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● Links 22/06/2023: GTK Evolving Accessibility

Posted in News Roundup at 10:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Tux Digital ☛ Linux Out Loud 67: The Compromise of Easy

• This week, Linux Out Loud chats about rolling your own solutions for privacy. Welcome to episode 67 of Linux Out Loud. We fired up our mics, connected those headphones as we searched the community for themes to expound upon. We kept the banter friendly, the conversation somewhat on topic, and had fun doing it.

Applications

=> ↺ Linux Links ☛ Machine Learning in Linux: Bark – Text-Prompted Generative Audio

• Bark is a transformer-based text-to-audio model. Bark can generate highly realistic, multilingual speech as well as other audio.

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ Top 4 Google Docs Alternatives for Linux in 2023

=> ↺ TecMint ☛ Lolcat – Display Text in Rainbow Colors in Linux Terminal

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Manuel Matuzovic ☛ Cascade Layers are useless*

• *if you don‘t understand the problems they solve and use them in combination with other solutions that tackle the same challenges albeit less elegantly and with the downside of limiting you in taking full advantage of selectors, one of the coolest features in CSS, and if you ignore the fact that they can help you organise and manage your own and third-party code.

• I’ve heard several people say they’ve tried Cascade Layers but didn’t see any changes, so they dropped them again. That can also easily happen to you when you structure your CSS in layers for the first time. I can explain why.

=> ↺ Tim Bray ☛ CSS Boost

• The blog you are now looking at is looking a little different (better I think), especially on mobile devices, because the CSS has been improved. I have a report on the details, and unexpected lessons.

• What launched me into action was the acquisition of a Pixel 7, on which this blog’s text was unreadably tiny. I’m not sure what changed, but I got complaints from a couple of other people at the same time that I noticed it myself, so maybe it’s Android’s fault? Anyhow, couldn’t ignore that problem. On top of which, I had a list of minor gripes that had been on the to-do list for way too long.

=> ↺ OMG! Linux ☛ Creating Bootable USBs on Linux? Easy with Impression

• Impression has a simple, straight-forward UI that couldn’t be easier to use: you open the app, select an image, insert a drive, and flash a-haaaa – you’re away.

• You can see the steps in flow in these screenshots: [...]

=> ↺ Bryan Lunduke ☛ How To: Install 9front

• (a Plan 9 fork)

=> ↺ Own HowTo ☛ How to Install Gnome on Debian 12 “Bookworm”

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install gnome desktop environment on Debian 12 “Bookworm”.There are multiple ways to install gnome on Debian 12. In this tutorial, we are going to install gnome via tasksel and via apt package manager.

• tasksel is a tool that

=> ↺ FOSSLinux ☛ How to view hidden files and folders on Linux

• In the Linux file system, some files and directories are hidden for various reasons, often to prevent accidental modification or deletion. These items usually start with a period (‘.’). However, there are times when you might need to view or access these hidden files and folders. In this guide, we will explain how to do this, using both command line and graphical methods.

=> ↺ FOSSLinux ☛ How to move files and directories in Linux

• Managing files effectively is a crucial part of any Linux user’s skill set. The ability to move files and directories around the system not only helps in organizing your data but is also a key part of tasks like system configuration and scripting. In this guide, we will look at the various commands and techniques you can use to move files and directories in a Linux environment.

=> ↺ How to Search For a File in Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 Terminal

• Find the various ways with command examples to search and find files directly from the Ubuntu command terminal.

Games

=> ↺ Boiling Steam ☛ New Steam Games with Native Linux Clients with Deep Blue Fantasy and Guardians of Holme – 2023-06-21 Edition

• Between 2023-06-14 and 2023-06-21 there were 20 New Steam games released with Native Linux clients. For reference, during the same time, there were 250 games released for Windows on Steam, so the Linux versions represent about 8 % of total…

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GTK: Evolving accessibility

• Our last post on accessiblity in GTK4 was a while ago, time for an update.

• Thankfully, we have Lukáš Tyrychtr at Red Hat working on accessibility now.

• One of the bigger changes in accessibility from GTK3 to GTK4 was that we have a new application API that is modeled on the ARIA specs from the web.

• The high-level picture to keep in mind is…

• AT stands for accessibility technology here. In practice, that mainly means orca, the well-known screen reader (although there is a new contender, with the odilia project).

• The new layer provides APIs such as…

Distributions and Operating Systems

BSD

=> ↺ Undeadly ☛ [CFT] Major pfsync(4) Rewrite on the Horizon

• A major rewrite of pfsync(4), the state table synchronization tool for redundant pf(4) setups is in the works.

=> ↺ FreeBSD ☛ Celebrating 30 Years of FreeBSD: FreeBSD For Students

• Learning how to use and develop an entire operating system allows students to interact with more than just a kernel. Many courses teach separate elements that do not function as a full working system. Working with FreeBSD allows students to interact with some of the features that developers are most likely to engage with, and see how the system works in practice, not just in theory. This allows developers to see how their work functions in real-time on a contemporary system.

• The strong mentorship culture that already exists within the community is a strength of the FreeBSD operating system. Documentation is expansive and well maintained, encouraging self-growth and research through easily accessible system and tooling references. When submitting patches, feedback is quick and constructive, and maintainers are often willing to work with new contributors to ensure the any changes are made correctly. The flat contributor model encourages development work from newer users, from various backgrounds and expertise.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ SUSE’s Corporate Blog ☛ SLE Base Container Images 15 SP5

• The SLE BCI team is delighted to share that in conjunction with the launch of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5, the Language and Application containers of SUSE Linux Enterprise Base Container Images (SLE BCI) have been upgraded to take advantage of the enhanced features offered the new product version.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Linuxiac ☛ Red Hat Restricts Access to Its Source Code

• In an unexpected move, Red Hat announced that CentOS Stream will now be the sole repository for public RHEL-related source code releases.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ OMG Ubuntu ☛ Linux Mint 21.2 Beta is Available to Download

• The beta of Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” lands a couple of weeks ahead of the expected stable release, tentatively scheduled for mind July.

• Linux Mint 21.2 is still based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (as are all entries in the Linux Mint 21 series) but a sizeable set of enhancements, new features, and UI changes feature.

=> ↺ Linux Mint ☛ Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” Cinnamon – BETA Release

• This is the BETA release for Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” Cinnamon Edition. Linux Mint 21.2 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.

=> ↺ Linux Mint ☛ Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” MATE – BETA Release

• This is the BETA release for Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” MATE Edition. Linux Mint 21.2 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.

=> ↺ Linux Mint ☛ Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” Xfce – BETA Release

• This is the BETA release for Linux Mint 21.2 “Victoria” Xfce Edition. Linux Mint 21.2 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use. New features: This new version of Linux […]

=> ↺ Neowin ☛ Linux Mint 21.2 Beta ISOs out now [Ed: Post updated]

• You can now download the Linux Mint 21.2 Beta from official third-party mirrors. The Mint project is still to officially announce the release, but we believe it will do so very soon.

