Links 28/04/2024: Shareholders Worry "AI" Hype Brings No Income, Money Down the Drain
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] Tim Hortons says 'technical errors' falsely told people they won $55K boat in Roll Up To Win promo
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Canary Islands residents protest against mass tourism
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] The death of paper ticket stubs in the digital era has some Canucks fans torn
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Edmonton condo at risk of collapse to be sold as corporate law clouds hope for court fight
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Sex differences don’t disappear as a country’s equality develops – sometimes they become stronger
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Mel Brooks Talks His Love of Star Wars and Teases a Spaceballs Sequel
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Assaf Arkin ☛ Weekend Reading — The Bob Ross of programming — Labnotes (by Assaf Arkin)
"every tech company designing products that assume a fast, reliable, always-on network connection is henceforth required to use hotel wifi for a month"
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Manuel Moreale ☛ The web is not dying
I don’t believe the web is dying. Not for one second. Maybe this specific version of the web is dying, that might be true. Let’s imagine we ban TikTok. And Facebook. And Instagram. And Threads. And all the other huge platforms. There would still be one global town square left. It’s called the web. The web itself IS the global town square.
Sure, it’s a lot harder to reach a million people if you have to start from your own little corner of the web. But you know what? Tough shit. Some things in life are hard. And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe being able to instantly become viral is not a good thing overall. Maybe we do want some friction in the system.
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[Old] New York Times ☛ In Brussels, Gates Takes a Pie in the Face
Organizers of Mr. Gates's visit said five people, equipped with stocks of pies, appeared to be involved in what was believed to have been a prank with commercial intent.
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[Old] BBC ☛ Rupert Murdoch attack: The power of a custard pie
One of the most notorious pie-throwers is the Belgian anarchist and anti-capitalist Noel Godin, who styles himself "Georges Le Gloupier" and has "entarted" the likes of Gates and Levy, saying he wanted to puncture their alleged pomposity.
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Science
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Hackaday ☛ Photo Shows Real Spiders From Mars
A cornerstone of early 1970s rock music culture was the British singer David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust persona, along with his backing band the Spiders from Mars. You can tell that the PR department at the European Space Agency were beside themselves with glee at the opportunity to reference them when their Mars Express spacecraft snapped a picture of some of the planets surface structures which bear a passing resemblance to Earth-bound spiders. We can’t blame them, we’d have done the same.
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Hackaday ☛ Welcome Back, Voyager
In what is probably the longest-distance tech support operation in history, the Voyager mission team succeeded in hacking their way around some defective memory and convincing their space probe to send sensor data back to earth again. And for the record, Voyager is a 46-year old system at a distance of now 24 billion kilometers, 22.5 light-hours, from the earth.
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Vaccines cause autism, which leads to progressivism and…Trumpism?
There are some antivax conclusions (and arguments leading to those antivax conclusions) that I come across that are so stupid that I feel as though I’ve lost brain cells after reading them. Indeed, some ideas are basically black holes of stupid, such that their gravitational well of stupidity sucks into them any hint of intelligence, reason, or critical thinking that drifts too close to their event horizons. I’m about to discuss one such set of conclusions and arguments, because if I suffered through reading them you have to as well. This time around, they come from Toby Rogers, who the other day posted an article to his Substack entitled, Many of the central tenets of progressivism are actually autistic traits. I bet you can see where his argument leads, given that he also accepts the standard antivax pseudoscience claiming that vaccines cause autism. Yes, Toby proceeds to argue that vaccines cause autism and that the personality traits associated with which result in people embracing the “tenets of progressivism,” which, to him, are “actually autistic traits.” His argument, as you might imagine, misrepresents what both progressivism and autism are, because of course it does. This is, after all, Toby Rogers.
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Peter Higgs’ famous particle discovery is now at the heart of strategies to unlock the secrets of the universe
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Nasa to overhaul mission returning samples from Mars – here’s why it must and will go ahead
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The Register UK ☛ NASA's Psyche sends back engineering data via laser beam
NASA's optical communications demonstration has hit 25 Mbps in a test transmitting engineering data back to Earth from 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) away.
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Science Alert ☛ Ancient Rocks Reveal Earth's Magnetic Field Existed 3.7 Billion Years Ago
It doesn't look a day over 3.6 billion.
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teleSUR ☛ What Latin American Scientists Have Won a Nobel Prize?
Know who are those Latin American scintists who have won this high laurate. In next articles there will be more abaout they and the science in Latin America.
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Education
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Public School Advocates Again Face How to Stop School Choice in Nebraska
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BIA Net ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Turkey hosts nearly 350,000 foreign students, says education authority
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Danielle Smith wants ideology 'balance' at universities. Alberta academics wonder what she's tilting at
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El País ☛ Juan Manuel Corchado: The seven lies of the AI expert who cited himself thousands of times on scientific papers
Only one person has presented his candidacy for rector of one of the oldest academic institutions in the world, the University of Salamanca. He is Professor Juan Manuel Corchado, who specializes in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. On March 15 EL PAÍS published a story revealing that for years this academic has been enhancing his resume with tricks, publishing odd documents such as a pseudo-study on Covid with four insubstantial paragraphs and citing a hundred references to his own work. Corchado, a 52-year-old native of Salamanca, denied claims of fraud and continued on his path towards the university’s highest position, once held by the philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. On May 7, 33,000 university students are called to vote for a single candidate. If there are no surprises, the candidate will assume command of the university, with an annual budget of almost €290 million.
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Hardware
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Hard work and happy accidents: why do so many of us prefer ‘difficult’ analogue technology?
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Samsung Overtakes Apple In Worldwide Phone Sales
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Everyone Already Forgot About the Apple Vision Pro
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Stephen Hackett ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] ‘The Apple Jonathan: A Very 1980s Concept Computer That Never Shipped’
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The Register UK ☛ Right to repair best if left to states, says top advocate
There's a lot of momentum behind the right-to-repair movement, and if anyone should know, it'd be Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association and longtime repairability advocate.
We spoke with Gordon-Byrne, in an interview you can watch below, to get a sense of the state of the right-to-repair movement in light of the passage of EU repairability laws and news out of Colorado that the state senate approved an expanded right to repair rule.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ America's billion-dollar bet on US chipmaking
The CHIPS and Science Act is its main tool. Here, "chips" stands for "Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors." One provision of the law gives $39 billion (€36.6 billion) in federal grants to the Commerce Department to lure companies to build or expand US-based semiconductor manufacturing. It allocates another $75 billion for loans, among other measures.
