Links 13/02/2024: Lingering Issues and Revelations About Scale of Microsoft Layoffs
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Chris ☛ Static Actor–Motivation Forecasting: Peace in Middle East
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RFA ☛ Year of the Dragon is now Year of the Loong, according to China
Some experts say the transliteration reflects China’s bid to regain the right to speak on culture.
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Marcel Appelman ☛ Introducing Single-Serving Sites
After I launched How Many Days Until Omloop, I wondered if there was a site that would list all single-serving sites. Did some searching and I came to the conclusion that there are no actively maintained sites for this.
Introducing: Single-Serving Sites. My effort to try to list all the cool single-serving sites still online.
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Manuel Moreale ☛ Housekeeping
People and Blogs is about to hit 25 interviews. There’s 52 weeks in a year so we’re almost half way through year one. I’m happy to see that people are enjoying the series. Makes me so happy.
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Hackaday ☛ Bringing Modern Technology To A Sled
Street sledding, a popular pastime in Norway, is an activity that is slowly dwindling in popularity, at least as far as [Justin] aka [Garage Avenger] has noticed. It used to be a fun way of getting around frozen lakes and roads during winter, and while some still have their sleds [Justin] wanted to see if there was a way to revitalize one of these sleds for the modern era. He’s equipped this one with powerful electric turbines than can quickly push the sled and a few passengers around the ice.
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Hackaday ☛ Melodio Self Mate
While the proliferation of the smartphone has caused the personal music player (PMP) market to mostly evaporate, there are still those who prefer a standalone device for their music. The Melodio Self-Mate is one such spiritual successor to the iPod.
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Science
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Futurism ☛ So Much Lava Is Oozing Out of Iceland That You Can See It From Space
So much lava is spewing forth from an erupting volcano in Iceland that it can be spotted from space.
A breathtaking image taken by the European Space Agency's Copernicus' SENTINEL-2 satellite last week, shows massive rivers of glowing-red lava emanating from deep below the snow-covered surface.
It's the aftermath of the third eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano since December — an escalation of epic proportions that sets the tone for uncertain geological times ahead.
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Science Alert ☛ Mysterious Ancient Megastructure Discovered Lurking Beneath The Baltic Sea
It seems to have been deliberately constructed?
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Science Alert ☛ Earth Isn't Flat, But New Theory Suggests Jupiter Might Once Have Been
No joke.
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Science Alert ☛ 'Pioneer' Humans Entered Europe Thousands of Years Earlier Than Thought
They were hardcore.
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Science Alert ☛ First Phase of Europe's Huge New Atom Smasher Could Be 20 Years Away
It's certainly ambitious.
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Education
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Futurism ☛ College Students Basically Don’t Know How to Read Anymore
"For most of my career, I assigned around 30 pages of reading per class meeting as a baseline expectation," Kotsko, whose classes largely include humanities and philosophy instruction, writes. "Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding."
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Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ Great management and leadership books for the technical track
In tech, we're fortunate to have separate management and technical tracks, though it's still underdeveloped. However, the path you take isn't very clear, it's not broadly understood what the responsibilities are, and there aren't as many resources out there as there are for management. But there are still some really good resources!
The technical track has recently started to get a lot of very good writing around it. This is great! We can learn from it, but we can also pull from all the existing management and leadership literature out there. While we staff+ engineers are not managers, our roles have a lot of management-like responsibilities, because leadership is a big component of either track! So we have this wealth of management and leadership books to draw from.
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Juha-Matti Santala ☛ Public notes
I have been following a mindset of learning in public for quite a few years now. In a nutshell, it means openly sharing what I’m learning, what I’m building, what I’m struggling to understand and sharing the full(-ish) process openly in my blog, social media, events and so on.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about wanting to expand it more also into building in public. I’m only in the beginning of this because it’s even scarier than doing something in private and then sharing the learnings in public. What I mean by building in public is for example putting drafts for my writing (blogs, tutorials, community announcements, event pages and so on) out there, sharing them with the community and having a discussion way before they get published somewhere.
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Alex Ewerlöf ☛ When Staff Engineer is an anti-pattern
For almost all technical leadership questions, the candidate’s answer was a variation of delegating to the tech lead, “architect”, or staff engineer.
Bottom line, the candidate was a people manager or team admin, not an engineer who leads other engineers.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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YLE ☛ Finnish researchers look at what makes people eat their veggies
Customers willing to experiment, vegetarians and people with higher levels of education most often ordered the vegetarian option for lunch, according to the research results.
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Hackaday ☛ 3D Printing Functional Human Brain Tissue For Research Purposes
The brain is probably the least explored organ, much of which is due to the difficulty of studying it in situ rather than in slices under a microscope. Even growing small organoids out of neurons provide few clues, as this is not how brain tissue is normally organized. A possible breakthrough may have been found here by a group of researchers whose article in Cell Stem Cell details how they created functional human neural tissues using a commercial 3D bioprinter.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Pseudoephedrine in Australia
DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor or pharmacist, and this post is not medical advice. Speak to a qualified health care professional if you have any questions or concerns.
🏥
Now here’s a niche topic! But it’s something I had to deal with today.
The genes that gifted me blogging prowess, rugged attractiveness, and self-delusion also saddled me with unusually-narrow nasal passages. It’s not life threatening, but it makes anything but mild congestion excruciating, like I’m continuously snorting wasabi, and without the benefit of some nice sashimi on the side.
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New Yorker ☛ The Argument Over a Long-Standing Autism Intervention
Applied Behavior Analysis therapy has a troubling history, and even many supporters say it was used too widely in the past. But has criticism of the practice gone too far?
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Science Alert ☛ Wherever a Dead Body Lies, The Exact Same Organisms Always Appear
Death comes to all. So do they.
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Science Alert ☛ Experts Explain What Drinking While on Medication Can Do to Your Body
Ask your doctor.
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Latvia ☛ Latvia among EU leaders for women in science and technology
In 2022, there were almost 7.3 million female scientists and engineers in the European Union, 310 500 more than in 2021, accounting for 41% of total employment in science and engineering, reported Eurostat February 12.
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New York Times ☛ Children Whose Mothers Had Pregnancy Complications May Face Heart Risks
Pregnant women with diabetes or high blood pressure have children who are more likely to develop signs of heart trouble years later, new research finds.
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Court proceedings remain on hold in Grand Marais moose antler murder case
Levi William Axtell, 28, of Grand Marais, met with a mental health evaluator Monday.
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Defence Web ☛ SA “integration programme” for Cuban-trained military doctors questioned
Thirteen SA Military Health Service (SAMHS) personnel are back in South Africa following six years of “military medicine” training in Cuba and find themselves in an 18 month “integration programme” before qualifying as medical officers/general practitioners.
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The Straits Times ☛ ‘Energy stick’ inhalers used by children spark concerns in Malaysia
Sellers claim that the energy sticks can reduce anxiety and stress and help users to relax.
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The Straits Times ☛ ‘Energy stick’ inhalers could be ‘gateway’ to smoking or vaping among minors: Malaysian experts
The sticks contain substances such as propylene glycol, which are used in vape, and cost as little as 70 cents each.
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The Kent Stater ☛ Public health officials respond to the East Palestine train derailment
The College of Public Health discussed the response of public health officials to the East Palestine train derailment with Columbiana County’s public health commissioner on Feb. 4. On Feb. 3, 2023, a train derailed in the village of East Palestine, Ohio causing a fire igniting hazardous chemicals.
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Latvia ☛ Survey: Latvian residents generally trust young doctors
Several young doctors have publicly stated that they often had to hear offensive comments about their age, skills, and competence from patients. However, according to a poll conducted by Norstat in collaboration with LSM, only 3% of the population said they did not trust younger doctors.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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New York Times ☛ Imran Khan Uses Hey Hi (AI) To Give Victory Speech in Pakistan [Ed: CG, not "Hey Hi (AI)"]
It was not the first time the technology had been used in Pakistan’s notably repressive election season, but this time it got the world’s attention.
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The Straits Times ☛ Imran Khan’s ‘victory speech’ from jail shows AI’s peril and promise [Ed: This is CG]
As official counts showed candidates aligned with his party winning the most seats, it was Khan’s Hey Hi (AI) voice that declared victory.
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Hackaday ☛ Meet GOODY-2, The World’s Most Responsible (And Least Helpful) AI
AI guardrails and safety features are as important to get right as they are difficult to implement in a way that satisfies everyone. This means safety features tend to err on the side of caution. Side effects include AI models adopting a vaguely obsequious tone, and coming off as overly priggish when they refuse reasonable requests.