=> ↺ Beta News ☛ Ubuntu-based Linux Mint 21.2 ‘Victoria’ BETA now available for download

• Linux Mint, one of the most popular Linux distributions, is back with an exciting release. Linux Mint 21.2 BETA, which is codenamed “Victoria,” is a long-term support release that promises extended support until 2027. This ensures stability and reliability for its users. This upcoming version brings a host of updated software, refinements, and new features, making it a compelling choice for desktop users. Linux Mint 12.2 BETA is based on Ubuntu 22.04 and uses kernel 5.15.

=> ↺ Ubuntu ☛ Why you should attend the Ubuntu Summit

• We are very excited about the upcoming Ubuntu Summit 2023! This year, we’ll be gathering in the beautiful city of Riga, Latvia, from November 3rd-5th.

• There are many reasons to attend the Ubuntu Summit, including electrifying talks from industry leaders, invigorating hands-on workshops, and a unique opportunity to network with like-minded people from across the open-source world.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Linux Gizmos ☛ The IBASE EC3500 is a computing system for AI Applications

• Today, IBASE revealed an embedded platform powered by the NVIDIA Jetson AGX ORIN modules, designed for AI applications in smart retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and other industries. The EC3500 is also equipped with 1x 10 GbE LAN, 1x HDMI 2.1 port and many other expansion ports.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Punched Cards Are In The Cloud, With This Arduino

• Grizzled veterans of the computing industry will relate stories of submitting projects on stacks of punched cards, something those of us who stored their 8-bit works on audio cassettes could only imagine. But for those who fancy experimenting with the format it’s still possible to make a basic card reader using LEDs and light sensors, as [Nino Ivanov] has done using an Arduino Uno as the brains. And these aren’t just for show, each of his cards holds a LISP program that runs in a cloud service.

=> ↺ Arduino ☛ Meet Arduino Pro at tinyML EMEA Innovation Forum 2023

• On June 26th-28th, the Arduino Pro team will be in Amsterdam for the tinyML EMEA Innovation Forum – one of the year’s major events for the world where AI models meet agile, low-power devices.

=> ↺ Jeff Geerling ☛ How I installed TrueNAS on my new ASUSTOR NAS

• Once you’ve made a backup of ADM from the eMMC, you could erase the eMMC drive and install Linux on top of it. But that’s a bad idea, because (a) that eMMC drive is only 8 GB, which means you could run out of space on it pretty easily, and (b) it’s easier to leave that volume in place and just boot from an external USB drive.

=> ↺ Ruben Schade ☛ My Pentium 1’s phantom hard disk

• My childhood PC has started exhibiting strange behaviour with its internal hard drives. Any OS I boot reports seeing two internal drives, even when only one physical CompactFlash card is present. It didn’t do this before, and I’m stumped as to why.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ The Fosstodon Hub ☛ Facebook, Fosstodon & The Fediverse

• Mike and I have been asked, multiple times, about what Fosstodon’s position is on Facebook potentially joining the Fediverse.

• If you’re not aware, the TL;DR is that Facebook, or their parent company, Meta, is planning to create a Twitter clone that will support ActivityPub (more here). That means that Facebook, or some semblance of it, could be coming to a Mastodon instance near you.

• Needless to say, this has a lot of folk on Mastodon a little worried – hence the constant stream of messages to myself and Mike asking what we, as admins of Fosstodon, plan to do about it.

=> ↺ It’s FOSS ☛ FOSS Weekly #23.25: ONLYOFFICE, Clipboard App, Bash Variables and More Linux Stuff

• The bash basic series continues and so does the Linux learning.

=> ↺ Venture Beat ☛ Aerospike invades the graph database space with a little help from Apache TinkerPop

• Aerospike is expanding its database capabilities with its Aerospike Graph database, which brings graph data model capabilities.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Earthly ☛ Cross-Compiling for Raspberry Pi: Getting Started and Troubleshooting

• We’re Earthly. We make building software simpler and therefore faster using containerization. This article covers cross compiling. If you’re someone who builds software often, you might want to check us out and see if Earthly can help you build faster and easier.

=> ↺ Steve Kemp ☛ Simple toy languages

• I’m kinda tempted to port one of them to Z80 assembly, and see if I can get it running under CP/M. I guess I could add a REPL for interactive use, though without actual hardware connected to my single-board computer it might all feel a little pointless. Then again I have Turbo Pascal, and even a tiny C-compiler, so I guess with those in mind any toy-language is pointless in a completely different regard.

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ C Programs to Print Fibonacci Sequence

• The Fibonacci Sequence is a series of numbers in which each number (Fibonacci number) is the sum of the two preceding ones. The sequence often starts with 0 and 1.

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ Python Program to Print Fibonacci Sequence

• The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers where the next number is found by adding up the two numbers before it.

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Mastering Data Aggregation with xtabs() in R

• As a programmer, you’re constantly faced with the task of organizing and analyzing data. One powerful tool in your R arsenal is the xtabs() function.

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ TidyTuesday Week 25: UFO Sightings Redux

• I haven’t been TidyTuesdaying because I’ve been learning Tableau. I’ll write more about that later; but it has been an interesting experience and provides different perspectives on data compared to what you might get from R.

=> ↺ Linux Magazine ☛ English Translation of Children’s Book Ada & Zangemann Available Now

• If you have a child curious about software development, this book might be just the right thing to pique their interest.

Perl / Raku

=> ↺ Chris ☛ Word Embeddings in Perl: Baby Steps

• Continuing from our adventures into latent semantic analysis in Perl, I have been toying with neural networks, the ultimate goal being word2vec-style word embeddings.11 Again, not because I think the outcome will be practically useful – there are pre-trained word2vec models for that – but because I need an excuse to do something I’ve never done before: write a neural network.

Python

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ NumPy Indexing

• The “NumPy Indexing” in Python allows you to access and manipulate elements of a NumPy array based on their positions or index values.

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ Countplot Seaborn

• The “countplot()” method of the “seaborn” library is used to count the number of observations per category and visualize the results.

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ Matplotlib violin plot

• The “matplotlib.pyplot.violinplot()” function in Python is a versatile tool for visualizing data distributions using violin plots.

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ Python Clear List

• The “clear()” method, “del” keyword, “pop()” method with Loop, and “remove()” method are used to clear the list in Python.

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ Python Binary Search

• The “Python Binary Search” is a technique that is utilized in a program to find/get an element in a given sorted list or array.

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ Numpy Dot Product

• To determine the dot product of “Scalar Values”, “Complex Numbers”, “1-D”, “and 2-D” arrays the “numpy.dot()” function is used in Python.

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ SciPy Simpson

• The “simps()” method of the “scipy.integrate” model of the “SciPy” library is used to determine numerical integration by utilizing Simpson’s rule.

