Links 26/03/2024: 6,000 Layoffs at Dell, Microsoft “XBox is in Real Trouble as a Hardware Manufacturer”
Contents
- Leftovers
- 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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Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ When to use cute names or descriptive names
I've previously written that project names should be cute, not descriptive. That post talks about services and does not talk at all about modules or variables. It's different in the latter context: those names should often be descriptive.
What's the difference, and how do you decide on a cute or descriptive name? A lot of it comes down to how easy the name is to change.
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Alex Ewerlöf ☛ Composite SLO
Complex systems are made of many components. We may have a Service Level Objective (SLO) for each component but how do we calculate the SLO for the entire system?
For example, if you have 4 replicas of a microservice, how exactly does it improve the reliability of the whole?
Or if a system can only function if all its dependencies are functioning, how do we calculate the reliability of that system?
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Chris ☛ Laws of Software Evolution
Andrew Kelly has written a thoughtful article on why we can’t have nice software. He acknowledges that software often gets continuous maintenance, and notes that this is curious, since “bits don’t actually rot” on their own, i.e. software should not get worse just by existing. He searches for another explanation for this maintenance effort, and settles on it being a manufactured demand. Andrew Kelly says continuous maintenance is a corporate conspiracy where in order to make profits companies make changes that are not necessary.
I take issue with this simplification. It’s true that some types of software can be written to a detailed specification and once it is fulfilled to the letter the software is done.
Most software I come in contact with is not of that type.
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Education
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Adolfo Ochagavía ☛ From full-stack development to systems programming
Back when I was pursuing my Computer Science degree, one of the big questions that kept me busy was: what am I going to do after I graduate? I felt like I could work on pretty much anything, thanks to the solid foundations I received at the university and to my real-world experience contributing to Rust. So… what to choose?
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Hardware
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Xe's Blog ☛ Camera system hell
I have a Canon EOS R10 and it's great. I love how easy it is to use. I love how easy it is to import and edit my raw photos. I love a lot of things about it but I don't love the sensor being so tiny.
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India Times ☛ Nvidia: Behind the plot to break Nvidia's grip on AI by targeting software
Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm , Google and Intel plans to loosen Nvidia's chokehold by going after the chip giant's secret weapon: the software that keeps developers tied to Nvidia chips.
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Ben Visness ☛ How does Spectre work? | Ben Visness
Spectre is a CPU vulnerability published in 2017. Or rather, it's a class of vulnerabilities—a collection of exploits inherent to the design of modern CPUs.
Spectre leverages a feature of the CPU called speculative execution to exploit otherwise-correct programs and extract information that should otherwise be secret. Spectre is subtle, but also very simple, and in this short article I hope to give you an intuitive sense of how Spectre works and what can (or can't) be done to mitigate it.
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[Old] New York Times ☛ Phone System Feared Vulnerable To Wider Disruptions of Service
The Hinsdale fire highlights the growing concerns. The switching center was not manned; it was monitored from Springfield, 200 miles away. It had no fire suppression system, a common feature of computer rooms in the data-processing industry. And local fire authoritites were not contacted for more than an hour after the blaze began.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Florida bans social media access by children
The state’s Republican-led legislature passed a bill in February that would have banned children under 16 from social media entirely. DeSantis, a Republican, vetoed that bill earlier this month, saying it limited parents’ rights.
The amended version allows for parents to provide consent for older children to engage on social media platforms. It will become law on 1 January 2025.
“Social media harms children in a variety of ways,” DeSantis said in a statement. He said the legislation “gives parents a greater ability to protect their children”.
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Chuck Carroll ☛ Why I Started Working at a Floor Desk | Chuck Carroll
I also picked up a dedicated floor chair that has back support. The stand alone cushion forces me to keep a my back erect, but this requires an active core. If my core muscle aren't active, I begin to slouch and my back starts to ache. This chair, although comfortable and allows me to sit for longer periods, brings my butt closer to the ground and makes my wrists hang off of the table making them start chafe. This also kills the "more movement" benefit of having a floor desk. I'm still trying to figure this out.
Overall, the benefits of this kind of desk setup is that I'm not as sedentary as I would be sitting in a chair. I'm in more "natural" positions, and I'm forced to move around a bit every 30 minutes or so.
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Nature ☛ Warmer autumns and winters could reduce honey bee overwintering survival with potential risks for pollination services
Honey bees and other pollinators are critical for food production and nutritional security but face multiple survival challenges. The effect of climate change on honey bee colony losses is only recently being explored. While correlations between higher winter temperatures and greater colony losses have been noted, the impacts of warmer autumn and winter temperatures on colony population dynamics and age structure as an underlying cause of reduced colony survival have not been examined. Focusing on the Pacific Northwest US, our objectives were to (a) quantify the effect of warmer autumns and winters on honey bee foraging activity, the age structure of the overwintering cluster, and spring colony losses, and (b) evaluate indoor cold storage as a management strategy to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. We perform simulations using the VARROAPOP population dynamics model driven by future climate projections to address these objectives. Results indicate that expanding geographic areas will have warmer autumns and winters extending honey bee flight times. Our simulations support the hypothesis that late-season flight alters the overwintering colony age structure, skews the population towards older bees, and leads to greater risks of colony failure in the spring. [...]
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The Hill ☛ Honey bee colonies at heightened risk of collapse in the Pacific Northwest: Study
“This is a case where a small amount of warming, even in the near future, will make a big impact on honey bees,” lead author Kirti Rajagopalan, a Washington State University climate researcher, said in a statement.
“It’s not like this is something that can be expected 80 years from now,” Rajagopalan continued. “It is a more immediate impact that needs to be planned for.”
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[Old] The Connexion ☛ ‘Cheapflation’ on French supermarket foods attacked by watchdog
After Eight mints, popular with Britons, have seen the reintroduction of cheaper vegetable fats between 2021 and 2024, alongside a return to using controversial palm oil.
Milka cookies also replaced the use of sunflower oil with palm oil, alongside increasing the price per kilo by 27% between 2022 and 2024.
“With 'cheapflation', consumers are losing out twice over," said Audrey Morice, a campaign officer at Foodwatch.
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CBC ☛ This is why you're burnt out from using dating apps
"The endless swiping, the endlessly reading people's profiles and the trying to figure out what to say to people," the 28-year-old said.
Research from Singles Reports, a data analytics company, shows people are frustrated by the online search for love. The 2022 survey looked at 500 adults in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 54 who had used at least one app in the previous 12 months. Nearly 80 per cent of respondents said they'd dealt with some form of emotional fatigue or burnout with online dating.
Some counsellors like Jessica Taylor say they're seeing more patients burnt out from the apps.
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The North Lines IN ☛ Why experts say palm oil could be silently damaging your health and what to use instead
Used in nearly half of all supermarket products, palm oil is cheap and versatile, making it highly favorable for food manufacturers. However, new research shows its high saturated fat content could spell trouble for your wellness. Nutrition experts warn that palm oil's fatty acid profile raises LDL (bad) cholesterol more than other common oils. Over time, this may lead to blocked arteries and increased odds of heart disease or stroke.