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Business Insider ☛ Tech layoffs are hitting companies that are doing just fine [Ed: Misleading as the layoffs happen when Microsoft is 111 billion dollars in debt (unprecedented)]
Tech workers have had to learn a hard lesson: layoffs can happen at companies that are fine too.
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Microsoft Encourages Game Developers to Have AI Write Their Code in Dystopian Super Bowl Copilot Ad [Ed: Microsoft tells people to plagiarise other people's code and use Microsoft to do the plagiarism (the lawsuits come later)]
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Windows Central ☛ Windows 11 will soon no longer boot on PCs that are too old to boot it anyway | Windows Central
PCs with very old CPUs are going to be in for a rough time this fall when the next version of Windows 11 rolls around, as version 24H2 will be the first to no longer boot on CPUs without the POPCNT...
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Games ☛ Toys for Bob closes physical studio location
Microsoft's recent layoffs resulted in 86 redundancies at game developer Toys for Bob.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, per state filings, the studio behind Spyro Reignited Trilogy also saw its physical office closed.
Toys for Bob most recently released Crash Bandicoot 4 and Crash Team Battle. It also develops Call of Duty Warzone content updates.
Microsoft's job cuts reportedly affected 86 staffers at Sledgehammer Games as well.
The San Francisco Chronicle says that the Call of Duty maker's physical office has been closed as its staffers relocate.
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Business Insider ☛ The layoffs sweeping tech companies are 'contagious' and 'may get worse,' Jefferies analyst predicts [Ed: See below. But they shut down entire studios, where zero overlap existed, so basic fact-checking shows he's lying through his teeth]
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said that the layoffs were part of a greater "execution plan" to reduce overlap within the company, CNBC reported.
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The Verge ☛ The rise of obituary spam
Google has long struggled to contain obituary spam — for years, low-effort SEO-bait websites have simmered in the background and popped to the top of search results after an individual dies. The sites then aggressively monetize the content by loading up pages with intrusive ads and profit when searchers click on results. Now, the widespread availability of generative AI tools appears to be accelerating the deluge of low-quality fake obituaries.
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The Verge ☛ AI at Work
AI, once an ambiguous science fiction trope, has become an ambiguous business buzzword, as every technology product races to implement what Silicon Valley thinks is the greatest innovation since the [Internet]. But lost in the conversation are stories about the people building it and using it. If large language models and automated systems will, indeed, upend labor and capital, what does it actually look like in practice? In this package, we’ll explore the ways AI functions today: how people are using it, where it fails and where it succeeds, and what it actually means when we say “artificial intelligence.”
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Wi-Fi jamming to knock out cameras suspected in nine Minnesota burglaries -- smart security systems vulnerable as tech becomes cheaper and easier to acquire
Edina police suspect that nine burglaries in the last six months have been undertaken with Wi-Fi jammer(s) deployed to ensure incriminating video evidence wasn’t available to investigators. The modus operandi of the thief or thieves is thought to be something like this: [...]
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Silicon Angle ☛ Crowd in San Francisco destroys driverless Waymo car by setting it ablaze
The attack comes during a time when driverless car companies are struggling to get their vehicles on the road amid criticism of their capabilities and safety. As recently as October, a robotaxi operated by Waymo rival Cruise LLC dragged a pedestrian 20 feet down a street in San Francisco. That led the California Department of Motor Vehicles and California’s Public Utilities Commission to suspend the company’s permits to test its vehicles.
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Futurism ☛ Furious Crowd Destroys Robotaxi, Sets It on Fire
As several videos and reports indicate, the robotaxis' propensity for glitching out and either stopping in the middle of the street — sometimes en masse — or driving where they're not supposed to make them annoying and dangerous. Last year, one of Waymo's self-driving lifts ran over someone's dog, and another found itself in the middle of an active fire scene.
Things at Cruise are even worse, and with government reports indicating that the company's robotaxis have hit an untold number of people, its parent company is now slashing its investment in the still-immature tech.
With such incidents and accidents piling up, many in SF have had enough. At the end of 2023, in fact, the city sued a state commission that allowed Cruise and Waymo to operate around the clock without safety drivers.
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University of Michigan ☛ It Happened at Michigan — ‘I really disliked writing papers’
“My brother wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Thomas Knoll told the College of Engineering in 2016. “And I really disliked writing papers, so I procrastinated by writing this computer program.’”
He never looked back. He developed a bundle of photo editing tools (“it was actually very addictive”) and called it Display, then Photoshop. Working with his brother, Knoll sold the software to Adobe, which went on the market in 1990. Five years later, Adobe bought the rights to Photoshop, paying the Knoll brothers $34.5 million.
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Matt Birchler ☛ For the life of me I can’t find a GPT I find useful (besides my own)
I’ve had the exact same experience. I fully expected that the GPT store would be full of cool tools that I would download and find interesting uses for instead I’ve installed precisely zero of them because none of them seem to solve things that I wanted to do with ChatGPT.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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YLE ☛ Parliament suspends employee amid NBI probe of suspected data protection breach
The data of more than 1,000 people may have been affected by the suspected crimes, according to the National Bureau of Investigation.
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The Register UK ☛ FCC publishes final version of new breach report rules
After releasing a proposed rule in early January and giving the industry 30 days to respond, the FCC's final rule was published today. It solidifies what the agency proposed a little more than a month ago, and what was teased in early 2022 when FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel drafted initial changes to the commission's 16-year old security "breach" reporting duties.
Along with requiring that attacks are reported to the FCC within seven days of a telco discovering them, the same deadline now exists to report any data leaks to the FBI and US Secret Service as well. As the FCC planned, the new rule also eliminates the mandatory seven-day waiting period for reporting break-ins to consumers.
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Bitdefender ☛ “Smart” helmet flaw exposes location tracking and privacy risks
Which is why Livall, a popular manufacturer of ski and bike helmets, has presumably developed a "smart" line of products with "walkie-talkie" functionality for groups to stay in touch and track each other's location.
Unfortunately, according to security researchers, Livall's implementation of the "smart" technology was nothing less than foolish.
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404 Media ☛ Woman Sues Sex Toy Retailer Adam and Eve, Claims It Shared Data About Her Dildos
A woman just brought a class action lawsuit against one of the biggest online retailers for sex toys, Adam and Eve, claiming that the site gave Google information about her searches for 8-inch dildos and strap-on harnesses.
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EDRI ☛ The sledgehammer approach of age verification tools won't make the [Internet] safer - European Digital Rights (EDRi)
Do you like scrolling through Instagram reels or watching vlogs on YouTube? Soon enough, you may have to give your personal ID details to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg to keep doing so.
[...]The proposed technological “solutions” cannot resolve what are actually much more complex societal issues.
However, policymakers worldwide are failing to acknowledge the threat of surveillance and the risk to everyone’s privacy online posed by the use of these systems.
Contrary to what the Irish regulator says, experts have shown that tools like age verification can bring more harm to the very children that the code aims to protect.
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India Times ☛ Digi Yatra: Surveillance or security? Digi Yatra app divides opinion on facial scanning
Social media has been flooded with complaints of how people are being coerced into using the Digi Yatra app, which uses facial scanning biometrics. Is it really risky? And what do the stakeholders have to say about it?
Akshay Gupta recently posted on social media platform X (previously Twitter) that he was denied entry at the Varanasi airport because he “did not follow the Digi Yatra lane”.
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EFF ☛ Voting Against the Surveillance State | EFFector 36.2
You can read the full newsletter here, or subscribe to get the next issue in your inbox automatically! You can also listen to the audio version of the newsletter on the Internet Archive, or by clicking the button below: [...]
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Defence/Aggression
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Tom's Hardware ☛ China's Loongson CPU seems to have IPC equivalent to Zen 4 and Raptor Lake -- but slow speeds and limited core count keeps 3A6000 well behind modern competition
A review shows the China-made 3A6000 coming close behind Zen 4 and Raptor Lake in an IPC comparison, despite poor overall performance.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Taiwan accuses China of 'cheating' and 'stealing' chipmaking technologies
Taiwan accuses China of unfair behavior with obtaining advanced technology, China denies any wrongdoing.
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RFA ☛ Uyghur businessman returned to China by Iran serving 15-year sentence
He was jailed in 2018 for having traveled abroad.
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RFA ☛ Relatives of China’s political prisoners spend festive season apart
Relatives suffer most from lack of news, yet distract themselves from pain and keep speaking out for loved ones.