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ NumPy hstack()

• In Python, the “numpy.hstack()” function of the “numpy” module is used to stack two or more arrays horizontally along their second axis.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ Linux Handbook ☛ Use For Loop With Array in Bash

• In this Bash scripting example, learn how to use for loop with arrays.

Rust

=> ↺ Rust Blog ☛ The Rust Programming Language Blog: Introducing the Rust Leadership Council [Ed: Outsourced to Microsoft proprietary prison, GitHub]

• As of today, RFC 3392 has been merged, forming the new top level governance body of the Rust Project: the Leadership Council. The creation of this Council marks the end of both the Core Team and the interim Leadership Chat.

• The Council will assume responsibility for top-level governance concerns while most of the responsibilities of the Rust Project (such as maintenance of the compiler and core tooling, evolution of the language and standard libraries, administration of infrastructure, etc.) remain with the nine top level teams.

• Each of these top level teams, as defined in the RFC, has chosen a representative who collectively form the Council: [...]

Leftovers

=> ↺ Bruce Schneier ☛ Ethical Problems in Computer Security

• Tadayoshi Kohno, Yasemin Acar, and Wulf Loh wrote excellent paper on ethical thinking within the computer security community: “Ethical Frameworks and Computer Security Trolley Problems: Foundations for Conversation“: [...]

=> ↺ Terence Eden ☛ 12,000 comments

• Most comments – but by no means all – are delightful. People wanting to share their own stories, add something to the discussion, or politely disagree.

• I moderate heavily. If someone is rude or abusive, their comment isn’t published. Unless it’s really funny.

=> ↺ [Old] USDOJ ☛ Massachusetts Man Sentenced for Computer Intrusion

• United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Jonathan Manzi, 31, currently of Beverly, Massachusetts, was sentenced on April 20, 2023, in Lincoln, Nebraska, by Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard for obtaining information from a protected computer. Manzi was sentenced to 18 months in prison and will also serve a year on supervised release. Manzi was also ordered to pay $655,000 in restitution.

=> ↺ Tedium ☛ Freeloader Culture

• Today in Tedium: In many ways, the [Internet] is a network driven by literally millions of examples of the same problem happening over and over—people freeloading on access to resources someone else made available for free. We all do it—some of us want to read paywalled articles, so we try to find ways around the paywall. We hate distractions, so some of us turn on ad blockers. We don’t want to pay for every cable channel or streaming service, so we load up torrent programs (unless you’re Gen Z, then you may not know what they are). In many ways, the recent debate around Reddit has been a discussion of infrastructure and freeloading. Who’s getting the free ride? And who’s stealing resources from whom? In many ways, Reddit represents a microcosm of how the [Internet] works when it comes to people taking advantage of free resources. So with that in mind, today’s Tedium ponders freeloaders and free-riders in the digital era. — Ernie @ Tedium

Science

=> ↺ [Old] Sam Rose ☛ Hashing

• As a programmer, you use hash functions every day. They’re used in databases to optimise queries, they’re used in data structures to make things faster, they’re used in security to keep data safe. Almost every interaction you have with technology will involve hash functions in one way or another.

• b Hash functions are foundational, and they are everywhere.

• But what is a hash function, and how do they work?

• In this post, we’re going to demystify hash functions. We’re going to start by looking at a simple hash function, then we’re going to learn how to test if a hash function is good or not, and then we’re going to look at a real-world use of hash functions: the hash map.

Education

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Middle schoolers’ reading and math scores plummet

• Driving the news: The decline in math scores last year was the biggest in the past 50 years, according to newly released federal data.

Hardware

=> ↺ University of Toronto ☛ Domination has a lead time

• Suppose that someone makes a prediction like ‘PCIE 5.0 will dominate the datacenter in five years’ (as a hypothetical example). If we’re looking at how likely this is and what would have to happen when in order to get there, one important thing to remember is that domination has a lead time, and this lead time will shorten all of the timelines from what you might otherwise think. The ultimate cause of this lead time is the inertia of the installed base.

=> ↺ The Drone Girl ☛ The 2023 drone racing audience: What are actual viewership numbers?

• The Drone Racing League specifically was founded in 2015 by Nicholas Horbaczewski. Since then, DRL has raised millions of dollars in funding from investors including Hearst Ventures, CAA Ventures, Muse lead singer Matthew Bellamy and Miami Dolphin’s owner Stephen Ross’s venture-capital firm RSE Ventures. In 2020, DRL appointed former NBA executive Rachel Jacobson as president.

=> ↺ Linux Gizmos ☛ Rugged Tablet features 11th Gen Intel Core/Celeron processors

• AAEON’s RTC-1020 is a rugged tablet computer designed to withstand challenging environments while delivering powerful performance. The RTC-1020 is equipped with a 2270mAh battery, a 10.1” FHD screen, 1x GbE LAN and support for Wi-Fi/BL 5.1 and LTE connectivity.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

=> ↺ Bryan Lunduke ☛ On being David to A.I.’s Goliath

• Listen now (27 min) | Lunduke’s Big Tech Show – June 20th, 2023

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ China’s Cloud Computing Firms Raise Concern for U.S.

• By focusing on the Chinese cloud companies, U.S. officials are potentially widening the scope of the technological tensions between Washington and Beijing. In recent years, the United States has choked China’s access to crucial technologies while trying to limit the reach of Chinese tech and telecommunication companies abroad.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ Apple Is an AI Company Now

• Apple, meanwhile, isn’t even pretending to talk a big game when it comes to AI. John Gruber, a longtime Apple follower who runs the technology blog Daring Fireball, told me that he doesn’t expect any of the machine-learning features Apple announced this year to significantly alter the iPhone-user experience. They’ll just make it nominally better. “We expect autocorrect to just work,” he told me over email. “We notice when it doesn’t.”

=> ↺ Scoop News Group ☛ Apple issues emergency patch to address alleged spyware vulnerability

• The vulnerabilities in question, first revealed on June 1, appeared to have led the main Russian intelligence agency to make unusually public claims that Apple intentionally left the flaws in its iOS so the National Security Agency and other U.S. entities could compromise “thousands” of iPhones in Russia. Apple has denied those claims.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Test for humans: How to make artificial intelligence safe

• As tools based on artificial intelligence spread, calls for regulating the technology – and addressing basic questions of trust – have been rising.

