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● 07.05.23

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● Links 05/07/2023: Tellico 3.5.1 and Firefox 115

Posted in News Roundup at 3:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Applications

=> ↺ Linux Links ☛ Machine Learning in Linux: Argos Translate is an Offline Translation Library

• Argos Translate is state of the art neural machine translation software. It’s written in Python and published under an open source license.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ How to Install Elasticsearch on Ubuntu

• Elasticsearch is a popular search and analytics engine that can be used for multiple applications including endpoint security and AI/ML research.

• Let’s take a look at how you can install Elasticsearch on your Ubuntu system in a few easy-to-follow steps.

=> ↺ Beebom ☛ How to Create a User in Linux | Beebom

• Creating users is one of the most fundamental tasks in Linux. System admins have to constantly manage users as the company’s size grows or shrinks. Or maybe you want to add a user in Linux to allow one of your family members to use your computer and prevent them from accessing your personal data. Whatever the case may be, in this guide, let’s look at how to create a user in Linux. There are two ways to create a new Linux user and we have explained both using examples.

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ Bash Script to Call a Function and Get Return

• Bash scripting is a powerful tool for automating tasks and creating complex workflows in the Linux environment. One of the key features of bash scripting is the ability to define and call functions.

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

• ls is one of the simplest and most frequently used commands is Linux. Learn to use it effectively in this tutorial.

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install PostgreSQL on Debian 12

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install PostgreSQL on Debian 12. For those of you who didn’t know, PostgreSQL is an open-source relational database management system, that is widely used in modern web development due to its scalability, extensibility, and robustness.

=> ↺ Major Hayden ☛ Add CloudFront CDN to a Ghost blog

• Adding an AWS CloudFront CDN distribution to a Ghost blog improves response times

• on an already fast blogging platform and increases security along the way. ⚡

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ OMG! Linux ☛ A Wild ‘Bedtime Mode’ for GNOME Desktop Appears

• Modern versions of Android come with a ‘bedtime mode‘ that, when configured, will turn the screen greyscale at night.

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

=> ↺ Beta News ☛ Linux-based Fatdog64-814 debuts as the final release of the 800 series

• Today, the folks behind the lightweight Fatdog64 Linux distribution announce the release of the final version in the 800 series, Fatdog64-814. The developers confirmed that no further releases are planned for this series. However, that’s far from the end of the road for Fatdog64 — the project will continue to innovate and evolve with a brand-new base, the 900 series. Taking a closer look at the updates from the previous version, Fatdog64-814 incorporates Linux-5.19.17, known for its low-latency, 1000Hz, dynamic preemption.

BSD

=> ↺ MWL ☛ June’s Jerryrigged Sausage

• (This post went to Patronizers at the beginning of June, and the public at the beginning of July.) Hi folks! BSDCan dominated this month. It was good. It wasn’t the biggest con we’ve had, but for the first year back it was nice. A handful of folks said they wouldn’t attend because the pandemic is …

• Continue reading “June’s Jerryrigged Sausage”

Gentoo Family

=> ↺ Gentoo ☛ [Gentoo] Week 5 – Modernization of Portage

• I wanted to work on the dependency resolution system of portage. It is a scary codebase and so  Sam suggested I start with bugs related to the dependency resolution system. We decided on bug  528836. The bug is relatively simple (though it took me relatively long time to understand). In gentoo, there are virtual packages. If multiple packages can provide the same functionality / library,  then there is a virtual package that depends on either one of them. Any package needing  that functionality / library can depend on the virtual package and not worry about the specifics. The  problem in this bug is that a package has two dependencies (let’s say) and one depends on a  package and the other depends on the corresponding virtual package. Now portage tries to emerge  both sides of the virtual package, which leads to conflicts. Ideally, the ebuild maintainers should  have made both dependencies depend on the virtual package rather than the actual, but nonetheless portage should have been able to figure it. The first task was to reproduce the bug in a gentoo  system.

=> ↺ Gentoo ☛ Week 5 Report, Automated Gentoo System Updater

• Week started off by receiving some feedback from the community in the forums. Here are some nice ideas that community have suggested to implement: [...]

• Parser has turned out to be much harder than I anticipated. First of all, I had to make some changes to both Python and Bash code to create simpler log output, which reduced number of if/else statements in the parser.

• Secondly, there were some motivation issues. It was a bit hard to focus on the parser, because a much better approach is to add machine readable output from Portage instead of parsing logs. I talked to my mentor about it and we decided to continue working on the parser, mainly because modifying Portage in any significant way take waay too much time.

