● 06.14.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 14/06/2023: LibreOffice 7.6 Beta 1 and Plans for Debian 13

Posted in News Roundup at 12:36 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ 327: The Great Restock: Raspberry Pi’s Silicon Shortage Solution!

=> ↺ Tux Digital ☛ 327: The Great Restock: Raspberry Pi’s Silicon Shortage Solution!

• This week’s episode of Destination Linux, we discuss the Raspberry Pi supply chain shortage and why this hurts open source. Then we discuss Firefox 114 and its new features. Plus, we have our tips/tricks and software picks. All this and more coming up right now on Destination Linux to keep those penguins marching!

=> ↺ Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo: Extending GNOME Is Hard

• Writing a GNOME extension, editing without nano, and what we learned from AskUbuntu.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Linux 6.3.8

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Linux 6.1.34

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Linux 5.15.117

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Linux 5.10.184

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Linux 5.4.247

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Linux 4.19.286

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Linux 4.14.318

Applications

=> ↺ Linux Links ☛ Flemozi – lightweight emoji picker

• Emoji originated from the smiley, which first evolved into emoticons, followed by emoji and stickers in recent years. Smiley first appeared in the 1960s and is regarded as the first expression symbols. Smiley is a yellow face with two dots for eyes and a wide grin which is printed on buttons, brooches, and t-shirts.

• An emoji is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The main function of emoji is to provide emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversation.

• Flemozi is billed as a simple, fast and lightweight emoji picker for desktop operating systems. It’s written in Dart and published under an open source license.

=> ↺ ISOImageWriter: The Ultimate Tool for Writing ISO Files to USB Disks

• Have you been running away from the default Linux USB writers while searching for one that is not CLI-based? Well, today is your lucky day because there is a new USB writer app in development and it has at least one more feature than Etcher.

• ISO Image Writer is a utility developed by Jonathan Riddell, primarily known for his involvement with the KDE community. It is a tool specifically designed for writing ISO images to USB drives or SD cards while making it bootable and automatically checking the ISO’s digital signatures (checksum) for authenticity.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ xplr is a Productivity-focused Terminal File Manager

• xplr is a terminal-based file explorer that aims to increase terminal productivity by providing a flexible, interactive interface for the command-line utilities that work with the file system.

• To achieve its goal, xplr aims to be fast, minimal, and, most importantly, hackable.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ Teedy: An Open-source free DMS (Document Management System) for Enterprise and individuals

• Teedy is an open source, lightweight document management system for individuals and businesses.

• Teedy’s current features include:

• • Responsive user interface

• • Built-in Optical character recognition (OCR)

• • LDAP authentication.

• • Support image, PDF, ODT, DOCX, PPTX files

• • Video file support

• • Flexible search engine with suggestions and highlighting

• • Full-text search in all supported

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ WEM Is an Open-source Web Resources Management and Manufacturing Execution System

• WEM (Web Execution Management) is a free, open-source software system for Web Resources Management and Manufacturing Execution. This system is designed to manage and execute the entire manufacturing process, from raw material acquisition to finished product delivery.

• WEM is developed using modern web technologies and is written in Python programming [...]

=> ↺ WoeUSB – Create Bootable Windows USB Sticks from Linux

• We have written on tools. e.g. ISO Image Writer, Fedora Media Writer, and Etcher, with which you can make flash drives bootable. But even they have issues making flash drives and memory cards bootable with Windows in my experience.

• The tool we introduce to you today is capable of achieving this feat without stress; it’s called WoeUSB.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ Install Debian 12 on VirtualBox

• Follow through this tutorial to learn how to install Debian 12 on VirtualBox.

=> ↺ University of Toronto ☛ The Certificate Authority’s view of Certificate Transparency and CT Logs

• The normal behavior of a CA is that when it wants to issue a TLS certificate, it will ask various CT logs to give it Signed Certificate Timestamps (SCTs) for the CA’s pre-certificate version of the TLS certificate. It will then take those SCTs and stick them in the issued TLS certificate as a certificate extension (also). The minimal thing that CAs can do is verify that the SCTs they receive are properly signed by the CT log and are otherwise well formed to the best of the CA’s ability to tell. A CA that wants to be more thorough can save information about new SCTs and watch the relevant CT logs to verify that the log does list the (pre-)certificate before too long, or request a proof of inclusion from the CT log operator.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Yandex Browser on Debian 12/11/10

• As the digital world consistently evolves, so does our need for advanced web browsers that offer a seamless user experience. Yandex Browser—originated from Russia’s leading technology company, Yandex—fits this requirement with exceptional capabilities.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ How to Upgrade Debian 11 to Debian 12 (Bookworm) via CLI

• Are you planning to upgrade to the latest release of Debian 12 (codenamed “Bookworm”), from Debian 11? But did you know that instead of downloading the Debian 12 ISO file and installing it, you can simply upgrade your existing Debian 11 to Debian 12 by following a few steps? Yes, you heard right.

• In this blog, we will discuss the simple procedure of upgrading Debian 11 to Debian 12.

=> ↺ LinuxTechi ☛ Top 10 Things to Do After Installing Debian 12 (Bookworm)

• In our previous post, we have already covered how to install Debian 12 step by step. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced user, there are some essential tasks you should consider after the installation.

=> ↺ Linux Handbook ☛ LHB Linux Digest #23.08: LVM, System Calls,VimDiff and More Linux Stuff

• Learn about logical volume management, special file permissions, Vimdiff among other stuff in this edition.

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ The Beginner’s Guide to Building Your First RPM Package

• If you’re starting your journey in the world of Linux and have chosen the Red Hat ecosystem, one of the fundamental skills you’ll need to master is the creation of RPM packages.

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ The Beginner’s Guide to Building Your First Debian Package

• Creating a Debian package for distribution can seem like a daunting task for beginners, but once you understand the process, it’s actually quite manageable. Let’s walk you through creating your first Debian package.

=> ↺ Peter Czanik: Syslog-ng 4.2: extra UDP performance

• No matter how awkward you feel when you hear about UDP syslog in the age of encrypted TCP connections, UDP syslog is here to stay in some special cases. The scalability issues of UDP log collection were first addressed in syslog-ng Open Source Edition (OSE) (the so-reuseport() parameter), and later a more advanced solution arrived to syslog-ng Premium Edition (PE) (the udp-balancer() source). The good news is that a new, open-source implementation is now available as part of syslog-ng 4.2.0.

=> ↺ Peter ‘CzP’ Czanik ☛ Syslog-ng 4.2: extra UDP performance

=> ↺ How to Upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8

• As you would have already known that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 maintenance support phase will come to an end in June 2024.

=> ↺ Can we install EPEL repo on Amazon Linux 2023?

• Amazon Linux 2023 is the latest upgraded version for Amazon Linux 2 users. However, users cannot directly upgrade from AWS Linux 2 to AL2023, which means they either have to opt for a clean installation or switch to some other Linux.

=> ↺ FOSSLinux ☛ The Linux Pro’s Guide to File Renaming in 2023

• Handling files efficiently is a critical part of Linux system administration, and renaming files is no exception. While the basic ‘mv’ command can handle most file renaming tasks, there are several other techniques that can make the process more flexible and powerful. In this guide, we will unveil six ingenious methods to rename files in Linux, as of 2023. Whether you’re dealing with a single file or a directory full of them, these methods will equip you to tackle file renaming tasks with ease and precision.

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

• This article spotlights alternative tools to cksum, a tool to compute and verify file checksums.

=> ↺ Make Tech Easier ☛ How to Check the Ubuntu Version Without the Command Line

• If you are troubleshooting your Ubuntu system and are looking online for an appropriate solution, you need to first know your Ubuntu version so as to find a specific fix.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Upgrade Apache on Debian 12/11/10

• Debian, one of the most robust and widely used Linux distributions, is applauded for its stability, which emanates from its conservative approach to software packaging. It often lags in including the latest software builds, choosing stability over cutting-edge features.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Chromium Browser on Debian 12/11/10

• Presenting Chromium, the open-source, high-performance web browser project from Google that forms the backbone of numerous web browsers today. Originated in 2008, Chromium was designed with a commitment to fostering an open web ecosystem and providing a robust platform that developers and users alike can rely on.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Apache Maven on Debian 12/11/10

• Delving into the realm of software project management, Apache Maven stands as a stalwart of consistency, reliability, and enhanced productivity. Born from the Apache Software Foundation, Maven’s primary purpose is to simplify the build process in project development, making it an essential tool for developers worldwide.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Microsoft Fonts on Pop!_OS

• The world of typography is vast and incredibly diverse, offering a multitude of ways to express ideas and create visual impact. One of the key players in this landscape is Microsoft, with their vast collection of high-quality fonts.

=> ↺ How to install PostgreSQL 15 Amazon linux 2023

• PostgreSQL is perfect for those who are looking for a powerful open-source relational database management system. It is widely used by administrators for storing and managing data.

=> ↺ Trend Oceans ☛ How to Fix Kali Linux Slow APT Update Speed

• Are you facing slow update speed on Kali Linux? If yes then read this guide to speed up the upgrade and update process. After the installation part is over, the first and foremost part is to update the system repositories to get the latest updates on available applications.

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ How to Install PHP 8 on Debian 12

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install PHP 8 on Debian 12.

Games

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ After eating up lots of game studios Embracer Group set to close a bunch

• Ah yes, game industry consolidation is great isn’t it. What could possibly go wrong when one company acquires a ton of others and then screws up?

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Nova Roma is a new city-builder from the Kingdoms and Castles developer

• Kingdoms and Castles is a great city-builder but it seems Lion Shield want to do something a bit different, so they’ve revealed Nova Roma. It was announced at the PC Gaming Show.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ SMITE now works on Linux and Steam Deck in the latest update

• Titan Forge Games and Hi-Rez Studios have updated their popular MOBA game SMITE, and with it an improvement to allow it to now work on Linux with Easy Anti-Cheat.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Portal Reloaded – The Cooperative Update is out now

• Ready for one more run through the testing chambers? The free and very popular mod Portal Reloaded just recently had The Cooperative Update release.

=> ↺ GamingOnLinux ☛ Moonstone Island set to release this Summer with a new trailer

• Moonstone Island from Studio Supersoft and Raw Fury looks sweet! It’s a creature-collecting life-sim set in an open world with 100+ islands to explore and now we have more details.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ FTC Moves to Block Microsoft’s $69 Billion Activision Blizzard Acquisition

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard.  The filing in a San Francisco federal court seeks a temporary restraining order and injunction on the proposed acquisition. Activision Blizzard makes hit games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and the recently released Diablo IV.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Microsoft bid to buy Activision Blizzard blocked by temporary restraining order

• A federal judge on Tuesday granted the FTC’s request for a temporary restraining order that prevents Microsoft from closing its acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard.

Distributions and Operating Systems

BSD

=> ↺ Klara ☛ Linux vs. FreeBSD: Linux and FreeBSD Firewalls – The Ultimate Guide, Part 1

• Firewalls act as network filters, allowing some packets to flow while blocking others. This decision is usually based factors such as the packet’s source and destination address, which side initiated the network connection, and network port numbers. The Linux and FreeBSD firewalls are stateful, which means that they can also remember details of past packets to track ongoing connections.

