Links 08/03/2024: TikTok Skinnerboxes Under Review Again, Last Month's Layoffs Break Records
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Quartz ☛ Meta is making a new AI to power Facebook and Instagram video
Now in its third phase, Alison said Meta is working to continue validating the use of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI to power more products, and scale it.
“Instead of just powering Reels, we’re working on a project to power our entire video ecosystem with this single model, and then can we add our Feed recommendation product to also be served by this model,” Alison said. “If we get this right, not only will the recommendations be kind of more engaging and more relevant, but we think the responsiveness of them can improve as well.”
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Gizmodo ☛ The Wi-Fi at Google's New Office Really Sucks
Google employees say the new building has been plagued for months with inoperable WiFi, according to a report from Reuters Thursday. The Wi-Fi is so bad that many software engineers are forced to plug ethernet cables into their laptops to do any work. The Wi-Fi issues come as Google is mandating employees return to the office for three days a week, which is upsetting to many employees who have better internet connections at home.
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Rolling Stone ☛ Akira Toriyama, Legendary 'Dragon Ball' Creator, Dead at 68
The prolific Japanese creator died on March 1 from an acute subdural hematoma, the official Dragon Ball website shared in a statement on Friday from Bird Studio, which Toriyama founded in the Eighties, and Capsule Corporation Tokyo. “He has left many manga titles and works of art to this world. Thanks to the support of so many people around the world, he has been able to continue his creative activities for over 45 years,” the announcement read. “We hope that the world of Akira Toriyama’s unique works will continue to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.”
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Licensing / Legal
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Gizmodo ☛ Elon Almost Did a Good Thing
In short: The only reason that Musk is upset about OpenAI’s trajectory is that he doesn’t get to be the one calling the shots. If it were up to him, he’d still be the one piloting the closed-source corporate behemoth, not Altman.
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Wired ☛ The Fear That Inspired Elon Musk and Sam Altman to Create OpenAI
The emails suggest that Musk was open to OpenAI becoming more profit-focused relatively early on, potentially undermining his own claim that it deviated from its original mission. In one message Musk offers to fold OpenAI into his electric-car company Tesla to provide more resources, an idea originally suggested by an email he forwarded from an unnamed outside party.
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Gizmodo ☛ Roku Will Bork Your TV Unless You Promise Not to Sue
TechCrunch notes that it’s virtually impossible to avoid signing Roku’s new agreement if you want to continue using your TV. I, myself, thoughtlessly clicked through the agreement the other day, presuming it was something unimportant. In reality, the popup was a legally binding agreement not to sue Roku at any point in the future. Instead, the agreement compels the user to agree to forced arbitration, a different dispute resolution process that many legal experts contend greatly favors corporations over consumers.
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Science
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Pravesh Koirala ☛ Solving the Nerd-Sniping Problem: When Electronics meets Heat! - Pravesh Koirala
Do not be fooled by the innocuous structure of the problem. It is, in fact, quite tricky, and true to its name, has the potential to Nerd-Snipe you. Being an empiricist through and through, I was curious if I could use some numerical methods to get a quick approximation for this particular problem. Something that immediately came to my mind was the Discrete Heat Equation in a 2D lattice and the structure of the problem seems similar enough to see if it applies here.
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[Old] uni Cambridge ☛ Take a break
An error-detecting code is a way of transmitting data - a number, say - so that most common mistakes will be detected at once, before they can cause any damage. A very simple example would be to transmit the whole number twice. This is grossly inefficient, however. It doubles the length of the number, and even then, if an error is detected, leaves us in the dark about the correct number - was the first transmission correct, or the second? The code performs error detection, but not error correction. We'll see in this article that there are far more efficient codes available.
There are many different methods of error detection. Generally, the number to be transmitted is followed by a number of check digits - most often one for simple error detection, but if we are to do error correction too, at least two will be needed. Then when the number is transmitted, another calculation can be done at the receiving end to check that the received number (including the check digit) is valid. We shall look at three schemes used for calculating check digits: modular schemes, permutation schemes and noncommutative schemes, and at some examples of where they are used.
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FAIR ☛ Applause for Lunar Failure Follows Decades of Space Program Cheerleading
“In a historic lunar accomplishment, the first private spacecraft to land successfully on the Moon touched down on February 22,” the journal Nature (2/23/24) trumpeted the following day.
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Education
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Futurism ☛ Lazy High School Teachers Using ChatGPT for Grading
It's a bizarre new chapter in our ongoing attempts to introduce AI tech to almost every aspect of life. With both students and teachers relying on deeply flawed technology, it certainly doesn't bode well for the future of education.
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Hardware
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The Verge ☛ Nikon is acquiring US camera manufacturer RED
Nikon is acquiring RED Digital Cinema, the company founded by Jim Jannard (founder of Oakley) and best known for digital cinema cameras including the RED One 4K and V-Raptor X. Exact terms of the deal were not disclosed in Nikon’s press release, which outlined how RED will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the camera company.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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The North Lines IN ☛ Tiny Nanoplastics Discovered in Arteries Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Disease, Doctors Report
They knew of the enormous amount of degraded plastic pollution contaminating the planet and wondered “whether plastic, in the form of micro- or nanoplastics, could also degrade our arteries,” Marfella said in an email. People can inhale and ingest the plastic particles. The plastic can also enter the body through skin.
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New Statesman ☛ Could ultra-processed food be the new smoking?
A similar reckoning is now happening with unhealthy food – last week, a global study of nearly ten million participants published in the British Medical Journal found that ultra-processed food (UPF) is directly linked to 32 harmful health effects, including increasing the risk of heart disease, cancer, type-2 diabetes, obesity, depression and early death.
UPF is the most processed foods we can eat, but unfortunately, also often the most delicious. They typically contain industrial substances like additives, preservatives and sweeteners, which make food tasty, addictive and long-lasting. They include biscuits, crisps, sausages and fizzy drinks, but also more surprising culprits such as mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals and flavoured yoghurts. It’s deeply embedded within our diets – more than half of the average UK diet is made up of UPF, and this rises to a staggering 80 per cent for poorer people and children.
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Science Alert ☛ Plastic Found Inside More Than 50% of Plaques From Clogged Arteries
Following 257 patients for 34 months, the researchers found nearly 60 percent of them had measurable amounts of polyethylene in plaques pulled from their fat-thickened arteries, and 12 percent also had polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in extracted fat deposits.
PVC comes in both rigid and flexible forms, and is used to make water pipes, plastic bottles, flooring, and packaging. Polyethylene is the most commonly produced plastic, used for plastic bags, films, and bottles, too.
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Cureus retracted his article, and now Steve Kirsch is suing
Obnoxious tech bro turned “debate me, bro” antivaxxer Steve Kirsch is a fairly frequent topic on this blog for the simple reason that it’s hard to find a more rabid antivaxxer out there who produces more and stupider antivax misinformation on such a regular basis, yet utterly lacks any sense of his own limitations with respect to understanding the relevant scientific disciplines. Whether falsely claiming that COVID-19 vaccines have killed 3.5 times more people than COVID-19, accepting stolen data from a fake “New Zealand whistleblower” and then threatening to release protected health information (PHI), or just randomly challenging anyone refuting his nonsense to “debate me, bro,” Mr. Kirsch has certainly made a name for himself as the living personification of the arrogance of ignorance applied to COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines, and, increasingly, just vaccines and medicine in general. However, his latest antic might just be his most risibly nonsensical yet. Basically, he is suing Springer Nature, one of whose journals is Cureus, which published a review article/commentary that contained black hole density-level pseudoscience, misinterpretation of studies, and antivax quackery and pseudoscience. Why? Because Cureus actually did the right thing and retracted the paper.
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Hackaday ☛ CT Scan Reveals Secrets Of Heinz’s New Ketchup Cap
Ketchup bottles are a solved technology, right? Wrong! As it turns out, there is still great development being done in this space. Industrial imaging company Lumafield reveals to us the secrets of Heinz’s new ketchup bottle cap, reportedly the result of a seven-figure investment and eight long years of toil.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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The Register UK ☛ Chinese chap charged with stealing Google’s AI secrets
Ding, a Chinese citizen, was authorized to access confidential Google blueprints related to its datacenters, including hardware infrastructure, the software platform, and the AI models and applications they supported.
Prosecutors allege [PDF] Ding copied the contents of Google source files into the Apple Notes application on his Google-issued MacBook laptop, then converted the Notes files into PDFs that he uploaded into a Google Cloud account he operated.
