● 03.12.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 12/03/2023: GNOME Development Report and Companies in Panic Over SVB

Posted in News Roundup at 6:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

• Linux GUI toolkits might sound confusing, but they define the look and feel of modern Linux desktops. Here’s everything you need to know about them.

• The X Window System is the main display server in use on Linux desktops today. While it may provide elements of a graphical interface, it doesn’t supply any user interface elements by itself. This is a deliberate design choice on the part of the original developers.

• X doesn’t know how to draw window decorations. It doesn’t draw the buttons in windows or lay out any text elements. All of these things are handled by the toolkit.

• X toolkits offer developers a way to define graphical elements without having to do it all manually. Instead of writing out code to allow users to pick files from a dialog box, they can farm this out to a library instead.

Audiocasts/Shows

Applications

• The Linux operating system takes up a tiny portion of the market because it appears daunting to the average person. It’s commonly known as the hacker-preferred OS controlled primarily through the command line. Meanwhile, the typical Windows and Mac user probably doesn’t even know what a terminal is.

• It might be easier to persuade people to switch to Linux if more services had a familiar GUI (Graphical User Interface). At the same time, they should support the beloved command line to appeal to die-hard Linux enthusiasts.

• Let’s begin with VPN (Virtual Private Network) services, as these tools are essential cybersecurity and online anonymity tools. We compiled a short list of three providers that offer both GUI and command line options for Linux.

Instructionals/Technical

• Git is an essential version control system and tool when it comes to managing code in software development and maintain different versions of a code. Even GitHub is powered by Git.

• Korokithakis seems to be a very versatile chap: he’s a pretty good photographer and also has a way with words. For instance, while he could have written some C++ to parse Google Calendar and render the results, that sounded hard (it does to us too). But…

• Ansible is a simple and easy-to-use automation tool that offers different modules to work with disk management in Linux. When you have more machines to install and configure the operating system with the same configuration then ansible is of great use. A particular use case I can think of is when you are building a cluster where all the servers have the same storage space and need the same LVM partition scheme.

• I read a lot of blogs; some I read regularly, others I just come across while I’m out in the wilds of the Internet. The problem is, I’m seeing more and more blogs that fail to meet what I think is the minimal standard for blog design, readability and accessibility.

• This is my rant list of the 5 design mistakes I see most often with blogs.

• This post shows different use cases for a Yubikey. There are also command line examples in a cheatsheet like manner. I’m using a Yubikey 5C on Arch Linux. If you run into issues, try to use a newer version of ykman (part of yubikey-manager package on Arch).

• I do a fairly large amount of work (as much as I can reasonably manage) on either my own desktop or in my primary environment on our Ubuntu servers, where I have a NFS mounted home directory, X forwarding, and so on. In both of these environments I have a custom shell, Git aliases, a relatively evolved GNU Emacs configuration with multiple packages, LSP servers for various things I use, and so on. But my energy to keep several copies of this environment in sync has limits and so I don’t go too deep into various other things I could customize.

• The text block has been created with a “mini-LaTeX” DTP program that I wrote basically from scratch. This caused “fun” things to happen. For example I got an email from the printing house some four days before the unveiling event that the book contains words that were not hyphenated according to recommended style guides. I was aware of said style guides, had added handling for those and even had unit tests to ensure that they work. And yet in production they did not work. This lead to a very stressful debugging session where you know that the only person in the world that can fix it is you, and that there is a very strict and personal deadline.

• The actual PDF generation was done with Cairo and Pango. Surprisingly there were zero issues with them, the printer accepted them just fine and the printout looks great. The cover was made with Scribus and it did have several issues none of which had anything to do with Scribus itself, just that doing a full color managed print job is to this day a bit tricky. did have to postprocess Cairo’s output with Ghostscript because Cairo only produces PDFs in the RGB colorspace whereas printers require grayscale PDFs.

• What is the purpose of Tasksel? Tasksel on Ubuntu, Debian, or Linux Mint is a popular open-source tool for those who want to use a single command for installing multiple packages.

• Mixxx is an open-source DJ software available free to use for Linux such as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and Arch; not only Linux but Windows, and macOS are also supported.

• Docker is an open-source platform enabling software developers to package and deploy their applications in a portable, lightweight container. The technology was first released in 2013 and has since become a popular choice for developers due to its ability to simplify application deployment and improve the scalability of their applications.

• Tasksel is a Debian/Ubuntu tool that simplifies the installation and configuration of predefined software packages for specific purposes or tasks. It is designed to make it easier for users to install specific software packages related to a particular task or service without manually selecting each package.

• Debian is a widely used Linux-based operating system renowned for its versatility and expansive collection of software packages and tools. However, keeping the system up-to-date and secure can be challenging, given the significant volume of packages and updates available. To help streamline this process, the Unattended Upgrades Package can be utilized.

• The www-data user is a default system user account created automatically when a web server such as Apache or Nginx is installed on a Linux system. The web server primarily uses this user to access and serve web files, which is crucial for the proper functioning of websites and web applications.