=> ↺ Brad Taunt ☛ Improving Laptop Battery Performance on OpenBSD

• Optimizating battery life via ampd will have the most noticable impact but you can improve things even further by implementing some extra “small” performance wins.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Linuxiac ☛ risiOS 38 Makes Fedora Even Much Easier

• Based on Fedora 38, targeting new Linux users, risiOS 38 comes with revamped Quick Setup tool, improved risiTweaks, and Linux kernel 6.3.

=> ↺ Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Community Blog: Fedora Linux 38 election results

• The Fedora Linux 38 election cycle has concluded. Here are the results for each election. Congratulations to the winning candidates, and thank you all candidates for running in this election!

Debian Family

=> ↺ [Repeat] 9to5Linux ☛ Tails 5.14 Brings Automatic LUKS2 Migration, Captive Portal Detection

• Tails 5.14 is now here with automatic migration to LUKS2 and Argon2id for users of Tails 5.12 or previous versions. Even if LUKS2 offers stronger encryption, the devs recommend users to also change the passphrase of their Persistent Storage and other LUKS-encrypted volumes.

=> ↺ Tor ☛ New Release: Tails 5.14

• The cryptographic parameters of LUKS from Tails 5.12 or earlier are weak against a state-sponsored attacker with physical access to your device.

• To use stronger encryption parameters, Tails 5.14 automatically converts your Persistent Storage to use LUKS2 encryption with Argon2id.

=> ↺ Linux Magazine ☛ Debian 12 Has Finally Been Released

• Debian marches to a beat that so many other Linux distributions follow. Over the decades since it was first released in 1996, Debian has developed a reputation for being one of the most stable operating systems on the market. Part of the reason for that is the development team takes their time between releases.

• Unlike Ubuntu which releases every 6 months, a new version of Debian happens yearly (sort of). So you can bet plenty of effort has gone into each release to make it rock solid.

=> ↺ OMG! Linux ☛ Debian 13 Gets Codename, Plans Official Support for RISC-V

• With Debian 12 released and well-received attention turns to its successor, Debian 13 — and we already know a few tantalising details about it.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi ☛ How we’re learning to explain AI terms for young people and educators

• As part of our learning programme Experience AI, we created explanations of 32 key AI terms for ages 11–14. Here’s how we did this work.

=> ↺ Olimex ☛ AgonLight2-Proto simple prototyping board for AgonLight2 retro Z80 computer

• AgonLight2-Proto is small board with dimensions 100x80mm. It allows you to fast prototype hardware concepts and ideas for AgonLight2 computer. These are the board features: [...]

=> ↺ Arduino ☛ Meet the next top three Project Hub entries — anything is possible!

• This is the third time that we’ve selected three outstanding projects in the Arduino Project of the Month competition, highlighting the wide range of our users’ contributions to our growing Project Hub. For April we go from tanks to tunes – because why not? Anything is possible with just a few components, a lot of curiosity, and an amazing community like ours.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Arduino-Powered Missile System Uses Ultrasound To Aim

• In the real world, missile systems use advanced radars, infrared sensors, and other hardware to track and prosecute their targets. [Raspduino Uno] on YouTube has instead used ultrasound for targeting for an altogether simpler desktop fire control solution.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Arduino on Debian 12/11/10

• The Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) represents a fundamental tool for makers, hobbyists, and professional developers venturing into the world of hardware prototyping and electronics.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ BIOS POST Card Built Using Raspberry Pi Pico

• A computer’s BIOS includes basic diagnostic tools for troubleshooting issues. Often, we rely on the familiar beeps from the POST system for this reason. However, error codes are also available via hardware “POST Cards” that were particularly popular in the 1990s. [Mr. Green] has now built a POST card using readily-available modern hardware.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Cheap USB Sniffer Has Wireshark Interface

• If you’ve done any development on USB hardware, you’ve probably wished you could peek at the bits and bytes as they pass through the data lines. Sometimes, it’s the only way to properly understand what’s going on. [ataradov]’s USB sniffer is built to do just that. 

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ Gmail’s ChatGPT-like writing assistant is rolling out on Android

=> ↺ Android Authority ☛ Wallpaper Wednesday: Android wallpapers 2023-06-14 – Android Authority

=> ↺ Geeky Gadgets ☛ The Ultimate Guide to Deleting Cache on Android – Geeky Gadgets

=> ↺ Phone Arena ☛ Android Auto can finally do this and it was about time – PhoneArena

=> ↺ Computer World ☛ Android’s hidden Smart Display superpower | Computerworld

=> ↺ SamMobile ☛ Browsing Android apps for your Galaxy device ecosystem just got a lot easier – SamMobile

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ David Rosenthal ☛ A Local Large Language Model

• I decided to try open source LLMs for myself, since as they run locally the privacy risk is mitigated. Below the fold I tell the story so far; I will update it as I make progress.

=> ↺ Ubuntu ☛ Ubuntu Blog: Canonical solutions reduce SmartNIC time-to-market and drive efficiency in enterprise data centres

• Data centre efficiency is a central cost factor in enterprise IT environments. So, in the face of rising energy costs and increasingly resource-intensive workloads, it is more important than ever for businesses to seek out greater optimisation. Traditionally, CPUs have been used for the majority of data centre workloads, including network related tasks. However, it is possible to unlock significant improvements in efficiency, performance and capabilities by offloading some of these workloads to dedicated hardware. 

Events

=> ↺ Learn about LibreOffice development at our upcoming conference!

• The LibreOffice Conference 2023 is coming up in September in Romania – and everyone is welcome to join! The organisers have created a poster with details about a workshop at the event: We invite you to a technical workshop that will teach you about LibreOffice development and Open Source in general.

=> ↺ Bits from Debian: Registration and the Call for Proposals for DebConf23 are now open!

• For DebConf23, we’re pleased to announce opening of registration and call for proposal. Following is the info text -

• Registration and the Call for Proposals for DebConf23 are now open. The 24th edition of the Debian annual conference will be held from September 10th to September 17th, 2023, in Infopark, Kochi, India. The main conference will be preceded by DebCamp, which will take place from September 3rd to September 9th, 2023.

=> ↺ Ubuntu ☛ Canonical extends its commercial OpenStack offering to small-scale cloud environments with project Sunbeam

• June 13, Vancouver, OpenInfra Summit – Canonical today announced the extension of its commercial OpenStack offering to small-scale cloud environments with a new project Sunbeam. The project is 100% open source and is available free-of-charge. Early adopters can also opt-in for comprehensive security coverage and full commercial support under the Ubuntu Pro + Support subscriptions once they complete the deployment themselves. This enables organisations to modernise their small-scale, legacy IT estates and easily transition from proprietary solutions to OpenStack, without an expensive professional services engagement.

• “Historically, commercial OpenStack deployments always used to come through paid consulting engagements and no vendor was an exception here”, said Tytus Kurek, Product Manager at Canonical. “In line with our mission to amplify open source, we are committed to delivering a production-grade platform to the community that everyone could just deploy themselves. Sunbeam emerged to remove numerous barriers around the initial adoption of OpenStack and is just the first step towards an autonomous private cloud.”

=> ↺ OpenSouthCode 2023: my experience

• As many of you are already noticing, Málaga is becoming an important hub is Spain for innovation in general and software in particular. Open Source has its place and events like OpenSouthCode are getting traction carried out by this trend. In addition, the organisers of this event have a clear view of what the event should look like. Having FOSDEM as reference, OpenSouthCode is moving from being a local event of reference into a national event. This process will take a few years to consolidate but this first step in 2023 has been remarkable.

• This year OpenSouthCode has been bigger and better. A few sponsors supported the event and added to that support their presence through booths where they could interact with participants in a very relaxed atmosphere.

• KDE had a relevant participation too. KDE Spain took the decision to organise Akademy-es,, the event in Spanish for KDE developers and users so, in addition to a booth, a full track with KDE related topics was organised as part of OpenSouthCode.

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ LibreOffice 7.6 Beta1 is available for testing

• LibreOffice 7.6 will be released as final in mid August, 2023 ( Check the Release Plan ) being LibreOffice 7.6 Beta1 the second pre-release since the development of version 7.6 started in mid December, 2022. Since the previous release, LibreOffice 7.6 Alpha1, 641 commits have been submitted to the code repository and 189 issues got fixed. Check the release notes to find the new features included in this version of LibreOffice.

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Creative Commons ☛ An Open Wave: New Calls for Open Access

• This open access wave began in August 2022 with the release of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Public Access Memo, commonly referred to as the “Nelson Memo,” after Dr. Alondra Nelson, the Director of the OSTP at the time. The memo calls for each of the US Federal Agencies to make “articles resulting from all U.S. federally funded research freely available and publicly accessible by default in agency-designated repositories, without any embargo or delay after publication.” The memo also directs agencies to describe: “the circumstances or prerequisites needed to make the publications freely and publicly available by default, including any use and re-use rights, and which restrictions, including attribution, may apply.” Creative Commons and our partners SPARC, Harvard and American University have been working with the US agencies to help them ensure rights are retained and publicly funded research is openly licensed.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Simplifying Model Formulas with the R Function ‘reformulate()’

• As a programmer, you may come across various scenarios where you need to create complex model formulas in R. However, constructing these formulas can often be challenging and time-consuming. This is where the ‘reformulate()’ function comes to the rescue! In this blog post, we will explore the purpose and usage of the reformulate() function in R, and provide you with simple examples to help you grasp its power.

=> ↺ Friedrich Vock: RADV Ray Tracing: Now ON by default

• Yes, you heard that right.

• Ray Tracing Pipelines.

• On RADV.

• Enabled by default.

• Now merged in Mesa main.

• This has been in the works for a loooooooooong time. Probably the longest of any RADV features so far.

• But what makes ray tracing pipelines so complex that it takes this long to implement? Let’s take a short look at what it took for RADV to get its implementation off the ground.

=> ↺ Gentoo ☛ Weekly report 2, LLVM libc

• Hi! This week I’ve continued my work on getting Python to run. It has mostly involved defining a lot of missing functions and types for Python.

• These are mostly taken from musl libc, but some things are also just implemented using a no op.

• In LLVM libc there are currenly some headers without all the needed declarations available. That will make “HAVE_*_H” configuration tests pass, but then fail later. For some of these cases I simply did ‘#undef’ and hoped the functionality wasn’t needed.

• My current plan is to just get Python to build, and then go back to fix things properly, within reason.

Git

=> ↺ Creating Dynamic Commit Message Templates in Git

• Git is a powerful tool used by developers all over the world to manage code in their projects. It provides an efficient way of tracking changes, collaborating with others, and maintaining the integrity of the codebase. However, one aspect that is often overlooked when using Git is the importance of commit messages.

=> ↺ Infusing External Information in Git Commit Messages

• In software development, Git is a popular version control system that allows developers to track changes made to code and collaborate with other team members. One of the key features of Git is the ability to add commit messages for each change made to the codebase.

=> ↺ Prevent Specific Commits from Being Pushed: A Guide for Git Users

• Git is a free and open-source distributed version control system that tracks changes made to source code. It was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 for the development of the Linux kernel, but it has since become one of the most widely used version control systems [...]

=> ↺ Git Aliases: Configuration and Usage

• Git is a version control system that has revolutionized the way software developers work. It was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 to manage the development of the Linux kernel.

=> ↺ Leveraging Git Scripts: Configuration and Usage

• Git is a widely used version control system that allows developers to collaborate and manage their code effectively. One of the most powerful features of Git is its ability to automate tasks using scripts. Git scripts can be used to streamline repetitive tasks, create custom functionality, and automate complex workflows.