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The Verge ☛ Google engineer indicted over allegedly stealing AI trade secrets for China
Much of the stolen data allegedly revolves around Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) chips. Google’s TPU chips power many of its AI workloads and, in conjunction with Nvidia GPUs, can train and run AI models like Gemini. The company has also offered access to the chips through partner platforms like Hugging Face.
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Quartz ☛ Ex-Google engineer was accused of stealing AI trade secrets for Chinese firms
A former Google software engineer has been charged by a federal grand jury with stealing AI-related trade secrets from the tech giant while secretly working with two China-based companies.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the indictment Wednesday, saying, “The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our national security at risk.”
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NPR ☛ Chinese national arrested and charged with stealing AI trade secrets from Google
The defendant, former Google employee Linwei Ding, was arrested Wednesday morning in Newark, Calif. The 38-year-old faces four counts of theft of trade secrets. Prosecutors say at the same time that Ding was working for Google and stealing the building blocks of its AI technology, he was also secretly employed by two China-based tech companies.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Former Google engineer charged with stealing AI trade secrets for Chinese startups
A federal grand jury has indicted former Google LLC engineer Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the search giant.
The Justice Department unsealed the indictment on Wednesday. Ding, who was arrested earlier that day, is charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets. Those secrets relate to several key components of Google’s artificial intelligence infrastructure including its internally-developed TPU chips.
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Janes ☛ US Army seeking zero trust software for tactical networks
Industry proposals for tactical zero trust software are due to programme officials at the army's Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center by 15 March, with the end goal of developing network software that aims “to address the [zero trust] activities for the tactical environment to as far down into the network as feasibly possible”, according to a 5 March solicitation.
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Futurism ☛ AOC Announces Bill That Would Let Women Sue People Who Make Deepfake Porn of Them
Titled the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (DEFIANCE) Act of 2024, the proposed legislation would be added as an amendment to the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. Should the bill pass, per Rolling Stone, those targeted by nonconsensual deepfakes — which overwhelmingly impact girls and women — will finally have legal footing to defend themselves against the creation and dissemination of damaging and invasive fake pornographic material.
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El País ☛ Microsoft engineer sounds alarm on AI image-generator to US officials and company’s board
Shane Jones told The Associated Press that he considers himself a whistleblower and that he also met last month with U.S. Senate staffers to share his concerns.
The Federal Trade Commission confirmed it received his letter Wednesday but declined further comment.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Microsoft engineer flags Copilot Designer concerns as academics call for better AI risk research
Shane Jones, a principal software engineering manager at the company, told CNBC that Copilot Designer can be used to generate harmful images. The tool reportedly generated images depicting violence and drugs during a series of tests Jones carried out over the past four months. CNBC, which successfully repeated the tests, also identified other issues including prompts that generate potentially copyright-infringing content.
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Quartz ☛ OpenAI's ChatGPT breaks copyright laws, report says
As artists, writers, and other creators plead for AI regulation to protect their work and livelihoods — and chatbot makers OpenAI and Anthropic face copyright lawsuits from the likes of authors, the New York Times, and Universal Music Group — research published Wednesday found some of the top AI models available today generate “copyrighted content at an alarmingly high rate.”
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Quartz ☛ OpenAI and Microsoft's AI bot Copilot under fire for violent, sexual, and copyright-violating images
Jones told CNBC in an interview that he was able to use Copilot to generate images of teenagers playing with assault rifles. He also said the tool would produce unsolicited violent, sexualized images of women and ones that may violate copyright laws.
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Futurism ☛ Microsoft Engineer Sickened by Images Its AI Produces
While using Microsoft's publicly available image generator, Jones realized that the AI's guardrails were failing to limit it from depicting alarming portrayals of violence and illicit underage behavior, in addition to imagery supporting destructive biases and conspiracy theories.
But when Jones tried to raise the alarm bells, Microsoft failed to take action or conduct an investigation.
"It was an eye-opening moment," Jones told CNBC. "When I first realized, wow this is really not a safe model."
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CNBC ☛ Microsoft AI engineer says Copilot Designer creates disturbing images
Jones was so alarmed by his experience that he started internally reporting his findings in December. While the company acknowledged his concerns, it was unwilling to take the product off the market. Jones said Microsoft referred him to OpenAI and, when he didn't hear back from the company, he posted an open letter on LinkedIn asking the startup's board to take down DALL-E 3 (the latest version of the AI model) for an investigation.
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University of Michigan ☛ AI is ruining the digital world
Artificial intelligence is also exacerbating spam. Generative AI has allowed content to be produced faster than ever. Entire articles can be generated with a single prompt. Large amounts of spam, often with incorrect information, are then pulled up by Google due to the incorporation of faulty AI.
Nowhere is AI-generated spam more prevalent than on X. The amount of bot accounts that generate tweets using AI has become worse than ever, and with Elon Musk’s new “X premium” model that pays subscribers based on post engagement , which includes AI-generated spam posts, the problem will only continue to grow.
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Security
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Defence/Aggression
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Gizmodo ☛ Truth Social Suffers Outage in Middle of Trump's Furious Live-Tweeting About Biden Speech
Some highlights from Trump’s unhinged live-tweeting before people started reporting they could no longer access the site:
• THE DRUGS ARE WEARING OFF!
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RFA ☛ Does Apple Maps label Taiwan as a province of China?
Chinese-language social media posts claimed that Apple has changed Taiwan’s geographic label in its Maps app from “Taiwan” to “Taiwan Province” – a term which aligns with Beijing’s ideological commitment to “One China.”
While now labeled as “Taiwan Province” in the Chinese version of the app, Taiwan is still called “Taiwan” on the app in other countries. Apple Maps’ Chinese app version uses domestic data in China, differing from global search results.
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India Times ☛ us tiktok ban: US House to vote next week on TikTok crackdown bill
The Energy and Commerce Committee 50-0 vote represents the most significant momentum for a U.S. crackdown on TikTok, which has about 170 million U.S. users, since then President Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to ban the app in 2020.
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Gizmodo ☛ TikTok's Campaign to Stop U.S. Ban 'Backfires,' Enraging Congress
The push notification featured a space to enter your zip code and a “Call Now” button that would immediately call your local congress member. TikTok has over 150 million American users, and a bill making its way through Congress could cut access to all of them. Bipartisan lawmakers from the select committee on the Chinese Communist Party authored this bill. The bill would ban TikTok from U.S. app stores, unless the app’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, gives up control of TikTok.
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Gizmodo ☛ Donald Trump Comes Out Against TikTok Ban in Bizarre Reversal
It’s unclear why Trump called Facebook an “enemy of the people,” a phrase that he usually saves for mainstream media outlets not named Fox News. And it doesn’t appear Trump has ever used the nickname “Zuckerschmuck” for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg before, which, according to a simple Google search, looks like the name of a real online store centered around diabetes.
Trump’s opposition to a TikTok ban would be a reversal of policy for the former president, who signed an executive order in the summer of 2020 that would’ve forced TikTok’s parent company in China, ByteDance, to completely divest of the social media site or face a ban on U.S. soil.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ Kansas sues TikTok for allegedly hooking minors on dopamine-spiking 'filth, profanity'
The petition filed in Shawnee County District Court on Wednesday indicated Kobach sought an order permanently enjoining TikTok, and its parent company ByteDance, from engaging in deceptive acts against Kansas consumers. The suit requested the court award civil penalties of $10,000 per violation, or $20,000 per instance in special circumstances, and require TikTok to pay the state’s investigative and attorney costs.
The lawsuit filed with assistance of the Cooper & Kirk law firm in Washington, D.C., asserted TikTok knew its app wasn’t safe for minors when it came into use in 2017. TikTok’s app and services have been downloaded, installed or engaged with by devices in Kansas at least hundreds of thousands of times, the lawsuit said.
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Digital Music News ☛ Is TikTok Losing More Music? — NMPA Says No to Renewal
But the organization’s stance should come as little surprise, as president and CEO David Israelite has previously announced his support of Universal Music Group’s refusal to renew its recorded music and publishing license with TikTok. UMG’s recorded music license with TikTok expired on February 1, while its publishing catalog license expired on the service on March 1.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Suspected Islamists kidnap nearly 50 women in Nigeria
At least 47 women are missing after suspected Islamist insurgents carried out a mass kidnapping in a remote area of northeastern Nigeria's Borno state.
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ Time for a Free Kick
The French and British governments seem to have been particularly susceptible in spite of the fact that Qatars sympathies with Islamist groups across the Middle East run directly in counter to Europe’s own foreign policy objectives. This tension was made clear in an exposé by the Times which revealed that the Nusra Front, a jihadist group operating in Syria in partnership with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, had received “hundreds of millions of dollars” from Qatari individuals including HBJ.