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The Atlantic ☛ Trump’s America Will Lose the Climate Race
A second Trump presidency is the open question looming over climate science. Given that global warming is still yet to be reined in, how damaging could four years of Trump be to our collective climate outcome? The answer may be both less fatalistic and more complex than that a president wedded to fossil fuels will condemn the world to significantly worse warming. The short of it, according to two distinguished climate scientists I spoke with, is this: Trump’s four years would surely be damaging, but wouldn’t doom the planet. A public reckoning is coming whether he wins or not, and Trump’s hostile posture on climate could sap U.S. ambitions in a future where geopolitical power is likely to align with a country’s capacity to power itself.
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US News And World Report ☛ Congo Protesters Burn US and Belgian Flags, Target Western Embassies
Decades of conflicts in eastern Congo between myriad rival armed groups over land and resources and brutal attacks on civilians have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than 7 million.
Congo is the world's top supplier of cobalt and Africa's top copper producer.
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The Register UK ☛ Ukraine claims Russian military is using Starlink
However, despite denials from both Musk and Starlink that Russia could log into the Starlink store and pick up a dozen terminals, reports continue to surface of the technology being used by Russian forces.
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The Age AU ☛ West Australian WWII pilot dies aged 101
Even in his last year, Arrowsmith was still driving the same Holden he had owned for 54 years.
The WWII pilot flew 35 missions, where the survival rate was less than one in 10.
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NL Times ☛ Dutch worried about cyberattacks, war close to home; Less about further-away threats
Foreign influence on immigration communities in the Netherlands also was considered a serious threat, ranking second with 7.30 points, followed immediately by the occurrence of a terrorist attack by an Islamic group. That scored 7.29 points.
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CS Monitor ☛ President Biden, British Olympians turn to TikTok for youth following
By night on Feb. 11, the Biden-Harris HQ TikTok account had gained 10,900 followers.
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[Old] The Guardian UK ☛ TikTok is part of China’s cognitive warfare campaign
Translated Chinese military reports suggest that warfare is shifting from destroying bodies to paralyzing and controlling the opponent’s mind. Making the Biden administration’s call for TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell their stakes in the app or face a US ban just the start of a protracted Whac-A-Mole game in a broader strategy to combat cognitive warfare – with the human mind as the battlefield.
While a TikTok ban may take out the first and fattest mole, it fails to contend with the wider shift to cognitive warfare as the sixth domain of military operations under way, which includes China’s influence campaigns on TikTok, a mass collection of personal and biometric data from American citizens and their race to develop weapons that could one day directly assault or disable human minds. We ignore this broader context at our peril.
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Atlantic Council ☛ How the United States can counter malign Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Hemisphere
As strategic competition with China and Russia continues to intensify, the United States and its allies need a strategy for countering the malign influence of authoritarian rivals in the Western Hemisphere. [...]
In addition to Chinese and Russian malign influence, however, the region also presents many opportunities for the United States to cultivate fruitful partnerships in the western hemisphere built on shared values. Outside of Europe and North America, the western hemisphere has boasted the highest proportion of democratically elected governments for the past three decades. Most of the population of the region lives in a democracy, and support for democracy remains high. There is a window of opportunity for a renewal of regional commitments to democracy and reform that the United States can—and should—capitalize on to reorient its relationship with the region.
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Quartz ☛ Russia war economy is like the Soviet Union, IMF director says
That’s the comparison Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), made in an interview with CNBC today on the sidelines of the United Arab Emirates-hosted World Governments Summit. The IMF had previously said that Russia was spending so much money on its war effort that it was making up for the strangling effects of international sanctions.
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New Statesman ☛ Joe Biden can learn from Europe's mishandled migrant crisis
The numerical comparison was way off: just over one million people arrived in Europe in 2015 at the peak of the so-called refugee crisis. There were about 2.5 million attempted irregular crossings into the United States in 2023. But when it comes to the potential political impact of unregulated migration, the parallels are impossible to ignore.
European politics have been upended by the mismanagement of the crisis nearly a decade ago, which has put far-right parties in the once unthinkable positions of winning elections and leading governments in countries from Italy to the Netherlands.
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The Nation ☛ Clarence Thomas Broke the Law. Why Is He Not Being Prosecuted?
The debate about whether the justices were or should be bound by any ethics rules drew attention away from the fact that Thomas’s conduct violated federal laws specifically requiring him to disclose the gifts. Thomas was legally obliged to disclose the gifts as well as the donors and should be prosecuted for failing to do so.
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The Strategist ☛ The impact of global food chokepoint pressures on Asia's food security
In the last few years Asia’s food security has suffered a series of crises induced by conflict, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, causing great disruptions to food supply systems and increasing the number of people experiencing food insecurity. Now, pressure at four global ‘food chokepoints’—in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal due to geopolitical unrest, and the Panama Canal and the Mississippi River due to drought—are threatening Asia’s food security even more.
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New Eastern Europe ☛ North to the future?
However, the strategic importance of the Arctic is not only determined by issues related strictly to security. According to 2008 data from the US Geological Survey scientific agency, the Arctic Ocean floor may hold up to 30 per cent of the world’s as of yet undiscovered but technically accessible reserves of natural gas, alongside 13 per cent of oil. The continental shelf of the Arctic Ocean is also rich in other mineral resources such as zinc, lead, molybdenum, nickel, platinum and even gold and diamonds.
An important aspect indicating the attractiveness of the region is the opportunities related to maritime transport. There are two routes through the Arctic, the Northeast Passage (along the coast of Siberia, the shortest route from Europe to China) and the Northwest Passage (along the coast of Canada). For decades, these routes were of little importance due to the impassable ice cap. However, when the ice cap began to shrink as a result of climate change, new opportunities for the economic exploitation of the region emerged for the Arctic states. The Northwest Passage shortens the route from Europe to East Asia by several thousand kilometres compared to the Panama Canal route, and the Northeast Passage by as much as 9,000 kilometres compared to the Suez Canal route.
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El País ☛ Ukraine War: The world is facing the worst war scenario in half a century | International | EL PAÍS English
For the first time since 1945, Europe is witnessing a major war, in which a great power has invaded another country not only to subjugate it but also to annex territory. Around 30 Western countries are providing aid to Ukraine to help its efforts to repel Russia, which in turn is assisted militarily by Iran, North Korea, and Belarus. But U.S. support for Kyiv is wavering, and this is strengthening Moscow’s position. The situation is so dire that several European political and military leaders have stressed that there is a real risk that the conflict will reach Western Europe. The possibility that Donald Trump — who opposes America’s involvement in NATO — may return to the White House has further heightened tensions.
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AntiWar ☛ Letter from ThinkTankLand: Foreign Influence in American Politics
The odious ritual whereby representatives of foreign governments travel to Washington to tell us our business has become so routine it hardly even registers. And, down the years, hosting such rituals has become a (if not the) primary function of Washington’s think tanks which, also to no one’s surprise, draws millions and millions in funding...
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New York Times ☛ Mayorkas Says He’s Undeterred by Republicans’ Impeachment Drive
The homeland security secretary called the allegations “baseless” and said he was focused on his work.
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New York Times ☛ Israel Says It Struck Rafah as a Diversion to Rescue Hostages
A “wave of attacks” on the Gazan city early Monday enabled soldiers to bring two captives to safety, Israel said. Local news outlets said the airstrikes killed at least a dozen Palestinians.
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France24 ☛ Hamas says two Israeli hostages killed by air strikes in Gaza
Israeli air strikes over the past four days in Gaza have killed two hostages and seriously injured eight others, the armed wing of Hamas announced Sunday on its Telegram channel.
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France24 ☛ 🔴Live: Heavy strikes hit Gazan city of Rafah, two Israeli hostages rescued
Israel announced on Monday the rescue of two hostages in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the Hamas-run health ministry said "around 100" Palestinians including children were killed in heavy overnight air strikes.
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Meduza ☛ Armenia says two soldiers killed in flare-up on border with Azerbaijan — Meduza
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Pro Publica ☛ DOJ Working With Wisconsin Sheriff to Improve Communication With Non-English Speakers
The inability of police to communicate with immigrants who don’t speak English has long created problems, sometimes with tragic consequences. Those obstacles can inhibit crime victims from calling law enforcement for help and make it difficult for investigators to solve crimes.
But as part of an initiative by the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Justice is pushing law enforcement agencies to better serve people who don’t speak proficient English.