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Hackaday ☛ Nearly-Destroyed Commodore Gets New Life
We all have our shiny, modern computers for interacting with the modern world, but at times they can seem a little monochromatic. Even the differences between something like macOS and Windows for the average user often boil down to which operating system loads an Internet browser. There are obviously more differences than that, but back in the 80s it was much more extreme with interoperability a pipe dream in most cases. What keeps drawing people to maintaining and using computers from that chaotic era is more tangible compared to modern machines, and that is meant quite literally; computers from this era can be saved from an extreme amount of degradation like this Commodore that was nearly completely destroyed before it was re-discovered.
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Hackaday ☛ 3D Printed Adapter Helps You Eat Chicken Nuggets On The Highway
So often, we see 3D printers used to create some nifty little tool for a tricky little job. Maybe it’s to lock cams together for a timing belt change, or to work as a jig for soldering some complex device. However, some hacks are even simpler than that. [maker_guy] realized that eating nuggets in the car could be easier than ever with a little printed adapter.
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Hackaday ☛ RGB LED HexaClock Doesn’t Actually Light Up The Night
Who says a clock can’t be both useful and beautiful? That seems to be the big idea behind the lovely little HexaClock from [Bulduper]. And boy, is it both.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Global Plastic Pollution Treaty Talks Hit Critical Stage in Canada
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Science Alert ☛ There's an Awkward Link Between Plastic Production And Pollution We're Not Considering
There's only one solution.
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New York Times ☛ Spotify’s Daniel Ek Wants to Democratize Full-Body Scans
The Spotify chief has co-founded a new start-up, Neko Health, that aims to make head-to-toe health scans part of the annual health checkup routine.
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Mexico News Daily ☛ Is senior health care an untapped opportunity in Mexico?
Mexico News Daily CEO Travis Bembenek considers the market for senior health care, particularly for the growing number of expats moving to Mexico.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] What's next in €645 million JuicyFields cannabis scam?
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Bridge Michigan ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Bird flu hits turkey flock in Newaygo County as virus spreads in Michigan
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Sask. man who didn't want his daughter to get COVID-19 shots found guilty of abduction
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Record-low water levels reported across most of drought-hit N.W.T.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Ahead of Paris Olympics, outcry grows over water pollution
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] How European trash illegally ends up in Southeast Asia
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] As national measles vaccine shortage extends another month, some travel to U.S.
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Ontario chemical plant to shut down for maintenance after safety outcry from First Nation
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] 7 halal meat outlets closed in Calgary as RCMP investigate unlawful slaughter and sale
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SCMP ☛ Organ transplants may have unexpected consequences: recipients’ tastes for food, sex, and their personality change
The paper, “Personality Changes Associated with Organ Transplants”, published in the medical journal Transplantology in January, discusses how a number of transplant recipients have experienced major, long-lasting changes in their thoughts, actions and behaviour. Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in the United States set out to investigate whether personality changes occur after a patient has an organ transplant, and specifically, what types of changes heart transplant recipients experience and if they differed from recipients of other organs.
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Wired ☛ 1 in 3 Americans Live in Areas With Dangerous Air Pollution
The South Ward is hardly an outlier. A new report by the American Lung Association shows how polluted air continues to place the health of millions of other Americans in jeopardy.
The lung association’s latest “State of the Air” report—an annual survey of air quality nationwide—found that more than a third of all Americans, or about 131 million people, are living in communities with unhealthy levels of air pollution.
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CS Monitor ☛ Beyond TikTok ban: How one state is grappling with teens and scrolling
The TikTok law that recently sailed through Congress was primarily driven by national security concerns. Left unaddressed: a wider strategy on social media and teen mental health.
Federal and state lawmakers face decisions on whether to make tech companies more responsible for safety and well-being issues, or to put that onus on parents and guardians.
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Hackaday ☛ Wine In Beverage Cans Had A Rotten Egg Problem, Until Now
Aluminum beverage cans are used for all kinds of drinks, but when it comes to wine there are some glitches. Chief among them is the fact that canned wine occasionally smelled like rotten eggs. Thankfully, researchers have figured out why that happens, and how to stop it. How was this determined? As the image above hints at, lots and lots of samples and testing.
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Science Alert ☛ CDC Confirms 5 Cases of HIV Linked to Dirty 'Vampire Facials' in New Mexico
Here’s what we now know.
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Science Alert ☛ There Really Is Something Strikingly Malicious in The Way Cocaine Rewards Our Brains
A path to treatment.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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The Verge ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Google Reorg Puts Android, Chrome, Photos and More Under Leadership of Devices Team
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California ☛ Notice of Data Breach
On February 9, 2024, BenefitsCal discovered that someone, that was not allowed, may have logged into accounts of some users of the BenefitsCal website using reused passwords taken from other websites. Your account may have been one of those accessed. BenefitsCal took immediate steps to protect you by temporarily inactivating your account. Someone that was not allowed may have accessed your account between March 1, 2023 and February 13, 2024. In reviewing your account use during that time, your personal information may have been accessed.
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The Record ☛ [Crackers] accessed more than 19,000 accounts on California state welfare platform
They gained access to names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, EBT and Medi-Cal numbers and more information.
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Computers Are Bad ☛ 2024-04-26 microsoft at work
They call it "the first real step toward the paperless digital office," a nod towards the promise of Microsoft's document-messaging vision, before noting that virtually no products had shipped, everything was behind schedule, and Microsoft had reorganized the At Work team out of existence. Microsoft At Work was seldom spoken of again. Few products ever launched, those that did sold poorly (the Windows licensing fee imposed on them being one of several factors contributing to noncompetitive price tags), and by the time Windows gained proper USB support few would remember it had ever happened.
In other words, a classic Microsoft story.
But I'm not here to chronicle Microsoft's foibles, there are other writers for that. I'm here to chronicle their weird operating system projects. And that's what got me reading into MAW: the promise of not just one, but two weird operating system projects.
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Greg Morris ☛ Twitter Should Have Been A Blog
As I rummaged through my old blog posts recently, I couldn’t help but notice a recurring theme: Twitter. Surprisingly, amid the clutter of musings and reflections, Twitter stood out as a significant part of my online presence. This got me thinking: What if Twitter had been designed as a full-fledged blogging platform from the get-go?