That's not all – oxidative palm oil has also been linked to hormonal imbalances and toxicity issues affecting vital organs. The World Health Organization even recommends limiting intake due to these health concerns. As our lifestyles get busier, it's easy to reach for palmed snacks without a second thought. But our health is worth being proactive about.
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USMC ☛ Fight over VA toxic exposure funds could stall other vets legislation
“We made a promise through the PACT Act to our veterans that they will have access to health care for conditions related to toxic exposure,” committee ranking member Mark Takano, D-Calif., said in response to Bost’s plan. “The Cost of War Toxic Exposure Fund is the mechanism through which we are ensuring that promise is kept, for this generation and for future ones as well.”
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-17 [Older] Spanish farmers protest in Madrid despite EU concessions
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-17 [Older] Germany battles growing crack and fentanyl crisis
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Polish farmers block crossings on German border again
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Alberta tenant calls for building code changes after carbon monoxide scare
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] 'You've got to keep moving': 94-year-old credits her good health to competitive swimming
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Homeless people in Edmonton are dying at 8 times the rate as pre-pandemic
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Brazil's Bolsonaro indicted over fake COVID certificate
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Why Germany has fallen behind on happiness
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Salmonella infections across Canada linked to snakes and their rodent feed
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] How distrust in Western vaccines was born during colonialism [Ed: Forcing people to participate in experiments tends to cause vaccine hesitancy, even in "Developed" countries]
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Germany: Organ donor registry goes online
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] The NDP Has Compromised Canada’s Shot at Pharmacare
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Why Nigeria's 'baby factories' continue to thrive
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Young people's happiness has 'fallen sharply' for Canada and U.S. in global rankings
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] N.L. premier hopes to push through budget as fish harvesters vow to keep protesting
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] US surgeons transplant first pig kidney to live patient
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Woman says she had to wait for ER to open as husband had seizure
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] After her cat died, this B.C. woman used his DNA to have him cloned. She got back 2 identical kittens
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Finland ranked world's happiest country for seventh year
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Gambia lawmakers move forward on bill to reverse FGM ban
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Nitazenes: The street drugs stronger than heroin, fentanyl
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Democracy Now ☛ World Ignores Sudan Hunger Crisis; 230,000 Children and Mothers Could Die in Coming Months
Sudan is on track to become the world’s worst hunger crisis, according to the United Nations. For over a year, fighting between the Sudanese military and the rival Rapid Support Forces has disrupted the country, displacing over 8 million people who experience extreme hunger in the areas with the most intense fighting. The increasing demand comes as the U.N.'s appeal for $2.7 billion for Sudan is less than 5% funded. Funding is also drying up in Chad, where some 1.2 million Sudanese have taken refuge. “This is the largest sort of mass mortality crisis that we are facing in the world and the largest that we have probably faced for many decades,” says Alex de Waal, the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, who laments the “shocking” cuts to the World Food Programme that is essential to the global emergency response system. “If it doesn't work, we are going to find ourselves facing the kinds of crises of mass mortality that we have simply not seen for half a century or longer.”
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The FDA just handed quacks a massive propaganda victory on ivermectin
Late last week, there was a disturbance in the COVID-19 quack antivax Force, as multiple Substacks and antivax websites in the antivax crankosphere erupted in unison with a cry of victory against the FDA. The first example that I encountered came from the longtime “dumbest man on the Internet,” Jim Hoft (a.k.a. The Gateway Pundit) proclaiming FDA Loses its War on Ivermectin: Agrees to Remove All Related Social Media Content and Consumer Advisories on Ivermectin Usage for COVID-19. I soon encountered several other examples, for instance Byram Bridle exulting that FDA Rescinds Statement, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it”; The Vigilant Fox boasting that Lawsuit Drops Bombshell on FDA’s Orwellian Lie About Ivermectin; antivax “scientist” James Lyons-Weiler screeching BEST DAY EVER FOR ETHICAL PHYSICIANS AND PATIENTS – GAME OVER FOR FDA’S OUTRIGHT LIES AND DISINFORMATION ON IVERMECTIN!!!!!; Peter McCullough announcing BREAKING–Dr. Mary Talley Bowden Reacts to FDA Settlement on Ivermectin while describing the FDA as “capitulating”; and the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care (FLCCC) gloating with a statement on its Substack, FLCCC Alliance Statement on the Settlement Reached in Case Against DHHS for Telling the Public to “Stop it” Regarding Taking Ivermectin to Prevent and Treat COVID-19.
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Ars Technica ☛ Workers with job flexibility and security have better mental health | Ars Technica
Job flexibility and security were linked to significantly less psychological distress and anxiety.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Microsoft Announces Major Workforce Reduction and Strategic Reorganization
The company is taking a $1.2 billion charge in its second fiscal quarter, attributed to severance costs, changes to its hardware portfolio, and the consolidation of leases to create higher density across its workspaces.
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“Xbox is in real trouble as a hardware manufacturer”: Flatlining Sales and No Faith From Publishers is a Huge Problem for Microsoft as they Suffer Yet Another Loss to PlayStation [Ed: Xbox sales are falling, so more layoffs likely]
GameIndustry.biz has reported this in the most recent podcast, talking about how a new console will not affect the reality of the Xbox consoles that are just not selling. They also talk about the PS5 Pro and how it will unbalance console sales between these two huge brands.
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Windows subsystem for Linux will get a graphical interface [Ed: Attacking GNU/Linux by trying to ensure nobody even leaves Windows, and misusing the brand "Linux"]
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The Cyber Show ☛ Rethinking AI images on The Cybershow
On a practical level, it's a very useful human search aid to associate each post with a recognisable image. We wanted to avoid time consuming visual work in order to concentrate on writing and audio production.
However, there is a certain pleasure in thinking about visual signals and what we want to communicate as a manual process. It seems faster to experiment with pen and paper. Besides, my 'shopping skills (actually Gimp and Inkscape) are not too shabby having been a lurking B3tard back in the millennial days, and I still love that self-mockingly rough-cut meme style of the 2000 - 2010 decade.
Doubts emerged late last year after Helen battled with many of the generative platforms to get less racist and gendered cultural assumptions. We even had some ideas for an episode about baked bias, but other podcasters picked up on that and did a fine job of investigating and explicating.
Though, maybe more is still to be said. With time I've noticed the "guardrails" are staring to close in like a pack of dogs. The tools seem ever less willing to output edgy ideas critical of corporate gangsters. That feels like a direct impingement on visual art culture. Much like most of the now enshitified internet there seems to be an built-in aversion to humour, and for that matter to hope, love or faith in the future of humaity. The "five giant websites filled with screenshots of text from the other four" are devoid of anything human.
Like the companies that make them, commercial AI tools seem to have blind-spots around irony, juxtaposition and irreverence. They have no chutzpah. Perhaps we are just bumping into the limits of machine creativity in its current iteration. Or maybe there's a "directing mind", biasing output toward tepid, mediocre "acceptability". That's not us!
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The Cyber Show ☛ Words Betray Us
This weeks essay by Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders on "AI and the Evolution of Social Media" made interesting reading. It extrapolates on current problems caused by BigTech social media as it acquires AI technology. It anticipates how advertising, surveillance, virality, lock-in and monopolisation will all be amplified by "AI". These points I agree with. Yet for some reason it stopped short of something and left me feeling unsatiated.
