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● 09.16.23

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● Links 16/09/2023: This Week in KDE and GNOME

Posted in News Roundup at 4:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ Unicorn Media ☛ FOSS Week In Review: ZFS’s Ubuntu Return, the Nigerian Prince Goes AI, Stolen Passwords, Torvalds Does Hutton, and More

• In this week’s roundup we look at ZFS’s return to Ubuntu as an install option (and why it was removed in the first place), how the Nigerian Prince is adopting AI for phishing, Linux Torvalds fabulous impersonation of E.F. Hutton, and more.

Server

=> ↺ Fermyon Brings Wasm and AI Together via Serverless Framework

• Fermyon’s Wasm PaaS now includes a serverless computing framework for invoking AI models.

=> ↺ Ubuntu ☛ Ubuntu Blog: How a real-time kernel reduces latency in telco edge clouds

• Telco edge clouds are among the most popular and promising technologies with great potential to deliver performance improvements. An edge cloud is an infrastructure to run software located close to devices and end-users. 

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Tux Digital ☛ This Week in Linux 233: GNOME Extension Breakage, KDE Plasma 6, Manjaro 23, SELinux & more Linux news!

• Welcome to This Week in Linux (233). On this week’s episode, KDE announced the release date for KDE Plasma 6. Manjaro Linux 23 has been released. Some extensions will be breaking in GNOME 45, a lot of them.

=> ↺ Ubuntu ☛ Ubuntu Blog: Ubuntu AI Podcast: Episode 4

• Welcome to Ubuntu AI podcast! From fun experiments to enterprise projects, AI became the center of attention when it comes to innovation, digital transformation and optimisatation.

• Open source technologies democratised access to state of the art machine learning tools and opened doors for everyone ready to embark on their AI journey.

• Ubuntu AI will be your guide in the industry where community of like-minded people meet, to make an impact.

Instructionals/Technical

idroot

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

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Prometheus on Debian 12. In today’s complex digital landscape, system monitoring is paramount.

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install Zabbix on Rocky Linux 9

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Zabbix on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Zabbix, a renowned open-source monitoring solution, plays a pivotal role in maintaining the health and performance of your network infrastructure.

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install Pi-Hole on AlmaLinux 9

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Pi-Hole on AlmaLinux 9. In an age where online advertisements and tracking scripts clutter our browsing experiences, Pi-Hole emerges as a savior.

=> ↺ Linux Host Support ☛ How to Install Akaunting on Ubuntu 22.04

• Akaunting is a free and open-source software written in PHP using the Laravel framework and modern technologies such as VueJS, Tailwind, RESTful API and etc. The information is stored in MySQL database service, and for web servers, we can use Nginx, Apache, or LiteSpeed.

=> ↺ Own HowTo ☛ How to install Parsec on Debian 12

• I tried installing Parsec on Debian 12 today, and it did not work at first because of missing dependencies error

=> ↺ 5 Tools to Create a Bootable USB with Multiple Operating Systems

• USB creator tools are essential when it comes to experiencing varying distributions in a live system without the stress of burning an image…

=> ↺ Linux Cloud VPS ☛ How to Enable Proxy Settings for Yum Command on AlmaLinux 9

• Yum is a package manager written in Python used for getting, installing, querying, and managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux RPM software packages. Sometimes the files that we need to download and access are not accessible directly on remote servers, and we need to configure a proxy so we can download them on our machine.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Handbook ☛ You can Finally Install LibreOffice 7.6 via PPA in Ubuntu

• For best integration, the LibreOffice PPA is finally updated with the LibreOffice 7.6.x packages for Ubuntu. LibreOffice 7.6 was released almost one months ago.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Nate Graham ☛ This week in KDE: more Plasma 6 dev

• This week it was pretty much all Plasma 6 all the time. With the release date four and a half months away, work is kicking into high gear to make sure that we hit our deadline!

• Made even more cursor responsiveness improvements for the Plasma Wayland session! The cursor is really very responsive now

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ This Week in GNOME ☛ This Week in GNOME (Felix Häcker): #113 Numerous Updates

• Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from September 08 to September 15.

=> ↺ Georges Basile Stavracas Neto ☛ Georges Basile Stavracas Neto: Extending the month to infinity

• I’d like to share some recent developments in GNOME Calendar that got some people really excited about: the infinitely scrolling month view.

• Before GNOME 45, Calendar offers two views – week and month – as well as a sidebar with a list of events.