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CBS ☛ School principal was framed using AI-generated racist rant, police say. A co-worker is now charged.
A former high school athletic director was arrested Thursday morning after allegedly using artificial intelligence to impersonate the school principal in a recording that included racist and antisemitic comments about individuals at the school.
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Wired ☛ School Employee Allegedly Framed a Principal With Racist Deepfake Rant
In January, an Instagram account in Baltimore, Maryland, posted an alleged audio recording of local school principal Eric Eiswert making racist and antisemitic comments. Baltimore County Public Schools quickly opened an investigation into the incident. However, this week, a former athletic director at Pikesville High School was arrested after police said he used artificial intelligence software to create the fake audio clip of Eiswert. The audio included comments about “ungrateful Black kids” and disparaging remarks about the Jewish community.
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TechSpot ☛ Microsoft Xbox Series X/S sales downturn continued last quarter
Microsoft's gaming revenue was up 51% year-over-year, but this is nearly all due to the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Activision Blizzard was responsible for the vast majority of the business' $5.45 billion profits – gaming revenue would be down 4% were it not for money from the likes of Call of Duty – while Xbox Series X and S revenue was down 31 percent year-over-year. Microsoft reported a 30% decrease in Xbox hardware revenue last year, and, as was the case back then, it is attributing the latest fall on a lower volume of consoles being sold. Xbox content and services revenue was up 62 percent – 61% came from Activision.
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Tech giants are spending more on AI amid slow returns, and that's spooking investors | TechSpot
Meta said that it would be spending billions of dollars more on its AI efforts [...]
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Jason Becker ☛ In defense of using analytics on your personal blog
But there’s a huge problem with this idea today– webmentions. Webmentions is a shit show of a standard. It seems to only kind of work. It definitely confuses and perplexes many writers who are bought into the IndieWeb in spirit but are not writing their own (seemingly always PHP) CMS to implement standards. Folks who are writers first and non-developer tinkerers are met with bad plug-ins, inconsistent behavior, poorly documented inconsistencies, and a whole manner of things that cause them to give up 1. Still, others have decided the very idea of a webmention, especially extended to social posts, and specifically displaying that others have linked (publicly) to your blog post is a privacy concern.
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Reason ☛ MIT President's Statement on the Anti-Israel Students' Encampment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBoNDRuyLww Here's the transcript; on balance, the message seems to me to be correct (though I would be inclined to say that such encampments, if they violate content-neutral rules—as they usually do—should be removed more promptly): [...]
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Defence/Aggression
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VOA News ☛ Instagram, YouTube, smaller rivals likely to get boost from TikTok ban
But with an actual ban still likely years away, it's not clear what app will be its biggest beneficiary. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, may see more advertisers amid uncertainty for its biggest rival, according to analysts who follow the company.
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[Old] NYMag ☛ The Infidel Turned Christian
When Ayaan Hirsi Ali renounced Islam for atheism, her conversion made her a global star. In the wake of 9/11, she appeared to confirm what many feared: that Islam was incontrovertibly backward and oppressive to women. Certainly, she had no cause to think kindly of the faith she had abandoned. After suffering genital mutilation as a young girl, she escaped Islamic fundamentalism and an arranged marriage and found refuge in the Netherlands, where she became an atheist. After publicly disavowing Islam, she became a face of New Atheism and was elected to the Dutch parliament in 2003. A year later, a Muslim extremist murdered the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, her creative collaborator at the time; a note pinned to his body said Hirsi Ali would be next to die. She did not remain silent. She published a best-selling memoir, Infidel, in 2006, followed by another autobiography, Nomad, in 2010.
Her life experiences lent Hirsi Ali some personal credibility in warning the West about the supposed threat of Islam on its doorstep. At various points in her decadeslong career, she has called the religion “a destructive, nihilistic cult of death,” argued that male Muslim immigrants are a danger to European women, and said the West should heavily restrict Muslim immigration. As the writer Pankaj Mishra observed in a 2010 review of Nomad, Hirsi Ali has supported a French ban on face veils and a Swiss referendum to ban minarets. More recently, she has branched out beyond religion to complain that “gender-ideology advocates are a threat not just to women but to western ideals, too,” that the Black Lives Matter movement is an “enemy of black prosperity and education,” and that “progressive conformists” are chasing freethinkers out of American universities.
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JURIST ☛ Kenya ministry calls for regulation of TikTok rather than outright ban
This proposal follows Parliament’s inquiry into a petition seeking to ban TikTok. The petition was based on allegations by the Ministry of Interior that TikTok is being used to commit fraud, spread propaganda and distribute sexual content that violates public morals. The petitioner, Ben Ndolo, further argued that the content uploaded on TikTok was inappropriate since it promoted violence and hate speech, shared people’s data with other parties without consent and infringed minors’ rights.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Which countries have banned TikTok?
The US Senate recently approved legislation that gives the short-form video app TikTok a nine-month deadline to either sell its US operations to an American company or face a nationwide ban. The reason: Chinese parent company ByteDance is allegedly subject to Chinese government influence, and may therefore pass on sensitive data from American citizens to the regime in Beijing.
ByteDance has denied the allegations, but the bill still became law on Wednesday when, following the Senate's approval, it was signed by President Joe Biden.
The TikTok discussions in Europe focus on a different aspect. EU authorities have argued that the app poses a high risk of addiction, especially for young users, and can also cause other forms of psychological damage. In response, the company has discontinued a reward function in the EU that had been part of the spinoff app TikTok Lite and which rewarded video views with gift certificates for real products.
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Greece ☛ 314 WWII bombs discovered at Elliniko development site
In a press conference on Thursday, Elliniko-Argyroupoli Mayor Giannis Konstantatos said that the cache of German-made ordnance was found buried at a depth of two meters beneath a former social club, nursery schools and sports facilities constructed for the 2004 Athens Olympics situated at the site.
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Greece ☛ Living with bombs
It is not unusual for bombs to be found in cities and regions that saw hostilities during World War II. Usually, though, these are bombs that were dropped but did not explode, remaining buried in unidentified spots until they are discovered accidentally. They were not in storage.
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YLE ☛ GPS disruptions force return of two Finnair planes
Airports generally use multiple systems for approach and don't necessarily rely on GPS signals.
"Tartu Airport is one of the few that has no other systems," she explained.