• On week 6 the plan is to add error parsing and comprehension to the parser. This means I will have to find some different ways to cause Portage to break, and then try to make parser understand the errors that have occurred. Should be really fun!

• After that is done, I can focus on using this information to create nice-looking update reports.

=> ↺ Gentoo ☛ Weekly report 5, LLVM libc

• Hey! This week I’ve spent most of my time figuring out how to bootstrap a LLVM cross compiler toolchain targeting a hosted Linux environment. I have also resolved the wint_t issue from last week. Both of these things took way longer than expected, but I also learned a lot more than expected so it was worth it.

• I’ll start with discussing the LLVM cross compiler setup. My initial idea on how to bootstrap a toolchain was to simply specify LLVM_TARGETS for the target architecture when building LLVM, then compile compiler-rt for the target triple, and then the libc. This is indeed true, but the official cross compilation instructions tells you to specify a sysroot where the libc is already built, and that’s not possible when bootstrapping from scratch.

• As the compiler-rt cross compilation documentation only tells you to usean already set up sysroot, which I didn’t have, I had to try my way forward. This actually took me a few days, and I did things like trying to bootstrap with a barebones build of compiler-rt, mixing in some GCC things, and a lot of hacks. I then studiedmussel for a while until finding out about headers-only “builds” for glibc and musl. It turns out that the only thing compiler-rt needs the sysroot for is libc headers, and those can be generated without a functioning compiler for both musl and glibc. This is done by setting CC=true to pass all the configure tests and then run ‘make headers-install‘ (for musl) into a temporary install directory to generate the headers needed for bootstrapping compiler-rt.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Slashdot ☛ After RHEL 7′s EOL, Red Hat Will Offer a 4-Year ‘Extended Life Cycle Support’ Add-On

• End-of-life for Red Hat 7 is scheduled to happen in one year. Thursday Red Hat announced an add-on option for four more years of “extended support” for RHEL 7…

=> ↺ Slashdot ☛ Defying Red Hat, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux Vow to Continue RHEL-Compatible Updates

• Red Hat argued that they “do not find value in a RHEL rebuild.” Rocky Linux dismissed this view as “narrow-minded,” and RHEL-derived AlmaLinux even responded with specific examples, also noting its contributions to the RHEL and CentOS communities. AlmaLinux’s community manager wrote “When executed properly, downstream rebuilds provide tremendous value and are a tremendous asset to upstream projects.”

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Brockmeier: Red Hat and the Clone Wars III: The dawn of CentOS

• Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier has been a part of the Linux community for decades; he is now using that experience to write a series on “Red Hat and the Clone Wars”. The first two episodes were Red Hat and the Clone Wars and A history of the early 2000s Linux landscape; the latest is The dawn of CentOS..

Debian Family

=> ↺ DebugPoint ☛ Peppermint OS Ditches the Sweet Logo and Gets a Major Makeover with Debian 12 ‘Bookworm’

• The Peppermint OS team has announced the release of the latest version of their Debian-based distribution, integrating the highly anticipated Debian 12 “Bookworm”. This rebase brings a refreshed and simplified experience to users, with changes in branding and adjustments to the welcome screen, among other enhancements.

• One of the major changes in this release is a shift in branding. The Peppermint OS team has updated their branding, signalling a departure from the classic Peppermint look.

=> ↺ OMG! Linux ☛ New Peppermint OS Release Based on Debian 12

• A new version of Peppermint OS is available to download based on Debian 12.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ OMG Ubuntu ☛ Ubuntu ‘Apt News’ Feature Coming to GUI Software Updater

• If you thought you wouldn’t be bothered by Ubuntu’s (mildly annoying) apt “awareness” feature or Ubuntu Pro updates as you don’t use the command line, bad news. Ubuntu will start showing apt news and Ubuntu Pro updates in the Software Updater app on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS later and above in the coming months. To be fair, neither feature is meritless.

=> ↺ ZDNet ☛ Which Ubuntu flavor is best suited for you?

• We’ve reviewed all of the Ubuntu flavors and have come up with a simple guide to help you decide which distribution might best suit your needs.

=> ↺ ZDNet ☛ Xubuntu is a highly configurable Linux desktop that can be tweaked to your heart’s content

• If you like to tinker with your desktop, bending it to meet your exact needs, Xubuntu might be the ideal operating system for you.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Fridge ☛ The Fridge: Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 794

• Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 794 for the week of June 25 – July 1, 2023. The full version of this issue is available here.