• The headerbar offers controls to navigate back and forth in time. The effect of these controls depends on the current view: if you’re in the week view, going forward in time moves you a week ahead; in the month view, it moves you a month.

• Both views have evolved to be strictly about their respective time ranges. That means the month view, for example, strictly deals with the current month. Days from other months that sneak into the view are not interactive, and it doesn’t show events on them. This has been a long-standing feature request in GNOME Calendar.

=> ↺ Sam Thursfield: Status update, 15/09/2023

• Musically this has been a fun month. One of my favourite things about living in Galicia is that ska-punk never went out of fashion here and you can legitimately go to a festival by the sea and watch Ska-P. Unexpectedly brilliant and chaotic live show. I saw an interview recently where Angelo Moore of Fishbone was asked by a puppet what his favourite music is, and he answered: “I like … I like the Looney Tunes music”. Same energy.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Remi Collet ☛ Remi Collet: New ARM builder for 2023, 2024… from ETES GmbH

• ARM 64-bit is a RISC family processor.

• As an old Unix user (on 68000, PA-RISC, PowerPC…) I’m a big fan of these architectures and a bit sad by the CISC (Intel/MD) domination.

• But the wheel is turning. ARM can be fast, cheap, and use less energy. Remember they are used to power your smartphone.

Debian Family

=> ↺ Daniel Pocock ☛ Daniel Pocock: Software in the Public Interest (SPI) & Debian obfuscated structure fooled suicide victim’s family: the ultimate example of bad faith

• There have been a lot of accusations of bad faith thrown around recently. Has anybody stopped to check what bad faith actually means? What is the difference between bad faith and fraud? Fraud is often quite unambiguous, like the FSFE using the name of FSF to raise millions of euros in donations. Bad faith seems to be a gray area that can mean whatever you want it to mean.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Jeff Geerling ☛ 100 SBCs, Python Flask, and two NUCs for MrBeast

• If you haven’t already, watch How I almost broke MrBeast’s 1-100 video, which provides context for this blog post.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Thunderbird ☛ Mozilla Thunderbird: Thunderbird for Android / K-9 Mail: August 2023 Progress Report

• August was a relatively calm month for the K-9 Mail team, with many taking well-deserved summer vacations and attending our first Mozilla All-Hands event. Despite the quieter pace, we managed to hit a significant milestone on our journey to Thunderbird for Android: the beta release of our new account setup interface.

• We’re thrilled to announce that we rolled out a beta version featuring the new account setup UI. This has been a long-awaited feature, and even though the team was partially on vacation, we managed to get it out for user testing. The initial feedback has been encouraging, and we’re eager to hear your thoughts.

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ LibreOffice Conference 2023 in Bucharest

• LibreOffice Conference 2023 will be hosted by the Universitatea Națională de Știință și Tehnologie Politehnica București, Facultatea de Automatică și Calculatoare (National University of Science and Technology, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science) at the PRECIS building from Wednesday 20 September to Saturday 23 Septembe.

=> ↺ LibreOffice and Google Summer of Code 2023: The results

• This year, LibreOffice was once again a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC), a global program focused on bringing more student developers into free and open source software development.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Linux Hint ☛ Advanced Git Log: Filtering and Custom Formatting

• To filter and custom format these Git log histories use the options like “–decorate” and “–oneline”. See the guide for more options and practical examples.

=> ↺ The Servo Blog: This month in Servo: upcoming events, new browser UI, and more!

• While our WebGPU support is still very much experimental (–pref dom.webgpu.enabled), it now passes over 5000 more tests in the Conformance Test Suite, after an upgrade from wgpu 0.6 (2020) to 0.16 (2023) and the addition of GPUSupportedFeatures. A few WebGPU demos now run too, notably those that don’t require changing the width or height on the fly, such as the Conway’s Game of Life built in Your first WebGPU app.

=> ↺ Xe’s Blog ☛ Making NixOS modules for fun and (hopefully) profit

• Cadey> There was an A/V glitch with the recording, my slides were intended to be black and white, but they somehow came out as purple and green. This couldn’t be fixed even when trying several HDMI cables. If this becomes an issue I may re-record this talk in my home studio.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Flooding death toll soars to 11,300 in Libya’s coastal city of Derna, aid group says

• The Libyan Red Crescent says that the death toll from floods in the eastern Libyan city of Derna has soared to 11,300. The Secretary General of the aid group says a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the coastal city. Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many eastern towns, but the worst-hit was Derna. Residents said they heard loud explosions Sunday night when dams outside the city collapsed. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.