=> ↺ Mastering Commit Templates: Setting Up and Using in Git

• In today’s digital age, software development has become an integral part of every industry. From small businesses to large corporations, the demand for high-quality software is constantly increasing. The efficient management of code is crucial to the success of any software project.

=> ↺ Maintaining Your Git Repository: An Introduction

• Git is an open-source version control system that is used by developers all over the world to manage changes made to their code.

=> ↺ Pruning Remote Branches: A Git Maintenance Guide

• As software development grows more complex, so do the tools we use to manage it. Git is a distributed version control system that has become the industry standard for tracking changes in source code and collaborating with other developers.

=> ↺ Manual Garbage Collection in Git: When and How

• Git is a distributed version control system that allows developers to collaborate on code and track changes to their projects over time. One of the core functions of Git is its garbage collection process, which manages the repository’s disk space by removing unreferenced objects and compressing loose objects.

=> ↺ Disabling Automatic Garbage Collection in Git

• Git is a powerful version control system that enables developers to manage their codebase and collaborate with others effectively. One of the key features of Git is its automatic garbage collection mechanism.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Gannett ☛ MSU buys majority stake in Fisher Building in Detroit

• Michigan State University has bought a majority stake in the Fisher Building in Detroit and will illuminate the iconic Art Deco building in green light each night this week to celebrate.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ Supporting the Arts

• Try and solve our hardest puzzle yet! SUNDAY PUZZLE –  Hello my crossword folks! Welcome to my second themeless puzzle for the daily! Ever since I published my first one, I’ve been especially fond of themeless puzzles, as I’m a huge fan of the flexibility you get with the fill.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ I got the words from ‘Cherry Waves’ by Deftones, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, and the Black Rocks of Marquette

• here at the cliff-side along the edge, etched are your handprints where i broke your nails with my steel-toed boots then kicked you into an ocean of cherry-red water, i had no choice… i’m sorry. here trying to find you again, i can’t jump in- i can’t swim because- i’m so fucking afraid- i’ll drown.

=> ↺ Press Gazette ☛ Regional top 50: Reach newsbrands dominate ranking despite overall audience drop

• Press Gazette ranks the UK’s biggest regional and local newsbrands by audience size.

Science

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ There’s a Weird Deformation in Earth’s Crust, And We May Finally Know Why

• Something strange is happening under East Africa.

=> ↺ Quanta Magazine ☛ Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media

• But machine-generated text, of course, is not created by humans. The recent rise of generative models that focus on language, or others that produce images or sounds, suggests that perfectly secure steganography might be possible in the real world. Those models, after all, use well-defined sampling mechanisms as part of generating text that, in many cases, seems convincingly human.

• Sokota and Schroeder de Witt had previously been working not on steganography, but on machine learning. They’d been pursuing new ways to transmit information through various channels, and at one point they learned of a relatively new concept in information theory called a minimum entropy coupling.

Hardware

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ A Super-Cheap Turntable Build For Photographic Purposes

• When it comes to photographing products or small items, sometimes it’s useful to get vision from all angles. Shooting a video of an item on a turntable is an ideal way to do this. [ROBO HUB] built a super-cheap turntable for just this purpose.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ This Rode And Schwarz Computer Is A Commodore PET

• The IEE-488 or GPIB bus for controlling instruments by computer has existed now for many decades. It’s often implemented over USB or Ethernet here in 2023, but the familiar connector can still be found on the backs of pricey instruments. In the earlier days of GPIB when a powerhouse Linux laptop was decades away, what computer did the would-be GPIB user reach for? If they were a Rode and Schwarz customer in the late 1970s the chances are it would have been the R&S PUC process controller, an 8-bit microcomputer that under its smart exterior turns out to be an enhanced Commodore PET. [NatureAndTech] has one for teardown, and you can see it in the video below the break.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Take A Ride In The Bathysphere

• [Tom Scott] has traveled the world to see interesting things.  So when he’s impressed by a DIY project, we sit up and listen. In this case, he’s visiting the Bathysphere, a project created by a couple of passionate hobbyists in Italy. The project is housed at Explorandia, which based on google translate, sounds like a pretty epic hackerspace.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ The cost of food in Europe is out of control

• Whether in Spain, Hungary, or Italy, food prices keep rising in Europe even as inflation relents. Food inflation reached a historic peak in March, up 19.2% over the previous year, and fell to 12.5% in May. Governments across the continent are trying to come up with solutions: Spain waived its 5% tax on food products, France reached a three-month pricing agreement with supermarkets, and Croatia mandated price controls.

=> ↺ Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan sounds alarm about mosquitoes after Jamestown Canyon virus detected

• Illnesses can develop within two weeks after a bite, and while most people don’t get sick, severe cases can cause infection of the brain (encephalitis) or the membranes around the brain and spinal cord (meningitis).

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Survey finds almost half of Russian medical workers know colleagues who have forged voluntary professional certifications — Meduza

• A new survey found that nearly half (43 percent) of medical workers in Russia say they know colleagues who have used forged documents to certify that they’ve obtained voluntary additional qualifications, according to the newspaper Kommersant.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ GP shortage facing Australia after ‘decades of neglect’

• Australia’s peak medical body says the nation’s general practitioners have been undervalued by successive governments, with the country now paying the price for “decades of neglect”.

• The Australian Medical Association is calling for an overhaul in how investment in health care is framed, releasing a report linking health outcomes for Australians to economic growth and productivity.

=> ↺ Pro Publica ☛ New Penalties for Covering Up Patient Abuse in Illinois

• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law on Friday that strengthens the range of penalties that a state watchdog can mete out for health care employees who conspire to hide abuse or interfere with investigations by the state police or internal oversight bodies.

• The legislation was introduced following an investigative series by Capitol News Illinois, Lee Enterprises Midwest and ProPublica into rampant abuses and cover-ups at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center, a state-run institution in southern Illinois that houses people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental illnesses. The new law applies to employees at state-run institutions and at privately operated community agencies for people with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses that operate under the oversight of the Illinois Department of Human Services and its Office of the Inspector General.

=> ↺ Steve Kirsch uses threats of doxxing and a libel suit to silence Dr. Canuck

• After Monday’s post, in which I described how tech bro turned antivaxxer Steve Kirsch had gone from “just” anti-COVID-19 vaccine to what I called “irredeemably bonkers antivax,” I didn’t think I’d be writing about him again for a good long while, particularly given that he had blocked me on Twitter last week, thus making my Twitter feed much better because I don’t see him tagging me anymore and therefore don’t see his more bonkers antics. Unfortunately, something this good couldn’t last. No, Kirsch didn’t unblock me. However, I became aware of his descent much further down the antivax rabbit hole from Tweets describing how he was both doxxing and threatening to sue a pseudonymous family practice doctor who had criticized him, thus demonstrating that becoming a litigious bully seeking to use legal thuggery to intimidate critics to science is a (likely) inevitable feature, not a bug, in devolving into a crank as cranky as Steve Kirsch has become. These Tweets led me to a post on Kirsch’s Substack entitled Who is “Dr. Jonathan E. Canuck” really?

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Doctors call for overhaul of nation’s ‘sickcare’ system

• Australia is spending billions on a “sickcare” system that is failing to prevent chronic disease, as elective surgery wait lists blow a $4.6 billion hole in the economy every year. 

• The Australian Medical Association is calling for an overhaul in framing investment in health care. 

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ The Supreme Court Has Done Us Dirty on the Clean Water Act

• On May 25, the Supreme Court released a major ruling that significantly curtails the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate the nation’s wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The opinion was handed down while I was waiting for a train, so a very nice lady standing next to me had the misfortune of hearing my first-take rant as I was reading through Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion. When I finally stopped talking long enough to shove a chicken nugget into my face hole, she said, “The only war we’re capable of winning is the one against the environment.”1

=> ↺ Helsinki Times ☛ Long Covid can impact quality of life more than some cancers: Study

• Fatigue is the symptom that most affects the daily lives of long Covid patients, and it can affect the quality of life more than some cancers, according to a new study. The study was led by researchers at UCL and the University of Exeter.

• The research, published in BMJ Open and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), examines the impact of long Covid on the lives of over 3,750 patients who were referred to a long Covid clinic and used a digital app as part of their NHS treatment for the condition.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ “Minnesota Appeals Court Decides 4 Cases on Religious Exemptions from Vaccine Mandates”

• A post by Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause), which he kindly allowed me to pass along: Yesterday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals decided four separate appeals from decisions of Unemployment Law Judges who denied unemployment benefits because an applicant refused on religious grounds to comply with an employer’s Covid vaccine mandate. Goede v. Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP, (MN…

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Online Learning During COVID-19 Linked With Lower Test Scores

• A new study has found that the more schools kept kids online, the worse their pass rates on state standardized tests were.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Patrick Breyer ☛ Artificial intelligence: We are no longer free under constant surveillance!

• On the day before the crucial vote on the European Parliament‘s negotiating mandate on artificial intelligence, Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer levelled serious accusations against EU governments, the EU Commission and conservative MEPs who want to allow automated facial recognition in public spaces. At the same time, Breyer justified the cross-party motion to add automated behavioural surveillance to the list of prohibited technologies.

• His speech in full: [...]

=> ↺ CBC ☛ Reddit is facing a major protest from its own moderators

• The blackout was also the cause of a general Reddit outage this morning, during which all content on the site was inaccessible — a Reddit spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that “a significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues.”

=> ↺ The Verge ☛ Reddit crashed because of the growing subreddit blackout

• More than 7,000 subreddits have gone private or read-only in response to the API pricing terms, which is forcing the developers of apps like Apollo for Reddit to shut down at the end of the month. (If the tracking links in my previous paragraph don’t work, try this one.) The new pricing will potentially be prohibitively expensive for developers, with Apollo for Reddit creator Christian Selig saying that he would have to pay more than $20 million per year to operate the app. Redditors are also unhappy with how the API changes could force some accessibility apps to shut down, though Reddit says that accessibility-focused apps will be granted an exception to the API pricing changes. (On Friday, RedReader and Dystopia announced they received exceptions.)

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Reddit Blackout Crashes The Site As Reddit Users Realize They’re In The Power Position

• On Monday we wrote about the changes that Reddit was making to their API pricing, causing some services to shut down, and leading thousands of subreddits to choose to blackout (some temporarily, some indefinitely). Apparently, all those sites going private resulted in… Reddit itself falling over.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ What Reddit Got Wrong

• Reddit has an admirable record when it comes to defending an open and free internet. While not always perfect, the success of the site is owed to its model of empowering moderators and users to engage with the site in a way that makes sense for them. This freedom for communities to experiment with and extend the platform let it continue to thrive while similar sites, like Fark and Digg, lost major chunks of their user base after making controversial and restrictive design choices to raise profitability.

• Reddit maintained openness in two notable ways through its history. It supported community-led moderation from volunteer workers, and it embraced developers looking for automated access to the site, through open protocols (e.g. RSS) and a free API.

• Content moderation doesn’t work at scale. Any scheme which attempts it is bound to fail. For sites which need continuous user growth, that is a problem. So what can they do?  Well, we know what doesn’t work: 

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Twitter Decides To Stop Paying Google, Despite Relying On It For Multiple Tools

• Last week, when Elon Musk hosted conspiracy theory nonsense peddler RFK Jr. on a Twitter Spaces, he admitted that, despite firing somewhere around 85% of Twitter staff at the point he took the company over and just no longer paying rent or many other bills, he’s still struggling to get the company to break even. This is kind of incredible, given that pre-Musk, Twitter was profitable in 16 of the previous 20 quarters. Obviously, the fact that advertisers have abandoned the platform (mostly because of Elon Musk himself) hasn’t helped.