=> ↺ Ubuntu News ☛ Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 794

• Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 794 for the week of June 25 – July 1, 2023. The full version of this issue is available here.

=> ↺ ZDNet ☛ Ubuntu Unity relives Canonical’s creativity and brings back one of the best UIs

• The Unity desktop might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but some people loved it. Now, this official Ubuntu flavor puts the Unity desktop front and center.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ ESPboy Turned Into Functional Walkie-Talkie

• The ESPBoy was first built as a hackable open-source game engine and handheld console for educational purposes. However, it’s also a platform that can readily support all kinds of other uses. You can even turn the humble handheld device into a working walkie talkie.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Picopad Is A New Open Source Game Console

• Microcontrollers are so powerful these days that you can build color handheld games with them that match or exceed what you’d ever get on the Game Boys and Game Gears of yesteryear. The Picopad aims to offer just this, in an open-source hackable format that’s friendly to experimenters.

=> ↺ CNX Software ☛ MangoPi RISC-V router will support dual GbE, dual USB 2.0, CAN bus, RS485, and more

• MangoPi is working on the first RISC-V router I’ve seen, based on the ArtInChip D213ECV 64-bit RISC-V processor with 256MB SPI NAND flash, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 2.0 ports, MIPI DSI+touch connector,  support for CAN Bus and RS485, and expansion through a 22-pin GPIO header. Routers used to be mostly based on MIPS processors, then Arm processors took over, and maybe RISC-V is next, as MangoPi has just unveiled photos of the first RISC-V router on Twitter, and leaked some tidbits of information over the last two weeks or so on the social media platform. MangoPi RISC-V router specifications (preliminary): SoC – ArtInChip D213ECV 64-bit RISC-V (RV64IMAFDC) processor System Memory – Not specified, but there should be on-chip RAM, as there’s no footprint for a RAM chip on the PCB.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Tellico 3.5.1 ReleasedTellico 3.5.1 is available, with a few new features.Improvements and Bug FixesAdded support for using OPDS catalogs as data sources (Bug 468698).Added support for reading images from data urls.Added support to save entry template config for custom collections.Fixed including the Image Grid template in the package.

=> ↺ Never Lose Your Work Again: Enabling Autosave in LibreOffice Made Easy

• Autosave is a crucial feature that automatically saves your document at regular intervals, reducing the risk of losing your work due to unexpected power outages, system crashes, or any other unforeseen circumstances. By enabling autosave, you can rest assured that your progress is continuously saved, allowing you to focus on your tasks without the worry of losing important data.

• In this article, we will walk you through the step-by-step process of enabling autosave in LibreOffice & OpenOffice, ensuring that your valuable work is automatically saved at regular intervals.

=> ↺ Rlang ☛ Mentoring & training program for Scientific Open Source Champions

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 20 Open-search Self-hosted Web and Document Search Engine Solutions

• An open-source self-hosted search engine is a search engine that can be hosted on a server and used by an organization to search its own data.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ OpenBlocks is Free Self-hosted Low-code/ No-Code RAD IDE For Enterprise and Agencies

• OpenBlocks is an innovative platform that allows users to create applications with minimal coding knowledge. With OpenBlocks, users can easily develop and deploy applications using a low-code or no-code approach.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ Voici Generates Static Websites from Jupyter Notebooks

• Voici is an exceptional tool that offers a unique way of generating static dashboards from Jupyter Notebooks. Notably, it can replace Voilà with ease. This is because it provides and supports most of Voilà’s configuration options and commands, while also offering some unique features of its own.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 21 Open-source Business Intelligence (BI) Dashboards

• Business Intelligence, commonly known as BI, is the process of collecting, analyzing, and presenting data to make informed business decisions. BI helps organizations to transform their raw data into meaningful insights that can drive their business strategies.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ Lightdash: Is an Open-source Business Intelligence (BI) Dashboard

• Lightdash instantly turns your dbt project into a full-stack BI platform. Analysts write metrics and Lightdash enables self-serve for the entire business.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ Urungi: Open-source Business Intelligence and Reporting tool for SQL Database Engines

• Urungi is a powerful tool that is designed to help you easily create and manage statistics and dashboards, no matter where your data comes from. With Urungi, you can take advantage of a range of features that will help you get the most out of your data.