=> ↺ TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Flooding death toll soars to 11,300 in Libya’s coastal city of Derna, aid group says

• The Libyan Red Crescent says that the death toll from floods in the eastern Libyan city of Derna has soared to 11,300. The Secretary General of the aid group says a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the coastal city. Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many eastern towns, but the worst-hit was Derna. Residents said they heard loud explosions Sunday night when dams outside the city collapsed. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.

=> ↺ Criticism arises over exclusion of Kurdish in e-prescription system

• The system used by healthcare professionals is now available in five additional languages besides Turkish. MPs question why Kurdish is not among them.

Hardware

=> ↺ The Next Platform ☛ China’s 1.5 Exaflops Supercomputer Chases Gordon Bell Prize – Again

• The Association for Computing Machinery has just put out the finalists for the Gordon Bell Prize award that will be given out at the SC23 supercomputing conference in Denver, and as you might expect, some of the biggest iron assembled in the world are driving the advanced applications that have their eyes on the prize.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ China Calls On UN To Pay Attention To Japan’s Water Dumping

• On August 24, Japan began dumping water contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ Aggressive Cancer Cells Transformed Into Healthy Cells in Breakthrough

• New hope to treat a cruel disease.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Nurses from 40 States Will be Eligible To Practice in Pennsylvania

• On September 5, the Keystone State is removing a big barrier to health care.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Monday’s papers: Threat of unemployment, teen mental health decline and growing Finns

• Will Finns keep getting taller?

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Nursing union slams government for delaying key healthcare reform

• SuPer says the proposed four-year postponement of a law amendment endangers patient safety and undermines efforts to recruit new workers to the healthcare sector.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ ST Picks: Years after Taipei stabbing, mental health awareness still lacking

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ True Crimes of Asia: Years after Taipei subway stabbing spree, mental health awareness still lacking

• There is still a perennial stigma around mental illnesses in Taiwan.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ More Screen Time Linked to Delayed Development in Babies, Study Finds

• One-year-olds exposed to more than four hours of screen time a day experienced developmental delays in communication and problem-solving skills at ages 2 and 4, according to a new study

=> ↺ Axios ☛ Medical debt is squeezing millions of middle-class Americans, report says

• Middle-class Americans are the most likely to be saddled with medical debt, with nearly 1 in 4 — or roughly 17 million people — having unpaid medical bills, according to a report shared first with Axios from center-left think tank Third Way.

• Driving the news: Middle-income Americans, who earn $50,000-$100,000 a year, are more likely than those with lower incomes to seek care but don’t qualify for Medicaid or charity care to help pay for it.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Isolating mpox patients at public hospitals ‘necessary’ and in line with WHO advice, Hong Kong gov’t says

• Hong Kong’s strategy of isolating mpox patients in public hospitals is “in line with the recommendations from the World Health Organization” (WHO) and “necessary” to safeguard public health, the government has said. The comments were made by a government spokesperson on Friday afternoon in a statement issued in response to media reports on isolation procedures.

=> ↺ University of Michigan ☛ President’s award winners focus on global health, student travel

• Jody Lori of the School of Nursing and Katie Lopez of the School of Social Work are this year’s recipients of the President’s Award for Distinguished Service in International Education.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ N.Y. Court Categorically Authorizes Video Proceedings in Mandatory Mental Treatment Cases

• From Judge Gerard Neri (N.Y. Onondaga County trial court), decided July 26, in In the Matter of St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center v.

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ Blood Protein Might Explain Why Exercise Keeps Our Brains Young

• “Messengers of brain health.”

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Middle-Aged Adults Are Binge Drinking and Using Marijuana at Record Levels

• More than one-quarter of people aged 30 to 50 binge drink, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health

=> ↺ NYPost ☛ New York State Department releases guidance after 3 dead from flesh-eating bacteria in New York, Connecticut

• The state Department of Public Health said that there are three people known to have been infected with the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria.

=> ↺ Spiegel ☛ Smoking Weed By the Book: Germany’s Awkward Path To Legalizing Cannabis

• The German government originally had ambitious plans for lifting its prohibition on the consumption of cannabis. But concerns about health and crime are growing and little more is expected now than a legalization light.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ To Fix Health Care, We Need to Look Beyond Medicine

• We can start by expanding access to care, but we also need to look beyond medicine and address harmful behaviors and poverty.