Windows TCO

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ Ransomware gang Alphv ‘unlikely to be fussed’ about law firm’s injunction order

• An Australian law firm’s bid to try and use a court injunction to prevent publication of material stolen during a ransomware raid is unlikely to have any effect on the attackers behind the intrusion, a security professional says.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Trustwave report finds attacks targeting Microsoft’s MS SQL are skyrocketing

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ June Patch Tuesday: VMware vuln under attack by Chinese spies, Microsoft kinda meh

• An attacker can use this vulnerability to gain admin privileges without any user interaction, according to Microsoft. Once they’ve “gained access to spoofed JWT authentication tokens, they can use them to execute a network attack which bypasses authentication and allows them to gain access to the privileges of an authenticated user,” according to the security update.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Ransomware Attack Played Major Role in Shutdown of Illinois Hospital

• The attack occurred in late February 2021 and forced the shutdown of the Spring Valley hospital’s computer network, impacting all web-based operations, including its patient portal. The Peru branch was not affected, as it operated on a separate system.

• The incident, the hospital said on social media, impacted its ability to bill patients and get paid in a timely manner for the provided services. The systems were down for more than three months.

=> ↺ Krebs On Security ☛ Microsoft Patch Tuesday, June 2023 Edition

• Microsoft Corp. today released software updates to fix dozens of security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other software. This month’s relatively light patch load has another added bonus for system administrators everywhere: It appears to be the first Patch Tuesday since March 2022 that isn’t marred by the active exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft’s products.

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ No zero-days for Microsoft to fix on Patch Tuesday

• “Unlike past Microsoft Exchange Server flaws that were rated higher and did not require authentication, these vulnerabilities require an attacker to be authenticated.

• “That said, attackers can still potentially exploit these flaws if they’re able to obtain valid credentials, which is not as difficult as you’d expect.”

• Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at security firm Rapid7, noted that the volume of patches was typical compared with recent months: 94 in total.

• “For the first time in a while, Microsoft isn’t offering patches for any zero-day vulnerabilities, but we do get fixes for four critical Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities: one in .NET/Visual Studio, and three in Windows Pragmatic General Multicast,” he added.

Security

=> ↺ SANS ☛ Geoserver Attack Details: More Cryptominers against Unconfigured WebApps, (Mon, Jun 12th)

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ CosmicEnergy ICS Malware Poses No Immediate Threat, but Should Not Be Ignored

• The Russia-linked ICS malware named CosmicEnergy does not pose a direct threat to OT systems as it contains errors and lacks maturity.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ WhichUK ☛ Job scams: fraudsters are posing as employers and recruiters on Indeed and LinkedIn [Ed: Microsoft LinkedIn facilitating frauds]

• We investigate how scammers are infiltrating popular job sites

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Denmark to raise age at which tech companies can collect minors’ data

• Denmark’s Ministry of Business announced Monday that the government is poised to raise the minimum age at which technology corporations can lawfully obtain minors’ personal data. The government seeks to safeguard children’s privacy and mitigate the risk of unauthorized disclosure of their personal information, aligning with the prevailing international trend.

• The Danish government recently passed legislation that prohibits the collection and processing of personal data belonging to children below the age of 13, unless explicit consent is obtained from the individual with parental authority. However, in the European Union, comparable regulations pertain to children under the age of 16. The government’s proposed initiative seeks to align local laws with EU regulations.

=> ↺ India Times ☛ Denmark looks to curb children’s data collection by Big Tech

• Denmark aims to raise the age limit for the collection of personal data from children by tech giants such as Google, Snapchat and Meta, in a bid to curb the massive accumulation of data on young people, the government said on Monday.

• It wants to raise to between 15 and 16 years the age at which children can consent to share personal data with tech companies, from 13 now. The companies will also require parental consent to use data from children younger than that.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ US senators and spies spar over Section 702 warrantless surveillance

• Analysis US Senators have told intelligence agency officials that they are unlikely to renew authorization to use Section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without setting stricter limits on how and when government snoops can wield its powers.

• A key point of contention between the lawmakers and intelligence agencies is that the surveillance powers conferred by the Act – which are supposed to be used against foreign targets who pose a threat to the United States – are also used to allow warrantless snooping on US citizens’ communications.

=> ↺ Patrick Breyer ☛ Leak: Data retention and encryption: EU Government’s “Going Dark” program to attack citizen’s rights with PR

• A German diplomatic correspondence that was leaked by netzpolitik.org on Friday and other documents reveal the insistence by EU member state governments in blanket mass surveillance in the form of data retention and ideas to make secure encryption illegal. The fundamental rights jurisdiction of the highest EU Court is seen as a problem, while Governments are wishing for a new narrative that would change the way we look at privacy and surveillance.

• The documents talk about the Swedish Presidency’s “Going Dark” program that aims to extend law enforcement capabilities with a focus on over-the-top (OTT) media services, End-to-end encryption (E2EE), the Electronic Evidence Regulation, the ePrivacy Regulation, the Media Freedom Act, the retention of citizen’s communications meta data and access to Whois data. According to the German diplomatic correspondence member state governments share a “a largely homogeneous opinion” about that program.

=> ↺ NYOB ☛ Spotify gets fine of € 5 Million for GDPR violations. Streaming Service did not properly answer requests for access to data.

• Following a noyb complaint and litigation over inactivity, the Swedish Data Protection Authoirty (IMY) has issued a fine of 58 Mln Swedish Crown (about € 5 Million) against Spotify. While users have a right to get access to all their data and information on the use of their data, Spotify did not fully comply with this obligation. The IMY was in charge of the case because Spotify has its main establishment in Sweden. The noyb complaint was joined with a complaint filed in the Netherlands by Bits of Freedom.

=> ↺ India Times ☛ Spotify fined $5 million for breaching EU data rules

• Music streaming giant Spotify was on Tuesday fined 58 million kronor ($5.4 million) for not properly informing users on how data it collected on them was being used, Swedish authorities said.

• The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection’s (IMY) said it had reviewed “how Spotify handles customers’ right of access to their personal data.”

=> ↺ Guardian ☛ Spotify fined $5 mn for breaching EU data rules

• Privacy activist group Noyb said in a separate statement that the fine followed a complaint and subsequent litigation from the group, and while they welcomed the decision they lamented the tardiness of the authorities.

• “The case took more than four years and we had to litigate the IMY to get a decision. The Swedish authority definitely has to speed up its procedures,” Stefano Rossetti, a privacy lawyer at Noyb, was quoted saying in the statement.

=> ↺ Scoop News Group ☛ Congress and intelligence officials spar over surveillance reforms

• Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee remain unconvinced that existing reforms are sufficient to address abuse of surveillance authorities.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ The FTC Forces Ring to Take User Privacy Seriously

• This action stems from a collection of privacy violations that occurred between 2017 and 2020. Ring customers brought a class action lawsuit in December 2019 after dozens of people had their Ring devices accessed by malicious actors using brute force and credential stuffing attacks, “despite warnings from employees, outside security researchers and media reports” to implement standard security measures to protect customer information. The FTC alleged that in 2017, one Ring employee had, “over several months viewed thousands of video recordings belonging to female users of Ring cameras that surveilled intimate spaces in their homes such as their bathrooms or bedrooms.” The FTC also claimed that “Ring failed to take any steps until January 2018 to adequately notify customers or obtain their consent for extensive human review of customers’ private video recordings for various purposes, including training algorithms.”

• EFF has long maintained that Ring–with its centralized control and storage of millions of cameras across the United States–is one massive privacy headache, especially since millions of private cameras store footage remotely and can be used as a tool of mass surveillance. Now, the FTC has put some much-needed restrictions and oversight on the surveillance company. Under the settlement, “Ring will be required to delete data products such as data, models, and algorithms derived from videos it unlawfully reviewed. It also will be required to implement a privacy and security program with novel safeguards on human review of videos as well as other stringent security controls, such as multi-factor authentication for both employee and customer accounts.” 

• Despite this settlement, there are still many other things the company needs to to show it is taking user privacy seriously, like ending police ability to get access to footage without a warrant or user consent, turning on end-to-end encryption by default, and ending audio collection by default. 

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Researchers found that Strava’s heatmap feature could lead stalkers to users’ homes

• itness tracking app Strava’s heatmap feature has raised safety concerns over potentially leading threat actors to users’ home addresses.

=> ↺ ACLU ☛ Donated Blood or an Organ? Police Shouldn’t Have Easy Access to Your DNA

• In 2015, following a DUI arrest, Ian Mitcham consented to having a blood sample collected to test for blood-alcohol concentration. He was advised his sample would be destroyed after 90 days. Instead, law enforcement held onto it for three years. Then, without obtaining a warrant, a detective used this old blood sample for a completely different purpose — to extract and analyze Mr. Mitcham’s DNA while investigating another crime.

• As we’re arguing before the Arizona Court of Appeals tomorrow, and set forth in a friend-of-the-court brief, this clearly violated Mr. Mitcham’s constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment. Despite this, the State makes a terrifying argument to justify its actions: that it has the power to obtain DNA profiles from any biological sample in its lawful possession, without court oversight or approval.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ South Africa ruling party expels former secretary general over misconduct and corruption charges

• South Africa’s ruling political party, the African National Congress (ANC), expelled its former Secretary General Ace Magashule on Monday due to allegations of monetary misconduct, abuse of power and violations of fundamental values held by the group.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Myanmar policeman killed in Naypyidaw grenade attack

• An unknown group attacked a police station amid tight security.

=> ↺ Revealed footage shows how military officer ran over child in Hakkari

• The 5-year-old child was killed at the scene. The specialist sergeant has not been arrested.

=> ↺ PKK umbrella group announces end of ‘ceasefire’

• The KCK had declared a cessation of hostilities after the February earthquakes and extended it due to the elections in May.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Palestinians Warn Against Israeli Proposal to Divide Al-Aqsa Compound

• A draft bill proposed by one of the legislators of the ruling Likud party calls for the al-Aqsa mosque compound to be divided into two parts, with illegal settlers having exclusive access to the majority of the compound.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ US Tells Another Bedtime Story To Scare Away Normal Relations With China and Cuba

• Addressing allegations of “Chinese spy base” in Cuba.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Man Arrested After 3 Killed in Nottingham, UK Police Say

• The authorities said they had arrested a 31-year-old man but did not give a motive for the attacks in central England. Two of the dead were university students.

• A man was arrested early Tuesday on the suspicion of murder after three people, including two students, were found dead in the city of Nottingham, in central England. The arrest followed a series of attacks Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain called a “shocking incident.”

=> ↺ RFA ☛ More than 5,000 people flee villages in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region

• The exodus follows the capture of locals used as human shields by junta troops.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Armed group attacks Vietnamese police stations, 39 people arrested

• Reasons behind attack in Central Highlands unclear but people in region have felt oppressed, cheated.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Fore! reasons why the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States won’t block the PGA Tour/LIV Golf merger

• The rule of law will likely prevent CFIUS from blocking a transaction that worries some lawmakers but does not rise to the level of a clear national security risk. 