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Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : Government Commits to Ensuring Mutual Benefit for Zambians in Mining Sector
Furthermore, Namakau Kaingu, President of the Association of Zambian Women in Mining (AZWIM), commended the government for its efforts in regulating the mining sector. Kaingu applauded the introduction of regulations aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in the industry. Additionally, she encouraged women miners to form cooperatives to enhance their participation and representation in the sector.
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Janes ☛ NATO opens Nordic air operations centre
The Danish Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on 6 March that the new CAOC at Bodø in northern Norway is made up of personnel drawn from the air forces of the four Nordic countries, along with “substantial support” from the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) and US Air Force (USAF).
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NPR ☛ 'Uncommitted' movement spreads to Super Tuesday states
The results came just a week after the Michigan presidential primary, where the "uncommitted" choice on the ballot garnered over 100,000 votes. The results followed a three-week campaign run primarily by younger Arab American and Muslim organizers from Southeast Michigan.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-07 [Older] China to Foster New Cooperation and Consolidate Friendship With Russia
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Patrick Lawrence: The Russians in Ukraine
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] How much damage could a Russian nuclear space weapon do? | About That
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Terrorists planning to hit Israelis abroad during Ramadan, warns National Security Council
Islamic terror groups are likely to target Israelis both in Israel and abroad during the upcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Israel’s National Security Council warned on Wednesday.
The National Security Council issued a Ramadan travel warning, noting that the first Islamic holy month since the October 7th invasion is set to commence on Sunday, said Israelis faced elevated terror threats both at home and abroad, citing calls both from international terror groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and Palestinian terror groups like Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
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Engadget ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] TikTok to creators: make longer videos, get paid [Ed: Beijing vs YouTube, with subsidies]
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University of Michigan ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] Why is TikTok obsessed with being rich at sea?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] ACLU Says US House Bill That Could Ban TikTok Is Unconstitutional [Ed: ACLU works for Beijing]
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Engadget ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Lawmakers have a new plan to force ByteDance to sell TikTok
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Passport Canada apologizes after 90-year-old grandmother mistakenly told she can't have 'Palestine' on passport
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Meta Drops News Tab in 5 Countries To Focus On Competing With TikTok Over Short-Form Content
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] From TikTok To Shark Tank, Contour Cube CEO Shares How 'World's First Ice Facial Tool' Is Heating Up
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PHR ☛ 13 Years of Violence Against Health Workers and Facilities in Syria Demonstrates Need for Accountability: PHR
Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 – 13 years ago this week – the Syrian government and its Russian allies have systematically targeted health care in an attempt to break the resilience of the Syrian people and deprive them of their right to safely access medical care.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s foreign minister Wang Yi slams US ‘suppression,’ calls war in Gaza a ‘disgrace for civilisation’
By Katell Abiven with Luna Lin China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi lashed out against the United States and praised his country’s partnership with Russia on Thursday, in a wide-ranging press conference where he called the war in Gaza a “disgrace for civilisation”.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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France24 ☛ France pledges 'unwavering support' to Moldova amid threats of Russian destablisation
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday stated his country’s “unwavering support” for Moldova as tensions mount between Chisinau and pro-Russian separatists.
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LRT ☛ Russian ballet dancer Ilze Liepa stripped of Lithuanian citizenship
President Gitanas Nausėda has stripped Ilze Liepa, a Russian ballet dancer, and Yuri Kudimov, a businessman and former KGB employee, of their Lithuanian citizenship granted by way of exception.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian firms involved in schemes to circumvent Russia sanctions – intelligence
Some Lithuanian companies are aware that they are helping Russian entities to circumvent sanctions but continue to cooperate with them, Lithuanian intelligence agencies have reported.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Embassy Warns Of 'Imminent' Extremist Attacks In Moscow In Next 48 Hours
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned Americans in a security alert posted on its website late on March 7 of an immitent threat of attacks on large gatherings in the Russian capital in the next two days.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Ballet Dancer, Businessman Stripped Of Lithuanian Citizenship
Moscow-born ballet dancer Ilze Liepa and Russian businessman Yury Kudimov have lost their Lithuanian citizenship after being identified by the Baltic country as persons that "pose a threat to Lithuania's national security."
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RFERL ☛ Moscow Warns U.S. Embassy, Designates 3 NGOs As 'Undesirable'
Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy and delivered a stern warning for Washington to stay out of Russia's internal affairs ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Adds British Journalist Tom Rogan To Its Wanted List
Russia's Interior Ministry on March 6 added Washington-based British journalist Tom Rogan to its wanted list on unspecified criminal charges.
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teleSUR ☛ Russia Requires Us Ambassador for Possible Interference Plans
Despite being called to attention in 2022 the ambassador did not cease her activity with ill-intentioned and anti-Russian NGOs.
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teleSUR ☛ NATO Drills Spark Tensions and Shake Global Stability: Russia
The Steadfast Defender began in January and is the largest war game in Europe in decades.
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YLE ☛ Friday's papers: Male leadership, hepatitis mettwurst and a Russian car deadline
Finnish business leadership is dominated by men, says one CEO.
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YLE ☛ Court hands Gabriel Temin suspended sentence over Russian sanctions violations
Gabriel Temin, the CEO of two companies in Vantaa, received a nine-month suspended sentence for regulatory breaches and the criminal export of defence materiel.
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YLE ☛ Demonstrator's rifle peace symbol at Russian consulate results in fines
The court also ordered that the antique rifle sculpture be handed over to the state, but local activists are hoping to preserve the weapon as a symbol of peace.
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YLE ☛ Stubb: Nato exercises are a message to Russia
Some 20,000 soldiers from 13 countries are taking part in the Nordic Response drills, including more than 4,000 from Finland.
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New York Times ☛ Spate of Mock News Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S.
The fake news organizations, experts say, represent a technological leap in the Kremlin’s efforts to spread false and misleading narratives.
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New York Times ☛ The I.C.C. arrest warrants for Russian officers will echo beyond Russia.
The warrants for two commanders over alleged war crimes may set an interesting precedent, legal experts said, including for the conflict in Gaza.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ Ten Days after David Slater Told His Honeypot American Officials Were Traveling to Kyiv, Lloyd Austin and Tony Blinken Arrived
Ten days after David Slater's honeypot thanked him for providing information of "two officials from the USA are going to Kyiv," Lloyd Austin and Tony Blinken arrived by train.
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Latvia ☛ Enhanced border watch to be reinstated in Latvia
With the flow of illegal migrants picking up again, the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) is proposing to reinstate a reinforced border security regime at the Latvian-Belarusian border shortly, according to a draft order prepared by the MoI March 7.
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LRT ☛ Lithuania detains several citizens suspected of spying for Belarus
Several Lithuanian citizens suspected of spying for Belarus were detained last year, according to Lithuanian intelligence agencies.
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine’s First Lady and Navalny’s Widow Decline State of the Union Invitation
Olena Zelenska’s office cited a scheduling conflict. The Russian opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya also declined an invitation.
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AntiWar ☛ ‘Mother of Maidan’ To Resign
The common opinion, at least in the West, about the starting date of the current crisis that might escalate into nuclear WWIII is February 24, 2022, with Putin’s “unprovoked” invasion of Ukraine.
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AntiWar ☛ Putin’s Draft Treaty Between Russia and Ukraine Did Exist
On June 13, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia and Ukraine had “reached an agreement in Istanbul” and that the agreement had been initialed by both sides.
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France24 ☛ 'We need a special tribunal' to try Putin, says Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner
FRANCE 24 spoke to Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 alongside the Russian NGO Memorial and Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski. Matviichuk has advocated for the creation of a “special tribunal” to hold Russian President Vladmir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and other high-ranking Russian officials accountable for the war in Ukraine.
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University of Michigan ☛ A Nobel quest: Advancing nuclear disarmament with a laureate’s guidance
The interests of the United States are increasingly at odds with those of our rivals. In these times of uncertainty, it should be comforting to know that our immense military is here to keep us safe.