=> ↺ Democracy Now ☛ “Watershed Moment”: Montana Rules Youth Have Constitutional Right to Healthy Climate

• In a landmark climate case, a judge in Montana has ruled in favor of a group of young people who had sued the state for violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels. In her decision, Montana Judge Kathy Seeley wrote, “Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate.” We speak with plaintiff Olivia Vesovich about the historic ruling, which she calls “the most life-changing news that I’ve ever heard.” “It’s a real watershed moment,” adds Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, a not-for-profit law firm representing the 16 youth plaintiffs between ages 5 and 22. “There’s going to be huge ripple effects as other courts start stepping up and doing their role in our democracy to be a check on the other branches of government.”

=> ↺ Pro Publica ☛ Choate Director Replaced as New Report Says Abuse Hasn’t Stopped

• State officials this week named a new leader of Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center amid a drumbeat of criticism and investigations into abuse and poor care at the southern Illinois facility.

• Bryant Davis, who served as Choate’s top administrator since 2014, has been replaced by Stephany Hoehner, who has worked as a project manager at the facility since March, according to an email to staff on Monday obtained by reporters.

=> ↺ ‘Eris’ variant of the Coronavirus detected in 9 individuals

• “In an examination conducted at our Reference Laboratory, we detected the Eris variant in 9 individuals. They have had foreign contact and are from the same province. We will continue with our current precautions in our daily lives,” announced the Health Minister.

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ COVID-19: Commission authorises second adapted vaccine for Member States’ autumn vaccination campaigns [Ed: The European Commission working for American companies (patent cartel) whose track record when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines is appalling; they never bothered doing proper clinical trials or even testing the boosters of humans. They openly admit they never checked "efficacy", they just released it to billions of people, fingers crossed.]

• European Commission Press release Brussels, 15 Sep 2023 The Commission has authorised the Spikevax XBB.1.5-adapted COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Moderna.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Aaron Kheriaty: Will COVID Restrictions Persist Indefinitely in Schools?

• Aaron Kheriaty, author of The New Abnormal, examines the persistent COVID mandates for K-12 schools, college campuses, and health care settings.

=> ↺ The Kent Stater ☛ University sees first increase In enrollment since pandemic

• The university saw an increase in fall semester enrollment for the first time in two years, according to 15-day enrollment numbers released Tuesday. The document reported 25,283 students attend the Kent campus this semester, which is an 0.82% increase from the previous fall.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

=> ↺ Yahoo News ☛ Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Win+L is the most cursed Windows 11 shortcut combo

• Professional social media hell is just a keyboard combo away.

=> ↺ Bloomberg ☛ Unity Technologies Destroys Its Goodwill With Developers

• This has been a banner year for once-beloved brands crushing their own value. At Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., newish CEO David Zaslav inexplicably removed the HBO from HBO Max, confounding users. Elon Musk’s destruction of Twitter is too depressing to think about. And this week, Unity Technologies Inc. CEO John Riccitiello zapped any remaining customer goodwill for his company with the disastrous rollout of a widely reviled new policy.

• Unity is the company behind a suite of tools and technology, called the Unity Engine, that helps people make video games. It has long enjoyed a reputation for being user friendly and well suited for independent developers — especially in contrast to its chief rival, Unreal Engine, which tends to be a better fit for bigger, more expensive games. The long list of games developed on Unity includes indie hits like Among Us, Hollow Knight and Cuphead.

Security

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Ireland’s privacy regulator fines TikTok €345M for breaching GDPR

• Ireland’s privacy regulator today issued a fine of €345 million, or $367 million, to TikTok after finding that the company had breached the European Union’s GDPR regulation. TikTok has more than 130 million users in the EU. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, or DPC, leads oversight of the company’s privacy practices within the bloc.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Slapped with $368M EU Fine for Mishandling Children’s Privacy

• TikTok was fined $368 million by a European regulator that said the platform failed to protect children’s privacy, the latest issue to incur scrutiny amid increased global concern over TikTok and other social media platforms’ handling of users’ privacy.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ EU fines TikTok €345 million over child data breaches

• A European Union regulator hit Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok with a 345-million-euro fine over child data breaches on Friday, in the bloc’s latest salvo against the business practices of tech titans.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ AntiWar ☛ Humiliation vs. Self-Respect: The Untold Story of the Abuse of Palestinian Women in Hebron

• The humiliation of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers in the occupied city of Al-Khalil (Hebron) on July 10 was not the first such episode. Sadly, it will not be the last.