=> ↺ Linuxiac ☛ The New Opera One Is Out, Brings Built-in Browser AI

• Opera hits a milestone with version 100, unveiling Opera One, the stable release packed with an impressive set of innovative features.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Missing seven-year-old found dead with signs of violence

• The seven-year-old Justīne Reinikova, missing since the beginning of May, has been found dead with obvious bodily harm. Two suspects have been detained, State Police (VP) told LETA on June 20.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Let’s not be like Lithuania and Latvia, says Irish president urging to stay out of NATO

• Defending Ireland’s traditional neutrality, President Michael D. Higgins contrasted the country with the Baltic states, arguing against a dangerous foreign policy “drift”. He later apologised for some of his statements that evinced criticism from Irish politicians.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Portugal may contribute to rotational air defence of Baltic states, says defence chief in Vilnius

• Portugal is considering to contribute to a rotational air defence model agreed by NATO defence ministers, General José Nunes da Fonseca, the country’s chief of defence, said in Vilnius on Tuesday.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ US sanctions South Sudan officials for conflict-related sexual violence

• The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Tuesday that it was sanctioning two South Sudanese officials involved in conflict-related sexual violence.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Belarus court sentences human rights activist to 7 years in penal colony

• A Belarusian court sentenced Nasta Loika, the founder of the human rights organization Human Constanta, to seven years in a penal colony on Tuesday.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Myanmar junta accuses 12 Mandalay region farmers of murder

• They were arrested in connection with the killing of a hospital director.

=> ↺ El País ☛ The other voices of the Darién Gap

• The latest figures published by the Panamanian authorities reveal that, as well as Venezuelans and Haitians — the two nationalities that top the list of people taking the Darién route — many other languages are beginning to echo in the jungle. More and more Colombians have crossed it: 5,509 so far in 2023.

• The situation is so serious that the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, recently described the migratory crisis as “a human rights holocaust” and said he would like to visit the Darién Gap to verify it. The humanitarian crisis in the area is critical. According to Verónica Martínez, the head of humanitarian response for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Darién, it is also the most underfunded migration crisis in the world.

War in Ukraine

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ Keynote speech by President von der Leyen at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023

• European Commission Speech London, 21 Jun 2023 Prime Minister Sunak [...]

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ President von der Leyen attends 2023 Ukraine Recovery Conference

• European Commission News Brussels, 21 Jun 2023 The Ukraine Recovery Conference, held jointly by the UK and Ukraine, is a continuation of the cycle of annual events with the last one conducted jointly with Switzerland in Lugano. The previous edition of the conference launched the Lugano Principles…

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ New Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine uncovered

• The protracted war on Ukraine has been fought on both physical and digital worlds, but after the initial forays last spring, Russian attacks on Ukrainian digital infrastructure have increased lately, according to new reports by three security analyst groups.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ Could Russia deliver on the threat to cut the US and Europe off from the internet?

• Last week, as Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia was gaining pace, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia could destroy the undersea cables connecting Europe and the US to the internet in retaliation [...]

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ The new Ukraine will be a country worthy of its heroes

• International attention is currently focused on the progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive but it is also vital to make sure Ukraine wins the peace by creating a secure and prosperous country, writes Yulia Svyrydenko.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Putin’s nuclear threats will escalate as Ukraine’s counteroffensive unfolds

• As Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive gets underway, there are fears that Russia’s deteriorating military predicament could lead to an escalation in Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats, writes Diane Francis.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Andriy Yermak on how Ukraine’s friends should step up their support next

• Rasmussen and Yermak discuss how NATO can establish security guarantees for Ukraine ahead of the Vilnius summit.

=> ↺ Defence Web ☛ Paramount founder emerges as broker in African peace mission to Ukraine

• Founder of Paramount, Ivor Ichikowitz, played a significant role in the African peace mission to Ukraine last weekend, which was led by South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ 🔴 Live: Ukraine strikes key bridge between Kherson and Crimea, Russia says

• Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile strike on the Chongar bridge connecting Russian-held parts of the Kherson region and Crimea, Russian-appointed governors in both regions said on Friday. Vladimir Saldo, the Kherson governor, said that the road was damaged but no casualties have been reported.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Ukraine Hit By Another Wave Of Russian Strikes As ‘Heavy Fighting’ Under Way In Donetsk

• Russian forces struck civilian and infrastructure targets with a fresh wave of missiles and drones overnight, the Ukrainian military said in its early morning update on June 22, adding that fierce battles were under way in the eastern region of Donetsk, where Russia was intensifying its attacks.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ EU Approves 11th Sanctions Package Against Russia Over Invasion Of Ukraine

• European Union governments have agreed to an 11th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine aimed largely at stopping other countries and companies from circumventing previously imposed sanctions.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Popular TV Anchor In Russia’s Yakutia Refuses To Participate In Event Supporting Ukraine War

• A popular television celebrity in Russia’s Siberian region of Sakha-Yakutia refused to anchor a broadcast on the Yakutian traditional Ysyakh Tuimaady holiday after the mayor of the regional capital announced that celebrations would be devoted to supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ Why Ukrainians Targeted the Author of “Eat, Pray, Love”

• Elif Batuman discusses Elizabeth Gilbert’s recent decision to call off the publication of her next novel, and the deeper conflicts surrounding literature in Ukraine.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ The second big front against Russia

• Like Ukraine as it rolls out its military offensive, neighboring Moldova has launched a truth-telling campaign against a massive information war by Moscow to keep the country in its orbit.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ War surplus: Pentagon accounting error reveals $6.2B more for Ukraine

• The Pentagon uncovered an accounting error in valuing the weapons it has sent to Ukraine. The surplus will be used for future military support. The Biden administration has repeatedly stated the U.S. will help Ukraine “as long as it takes.”

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Ukraine Leaders Fight High Expectations for Counteroffensive Against Russia

• Seeking to bolster morale and Western support, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his aides say that the slow progress of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is to be expected.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Zelensky’s Defense of Slow Gains Underscores Battlefield Realities

• With the enemy entrenched in unforgiving terrain, Ukraine’s forces face a tough fight.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Pentagon Says ‘Accounting Error’ Provides Extra $6.2 Billion in Ukraine Military Aid

• The Pentagon claims it overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ The Silent Slaughter of the Flower of Ukraine’s Youth

• Now that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway, it is clear that the government and its Western allies are maintaining silence to conceal the brutal cost Ukraine’s brave young people are paying.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ U.K. Defense Ministry: Russia authorities concerned about Ukrainian assault on Crimea — Meduza

• In its daily intelligence update on Wednesday, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported that Russia’s military command has continued to strengthen its defenses far from the front line, including around the town of Armiansk in northern Crimea, where a narrow land bridge connects the peninsula to Ukraine’s Kherson region.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Bloomberg: E.U. can’t find legal means to confiscate frozen Russian assets — Meduza

• A European Union working group that has been studying how the E.U. can use frozen assets from Russia’s Central Bank in Ukraine says there are no legal means to simply confiscate the funds, reports Bloomberg, citing a document obtained by the publication.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Ukraine’s soccer fans team up to support the war effort.