Frustratingly, the tone of the essay gets close to naming certain important concepts that are in the air. They seem obvious to most folks. They confront us every day. They are things we frequently delve into on The Cybershow (apparently with some of the colour of George Carlin). That is to say, as Orwell advised, we go for simple words and familiar human concepts wherever a neologism can be avoided.
Likewise with Cory Doctorow's wonderful coining of "enshitification", I feel despite a very clever, cogent explanation of the state of digital commerce today, my tongue is left pining for the taste of something that's suggested on the menu but never brought to the table. And again, with Shoshana Zuboff's "surveillance capitalism", her haste to paint a terrifying new world leaves out something obvious, old and plain as the rocks and sky.
What is missing in Schneier and Sanders' account is the word abuse. Just as drugs can be abused despite offering great potential benefits, so can technology. Each of the social problems described in his list is really a simple abuse. Perhaps Tristan Harris is the among the few able to so boldly call out what is inhumane.
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Science News ☛ AI learned how to sway humans by watching a cooperative cooking game
Research presented in late 2023 at the Neural Information Processing Systems, or NeurIPS, conference, in New Orleans, offers some clues. It found that in a simple virtual kitchen, AI can learn how to influence a human collaborator just by watching humans work together.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ Public AI as an Alternative to Corporate AI
The increasingly centralized control of AI is an ominous sign. When tech billionaires and corporations steer AI, we get AI that tends to reflect the interests of tech billionaires and corporations, instead of the public. Given how transformative this technology will be for the world, this is a problem.
To benefit society as a whole we need an AI public option—not to replace corporate AI but to serve as a counterbalance—as well as stronger democratic institutions to govern all of AI. Like public roads and the federal postal system, a public AI option could guarantee universal access to this transformative technology and set an implicit standard that private services must surpass to compete.
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Wired ☛ A Deepfake Nude Generator Reveals a Chilling Look at Its Victims
As AI-powered image generators have become more accessible, so have websites that digitally remove the clothes of people in photos. One of these sites has an unsettling feature that provides a glimpse of how these apps are used: two feeds of what appear to be photos uploaded by users who want to “nudify” the subjects.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] EU top court upholds ruling on fingerprints for ID cards
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Paying for a date before it begins? How apps charge you to access ‘best matches’
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The Register UK ☛ UK Digital Information Bill: Brexit dividend or data doom?
If adopted, the Bill would make a number of changes to the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC) Regulations, 2003, rather than introduce new legislation. Many of the changes appear to be largely cosmetic; for instance, various UK GDPR definitions would be amended, though changes to the definition of personal data potentially narrow the scope of individuals' protection.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] German prosecutors probe leaked Bundeswehr wiretap
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Papers Please ☛ City ID and the right to travel
In recent overviews, we’ve discussed the barriers to getting a passport or state-issued driver’s license or ID card (especially in states that have chosen to participate in the national REAL-ID system and database) and the difficulties faced by travelers without ID.
Some cities, notably including New York and San Francisco, have attempted to mitigate the discrimination against their residents who are unable to get Federal or state ID by issuing municipal ID cards.
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Defence/Aggression
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The Nation ☛ Who Owns Donald Trump?
Despite having debts that no honest man can pay, Trump has remained a favorite with lenders, maintaining opaque and troubling relationships with institutions like Deutsche Bank. Although superficially a bad loan risk, Trump remained attractive to lenders for most of his business career because his brand (Trump the dealmaker) had enough cachet that one could plausibly believe one of his endeavors would pay off. And in fact, Trump did ultimately hit pay dirt by winning the presidency in 2016. Since then, he’s been the favored child of money managers for another reason: Having a once and possibly future president in your pocket opens up all sorts of leverage possibilities. Imagine if you could call the standard-bearer of one of America’s two big political parties anytime for a “little favor.”
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Deutsche Welle ☛ US, UK accuse China-linked hackers of spy campaign
The US and UK officials on Monday accused hackers linked to the Chinese state of being behind "malicious"cyber campaigns.
In London, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told MPs that attacks had compromised the electoral commission and UK parliamentary accounts.
"Chinese state affiliated actors were responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting both our democratic institutions and parliamentarians," he said. Attempts to compromise the email accounts of UK lawmakers were "unsuccessful," Dowden said.
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Greece ☛ How the [Internet] is normalizing violence for Greek youngsters
The big picture, however, may be even more sinister. Slowly but steadily, in ways that are both obvious and more insidious, the [Internet] seems to be pushing Greek youngsters closer to violence and extremism.
The ways in which digital communities and content are making young people more likely to engage in violent behaviors is a global contemporary phenomenon, one that analysts have dubbed “online youth radicalization” and which has recently led authorities from Canada to India to take drastic action in order to prevent it. A quick glance into the darkest corners of Greek TikTok – where snippets of teenagers bullying classmates, engaging in violent acts, or frequently using hate speech and other slurs are abundant – is enough to make it clear that the phenomenon is rearing its ugly head in Greece as well, normalizing violence for the country’s youngest generations.
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Hindustan Times ☛ Moscow concert hall attackers briefly entered Turkey before attack
The gunmen accused of killing over 143 people in the Moscow concert hall attack last Friday travelled to Turkey briefly in the same week “to renew their Russian residence permits,” Reuters reported, quoting a Turkish security official. However, the report added that the radicalisation [sic] of these Tajikistan men did not happen there.
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The Strategist ☛ The meaning of Sweden’s NATO accession
Sweden’s NATO accession can be understood as part of the broader trend towards (defensive) militarisation across Europe and within the European Union. Now that Russia’s war on Ukraine has elevated security concerns and disrupted energy supplies, European leaders are focused squarely on achieving strategic autonomy and mobilising collective responses to Russian aggression.
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New York Times ☛ ISIS Affiliate Linked to Moscow Attack Has Global Ambitions
None of the group’s affiliates have been as relentless as the Islamic State in Khorasan, which is active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and has set its sights on attacking Europe and beyond. U.S. officials say the group carried out the attack near Moscow on Friday, killing scores of people and wounding many others.
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Media Matters ☛ A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration
The initiative is backed by a coalition of over 100 organizations and individuals, at least two-thirds of which receive funding from the Koch network or conservative philanthropist Leonard Leo. The project is also heavily promoted by MAGA-connected media figures such as Steve Bannon, who has called it the “blueprint” for Trump's second term on his War Room podcast.
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India Times ☛ TikTok bill: TikTok bill faces uncertain fate in the Senate as legislation to regulate tech industry has stalled
Warner, on the other hand, says the House bill is the best chance to get something done after years of inaction. And he says that the threatening calls from young people are a good example of why the legislation is needed: "It makes the point, do we really want that kind of messaging being able to be manipulated by the Communist Party of China?"
Some lawmakers are worried that blocking TikTok could anger millions of young people who use the app, a crucial segment of voters in November's election. But Warner says "the debate has shifted" from talk of an outright ban a year ago to the House bill which would force TikTok, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd., to sell its stake for the app to continue operating.
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The Hill ☛ TikTok’s threat to America is in a category by itself, it must be heavily regulated
TikTok’s potential damage comes in two categories: a push and a pull. When they pull your data, it is monetized just like at Meta, but with a key difference: It becomes a strategic asset for Beijing. China has undertaken a strategic policy of gathering as much data as possible in the last few years. Beijing likely is using the data to train its own AI algorithms.