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Cynkin interviewed by VOA on recent Putin-Kim summit

• On September 12, IPSI nonresident senior fellow Thomas Cynkin was quoted in VOA Korea for his insights on the recent Putin-Kim summit.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ North Korea’s Kim Jong Un inspects nuclear-capable bombers during Russia visit

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected Russian nuclear-capable bombers and other warplanes in Russia’s Far East on Saturday as he continued a trip that has sparked Western concerns about an arms alliance that could fuel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Kim-Putin military cooperation may pose potential setback for China

• Allies’ enhanced security ties could work against Beijing’s expansionist drive, experts say.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Putin, Lukashenka Discuss Bilateral Ties, Meeting With North Korean Leader

• Authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on September 15 in the resort city of Sochi for talks on bilateral ties and integration within the so-called union state amid their international isolation over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Putin and Kim’s Embrace May Place Xi in a Bind

• Closer ties between Russia and North Korea could weaken Beijing’s leverage over both countries and set back China’s efforts to stabilize its ties with the West.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ A Trip to Ukraine Clarified the Stakes. And They’re Huge.

• Ukraine is a game-changer for the West, rivaling the importance of German unification, and the European Union is the key.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Kim Jong-un Inspects Russian Military

• Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, toured a fighter jet factory, as Russia’s president sought to cast himself as the champion of an anti-U.S. alliance in a meeting with another authoritarian.

=> ↺ JURIST ☛ UK officially designates Wagner Group as terrorist organization

• The UK announced Friday that it had officially proscribed the Wagner Group as a terrorist organization, making it an offense to “belong, or profess to belong, to a proscribed organisation in the UK or overseas.”

=> ↺ European Commission ☛ Following the expiry of the restrictive measures on Ukrainian exports of grain and other foodstuff to the EU, Ukraine agrees to introduce measures to avoid a renewed surge in EU imports

• European Commission Press release Brussels, 16 Sep 2023 The European Commission has analysed the data related to the impact of the exports of 4 categories of agricultural products on the EU market.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ UNESCO puts Kyiv and Lviv historical sites on ‘in danger’ list

• The UN’s World Heritage Committee on Friday placed two major historical sites in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv on its ‘in danger’ list. Earlier, Ukraine’s armed forces said they had retaken the village of Andriivka near the key frontline city of Bakhmut, a day after claims it had been “liberated” were dubbed premature. Read our live blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ EU Lets Ukrainian Grain Ban Expire, Even As Countries Threaten To Pass Their Own

• The European Union on September 15 decided not to renew a ban on Ukrainian food heading to nearby countries that have complained that an influx of agricultural products from the war-torn nation has hurt their farmers.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ U.S. Diplomat Says It’s ‘Too Early’ To Rule Out Significant Gains For Ukraine’s Counteroffensive

• The U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said it is “too early” to rule out the possibility that Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces will achieve “significant gains.”

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Ukraine Plans Big Rise In Defense Spending In 2024 Draft Budget

• Ukraine’s government approved on September 15 a draft budget for next year, planning for higher defense spending and counting on continued Western financial support to cover the expected deficit.

=> ↺ Spiegel ☛ Visiting with Ukrainian Sappers: A Sea of Explosives 1,000 Kilometers Long

• Russian troops have transformed the fighting front into what is likely the largest minefield in the world. Ukrainian sappers are making but slow progress through this sea of death. But they haven’t lost their optimism.

=> ↺ Spiegel ☛ U.S. Military Analyst: “Russia Doesn’t Have a Good Strategy for Winning the War”

• In an interview, American military analyst Michael Kofman says he believes Ukrainian troops have a realistic chance of a breakthrough in their counteroffensive, assuming they don’t run out of ammunition.

=> ↺ Helsinki Times ☛ Restrictions on Russian-registered cars entering Finland to take effect

• Finland is tightening its borders as new regulations regarding the entry of Russian-registered vehicles come into force. Beginning at midnight between September 15 and 16, only EU citizens permanently residing in Russia, their family members, diplomats and those entering for humanitarian reasons will be allowed to bring Russian-registered personal vehicles into Finland.