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Site36 ☛ Sea rescuers dismantle ex-policemen: Court hears prosecution witnesses in “Iuventa” trial for the first time
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RFA ☛ Torture, forced labor alleged at Prince Group-linked compound
Escaped workers were beaten and tased before being dragged back, witnesses recount.
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BIA Net ☛ Şebnem Korur Fincancı: I will take legal action regarding the smear campaign
Şebnem Korur Fincancı, who was targeted in the "Adnan" documentary by 140journos, stated, "Those who target me, but ultimately open the door to a very dangerous situation, include statements that could harm those who have been tortured."
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New York Times ☛ Israeli Raid in Rafah Rescues 2 Hostages and Kills Dozens, Officials Say
The hostages, who had been held by Hamas, returned to Israel after a military operation that Gazan health officials said killed at least 67 Palestinians.
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YLE ☛ Finland plans fast-tracking unfounded asylum applications
The proposed reforms could see some migrants facing significant restrictions on their freedom of movement while their applications are being processed.
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Defence Web ☛ Limpopo zama zamas targeted by police and soldiers
Limpopo provincial capital Polokwane and surrounds yielded mining equipment, illicit cigarettes and drugs as well as arrests for offences including assault, extortion and kidnapping during a joint military/police operation.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ Russian authorities considering lowering or abolishing duty-free online purchase limits — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Scholar Chris Miller explains the challenges (and pitfalls) of Moscow’s fight to import the Western microchips it needs for Russia’s invasion force and economy — Meduza
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Sky News ☛ Ukraine war latest: Russia is gaining advantage in Ukraine, Norway warns | World News | Sky News
Norway's intelligence service has warned Russian forces are gaining the advantage in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine has made further claims about Russian forces buying internet terminals from Elon Musk-run company Starlink - something both Russia and Musk have denied.
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Meduza ☛ 71-year-old Ukrainian citizen charged with espionage in Russia dies in prison — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Former Wagner Group fighters visit Russian school, give students flag reading ‘It’s nothing personal — we were paid’ — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Seventeen-year-old Ukrainian basketball player murdered in Germany — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Shared objectives, opposing reputations Why is Ukraine’s new top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi less popular than his predecessor? — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Governor of Russia’s Kaliningrad says German philosopher Immanuel Kant ‘directly tied’ to war in Ukraine — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ NATO Can't Be 'A La Carte,' Borrell Says As Allies Blast Trump's Comments
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and other European defense and foreign ministers on February 12 joined a torrent of criticism over former U.S. President Donald Trump's comment downplaying the U.S. commitment to NATO's security umbrella in Europe.
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France24 ☛ NATO not an alliance 'a la carte', EU foreign policy chief says of Trump comments
NATO "cannot be an alliance a la carte," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday after Donald Trump downplayed his commitment to NATO's security umbrella in Europe if he becomes US president again.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ Call and Response: Putin Demanded Greater Russia and Trump Agreed
One day after Putin told Tucker Carlson he invaded Ukraine not because of NATO, but because of his commitment to pursue Greater Russia, Trump promised he'd help Putin pursue Greater Russia.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Putin’s history lecture reveals his dreams of a new Russian Empire
Vladimir Putin turned his hotly anticipated interview with Tucker Carlson into a history lecture that laid bare the dangerous delusions and imperial ambitions driving the invasion of Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.
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RFERL ☛ Anti-Putin Shaman's Request To Get Transferred To Less Restrictive Psychiatric Clinic Rejected Again
A Russian court again refused to transfer to a less restrictive psychiatric clinic a Yakut shaman who became known across the country in 2019 for his attempts to march to Moscow to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin.
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Latvia ☛ Ukrainian, Latvian folklore to intertwine in chamber music concert
On February 25, the Ukrainian singer, conductor, and musician Oksana Nikitiuk and Latvian pianist Herta Hansena will offer a Ukrainian and Latvian chamber music program “Sunflower Road” both live and livestreamed, representatives of the Liepāja Concert Hall 'Great Amber' said.
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Latvia ☛ Ukrainian 'flag attack' case to be reviewed
An appeal in Valērijs Lazarevs' case, or the so-called Ukrainian flag attack case has come to Kurzeme Regional Court that the case should be reopened and viewed again, Latvian Television reported on February 12.
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AntiWar ☛ Zelensky Replacing Zaluzhny Is Not Just the Firing of Another General
After months of dangerous drama in Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has finally acted on his promise to fire Ukraine’s top general Valerii Zaluzhny.
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AntiWar ☛ The Biden-Schumer Plan To Kill More Ukrainians
President Joe Biden is refusing to fold a losing hand as he bets with Ukrainian lives and U.S. taxpayer money.
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The Kent Stater ☛ ‘We won’t hear the bangs’: Ukrainian city moves schools into metro stations
CNN — It was a special day for Elmira Dergousova when Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine: her fifth birthday. A plastic crown perched on her head, she blew the candles out on her “Frozen” cake.
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NYPost ☛ Speaker Mike Johnson signals House won’t take up Senate’s Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan aid bill
House Speaker Mike Johnson warned Monday that he might not bring the massive foreign aid bill being considered in the Senate up for a vote because it fails to address border security, saying the lower chamber will “work its own will” to tackle the issue.
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France24 ☛ House speaker rejects Ukraine aid package as senators grind through votes
House Speaker Mike Johnson late Monday sharply criticised a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other countries, casting serious doubts about the future of the package just as Senate leaders were slowly muscling it ahead in hopes of sending a message that the US remains committed to its allies.
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France24 ☛ ‘All for one’: France, Germany, Poland to tighten defence ties
The governments of Poland, France and Germany vowed Monday to make Europe a security and defence power with a greater ability to back Ukraine, as fears grow that former US president Donald Trump might return to the White House and allow Russia to expand its aggression on the continent.
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France24 ☛ Hospitalised Pentagon chief Austin cancels trip to Brussels for NATO, Ukraine meetings
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin cancelled a trip to Brussels for NATO defence talks after being admitted to a military hospital for a second time this year, the Pentagon said on Monday.
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JURIST ☛ Amnesty International: Russia sentences 33 Ukrainian soldiers for war crimes after ‘unlawful trials’
Amnesty International (AI) reported that Russia sentenced 33 Ukrainian soldiers in the Supreme Court of the Luhansk People’s Republic in Russian-occupied Luhansk on Monday for “alleged war crimes.” Russian authorities captured the soldiers as prisoners of war (POWs). Their sentences range from twenty-seven to twenty-nine years.
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RFERL ☛ Dnipropetrovsk Region Hit By Russian Drone Attack For Second Day In A Row
Russia on February 13 launched drone strikes on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region for the second day in a row, targeting energy infrastructure facilities, regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.
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RFERL ☛ EU Takes Significant Step Toward Using Profits From Frozen Russian Assets For Ukraine
The European Union has passed a law to set aside profits made on frozen Russian central-bank assets in the first concrete step toward using the money to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Poland Investigates Allegedly Deliberate Spillage Of Ukrainian Grain At Border Crossing
Polish police have opened an investigation into an incident over the weekend in which Polish farmers were accused of stopping three trucks carrying Ukrainian grain at a crossing and dumping the cargo onto the road.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Adds 18 British Citizens To Its Sanctions List
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on February 12 that it added 18 British citizens, including top defense officials and leading Russia experts, to its sanctions list for "demonizing" Russia and supporting "the regime" of Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Basketball Player Fatally Stabbed In Germany
A 17-year-old Ukrainian basketball player was fatally stabbed after an altercation at a bus stop in Germany, police said on February 12, in a case that has sparked outrage in Kyiv.
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RFERL ☛ Moldova Says Crashed Drone Contained Explosives; Minister Blasts Russia For 'Barbaric Attacks' On Ukraine
Fragments from a Russian drone that crashed into Moldova contained explosives the country's police said, as Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi condemned Russia's “barbaric attacks” across the border in Ukraine.
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The Straits Times ☛ Ukraine's military intelligence says Russia buying Starlink terminals in 'Arab countries'
February 13, 2024 3:22 PM
Russian forces are buying Starlink internet terminals in "Arab countries" for use on the battlefield, Ukraine's military intelligence said on Tuesday.
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CS Monitor ☛ Trump, Russia, NATO: How GOP moved on from Reagan’s confident view
In pulling the plug on Ukraine aid, Republicans underscore a shift from Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill” America to Donald Trump’s vision of a besieged, lights-out America.
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New York Times ☛ Senate Pushes Ukraine Aid Bill Toward Passage as G.O.P. Splinters
The legislation passed its final hurdle as a coalition of Republican senators, resisting pressure from the right wing and former President Donald J. Trump, joined Democrats to move it toward a final vote.