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RFERL ☛ Biden Rips Trump In High-Stakes Speech, Says Won't 'Bow Down' To Putin
U.S. President Joe Biden ripped his likely Republican challenger Donald Trump for "bowing down" to Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged Congress to pass aid for Ukraine, warning in his State of the Union address that democracy around the world was under threat.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Treasury Chief Says Congress Inaction On Ukraine Aid A 'Gift' To Putin, Iran
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on March 7 that Congress's inaction in approving new U.S. aid to Ukraine is "nothing short of a gift" to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran, and other adversaries as Ukrainian forces run short of ammunition to fight Russia's invasion.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Vladimir Putin is losing Russia’s long war against Ukrainian identity
Vladimir Putin is the latest in a long line of Russian rulers who have attempted to erase Ukrainian national identity and force Ukrainians to identify as Russians, writes Danylo Lubkivsky.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ Fresh Off an Interview with Vladimir Putin, Tucker Carlson Repeats the Trick with Keith Ablow
For a guy claiming to protect Hunter Biden's confidentiality, Keith Ablow was sure willing to share details of his treatment of Hunter Biden.
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CS Monitor ☛ Europe divided over how far to push Putin
Russia’s Putin will win reelection. But who will win the argument in Europe over how to defend Ukraine and guard against future Russian aggression?
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New York Times ☛ Sweden Enters NATO, a Blow to Moscow and a Boost to the Baltic Nations
With the addition of Sweden to NATO, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia finds himself facing an enlarged and motivated alliance.
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Latvia ☛ Canada joins Latvia's drone coalition for Ukraine effort
On Wednesday, March 7, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair announced during a meeting with his Latvian counterpart, Andris Sprūds, that Canada will join the Latvian-initiated drone coalition in support of Ukraine.
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Latvia ☛ Latvian Foreign Ministry warns media against covering 'elections' in occupied Ukraine
Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned media March 7 not to be tempted to cover so-called elections being staged by Russia on occupied Ukrainian territory.
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Reason ☛ Biden Touts More Forever Wars, Breaking His 2021 Promises
In his State of the Union address, Biden promised indefinite U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, and beyond.
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France24 ☛ More Russian warplanes are flying in Ukraine, posing risks for Kyiv and Moscow
The Russian air force has intensified its activity on the Ukraine war’s front line to try to capitalise on the victory at Avdiivka, the eastern city that Moscow’s forces captured last month. After a long period of avoiding threats from Ukrainian air defence, the tactic has proven risky: Kyiv’s forces have shot down several enemy aircraft in recent weeks.
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France24 ☛ Macron says France has 'no limits' to its support for Ukraine
President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said France would not rule out any option to support Ukraine two years into Russia’s invasion, leaders of several major French political parties said.
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France24 ☛ Sweden officially joins NATO, prime minister declares it a 'safer country'
Sweden on Thursday formally joined NATO as the 32nd member of the transatlantic military alliance, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality as concerns about Russian aggression in Europe have spiked following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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JURIST ☛ Russia dismisses arrest warrants by ICC for Russian military commanders over alleged war crimes in Ukraine
Russia dismissed arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash and Admiral Viktor Sokolov of the Russian Armed Forces on Wednesday, each allegedly responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
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LRT ☛ Russia preparing for long-term confrontation with NATO, including Baltics – intelligence
Russia is not only allocating massive resources for the war in Ukraine but is also preparing for a long-term confrontation with NATO, according to Lithuanian intelligence.
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LRT ☛ Tribute paid in Kyiv to Lithuanian soldier killed in combat
On Thursday, a farewell was paid in Kyiv to Lithuanian soldier Tadas Tumas, who was killed near Bakhmut in Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Repels Another Wave Of Russian Drone Strikes, Military Says
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 33 out of the 37 drones launched by Russia at five of its regions, the military said early on March 8.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Soldier Indicted For Selling Sensitive Military Information, Including Involving Ukraine's War
An army soldier has been arrested on charges of selling sensitive information related to U.S. military capabilities, Justice Department officials said.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine's Zelenskiy Issues Decree On Discharging Prewar Conscripts
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a decree on March 7 providing for prewar conscripts still serving in the two-year-old war against Russia to be discharged into Ukraine's reserves within the next two months.
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RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Hails Sweden's NATO Entry, Eyes Day Ukraine Might Also Join
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Sweden's entry into the NATO military alliance, largely viewed as a reaction to Russia's invasion of his country in 2022, saying the Scandinavian country was a "strong ally and a country that can be trusted."
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RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Appoints Former Ukraine Commander Zaluzhniy Ambassador To U.K.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appointed Valeriy Zaluzhniy to be Kyiv's ambassador to the United Kingdom, about a month after the general was removed from his position as commander in chief of the military.
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RFERL ☛ EU Backs Another Year Of Access For Ukrainian Food
European Union lawmakers approved on March 7 granting Ukrainian food producers tariff-free access to EU markets for another year, rejecting amendments that could have increased restrictions.
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RFERL ☛ Financing Set To Buy Ammunition For Ukraine, Czech President Says
Financing for the purchase of 800,000 rounds of ammunition for Ukraine has been secured, Czech media quoted Czech President Petr Pavel as saying on March 7.
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RFERL ☛ Violence Rocks Poland As Farmers Protest Ukraine Food Imports And 'Green Deal' Regulations
Police deployed pepper spray and flash grenades on protesters in Warsaw opposing EU regulations aimed at combating climate change, coupled with imports of cheap food from Ukraine.
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The Straits Times ☛ Ukraine presses peace plan, points to N. Korean involvement in talks with Chinese envoy
Senior Ukrainian officials, in a meeting with a Chinese regional envoy on Thursday, pressed Kyiv's plan to end the two-year conflict with Russia and presented what they said was evidence of North Korean weaponry supplied to Moscow.
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The Straits Times ☛ China-Russia ties set to deepen as Ukraine war heads into third year
China called it “a new paradigm of great power relations that is completely different from that of the old Cold War era”.
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New York Times ☛ Ukrainians Scale Up Crowdfunding to Help the War Effort
Fund-raisers are borrowing heavily from business techniques to keep donations flowing to the military. The latest trend? Broad approaches that rely on networks of friends and acquaintances.
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New York Times ☛ Opposition Blasts Macron for Risking Escalation in Ukraine
The French president attempted to forge a united front on a harder line against Russia. But few were persuaded.
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New York Times ☛ On Foreign Policy, Biden’s Agenda Faces Multiplying Challenges
The president’s call for aid to Ukraine and his pledge of assistance for Gaza came against a backdrop of Republican opposition, splits in his own party and tension with allies.
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New York Times ☛ ‘Decolonizing’ Ukrainian Art, One Name-and-Shame Post at a Time
Oksana Semenik’s social control media campaign both educates the curious about overlooked Ukrainian artists — and pressures global museums to relabel art long described as Russian.
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New York Times ☛ Zelensky Names Ukraine’s Ex-Top General Ambassador to U.K.
The former top general, Valery Zaluzhny, was dismissed last month amid tensions with the civilian leadership. He has been a very popular figure in Ukraine.
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New York Times ☛ Mutual Frustrations Arise in U.S.-Ukraine Alliance
Ukrainian officials are disheartened about stalled aid. The Pentagon wants Kyiv to heed its advice on how to fight.
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Meduza ☛ ‘It wasn’t like this before Russia came’: The state of healthcare in Ukraine’s occupied territories after two years of war — Meduza
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Latvia ☛ First six expulsion orders issued to Russian citizens in Latvia
The Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) has issued the first six exit orders to Russian citizens who have not submitted any documents to request a residence permit for living in Latvia. Two of them have already left Latvia, said Maira Roze, head of PMLP, in an interview with the Latvian Television “Morning Panorama” March 8.
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Latvia ☛ Former MP Grevcova to be prosecuted for justifying war crimes
On February 27, the State Security Service (VDD) suggested that the Prosecutor's Office initiate criminal proceedings against former Latvian MP Glorija Grevcova for justifying war crimes committed by Russia, the VDD said on March 7.