• To begin with,

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ CBoard Is an Open-source Self-hosted Business intelligence Reporting and Dashboard

• CBoard is a highly versatile analysis platform that provides a plethora of features to users who are looking to improve their data analysis capabilities.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 16 Open-source Free Flutter Dashboard and Admin Panel Templates

• Flutter is an open-source mobile application development framework created by Google. It allows developers to build high-performance, fully customizable, and visually appealing applications for both Android and iOS platforms.

• Flutter Dashboard is an admin panel or back-end interface for managing and controlling the application’s data and functionality.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 10 Free and Open-source Generative Programming Art Tools

• Programming Art is a form of art that involves the creation of visual and interactive designs using programming languages. It combines the principles of programming with the aesthetics of visual design. Programming Art can be used to create animations, visualizations, generative art, and interactive installations.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 25 Open-source Free Landing Page Templates

• A landing page is a standalone web page that serves as an entry point for a website or a particular section of a website.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 32 Open-source Dashboard Projects To Kick-start Your Next Project

• When you are looking to build an app, dashboard creation can be a time-consuming process. However, there are many open-source dashboard projects available that can save you time and effort. These projects offer a variety of options for building informative, feature-rich, and enterprise-grade apps.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ Behind the Screen: Browser History, Cookies, and Caches

• Every web browser meticulously records your online activities to optimize your browsing experience. This functionality is why you can swiftly navigate to your frequently visited online shopping site or encounter an advertisement about your favorite holiday destination on social media.

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 115

• In January 2023, Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8. As a consequence, this is the last version of Firefox that users on those operating systems will receive. Users on Windows 7 and Windows 8 will automatically be migrated to the ESR 115 version of Firefox so that they continue to receive important security updates. Visit this Firefox support article for more information.

• Similarly, this is the last major version of Firefox that will support Apple macOS 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14. Users on those operating systems will be migrated to the ESR 115 version of Firefox so that they continue to receive important updates. Visit this Firefox support article for more information.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Firefox 115 released

• Version 115 of the Firefox browser has been released. New features include support for hardware video decoding on Intel GPUs on Linux and a new “close” option on the tab-manager dropdown. This release is also the end of the line for Windows 7 and 8 support, and for macOS 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14 support as well.

=> ↺ Linuxiac ☛ Firefox 115 Brings Intel GPUs’ Video Decoding to Linux

• Hardware video decoding for Intel GPUs on Linux and Tab Manager close buttons are among the new features of the just-released Firefox 115.

Programming/Development

Perl / Raku

=> ↺ Rakulang ☛ 2023.27 Revising RakuDoc

• Richard Hainsworth kicks off the Pod6 to RakuDoc standardisation process in “Revising RakuDoc“, a follow-up of the discussions at the Raku Core Summit. Summary: currently a small team of developers (among whom is Damian Conway) is working on a beta-version of RakuDoc standard that will be available for discussion on August 1st.

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Latvian watermelons grow in popularity

• As Latvian climate has changed over the last decade, the cultivation of watermelons and melons has not only turned into a hobby level for many but is also grown on fields for trade, Zemgale television reported on July 3.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Apple reportedly scales back Vision Pro production because of design complexity [Ed: No, because it does not sell.]

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ Google testing block on YouTube users who have ad-blocking software

• As can be seen from a screenshot posted on Reddit [above], a warning appears that the video player will be blocked after three videos.

• And in smaller text, the warning graphic says: “It looks like you may be using an ad-blocker. Video playback will be blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled.

• “Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide. You can go ad-free with YouTube Premium, and creators can still get paid from your subscription.”

• According to an Australian resident who subscribes to YouTube Premium, the cost is $22.99 per month for a family pack.

=> ↺ Pokemon Go Players Claim Niantic Sending Mixed Signals With Campfire’s Team Up Feature [Ed: Layoffs in progress]

• Just last week, Niantic released a new mobile app that is supposed to act as a companion to Pokemon Go. However, fans feel confused about the actual direction of the Campfire app, as the game was designed to help players get in touch with other players that are looking to participate in raids, as many purchase Remote Battle Raid passes and then don’t get the opportunity to use them.

=> ↺ So far, Halo Infinite has lost 98 percent of its users on Steam

• Halo Infinite has persoed so far the majority of its Steam users: at the start the game had a total of 272,586 users, but that number has dropped to just 5,023 users in recent days.

• 343 Industries admitted to the lack of quality in Halo Infinite, indicating signs of improvement, which, however, appear tardy to say the least. He started the game slowly and with little conviction.