=> ↺ ADF ☛ Wagner Group Accused of Trying to Traffic Weapons Through Mali

• As its battlefield losses mount in Ukraine, Russia is looking to Mali as a way to obtain weapons and circumvent international sanctions. Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has lost more than 2,000 tanks — about two-thirds of its inventory — and 1,800 infantry fighting vehicles.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Record 110 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, UN says

• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, other conflicts like those in Syria and Sudan, and climate-fueled crises have pushed the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence, human rights abuses and other events to a record 110 million, the UN refugee agency said in a new report Tuesday.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Russia resumed shipments of oil to North Korea in December, UN data shows

• Experts say the oil may have been in exchange for weapons that Russia could use in the Ukraine war.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ “Peace for All Time”: JFK’s Historic 1963 Call for Peace Helped Lead to Nuke Treaty with Moscow

• President John F. Kennedy’s “peace speech” at American University 60 years ago was a searing critique of Cold War politics and laid out a hopeful vision for a world built on cooperation and empathy, even among rival countries. Kennedy called for “not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time.” We feature an extended excerpt of Kennedy’s remarks and speak with The Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel about how the speech remains relevant today. The Biden administration “could certainly take a page” from Kennedy’s policies, she says, urging the U.S. to avoid needless escalation during this time of renewed hostility between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Authoritarian investment in southeastern Europe is a security threat. Here’s what NATO can do.

• Stronger investment screening in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia will help strengthen NATO against economic weapons that are increasingly central to today’s conflicts.

=> ↺ Defence Web ☛ ISS: South Africa does have the means to reduce violence

• In May, police minister Beki Cele praised the South African Police Service’ (SAPS) ‘more boots on the ground’ approach to fighting crime. His speech left many commentators perplexed, as a review of the latest official crime statistics for January to March 2023 showed that murder is still on the rise.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand says new Nato partnership to cover climate change, security

• New Zealand has been a Nato partner since 2012, but is not a member.

War in Ukraine

=> ↺ Mint Press News ☛ Vienna Summit: Anti-War Activists From 32 Countries Call For Diplomacy to End Ukraine War

• Over 300 activists from 32 countries gathered in Vienna, Austria to demand an end to the war in Ukraine and issue a powerful declaration of peace.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Immigration without integration: Belarusian and Russian arrivals in Lithuania may end up in ghettos

• Just in recent years, Lithuania has received over 100,000 migrants from its closest neighbourhood – Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia – that are forming vibrant new communities. Now, Lithuania needs a plan how to prevent them from closing off into cultural ghettoes.

=> ↺ AntiWar ☛ Best-Selling US Author Cancels Her Own Book in Response to Anti-Russian PR Campaign

• Elizabeth Gilbert, the best-selling American author, announced last week that she would soon be publishing a novel set in Russia. In light of a Russo-phobic public relations campaign unleashed against her, the Eat, Pray, Love author has since rescinded those plans.

=> ↺ AntiWar ☛ De-Escalation Can Start with Ending All Nuclear Weapons ‘Sharing’

• Ukraine, the United States, and NATO have condemned what they correctly called Russian President Putin’s “dangerous and irresponsible” plan to soon deploy nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Ukrainian doctors continue work in Rēzekne, Latvia

• Eleven Ukrainians are currently employed at the Rēzekne Hospital in eastern Latvia. Of those, nine are doctors in a variety of specialties. They study the Latvian language and health system every day, Latgale regional television reported June 13.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ UN Nuclear Chief Says Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant Faces ‘Dangerous Situation’

• The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine faces “a relatively dangerous situation” from both the Kakhovka dam breach last week and the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on June 13.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ ‘A large part of the Ukrainian counteroffensive hasn’t been put into action yet’

• With Ukraine now in the early stages of a long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia, Philippe Gros, a senior research fellow at French security and defence think tank Foundation for Strategic Research, talks to FRANCE 24 about Kyiv’s likely military strategies.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Russia launches deadly air strike on Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, local governor says

• Russian air strikes hit several buildings in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih early Tuesday, leaving at least eleven dead and dozens wounded, local authorities said, as drone and missile attacks were reported in Kyiv and other cities. Follow our live blog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ At least 10 killed by missile attack on Kryvyi Rih Russia targets Zelensky’s hometown just a day after Putin called strikes on residential areas ‘pointless’ — Meduza

• At least 10 people have died as a result of a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Kryvyi Rih, according to Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul.

=> ↺ Defence Web ☛ No evidence of sanctions against South Africa, gov says in wake of Lady R

• Presidential spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, has batted away suggestions that South Africa may be hit with international sanctions due to its non-aligned stance regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict and allegations the Russian vessel Lady R picked up South African arms in December. Magwenya was addressing the media at the Union Buildings on Monday.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Ukraine Wants Tighter Controls On Supply Of Missile Components To Russia

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on June 13 after a deadly Russian missile attack on his hometown that foreign countries, including Ukraine’s partners, should take measures against companies that help Russia circumvent sanctions and supply it with missile components.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Regions Targeted Again By Deadly Russian Missile Strikes

• Russian missile strikes killed at least six people overnight in the southern port city of Odesa and in the eastern region of Donetsk, the Ukrainian military and regional officials said early on June 14.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Allies Pressure Biden to Hasten NATO Membership for Ukraine

• Some members of the military alliance want to set a timetable for Ukraine to join, though only after the war is no longer raging.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Russia Denounces Agreement With Ukraine on Kerch Strait

• Putin is also studying the possibility of withdrawing Russia from the Black Sea grain deal as Western countries are not fulfilling their responsibilities.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Evgeny Prigozhin claims Russian Defense Ministry has tried twice to ‘destroy’ Wagner Group — Meduza

• Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin said in an audio recording published Tuesday that the Russian Defense Ministry has twice tried to “destroy” his paramilitary cartel. The clip was posted by Prigozhin’s press service.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Putin confirms signing decrees to pardon convicts who fought in Ukraine — Meduza

• President of Russia Vladimir Putin confirmed that he signs decrees to pardon convicts that agree to fight in Ukraine.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Putin expects private military companies to become government contractors. Prigozhin says Wagner Group won’t do it. — Meduza

• President Vladimir Putin says it’s time to legalize Russia’s private military companies, in accordance with “common sense, existing practices, and the law.” The president expects Russia’s PMCs to become government contractors “as soon as possible.”

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Three people killed and 13 injured in overnight Russian missile strike on Odesa — Meduza

• At least three people have been killed and 13 more injured in a missile strike on Odesa, carried out by the Russian military the night before June 14. Ukrainska Pravda reported on the casualties in the Ukrainian port city, citing military sources.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Central Asians Incarcerated In Russia Forced To Support War Output, Letters Say

• Men from Central Asia are being forced to support Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine in a penal colony in the Russian city of Samara by doing things such as producing military equipment for the country’s armed forces, two letters obtained by RFE/RL from inmates at the colony show.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ U.S. Earmarks Another $325 Million In New Military Aid To Ukraine

• The U.S. Defense Department has announced an additional $325 million in security assistance “to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs.”

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Russian Air Strikes Claim Lives In Zelenskiy’s Hometown

• A Russian missile struck a five-story apartment building in the early hours of June 13 in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryviy Rih, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens. Kryviy Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said Russian missiles hit civilian and infrastructure targets. Those who survived lost everything in the rubble and fire. The local administration of the city in the Dnipropetrovsk region has declared a day of mourning for the victims.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ U.N. Monitor Aims to Cross Front Line to Inspect Ukrainian Nuclear Plant

• The destruction of a hydroelectric dam last week unleashed a flood and threatened the water supply needed to cool the battle-scarred Zaporizhzhia plant.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Russian Forces Strike Back Against Ukraine’s Counteroffensive

• Russia attacked Ukrainian troops near villages in Ukraine’s south on the same day that Russian missiles killed at least 11 people and that President Vladimir V. Putin acknowledged some Russian losses.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Latvia approves another €430 thousand aid for Kakhovka

• In order to mitigate the consequences of the bombing of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in Ukraine, the government agreed on Tuesday, June 13, to grant additional humanitarian aid to Ukraine of around €430 thousand.

=> ↺ AntiWar ☛ Is Ukraine Ready To Negotiate?

• The war in Ukraine began with Ukraine ready to negotiate a peace agreement with Russia while the US was not. Could the war end the same way? Initially, the Russian invasion brought Ukraine to the table very fast, and the short war might have ended.

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Aid convoy heads from Rīga to Kakhovka disaster victims

• On Tuesday, another humanitarian convoy, organized by the Confederation of Ukrainian Associations in Latvia “Viche”, traveled from Rīga to Ukraine, this time, with assistance for victims of the Kakhovka disaster, Latvian Radio reported.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ 🔴 Live: Belarus takes delivery of Russian nuclear weapons, says Lukashenko

• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, at least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday according to local authorities. Follow our live blog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Lukashenka Claims Russian Tactical Nukes May Arrive In Belarus Within ‘Days’

• Belarusian authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka says Russian tactical nuclear weapons will arrive in his country within “days,” earlier than previously thought for a move that has ratcheted up already strained tensions between the Kremlin and the West.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Every Block Is Another Battle: Ukraine’s Latest Eastern Stand

• Outnumbered, outgunned, out-tanked, Ukraine is putting up a scrappy defense of Marinka, another city near Bakhmut that is a few blocks from falling.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ C.I.A. Told Ukraine Last Summer It Should Not Attack Nord Stream Pipelines

• Dutch intelligence officials shared information with the C.I.A. in June 2022 that they had learned the Ukrainian military had been planning an operation using divers to blow up one of the pipelines.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Biden Will Meet NATO Chief Today to Discuss Ukraine and Succession

• Jens Stoltenberg and Biden met at the White House to prepare for next month’s summit in Lithuania.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ New Zealand’s Public Broadcaster Investigates Pro-Russia Changes to Some Articles

• A web editor for RNZ has been put on leave and the station has apologized for changes to articles by Reuters and the BBC that had been published on its website.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ An altered contact line by Vremivka reveals Kyiv’s further plans With the collapse of Russian positions along the ‘Vremivka wedge,’ the Ukrainian army is still short of a breakthrough — Meduza

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Putin signs law requiring conscripts to give up passports during service period — Meduza

• Vladimir Putin has signed a bill into law that will require military conscripts to give their international passports (which are necessary for foreign travel) to the authorities for storage during their service period.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Putin signs law weakening punishments for police officers who commit crimes — Meduza

• President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a law that weakens penalties for police officers who commit crimes

Environment

=> ↺ [Repeat] RFA ☛ Shrinking harvest of caterpillar fungus puts squeeze on Tibetan herders

• “Production is already on the decline every passing year,” a Tibetan living in Kardze’s Dege county told Radio Free Asia. “Before, collectors would easily gather at least 100 pieces of caterpillar fungus, but now the most they can collect is 40 in a day. Some even say they can collect only 10 a day.”

• Research published in 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal said the decline of caterpillar fungus in the Himalayan region was due to climate change and overharvesting.

=> ↺ [Repeat] The Atlantic ☛ A Clear Indication That Climate Change Is Burning Up California

• We know that climate change supercharges these fires thanks to the drier environments it creates, but by how much is tricky to say. Fire science is a complicated thing: A blaze might arise from a lightning strike, a hot car on tall summer grass, snapped power lines. But a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences delivers a fuller sense of the relationship between human-caused warming and California’s wildfires. It finds that climate change is responsible for almost all of the increase in scorched acreage during the state’s summer fires over the past 50 years. And its authors predict that the increase in burned area will only continue in the decades to come. The arrival of this study is a timely reminder just days after East Coasters endured a toxic haze that originated in Canada: Wildfire is an international problem, and it’s likely to get worse as time goes on.