• At the Corner Pub in Kyiv, supporters are cheering on their team, but they have also become fund-raisers, military boosters and logistics experts providing equipment to the front lines.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Four major irrigation canals in southern Ukraine drying up due to Kakhovka dam disaster — Meduza

• As a result of the Kakhovka dam’s collapse earlier this month, four major irrigation canals are drying up, according to the BBC.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian-installed authorities in Crimea and Kherson region report Ukrainian strike on key bridge — Meduza

• Moscow-installed annexation officials in Crimea and in Ukraine’s Kherson region have reported that the Ukrainian army carried out a missile attack on bridges connecting the peninsula to the region.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ War in Ukraine Is Worsening Effects of Climate Change, Kerry Says

• The forced movement of people, the destruction of agricultural land and the increased instability are being felt in Ukraine and beyond, said John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Kakhovka Dam Disaster Keeps Beaches Closed in Odesa, Ukraine

• Wartime fears closed the Ukrainian city’s famed beaches last year, but crowds were starting to return — until the destruction of a faraway dam dumped debris and dangers into the Black Sea.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ US sanctions Myanmar’s defense ministry over Russian arms

• Two banks facilitating the junta’s arms purchases have also been blacklisted.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Prosecutor Seeks 11 Years For Former Chief Of Navalny’s Team In Siberia

• The prosecution has asked a court in Barnaul, the capital of the Siberian region of Altai Krai, to convict and sentence Vadim Ostanin, the former leader of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s team in the region, to 11 years in prison.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Jehovah’s Witness Handed Seven-Year Prison Term In Russia Amid Crackdown

• A court in Russia’s southwestern city of Taganrog has sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to seven years in prison amid a crackdown on the religious group.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Kazakhstan Renames Town After Last Khan Who Fought Against Russian Empire

• In the latest move to get distance itself from Russian dominance, Kazakhstan has renamed a town in the region around Astana, the capital, after Kenesary Khan, who led the largest uprising against Russia’s colonial troops in Kazakhstan in the 19th century before he was killed in 1847.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Lithuanian Lawmakers Start Motion To Revoke Citizenship Of Figure Skater Over Event In Russia

• Lithuanian lawmakers have initiated a process to take away the citizenship of Moscow-born figure skater Margarita Drobiazko over her participation in an event in Russia in August 2022, Lithuania’s National Radio and Television reported on June 21.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ European Union Sets 11th Package of Sanctions Against Russia

• The EU will penalize ships transporting Russian crude or derivatives purchased above the maximum price agreed by Australia, Canada, Japan, the UK, and the U.S.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuania’s media watchdog blocks IP addresses used to access banned Russian channels

• The Radio and Television Commission has decided to block IP addresses used to access Russia’s main TV channels that are banned in Lithuania.

=> ↺ AntiWar ☛ Is Putin Bluffing on Redlines? Ask Putin.

• On June 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with war correspondents and military bloggers for a question and answer session at the Kremlin. One war correspondent asked Putin “a question about the notorious red lines.”

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Few Russians apply to re-take Latvian exam after first fail

• Russian citizens taking the mandatory Latvian-language exam have a possibility of repeating it if they fail the first time. Only about a third of those who failed have applied so far, Latvian Radio reported from the meeting of the Saeima Citizenship, Migration, and Social Cohesion Committee on June 21.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Kaspersky Dissects Spyware Used in iOS Zero-Click Attacks

• Russian anti-malware vendor shares technical details on spyware implant deployed as part of recent zero-click iMessage attacks.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Grigory Klinishov, One Of The Creators Of Russia’s Thermonuclear Bomb, Dies By Suicide At 92

• Nuclear physicist Grigory Klinishov, one of the creators of the first Soviet two-stage thermonuclear bomb known as RDS-37, was found dead in Moscow on June 22.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Russian Court Sentences Nuclear Center Employee To Nine Years In Prison On Treason Charge

• A court in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod sentenced an employee of the Federal Nuclear Center to nine years in prison on June 21 on a charge of treason.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Plenty Of Time To Rule On Russian Athletes For Paris Olympics, Says IOC

• The International Olympic Committee still has sufficient time to decide whether Russian and Belarusian athletes will take part in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, spokesman Mark Adams said on June 21.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Investigative Committee Launches Probe Into Death Of Russian Anti-War Activist In Custody

• Russia’s Investigative Committee said on June 21 that it has launched a probe into the death in custody of 40-year-old anti-war activist Anatoly Beryozikov in the southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don last week.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Allies Pledge Billions for Ukraine’s Recovery as Zelensky Stresses Urgency

• The price tag for reconstruction has soared, driving debate among U.S. and European officials, legal experts and others about using frozen Russian assets to pay for it.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers Source, Had Uneasy Relationship With The Times

• Eventually, Mr. Ellsberg gave Mr. Sheehan access to the papers, but with a condition: Mr. Sheehan could study and take notes on the documents, but he couldn’t make copies of them.

• Mr. Sheehan violated that agreement, making copies of the documents with the help of his wife, Susan Sheehan, a former writer for The New Yorker. Mr. Sheehan did not tell Mr. Ellsberg. Over the next several months, he misled Mr. Ellsberg about the newspaper’s timetable for publishing a story about the documents.

=> ↺ [Repeat] Press Gazette ☛ Who owns The Telegraph?

• The Telegraph Media Group has had the same ownership since 2004 but is up for sale after being repossessed by Lloyds Banking Group over an outstanding debt reportedly worth around £1bn.

• The group includes Telegraph properties The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Telegraph.co.uk, The Telegraph Magazine and the Telegraph app. It has also owned Chelsea Magazine Company since March this year.

Environment

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Extreme Heat, Storms and Hail Threaten an Already Battered Oklahoma

• Thousands of people were without power in the state, and days of sweltering temperatures are expected to put further strain on resources there and in Texas.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Electricity rates to rise in July in Latvia

• As of July, new electricity tariffs will come into force, which will significantly increase electricity bills, for households with more powerful connections rising by as much as 157%. Therefore, the “Distribution network” (Sadales tīkls, ST) calls on everyone to assess the effectiveness of their connection and possibly to save by changing it, Latvian Television reported on June 20.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ Titanic challenge: Here’s what is known about missing sub of tourists

• Rescuers in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean are racing against time to find a missing submersible carrying five people who were on a mission to document the wreckage of the Titanic. Authorities reported the vessel overdue Sunday night.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ OceanGate Was Warned of Safety Concerns with Titanic Mission

• Experts inside and outside the company warned of potential dangers and urged the company to undergo a certification process.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ ‘We Need to Have Hope’: More Ships Join Search

• Three more vessels arrived Wednesday to join the international effort to find the missing submersible. The Coast Guard said it was looking for the source of noises it detected.

=> ↺ Vox ☛ 9 questions about the missing Titanic submersible, answered

• Here are nine questions about the Titan and the effort to find it. We’ll be updating this post as the story develops.

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ Roy Morgan says 548,000 Aussies set to buy EVs in next four years

• More than half a million Australians plan to buy electric vehicles over the next tour years, according to Roy Morgan Research, an independent Australian social and political market research and public opinion statistics company.

• In a statement on Wednesday, the firm said 548,000 Australians had expressed such intentions; this was equal to 12.5% of all those intending to buy new vehicles in the same period.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Technopole development may harm swathes of Hong Kong wetland, say green groups

• The San Tin Technopole development project disregards wetland conservation policies and may cause harm to 248 hectares of conservation area and buffer zones, according to nine environmental groups who have united to urge the government to revise the plan.