• I numbers Today’s events leave a bitter taste in the mouth with respect to an experience that had the potential to be very successful at the start, only to stumble into a lengthy series of errors.

=> ↺ Tech Giants Layoffs Continue: Google , Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft Among Hardest Hit

• in May, Microsoft announced layoffs of 158 employees from its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Security

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ Deloitte probe into Optus attack will be released… when???

• In March this year, when iTWire asked Optus about the probe, the company said “…we’re expecting the findings of the investigation to be available in late May”.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Researchers warn unpatched Fortinet firewalls are exposed to critical vulnerability

• Security researchers at Bishop Fox LLC Friday issued a warning that hundreds of thousands of Fortinet Inc. firewalls remain vulnerable to attack because they weren’t patched following the disclosure of a critical vulnerability in June.

=> ↺ Scoop News Group ☛ Hacking crew targeting states over transition bans claims cyberattack hitting global satellite systems

• A group that previously hacked Fort Worth, Texas, claimed a cyberattack that affected Halliburton, Shell, Helix Energy and Oceaneering.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Security updates for Tuesday [LWN.net]

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (ghostscript), Fedora (apache-ivy, chromium, golang-github-schollz-croc, golang-github-schollz-mnemonicode, and webkitgtk), SUSE (amazon-ecs-init, dnsdist, libcap, python-tornado, terraform, and xmltooling), and Ubuntu (imagemagick, openldap, php7.4, php8.1, and screen).

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ 340,000+ Fortinet firewalls wide open to flaw – report • The Register

• More than 338,000 FortiGate firewalls are still unpatched and vulnerable to CVE-2023-27997, a critical bug Fortinet fixed last month that’s being exploited in the wild.

• This is according to infosec outfit Bishop Fox, which has developed an example exploit for achieving remote code execution via the hole. Successful exploitation of the pre-authentication vulnerability can allow an intruder to take over the network equipment. Bishop Fox warned: “You should patch yours now.”

=> ↺ SWI ☛ Data leak affects 425,000 Swiss Abroad – SWI swissinfo.ch

• In mid-May, a stolen data set appeared on the darknet. The content was information about subscribers to Swiss Review.This is a federal government magazine that keeps Swiss citizens abroad up to date on developments in their home country.

• The data set is comprehensive. It currently contains over 425,000 addresses, 40% of which are postal and 60% email addresses. Anyone who is registered in Switzerland as a citizen resident abroad automatically receives Swiss Review – either by email or by post. According to the foreign ministry, only 330,000 of the 800,000 Swiss Abroad do not receive Swiss Review – among them, Italian-speaking Swiss. […]

• But how could this have happened? Put simply, the 425,000 addresses of the Swiss Abroad are by-products of a blackmail attack on two Swiss publishing houses, the NZZ publishing group and CH Media. The two publishers’ digital infrastructures are networked with each other.

=> ↺ Notice of apology: Email containing current student information mistakenly sent to currently enrolled students | Tokyo Tech News | Tokyo Institute of Technology

• A file containing personal information of currently enrolled Tokyo Tech students was attached mistakenly to an email sent on the afternoon of June 28 to presently enrolled regular-course students.

• The email in question was an announcement regarding the Career Consultation Session hosted by the Student Support Center’s Student Success Support Section at Tokyo Tech. The attached file, which is used to set up destination email addresses for students, contained personal information of approximately 10,000 currently enrolled Tokyo Tech students, including their names and email addresses. Due to erroneous operation of the Web System for Students and Faculty, the file was sent unintendedly to currently enrolled students with valid email addresses. Although the file did not include residing addresses or dates of birth, Tokyo Tech is making every effort to keep the contents of the file private in the interest of protecting our students.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ One of the scariest podcasts ever….

• Remember last year when we were all reporting on how Conti had crippled Costa Rica with a ransomware attack and was suggesting the people overthrow the government to get one in place that would pay them?

• What if that was actually what Conti was trying to test on behalf of Russia or other powers — whether they could overthrow a government by decimating it with a massive ransomware attack? And if they could cripple Costa Rica and leave it vulnerable, what about other Latin American countries?

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Imagine360 discovers that two of its file-sharing platforms were hit within days of each other.

• With all the big attacks on third-party vendors, it’s not surprising that some entities are reporting two or more breaches in a short period of time.

• Imagine360, LLC, is a self-funded health plan for employers.