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Star Tribune ☛ Former diversity worker sues University of Minnesota after firing over swastika photo
The lawsuit said she "posted the photographs on her private Instagram account, but unbeknownst to her, they were automatically re-posted on her Facebook account."
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[Repeat] New York Times ☛ Suddenly, Chinese Spies Seem to Be Popping Up All Over Europe
While from different countries and seemingly divergent backgrounds and outlooks, both men became ensnared this week in accusations of espionage on behalf of China — and a widening pushback in Europe against malign Chinese influence in politics and commerce.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Stabbed Sydney Assyrian Church Bishop Says He Forgives Attacker
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Sydney shopping mall reopens after stabbing attack
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] EU summit updates: Leaders agree to expand sanctions on Iran
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Middle East: Israel welcomes EU support of Iran sanctions
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Taiwan Says It Will Discuss With US How to Use New Funding
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Turkey Detains 36 People Over Alleged Islamic State Ties, Minister Says
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Why Jordan, and maybe even Saudi Arabia, helped defend Israel
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HRW ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Jordan: Syrian Student Faces Imminent Deportation
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Canada Post refusing to collect banned guns for Ottawa's buyback program
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ANF News ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Osman: Turkish regime deeply fears the power of women, that's why they attack us
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Ecuador votes on security measures amid wave of violence
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Ecuadorean President Noboa Seeking Approval for Security Measures in Sunday Vote
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Former Ecuador President Correa Says Party Will Back Security Reforms, Otherwise Oppose Noboa
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] German far-right AfD staffer arrested on China spy charges
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Germany arrests 3 suspected China spies
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] UK police charge 2 with spying for China
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] German culture scene unites against far-right AfD party
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Iran's activities 'raising eyebrows,' IAEA's Grossi tells DW
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] North Korea says missile launch was nuclear response drill
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Rwanda plan: UK Parliament passes migrant deportation bill
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] Multiple arrests, 19 charges laid in $22.5M Pearson gold heist
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Austrian police arrest Germans visiting Hitler's birthplace
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Why German media's relationship with far right is difficult
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Why Immanuel Kant's philosophy is still relevant amid today's wars
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Trump accused of election fraud in hush money trial
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Sudanese refugees in Germany decry forgotten war
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Middle East updates: Israel angered by possible US sanctions
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Japan: 1 dead, 7 missing in military helicopter crash
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Germany to introduce a Veterans' Day — report
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Haiti: UN says deaths rising sharply as gangs vie for power
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Man who set himself alight outside Trump trial dies
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Mexico: 2 more mayoral candidates killed ahead of election
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Middle East updates: Several hurt in Iraqi base 'bombing'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] North Korea tests 'super large' warhead
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] US agrees to withdraw troops from Niger: officials
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Canada contacts Israel after aid agency says water truck bombed in 'targeted' attack
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Why did the Afghan Taliban sour on Pakistan?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] How war impacts child development
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Iran consulate in Paris cordoned off over explosive threat
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Iran-Israel tensions: Can Iran's economy handle a war?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Iran plays down reports of Israeli attack
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Myanmar: Anti-junta rebellion enters new stage
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] NATO: Zelenskyy needs Patriots, Stoltenberg promises them
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Could Moscow attack suspects face execution in Belarus?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Leonid Volkov: 2 held in Poland over attack on Navalny aide
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Italy: Court drops charges against migrant rescue ship crews
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France24 ☛ US to give Ukraine new Patriot missiles as part of $6 billion aid package
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday announced the United States will provide key air defense munitions and artillery rounds to Ukraine as part of a $6 billion military aid package that is its largest ever for Kyiv.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Launches 'Massive' Strikes, Hits Power Stations, Psychiatric Hospital
Ukraine said Russia had launched a massive attack overnight targeting energy installations, while a Russian oil refinery said it had suspended operations following a drone strike.
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France24 ☛ Russian missiles strike four Ukrainian thermal power stations
Russia launched a barrage of missiles at Ukrainian power facilities on Saturday, hitting locations in the centre and west of the country, damaging equipment and injuring at least one energy worker, officials said.
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France24 ☛ Who was the 'Donbass Cowboy', the pro-Russian Texan who died in Donetsk?
Russell Bentley, a Texas native better known by his nickname "Donbass Cowboy", died in mysterious circumstances near Donetsk. His death provoked a strong reaction in Russian ultra-nationalist circles, where Bentley had made a name for himself over the past ten years by travelling through the territories occupied by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.
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New York Times ☛ Russia Bombs Power Plants and Ukraine Targets Refineries in Dueling Attacks
As missiles caused extensive damage to Ukraine’s power grid, Kyiv continued drone assaults inside Russia that have drawn criticism from Washington.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Senators Warn Tbilisi That 'Foreign Agents' Law Could Disrupt Relations
A bipartisan group of 14 U.S. senators warned in a letter to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze that the Caucasus nation’s plan to reintroduce a "Russian-style foreign agents law" could lead to a change in U.S. policy toward Tbilisi.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Court Places Forbes Reporter Under House Arrest
A Russian court on April 27 ordered a journalist for the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Sergei Mingazov, to be placed under house arrest
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teleSUR ☛ Russia Activates World's First Satellite for Arctic Observation
Arktika-M was created on the basis of the unified Navigator platform of the Russian Lavochkin corporation.
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RFERL ☛ Memorial Concert For Navalny Set For June 4 In Berlin
Associates of Aleksei Navalny, who died in February in a Russian penal colony, say a concert has been scheduled in his memory in Berlin on June 4, which would have been the opposition politician’s 48th birthday.
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RFERL ☛ Arrest Warrant Issued For Suspect In Alleged Bribery Case Of Russian Deputy Defense Minister
Russian media reported on April 27 that another suspect has been taken into custody in the criminal case involving Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov.
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LRT ☛ Belek from Kyrgyzstan: I came in autumn but fell in love with Lithuania in summer
Belek Aidarov, a Kyrgyz national, first came to Lithuania in September 2007 as part of the Erasmus student exchange programme and spent a semester studying political science at Vilnius University. He recalls that it was foggy and cloudy then. “I fell in love with Lithuania when I saw it in the summer,” he says.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Scoop News Group ☛ ACLU seeks AI records from NSA, Defense Department in new lawsuit
In a Thursday complaint, the ACLU asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to compel the release of documents detailing the agency’s integration of the technology and plans for the future. Despite the agency’s public comments about its AI efforts and past pledges to be transparent, those documents haven’t yet been released, the ACLU argued.