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VOA News ☛ TikTok Bill Faces Uncertain Fate in Senate
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican who has worked with Schumer on the artificial intelligence effort, says he thinks the Senate can eventually pass a TikTok bill, even if it's a different version. He says the classified briefings “convinced the vast majority of members” that they have to address the collection of data from the app and TikTok's ability to push out misinformation to users.
“I think it’s a clear danger to our country if we don’t act,” he said. “It does not have to be done in two weeks, but it does have to be done.”
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-17 [Older] Niger severs ties with US Army over 'condescending attitude'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] US rejects Cuba claim of fomenting protests
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Taliban say 8 killed in Pakistani strikes on Afghanistan
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Marco Polo: The travel writer who shocked medieval Europe
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Nigeria: Gunmen abduct 87 villagers in Kaduna state
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Ottawa police shocked, struck, kicked Black man in case of mistaken identity
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] France has a historical responsibility for events in Haiti
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Has German chancellor lost his authority over Taurus debate?
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ Suspects show signs of torture as first charges filed over Moscow terrorist attack — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russia files first felony ‘extremism’ charges in connection with Supreme Court ban of non-existent ‘LGBT movement’ — Meduza
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Democracy Now ☛ ISIS-K Claims Credit After 137 Killed in Moscow Concert Attack; Russia Tries to Blame Ukraine
ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for an attack on a popular concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 137. Authorities say gunmen opened fire inside the Crocus City Hall building during a sold-out rock concert and then set part of the venue on fire. More than 100 people were injured in the attack, and many remain in critical condition. Authorities have detained 11 suspects, four of whom, all reportedly citizens of Tajikistan, are charged with terrorism and face life sentences. As more details emerge about the attack, we speak with professor of international affairs at The New School Nina Khrushcheva about the history of Muslim fundamentalist attacks in Russia and Putin’s “unfortunate” decision to ignore Western intelligence warnings about terrorist attacks. We’re also joined by longtime Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker Joshua Yaffa, who details possible motivations for ISIS-K and how Putin is attempting to fit this attack into his narrative opposing Ukraine and the West. “First and foremost, he cares about preserving his own power and the continued stability of his ruling system,” says Yaffa, who explains how Putin tries to control political blowback by equating ISIS-K with any group he opposes, including Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption network and the so-called worldwide LGBT movement. “This is important to understand both in trying to determine how this attack happened in the first place and also what might Putin’s response be moving forward.”
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Los Angeles Times ☛ Putin acknowledges Islamic extremists raided concert hall
The Islamic State affiliate claimed it carried out the attack, and U.S. intelligence said it had information confirming the group was responsible. French President Emmanuel Macron said France has intelligence pointing to “an IS entity” as responsible for the attack.
Despite all signs pointing to Islamic State, Putin continued to suggest Ukrainian involvement — a claim Ukraine has roundly rejected, accusing Putin of trying to drum up fervor in his war efforts.
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Harvard University ☛ Warning for journalists: You’re more ignorant than you realize
“There are people who think they know the answers before they embark on the reporting, and I think that’s a problem for our profession,” said Baron, who led newsrooms that won 17 Pulitzer Prizes. “We do need to go into stories with an open mind with a recognition that we don’t know everything. In fact, we don’t know all that much, and we may not even know what we think we know.”
Objectivity is not “on-the-one-hand and on-the-other-hand journalism,” said Baron. But the perception that it is has prompted some in and outside the profession to argue that “moral clarity” should replace objectivity as journalists’ goal. This framework poses a serious challenge in part because any side could claim moral authority on any issue, from abortion to the Middle East conflict, Baron argued. “The Crusaders thought they had moral clarity, for God’s sake, and they were invoking the name of God,” he said.
Instead, journalists should focus on being fair, open-minded, rigorous, and independent when reporting the news, said Baron. “I very much liked what Sebastian Junger, the author of ‘The Perfect Storm,’ wrote recently — that a genuine journalist is someone who is willing to destroy his own opinion,” he said.
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US News And World Report ☛ In the Kansas House, When Lobbyists Ask for New Laws, Their Names Go on the Bills
But this year, the Kansas House is making it a little easier for the state's residents to find out who wants what from its members. Besides a number and official sponsor, each bill now lists who asked for it, be it a lawmaker at someone else's request or an individual lobbyist for a specific client. The change started in January.
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Environment
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El País ☛ How does war affect nature? Syria has lost 20% of its forests in 10 years
Wars are, foremost, a human drama. Thousands of people see the tragedy of each conflict firsthand. But with a broader focus, it is possible to assess the wider impact of war. What happens to the trees, to the animals, to the ecosystem? A study has analyzed the situation in Syria, which has been in the grips of a bloody civil war since 2011. It found that the country has lost around 20% of its forests in a decade (from 2010 to 2019). On the one hand, artillery explosions spark forest fires that are difficult to put out due to the lack of resources and, on the other, internal refugees and the impoverished population use trees as a source of fuel, which in the long run may drive the desertification of the Mediterranean country.
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VOA News ☛ To Make Water Last, Kenyans Build Sand Dams
And as climate change makes drought more likely, scientists say the structures minimize water loss through evaporation because they store water within sand, and that helps with water supply during dry seasons. Additionally, they say the structures rejuvenate surrounding vegetation and recharge groundwater, raising the water table.
"There are good things that happen when the water table is raised," said Dorcas Benard, an environmental and biosystems engineer. She gave examples of the emergence of alternative water sources or resources like springs and boreholes. "These are very important sources, especially within the arid and semi-arid lands."
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ How Greenland’s Push for Independence Could Trigger an Unprecedented Global Race for Influence
As the effects of global warming tear through the island, reducing ice cover by approximately 100 billion metric tonnes annually, the ground yields new evidence of vast mineral deposits. Like moths to flames, major corporations have swarmed towards the prospect of fresh sources to exploit. While this would definitely be a way out for Greenland from an economic perspective, this remains a rather unpopular proposition. The last elections in 2021 raged primarily around the issue of rare earth and uranium mining in Kvanefjeld (under an Australian firm). Allegations that projects such as these would cause significant environmental degradation and would incur the risk of radioactive exposure. While striking a balance between economic interests and natural conservation could be a way forward, the staunchly anti-mining coalition government renders legislation that strikes a genuine compromise unlikely. Thus, mining also does not seem like an immediately feasible solution, which brings us to more political considerations… Can Greenland turn to others for help?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Trudeau Government Survives No Confidence Vote Over Canada Carbon Tax Rise
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Energy/Transportation
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Copenhagen Visitor Service ☛ S-tog (the S-train) celebrates its 90th anniversary
Additionally, there will be other activities, including music, at Copenhagen Central Station.
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Wired ☛ Here Comes the Flood of Plug-In Hybrids
Automakers will have more leeway in choosing how to reach the government’s new tailpipe emissions goals, thanks to changes made between when the rules were first introduced in draft form nearly a year ago and now. One big, important shift: Plug-in hybrids are part of the picture.