• Using data from 1971 to 2021, the team behind the paper built a model to understand the relationship between wildfire and climate. The researchers then repeatedly simulated worlds with and without climate change. This allowed them to isolate the impact of human-caused climate change versus normal, naturally occuring hot years, and to look at how various factors played a role. They found that human-caused warming was responsible for nearly all of the additional area burned.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Biden’s climate policy makes the left sweat 2024

• Joe Biden’s critics in the climate movement fret he could face enthusiasm problems with climate voters and young people for backing fossil fuel projects.

• Why it matters: Lots of people who care about climate change want Joe Biden to boost renewables and curtail fossil fuel production, an approach many climate experts want.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Three Die In House Fire In Siberia

• Russia’s Investigative Committee said on June 13 that a fire in a private house killed three people in the village of Poros in the Novosibirsk region of Siberia overnight.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Nordic Nah: independent report opens new fault lines in carbon capture and storage’s star projects

• Doubts have been raised about the long-term viability of two of the world’s most-celebrated and most-studied offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, raising new concerns over hefty government subsidies for the controversial method of removing carbon from the atmosphere. Zacharias Szumer reports.

• Supporters of CCS, and even some of its critics, cite the projects in Norway, Sleipner and Snøhvit, as evidence of best practice. But a new report by the independent Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) finds “the security and stability of the two fields have proven difficult to predict”, noting that carbon injected under the sea at supposedly safe levels is rising toward the surface faster than expected. 

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Tanker Collision Causes Gasoline Leak On Major Siberian River

• Up to 90 tons of gasoline have leaked into Siberia’s Lena River, one of the area’s major waterways, after two tankers collided, Irkutsk regional Governor Igor Kobzev said late on June 12.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Two oil tankers (one with drunken captain) collide on Lena, spill 60–90 tons of high-octane gas into Siberia’s great river — Meduza

• Two oil tankers collided on Monday, June 12, while going down Lena, one of Russia’s great Siberian rivers. According to the first assessments, 60–90 tons of high-octane AI-92 gasoline have spilled into the river as a result, as admitted by Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Oil Spill in Russia’s Irkutsk Region Prompts Emergency

• The authorities are assessing the volume of oil products that got into the river and working to prevent water intake from the river by downstream settlements.

=> ↺ Oregon State University ☛ OSU research shows how hackers can target smart meters to destabilize electricity grid

• Like circuit breakers in a household panel, power grid components can “trip” and shut off when demand, or load, is too high or problematic for some other reason. The result is load being passed on to other parts of the grid network, which may also shut down, creating the possibility of a domino effect that can lead to a blackout.

• In this study, conducted with OSU College of Engineering associate professor Jinsub Kim, researchers used a model known as a time-domain grid protection simulator to demonstrate how causing load to vary back and forth in a regular pattern – known as a load oscillation attack – can compromise transmission.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Big battery opens at retired coal-fired power site

• A switch has been flicked on Australia’s largest privately funded utility-scale battery at the site of a retired coal power plant in Victoria’s east.

• The Hazelwood battery storage system was opened by Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio in a ceremony at the former Latrobe Valley power station site on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Gas code promises secure supply at ‘reasonable’ prices

• A mandatory gas code has been finalised to make Australian gas available for Australian users at “reasonable” prices.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the code announced on Wednesday would also give producers the certainty they need to invest in supply and ensure export commitments are met.

=> ↺ Pro Publica ☛ How Regulators Failed to Act to Prevent Underride Crashes

• It was a little after 7 p.m. and Ricardo Marcos was rolling through the darkness in his gray Hyundai Elantra.

• Marcos had spent a long day toiling as mechanic at a trucking company in McAllen, Texas, a sunbaked city nestled right on the U.S.-Mexico border.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Binance Spars With U.S. Regulators Over Asset Freeze

• A judge urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to reach a compromise with Binance that would allow the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange to continue operating in the United States.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Lahti mulls Finland’s first aerial tramway

• A Finnish start-up company has formed a partnership with the City of Lahti to test its transport technology.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Gizmodo ☛ Glow-Worms Can’t Find Their Spark Under Harsh Light Pollution

• A team of researchers recently collected glow-worms from southeastern England and brought them into a lab setting to test artificial light’s effect on the worms’ navigation. Their results were published today in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

• “The ability of male glow-worms to find female glow-worms is severely affected by artificial white light,” said Jeremy Niven, a zoologist at the University of Sussex and a co-author of the research, in an email to Gizmodo.

Finance

=> ↺ Axios ☛ New report shows inflation cooling, but some prices remain high

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Reserve Bank underpaid almost 1200 staff

• Nearly 1200 Reserve Bank staff have been underpaid by the major economic institution.

• A total of $1.15 million was owed to current and former staff due to a mistake in the way payments were calculated for leave entitlements, the RBA has confirmed.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Consumer confidence plunges to another three-year low

• Consumer confidence has sunk to another post-pandemic low following the 12th interest rate rise in 13 months.

• Morale has been low for several months in response to cost of living pressures and interest rate hikes and has now fallen to its lowest level since the COVID-19 lockdowns sent confidence levels plummeting in April 2020.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Health spending boost as SA budget slides into the red

• The South Australian government has rolled out more budget spending on health despite a significant deterioration in the state’s finances during the past six months.

• Thursday’s financial blueprint will reveal a plunge into the red of $249 million for 2022/23 after the government predicted a $203m surplus in the December mid-year budget review.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ One of #MeToo’s Biggest Wins Is About to Be Tested in Court

• After working in finance for several years, Patricia Olivieri was “excited,” she said, to join financial firm Stifel Nicolaus at their New Jersey offices in 2018. Her goal was to “work my way up and advance my career there,” she said.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ How Freddie Mac Helps Private Equity Profit From Tenant Misery

• Mr. Julius Bennett, 86, stately in a long coat and fedora, walked dutifully into a courtroom on the third floor of the Bronx County Housing Court. He and a knot of stubborn neighbors had repeated this ritual several times in a snail-like series of hearings, attempting to use the court to compel their landlord to make repairs. Their case file was thick with notices of housing code violations and affidavits attesting to everything from roach and rodent infestations to buckling floors, busted plumbing, and lead paint in their apartments. Now tenants in two buildings—which house scores of families a few blocks north of Yankee Stadium—were on a rent strike, refusing to pay another dollar until conditions improved.1The reporting for this story was supported by a grant from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Green bonds to fund car-charging network, clean energy

• Australian governments are tapping into investor hunger for AAA-rated green bonds to fund a fast-charging network for electric cars, wind farms, and greener schools and hospitals.

• Western Australia’s first green bond issuance has attracted more than $6 billion in bids from more than 60 investors, Treasurer Rita Saffioti announced on Wednesday.

=> ↺ WhichUK ☛ Nine in 10 shoppers are worried about the price of food

• Consumers think supermarket convenience stores are a rip-off, Which? finds

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ The Most Belligerent Flack on Capitol Hill

• Nick Dyer, the deputy chief of staff to Marjorie Taylor Greene, has built a career as a political aide out of what one observer calls “pure, non-strategic contempt.”

=> ↺ Press Gazette ☛ Is the BBC left-wing? Not according to 80% of the British public

• Why the endlessly repeated “left-wing BBC” narrative fits neither the facts nor most people’s perception.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ MPs accused of harming women over Higgins discourse

• Sexual assault survivors are being harmed by the sustained political brawl over Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation, the head of a peak medical body warns. 

• But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has defended his party’s pursuit of the government over the possible use of the former Liberal staffer’s allegation for political gain. 

=> ↺ Press Gazette ☛ MPs’ expenses scandal editor William Lewis knighted by Boris Johnson

• Lewis has been recognised for “political and public office”.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Bulgaria’s Judicial Council Votes to Dismiss Geshev As Chief Prosecutor, Await President’s Signature

• Bulgaria’s Supreme Judicial Council on June 12 voted to dismiss controversial chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev, who previously refused to resign on national television and attacked his rivals in parliament as “political trash.”

=> ↺ Press Gazette ☛ DMGT acquisition of Telegraph could give it 50% daily newspaper market share

• In the event DMGT wins an auction for The Telegraph, the acquisition would likely face scrutiny from regulators.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Myanmar’s junta met jailed NLD chief Suu Kyi twice to discuss peace

• The entreaties were rebuffed and analysts say it is unlikely that she will accept.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ US government, activists demand release of jailed 19-year-old Uyghur student

• She was detained for posting a video about November’s ‘white paper’ protests.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Homes Of Former Russian Lawmakers Allegedly Linked To Ex-Deputy Ponomaryov Searched

• Law enforcement officers in Russia have searched the homes of several former lawmakers and a politician who allegedly have ties with former parliamentary deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, the fourth wave of raids on homes of individuals linked to him since September.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Algerian President Tebboune Travels to Russia

• Presidents Putin and Tebboune are expected to discuss the situation in the Middle East and the Sahel region.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Accenture plans to invest $3B into AI

• As global interest in artificial intelligence continues to soar in popularity, more corporations are jumping on board, including the global technology consulting firm Accenture PLC, which announced today that it plans to invest $3 billion into the technology over the next three years.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ What Twitter’s new CEO was really saying in her memo to staff

• Yaccarino was quick to adopt Musk’s “Twitter 2.0” parlance, but in her initial staff note failed to explain how the platform will evolve to be anything more than an extension of its billionaire owner’s ego.

=> ↺ Shadowproof ☛ The Espionage Act Is Not The Answer To Donald Trump

• The following independent journalism was made possible by paid subscribers. Take advantage of this discount offer and subscribe to Shadowproof’s Dissenter Newsletter today.While the United States Justice Department has increasingly wielded the Espionage Act to make an example out of government employees or contractors, federal prosecutors have been reluctant to charge current and former high-ranking officials. That makes the thirty-one Espionage Act charges against former President Donald Trump stunning.On June 8, 2023, Trump was accused by prosecutors of “unauthorized possession” of documents “relating to the national defense.” He was additionally accused of “willfully” retaining those documents and failing to turn them over to an officer or employee “entitled to receive them.”The alleged offenses fall under 793(e) of the Espionage Act, which has featured in a number of leak prosecutions against whistleblowers and media sources. Of course, Trump is neither. He kept the documents in boxes at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.Back on August 10, 2022, days after the FBI raided Trump’s estate, I published an analysis of prior cases where the Justice Department had investigated lower-level government employees or contractors for unauthorized possession of information. In big bold letters, I shared it under the headline, “Justice Department Unlikely To Charge Trump With Violating The Espionage Act.”I was fairly certain, given the example of General David Petraeus, that Trump’s legal team would be able to negotiate with the Justice Department behind closed doors to ensure that he was not charged with violating the Espionage Act. But I was wrong, and now I realize that would have required Trump to concede that he had done something wrong by possessing the classified documents.

