Compliance with Paperwork Reduction Act [Ed: Watchtroll is pushing USPTO to fine and financially penalise people who aren't Microsoft customers, using mindless greenwashing tactics; the Director of the USPTO used to work for Microsoft]

• Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark (USPTO) published a pair of documents in the Federal Register regarding due dates on new document formatting requirements for patent applications filed with the Office. The USPTO’s decision to delay the implementation of new filing fees for non-DOCX patent applications highlights issues that the agency has had in complying with the terms of the Paperwork Reduction Act by failing to properly represent to the Office of Management and Budget the burden that the USPTO’s proposed rule changes will have on agency stakeholders.

Software Patents

=> ↺ Unified Patents ☛ VDPP video codec patent challenged in reexam

• On June 5, 2023, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 9,699,444, owned and asserted by VDPP LLC, an NPE. The ’444 patent generally relates to processing image frames from a video stream and generating bridge frames for motion smoothing.

Trademarks

=> ↺ TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is EL BURRO BORRACHO Confusable WIth EL BURRO for Restaurant Services?

• El Burro, Inc. petitioned to cancel a registration for the mark EL BURRO BORRACHO, claiming priority and likelihood of confusion with its registered mark EL BURRO, both for restaurant services. Well, the marks are awfully close and the services identical, so this looks like a no-brainer, right? What do you think? El Burro, Inc. v. Knuckle Sandwich LLC, Cancellation No. 92075933 (May 26, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Frances S. Wolfson).

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court takes trademark case on using names and likenesses of public figures

• The US Supreme Court announced Monday it will take up the trademark case Vidal v. Elster, to determine whether the application of Section 2(c) of the Lanham Act to political figures violates the First Amendment. 

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