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Greece ☛ Privacy watchdog asks EYP to hand over full dossier on PASOK chief’s surveillance
The plenary session of the Hellenic Authority for Communications Security and Privacy (ADAE) on Wednesday addressed a request from opposition party PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis to be informed about the surveillance of his phone by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) in 2021.
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Environment
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Science Alert ☛ There's an Awkward Link Between Plastic Production And Pollution We're Not Considering
Not quite. The key question here is how close the relationship is between plastic production and pollution. Our new research found the relationship is direct – a 1 percent increase in plastic production leads to a 1 percent increase in plastic pollution, meaning unmanaged waste such as bottles in rivers and floating plastic in the oceans.
Not only that, but over half of branded plastic pollution is linked to just 56 companies worldwide. The Coca-Cola Company accounts for 11 percent of branded waste and PepsiCo 5 percent. If these companies introduce effective plastic reduction plans, we could see a measurable reduction in plastic in the environment.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Why Iran and Russia can dodge Western sanctions
"If you believe the Chinese government, the country doesn't import any oil from Iran. Zero. Not a barrel. Instead, it imports lots of Malaysian crude. So much that, according to official Chinese customs data, it somehow buys more than twice as much Malaysian oil as Malaysia actually produces."
By rebranding Iranian oil, Malaysia became China's fourth-largest foreign oil supplier last year, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Asia worst hit from climate disasters in 2023, says UN
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Asia Is Most Climate Disaster-Impacted Region, UN Meteorological Agency Says
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The Kent Stater ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] To my son, born in the climate crisis: These helpers changed the fate of the titi
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University of Michigan ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Climate change will boost value of rooftop solar panels, study shows
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] As Climate Crisis Grows, Youth Environmental Movements Are Radicalizing
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] California Announces First New State Park in a Decade and Sets Climate Goals for Natural Lands
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Vox ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Home Planet
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Vox ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] On Earth Day, Vox Releases Home Planet, A Project Highlighting the Personal Dimensions of Climate Change in our Daily Lives
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Vox ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Climate change is disrupting our sense of home
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] India's Ladakh region demands autonomy to deal with climate change
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University of Michigan ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Fighting climate change with climate change
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Truthdig ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] The Middle East Continues to Fail on Climate Action
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Quebec eyed as prime spot to suck carbon from atmosphere
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Climate Change Concerns Grow, but Few Think Biden's Climate Law Will Help, AP-NORC Poll Finds
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The Local SE ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Climate protesters wrap Swedish parliament in giant red scarf
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Vox ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] I gave up meat and gained so much more
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Vox ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] The unexpected joy of the Squirrel Census
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Next UN Climate Talks Are Critical to Plot Aid for Poorer Nations, Says Incoming President
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Climate Crisis Will Shrink Average Global Income 19 Percent in the Next 26 Years
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Harms of US Blockade Against Cuba Compound as Food and Energy Crises Spread
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Mexican Presidential Frontrunner Would Focus on Renewable Energy, Water
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Copernicus report shows year of weather extremes in Europe
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Severe flooding expected in parts of southern China
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Energy/Transportation
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Bridge Michigan ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] DTE natural gas project in northern Michigan begins amid climate concerns
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Fusion-energy quest makes big advance with EU-Japan reactor
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] CAR: Over 50 drown after boat capsizes in Mpoko river
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] At Least 20 Dead After a Ferry Sinks in Central African Republic, Witnesses Say
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] For its next trick, Ottawa must unload the $34B Trans Mountain pipeline. It won't be easy
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] Who likes loud cars? Ontario study suggests they skew young, male and score high on psychopathy and sadism
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Next major Tesla recall hits plagued Cybertruck
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Massive fire destroys WW II-era hangar in Edmonton
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Calls for answers after train on fire rolls through downtown London, Ont.
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France24 ☛ Russian missiles strike four Ukrainian thermal power stations
Since March 22, Russian forces have ramped up their bombardments of the Ukrainian power sector, attacking thermal and hydropower stations and other energy infrastructure almost daily.
Ukraine has lost about 80% of its thermal generation and about 35% of its hydropower capacity, officials aid. Its energy system was already weakened by a Russian air campaign in the first winter of the war that Russia launched in February 2022.
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The Local SE ☛ Where Malmö plans to place its first three Copenhagen Metro stops
Malmö hopes the Swedish government will take a decision on the project this autumn, and in preparation, the city's planning board last Thursday took a decision on where the first three stops of the Öresund Metro should be placed.
They have selected Fullriggaren (currently a bus stop at the outermost tip of the city's Västra Hamnen district), Stora Varvsgatan, in the centre of Västra Hamnen, and Malmö's Central Station, as the locations of the first three stops, after which the idea is to extend the metro into the city.
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Axios ☛ U.S. safety regulators investigate Tesla's autopilot recall
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether Tesla did enough to improve driver safety after recalling roughly 2 million vehicles to fix a software defect in their autopilot monitoring system.
Why it matters: This is just the latest hurdle Tesla has faced over safety concerns related to its autopilot software. NHTSA has been investigating the company's autopilot system and crashes for years.
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Futurism ☛ Tesla's Autopilot and FSD Linked to Hundreds of Crashes, Many Fatal
Federal regulators released a report this week in which they found that Tesla's controversial driver assistance software was linked to hundreds of injuries and dozens of deaths.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that those making use of the EV maker's misleadingly called "Full Self-Driving" software were lulled into a false sense of security and "were not sufficiently engaged in the driving task."
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Wildlife/Nature
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] How a teenager helped identify a new species of giant marine reptile
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-16 [Older] Trove of Unknown Deep-Sea Life Discovered in the South Pacific
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Omicron Limited ☛ Species living closely together in symbiosis is far older and way more common than you might think
The term symbiosis was first used in the 19th century to describe the lichen relationship, which was thought to be highly unusual. Since then, we've discovered symbiosis is the norm, rather than the exception. In fact, it has shaped the evolution of most life on Earth.
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CBC ☛ Orca calf swims out of lagoon after being trapped for a month
The Ehattesaht First Nation says a killer whale calf that had been trapped in a remote Vancouver Island lagoon for more than a month is now free after she swam out on her own early Friday morning.