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New York Times ☛ Here Are the Republicans Breaking With Their Party to Back Ukraine Aid
Party leaders, national security institutionalists and centrists make up the 17 Republicans who joined Democrats in breaking a filibuster against the military aid, defying former President Donald J. Trump.
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Latvia ☛ Latvian Radio examines attempts to catch sanctions evaders
Latvian Radio's Atvērtie Faili (Open Files) investigative show has reported on the efforts of Latvia's customs officers to enforce sanctions against aggressor states Russia and Belarus, both of which border Latvia.
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Atlantic Council ☛ China pairs actions with messaging in Latin America. The United States should do the same.
China has coordinated trade, financing, and investment with diplomatic engagement, public diplomacy, and information operations to deepen its influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington should, in turn, pair diplomatic engagement and messaging with greater attention to regional countries’ needs.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Don’t let geopolitics undermine Latin America’s hard-won free markets
The United States is concerned about China’s close economic ties to Latin America and the Caribbean; however, the US response should be careful not to undermine longstanding market norms and popular trade liberalization policies
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Atlantic Council ☛ China and Russia engage Latin America and the Caribbean differently. Both threaten US interests.
China and Russia are both seeking to deepen their influence in the Western Hemisphere at the expense of the United States, though the means by, and ends for, which they pursue that differ in some cases.
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Atlantic Council ☛ The competition for influence in the Americas is now online
China is expanding its footprint in Latin America and the Caribbeans’s emerging technology and critical infrastructure arenas, while Russia is engaging in foreign influence operations via the cyber domain. These challenges require a proactive stance by the United States.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Beijing’s influence on Latin America’s energy mix is growing—especially in renewables
Russia and, especially, China are intertwined in Latin America’s energy market, with Chinese ties expanding markedly over the past two decades. The United States and its allies and partners must take quick action to counter this rising influence.
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JURIST ☛ Russia court orders arrest of Meta spokesperson
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered the arrest of Meta Platforms spokesperson Andy Stone in absentia Monday for charges relating to terrorism offenses and inciting extremist activities.
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JURIST ☛ Qatar releases 8 Indian navy veterans after two years of detention for alleged espionage
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India announced on Monday that the Emir of the State of Qatar decided to release eight Indian Navy veterans working for the Doha-based Dahra Global company, who were detained in Qatar due to their connection in an alleged espionage case in 2022.
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LRT ☛ NATO’s largest exercise tells Russia to keep its hands off alliance – Lithuanian ambassador
NATO is holding its largest exercise since the Cold War. Its aim is to send a message to Russia to keep its hands off NATO territory, Lithuanian Ambassador to NATO Deividas Matulionis has said.
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RFERL ☛ IIHF Keeps Ban On Russia, Belarus From Taking Part In International Ice Hockey Events
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has decided Russia and Belarus remain barred from participating in its competitions, meaning neither will be represented at events in the 2024-25 championship season.
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RFERL ☛ Germany's Siemens To Close Business In Russia
Siemens is closing its business in Russia, according to its final financial report for 2023, which declared it impossible to continue working in the country and announced a voluntary liquidation
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RFERL ☛ Russian Oligarch's Seized Yacht Costs $7 Million A Year To Maintain, Justifying Sale, U.S. Says
The U.S. government has said it is spending more than $7 million a year to maintain a superyacht it seized from a Russian oligarch in 2022 and urged a judge to let it auction the vessel.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Warrant Issued For Facebook (Farcebook) Parent Company Spokesman
A Moscow court on February 12 issued an arrest warrant for the spokesman for Facebook's parent company, Meta, accusing him of promoting terrorism.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Media Holding's Executive Gets More Than Seven Years In Prison On Extortion Charge
A Moscow court on February 12 sentenced Kirill Sukhanov, the commercial director of the Ostorozhno Media media holding to 7 1/2 years in prison on an extortion charge.
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The Straits Times ☛ Russia warns the West: we will be very tough if you 'steal' our assets
Russia warned the West on Tuesday that Moscow would be very tough if the United States and European Union seized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian assets.
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New York Times ☛ Trump Steps Up, Helping Biden Just When the President Needs Him
Donald J. Trump’s stunning statement supporting a Russian attack against “delinquent” NATO allies takes attention away from unwelcome questions about the president’s age and provides the Biden camp a useful contrast.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian court sentences Iraqi migrant smuggler to prison
An Iraqi national who organised the smuggling of migrants across the Lithuanian-Belarusian border with accomplices was sentenced to imprisonment by the Vilnius Regional Court.
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RFERL ☛ Another Self-Exiled Politician's Apartment Is Put Up For Sale By Belarus
Minsk authorities have put on auction a two-bedroom apartment in the Belarusian capital belonging to self-exiled opposition politician Valer Tsapkala, whose candidacy election officials refused to register for a presidential poll in 2020.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Gizmodo ☛ Elon Musk Bought Twitter to Settle His Jet-Tracking Beef, New Book Claims
“Musk had also unsuccessfully petitioned Agrawal [CEO of Twitter at the time] to remove a Twitter account that was tracking his private plane,” says an excerpt from Battle for the Bird, a new book on Musk’s takeover, published by Bloomberg on Thursday. “The billionaire started buying Twitter shares shortly after Agrawal denied his request.”
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong's new security law must protect whistleblowers
Authorities identify five types of national security crime that are sometimes overly broad and err on the side of security in a trade-off with human rights. Because the proposals are embedded in the central authorities’ all-encompassing notion of national security, we should take note of mainland China’s national security policy and practice as we consider the government’s proposals. One proposed offence, the theft of state secrets, brings the issues into sharp relief.
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Environment
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Omicron Limited ☛ Permaculture showed us how to farm the land more gently. Can we do the same as we farm the sea?
But the booming "blue economy" is no panacea. Fish farms can pollute the water. Mangroves are often felled to make way for prawn farms. The solutions of today could turn out to be problems of the future. We cannot simply shift from one form of environmental exploitation to another.
There is an alternative: permaculture. This approach has proven itself on land as a way to blend farming with healthy ecosystems. What if it could do the same on water?
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CBC ☛ Swordfish are moving north in Canadian waters
Swordfish follow the Gulf Stream up to Canada and feed on squid and other fish in the more productive cold water immediately adjacent to the warm Gulf Stream.
Gillespie and fellow Fisheries and Oceans scientist Alex Hanke want to know if the change in their distribution is linked to changes in the temperature gradient or shifts in the Gulf Stream's movement.
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DeSmog ☛ Q&A: ‘Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action’
What will it take for the world to finally rally around rapid, sustained climate action?
Professor Dana R. Fisher answers this critical question in her new book, Saving Ourselves: Climate Shocks to Climate Action.
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Energy/Transportation
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YLE ☛ Controversial Chinese-Finnish battery plant in Hamina gets environmental permit
The CNGR Finland bid drew hundreds of concerned responses last summer. According to the decision, the company must comply with emission restrictions and pay an annual fishery fee.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Load shedding crisis: government 'should be ashamed'
Roche said the Sona speech was overly ambitious in practically announcing an end to load shedding: “We are currently in a power crisis and moved to stage-4 (and then stage-6) load shedding shortly after Sona,” he said. “At stage 4, we are around 4GW, or 20% short, of the power we need, so promises of an end to load shedding are simply wishful thinking.
“South Africa needs several gigawatts of additional power urgently. We must start transitioning to green power but at the same time, we must address the power shortage and get the baseload power infrastructure stable. Injecting green power into the grid at utility scale and at industrial and manufacturing facilities will help to kill two birds with one stone.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Bitcoin nears $50 000
Nine new spot bitcoin funds began trading in the US on 11 January and have attracted more than $9-billion of investor inflows so far. Two of the offerings, from BlackRock and Fidelity Investments, rank as the most successful ETFs launched based on assets garnered after a month on the market, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart wrote in a note.
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Quartz ☛ Bitcoin price hits $50,000 after more than doubling
The biggest driver in the late surge of interest is the US government allowing the proliferation of new exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Though some investors used the opportunity to move their money around to save on fees, sector-wide inflows are now driving bitcoin prices more than twice as high as they had been a year ago.
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Interesting Engineering ☛ Wind firm joins shipowner to slash Airbus emissions by 50%
In a landmark deal for sustainable shipping, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA), a leading French shipowner, and Norsepower, a Finnish wind propulsion technology company, have announced a partnership to equip a new fleet of RoRo vessels with Norsepower's innovative Rotor Sails.