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ Leatherback sea turtle nests in Tulum for first time in 36 years

• Located 45 km south of Playa del Carmen, Xcacel-Xcacelito has been a protected natural area since 1998 and is considered a wetland of international importance, also known as a Ramsar site. The area covers ​​362 hectares of jungle, beaches, mangroves, cenotes and coral reefs and has become an important tourist destination in Quintana Roo.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ UN: 20 Million USD for Urgent Food Aid Campaign in NE Nigeria

• “The emergency funding will help jumpstart the response…”

Finance

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Alibaba unexpectedly handed over the reins to two co-founders

• Three months after rejigging its corporate structure—splitting into six—Alibaba is rejigging its top brass.

=> ↺ JPMorgan cuts around 20 Asia investment banking jobs-source

• JPMorgan Chase & Co has in a new round of downsizing cut around 20 investment banking jobs in Asia, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, joining global peers in trimming headcount as dealmaking slows.

• JPMorgan on Tuesday notified the impacted bankers, the majority of whom are at junior ranks from analysts to executive directors, according to the source, declining to be named as the information is not public.

• Those dealmakers covered consumers, healthcare sectors and private capital markets, the source added.

=> ↺ Helsinki Times ☛ Increase in unemployment numbers and rate in May: A closer look at Finland’s labor market

• The latest data released by Statistics Finland reveals a concerning rise in unemployment figures and the unemployment rate in May. The report highlights the challenges faced by the Finnish labor market, with significant increases in the number of unemployed individuals, particularly among young people. However, there were positive developments as well, with growth observed in the number of employed individuals and a decline in the number of individuals outside the labor force.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Finland’s unemployment rate climbs to 6.9% in May

• The number of people in employment also increased, according to the latest Labour Force Survey.

=> ↺ 37signals LLC ☛ Europe is half the cost for our company meet-ups

• Since the pandemic ended, we’ve had the pleasure of organizing three different company meet-ups for 37signals. We got going again in Miami, then hopped to Amsterdam, and most recently we went to New Orleans. Next we’re going to Barcelona in the fall. Would you have guessed that hosting a company meet-up in US was almost twice as expensive as Europe? I wouldn’t!

• I feel like Americans often complain about how expensive things are in Europe, but looking at our expenditures on meet-ups, that just isn’t so. Here’s what we spent per person in the three most recent locations, all-in: [...]

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Treasurer’s ‘big call’ on RBA top job due in weeks

• A call on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s leadership will be made within weeks, which could see a new governor take the reins within months. 

• Philip Lowe’s seven-year term is up in September, and while he has expressed his willingness for another stint in the top job, the treasurer may opt for a fresh face.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Aussie charities take $13.4 billion in donations

• Australian charities raked in $13.4 billion worth of donations in the 2020-21 financial year and employed over 10 per cent of the total workforce.

• All up charities recorded revenue of $190 million, of which $9.7 billion was distributed in grants and donations to those in need, according to a report by the sector regulator released Thursday.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ [Old] Seattle Times ☛ How Microsoft moves profits offshore to cut its tax bill

• Court documents in a case between Microsoft and the IRS provide a detailed look at how the company, like other multinational corporations, has created a complex structure that allows it to minimize its tax bill.

=> ↺ Paolo Melchiorre ☛ 2023 Python Software Foundation Board Nomination

• While I’ve been involved with the Python community for more than 15 years, I only recently realized (getting over my imposter syndrome) that I, too, could contribute directly to PSF.

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ Reddit Moderators Are Protesting By Changing Their Communities to NSFW

• From June 12 to the 14th, thousands of subreddits turned their communities private, locking out hundreds of millions of users in protest of new fees for accessing the site’s API. Third-party app developers, researchers, and developers use the site’s API to build tools and collect data, but in most cases, the fees would be too exorbitant to continue that work. The developers for popular third party Reddit app Apollo said it would cost more than $20 million per year to keep running, and shut down as a result. Unpaid, volunteer moderators, especially, rely on third-party apps to keep their subreddits running safely in compliance with Reddit’s terms of use.

=> ↺ International Business Times ☛ Twitter employees sue the social media company over unpaid bonuses

• Attorney for the plaintiffs, Shannon Liss-Riordan says Twitter owes “tens of millions of dollars” in bonuses. It is worth noting that the social media giant has a cash performance bonus plan that is paid every year. A Bloomberg report claims Twitter staff were promised to be paid 50 per cent of their target accounts in the form of bonuses ahead of Musk’s acquisition of the company. However, the company failed to pay at least half of the target amounts for last year’s bonuses.

=> ↺ [Repeat] New York Times ☛ In Overhaul, Alibaba’s Boss Moves Aside and Two Co-Founders Step Up

• Alibaba is reshuffling its leadership at a critical time. The company was the highest-profile target of a crackdown by Beijing on the power of China’s biggest tech companies. Its stock price has tumbled from its 2020 peak.

• Alibaba’s founder, the billionaire Jack Ma, was driven out of the public eye in 2020 after criticizing Chinese regulators for stifling innovation at Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial technology sister company. After his remarks, Chinese officials suspended plans for Ant Group to sell stock in an initial public offering. In 2021 Chinese antitrust regulators fined Alibaba $2.8 billion for preventing merchants from selling their goods on other shopping platforms.

=> ↺ Craig Murray ☛ Paradise Lost

• Please start by listening to this brief BBC interview.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ Shame, Shame, Shame: You But Indict Yourselves

• Talk about “conduct unbecoming”: A vengeful, ignominious GOP just barely passed a farcical censure resolution against Adam Schiff for doing his duty, confronting “one of the most egregious abuses of presidential power in our history,” and spearheading Trump’s impeachment. As furious Dems blasted the rare censure as “deflection, retaliation, and distraction” from Trump’s crimes, a stately Schiff dismissed “this hollow sop to the MAGA crowd” and thanked a clownish GOP for placing him “among the truth-tellers.”

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Russia and Qatar Develop Joint Projects Worth $1.9 Billion

• Moscow is ready to develop new air routes with its “key partner in the Middle East.”

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ What to Know About Modi’s Visit and U.S.-India Relations

• The visit has big implications for U.S.-India relations as President Biden seeks to shore up an alliance against Russia’s aggression and China’s economic influence.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Special Counsel Who Hunted for a Deep-State Conspiracy Presents Muted Findings

• John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel, criticized the F.B.I. during a six-hour hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ House votes to censure Trump antagonist Adam Schiff

• The House on Wednesday voted largely along party lines to pass a Republican measure censuring Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

• Why it matters: It’s a significant rebuke of a vocal Trump critic by the House Republican majority.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Three drones reportedly downed ‘while approaching military warehouses’ in Moscow region — Meduza

• Three drones were downed using electronic warfare systems in the Moscow region, Russian law enforcement sources told state media on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian authorities open criminal case under law against ‘driving a person to suicide’ over death of jailed activist — Meduza

• The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over the death of activist Anatoly Berezikov, who died in a prison in the country’s Rostov region last week after his lawyer alleged that the prison authorities were torturing him.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russia bans World Wildlife Fund, accusing the environmental group of undermining Arctic development — Meduza

• Russia’s Prosectuor General has outlawed the local operations of the World Wildlife Fund, designating the group as an “undesirable organization” on the grounds that it poses a threat to Russia’s national security: [...]