In the draft of the rule, auto companies could only meet the gradually ratcheting zero-emissions goals by selling more battery-electric cars. But after lobbying from automakers and unions, which both argued that the EPA’s proposals were unrealistic, manufacturers will now be allowed to use plug-in hybrids to meet the standards.
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Jeremy Cherfas ☛ Owning my rides | Jeremy Cherfas
Will I share the manky Python script publicly before then? Probably not, but you can always ask.
As ever, I can never resist a photo of a motorway receding into the distance, in the absence of which I had to content myself with the railway tracks, which means you can easily work out which marker this corresponds to.
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CoryDoctorow ☛ Conspiratorialism and the epistemological crisis
Boeing, of course, is a flying disaster that was years in the making. Its planes have been falling out of the sky since 2019. Floods of whistleblowers have come forward to say its aircraft are unsafe. Pierson's not the only Boeing employee to state – both on and off the record – that he wouldn't fly on a specific model of Boeing aircraft, or, in some cases any recent Boeing aircraft: [...]
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] $34B Trans Mountain expansion pipeline begins filling with oil with first shipments before Canada Day
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Deutsche Bahn posts €2.4 billion loss for 2023
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Should phonemakers build electric cars?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Greenwashing: KLM ads were misleading, Dutch court says
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Lufthansa counts €250M loss from strikes in Germany
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Australia names BAE to build nuclear-powered submarines
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Courage website back online
For a little over a year, the Courage Foundation website has been down, but we have not been out.
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Daniel Hale is out of prison!
Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale was finally released from prison last month, The Dissenter reports, having served 33 of the 45 months he was sentenced, most of which was spent in the incredibly restrictive Communications Management Unit at F.C. Marion.
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Amnesty International ☛ UK: High Court adjournment of appeal leaves Julian Assange and all media workers in limbo
Reacting to the UK High Court’s decision to adjourn Julian Assange’s permission to appeal his extradition to the United States, Simon Crowther, Legal Adviser at Amnesty International, said:
“The High Court’s decision today leaves in limbo Julian Assange and all defenders of press freedom — but the fight continues. The US lawyers now have a second opportunity to make diplomatic assurances which the court will consider in May. Instead of allowing this protracted legal process to continue, the US should drop all charges against Assange.
“The UK remains intent on extraditing Assange despite the grave risk that he will be subjected to torture or ill-treatment in the US. While the US has allegedly assured the UK that it will not violate Assange’s rights, we know from past cases that such ‘guarantees’ are deeply flawed — and the diplomatic assurances so far in the Assange case are riddled with loopholes.
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Amnesty International ☛ The US diplomatic assurances are inherently unreliable. Julian Assange must be released
This month, the Biden Administration offered diplomatic assurances to the British authorities that if they allow the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, the Administration will not imprison him in the most extreme American prison, ADX Florence, and will not subject him to the harsh regime known as “Special Administrative Measures” (SAMs).
Il Fatto Quotidiano’s Stefania Maurizi asked Julia Hall for an analysis of these assurances and for comment on the Pegasus scandal, which Amnesty International has greatly contributed to exposing.
The investigation on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks was opened by the Obama Administration, but it was Trump who charged him and we now have president Biden. Amnesty International is asking for the charges against Assange to be dropped. Do you believe it is likely that the Biden Administration will drop them?
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Wildlife/Nature
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Overpopulation
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Germany's birth rates fall sharply amid ongoing crisis
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Gauteng water crisis - the impact on data centres
Even though its air conditioning systems don’t require a constant supply of water, Teraco has deployed boreholes at its facilities, and collects rainwater from rooftops, which it uses for on-site water needs, including cleaning and flushing toilets.
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BusinessTech, South Africa ☛ Gauteng water crisis: ‘The system is starting to self-destruct’ – BusinessTech
Rand Water Services Ltd., Africa’s biggest bulk-water supplier, on March 16 told three municipalities in the central Gauteng province — Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, which have a combined population of more than 13 million people — that its system was on the verge of collapse.
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CNN ☛ Water trickling and taps running dry are part of daily life in South Africa’s biggest city | CNN
Joburgers — as residents here call themselves — are no strangers to water scarcity. South Africa is naturally dry, and the climate crisis has hit the nation many times with crippling drought.
Johannesburg is one of many of the world’s big cities that are dealing with a perfect storm of crumbling critical infrastructure, lack of maintenance, corruption and insufficient planning for population growth.
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CBS ☛ Major cities are running out of water. A new World Water Day report says it could worsen global conflict.
The 2024 World Water Development Report says that 2.2 billion people currently don't have access to safely managed drinking water, and that as of 2022, about half of the entire global population experienced at least temporary severe water scarcity.
As global temperatures increase, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels, those numbers are expected to worsen, as higher temperatures will also bring more frequent and intense extreme weather events, including drought.
But climate change isn't the only factor. The report says that freshwater consumption has been growing by just under 1% every year, with agriculture accounting for roughly 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and industrial and domestic uses accounting for 20% and 10%, respectively.
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Reuters ☛ India stares at summer water crisis as reservoir levels slide
The 150 reservoirs monitored by the federal government -which supply water for drinking and irrigation and are the country's key source of hydro-electricity - were filled to just 40% of capacity last week, government data showed.
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Finance
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-17 [Older] EU to provide Egypt €7.4 billion funding package
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Canada's inflation rate slowed to 2.8% in February, beating expectations for 2nd month in a row
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Argentina: Javier Milei's first 100 days of hope and concern
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] As Ontario faces a certified class action, former recipients of basic income pilot share their struggles
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] The Bank of Canada expects it will cut rates this year, but officials are split on the timing
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IDG Communications Inc ☛ Dell cuts jobs amid growing economic uncertainties
In its latest filing, the company said it continued to execute cost management measures, “including limiting external hiring, employee reorganizations, and other actions.”
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India Times ☛ Dell Becomes Latest Tech Giant To Do Layoffs, Fires 6,000 Employees
In a filing on Monday, Dell Technologies stated that it had reduced its workforce as part of a larger cost-cutting initiative that also included restricting external hiring and employee reorganizations. It employed roughly 120,000 people as of February 2, 2024, compared to roughly 126,000 a year earlier, implying a layoff of 6,000 employees over the last year.
The company announced layoffs this month in response to an 11% decline in revenue from its fourth-quarter earnings, which was partially caused by the weak demand for its personal computers for almost two years.
Amid the 6,000 layoffs Dell stated on Monday that it anticipates net revenue growth in its client solutions group (CSG), which houses PCs, for the full year, as per Reuters report. The fourth quarter saw a 12% decline in the segment's revenue.
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Yahoo News ☛ Difficult decisions at Unilever
To Unilever now, where the consumer giant this week unveiled plans for a whopping 7,500 job cuts. On the same day, the company said it was mulling spinning off its ice cream division, presumably to distract from the layoffs the same way shouting “look, ice cream!” distracts a toddler.
Where are the cuts coming from? Predominantly in London, was the response by Unilever comms after a Standard business reporter inquired.
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India ☛ Dell Layoffs Announced As Company Looks To Reduce Employee Costs In 2024
Dell Technologies reduced its workforce as part of a broader initiative to cut costs that included limiting external hiring and employee reorganizations, it said in a filing on Monday.
As of Feb. 2, 2024, it had nearly 120,000 employees, down from about 126,000 a year earlier.