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YLE ☛ Consumer Ombudsman raps Finnair over 'unclear' environmental ad claims
The greenwashing claim is related to the national airline's claims about its use of renewable fuel, which only amounted to about 0.2% of its consumption.
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Wildlife/Nature
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The Revelator ☛ Species Spotlight: The Critically Endangered Sumatran Tiger — Small But Mighty
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Science Alert ☛ One of The World's Most Mysterious Whales Shows Signs of Holding Traditions
They're like soggy people.
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Science Alert ☛ It's Confirmed. A Major Atlantic Ocean Current Is Verging on Collapse.
Closer than we think.
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Overpopulation
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New York Times ☛ The Doomsday Clock Keeps Ticking
Are humans the only beings in the universe confronting global self-destruction? Or just the last ones standing?
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Finance
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JURIST ☛ Slovakia parliament approves criminal law reform amid public protests and EU concerns
The Slovak parliament approved reforms calling for the eradication of a special prosecution branch dealing with high-level crimes in the country, as well as the lowering of punishments for financial crimes.
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Democracy Now ☛ Race, Gender, Class: Bishop Barber, Economist Michael Zweig on Poor & Low-Wage Voters in 2024 Election
As the 2024 election heats up, the Poor People’s Campaign has launched a 40-week effort aimed at mobilizing the voting power of some 15 million poor and low-wage voters across the United States ahead of the November election. The campaign’s first major coordinated actions are set to occur outside 30 statehouses on March 2, just days before Super Tuesday. “Statehouses are where the political insurrections are taking place,” says Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. The “enormous undertaking” is in response to “an enormous economic and moral problem” of inequality in the United States, he notes, and poor and low-wage workers have the voting power to affect the 2024 elections in every single state in the country. We also speak with economist Michael Zweig, who is a member of the New York State Coordinating Committee of the Poor People’s Campaign. His new book on inequality is Class, Race, and Gender: Challenging the Injuries and Divisions of Capitalism.
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BBC ☛ The Body Shop: What went wrong for the trailblazing chain? - BBC News
As the UK business is expected to go into administration, we look at what went wrong.
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India Times ☛ US judge orders Elon Musk to testify in SEC's Twitter probe
The SEC sued Musk in October to compel the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to testify as part of an investigation into his 2022 purchase of Twitter, the social media giant that he subsequently renamed X. Musk refused to attend an interview in September that was part of the probe, the SEC said.
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El País ☛ 25 years of the euro
The euro was conceived in Madrid in December 1995, as a way to put an end to the crisis of the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System (EMS) that had begun in September 1992 with the pound sterling crisis. And it had a long gestation, until four years later when, on January 1, 1999, the currency parities were irrevocably fixed — those with enough age and memory will remember that the conversion of the peseta to euros was 166,386 pesetas = 1 euro — and the ECB took control of monetary policy. The birth of the euro lasted 24 months — a transitional period during which only the peseta circulated but prices were announced in both pesetas and euros — until January 1, 2022, when euro banknotes and coins were put into circulation. The peseta stopped being legal tender on February 28, 2002, although the exchange of pesetas for euros could be carried out until June 30, 2021.
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Latvia ☛ 'Instant' bank payments to become an EU-wide reality
Most people will have encountered a situation in which making a bank transfer from one bank account to another has seen the payment delayed for several days, with the funds apparently suspended in the ether before completion.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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The Strategist ☛ Prabowo’s foreign policy and what it may mean for Australia
On 14 February, over 200 million Indonesians will vote in the world’s largest direct presidential elections.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Cisco to cut 'thousands of jobs'
The company is still deciding on the total number of employees to be affected by the layoffs, one person said. An announcement could come as early as next week, as the company prepares for its earnings call on 14 February.
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Reuters ☛ Exclusive: Cisco to cut thousands of jobs as it seeks to focus on high growth areas | Reuters
The company has in recent years grappled with supply chain issues and a post-pandemic slowdown in demand, which has hastened its push into software offerings like cybersecurity.
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India Today ☛ Cisco laying off thousands of employees starting this week, will focus on growth areas next - India Today
Cisco has not yet disclosed the exact number of employees who will be affected by these layoffs. However, a source close to the publication revealed that the company is still deciding on the numbers and the final announcement can be expected as early as this week, as the company prepares for its earnings call on February 14.
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San Fancisco ☛ Bay Area tech giant Cisco to lay off thousands
As of the fiscal year 2023, Cisco’s workforce stood at 84,900.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ South Africa plans to offer 'digital nomad' visas
If the legislation comes to pass, South Africa will join Namibia, Cape Verde, Mauritius and the Seychelles as the fifth country in Africa to offer digital nomad visas. Highly skilled workers in the IT sector, such as programmers and software architects, are typically the target of such visas.
For the critical skills visa, the draft regulations propose a points system that takes into account the applicant’s age, qualifications, language skills, work experience and whether they have an offer of employment in a local company or not. This practice is similar to other jurisdictions worldwide. High-earning workers in the IT sector are a particular target.
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The Strategist ☛ How PRC companies influence diplomatic switches from Taiwan in the Pacific
On 14 January, Nauru re-established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ending nearly 20 years of links with Taiwan.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Taiwan accuses China of 'cheating' and 'stealing' chipmaking technologies
The de-facto ambassador of Taiwan in the U.S. accused Chinese chipmakers of circumventing standard practices of innovation and instead resorting to dishonest methods to advance their capabilities. Despite significant investments, Yui remains skeptical of China's ability to produce leading-edge processors that could compete on the global stage, especially in the face of concerted efforts by the U.S. to curb Beijing's technological ambitions through export restrictions and other measures.
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Scoop News Group ☛ CISA releases 2024 priorities for the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Monday released the 2024 priorities for the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, an operational-focused government and private collaborative which has faced recent criticism.
The announcement of three broad priorities will mark an alignment of “resources and strategic direction.” In the coming year, the JCDC will focus on: defending against advanced persistent threat (APT) operations, raising baseline protections for critical infrastructure owners and operators, and anticipating emerging technology and risks.
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Federal News Network ☛ Defense Department dead serious about cybersecurity
Zero trust cybersecurity is on everyone’s mind these days, who is responsible for an information system. For an update on what is going on at the Defense Department, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with Randy Resnick, Director of the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office in the DoD’s office of the chief information officer.
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The Register UK ☛ Cisco sharpens ax again as results season swings round
More than 34,000 tech staff who started 2024 in gainful employment are now looking for a new job – and that's before networking titan Cisco reportedly pulls the plug on thousands more to lighten the payroll.
The latest job statistics pale in comparison to a year ago, when in January alone almost 90,000 were made redundant by tech businesses coming off a hiring binge during the pandemic and caught out by slowing sales, according to Layoff.fyi.
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The Nation ☛ RFK Jr. Has Lost His Way
It was ghoulish.
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YLE ☛ APN Podcast: Alexander Stubb wins a very Finnish election
Finland woke up on Monday to a new era after NCP candidate Stubb won a cordially-conducted presidential election on Sunday night.
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YLE ☛ Stubb pledges to continue Niinistö's foreign policy line
President-elect Alexander Stubb spoke to the domestic and international press on Monday afternoon, after his win in Sunday's surprisingly close runoff election.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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US News And World Report ☛ Trump's Misleading Framing of NATO Defense Funding
The former president’s comments also are tangentially related to Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, which states that an attack on one NATO country is considered an attack on all its allies. That stance is not tied in any way to the 2% defense spending target.
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Hindustan Times ☛ Explained: What did Trump say about NATO funding and what is Article 5? | World News - Hindustan Times
Trump has often accused other NATO members of not paying their dues, giving the impression that the alliance is like a club with membership fees.
But NATO operates differently. It has some common funds, to which all members contribute. But the vast bulk of its strength comes from members' own national defence spending - to maintain forces and buy arms that can also be used by NATO.
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France24 ☛ No, this video doesn’t show mosques being destroyed in China
X users have been circulating a video in recent days that shows a mosque being bulldozed, claiming that it provides proof that the Chinese government is destroying mosques. The Chinese government is carrying out a “sinicization policy” on mosques, either demolishing them or carrying out architectural modifications to make them look more Chinese, a practice that has been decried by human rights organisations. However, this video was not filmed in China.
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France24 ☛ France accuses Russia of disinformation campaign against Ukraine's allies
French government officials on Monday accused Russia of operating a long-running online manipulation campaign against Ukraine’s Western backers in the lead up to the second anniversary of Moscow’s military invasion of its neighbour.