• On or around January 30, Imagine360 identified unusual activity within Citrix, its third-party file-sharing platform. Imagine360 terminated access to the platform, reset passwords, and confirmed the security of its own environment. It also began its own internal investigation to determine the scope of the breach.

• Days later, on or about February 3, 2023, Fortra, who owns the GoAnywhere platform that Imagine 360 also used for file-sharing, notified Imagine360 of the GoAnywhere breach.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ NYOB ☛ CJEU declares Meta/Facebook’s GDPR approach largely illegal

• CJEU declares Meta/Facebook’s GDPR approach largely illegal

• In today’s decision, the CJEU declared Meta/Facebook’s GDPR approach largely illegal – similar to noyb’s previous litigation before the EDPB leading to a fine of € 390 million.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Moldova Shootout Suspect Dies In Custody, Airport Security Probed

• A man accused of killing two security officials in a shootout last week at Moldova’s main airport died of multiple gunshot wounds on July 3, as authorities in the ex-Soviet state ordered an enquiry into beefing up airport security.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Unprecedented scale: 12,000 officers, troops to ensure security during NATO summit in Vilnius

• Up to 12,000 officers and soldiers will be responsible for security during the NATO summit in Vilnius next week, according to Paulius Nemira, the first deputy director of the Dignitary Protection Service.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ Pacific treaties must be built with care and nurtured once they’re in place

• Security agreements are an increasingly hot topic in the Pacific as Australia, the US, China and New Zealand seek broad arrangements across the region.

Environment

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ Speech of EVP Timmermans at Tsinghua University in China on the global Climate and Biodiversity crises

• European Commission Speech Beijing, 03 Jul 2023 We are observing all over the place the effects of global warming, and such events are unfortunately likely to increase in frequency and severity. We need to act in a way that our action could become a universal law. Europe and China should act. We’re both benefiting from fair, multilateral global.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Thailand’s Koh Samui grapples with water shortage due to lack of rain and increased demand

• The island is said to have enough local fresh water supplies for residents for less than 30 days.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ Did a Study Say Scientists ‘Failed For Decades’ to Share Climate Risks? Here’s The Truth

• We’re going to stop you there…

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Climate Activists Protested in Front of the Florence Baptistery

• Members of the Ultima Generazione organization poured the sauce on themselves and unfurled a banner in front of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Climate Change: UK Had Hottest June on Record since 1884

• The Met Office confirmed that 2022 was UK’s warmest year on record, with the average annual temperature higher than 10 degrees Celsius for the first time.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ World hits record land, sea temperatures as climate change fuels 2023 extremes

• There is now a 66% likelihood the annual mean will cross the 1.5 deg C threshold for a whole year.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Canada Offers Lesson in the Economic Toll of Climate Change

• Wildfires are hurting many industries and could strain households across Canada, one of many countries reckoning with the impact of extreme weather.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ France24 ☛ EU climate chief concerned over expansion of China’s coal industry

• The European Union’s climate chief on Monday expressed concern over the expansion of China’s coal industry, with the building of new coal-fired plants.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ EU climate chief concerned as China expands coal plants

• The European Union’s climate chief has expressed concern over the expansion of China’s coal industry with the building of new coal-fired plants.

• At a conference in Beijing, Frans Timmermans said while China was forging ahead with plans to expand its use of renewable resources such as wind and solar energy, the country has also been constructing an ever-growing number of coal-fired plants in the past few years.

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ Oil and Gas Lobbying Threatens California’s Game-Changing Climate Bills

• Legislation aims to shine a light on corporate climate pollution and carbon offsets.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Deep sea mining permits may be coming soon. What are they and what might happen?

• The United Nations body that regulates the world’s ocean floor is preparing to resume negotiations that could open the international seabed for mining, including for materials vital for the green energy transition. Negotiations within the International Seabed Authority are approaching a critical point since it will soon need to begin accepting applications for mining permits. Environmental activists and researchers worry about the potential impact of mining on sparsely researched marine ecosystems and habitats of the deep sea. Here’s a look at deep sea mining, its importance and why environmental activists are raising concerns.

Finance

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Asian stocks dip as investors seek rates clarity

• Most Asian stocks have fallen while the United States dollar and oil steadied as investors held safe ranges awaiting more clues on whether central banks will continue their aggressive interest rate hikes.