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Science Alert ☛ Haunting Sounds From The World's Largest Living Thing Recorded
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Finance
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Ottawa to force banks to use carbon rebate label for direct deposits
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] India's Narendra Modi focuses on economy in election push
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NL Times ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Dutch banks need better money laundering checks and more vigilence says central bank
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Turkey’s Economic Crisis Is Eroding Erdoğan’s Popularity
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Germany targets Indian students to address labor shortages
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Germany's infrastructure woes: Who should foot the bill?
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Luke Harris ☛ The self-promotion dilemma
Like South Texas humidity and the mosquitoes who thrive in it, there’s a point where it’s too much. When a pop-up overlay scrolls into view, that’s too much promotion. Don’t get in my way to promote yourself. Few people follow that rule, because getting in someone’s way gets their attention—a fact sales books peddle like a divine revelation.
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Tracy Durnell ☛ Self-promotion vs. advertising
I am irritated by nagging pop-up subscription boxes, especially “this is not a paywall” pop-ups that show up before I’ve even had time to read the headline of the article. Substack crams multiple pop-ups and sign-up fields into every newsletter. These make me feel like my value is in becoming a number, an eyeball to be sold to, rather than as a reader. Pop-ups are (imo) a manipulative design practice; I understand that sales are a numbers game, so growing an audience is important for creators, but it’s a turnoff for feeling like part of a community.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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[Old] SFGate ☛ Oracle's coziness with government goes back to its founding / Firm's growth sustained as niche established with federal, state agencies
From a Central Intelligence Agency deal that launched the firm 25 years ago, to recent software contracts in Sacramento and Los Angeles, Oracle is no stranger to the halls of political power.
The CIA was not just Oracle's first customer. Founded in May 1977, the firm's name came from a CIA project code-named "Oracle." Company co-founders Larry Ellison, Robert Miner and Ed Oates worked on Project Oracle at a consulting firm, before striking out on their own.
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CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: The tax sharks are back and they’re coming for your home
But the neoliberal era dispensed with labor rights, leaving the descendants of those lucky workers with just one tool for securing their American dream: home-ownership. As wages stagnated, your home – so essential to your ability to simply live – became your most important asset first, and a home second. So long as property values rose – and property taxes didn't – your home could be the backstop for debt-fueled consumption that filled the gap left by stagnating wages. Liquidating your family home might someday provide for your retirement, your kids' college loans and your emergency medical bills.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Libya: UN envoy's resignation diminishes hopes for a new democratic path
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] Should the South African TRC be seen as a model for future truth commissions?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] South Africa Man Convicted in Deaths of 2 Alaska Native Women Faces Revocation of U.S. Citizenship
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] Challenges of Reforming the African National Congress in South Africa
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Is the EU's image failing in Southeast Asia?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Faced with China and US, EU warned to find competitive edge
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] UK Conservatives Suspend Lawmaker as Sleaze Allegations Swirl Over Possible Misuse of Party Funds
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Croatia: Ruling conservatives win elections without majority
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Georgia: Lawmakers pass 'foreign agent' law in first reading
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] German prosecutors drop probe over 2021 deadly flooding
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] 'It cuts you to the heart': Thunder Bay families of Indigenous people in unsolved death cases seek answers
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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International Business Times ☛ Company Wants To Address Euro Teacher Shortage With AI By Using Avatars To Teach Maths
Following Bill Gates' 2023 prediction about the potential of AI chatbots like ChatGPT to replace human teachers, 21st Century Digital Teaching (21C), an artificial intelligence company, is taking a step in that direction.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] Apple Blocks WhatsApp, Signal, and Threads in China
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The Wall Street Journal ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] China Orders Apple to Remove WhatsApp, Threads, Signal, and Telegram From Chinese App Store
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Modi Accused of Hate Speech for Calling Muslims 'Infiltrators' at a Rally Days Into India's Election
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Ottawa police investigating complaints of hate speech at pro-Palestinian rally
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] India's Modi accused of anti-Muslim campaign hate speech
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CPJ ☛ 2024-04-19 [Older] CPJ, others warn against censorship attempt from former Brazilian attorney general
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Elon Musk Accuses Australia of Censorship After Court Bans Violent Video
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Minnesota and Other Democratic-Led States Lead Pushback on Censorship. They're Banning the Book Ban
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[Old] Jackie Singh ☛ EXCLUSIVE: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes
Naomi Wu's devastating July 7th tweet alluded to a pressure that had long been feared by many, yet optimistically hoped she could manage to avoid indefinitely.
"Ok for those of you that haven't figured it out I got my wings clipped and they weren't gentle about it- so there's not going to be much posting on social media anymore and only on very specific subjects. I can leave but Kaidi can't so we're just going to follow the new rules and…"
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[Old] SCMP ☛ Ups and downs of Naomi ‘SexyCyborg’ Wu, Chinese tech-loving YouTube star who’s more than just breasts and exposed skin
Wu has been defunded twice. Her Patreon account was taken down, and an alternate payment processing site she used, SubscribeStar, ran into some financial hiccups. Mainland Chinese YouTubers have limited income options, so a lack of such platforms meant a major loss of finances.
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[Old] Politico LLC ☛ Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Hero for Our Time
When she collaborated on a short film in the Netherlands in 2004 cataloging abuses against Muslim women, her fellow filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was assassinated by an Islamist who left a note threatening Hirsi Ali pinned to Van Gogh’s chest — with a knife.
That would be enough for most people to get the message, but Hirsi Ali wouldn’t be silenced. She is truly a hero of our time. She is defying the jihadi censors, the misbegotten hate-speech laws, and the polite conventions of Western debate that all tend to limit what can be said about the relationship of Islam to modernity.
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New Statesman ☛ Salman Rushdie: “The world has abandoned realism”
The fact is that I’m quite down to Earth in my world-view. I don’t believe in miracles, but somehow my books always have. People levitate in my books and people live to the age of 247 and are telepaths and turn into monsters at night, and all of that. I think a lot of that has to do with having grown up in a world in India where all the stories you first hear are kind of fantastic tales: they’re fable-like and magical, and I always thought that that was a good way to approach things and that somehow you could even get closer to the truth about human nature by abandoning realism. And also, I thought: the world has abandoned realism. We don’t live in realism; we live in surrealism. We live in a world in which Boris Johnson can be prime minister of the United Kingdom. And I thought, “Well, in that case, it’s realism that’s the fairy tale, and this way of writing is actually closer to the truth.”