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Meduza ☛ Belarusian activist reportedly killed by FSB agents in northwestern Russia — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ U.S. Embassy in Russia warns of possible terrorist attack in Moscow in next 48 hours — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘A series of horrible events’: Journalist Christo Grozev on the circumstances of Navalny’s death and Putin’s plans for the future — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ In his latest pseudo-historical musing, Putin claims Belgium owes its existence to Russia — Meduza
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] US Diplomat Nuland, Strong Supporter of Ukraine, to Step Down
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-07 [Older] UK's Cameron Heads to Germany for Talks on Ukraine, Gaza
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] Diana Savita Wagner: the German medic who died fighting for Ukraine
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] German Military Leak Reveals British Soldiers Are in Ukraine Helping Fire Storm Shadow Missiles
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Ukraine updates: EU proposes €1.5 billion defense spending boost
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Ukraine’s Western allies already have a military presence in the country
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Patrick Lawrence: The CIA in Ukraine — The NY Times Gets a Guided Tour
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Ukrainian Defence Chiefs Discuss War Needs With Austin
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] CIA in Ukraine — An Ex-CIA Agent’s View
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy pleads to West after Odesa attack
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Ukrainian Rescuers Complete Search After Odesa Drone Attack Kills 12
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Turkey Hopes Ukraine Ceasefire Talks Can Start Soon
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy: Political Will in West Required to Secure Needed Supplies
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Ukraine Will Not Import Electricity on Sunday, Expects Higher Exports, Ministry Says
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] US Army under increasing pressure as it foots bill for Ukraine support
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Germany confirms bugging of Bundeswehr Ukraine war talks
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Ukraine updates: Apartment block hit in Odesa drone strike
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Ukraine's Troops Are Rationing Ammunition. Yet House Republicans Plan to Take Weeks to Mull More Aid
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] No, Western Troops Shouldn’t Be Sent to Ukraine
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Germany accused of ‘flagrant abuse of intelligence’ for revealing British help in Ukraine
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NL Times ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Netherlands signs 10-year security deal with Ukraine during Dutch PM's Kharkiv visit
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] After Ukraine: US Readies “Transnational Kill Chain” for Taiwan Proxy War
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy and Rutte sign security deal
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Europe May Now Be Ukraine’s Only Hope and that’s Scary
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Western Volunteer Combat Troops for Ukraine and Asymmetrical Warfare at Sea
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Putin lauds Ukraine gains, threatens West in annual speech
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv's aerial success, ground struggles
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Meduza ☛ Ukraine appoints former army chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi as ambassador to U.K. — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Zelensky demobilizes conscripts serving extended terms, ahead of expected reforms to Ukraine’s military draft — Meduza
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Six Militants Killed in Special Operation in Russia's Ingushetia Region - TASS
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The Local SE ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] What’s the job outlook for foreign residents, and what do Swedes think of Russia and Ukraine?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] OPEC+ Production Cuts Deepen With Extensions From Saudi Arabia, Russia and Other Oil Giants
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Canada Announces Fresh Sanctions Against Russia Over Navalny's Death
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] A Woman Clutching an Infant Is Found in the Rubble of Ukraine Building After Russian Drone Strike
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Spiegel ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Jan Marsalek an Agent for Russia? The Double Life of the former Wirecard Executive
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Russia, China eye nuclear power plant on moon
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Germany urges EU expansion to counter Russia's influence
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Russia and Mali Review Military Partnership
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv claims Russian bridge explosion
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Ukraine's Military: Russian Forces Stopped Near Avdiivka, but Reinforcing Elsewhere
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Moldova Says Russia Has No Right to Lecture on Democracy
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Moscow Says Russia, China Agree That Russia Must Be Present in Ukraine Talks
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Russian Drone Strike on the Ukrainian Port City of Odesa Kills 7
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Russians Lay Flowers at Navalny's Grave, Hail Him as Symbol of Hope
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Russia Says It Destroyed Two Ukrainian Drones
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Slovak Foreign Minister Blanar Meets With Russia's Lavrov in Turkey
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Turkey's Feb Exports to Russia Down 34% From Year Earlier
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Drone Crashes Into Building in Russia's St Petersburg, No Casualties - National Guard
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Putin Explains Why Russia Doesn’t Pose a Threat to Europe
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Eight Killed in Russian Drone Attack on Odesa, Ukraine Says
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Sri Lanka Might Kick Out All Russian and Ukrainian Tourists By March 7 Due to 'White-Only' Bars
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Transnistria: Will Russia's next war be in Moldova?
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The Local SE ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Sweden cuts state funding for Russian church after intelligence warnings
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Ukraine Reportedly Shoots Down 10 Russian Aircrafts Worth £600m: 'This is our land, and our sky!'
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Russian President Vladimir Putin steps up his threats against Western countries
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] AP PHOTOS: Russians Say Final Farewell at Funeral of Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Russians Embrace Hope Amid Despair as Alexei Navalny Says His Final Goodbye
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] The Air Leak on ISS Russian Module Is Getting Worse
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Ukraine Official Says Russia Massing Forces Around a Key City in the Country's East
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] More Anti-Russian Hysteria From the New York Times
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Human rights in Russia: What follows Oleg Orlov's sentence?
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Spiegel ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] The Russian Invasion - A Visit to the Ukrainian Troops in the Trenches on the Front
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Russian Man Who Smuggled Military Technology to Russia Pleads Guilty in US Court
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] Russia confirmed World’s first ever combat test of hypersonic glide vehicle
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Environment
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The Atlantic ☛ The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone
The situation is expected to worsen. Research suggests that by the end of the century, much of the ocean could be in a permanent heat wave relative to historical thresholds, depending on the quantity of greenhouse gases that humans emit. Many other changes will unfold alongside those hot ocean temperatures: stronger hurricanes, rising sea levels, unmanageable conditions for marine life. Our seas, in other words, will be altered within decades.
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ADF ☛ Despite Ban, China Bankrolls Rosewood Logging in Northern Ghana
Rosewood grows in some of the country’s poorest areas, where more than two-thirds of the population live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 per day.
Chinese logging companies pay local loggers up to $32 for every cubic meter of rosewood they harvest. Further along the supply chain, local merchants can earn up to $130 per cubic meter.
“Even if you are a saint, you will be tempted to join in considering your impoverished state,” William K. Dumenu, a researcher with the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, wrote for the website Kasa. “Since most of us are not saints, what can we expect?”
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Energy/Transportation
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Russia-Ukraine gas deal ends: EU warns of winter energy price hike
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India Times ☛ tesla class action: Tesla drivers lose US class action bid in battery range cases
Tesla owners who accused it of falsely advertising estimated driving ranges for its electric vehicles must pursue their claims in individual arbitrations rather than banding together in proposed class action lawsuits, a federal judge ruled.
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The Telegraph UK ☛ Watch: Vigilante cyclist wins apology from Met after attempt to prosecute him
Describing the prosecution as “ludicrous” and “malicious”, Mr Clifton contacted the Met in August and September last year but was told the case would proceed.
However, on Tuesday, one day before his trial was scheduled to take place, the police dropped the case and apologised to Mr Clifton for any “stress and inconvenience” it had caused.
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Gizmodo ☛ Actually, Bitcoin Didn’t Hit an All-Time High If You Adjust for Inflation
The crypto community took a victory lap Tuesday with the news that the price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $69,210. Those celebrations cooled when the value dropped a full 8% just a few hours later, but it marked a stunning recovery from the crypto crash of 2022. For the fans, Bitcoin’s rally was evidence that cryptocurrency is a good investment after all. There’s just one problem: adjusted for inflation, Bitcoin is actually worth less than it was three years ago.
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Stephen Hackett ☛ A More Charitable Take on Apple’s Self-Driving Car Ambitions
I’m still reeling a bit from Bloomberg’s reporting on what Apple was hoping to achieve with its self-driving car project. Even though $1 billion a year isn’t much on Apple’s scale, it’s clear that a lot of time and energy went into this project over the last ten years.
Many of Apple’s ideas around the future of the car were just too far-fetched to ship anything in the near future. However, I think there are at least three benefits to what the company was working toward with Project Titan.
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Quartz ☛ Most Americans think car dealerships are a rip off
The survey revealed that only about one-third of Americans have actually experienced things like deceptive selling, hidden fees and dishonest salespeople at dealerships. However, 76 percent of us still don’t trust that dealerships are actually being honest about pricing.
Here are the survey’s results when it comes to experiences with dealerships, from KPA: [...]
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Exploring Europe: Train travel a winner for young Indians
India is now the second-largest market for Rail Europe, a company that makes European train travel more accessible to international travelers, after the United States — outpacing both China and Japan.
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DeSmog ☛ UK Government Holds its Nerve on Heat Pumps as Clean Heat Policy Confirmed
A cornerstone of the UK’s plans to slash the use of gas in home heating has survived a bitter backlash from the gas boiler sector.
Speaking in the House of Lords yesterday, energy efficiency minister Martin Callanan brought an end to months of speculation when he announced that a plan to ramp up heat pump installation targets would go ahead on April 1, despite intense lobbying.
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DeSmog ☛ First Nation Sues Alberta Energy Regulator Over Kearl Tailings Pond Spill
A northern Alberta Indigenous community is suing the Alberta Energy Regulator for the effects of an ongoing environmental disaster at an Imperial Oil tar sands mine.