• Numerous Republicans have lashed out at the Justice Department for indicting Trump, who has a commanding lead in polls for the party’s 2024 presidential primary. Republicans contend that the Justice Department has been “weaponized” against Trump.Such a response would be easy to flat-out dismiss if it weren’t for the fact that the Justice Department has been, in one way or another, investigating Trump since 2016.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Arraigned in Miami, Trump Is in Real Trouble

• They say you never forget your first Donald Trump arraignment.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Former US President Donald Trump campaigns on despite facing charges

• Former President Donald Trump gave a wave and a thumbs-up to crowds outside the federal courthouse in downtown Miami after pleading not guilty to criminal charges. He then headed to a Cuban restaurant where he warmly greeted waiting supporters in a camera-ready scene that resembled a campaign stop, and later he railed against the charges before a friendly crowd of invited guests at a private golf club he owns.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ As Egypt Faces Crisis, President el-Sisi Tries Talks With Opposition

• The rare — and tightly constrained — outreach is a sign that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi may be feeling the pressure of rising discontent and a sinking economy.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ Trump Indictment: Scholar of Fascism Says GOP Has Become an “Autocratic Party” Led by a “Cult Leader”

• Donald Trump is set to surrender today at the federal courthouse in Miami to face charges for retaining and mishandling classified documents, including top-secret information about U.S. nuclear weapons programs. Trump’s supporters, including many prominent members of the Republican Party, have threatened violence and suggested revolt in response to what they see as a politically motivated targeting of the former president, while Trump himself has claimed to reporters that he is innocent of wrongdoing. His capture of the Republican base is the work of a “cult leader,” argues Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on fascism and authoritarianism, adding that today’s GOP is an “autocratic party operating inside a democracy.” Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, also discusses the death this week of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who she says helped to mainstream far-right extremism in Italian politics.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Patrick Lawrence: The Rape of Lady Justice

• This is an open-and-shut case of the judiciary being misused to keep Trump out of the political process. Unlike during the Russiagate years, liberal authoritarians know they are operating in broad daylight this time.

=> ↺ Pro Publica ☛ SCOTUS Ruling in Alabama Case Could Impact Control of House

• Election maps across the Deep South are likely to be redrawn because of a surprise Supreme Court ruling that upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, changes that could alter the balance of power that has given Republicans a razor-thin majority in Congress.

• The court’s 5-4 decision in Allen v. Milligan, written for the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts, affirmed the section of the act that prohibits maps drawn to dilute minority voting strength. It was an unexpected victory for a law passed in 1965, which has been gradually dismantled under the Roberts court.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Lindsey Graham Is No Reasonable Republican

• In Washington’s high church of respectable opinion-making, Lindsey Graham’s regular turn in the guest chair of various Sunday network pundit shows was something of a sacrament: a regular, comforting ritual that assured the viewing public that God was in his heaven and difference-trimming caviling remained the natural order of things here on Earth. Throughout the Bush and Obama administrations, the establishment press eagerly hyped Graham as that great rara avis of the D.C. governing menagerie, a reasonable Republican. He owed this reputation chiefly to two things: his opposition to torture (yes, that’s how low the bar of intra-GOP dissent was set in the W. years), and his fealty to Washington’s official mascot of all things “maverick,” the late Arizona Senator John McCain. His adulation for McCain was likely a key determining factor in his erstwhile support for immigration reform and his occasional feints toward the notional center in judicial appointments.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Mickey

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Berlusconi Seizes Italy’s Attention Even in Death

• A day after Silvio Berlusconi’s death, some Italians said goodbye, others said good riddance, and many debated whether the billionaire and former prime minister did more good or bad for Italy.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ What Is Eclampsia? What to Know About the Rare Pregnancy Complication

• The autopsy report for the track star Tori Bowie lists this rare and sometimes fatal complication of pregnancy.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ U.K. Woman Sentenced to Prison for Abortion in Eighth Month of Pregnancy

• The case has prompted heated debate in England, with some arguing that abortion pills should not be available by mail and others maintaining that abortion should be fully decriminalized.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Silver sleuth: How a German curator returns stolen Jewish heirlooms

• A museum curator has made it his mission to return silver objects stolen by the Nazis from German Jews during the Holocaust. Matthias Wagner has already returned 50 pieces to descendants and hopes to double this amount.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ France Uncovers Major Disinformation Campaign By Russia

• France says it has uncovered a major disinformation campaign waged by Russia, involving the posting of false news items hostile to Ukraine made to look like they had been published by prominent French news organizations.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ France says uncovers major disinformation campaign waged by Russia

• France on Tuesday said it had uncovered a major Russian disinformation campaign, with false news items hostile to Ukraine made to look like they were published by prominent French news media.

=> ↺ India Times ☛ Jack Dorsey’s comment on Indian government pressuring Twitter an outright lie: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ ‘Yes’ campaign need to call out misinformation: senator

• An Indigenous senator says the ‘yes’ campaign for the voice has a responsibility to call out misinformation on the proposal.

• As debate on the constitutional reform is set to continue in the Senate on Wednesday night, assistant Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said she remained confident of the voice’s success.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 3 Hongkongers face criminal damage charges over facilities vandalised on Tiananmen anniversary in 2022

• Two women and one man have been charged with 12 counts of criminal damage over power boxes, lampposts and other public facilities vandalised on last year’s Tiananmen crackdown anniversary.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong court adjourns hearing of gov’t application to ban protest song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’

• Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance has adjourned a hearing about whether to grant an injunction banning pro-democracy protest song Glory to Hong Kong. Judge Wilson Chan on Monday adjourned a hearing dealing with an application from Department of Justice (DoJ) for an interim injunction on the song until July 21.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Former Chief Of Navalny’s Team In Bashkortostan Jailed for More Than Seven Years

• A court in Ufa on June 14 sentenced Lilia Chanysheva, the former head of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny’s team in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, to 7 1/2 years in prison on charges of extremism.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian Defense Ministry reportedly orders Khakassian authorities to stop publishing soldiers’ obituaries — Meduza

• At the request of the Russian Defense Ministry, the authorities in Russia’s Republic of Khakassia have stopped publishing obituaries for soldiers who died in Ukraine, the Radio Europe/Radio Free Liberty affiliate Sibir.Realii reported on Tuesday.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ “Doing Journalism Is a Crime”: Guatemalan Publisher José Rubén Zamora Faces 40 Years Behind Bars

• Prominent Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora faces 40 years in prison in his sentencing hearing Wednesday for what press freedom and human rights groups say are inflated charges of money laundering. Zamora is the founder and president of the investigative newspaper El Periódico and has long reported on Guatemalan government corruption. El Periódico was forced to shut down last month after months of intensifying harassment and persecution from President Alejandro Giammattei’s right-wing government. The government has held Zamora “as a hostage” for nearly a year as part of its wider crackdown on the press, says his son José Carlos Zamora, a journalist based in Miami who is advocating for his father’s release.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ We can’t afford to lose libraries

• I don’t doubt that many of the citizens debating libraries like Patmos want the best for people in their town. Criticism is important to the governing of public organizations and should be generally protected. But the defunding of Patmos should deeply concern anyone who wants their town to be free, fair and educated. It is an attack on the people: those who cannot afford books, those marginalized for expressing their gender and sexuality and those who want strong, trusting communities.

• You can support libraries by harnessing their power. Use them. Invite a friend to a book date or borrow a strange instrument. If you have a suggestion or a concern, talk to a librarian or attend a community meeting. Volunteer if the opportunity presents itself. Above all else, defend our libraries as more than dusty shelves — uphold the centers of community connection and empowerment they are.

=> ↺ [Repeat] RFA ☛ Banned anthem ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ gets global airing on protest anniversary

• It was banned in 2020 as Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on the city, and the Hong Kong government last week applied for a High Court injunction to prevent its performance or dissemination in the city, including online.

• Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong, who took part in the Taichung event, said the song is a symbol of ongoing resistance by Hong Kongers.

• “The Hong Kong government banned ‘Glory to Hong Kong,’ and wants to ban anyone from playing it, and suddenly, a whole lot of people are buying this song on iTunes,” Wong said. “Hong Kongers scattered all over the world are using it as a means of resistance.”

=> ↺ ANF News ☛ Musician kidnapped and beaten by police

• The procedure has changed in the meantime and abductees no longer have to fear death by torture – but nothing has changed in the matter itself.

• The last known case is that of the Kurdish artist Dildar Didêrî. The singer, whose real name is Ali Çetinkaya, says he was kidnapped, beaten and threatened by people posing as police officers. He contacted the IHD branch in Batman (Êlih) and reported the incident.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Illinois became the first US state to prohibit banning books in public libraries

• Illinois has become the first US state to prohibit banning books in public libraries. Governor J.B. Pritzker signed HB 2789 into law in a public library in Chicago, amid a dramatic nationwide increase in book bans. The governor, a Democrat, called them an affront to free speech.

• “Young people shouldn’t be kept from learning about the realities of our world,” Pritzker said at a press conference. “I want them to become critical thinkers, exposed to ideas that they disagree with, proud of what our nation has overcome.”

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Hateful symbol display risks prison under proposed law

• Australians are being sent a clear message that there is no excuse for displays of hate, as a proposal to ban Nazi and Islamic State symbols enters federal parliament. 

• If passed, the criminal code would be amended to prohibit hate symbols and could see people who display the insignia facing up to a year in prison.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ NYT on Ukraine’s Nazi Imagery: It’s ‘Complicated’

• US journalists have decided that being on the right team in this war is more important than presenting an accurate picture of events.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ The Western Media Is Whitewashing the Azov Battalion

• Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has already resulted in millions of losers—chief among them the civilians who’ve been tortured, murdered, forced to become refugees, or forced to spend their days worrying about loved ones fighting Russia.1

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Fatima Mousa Mohammed Deserves to Be Defended, Not Smeared

• On May 12, my friend Fatima Mousa Mohammed delivered a commencement address in front of her fellow graduates at the City University of New York School of Law. Fatima, who had been chosen by her peers to give the speech, dedicated it to the fight against oppression in all of its forms, from the brutality that we see from the NYPD to Israeli apartheid and colonialism.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Once Again, Supreme Court Suggests That The 1st Amendment Must Stand Aside For ‘Intellectual Property’

• A few weeks back, we wrote about the Supreme Court’s decision in the case between the Andy Warhol Foundation and Lynn Goldsmith, regarding the copyright on certain images that Warhol painted based on a Goldsmith photograph, and exploring under what conditions it was protected by fair use. We felt that the Court completely ignored the 1st Amendment interests at play, but there were many people (including close friends) who have argued that the ruling was “narrow” and not so problematic. We shall see.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Techdirt Podcast Episode 354: Decentralizing Content Moderation

• When talking about content moderation, it’s easy to focus entirely on centralized platforms. But now, with the rise of more federated and decentralized systems like ActivityPub and Bluesky (and many others), it’s becoming more and more important to talk about how content moderation works in a decentralized space. This week we’re joined by Yoel Roth, the former head of Trust & Safety at Twitter and now a Tech Policy Fellow at UC Berkeley, to discuss the new and different content moderation challenges that decentralized platforms face.

=> ↺ Off Guardian ☛ New Normal Germany Blues

• The first rule of New Normal Germany is “You Do Not Compare New Normal Germany to Nazi Germany!” I did that on the cover of my bestselling book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich, so the State Prosecutor’s office in Berlin has launched a criminal investigation of me…

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Constitutional Court strikes down law denying severance pay to journalists with less than five years of experience

• The provision in question stated that journalists with less than five years of experience would not be entitled to severance pay, and any period of employment less than six months within a year would not be considered in the calculation of severance pay.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Gizmodo ☛ Mom Recounts ‘Terrorizing’ Deepfake Kidnapping Scam in Gripping Testimony

• January 20 started out like most typical Friday afternoons for Scottsdale, Arizona resident Jennifer DeStefano. The mother of two had just picked up her youngest daughter from dance practice when she received a call from an unknown number. She almost let the number go to voicemail but decided to pick it up on its final ring. DeStefano says what happened over the next few moments will likely haunt her for the rest of her life. She didn’t know it yet, but the Arizona resident was about to become a key figure in the rapidly emerging trend of AI deepfake kidnapping scams.