• Market conditions were also subdued heading into the US Independence Day public holiday on Tuesday, with most of Wall Street closed.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ In Tuna-Obsessed Tunisia, a Favorite Food Becomes a Lot Less Affordable

• Tunisians put canned tuna on pizza, pastries and pretty much everything else. Don’t even ask for a tuna-free sandwich. But inflation risks turning an everyday essential into a luxury out of reach.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Meta to launch Twitter-style microblogging app Threads

• Meta Platforms plans to launch a microblogging app, Threads, days after Twitter executive chair Elon Musk announced a temporary cap on how many posts users can read on the social media site.

• Threads, Instagram’s text-based conversation app, is expected to be released on Thursday and will allow users to follow the accounts they follow on the photo-sharing platform and keep the same username, a listing on Apple’s App Store showed.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Meta Unveils ‘Threads’ App to Take on Twitter

• Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, teased a new app called Threads that is set to take on Twitter for real-time digital conversations.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Meta platforms set to launch Twitter rival Threads

• Meta Platforms plans to launch a microblogging app, Threads, days after Twitter executive chair Elon Musk announced a temporary cap on how many posts users can read on the social media site.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Elon Musk has made Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino’s job even harder

• Just over a month into Linda Yaccarino’s stint as Twitter’s CEO, Elon Musk is already undermining her role publicly.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Twitter temporarily limiting the number of tweets read per day, says Elon Musk [Ed: Instead of "says Elon Musk" maybe check what's true and report facts]

• Twitter is limiting how many tweets per day various accounts can read, to discourage “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation, Executive Chair Elon Musk said in a post on the social media platform on Saturday.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ DeSantis Uses L.G.B.T.Q Issues to Attack Trump in Twitter Video

• The Florida governor sought to contrast his record opposing gay and transgender rights in a video highlighting comments made by the former president during the 2016 campaign — but has gotten some pushback.

=> ↺ Michael West Media ☛ Twitter says users must be verified to access TweetDeck

• Twitter users will soon need to be verified to use TweetDeck, the social media company says.

• The change will take effect in 30 days, the company said in a tweet on Monday.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ An anti-Trump video shared by the DeSantis campaign is ‘homophobic,’ says a conservative LGBT group

• A prominent group that represents LGBT conservatives says a video shared by Ron DeSantis′ presidential campaign that slams rival Donald Trump for his past support of gay and transgender people “ventured into homophobic territory.” The video was shared on Twitter on Friday, the last day of June’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The video features footage of Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016 saying he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” The video later shifts from its Trump focus to promoting headlines saying that DeSantis as Florida governor signed “the most extreme slate of anti-trans laws in modern history” and a “draconian anti-trans bathroom bill.”

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ India’s Karnataka High Court dismisses Twitter petition and imposes fine

• The Indian High Court of Karnataka dismissed Twitter’s petition against the Central government’s blocking orders on Friday and imposed a ₹5 million rupees fine on the microblogging platform. The judgement comes almost a year after Twitter filed a petition in July of last year and was delivered by the single-judge bench of Justice Dixit.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ As Twitter’s woes continue, Meta looks set to launch a new competitor

=> ↺ NYPost ☛ Elon Musk’s rate limits on Twitter send Bluesky’s traffic to record high

• Musk imposed the rate limits because of “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation, saying that Twitter was “getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading the user experience!”

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Australian firm sues Twitter for $901k for not paying bills

• Facilitate Corp is seeking payments from Twitter for work done in four countries, including Singapore.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ Elon Musk Really Broke Twitter This Time

• The social network has never seen chaos quite like this.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ Former Hong Kong legislators charged with separatism under National Security Law

• Hong Kong authorities on Monday brought charges under its 2020 National Security Law against eight activists, accusing them of advocating separation from China. Former Hong Kong legislators Dennis Kwok and Ted Hui are among those sought by authorities. Police released brief summaries of the allegations against each activist. 

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Vietnam bans ‘Barbie’ movie over controversial South China Sea map

• Vietnam has banned Warner Bros’ highly-anticipated film “Barbie” from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Vietnam banned the Barbie movie because of a dispute in the South China Sea

• The Barbie movie won’t make it to Vietnam’s silver screens, apparently due to a scene starring the nine-dot line map that depicts China’s claims to disputed waters in the South China sea.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ Hong Kong police engage in a Dark Ages hunt for exiles

• Hong Kong’s national security police celebrated the third anniversary of the draconian national security law by issuing arrest warrants for eight exiled activists, two of whom are in Australia.