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RFERL ☛ France Accuses Russia Of Disinformation Campaign Ahead Of Ukraine Invasion Anniversary
French government officials on February 12 accused Russia of operating a long-running online manipulation campaign against Ukraine’s Western backers in the lead-up to the second anniversary of Moscow's military invasion of its neighbor.
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Latvia ☛ Beware of Hey Hi (AI) content in pre-election period, anti-graft cops warn
The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) issued a statement on February 12 warning the public that political organizations, as well as non-party persons, might use artificial intelligence-generated materials during the pre-election campaigning period to, among other things, deliberately disinform potential voters and influence their opinion.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Techdirt ☛ Media Matters’ Very Strong Response To Elon Musk’s Very Dumb Lawsuit
Last fall, we detailed the many, many, many, many problems of Elon Musk’s absolutely bullshit ridiculous lawsuit against Media Matters. Again, if you don’t recall, Media Matters found some examples of neo-Nazi content on ExTwitter appearing next to ads from big name brands. Elon got extra mad about this because it also happened a day after he endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory trope. Either way, it led to many advertisers pulling their ads.
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Techdirt ☛ Would You Trust A Cryptocurrency Whose Operator Sues Journalists For Reporting On Lawsuits Calling You A Scam?
In the fall of 2022 an apparent investor in a cryptocurrency called “Bitcoin Latinum” sued the guy behind the currency, Donald Basile. You can see the whole case here. There has been a bunch of back and forth on the docket, but it appears the remaining parties at some point went to binding arbitration.
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Meduza ☛ Russia adds Meta press secretary Andy Stone to official list of ‘extremists and terrorists’ — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Major Russian beauty retailer tells male employees not to wear obvious makeup to avoid ‘LGBT propaganda’ charges — Meduza
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404 Media ☛ Taliban Shuts Down 'queer.af' Domain, Breaking Mastodon Instance
When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, the fate of these domains and the websites on them became uncertain, and, three years later, another shoe now appears to be dropping. Last month, Erin Shepherd, the administrator of the queer.af Mastodon instance on the Fediverse posted that they have been “in limbo” since the Taliban retook control of the country, and had already planned to shut down in April. The Taliban shut the domain down roughly two months before it was scheduled to renew.
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Variety ☛ Jon Stewart Explains Apple Exit: Why the Streamer Canceled The Problem
While an individual with knowledge of the situation said at the time that Stewart and Apple’s split was an amicable one, The New York Times reported that the duo had disagreements over topics that were to be covered in the third season, including A.I. and China. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives later questioned Apple CEO Tim Cook about whether the tech giant’s decision to cancel Stewart’s show was because the host may have been planning an upcoming episode about China.
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Meduza ☛ Yekaterinburg man sentenced to eight days in jail for laying flowers at memorial to protest mobilization
According to human rights advocates, five people were arrested at the Black Tulip monument on Saturday. In addition to Yakupov, two people were charged with violating protest rules.
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Quartz ☛ Elon Musk bought Twitter because of account tracking his private jet
The new book is a detailed investigation into the power struggle at Twitter, now called X, in the last few years. The book seems to confirm that Musk’s personal gripes played a key role in his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.
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Reason ☛ No Libel or Emotional Distress Discovery for Being Called a "Nazi"
From Magistrate Judge Robert Norway's report and recommendation in Frank v. Fine (M.D. Fla. Jan. 5), adopted by Judge Paul Byron on Jan. 19: Plaintiff [Colby Alexander Frank] {a self-proclaimed "white civil rights advocate" and member of the "Goyim Defense League"} here alleges that Defendant [Randy Fine, a Florida legislator] defamed him by publishing...
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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CPJ ☛ CPJ condemns Kyrgyzstan’s order to shut investigative outlet Kloop
“After last month’s mass arrest of journalists linked to anti-corruption outlet Temirov Live, the forced closure of Kloop—one of the most respected media outlets not just in Kyrgyzstan but in the whole of Central Asia—signals Kyrgyz authorities’ intent to wipe out an investigative reporting hub that has previously set the country apart from its authoritarian neighbors,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in New York on Monday. “Authorities in Kyrgyzstan should allow Kloop to remain open, reverse their escalating campaign against the press, and allow independent media to work freely.”
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CPJ ☛ Bangladeshi journalist Mohammed Emran Hossan killed in road crash after reporting death threat
A jeep hit Hossan’s motorcycle and ran over his body, according to a complaint, reviewed by CPJ, that was filed by the family at Rangunia Model Police Station on the day that Hossan died.
No arrests had been made although the police were given the driver’s name, those sources said. A journalist familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, said the driver went into hiding shortly after the crash.
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The Dissenter ☛ Countdown To Day X: Assange Prosecution Is Politically Motivated
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Civil Rights/Policing
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JURIST ☛ Malaysia federal court declares Kelantan state Shariah laws unconstitutional
The Malaysian federal court declared several Kelantan state Sharia laws to be unconstitutional in a judgement on Friday.
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ A Philly Sex Shop Fired Its Workers When They Started a Union
But because of the environment that we worked in and because of regular layoffs, there was a lot of staff turnover. It was a small business, so we were all doing things that went beyond retail or beyond working in a store. I was doing some of the social media; another one of my coworkers was doing part of the educational side of the business, as well as working on the floor.
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Federal News Network ☛ As you return to the office, the office space must evolve
“One trend that we’re seeing, and I think is going to remain, is that the work and workspaces need to remain agile and flexible to address the current environment we’re in. And we need to manage that ever-changing environment,” said Chuck Hardy, the chief architect at the General Services Administration, in an interview with Federal News Network. “This makes managing the surge vitally important and properly planning spaces. I think agencies are learning that, but more directly, it’s sending that message that you don’t build space for your busiest time of the year. Instead, you build it for the mean and have solutions in place like federal co-working, like commercial co-working or like telework that effectively and efficiently absorb those surges.”
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Techdirt ☛ Papers Please, But For Porn Scheduled For A 2025 Debut In The UK
Stop-start. Push-pull. Yank-tug. That’s the way things have been going in the UK. One would expect better performance from lawmakers with a hard-on for porn.
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RFA ☛ North Korea cracks down on homes converted into Airbnb-style lodgings
The move targets informal innkeepers and prostitution.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘I go almost every day’: The elderly Hong Kong democracy advocates following 2019 protest court cases
When Poon walks into Hong Kong’s District Court, it feels like home. Like clockwork, the sexagenarian opens her bag for a security check, fills her empty bottle – no liquids are allowed past the screening – and makes sure her phone is on silent.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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APNIC ☛ Unbloating the buffers
Guest Post: How bad is bufferbloat, really?
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Michael Geist ☛ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 192: Kate Robertson on the Privacy, Expression and Affordability Risks in Bill C-26
Bill C-26, alternately described as a cyber-security, critical infrastructure or telecom bill, remains largely below the radar screen despite its serious implications for privacy, expression, and affordable network access.
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APNIC ☛ Unbloating the buffers
Bufferbloat is so common that we don’t even think about it. Of course, video calls drop out and glitch when you download something, duh! The Internet is working hard, it’s only natural that it’s a bit slow to react.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Chances are, your connection is faster than 30Mbit up/down. You only need less than 10% of it for a perfectly good Zoom call. If bandwidth is split equally, it should be pretty hard for a home network to not be able to support a video call. Yet in practice, latency-sensitive traffic glitches all the time when the network is busy! People often think it’s the lack of bandwidth, but it’s usually the extra latency caused by bufferbloat.
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CBC ☛ Bell denied stay in decision allowing smaller companies to sell [Internet] using its fibre networks
Bell responded last fall by reducing its network investment plans by $1.1 billion by 2025, including a minimum reduction of $500 million this year, and warns there could be further cost reductions if the company feels it has to stay ahead of regulatory decisions it finds unfavourable.
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Techdirt ☛ Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction Blocking Ohio’s Unconstitutional ‘Parental Consent’ Social Media Law
Last month we wrote about Netchoice suing Ohio over its “Parental Notification by Social Media Act,” in which I filed a declaration highlighting how problematic the law would be for a site like Techdirt. By the time we’d finished the article about the lawsuit, a federal judge had already granted a temporary injunction, blocking the law from going into effect. The law was incredibly problematic for many reasons, but like some other laws, the whole idea was to make websites get “parental consent” for kids using social media.