• This measure comes as a direct response to the sanctions imposed due to Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ How to Support Ukraine Beyond the Next Election

• Open discussion is essential to shoring up support for the country from Congress and the American public.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ ‘We Are Accidentally Alive’: A Muslim Cleric Reflects on His War Experience

• Said Ismahilov fled Russians in eastern Ukraine and then fled the suburb of Bucha when the war began. Once the mufti of Ukraine, he is now a medic on the front line.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Zelensky to Meet With Biden in Washington Next Week

• The Ukrainian leader will go from an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly to the capital to meet with President Biden and members of Congress.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Extradited Russian Hacker Behind ‘NLBrute’ Malware Pleads Guilty

• Russian hacker Dariy Pankov has pleaded guilty to computer fraud and now faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Stronger US-Azerbaijan ties can help counter Russia and Iran

• Azerbaijan and the United States share a set of strategic interests that may only grow in the coming years.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ President strips Russian ice dancer Drobiazko of Lithuanian citizenship

• Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda on Friday signed a decree on stripping Russian ice dancer Margarita Drobiazko of her Lithuanian citizenship granted by way of exception.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ LRT English Newsletter: Baltics ban Russian cars

• LRT English Newsletter – September 15, 2023.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ U.S. Ambassador To Russia Visits Jailed Wall Street Journal Reporter

• U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy has met with imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the envoy’s fourth such visit since the American journalist was detained in March on espionage charges he denies.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Figure Skater Drobiazko Loses Lithuanian Citizenship Over Event In Russia

• Moscow-born figure skater Margarita Drobiazko has lost her Lithuanian citizenship over her participation in an event in Russia in August 2022.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Finland Joins Baltic States In Banning Entry Of Russian-Registered Vehicles

• Finland said on September 15 that all vehicles with Russian license plates will be banned from entering the country as of September 16.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Russian Central Bank Hikes Rates To 13 Percent, Issues Hawkish Guidance

• Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 13 percent on September 15, jacking up the cost of borrowing for the third meeting in succession in response to a weak ruble and other persistent inflationary pressures.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Russian Voting-Rights Group Leader’s Detention Appeal Rejected

• A Moscow court on September 15 rejected an appeal filed by the co-chairman of the Golos movement, Grigory Melkonyants, against his pretrial arrest.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Russia Jails Man Over ‘Treasonous’ Smuggling Of Missile Parts To U.S.

• A Russian man has been convicted of treason and jailed for 12 1/2 years for sending missile components to the United States, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on September 15.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ North Korea’s Kim views Russian nuclear-capable bombers, hypersonic missiles

• September 16, 2023 11:38 AM

• Mr Shoigu showed Mr Kim three strategic bombers – the Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Finland bans entry of Russian-registered cars from midnight Friday

• Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania closed their borders to Russian-registered cars earlier this week.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Two Finnish companies added to Russia sanctions list

• The list drawn up by the US Department of the Treasury noted that the Finnish firms had shipped a ”wide variety of electronics” into Russia.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ European Countries to Keep Some Missile Sanctions on Iran

• U.N. sanctions are set to expire in October, as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. Other nations, including Russia, will be free to buy Iranian missiles and drones.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ U.S. Ambassador to Russia Visits Jailed WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich

• ‘He remains strong and is keeping up with the news,’ the American diplomat said.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Belarusian Supreme Court Labels Respected Investigative Center As ‘Extremist’

• The Belarusian Prosecutor-General’s Office said on September 15 that the country’s Supreme Court has recognized the Belarusian Investigative Center (BRTs) as an “extremist organization.”

Finance

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Don’t Let the Government-Shutdown Charade Distract You From the Debt Crisis

• America’s biggest fiscal challenge lies in the unchecked growth of federal health care and old-age entitlement programs.

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ Jennifer Egan on a Solution for Homelessness

• We could house most of the homeless, if we had the will. Also: Naomi Klein on what a case of mistaken identity says about our fragile society; and listening to Taylor Swift in prison.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ France24 ☛ G77+China summit in Cuba seeks to strengthen voice of ‘global South’

• The G77+China, a group of developing and emerging countries representing 80 percent of the global population, gathers Friday in Cuba seeking to promote a “new economic world order” amid warnings of growing polarization.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Major Australian lender shuts Hong Kong office

• National Australia Bank (NAB), a major lender in the Asia-Pacific region, announced on Thursday its decision to pull out from Hong Kong, leaving Shanghai as its last operational base in China. NAB is the second major Australian financial institution to be leaving the Chinese financial hub this year, following the exit in June of Westpac…

=> ↺ RFA ☛ The long arm of Chinese law is getting longer in Southeast Asia

• How selective will China be in targeting crime groups in cross-border law enforcement?