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) Chief Allan Adam served the CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) with a statement of claim indicating his community intends to hold the regulator legally responsible for the aftereffects of the Kearl mine disaster that began in 2022. Chief Adam hand delivered the lawsuit to CEO Laurie Pushor during an AER townhall meeting in Fort Chipewyan on Tuesday March 5.
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Wildlife/Nature
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CBC ☛ Bald eagle nest found in Toronto for 1st time in recorded history, conservation authority says
Drescher says the resurgence of bald eagle nesting pairs across the continent, now estimated in the tens of thousands, is largely due to the prohibition of certain contaminants, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), a once pervasively-used insecticide that was banned in the 1970s.
Exposure to DDT caused bald eagles to lay brittle eggs that can crack under the weight of the incubating bird, adds Jon Spero, lead keeper of birds and terrestrial invertebrates at the Toronto Zoo.
Spero says the number of bald eagles in southern Ontario is still lower than in other periods of history, but their resurgence is a positive sign of the quality of water and fish they rely on.
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Overpopulation
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[Old] Los Angeles Times ☛ Millions of Californians are struggling to pay for water
For a family of four living off $25,000 a year, a water bill of more than $200 a month is an economic burden. Now, with 1 in 10 California households falling into arrears on water payments, calls are mounting for the state to step in and help.
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NDTV ☛ Bengaluru Water Supply, Karnataka Water Crisis: "No Water To Drink, Wash Hands": Bengaluru Crisis May Force School Closure
The city faces a severe shortfall - of over 1,500 MLD, or million litres per day - in its daily water requirement, which ranges from 2,600 to 2,800 MLD. According to the state government, more than 3,000 bore wells in the city have dried up and 223 of the state's 236 talukas are drought-affected.
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Finance
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Quartz ☛ Layoffs reached their highest level since the Great Recession last month
Job cuts at U.S. companies in February reached their highest level since 2009, according to the monthly layoffs report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Businesses are aggressively slashing costs and embracing technological innovations, actions that are significantly reshaping staffing needs,” Andrew Challenger, a labor and workplace expert at Challenger, said in the report.
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Game Rant ☛ Microsoft Rewards Makes Some Unannounced Price Changes
To the surprise of its users, Microsoft Rewards has undergone some unexpected price changes in the past few days related to gift cards. This change by Microsoft is only one of many made to the program within the last year that users found out about the hard way.
The Microsoft Rewards program allows users to accumulate points by completing quests they can then exchange for games, gift cards, Game Pass memberships, and even charitable donations. In early 2023, Microsoft announced impending changes for the rewards program following issues tracking player achievements, at first making it easier for users to earn points. By the end of the year, however, participants noticed a steep drop in the amount of points certain tasks were worth.
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Global News CA ☛ Canadian, U.S. companies start 2024 with layoffs. What to know
Companies in the United States and Canada have kicked off 2024 with thousands of job cuts across sectors, signaling that the spate of layoffs seen in 2023 could persist as they scramble to rein in costs.
While job cut announcements in the United States more than doubled month-on-month to 82,307 in January, they were down 20 per cent from a year earlier, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas earlier in February.
The technology sector, which accounted for the highest number of layoffs in 2023, has seen 34,000 job cuts in 141 firms so far this year, according to tracking website Layoffs.fyi.
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Spotify to cut staff as soon as this week - Bloomberg News
Spotify Technology is planning layoffs as soon as this week to cut costs, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, joining the likes of Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp who have cut thousands of jobs recently.
The report, which cited sources, said that the number of jobs being eliminated was not specified.
Spotify did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment.
Tech firms shed jobs last year as a demand boom during the pandemic rapidly fizzled, and layoffs have continued this year with companies looking to rein in costs to ride out the economic downturn.
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Tech Layoffs 2024: About 89% Professionals in IT-Services and Data and 74% in Software Development in US Worried About Job Security, Says Report
n 2024, many tech companies have laid off thousands of employees due to slow demand, restructuring, and plans or adoption of automation. In January and February, many companies, including Cisco, Snap, Amazon, Mozilla, Expedia, Sony, Bumble, and Grammarly, along with tech giants like Microsoft and Google, announced layoffs.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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New York Times ☛ Key OpenAI Executive Played a Pivotal Role in Sam Altman’s Ouster
More than three months after OpenAI’s board of directors briefly ousted Sam Altman, the chief executive of the high-profile artificial intelligence company, questions remain about exactly what led the board to make such a dramatic move.
A report from an outside law firm, which is expected in the coming days, could shed more light on the board’s decision as well as the chaotic five days before Mr. Altman returned to the company.
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CPJ ☛ Condé Nast joins CPJ to defend free press
As part of the partnership, Condé Nast will help raise awareness and funds for CPJ by using its platforms and resources, including creative and advertising support linked to World Press Freedom Day, marked annually on May 3 to highlight the crucial role journalists play in holding power to account.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ The EU is squaring up to Big Tech - and the fallout will be huge
From overhauling online platforms to backroom engineering, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance have scrambled over the last six months to comply with landmark EU tech rules that come into force on Thursday.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is one of the most comprehensive regulatory actions to rein in so-called “Big Tech” and is expected to reshape the global technology industry after decades of unfettered growth.
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The Hill ☛ This boring election cycle is a challenge for the media — and they’re failing
“All he does is take advantage of what he’s correctly identified as the habits of the media,” Jon Klein, former president of CNN and now cofounder of the sports streaming service HANG, told me about Trump. “He plays to it, and they eagerly lap it up and take the bait.”
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Bruce Schneier ☛ How Public AI Can Strengthen Democracy
With the world’s focus turning to misinformation, manipulation, and outright propaganda ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, we know that democracy has an AI problem. But we’re learning that AI has a democracy problem, too. Both challenges must be addressed for the sake of democratic governance and public protection.
Just three Big Tech firms (Microsoft, Google, and Amazon) control about two-thirds of the global market for the cloud computing resources used to train and deploy AI models. They have a lot of the AI talent, the capacity for large-scale innovation, and face few public regulations for their products and activities.
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Quartz ☛ Google opens first Asia-Pacific cyberdefense hub in Japan
Google has opened its first Asia-Pacific cyberdefense hub in Tokyo as worries grow over cyber threats posed by hostile actors including China, according to Nikkei.
The new hub will promote research and information sharing between the government, companies, and universities in Japan, as well as serve as a base of cybersecurity experts in the region, Nikkei reported. According to the outlet, Google will invite engineers from India, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and elsewhere across Southeast Asia to work on responses to cyberattacks.
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India Times ☛ google cyberdefence hub tokyo: Google opens new cyberdefence hub in Tokyo amid China threats
US tech giant Google said Thursday it opened a new cyberdefence hub in Tokyo as the region faces growing digital security threats from China.
The new hub, christened the "Cybersecurity Center of Excellence", aims to spearhead research and train tech talent to counter the threat of cyberattacks, Google said.
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NDTV ☛ Change Name To "ClosedAI", Elon Musk Tells Sam Altman's OpenAI. Here's Why
Billionaire Elon Musk recently sued OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman, the firm behind ChatGPT, accusing them of breaching contractual agreements made when he helped start the ChatGPT-maker in 2015. He alleged that they violated the artificial intelligence startup's founding mission by putting profit ahead of benefiting humanity. The Microsoft-backed company's focus on seeking profits breaks that agreement, lawyers for Elon Musk said in the lawsuit. Notably, Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but stepped down from the company's board in 2018.
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Air Force Times ☛ Air Force eyes picking first cyber warrant officer cohort this summer
The Air Force will likely pick its first cohort of enlisted troops to start the process of becoming warrant officers this summer, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass said Tuesday.
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Democracy Now ☛ New Pakistan Gov’t Marks Return of “Bourgeois Old Guard” as Jailed Imran Khan Looms Large
In Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in Monday as prime minister for a second time, days after newly elected members of Parliament were seated amid protests by lawmakers from the party of ousted and jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Sharif will lead a coalition government after none of the major parties won a majority of parliamentary seats in February’s election, when Khan supporters accused the military of election tampering. Regardless of actual policy, Khan’s enduring popularity as an anti-establishment figure comes from “a young, disaffected population, a set of regimes that historically does not deliver, and underlying structural crises that just get worse,” says Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, associate professor of political economy at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. “That’s why I think you have this groundswell of opinion which is both anti-domestic elite and also anti-foreign elite.”