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Matthew Palmer: Not all TLDs are Created Equal
In light of the recent cancellation of the
queer.af
domain registration by the Taliban, the fragile and difficult nature of country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) has once again been comprehensively demonstrated. Since many people may not be aware of the risks, I thought I’d give a solid explainer of the whole situation, and explain why you should, in general, not have anything to do with domains which are registered under ccTLDs.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Tom's Hardware ☛ The Canadian government wants to ban Flipper Zero-type hacker tools to combat car theft
Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry wants to ban devices such as Flipper Zero, as a means to combat car theft.
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India Times ☛ Apple: How Apple’s proposed changes could crumble the freemium model
Apple has also introduced a new fee for developers, called the ‘core technology fee’. Developers will now pay 0.50 euros for each first annual install over one million in the past 12 months.
These changes are significant because they open up the ‘walled garden’ that Apple has prided itself on, but they also come with a caveat that could effectively kill the ‘freemium’ model that most of these apps are based on.
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Zimbabwe ☛ Apple showed its dictator ways with bad faith compliance to EU law and developers are fighting back
All that talk of the Apple ecosystem hinges on this. Apparently, if you still want to exercise your right to pick devices you want, limit yourself to one or just two Apple devices. If you collect all, you will struggle to leave Apple’s garden.
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Wired ☛ I Stopped Using Passwords. It's Great—and a Total Mess
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, GitHub, PayPal, the UK’s National Health Service, OnlyFans, Nintendo, and more than 100 websites have started supporting passkeys. More than 8 billion online accounts can set up passkeys right now, says Andrew Shikiar, the chief executive of the FIDO Alliance, an industry body that has developed the passkey over the past decade. So, I decided to kill my passwords.
For the past month, I’ve been converting as many of my accounts as possible—around a dozen for now—to use passkeys and start the move away from the password for good. Spoiler: When passkeys work seamlessly, it’s a glimpse of a more secure future for millions, if not billions, of people, and a reinvention of how we sign in to websites and services. But getting there for every account across the [Internet] is still likely to prove a minefield and take some time.
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Patents
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Don’t Judge a Range by its Cover: Federal Circuit Sides with Patentee on Written Description Support
In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit held that a claimed range reciting narrower values than those described in the patent monopoly specification can still satisfy the written description requirement under 35 U.S.C. § 112(a). RAI Strategic Holdings, Inc. v. Philip Morris Prods. S.A., No. 22-1862 (Fed. Cir. Feb 9, 2024). Reversing a PTAB post-grant review decision, the court ruled that claims reciting a heating element with having a length of 75-85% of the disposable aerosol-forming substance had adequate written description support even though the specification only described broader ranges, such as “about 75% to about 125%.” Id.
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ March-In Rights [Ed: Obviously those who respond to it are patent maximalists who follow him in Microsoft's prison.]
I have a poll running Microsoft's Surveillance Arm LinkedIn about whether the Federal Government should more aggressively use its march-in rights to ensure public access to federally funded inventions.
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Scoop News Group ☛ ‘Human contributions’ are focus of inventorship analysis in AI age, patent office says
New guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office outlining how the agency will analyze inventorship in the age of artificial intelligence stresses the importance of focusing on “human contributions” to innovations.
The examination guidance, published for public inspection Monday on the Federal Register, is aimed at providing clarity to agency personnel and stakeholders on how it will analyze inventorship “as AI systems, including generative AI, play a greater role in the innovation process.”
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JUVE ☛ Peterreins Schley and WobbleWorks serve PI at world’s biggest toy trade fair [Ed: Patent thugs stealing stuff]
The Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court has handed down an ex-parte preliminary injunction against myFirst Tech Asia, after its competitor WobbleWorks accused the company of infringing the latter’s 3D pens (case ID: 19 O 581/24). >
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Joint Inventorship: AI-Human Style
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently published examination guidance and a request for comments on the treatment of inventorship for inventions created with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions.
The key takeaway here is that the USPTO believes that an AI-developed invention is patentable so long as a human satisfies the joint-inventorship standard of “significantly contributing to the invention.” A human who provides a significant contribution may be the sole inventor and original owner, even in situations where the Hey Hi (AI) provided the greater contribution.
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Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Cladribine SPC – a Potential Dilemma for the English Court of Appeal?
It took longer to arrive than expected but here it is. The UK Courts have been given an opportunity to depart from the jurisprudence of the CJEU in their interpretation of the SPC Regulation. The opportunity has arisen in the following way.
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Judge Newman’s D.C. Lawsuit Against Fellow Judges Largely Dismissed on Jurisdictional Grounds
Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman has been fighting for her right to judge after charges implicating her fitness for office. Earlier this month, a committee of federal judges upheld Newman’s one-year suspension from new case assignments for refusing to cooperate with a misconduct investigation. Newman had separately sued her colleagues in DC District Court, but Judge Cooper has now dismissed most of that lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds. While a few counts remain, the court’s ruling deals a serious blow to Judge Newman’s attempt to challenge the judiciary’s self-policing procedures. Newman v. Moore, 23-cv-01334 (D.D.C., February 12, 2024). Newman v. Moore Decision.
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Playing From The Rough: Kirkland Signature™ Irons and The Doctrine of Equivalents
Guest Post by Jordan Duenckel. Jordan is a third-year law student at the University of Missouri and a registered patent monopoly agent. He has an extensive background in chemistry and food science. Before law school, he was a greenskeeper at a local golf course.
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Software Patents
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The Register UK ☛ Cloudflare's crowd-sources another patent troll case victory
Sable Networks, which owns patents originally given to defunct "flow-based router" company Caspian Networks, sued Cloudflare and five other companies in 2021 alleging a whole host of violations of four patents now owned by Sable.
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Trademarks
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Techdirt ☛ Luxury Brand Hermes Sues Tiny Used Book Shop In Turkey Called ‘Hermes Sahaf’
Usually when I write about trademark disputes, it’s at least the case that if I really squint at an accuser’s claims, or perhaps hit myself in the head with a hammer for several minutes, I can at least see their perspective in a dispute. I may still call the whole thing very stupid, as is my habit, but I can see why the whole thing started.
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB is Considering Dropping Citations to USPQ in favor of Westlaw
In a recent Board decision, In re Pro Eagle LLC, Serial No. 97738815 (February 9, 2024), the Board announced in a footnote that it is conducting an "internal Board pilot program exploring the possibility of broadening or altering acceptable forms of legal citations in Board cases." It appears that the Board may decide to drop USPQ citations in the future. The footnote from the Pro Eagle case is quoted below.
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is MENSTRUATION CRUSTACEON Merely Descriptive of Microwavable Heating Pads?
The USPTO refused to register the proposed mark MENSTRUATION CRUSTACEON for "Microwavable heating pads not for medical purposes," finding the mark to be primarily merely descriptive under Section 2(e)(1). Applicant argued, among other things, that "the rhyming, incongruous qualities of MENSTRUATION CRUSTACEAN" and its "humorous, rhyming cadence" . . . "captures the consumer’s attention and identifies Applicant as the source of the goods." How do you think this came out? In re What Do You Meme, LLC, Serial No. 97406016 (February 8, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Cheryl S. Goodman).
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Copyrights
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘Tomorrow never knows’: Hong Kong indie collective seeks community, history for the city’s alternative music scene
Sum Lok-kei sometimes thinks back to a one-day music festival he organised almost eight years ago, when he and long-time friend Jason Cheung played alongside a dozen alternative bands from Hong Kong and China in a marathon performance of hybrid indie sounds.
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Reason ☛ On Copyright, Creativity, and Compensation
What to make of all this? I am not oblivious to the irony of being confronted with this problem after having spent 30 years or so, as a lawyer and law professor, reflecting on and writing about the many mysteries of copyright policy and copyright law in the Internet Age.
Here are a few things that strike me as interesting (and possibly important) in this episode.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Google: Piracy Shield Has Legal Limits, Anti-Piracy Chief: Think Ethics, Do More
Italy's Piracy Shield system has been fully-operational for almost two weeks yet usage remains surprisingly low. Meanwhile, responding to reports that pirate streaming apps are available on the Play Store, Google noted that, under law, it is not subject to Piracy Shield blocking orders. In a response that spoke of the need for “autonomous initiatives” inspired by "ethics and self-regulation," the head of telecoms regulator AGCOM disagreed.
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Torrent Freak ☛ The U.S. Tops the Manga Piracy Chart, While Iran Leads in Music Piracy
Piracy continued to rise globally in 2023 across all content categories. The largest relative increase was visible in the music and software categories, which saw double-digit growth. In the publishing category, manga comics dominate with the United States the leading source of traffic. Surprisingly, most music pirates come from Iran today.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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