=> ↺ [Repeat] RFERL ☛ Iran Puts Eight Teachers On Trial Amid Pressure On Educators Over Protests

• In a statement released on June 11, the Iranian Teachers’ Union’s Coordination Council condemned the security and judicial confrontations with teachers. It also expressed disappointment that whenever the shortcomings of the country’s educational system are outlined to officials, teachers are subjected to various forms of harassment by security agencies.

=> ↺ Vox ☛ The little-noticed court decision that changed homelessness in America

• The case dates back to 2009, when Robert Martin and a group of fellow homeless residents in Boise, Idaho, sued, arguing that police citations they received for breaking local camping bans violated their constitutional rights. In 2018, the Ninth Circuit agreed that prosecuting people for sleeping or camping on public property when they have no home or shelter to go to violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

=> ↺ Vanished 150-year-old snake sculpture in İstanbul’s center replaced by replica

• One of the twin snake statues on Galatasaray High School’s gate, overlooking İstiklal Avenue, disappeared on Women’s Day and remains unaccounted for.

=> ↺ Lawyer who represented families of ISIS bombing victims arrested on ‘terror’ charges

• Gülhan Kaya was one of the several lawyers who were detained in recent house raids.

=> ↺ Papers Please ☛ 98% of names on U.S. travel blacklist are Muslim

• 98% of the names on the U.S. government’s travel blacklists, including all of the top 50 names that appear most frequently on those lists, appear to be Muslim, according to a statistical analysis commissioned by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

• This analysis of the so-called “watchlist” (a euphemism for “blacklist”) is included in a report released this week in conjunction with the annual Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill organized by the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO).

• When the U.S. government’s “No-Fly list” and “Selectee list” were made public earlier this year, we were the first to point out that more than 10% of the entries on the No-Fly list (174,202 of 1,566,062) contain “MUHAMMAD” in either the first or last name fields, in addition to those entries with other spellings of Muhammad.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Ex-Labor minister to head new net-zero agency

• Former Labor climate change minister Greg Combet has been picked to head the agency tasked with easing the transition to a renewable energy-fuelled economy.

• The ex-union boss will chair the Net Zero Agency, which the Labor government has established to ensure workers, industries and communities don’t miss out during the push to reach net-zero carbon emissions.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ Centuries of Dislocation

• My mother in China tells me about a new Xinjiang bakery near our place. Each time she passes by, there are lines outside. Once she asked those queuing if the flavor is authentic. Xinjiang, after all, is over 2,000 miles northwest of my hometown, where my mother still lives. Yes, the patrons told her, the bread and cakes tasted just like what they had enjoyed as tourists in Xinjiang.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court declines to take up cash bail constitutionality case

• The US Supreme Court declined Monday to take up the question of whether states can impose schedule-based cash bail on an indigent defendant before allowing their pre-trial release from jail.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Vilnius official caught splashing public funds on convertible in Miami

• Adomas Bužinskas, the current head of the Vilnius City Municipality Administration, rented a Ford Mustang convertible during a business trip to Miami last year and claimed reimbursements for a drive to a local tourist spot, Delfi.lt has reported.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuanian government walks back resignation pledge following expenses scandal

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Court Sentences Activist To Six Years In Prison

• Kyrgyz activist and government critic Emil Bekiev, who was deported from Russia in September, has been sentenced to six years in prison on charges of plotting mass unrest, which he rejects.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Are your checks safe? Fraud surges, targeting vulnerable groups.

• Check fraud has doubled since 2021 due to organized crime, forcing businesses to be extra cautious. Americans should minimize mailing checks and seek secure options like post office drop-offs, officials say.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ UNCIEF concerned with recent Taliban attempts to stifle international education aid

• The UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) acknowledged that they were investigating reports that the Taliban was refusing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) aid for education in some areas in a Thursday statement to the press.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Thai election regulator investigates leading PM candidate over media company shareholding claims

• Thailand’s Election Commission is investigating Prime Ministerial frontrunner Pita Limjaroenrat over his alleged ownership of media company shares, AFP reported Monday. The commission will investigate whether Pita held media company shares while standing as a Thai House of Representatives candidate, which is against the law.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Does The Government Have The Right To Keep And Arm Bears (With Cameras)?

• No matter what differences of opinion I might have with Volokh Conspiracy contributors, it must be said the site (now hosted at Reason after a brief run at the Washington Post) manages to surface truly interesting cases on a regular basis.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ The Techno Dystopia Flourishing at the Border

• On May 11, I was with a group of people at the bottom of the Paso del Norte bridge in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Suddenly, I realized that I didn’t have the small change needed to cross the bridge and return to El Paso, Tex., where I was attending the 16th annual Border Security Expo. Worse yet, this was just three hours before Title 42, the pandemic-era rapid-expulsion border policy instituted by the Trump administration, was set to expire. The media was already in overdrive on the subject, producing apocalyptic scenarios like one in the New York Post reporting that “hordes” of “illegals” were on their way toward the border.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ German court orders Cologne archdiocese to pay clergy abuse victim over $300,000

• A court has ordered a German diocese to pay $323,000 in compensation to a former altar boy who was repeatedly abused by a Catholic priest in the 1970s. A victims’ association said that Tuesday’s ruling was the first of its kind in Germany. The state court in Cologne ruled in a case in which the plaintiff, a man now aged 62 who was abused more than 300 times by a priest, had sought 750,000 euros from the Cologne archdiocese. The archdiocese decided against invoking the statute of limitations in the case. The German church so far has made voluntary payments to survivors of sexual abuse by clergy, which victims’ groups have criticized as too small.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Mass. Begins Enforcing New ‘Right To Repair’ Law After Automakers Lied It Would Aid Sexual Predators

• In late 2020, Massachusetts lawmakers (with overwhelming public support) passed an expansion of the state’s “right to repair” law. The original law was the first in the nation to be passed in 2013. The update dramatically improved it, requiring that all new vehicles be accessible via a standardized, transparent platform that allows owners and third-party repair shops to access vehicle data via a mobile device.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ FTC Moves For A Restraining Order Stop Microsoft, Activision Blizzard Merger From Consummating

• We’ve been covering Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard for months now and it just keeps getting more and more interesting. A very quick primer: Microsoft is seeking to acquire the company for a bonkers amount of money, the EU has already approved the deal, while the UK’s CMA has blocked it, and the FTC has filed suit to block it as well. The EU approval notwithstanding, the other two regulatory blocks represent serious challenges to this deal ever moving forward. Microsoft also made a point of stating previously that it would not finalize the deal while any pending litigation with the regulators was still going on.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ The Plutocrat vs. the Monopoly

• “Breaking up a monopoly and limiting their power—that’s what American democracy is supposed to be about.”

Patents

=> ↺ UPC CMS public APIs now active [Ed: UPC is illegal. Bristows continues to glorify an illegal system, which it lobbied for with lies and fake news for many years.]

=> ↺ Italy, France and Germany agree UPC central division competences [Ed: They cannot agree on illegal and unconstitutional kangaroo courts. This is a political travesty of corruption, wherein international conventions are recklessly violated to appease lobbyists and corrupt litigators.]

=> ↺ ACLU ☛ The Fight to Take Back Our Genes

• Should companies be able to patent human genes? For decades, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said yes, ultimately granting patents on thousands of genes.

• Two of the genes that were patented are BRCA1 and BRCA2. The patent office approved exclusive rights over the genes because Myriad Genetics was the first to “isolate” them, or remove them from the body and cell. The patents on the genes allowed Myriad to exercise a monopoly on the genes in the United States, shutting down other labs from offering testing or second opinions and increasing the price to thousands of dollars per test.

• The ACLU opposes patenting that would authorize private entities to control access to something as fundamental to humanity as our genes. In 2009, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of 20 researchers, genetic counselors, women patients, cancer survivors, breast cancer and women’s health groups, and scientific associations representing 150,000 geneticists, pathologists, and laboratory professionals. The landmark case argued that human genes are products of nature, even when “isolated,” drawing on 150 years of legal precedent forbidding patents on laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas. The Supreme Court agreed. It invalidated the patents, in a unanimous decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas on June 13, 2013.

• For Lisbeth Ceriani, a breast cancer survivor and plaintiff in our suit, the Supreme Court’s ruling was not only a source of great joy, but also a step towards a more equitable health care system. During Ceriani’s breast cancer diagnosis, she was informed that the BRCA genetic test she needed was inaccessible because the gene associated with her cancer, and the test, was under patent.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Creative Commons ☛ Mauricio Genta — Open Culture VOICES, Season 2 Episode 19

• Open Culture VOICES is a series of short videos that highlight the benefits and barriers of open culture as well as inspiration and advice on the subject of opening up cultural heritage. Mauricio is a historian, librarian, and museologist. He works with Wikimedia Argentina to open up collections and make them accessible for people all over the world.

=> ↺ Torrent Freak ☛ EUIPO Study: 60% of Pirates Also Buy Content From Legal Sources

• New research published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office reveals that the majority of citizens believe that it’s unacceptable to obtain digital content from illegal sources. Of the minority that continue to pirate, 60% also buy content from legal sources. Better affordability and a wider offer are the top cited reasons for people to stop using illegal sources.

=> ↺ Torrent Freak ☛ Court: Comcast Must Identify Accused BitTorrent Pirate

• Hundreds of thousands of pirating BitTorrent users have been sued over the years. This practice continues to keep courts busy in the U.S., mostly thanks to Strike 3 Holdings. Today, we look at a recent attempt by an accused Comcast subscriber to stop a lawsuit in its tracks. This effort failed with the Colorado court noting that the plaintiffs are not copyright trolls.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ How Michael Franti Finds Hope in Troubled Times

• Michael Franti has been at the forefront of the political music scene for 35 years. In the early 1990s, he led the groundbreaking hip-hop outfit the Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy, and since 1994 he’s headed the funk, reggae, rap, and pop musical melting pot known as Spearhead (now called Michael Franti and Spearhead). I spoke to Franti about our troubled times the night before his sold-out show at Denver’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheater. The next night, he stepped onto the stage in front of a packed crowd that seemed to know every word to every song. The concert was held on June 2, National Gun Awareness Day, and it has been an annual tradition for Franti to perform at Red Rocks, with Colorado having been home to several horrific mass shootings that have left a web of survivors trying to reform the nation’s gun laws. People throughout the crowd signaled their support for ending firearm violence by wearing bright orange. Between songs, Franti referenced The Nation interview, saying that he was asked what makes him optimistic in troubled times. He looked out at the crowd and said, “It’s all of you.” Then came an anthem that the audience sang with extra gusto. The song: “I Am Lost but Not Alone.”

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Schneider Retreats From YouTube Content ID Court Battle After Failing to Secure Class Action Status

• Just a day before the June 13th trial for the now-infamous YouTube Content ID lawsuit, Grammy-winning composer Maria Schneider has officially stepped back. After failing to secure the much-talked-about class-action status, the war is over and the case has been voluntarily dismissed.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Amid Twitch Chaos, YouTube Lowers Requirements to Join Partner Program

• YouTube is capitalizing on the Twitch Partner chaos by lowering requirements for its own creators. Here’s the latest.  In a blog post today, YouTube announced it is changing the eligibility requirements to join the YouTube Partner Program.

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