The layoffs come after sluggish demand for its personal computers for nearly two years partly contributed to a 11% drop in revenue in fourth-quarter earnings posted last month.
Dell expects net revenue in its client solutions group (CSG) – home to PCs – to grow for the entire year, it said on Monday. The segment's revenue had fallen 12% in the fourth quarter.
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India Times ☛ Ericsson to cut 1,200 jobs: All the details
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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EFF ☛ No KOSA, No TikTok Ban | EFFector 36.4 [Ed: EFF is lobbying for King Xi]
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New Yorker ☛ Has Capitalism Been Replaced by “Technofeudalism”?
Varoufakis just published his seventeenth book, called “Technofeudalism.” Capitalism, he argues, has been replaced by a new economic system that’s more dangerous than anything Marx could have conjured. The big tech companies—Meta, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet—control our attention and mediate our transactions, he says, turning humans into digital serfs incessantly posting, scrolling, and buying on their platforms. Rather than chasing profits that derive from labor, the tech overlords, whom he calls “cloudalists,” extract “rents.”
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The Local SE ☛ Ericsson to lay off 1,200 staff in Sweden as Chinese competition bites
Globally, Ericsson has around 100,000 staff.
Ericsson posted a sizeable loss in 2023 as a result of write-downs and restructuring costs, warning in January that it was expecting further market decline. Ericsson said it was 26.1 billion kronor ($2.5 billion) in the red last year after making a 19-billion-kronor profit in 2022.
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The Atlantic ☛ The Internet Was Better When It Was Terrible
This is how the [Internet] felt back then: promising but empty. Nobody says surfing the web anymore, but at the time the phrase made sense as a description of the lugubrious, often frustrating task of finding entertainment. A visitor online felt like a beach bum waiting to catch a wave. (Channel surfing described a similar vibe one got from watching television.) A lot would change in the years that followed. For one thing, much to the chagrin of the operators of WebEthics.com, the [Internet] quickly commercialized. But even then, “content,” as we call it today, was rare. You might read an article or visit a brochure-ware website for a car or a vacuum, or even purchase a book at Amazon. What you wouldn’t do was spend your whole day online.
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India Times ☛ Chinese cyber security threat: Britain due to set out Chinese cyber security threat
Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5 has said it is now running seven times as many investigations into Chinese activity as it did in 2018 and plans more.
In 2022, MI5 issued a rare security alert, warning members of parliament that a suspected Chinese spy was "involved in political interference activities" in Britain.
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The Record ☛ Pentagon, Congress have a ‘limited window’ to properly create a Cyber Force
The FDD report, which draws on interviews with over 75 anonymous active-duty and retired U.S. military officers with experience in the cyber domain, cites a litany of challenges facing U.S. Cyber Command, such as an inability to create a talent pipeline to meet its growing needs and mediocre support from the existing large military services.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Leo Varadkar to step down as Irish prime minister
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] India: Opposition says Modi's BJP froze its accounts ahead of vote
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] One in five Germans show apathy toward EU elections
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Slovakia decides: Democracy's future at stake in election
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Vietnam president's downfall stokes political turmoil fears
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Who is Indonesia's next president, Prabowo Subianto?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Poland renews calls on Germany for WWII reparations
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Senegal's election ramps up after poll delay
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Taiwan's vice president-elect visits Czech Republic
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Wired ☛ Meta Kills a Crucial Transparency Tool At the Worst Possible Time
Earlier this month, Meta announced that it would be shutting down CrowdTangle, the social media monitoring and transparency tool that has allowed journalists and researchers to track the spread of mis- and disinformation. It will cease to function on August 14, 2024—just months before the US presidential election.
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Gizmodo ☛ Man Falsely Blamed for Mass Shooting in Kansas City Sues Congressman Over Tweet
Aside from falsely implicating Loudermill in the shooting on Feb. 14, Burchett also called him an “illegal alien,” another statement that simply wasn’t true. The mass shooting killed one person and wounded 22 others, including 11 children. Three people—23-year-old Lyndell Mays, 18-year-old Dominic Miller, and 20-year-old Terry Young—have been charged in the shooting.
Loudermill was just trying to leave the parade area after the chaos of the shooting and tried to duck under some police tape, according to his lawsuit. Loudermill, who wasn’t charged or cited for anything, was only briefly detained, but photos of him in handcuffs started to circulate online with a sinister narrative.
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Task And Purpose ☛ Ghost Army veterans receive the Congressional Gold Medal - Task & Purpose
The Ghost Army had an authorized strength of 82 officers and 1,023 men, with Col. Harry L. Reeder commanding the top-secret unit. Their work only became known to the public after it was declassified in 1996, five decades after the conclusion of WWII.
The soldiers mastered deception by implementing visual, sonic, and radio deception methods to fool the Nazis during WWII’s final year. The Ghost Army could simulate two whole divisions, a force of approximately 40,000 men, a tactic that was used close to the front lines to distract the Nazis so another unit could blindside them.
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VOA News ☛ Russia Pinches Iceland with Playbook Propaganda for Supporting Ukraine
Fourth, to justify the invasion, Russian propaganda has fabricated and propagated the false narrative that Ukraine’s government is ruled by Nazis. Polygraph.info and others repeatedly exposed those falsehoods.
Hundreds of scholars of war, genocide, Nazism, and World War II condemned Russia’s “cynical abuse of the term genocide, the memory of World War II and the Holocaust, and the equation of the Ukrainian state with the Nazi regime to justify its unprovoked aggression.”
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Censorship/Free Speech
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The Scotsman ☛ How I discovered I'd been secretly found guilty of 'hate' by Police Scotland – Murdo Fraser
It was an article by my fellow columnist on this paper, Susan Dalgety, that started it all. In November last year, she wrote a piece critiquing the Scottish Government’s ‘Non-Binary Equality Action Plan’, arguing that this was “fostering a cult of gender-identity ideology that is destroying lives”.
Ever keen to promote a fellow columnist, even one with a different political outlook to my own, I shared the article on social media, adding what was intended as a tongue-in-cheek comment (albeit one which had an underlying serious point) that choosing to identify as non-binary was as valid as choosing to identify as a cat.
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CBC ☛ X to pay legal bills for doctor warned over COVID tweets
University of Toronto bioethicist Kerry Bowman told CBC Radio's Metro Morning that Musk is "pretty selective about what kind of freedom of speech he will fight for."
Gill's case is not just about freedom of speech but about her responsibility as a physician, he said, adding that a physician saying vaccination for COVID-19 was unnecessary can cause "a lot of social harm in a crisis."
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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teleSUR ☛ Assagne’s Last Chance
The US government, through its prosecutors, wants to prosecute Assange, with 52 years-old, on criminal charges related to WikiLeaks' publication of US military records and confidential diplomatic cables that exposed war crimes.
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RTL ☛ WikiLeaks founder: Assange to learn fate of latest extradition appeal bid
Washington wants the 52-year-old Australian citizen to face charges there in connection with WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of hundreds of thousands of files relating to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the latest twist in the long-running legal saga, which has seen Assange lose successive bids to halt the process, two High Court judges in London will rule on whether he can lodge a fresh appeal.
Their decision is due to be published at 1030 GMT.