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Deccan Herald ☛ Don't want to give my assassin 'oxygen of publicity': Salman Rushdie
But of his own survival from the brutal knife attack, Rushdie has a more pragmatic view: “So many people have said to me that my survival was a miracle. I don't believe any kind of divine hand reached down and helped me out. But I do believe in other kinds of miracles, I believe in medical miracles. I believe in the miracle of surgeons and just luck.
"So much of human life is determined by chance… the fact is that he tried very hard to kill me, but actually, he missed.”
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New York Times ☛ Iran Sentences Prominent Rapper to Death, Lawyer Says
The rapper, Toomaj Salehi, 33, was one of the most prominent voices among those arrested over nationwide protests against Iran’s clerical rulers after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22. Human rights organizations have been calling for Mr. Salehi’s release, saying that he has been tortured in prison and warning that he could face execution.
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Daily Mail ☛ The West's pathetic appeasement of Islamist extremists: For 33 years, my friend Salman Rushdie has shown incredible bravery. But the denial and delusion of Western apologists has only allowed fundamentalism to flourish, writes AYAAN HIRSI ALI | Daily Mail Online
He has heroically lived by those words since 1989. But, unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the political classes in the West.
Cast your mind back to the sanctified rage that erupted across the Muslim world when The Satanic Verses was first published — and the feeble attempts to defend Western liberal democracy in the face of it.
This should have been a moment when the politicians, media outlets and public institutions united in resolute defence of freedom of speech, one of the cornerstones of our civilisation. Instead, too many civic leaders cowed in front of the book-burners.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Everything you need to know about Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi and his death sentence
“Spreading corruption on the Earth” is a charge revolutionary courts in Iran have historically used against dissidents, including those extrajudicially killed during mass executions of the 1980s—known as the 1988 massacre—and people who were arrested in relation to the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.
Salehi is best known for creating protest songs that spoke out against the oppressive Islamic Republic policies that were the focus of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising prompted by the death in custody of Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022.
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[Repeat] France24 ☛ Russia arrests Forbes reporter over social media posts on Bucha massacre
Rights groups say hundreds of Russians have been arrested, fined and jailed for criticising Russia's offensive on Ukraine under tough military censorship laws.
Russian authorities have particularly targeted people for comments on Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian troops have been accused of massacring civilians.
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[Old] RFERL ☛ Iran Closes French Institute In Tehran Over Charlie Hebdo Cartoons
Charlie Hebdo has a history of pushing the limits of free speech on race, religion, and politics in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim community.
In January 2015, 12 people were killed by Islamist militants in an attack at the magazine's Paris office over the publication of cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
French officials did not immediately respond to the announcement of the closure of the institute, but Foreign Minster Catherine Colonna told LCI TV on January 5 that Iran was pursuing bad policies through its violence against its population.
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VOA News ☛ Iran Risks Further Backlash for Death Sentence of Dissident Rapper, Says German MP
Iranian state-approved newspaper Shargh first reported the death sentence against Salehi in an article published Wednesday, citing one of his lawyers who vowed to appeal it.
Salehi was charged upon arrest with "spreading corruption on earth," an offense punishable by death. Days earlier, he had posted videos on Instagram, showing himself joining a nationwide protest movement against Iran's Islamist government and releasing a music video denouncing the government for 44 years of "failure."
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The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian activist Chebugard arrested over Forest City casino post
He has been detained at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters over his post.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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VOA News ☛ 2 Russian journalists jailed for alleged work for Navalny group
They are the latest journalists arrested amid a Russian government crackdown on dissent and independent media that intensified after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. The Russian government passed laws criminalizing what it deems false information about the military, or statements seen as discrediting the military, effectively outlawing any criticism of the war in Ukraine or speech that deviates from the official narrative.
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US News And World Report ☛ Two Russian Journalists Jailed on 'Extremism' Charges for Alleged Work for Navalny Group
Two Russian journalists were arrested by their government on “extremism” charges and ordered by courts there to remain in custody pending investigation and trial on accusations of working for a group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny
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RFERL ☛ Moscow Journalist Arrested For Alleged Work On Navalny's YouTube Channel
Moscow journalist Konstantin Gabov has been arrested on charges of participating in the Navalny Live YouTube channel, the Basmanny District Court press service reported on April 27. [...]
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ANF News ☛ Kurdish journalists in custody asked why they write news
The police statements of 9 Kurdish journalists who were taken into custody in house raids in Istanbul, Ankara and Urfa on the morning of 23 April, have been completed.
The journalists are expected to be brought to the prosecutor's office today. Journalists were asked about their social media posts, the news they made, their news sources, and their telephone conversations with other journalists.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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[Old] The Hoover Instituion ☛ Q&A With Ayaan Hirsi Ali On “Prey: Immigration, Islam, And The Erosion Of Women’s Rights”
In this interview, Research Fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali talks about her new book, Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights.
Hirsi Ali explains how the surge of migration into Europe since 2014 has had the unintended consequence of increasing rates of sexual violence against women. Many of these offenses have been committed by young men from Muslim-majority countries, where women are not afforded the same legal protections as they are in the West. She argues that European governing elites, and even many women who hold positions of power and influence, have either ignored or have not appropriately addressed the mistreatment of women in their countries. Furthermore, Hirsi Ali explains that the failure of immigration policy in Europe has resulted in a deeply polarized political culture, between nativists on one hand who despise new arrivals to their country, and Islamists on the other who resist assimilation and seek to reshape the cultural norms of the West. She concludes that the rise of these extremist elements within European society limits the ability for rational voices to speak up and advance policies that can adequately protect women’s rights.
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[Repeat] RFA ☛ The story of one of Buddhism’s most revered figures, long missing, explained
What he does, where he lives or even if he’s still alive isn’t known, thanks to the reticence of the Chinese government, which kidnapped him along with his family and his teacher 29 years ago.
Beijing leaders, ever wary of potential rivals for the Communist Party’s authority, viewed the boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as a possible threat.
Days earlier the Dalai Lama had named him the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual leader in the largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
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RFA ☛ Calls grow for proof of whereabouts of Tibet’s missing Panchen Lama
The Panchen Lama’s abduction illustrates the sensitivity of Chinese authorities to other prominent figures and their effort to control Tibetans by suppressing expressions of their Buddhist faith.
After the 1950-51 Chinese invasion and annexation of Tibet, Beijing made efforts to influence Tibetan affairs, including through the selection of a spiritual successor to the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989.