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Constitutional Court of Russia refuses to repeal law on ‘discrediting’ the army — Meduza

• The Constitutional Court of Russia rejected claims that the law on “discrediting” the Russian Army is unconstitutional, refusing to repeal the law.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian security forces search home of lawyer representing activist who died in prison — Meduza

• Russian security officials searched the home of Irina Gak, the lawyer who represented activist Anatoly Berezikov, who died in a prison in the country’s Rostov region last week, local media reported on Thursday morning.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Revealed: Peter Costello’s Future Fund has $280m punt on the pokies, lotteries and online gambling

• The Future Fund manages more than $200 billion of public sector funds but does so with a notorious penchant for secrecy. This third instalment in a series from Rex Patrick and Philip Dorling shines a spotlight on the fund’s surprising gambling stake.  

• Former Liberal Treasurer and current Future Fund Board of Guardians chair Peter Costello once confessed to being “a bit of a gambling man, a bit of a punter”. But who would have imagined that under his stewardship the Future Fund would have staked more than $280 million of taxpayers’ funds on companies that extract wealth from the community and cause harm through gambling. 

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ PwC breach of trust ‘deeply disappointing’: Chalmers

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers has labelled findings that consulting firm PwC was calculating in using confidential information for clients as “deeply disappointing”.

• A parliamentary committee found PwC engaged in a “calculated” breach of trust by using confidential information for tax avoidance.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand to ease migration rules to lure more skilled workers

• It will chart a faster route to giving them permanent residency.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ What US asylum changes mean

• The United States, traditionally a leader in offering refuge, received the world’s most asylum applications last year. Yet a new rule limits access to asylum at the southern border.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Imran Khan on the failed India-Pakistan thaw and why he’s ‘prepared for everything’—even death

• The former Pakistani prime minister spoke with the Atlantic Council about unsuccessful plans to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and much more.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ An India of ‘trusted collaboration’?

• A state visit to Washington by the country’s leader comes with hints of shared values, not just shared interests.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Why Modi’s Radio Show Is Vital to His Popularity in India

• The Indian leader, who visits Washington this week, has softened his image at home with an old-fashioned radio show, which feeds a vast social media apparatus.

=> ↺ CS Monitor ☛ World Refugee Day: A crisis builds, testing individuals and nations

• On World Refugee Day, our charts highlight the flows of displaced people, as a U.N. report calls for more global action to help.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ World Refugee Day is a Good Time to Consider Expanding the Ridiculously Narrow Legal Definition of “Refugee”

• The definition excludes a vast range of people fleeing horrific violence and oppression.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Estonia becomes the first Baltic state to legalise same-sex marriage

• On Tuesday, the Estonian parliament voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage, becoming the first Baltic state to do so.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Estonia Parliament passes bill allowing gender-neutral marriage

• Estonia’s Parliament, the Riigikogu, passed a bill Monday to allow gender-neutral marriage in the country. The bill was sent to President Alar Karis for approval on Tuesday. Estonia is the first Baltic nation and the first former Soviet Union nation to legalize gender-neutral or same-sex marriage.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ High stakes in Vietnam’s Central Highlands

• Land and religious freedom remain at the heart of Montagnard grievances, but there are others.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Arrested – or beaten – for wearing flowers to mark Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday

• Jailed Burmese leader often appeared in public with flowers in her hair

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Analysts: Thailand’s talks with Myanmar military expose ASEAN divisions

• They also question why the pro-military government organized the meeting when it was drubbed in the May election.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Samoa’s plan for Chinese visitors stumbles on minister’s ties to tour company

• Samoa’s prime minister says the government has cut ties to a Hong Kong company that chartered flights

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Vytautas Šustauskas, former Kaunas mayor and ‘king of beggars’, passes away

• The colourful former politician known for his protests against high-society balls, has passed away aged 78.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong pollster to curb questions on sensitive topics, incl. Tiananmen crackdown, Taiwan

• A Hong Kong pollster has said that it will scrap about a quarter of its usual survey questions and make private the results of some others, with those relating to the Tiananmen crackdown among the affected topics.

=> ↺ Press Gazette ☛ Man jailed for murder wins legal challenge over ban on speaking to media

• Mark Alexander says he was wrongfully convicted and wants to speak to a podcast about his case.

=> ↺ Vox ☛ The Fifth Circuit comes for the First Amendment right to protest

• For more than four years, a rogue federal appeals court has given life to a highly dubious lawsuit targeting DeRay Mckesson, a prominent figure within the Black Lives Matter movement. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decisions would not only strip Mckesson of his First Amendment-protected right to organize mass protests against police violence, it threatens all Americans’ ability to organize any protest.

• On Friday, the Fifth Circuit handed down its latest decision in Doe v. Mckesson, the case at the heart of this crusade against the First Amendment. Under the Fifth Circuit’s latest approach, a protest organizer who commits even a minor legal violation — in this case the court faulted Mckesson for leading a protest “in front of the Baton Rouge police station” and for attempting “to block a public highway” — may potentially be held liable for the illegal actions of someone else who attended the protest.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Reddit Experiments With Removing Mods, Blocking Attempts To Switch Subs To NSFW

• Reddit’s ongoing war with its volunteer moderators (and users) has moved up a notch. As you’ll recall, last week, the ever tone-deaf CEO Steve Huffman insisted that the protests were just a blip, would be over by last Wednesday, and were having no real impact on the site anyway.

=> ↺ Authorities impose 15-day ban on public activities, events in Hakkari

• The Hakkari Governorate enforced restrictions on various activities, such as public meetings, demonstrations, sit-ins, press statements, hunger strikes, setting up stands, and releasing sky lanterns.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ BIA Net ☛ Journalists convicted over reporting on bribery allegations against Erdoğan’s former lawyer

• Following a recess, the court announced its verdict, acquitting Sezer and Ergün of the charges of “insult” and “libel” but sentencing them separately to 1 year and 8 months in prison for “unlawful disclosure of data obtained by recording non-public conversations through the press and media.” The court suspended the sentences for both journalists.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Finland’s new Interior Minister promises policy u-turn on immigration, refugees

• “We will tighten all the conditions to come to Finland, to stay here and to be in Finland,” Mari Rantanen of the Finns Party told Yle on Tuesday morning.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Bernie is going after working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses

• Bernie Sanders has announced a US Senate investigation into working conditions at Amazon warehouses in an open letter to Andy Jassy, the e-commerce giant’s CEO.