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New York Times ☛ Julian Assange Extradition Decision: What to Know
In this case, Mr. Assange would be allowed to have a full appeals case heard in front of the British court on new grounds. That could opening the door to a new decision about his extradition
This would mean that the legal case, which has caught the world’s attention and mobilized defenders of press freedom, will continue to be disputed, and that Mr. Assange’s removal to the United States will at least be delayed.
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FAIR ☛ ‘This Decline in Local Journalism Was Noticed First by Journalists Themselves’
Janine Jackson interviewed filmmaker Rick Goldsmith about his documentary Stripped for Parts for the March 22, 2024, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-18 [Older] Is Croatia's new whistleblower law a danger for journalism?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] DR Congo journalist Stanis Bujakera remains in prison
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] DRC:Why it's hard to make cobalt mining more transparent
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Civil Rights/Policing
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RFERL ☛ Iran Mulls Financial Penalties For Hijab Rule Violations
Bankipour last month hinted at a forthcoming bill dubbed Hijab and Chastity that would fine violators 30 million Iranian rials ($50), directly debiting the fines from their bank accounts, with additional penalties for repeat offenses.
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Crooked Timber ☛ Capitalism Is Dead – Long Live Capital — Crooked Timber
The reference to feudalism is quite literal: capitalists, according to Varoufakis, are still doing very well, but they are no longer running the show. They have turned into (very well-off) vassals, who have to pay their dues to techno-feudal lords (Amazon; Google; Apple; Meta) – say, in order to selling and/or advertise on such platforms. The reason why this is the case is that rent-based capital has, just like under pre-industrial feudalism, supplanted profit-based capital as the driver of the economy. The fundamental system is no longer one where the capitalist extracts value from workers to generate as much profit as possible and be competitive in the market; re-invests in new machineries, technologies, etc., in order to make profit extraction ever more efficient; and thereby generates growth and innovation. It has rather become one where big tech bosses act like feudal lords – rentiers who own digital, rather than natural, “land” and can extract value (albeit in slightly different ways) from everyone who want or need to use their platforms. Like medieval lords, their power and wealth comes from sheer rent – for which, in a certain sense, they do not need to “do” anything.
Varoufakis is no naïve (not on all fronts, at least) so he qualifies this claim in several ways. Most importantly, people like Elon Musk and Zuckerberg still project a businessman-like image of hyper-activism, innovativeness, insatiability, and creativity. They appear to be constantly after “the next big thing.” This is not just for show: of course they compete, and of course competition requires coming up with new ideas. But many feudal lords were not lazy, either: competing for power and dominance is hard work – yet, it is still different from the competition based on profit and market dynamics which constitutes the backbone of capitalism.
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New York Times ☛ 83 Years After His Killing, a Black Soldier Gets an Army Funeral
Though Private King enlisted to fight in World War II, it was a fight with white bus drivers and soldiers on a segregated bus that cost him his life. After he escaped the bus and ran, the police officer found him, killed him and was exonerated in a sham military trial the same day.
An Army investigation initially found that Private King had died in the line of duty. But, under pressure from the commanding general at the base, Fort Benning, the investigators reversed their decision and determined that his death was a result of his own misconduct — making him ineligible for a military funeral. That was the official story, until three years ago.
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The Guardian UK ☛ California zombie lake turned farmland to water. A year later, is it gone for good?
By last summer, the lake covered an area roughly the side of Lake Tahoe and was between 5 to 7ft deep. Its re-emergence was particularly meaningful to the Tachi, who revere the lake their ancestors relied on before settlers forced the tribe out of the area and drained it to make way for crops. In their creation stories, the Tachi were made from the sediment at the bottom of the lake, Underhill said.
Tribal members grew up hearing stories about how the lake that once supported the Tachi was taken from them, the Los Angeles Times reported. They had hoped to see the lake remain in place rather than be drained to resume agriculture as it had in the past.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Democracy at risk: The global trend of deteriorating freedoms
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] DFB's anti-racism campaign: Positive but is it sufficient?
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HRW ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Canada: All 10 Provinces To End Immigration Detention in Jails
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] Canada Plans to Reduce Temporary Residents, Cap Future Intake
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] Is Pakistan at war with the Afghan Taliban?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Pakistan: Why are more women being imprisoned?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Iran: UN exposes 'crimes' committed against protesters
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Martin Sellner: Far-right Austrian banned from Germany
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-21 [Older] 'Dad, I screwed up': A year after their son's death, P.E.I. family speaks out about sextortion
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] Germany's Bavaria cracks down on gender-sensitive language
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] France launches major anti-drug crackdown in Marseille
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-19 [Older] The rise and fall of a Halifax man's illegal TV streaming empire
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APNIC ☛ When it's not DNS, it's probably NTP
I haven’t spoiled the article entirely by stating here that the root cause is NTP, because it’s not as simple as it seems. The article speaks to deployment procedures, post-deployment usage, the source of upgrades, and the interaction of complex systems relying on accurate time when the time system faces anomalies.
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The Register UK ☛ IT incident report: The clock that got ahead of itself
Noting that the certificate authority signs its own certificate to be valid for a ten-year period, Zimmie concluded it ran into the 2038 problem when calculating expiration dates. That suggested a bug in the date math library, or the code implementing that library. But that still left the question of why it was renewing certificates with the same dates.
Zimmie checked the CA's automatic renewal code and confirmed that it won't reissue the certificate with an earlier start date when it expires.
"That makes sense under normal operation, but makes it impossible to recover from odd situations like the one my customer found himself in," he explained. "Another bug. But why did it sign a certificate not valid before 2037 in the first place?"
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RIPE ☛ Internet Sanctions on Russian Media: Diverging Actions and Mixed Effects
EU sanctions on Russian controlled content require ISPs in member states to block access to websites. But our research reveals that their implementation varies widely, both between and within individual EU member states, raising important questions about their effectiveness.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Simone Silvestroni ☛ Good news
My friend Leigh of SideSister shared an article from The Guardian, titled ‘There’s endless choice, but you’re not listening’: fans quitting Spotify to save their love of music. Might be a drop in the ocean, but I love that a few more people are making the conscious decision of leaving a commodified and passive way to experience music.
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The Verge ☛ Spotify adds video learning courses in latest experiment
Online courses, particularly video-based ones, might feel like an odd fit for a service best known as a source of music and other audio content like podcasts and audiobooks. But product director Mohit Jitani tells me that people are already coming to Spotify for education thanks to some podcasts, so it makes sense to experiment with offering more educational content.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-20 [Older] France's competition watchdog hits Google with €250 million fine
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Matt Birchler ☛ Let’s talk about that 3% number
Well, it seems like transaction info is something people are more interested in than I expected, so I wanted to tackle one more thing. So often in App Store discussions, we talk about Apple’s 30% cut of each in-app purchase on iPhones and how that’s so much higher than the “3% merchants pay” when a customer checks out from their website. The problem with this 3% number isn’t that it’s wrong, it’s just that it’s only part of the story.
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Wired ☛ The EU Targets Apple, Meta, and Alphabet for Investigations Under New Tech Law
Apple was the primary focus of an EU press conference on Monday morning. But authorities also opened formal investigations into Meta and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The trio are the first to be subject to formal probes under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark competition law, which took effect on March 7.