=> ↺ NYPost ☛ Hong Kong leader says 8 pro-democracy activists who now live in the West ‘will be pursued for life’

• Hong Kong’s leader said Tuesday said eight pro-democracy activists will be pursued for life for alleged national security offenses

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Hong Kong police offer rewards for arrests of 8 pro-democracy activists who live abroad

• Hong Kong police have offered rewards for information leading to the arrests of eight pro-democracy activists who went into exile abroad and are accused of violating the territory’s harsh National Security Law. The $127,600 rewards are the first for alleged violators of the law enacted in 2020, though more than 260 people have been arrested under the law. Some of the eight suspects named in the arrest warrants are former lawmakers in Hong Kong. They live in the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia after being accused of other crimes. Britain said it would not tolerate the attempt to intimidate people standing up for democracy. A U.S. official condemned the issuance of what it called an international bounty for the activists.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ They will ‘live in fear’: Hong Kong’s John Lee invites ‘anyone’ to help police arrest wanted overseas democrats

• “Anyone,” including friends and family members, can receive the bounty for facilitating the arrests of the eight democrats wanted by the national security police, Chief Executive John Lee has said.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong national security police issue HK$1 million bounty each for 8 self-exiled activists

• Hong Kong national security police have issued arrest warrants for eight self-exiled activists, including former lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok. The Force also offered HK$1 million for each of the wanted people.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Japanese journalist who covered the 2019 protests denied entry to Hong Kong – reports

• A Japanese journalist known for his coverage of Hong Kong’s protests was barred from entering the city days before the 26th anniversary of its Handover to China, according to various Japanese news outlets.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Constitutional Court Legalizes Matronymic Names Following Activist’s Battle

• Kyrgyz activist Altyn Kapalova wrote on Facebook on July 2 that the Constitutional Court had ordered the government to legalize matronymic names following her long-running battle to allow children to choose to use their mother’s name instead of their father’s as part of their full legal names.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Reuters ☛ Exclusive: Microsoft faces EU antitrust probe after remedies fall short, sources say

• Microsoft, which has been fined 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in the previous decade for practices in breach of EU competition rules, including tying or bundling two or more products…

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Report: EU expected to launch new antitrust investigation into Microsoft – SiliconANGLE

=> ↺ Tom’s Hardware ☛ Microsoft Has Reportedly Sold Just 21 Million Xbox Series X and S Consoles [Ed: In short, XBox as a business may not be viable anymore]

=> ↺ Tom’s Hardware ☛ Microsoft Has Reportedly Sold Just 21 Million Xbox Series X and S Consoles [Ed: In short, XBox as a business may not be viable anymore]

• Microsoft’s 21m Xbox Series X and S sales pale in comparison to rival numbers.

Patents

=> ↺ JUVE ☛ Bird & Bird expands patent partnership in Dublin [Ed: Bird & Bird and Team UPC bribe JUVE not just to promote utterly illegal agenda but also to post outright spam as if it is news. JUVE jumped the shark years ago and become a fervent proponent of white-collar crime.]

=> ↺ MyEPO Portfolio – completion of second pilot phase and a step closer towards a fully digitalised patent grant procedure [Ed: This is illegal. As staff of the EPO has pointed out in publications, this is a violation of the EPC. EPO has become an outlaw organisation, operating in a vacuum for multinationals and patent sharks.]

• New features and services simplify workflows and pave the way to a truly interactive user experience.

=> ↺ Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Building a Better BOTOX®? PGR and Enablement

• Medytox, Inc. has appealed a decision made by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board regarding a post-grant review proceeding under the new Pilot Program. Medytox’s motion to amend the claim language, which aimed to substitute claims 19–27 of U.S. Patent No. 10,143,728 (‘728 patent), was denied by the Board for lack of enablement. Additionally, Medytox questions the Board’s Pilot Program regarding motion to amend practice and procedures under the Administrative Procedure Act. In Medytox v. Galderma, 2022-1165, — F.4th — (Fed. Cir. Jun. 27, 2023), Judge Reyna (joined by Judges Dyk and Stark) affirmed the Board’s determinations involving claim construction, enablement, arbitrary and capricious behavior under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

=> ↺ JUVE ☛ Nokia and Apple renew ‘multi-year’ 5G patent licensing agreement [Ed: Nokia is a patent parasite and the parasites are building walls. JUVE, a propaganda platform of patent sharks and people who break the law, covers this in a shallow manner.]

• In signing a new licence agreement starting from January 2024, Nokia and Apple have extended a previous agreement which is set to expire at the end of this year.

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