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EFF ☛ Victory! EFF Helps Resist Unlawful Warrant and Gag Order Issued to Independent News Outlet
Nevertheless, Indybay was unconstitutionally gagged from speaking about the warrant for more than a month. And the SFPD once again violated the law despite past assurances that it was putting safeguards in place to prevent such violations.
EFF provided pro bono legal representation to Indybay throughout the process.
Indybay’s experience highlights a worrying police tactic of demanding unpublished source material from journalists, in violation of clearly established shield laws. Warrants like the one issued by the police invade press autonomy, chill news gathering, and discourage sources from contributing. While this is a victory, Indybay was still gagged from speaking about the warrant, and it would have had to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight the warrant without pro bono counsel. Other small news organization might not be so lucky.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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The Register UK ☛ US lawmakers want ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban
The bill is titled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Among other things, it forbids app store availability and web hosting services in the US for applications controlled by entities that are deemed to be controlled by a foreign adversary.
TikTok has a lot to lose if the bill becomes law. The viral video app celebrated reaching 150 million monthly active users in the United States last year. That number has since increased to 170 million.
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New York Times ☛ TikTok Prompts Users to Call Congress to Fight Possible Ban
By noon, the phone lines for members of Congress were overwhelmed by calls, according to posts from lawmakers’ staff members on X and two congressional aides with knowledge of the situation. Some of the callers appeared to be teenagers, while others hung up as soon as they were connected, the aides said. One of the aides said their office had received about a hundred of the calls and another aide said their office had received more than a thousand. One staff member posted a screenshot to X showing that TikTok also sent a push alert to some users.
Some users said on X that they were unable to use the app before placing the call. TikTok told The New York Times that users could swipe right to get rid of the message, which may have been confusing because users typically swipe up to see the next video on the app. The company also said that the “X” to close the page wasn’t visible for some users at first but that it later fixed that.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ Bill to split TikTok from Chinese ownership gets unanimous vote from key U.S. House panel
Lawmakers on the powerful U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved a White House-supported bill that would force TikTok to split from its Chinese parent company or face prohibition from U.S. app stores and web hosting services.
Members voted 50-0 Thursday to advance the Protect Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, legislation that would make it illegal for U.S. entities to distribute, maintain or update apps or other immersive technology owned by ByteDance.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Atlantic Council ☛ Inside Afghanistan’s gender apartheid: Listen as women reveal the impact of the Taliban’s oppressive decrees
To protect these women from the significant risks associated with speaking out against the Taliban, we’ve taken several precautions: Their names have been changed, and, in some instances, their stories have been merged. We have also not used their real voices. Instead, the audio stories you will hear were recorded by women and girls who have been evacuated from Afghanistan since 2021. These women’s stories of endurance and resistance reveal the stark realities of life under a legal system that curtails freedom, stifles potential, and erodes dignity, yet they also illuminate the unyielding spirit and strength of each woman and girl. Their voices are a reminder of the interconnected struggles of all people globally in the pursuit of dignity, rights, and equality.
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Deccan Chronicle ☛ Times journalist gets jail term
The 14 Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Hyderabad on Thursday sentenced a former journalist to six months of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 in a defamation suit dating back to 2015.
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Techdirt ☛ Announcing Ctrl-Alt-Speech: A New Podcast About Online Speech
I’m super excited to announce our brand new podcast, created in partnership with Ben Whitelaw, who runs the brilliant Everything in Moderation newsletter: Ctrl-Alt-Speech. It’s a weekly news podcast that Ben and I will be co-hosting, exploring what’s happening in the world of online speech. It will cover issues related to trust & safety, content moderation, regulations around the world, court rulings, new services, technologies and much, much more.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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RFERL ☛ Baku Police Detain Journalists Of Independent TV Channel; U.S. 'Deeply Troubled'
Police in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, detained about a dozen journalists from the online Toplum TV channel on March 6 after searching their offices, the detained journalists' relatives said, prompting the U.S. State Department to say it was “deeply troubled” by the reports.
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Project Censored ☛ The Press Freedom Case of the Century
In March 2023, when my book on the case against Julian Assange was published, the detained WikiLeaks founder was waiting to find out if an appeals court in London would allow him to appeal extradition to the United States.
Now, Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange has been available on bookshelves for one year—and Assange still does not know if he has permission to appeal.
Such limbo has developed into a feature of the prosecution against Assange. The march of time whittles away at Assange while cold-blooded authorities keep him in arbitrary detention.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Pro Publica ☛ Massachusetts’ Push to Reduce Housing Vacancies Barely Made a Dent
Every night, Graciella Carter puts her 5-year-old son to bed with the same routine. She tucks Oscar under some blankets, kisses and hugs him, and stays with him until he drifts off to sleep, no matter how long it takes.
But nothing else is routine. They stay in a different place almost every night. The bed may be a sofa in a friend’s or relative’s living room anywhere in western Massachusetts. Carter usually has to sleep sitting up, at the end of the couch or on a nearby chair, leaning on her fist like a pillow.
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Pro Publica ☛ How One Woman Endured a Decade of Neglect in New York’s Guardianship System
The temperature was plummeting on Thanksgiving eve when Judith Zbiegniewicz wrapped herself in a blanket, picked up her phone and tapped out yet another plea for help to New York Guardianship Services. It was 2018, and for the previous five years the company, whose slogan is “caring that makes a difference,” had overseen nearly every major decision in her life, as it did for hundreds of New Yorkers deemed incapable by the courts of looking after themselves.
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The Nation ☛ The Future of College Sports Is Unionized
This is why Schwarz thinks this is an opening salvo in a bigger fight. He told me, “Until college athletes have the same economic rights as college coaches, whether it’s to negotiate in a free market or to take advantage of the rights and privileges accorded to workers more generally, everyone who is pro-athlete has work to do. With that said, there are lots of hurdles to surmount before it’s real…. Let us hope that Congress doesn’t fall prey to the catastrophizing that this is going to kill college sports.”
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Atlantic Council ☛ This International Women’s Day, hold the Taliban to account for gender apartheid
For the past two and half years, the Taliban has systematically subjugated women, girls, and other people in Afghanistan, depriving them of their most fundamental rights and eviscerating their autonomy. The Taliban has issued more than 150 decrees, with more than eighty of them directly aimed at women, surpassing the number of decrees issued for all other sectors. Through these decrees, the Taliban has banned women’s rights to education, work, freedom of assembly, and speech. The regime has also severely restricted women’s access to justice and health care—as enforced by forceful and violent mechanisms, such as the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, among others. In response, women have protested on the streets of Kabul and other major cities in Afghanistan, demanding their rights by risking their lives. The Taliban’s response has been violent, with civil resistance by women against these decrees met with beatings, lashings, the use of pepper spray, arbitrary arrests, torture, and even death. In recent weeks, the Taliban has arbitrarily detained and tortured women simply for not following the Taliban’s dress code, predominantly in Hazara and Tajik areas.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Twice under the Taliban: The repeated nightmare of my generation
Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the landscape of rights for women and girls has deteriorated drastically. For Afghan women like me who are in their forties and fifties, this dehumanizing discrimination is not a surprise. The Taliban’s use of ideological and systematic discrimination has remained consistent over the decades. It is aimed at erasing women from public life, restricting freedom of expression, dismantling democracy, and banning cultural rights, including music, sports, and the practice of religions other than their own extremist interpretation of Islam. The Taliban’s return to power is forcing Afghan women to relive the same nightmare that they experienced in the 1990s when the group first came to power. It is devastating that our daughters are now going through the same trauma that their mothers did two decades ago, even though we fought with our flesh and blood to bring about relative change during the period of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
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RFA ☛ After protest, Tibetan monastery leader and village official sent to detention center
Tenzin, the senior administrator of Wonto Monastery in Wangbuding township, and a village official named Tamdrin, were transferred from where they were previously detained to the larger Dege County Detention Center Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on March 3, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by Chinese officials.
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RFA ☛ Vietnam labels 2 foreign-based groups ‘terrorist organizations’
Montagnards are a mainly-Protestant ethnic minority that live in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
MSGI and MSFJ have campaigned for their rights, claiming they struggle to receive official documentation and often lose out in land grabs by local authorities. Many are also harassed and prevented from practicing their religion.
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Wired ☛ Google Used a Black, Deaf Worker to Tout Its Diversity. Now She’s Suing for Discrimination
After filing three HR complaints that she says yielded little change, Hall sued Google in December, alleging discrimination based on her race and disability. The company responded this week, arguing that the case should be thrown out on procedural grounds, including bringing the claims too late, but didn’t deny Hall’s accusations. “Google is using me to make them look inclusive for the Deaf community and the overall Disability community,” she says. “In reality, they need to do better.”