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VOA News ☛ UN denounces enforcement of mandatory hijab law in Iran
At a news conference in Geneva, the high commissioner's spokesperson, Jeremy Laurence, said the office had received widespread reports from Iran of uniformed and plainclothes police violently cracking down on women and girls under the hijab laws — as well as men who are supporting them.
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NDTV ☛ US Cop Pins Down Black Man, Killing Him, Then Brags About Bar Fights
Tyson continues to plead for relief while lying on the floor. After several minutes, officers notice his lack of responsiveness and proceed to administer CPR. Paramedics arrive on the scene and transport Tyson to a local hospital, where he later dies.
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Federal labour minister announces inquiry into B.C. port strike
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Nuchatlaht First Nation granted partial Aboriginal land title by B.C. Supreme Court
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] Paris police evict hundreds of migrants ahead of Olympics
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Project Censored ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Ed-Tech’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Deficit: The Galactic Gulf Between Rhetoric and Action
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HRW ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Iran: Security Forces Rape, Torture, Detainees
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Man Held Up At Gun Point Twice Starts AI-Enabled Security System With Paying Customers Within A Year [Ed: All about buzzwords]
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HRW ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Angola: Proposed Security Law Threatens Rights
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Volkswagen's Tennessee workers vote to join UAW trade union
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] Union takes step to represent Amazon warehouse workers in Laval, Que.
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] This teen was poisoned by carbon monoxide on the job. His parents say the employer got off easy
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-04-21 [Older] J. B. McLachlan Was a Canadian Labor Hero
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-17 [Older] How microbes could help catch murder suspects
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Silicon Angle ☛ FCC reinstates net neutrality rules for internet providers
“Consumers have made clear to us they do not want their broadband provider cutting sweetheart deals, with fast lanes for some services and slow lanes for others,” said FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. “They do not want their providers engaging in blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. And if they have problems, they expect the nation’s expert authority on communications to be able to respond.”
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NPR ☛ Net neutrality is back: U.S. promises fast, safe and reliable internet for all
Meanwhile, net neutrality regulations are set to go into effect 60 days after their publication in the Federal Register.
But much has yet to be clarified about the rules: The 400-page draft order to restore the regulations has not been publicly released.
Here's what we do know.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Jason Fry ☛ Spotify Fatigue | Jason Fry | Blog of a Software Engineer in Gloucestershire
I've become a bit fatigued at having to actually choose what music to listen to as I work recently. I've also been getting bored of the same ten or so Spotify playlists I often have on loop.
If only there were professionals who could do this for me... wait... of course, they're called DJs and they do it for free on the radio.
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CBC ☛ Concert ticket system is 'broken,' say artists. But some experts say targeting resellers isn't the fix
"Predatory re-sellers and secondary platforms engage in deceptive ticketing practices to inflate ticket prices and deprive fans of the chance to see their favourite artists at a fair price.
"Predatory resellers should not be more profitable than the people dedicating their lives to their art."
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Patents
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2024-04-17 [Older] The USPTO's Guidance on Use of AI-based Tools in Practice [Ed: This is not "AI", it's misuse of buzzwords]
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Kangaroo Courts
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] [UPCKat] Court of Appeal gives guidance on change of language request [Ed: IPKat is still run by people who promoted and now profit from this crime, in effect promoting an illegal "court" that's already doing plenty of damage]
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] [UPCKat] Preliminary injunctions in the UPC:CUP&CINO v Alpina Coffee Systems [Ed: And yet more promotion by a UPC booster, who spent years lying for this crime and is not trying to legitimise it post hoc]
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-18 [Older] Imminent EBA referral confirmed on the question of using the description to interpret the claims (T 0439/22)
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Trademarks
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-23 [Older] Board of Appeal confirmed: Short jingle not protectable as a sound mark
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IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-22 [Older] EUIPO Grand Board referral on EUTM conversions under Article 139(2)(b) EUTMR
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Right of Publicity
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Futurism ☛ Drake Pulls Down AI-Generated Diss Track After Lawsuit Threat From Tupac’s Estate
His label, UniversalMusicGroup, also took major umbrage to another song that used AI to spoof his voice, and went so far as to threaten social networks and streaming platforms if they refused to remove it from their services.
Snoop, for his part, responded in the most Snoopian-way ever: by posting an incredulous Instagram video in which he asks viewers "what the f*ck" had happened.
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Copyrights
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CBC ☛ 2024-04-20 [Older] Record Store Day celebrates local shops, as interest in vinyl soars
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The Hill ☛ Generative AI is generating astronomical profits by trampling authors and publishers
These big tech companies and their investors—the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful companies in the world— have blatantly copied, scraped and otherwise appropriated troves of protected literature, news media publications, and other original authorship—without transparency or apology—to accelerate their own commercial interests. As reported by CNN, some companies pillaged the Books3 database, a pirate collection, which contains some 183,000 in-copyright works. Others have been secretive about the sources they used, but researchers have deduced that they downloaded massive numbers of books from other notorious pirate sites. Indisputably, they copied proprietary content from media and news services, including scraping millions of articles from behind the New York Times paywall.
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[Old] Deadline ☛ Frank Oz: Disney Doesn’t Want Me To Do The Muppets Anymore
The center of that universe, Henson died in 1990 of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome as he was negotiating a deal with then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Oz sees a connection.
“The Disney deal is probably what killed Jim,” he claimed to the Guardian. “It made him sick.”.
“Eisner was trying to get Sesame Street, too, which Jim wouldn’t allow. But Jim was not a dealer, he was an artist, and it was destroying him, it really was,” says Oz.
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[Old] Indie Wire ☛ Frank Oz Slams Disney for Ruining 'Muppets' Franchise
Oz points to Disney’s acquisition of the Muppets characters in 2004 as ruining his once beloved franchise. “[There’s a] demarcation line between the Jim Henson Muppets and the Disney Muppets,” he told The Guardian. “There’s an inability for corporate America to understand the value of something they bought. They never understood, with us, it’s not just about the puppets, it’s about the performers who love each other and have worked together for many years.”
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Torrent Freak ☛ Anti-Piracy Veteran Tim Kuik Retires After Leading BREIN for a Quarter Century
BREIN CEO Tim Kuik has retired, shutting down an impressive career that pre-dates the world wide web. Kuik started working at a home video distributor in the 1980s and became director anti-piracy at the Motion Picture Association a decade later. He eventually reached his pinnacle at BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group where Kuik took the lead for a quarter century.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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