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Among Uyghurs, China aims to ‘meld Islam with Confucianism’

• Chinese officials meet to further plan to ‘Sinicize Islam’ and bind Muslims in China even closer to the state.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ China bars Tibetans from attending Buddhist Kalachakra sermon

• More than 100,000 devotees have gathered for the teaching by a prominent lama.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Indo-Pacific commander: US military to seek access to more Philippine bases

• Under the EDCA pact, U.S. forces already have access to nine bases in the Southeast Asian country.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Senate finance committee approves Taiwan tax bill

• The bill will end the practice of ‘double taxation’ for people and companies working in both the US and Taiwan.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ US Treasury official visits Hong Kong in bid to deepen ties with China

• September 15, 2023 10:35 AM

• U.S. Treasury official Brent Neiman visited Hong Kong on Thursday, the highest ranking Treasury official to visit the financial hub since 2019, U.S. authorities said, as Washington aims to deepen ties with Beijing despite rising tensions.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Senate Committee Backs Bill to Deepen U.S. Economic Ties With Taiwan

• Legislation to end double taxation between Taiwan and the United States is intended to spur semiconductor investment but is likely to rankle U.S. relations with China.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ The five-domains update

• Sea state North Korea has launched its first submarine able to fire nuclear-armed missiles.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Hypocritical? Christening of new North Korean submarine raises eyebrows

• In a country that cracks down on superstitions, the ceremony is seen as ‘two-faced.’

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Increasingly isolated, Myanmar reestablishes ties with North Korea

• Move is act of ‘desperation’ for regime, anti-junta activists say.

=> ↺ Vice Media Group ☛ Intercepted Audio Appears to Show U.S. Pilots Training to Bomb North Korean ‘VIP’

• A HAM radio enthusiast living near a U.S. air base uploaded the 31-minute clip, which they captured in 2017.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ ACLU ☛ On the Frontlines of the Fight Against Classroom Censorship

• When Anthony Crawford was in junior high school, he was kicked out of his AP History class one February after he asked the teacher when the class would learn about Black History Month.

• “My question made the teacher uncomfortable. I remember his face turning red. He said, ‘You’re not going to disrupt my class, so please step out.’ So I tossed the books on the floor and left the class.”

• Crawford never forgot the incident.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Press Gazette ☛ Matt Hancock scores complaint victory versus Mirror over ‘Matt’s finished’ story

• Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has had an accuracy complaint against the Daily Mirror upheld after it reported that he had called off his search for a celebrity agent. Press regulator IPSO ruled that the Mirror was wrong to present two articles based on an anonymous single source as fact.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Mum in South Korean found guilty of stalking daughter, sentenced to 6 months’ jail

• The harassment involved 306 text messages and 111 phone calls.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Review: Alphabet Boys Explores Federal Cops’ Manufactured Crimes

• A new podcast asks whether federal agents are catching bad guys or creating them.

=> ↺ University of Michigan ☛ Nadya Tolokonnikova speaks on transforming political rage into activism

• Hundreds of community members, students and staff gathered at the Michigan Theater Thursday evening to hear Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova discuss her self-directed film, Putin’s Ashes.

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ JUVE ☛ Huawei and Xiaomi agree on global cross-licensing deal [Ed: Two companies controlled by the same regime pool together low-quality patents, so that a company does not (de facto) sue itself for patent infringement]

• The two Chinese mobile communications giants have come to a cross-licensing agreement regarding their patents. Huawei announced the deal on Wednesday. The companies have not revealed the details of the agreement.

Trademarks

=> ↺ TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Finds Polishing Disc Configuration Non-Functional but Lacking Acquired Distinctiveness

• Applicant Buff and Shine cruised past a Section 2(e)(5) functionality refusal but failed to garner the Section 2(f) checkered flag in its attempt to register the product configuration shown below as a trademark for “machine parts, namely, polishing discs for rotary machines, random-orbit machines, and other surface preparation machines for vehicles.” In re Buff and Shine Manufacturing, Inc., Serial No. 88737597 (September 12, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Thomas W. Wellington).

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