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RTL ☛ Commemoration attended by the Dalai Lama: Tibetans fear for future as they recall failed uprising
The 88-year-old Buddhist leader says he has decades yet to live, but Tibetans who have followed him abroad are bracing for an inevitable future without him.
China says Tibet is an integral part of the country, and many exiled Tibetans fear Beijing will name a rival successor to the Dalai Lama, bolstering control over a land it poured troops into in 1950.
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The Verge ☛ SpaceX allegedly fostered serial sexual abuse, according to this lawsuit
A SpaceX employee says that she spent seven years working at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California enduring sexual abuse, unequal pay, discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation, in a new lawsuit against the company. But her story paints a much graver picture than those individual words can convey, describing widespread harassment and coordinated action to not only enable but also later give cover for sexual coercion, by a man she says was her direct supervisor.
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International Business Times ☛ Lawyer Explains Why Termination Meetings Are Short and 3 Questions To Ask When You're Fired
"Many employees are so stunned to be fired that they do not ask any questions," he said, noting that they should "ask three questions during termination meeting."
"One, why am I being fired? Two, when do my benefits end? And three, am I being offered severance?"
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VOA News ☛ Iran Subjects Women to 'Draconian' Hijab Surveillance, Rights Group Says
Amnesty said in a report, based on “a review of official documents” and the testimony from more than 40 women inside Iran published ahead of the March 8 International Women's Day, that women were being targeted with "widespread surveillance" in public spaces and "mass police checks" targeting women drivers.
It said pictures captured by surveillance cameras or reports from plain clothes agents using the police app Nazer identify license plates of vehicles with female drivers or passengers deemed to have violated the rule.
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WSWS ☛ YouTube Music workers laid off while speaking before Austin, Texas city council
On February 29, Google laid off its entire YouTube Music team of workers while they were speaking before a televised city council meeting in Austin, Texas. The workers were responsible for curating themed playlists and reviewing song metadata in support of the YouTube Music group. They worked for Google contractor Cognizant, although a court recently ruled that they were co-employed by Google.
The workers were active in the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA), informally known as the Google Union, which includes 1,400 workers across the US. They voted to join the AWU-CWA in April of last year and were particularly active against Google’s decision to end remote work. While Cognizant claims the layoffs were simply due to the end of their contract with Google, it is highly likely they were targeted for organizing against the tech giant.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Techdirt ☛ HP Tries Desperately To Make ‘Printer As A Subscription’ A Thing
When last we checked in with Hewlett Packard (HP), the company had just been sued (for the second time) for crippling customer printers if owners attempt to use cheaper, third-party printer cartridges. It was just the latest in a long saga where printer manufacturers use DRM or dodgy software updates to wage all out war on consumer choice.
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The Verge ☛ Apple will cut off third-party app store updates if your iPhone leaves the EU for a month
Apple won’t let your iPhone update software installed by third-party app stores if you leave the European Union for more than 30 days. In an update to its support page on Thursday, Apple says you can continue using apps from alternative marketplaces while traveling for long periods — but you’ll need to come back to the EU to get the latest version.
Shortly after the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) went into effect on Wednesday, users noticed an Apple support page stating users would “lose access to some features” when leaving the EU “for short-term travel.” But now, Apple has made this policy more specific by carving out a 30-day grace period, which could be inconvenient for frequent travelers.
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Robert Reich ☛ Who’s to Blame for Out-Of-Control Corporate Power?...
One man is especially to blame for why corporate power is out of control. And I knew him! He was my professor, then my boss. His name… Robert Bork.
Robert Bork was a notorious conservative who believed the only legitimate purpose of antitrust — that is, anti-monopoly — law is to lower prices for consumers, no matter how big corporations get. His philosophy came to dominate the federal courts and conservative economics.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Apple in EU crosshairs after shutting out Epic
Apple will face questions from EU regulators over accusations it barred Epic Games from opening its own app store for iPhone customers in Europe — the latest twist in a long-running fight between the two companies.
Epic said that Apple had terminated its developer account on Wednesday, preventing the gaming company from bringing Fortnite and the Epic Games Store to Apple’s iOS devices in the EU. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney accused Apple of violating the EU’s sweeping new Digital Markets Act, which took full effect on Thursday.
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CS Monitor ☛ Europe forces tech giants to make changes with the Digital Markets Act
They’re part of changes required under the Digital Markets Act, a set of European Union regulations that six tech companies classed as “gatekeepers” – Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok owner ByteDance – will have to start following by midnight March 6.
The DMA is the latest in a series of regulations that Europe has passed as a global leader in reining in the dominance of large tech companies. Tech giants have responded – sometimes reluctantly – by changing some of their long-held ways of doing business – such as Apple allowing people to install smartphone apps outside of its App Store.
The new rules have broad but vague goals of making digital markets “fairer” and “more contestable.” They are kicking in as efforts around the world to crack down on the tech industry are picking up pace.
Here’s a look at how the Digital Markets Act will work: [...]
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The Local SE ☛ Why Google searches in Europe no longer show maps
However, for people living in EU and EEA countries, this function stopped appearing in early March as a result of new EU regulations intended to decrease the 'gatekeeping' power of tech giants.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Apple goes to war with Epic Games in the EU
Epic had slammed the way Apple chose to comply with the new DMA law, saying that new fees were unfair to developers. Sweeney described the plan as “hot garbage” and a “horror show”.
The game maker also published e-mails from Apple App Store chief Phil Schiller and company lawyers pointing to that criticism.
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Le Monde ☛ Digital Markets Act: How the way you use Google Maps and Messenger is changing
These two changes have one thing in common: They stem from the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This European regulation on digital markets came into force on Wednesday, March 6, and was designed to curb some of the digital giants' anti-competitive practices. The regulation currently applies to Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and ByteDance, as well as 22 platforms that belong to them: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Messenger, Android, iOS, Windows, Google, Chrome, Safari, YouTube, as well as advertising services and the likes of Google Maps and Facebook Marketplace. The social media network X and hotel reservation site Booking.com are expected to be added soon.
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Patents
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CBC ☛ U.S. trade czar: Don't get 'too comfortable' North American trade pact will stay as is
Katherine Tai made the comments as the agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, known in the U.S. as USMCA, passed the halfway point toward the six-year mark where countries will start discussing its renewal.
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Trademarks
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Techdirt ☛ Snap Sues USPTO Over Generic Trademark Denied For Being Generic
It’s a point we have to make far more often than we should: trademark law is not designed to allow anyone or any company to simply lock up common language as their own. There are lots of ways the confusion around that expresses itself, but one of the most common concerns generic terms for goods and services. Yes, you can trademark Coca-Cola. No, you cannot trademark “soda.” Yes, you can trademark “Apple” for computers. No, you cannot trademark “apples” for your apple-farming company. See? Not too hard!
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Copyrights
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Torrent Freak ☛ Reddit Objects to Filmmakers' Renewed Attempt to Obtain User IP Addresses
The legal dispute between a group of filmmakers and Reddit is not over yet. After three earlier setbacks, the movie companies are now seeking a 'de novo' review of their quest to obtain the IP-addresses of Redditors who posted piracy-related comments on the platform. Reddit objects to the request, stressing its users' First Amendment right to anonymous speech should not be interfered with.
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Torrent Freak ☛ BuffStreams OK'd For Blocking in Germany But Unlikely to Lose Any Sleep
All EU countries are free to introduce site-blocking measures to reduce piracy, but there's little unity across the bloc. A steady pace in the Netherlands and Spain stands in contrast to the enthusiasm of Italy and Eastern Europe's apathy. Somewhere in the middle sits Germany, where popular streaming site BuffStreams has just met the standard for blocking. When that will actually happen is unclear but BuffStreams seems unlikely to lose any sleep.
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404 Media ☛ NYTimes Files Copyright Takedown Against Hundreds of Wordle Clones
The New York Times has filed a series of copyright takedown requests against Wordle clones and variations in which it asserts not just ownership over the Wordle name but over the broad concepts and mechanics of the word game, which includes its “5x6 grid” and “green tiles to indicate correct guesses.”
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Press Gazette ☛ Meta's tough stance on news in Australia forewarns global strategy
Last Friday Meta announced that it would be closing Facebook’s news tab feature in Australia and not renewing any of the news licensing deals it struck with Australian publishers following the introduction of the landmark News Media Bargaining Code.
This follows parallel changes it made in the UK, France and Germany at the end of last year. It also announced the closure of its news tab in the US.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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