=> ↺ Axios ☛ America’s housing shortage is keeping home prices high

• There aren’t enough homes in the U.S. That’s one big reason house prices have barely fallen since the Fed’s rate hikes sent mortgage costs soaring.

• Why it matters: Except for the very wealthy who can afford to buy whatever they want, the housing shortage touches almost every aspect of Americans’ lives and livelihoods and hits the overall economy, too.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ 41 Dead After Riot Erupts in Honduran Women’s Prison

• The inmates were found shot or burned to death in the latest spasm of violence in the country’s troubled prison system.

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ What Justice John Paul Stevens’s Papers Reveal About Affirmative Action

• Twenty years ago, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, in a draft opinion, that white applicants could not be favored over Asian Americans. Why did she delete those lines—and why did Justice Clarence Thomas adopt them in his own opinion?

=> ↺ Bridge Michigan ☛ Child marriage is legal in Michigan. House votes to ban ‘despicable practice’

• An estimated 5,259 minors were married in Michigan between 2000 and 2018, and nearly 300,000 nationwide, according to researchers.

• Many involved “a spousal age difference that should have been considered a sex crime,” Michael Nyenhuis, President and CEO of UNICEF USA, previously told Michigan lawmakers in written committee testimony.

• “Child marriage is a violation of human rights and comes at a cost society cannot afford,” he said.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Apple stomped all over NYC store workers’ union rights, judge rules

• Apple destroyed union flyers and interrogated its staff in New York City about their unionization efforts, a watchdog has ruled.

• In a decision issued yesterday, National Labor Relations Board judge Lauren Esposito said Apple broke American employment law in an “unprecedented manner” at its World Trade Center store.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Finland’s startup sector criticises new government’s hardline immigration policy

• The government’s plans create the impression Finland has a hostile attitude towards foreigners, according to the Finnish Startup Community.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong issues arrest warrant for man who missed court dates for 2019 illegal assembly charge

• A Hong Kong court has issued an arrest warrant for a man facing trial over an illegal assembly during the 2019 extradition bill protests, after the defendant missed two days of trial in a row.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ We Are Born to Be Happy

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ DOJ Report Exposes Minneapolis Police Civil Rights Violations Amid Call for Community Role in Reforms

• We speak with Minneapolis City Councilmember Robin Wonsley, the first Black Democratic Socialist on the City Council, about the Justice Department’s newly released probe into the city’s police department that found systemic problems with discrimination and excessive force and concluded: “The patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible.” Wonsley says “none of this is new,” and demands a strong community role in public safety reforms expected to follow the report.

=> ↺ CHP leader faces prosecution as legislative immunity ends after failed presidential bid

• Several former HDP deputies also face legal proceedings after not being re-elected.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ Minnesota Miracle: Democrats Use Supermajority to Pass Abortion, Voting, Labor, Tenant Reforms & More

• The Democratic majority in Minnesota’s state Legislature, along with Democratic Governor Tim Walz, have enacted sweeping progressive reforms this year, with many praising the ambitious agenda as a “Minnesota Miracle.” Democrats have successfully codified abortion rights; protections for transgender people; driver’s licenses for undocumented residents; new gun control rules; the restoration of voting rights for previously incarcerated people; a $1 billion investment in affordable housing that includes rent assistance; stronger protections for workers seeking to unionize; and paid family, medical and sick leave, among other measures.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Andrew Tate’s Indictment in Romania: Here’s What to Know

• The online influencer and his brother, Tristan Tate, appeared in court for the first time since their indictment on charges including human trafficking.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ 37 Injured in Paris After Explosion at Apartment Building

• The blast, in the Fifth Arrondissement of the French capital, started a blaze that firefighters quickly brought under control. The origin of the explosion, which critically injured four people, was unclear.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Man Who Assaulted Officer on Jan. 6 Is Sentenced to More Than 12 Years

• Daniel Rodriguez, whom the judge called a “one-man army of hate,” received one of the stiffest sentences so far in the Justice Department’s investigation of the Capitol riot.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Seven Rules For Internet CEOs To Avoid Enshittification

• It seems that we’ve had a rash of formerly loved internet services going down the enshittification curve. As coined (brilliantly) by Cory Doctorow, enshittification is the process by which a company gets gradually worse. As he puts it:

=> ↺ APNIC ☛ [Podcast] Measuring how the IETF performs at producing documents

• Measuring the IETF data tracker gives a unique perspective on the current state of document production.

=> ↺ APNIC ☛ Testing the Multi-Signer DNSSEC model in BIND 9

• Guest Post: Testing, and breaking, Multi-Signer models in Bind 9.

=> ↺ APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: PITA 27th AGM & Business Forum Expo 23

• APNIC presented on IXPs and the importance of CERTs at the PITA 27th AGM & Business Forum Expo 23, held from 29 May to 1 June in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Monopolies

=> ↺ CNBC ☛ Google accuses Microsoft of unfair practices in Azure cloud unit

• Google singled out Microsoft in the complaint, arguing that through its dominant Windows Server and Microsoft Offices products, the company can make it difficult for its massive roster of clients to use anything but its Azure cloud infrastructure offering. Google described Microsoft’s licensing restrictions as a “complex web” that prevents businesses from diversifying their enterprise software vendors.

• Google also said such control represents a significant national security and cybersecurity risk. It highlighted successive cyberattacks involving Microsoft products, including the SolarWinds breach. Microsoft and Google both have active cybersecurity practices that respond to and research cyber threats.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Google formally accuses monopolist Microsoft of trapping people in its cloud

• The letter, obtained by CNBC, takes issue with Microsoft using its Windows Server and Office products to keep clients on Azure, and argues that Microsoft’s control presents a national security risk.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ F.T.C. Sues Amazon for Tricking Users Into Subscribing to Prime

• In its lawsuit, the F.T.C. argued that Amazon had “duped millions of consumers” into enrolling in Prime by using “manipulative, coercive or deceptive” design tactics on its website known as “dark patterns.” And when consumers wanted to cancel, Amazon “knowingly complicated” the process with byzantine procedures.

• “Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” Ms. Khan said in a statement.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ The Stevens Papers: A Peek Behind The Scenes At The Making Of Lotus, Eldred, And Grokster

• The recently released files of the late Associate Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens reveal interesting details concerning some of the Court’s significant copyright decisions, but leave important questions unanswered. Justice Stevens (1920-2019) left his papers to the Library of Congress, which opened them to the public in May 2023. (See here for a blog post on Justice Stevens’ important decisions relating to information technology.) While the papers to do not provide additional information about Justice Stevens’ pivotal role in the shaping of the Sony v. Universal (“Betamax”) decision, revealed by Justice Thurgood Marshall’s files, they do increase our knowledge about Lotus v. Borland, MGM v. Grokster, and Eldred v. Ashcroft.

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