Under the new rules, six of the world’s largest tech companies, known in the EU as “gatekeepers,” were asked to provide evidence that they were not harming competition. “We are not convinced that the solutions by Alphabet, Apple, and Meta respect their obligations for a fairer and more open digital space for European citizens and businesses,” said Thierry Breton, EU industry chief, in a statement on Monday. “Should our investigation conclude that there is lack of full compliance with the DMA, gatekeepers could face heavy fines.” Under the Digital Markets Act, officials can levy fines of up to 10 percent of tech giants’ global revenue or 20 percent for repeat violations.
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Axios ☛ EU investigates Meta, Alphabet and Apple for violating DMA's competition rules
The European Union on Monday announced investigations into Apple, Meta and Google parent Alphabet for potential breaches of the bloc's new Digital Markets Act.
Why it matters: The new law has been in force for two weeks and the EU is signaling a rapid-fire approach to antitrust enforcement, a departure from a global tendency among regulators to mount backward-looking cases that drag on for years.
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MacStories Inc ☛ Understanding the DOJ's Antitrust Complaint Against Apple
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice, 15 states, and the District of Columbia sued Apple for alleged federal and state antitrust violations. Apple issued an immediate response, and before anyone had time to read the DOJ’s 88-page complaint, the Internet was overrun with hot takes.
However, the thing about lawsuits – and especially big, sprawling, high-stakes ones like the DOJ’s – is that they’re the proverbial tortoise to the Internet’s hare. Barring a settlement among the parties, the case against Apple isn’t likely to go to trial anytime soon. Add to that appeals, and this process is going to take years, not months.
So, since we have plenty of time, I thought I’d kick off our coverage at MacStories with a look at the DOJ’s complaint and its legal underpinnings, along with some observations on what’s going on and what you can expect to happen next.
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Hindustan Times ☛ EU opens probe into Apple, Google and Meta aiming to reign in Big Tech: What's happening
The EU antitrust will investigate Alphabet's rules on Google Play and self-preferencing on Google Search. Meanwhile, Apple is being probed over rules on their App Store and the choice screen for Safari and Meta's ‘pay or consent model’ is being checked.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ EU probes Apple, Google, Meta under new digital law
"We are not convinced that the solutions by [Google parent company] Alphabet, Apple and Meta respect their obligations for a fairer and more open digital space for European citizens and businesses," said the EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton.
If found guilty of failing to comply with the new law, the EU Commission, the bloc's executive arm, can impose fines of up to 10% of a company's total global turnover, rising to 20% for repeat offenders.
The DMA is an accompaniment to the EU's Digital Services Act groundbreaking legislation to put in force measures to moderate illegal content and prevent, for example, the promotion of hate speech on their online platforms.
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RTL ☛ Antitrust regulations: EU probes Apple, Google, Meta under new digital law
The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, insisted regulators had "definitely" not rushed to probe the companies.
Senior officials have acknowledged that changes are already taking place, but suggest they do not go far enough.
Under the new rules, the commission can impose fines of up to 10 percent of a company's total global turnover. This can rise to up to 20 percent for repeat offenders.
In extreme circumstances, the EU can order the break up of companies.
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India Times ☛ Apple: The second coming of the Microsoft antitrust battle?
Then there is the matter of defining market share. In 1998, more than 80% of Intel-based personal computers used Windows software. By contrast, the iPhone had about 64% of the U.S. smartphone market at the end of last year, according to one estimate. (Globally, it's closer to 20%.) That said, federal prosecutors say Apple controls 70% of what they call the "performance" smartphone market, which also includes high-end devices by Samsung and Google.
And technology advances more quickly than it did in 1998. Smartphones could evolve in unexpected directions by the time the Apple case wraps up, potentially limiting the case's effect on innovation. "Technology is racing ahead like a Formula 1 automobile," Kovacic said, "and antitrust is riding a bicycle trying to catch up."
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India Times ☛ Tech lobby slams EU 'rush' to probe Apple, Google and Meta
The EU probes launched Monday into Apple, Google and Meta send a "worrying signal", one of the main tech lobbying groups said after the European Commission announced the first ever investigations under a new digital law.
"The timing of these announcements, while the DMA compliance workshops are still ongoing, makes it look like the Commission could be jumping the gun," said the head of CCIA Europe, Daniel Friedlaender.
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India Times ☛ EU antitrust chief Vestager: EU antitrust chief Vestager to hold press conference, big tech likely in focus
Sources said they will likely announce investigations into potential breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) targeting Big Tech companies.
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India Times ☛ Google says will defend its DMA compliance in coming months
Google will continue to defend the way it complies with the Digital Markets Act in the coming months, the Alphabet unit said on Monday, after EU antitrust regulators started an investigation into potential breaches of the EU tech rules.
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India Times ☛ Apple, Google, Meta targeted in EU's first Digital Markets Act probes
The law, effective from March 7, requires six gatekeepers - which provide services like search engines, social networks and chat apps used by other businesses - to comply with guidance to ensure a level playing field for their rivals and to give users more choices.
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The Verge ☛ Apple, Meta, and Google targeted by EU in DMA non-compliance investigations
The European Commission is opening five non-compliance investigations into how Apple, Google, and Meta are complying with its new Digital Markets Act antitrust rules, the regulator announced today. “We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA,” the EU’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “We will now investigate the companies’ compliance with the DMA, to ensure open and contestable digital markets in Europe.”
In particular, the Commission plans to investigate Google and Apple’s anti-steering rules in their app stores and whether Google is guilty of self-preferencing its own services within its search engine. Apple’s browser choice screen for iOS is also being investigated as well as Meta’s “pay or consent model” for ad targeting. In a press conference, the Commission said it plans to conclude the investigations within the next 12 months.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ 'The law is the law': EU to probe three US tech giants
The law, effective from 7 March, requires six gatekeepers — which provide services like search engines, social networks and chat apps used by other businesses — to comply with guidance to ensure a level playing field for their rivals and to give users more choices.
Violations could result in fines of as much as 10% of the companies’ global annual turnover.
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Copyrights
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India Times ☛ High Court orders temporary suspension of Telegram's services in Spain
Spain's High Court has ordered the suspension of messaging app Telegram's services in the country after media companies complained it was allowing users to upload their content without permission, according to a court source.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Judge Blocks 8M Telegram Users After Platform Failed to Help Identify Pirates (Updated)
A copyright complaint filed by Mediaset España, EGEDA, Atresmedia, and Movistar Plus, escalated Friday when a judge ordered ISPs to prevent eight million Telegram users from accessing the service in Spain. Expected imminently, the blockade is Telegram's punishment for not helping to identify IPTV pirates. Described as “necessary” and “proportional” by the judge, the order was made on behalf of rightsholders pursuing a private criminal prosecution.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Publishers Secure Widespread Support in Landmark Copyright Battle With Internet Archive
Major book publishers continue their legal crusade against Internet Archive's scan-and-lend library, hoping to shut it down for good. IA's appeal previously received support from authors and copyright scholars. The publishers, however, have some heavyweight backers too. New amicus briefs are signed by former U.S. politicians, former judges, and legal scholars. Industry groups such as the MPA and RIAA also rally behind the publishers.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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