• Darkstat is a powerful network traffic analyzer that captures and visualizes data about network usage. It is a free and open-source tool that can be used to monitor network traffic and identify potential issues. Darkstat was originally developed by Emil Mikulic in 2001 and has since been maintained by a community of developers.

• Computer viruses can cause significant harm to your system, including stealing data and compromising privacy. While Linux is known to be a secure operating system, it’s still important to have antivirus software to protect your system.

• Jack Wallen shows you how to spin up a MongoDB container as a Docker container for your development needs.

• Are you curious about the mysterious /dev/null file in Linux? As a virtual device, /dev/null plays a unique and critical role in the operating system, allowing users to redirect unwanted output and free up resources. This article will explore the ins and outs of /dev/null and how it can be used in Linux commands.

• You are not alone if you are experiencing slow download speed while using Pacman in Arch Linux. Sometimes, system updates via pacman or any package installation become slower in your Arch system.

• This issue can be frustrating, especially when downloading large-size packages.

• However, there are a few ways which can fix this problem. Here are some of them.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 5.104.0. KDE Frameworks are 83 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the KDE Frameworks release announcement.

• This release is part of a series of planned monthly releases making improvements available to developers in a quick and predictable manner.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

Distributions and Operating Systems

BSD

• Still, the debugging process we went through here to discover the cause of the problems in the first place is worth sharing from the beginning, as the code in question was particularly bad with plenty of textbook mistakes. Who knows what you might find in your own investigations elsewhere.

Fedora Family / IBM

• System(s) Administrators don’t get enough credit. They set up systems. Maintain them. Make sure everything follows security best practices. All while having to know code and infrastructure and looking out for crises. And if you think you can automate away their jobs, you’re in for a surprise: They can do it better and continue to make other valuable contributions to your company.

• The company, its business activities and its employees depicted in this podcast are fictional and are not intended to represent or depict any current or former business organization or any individuals living or dead. Any resemblance to any individual or organization is purely coincidental.

• As we dive head first into 2023, Red Hat and the Customer and Partner Experience (CPX) team are full speed ahead on our plans to continue driving customer and partner success. We know that our customers and partners expect a seamless and positive experience with us, and we will continue to invest and improve in the areas that matter the most to deliver on that expectation. We aim to make our customers’ and partners’ experience with Red Hat as positive, connected and simplified as possible.

• This year, the Red Hat CPX team is rallying around three main objectives to improve customer and partner experience. We believe that focusing on and prioritizing these three areas will lead to a more holistic, connected and positive experience for our customers and partners.

• In this first episode of the Red Hat podcast series, we discuss the latest trends in enterprise Linux with Ron Pacheco, Senior Director of Linux Business & Ecosystem Strategy at Red Hat. Join us for an insightful conversation on the future of Linux in the cloud.

• Separating policy from data enables more robust and reusable policy definitions that allow you to factor external data sources in compliance evaluation.

Devices/Embedded

• The company also offers a camera development kit with an Hailo-15 single board computer with dual-camera, HDMI, Ethernet, USB ports, audio jacks, and expansion header, a Yocto-based Linux distribution with a full stack DSP, libraries (OpenCV, GStreamer…), BSP, and drivers, as well as documentation and support.

• The Hailo-15 does not seem to be available just yet based on the rendering of the devkit, but Hailo will be showcasing its new AI vision processor at ISC-West in Las Vegas, Nevada, from March 28-31, at booth #16099. More details can be found in the press release and the product page where you can also order the development kit.

Open Hardware/Modding

• There’s a good chance that if you build something which includes the ability to top up a lithium-ion battery, it’s going to involve the incredibly common TP4056 charger IC. Now, there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. It’s a decent enough chip, and there are countless pre-made modules out there that make it extremely easy to implement. But if the chip shortage has taught us anything, it’s that alternatives are always good.

• If you have access to a 3D printer, this is a fun project that should be fairly easy to tackle. The light comes from two Adafruit NeoPixel rings and two servo motors provide the rotation. An Arduino Uno board controls those, with the sketch starting the rotation at set intervals. All of the 3D files and the sketch are on GitHub if you want to build your own Lamptopus, and Ruby Zoom’s video provides thorough instructions.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Using Warp is no-fuss: open Warp on one computer and drag/drop a file or folder to transfer, and take note of the text code/QR code. Open Warp (or a compatible app) on another device, enter the text code/scan the QR code and the transfer takes place.

• You can transfer files from Linux to Windows; Linux to Linux; Windows to Linux; or Linux to Android using a compatible app.

Programming/Development

• Qt World Summit is back in-person! Qt Group is looking for speakers, collaborators and industry thought leaders to share their expertise and thoughts…

• Web services use server-side input sanitization to guard against harmful input. Some web services publish their sanitization logic to make their client interface more usable, e.g., allowing clients to debug invalid requests locally. However, this usability practice poses a security risk. Specifically, services may share the regexes they use to sanitize input strings — and regex-based denial of service (ReDoS) is an emerging threat. Although prominent service outages caused by ReDoS have spurred interest in this topic, we know little about the degree to which live web services are vulnerable to ReDoS.

• That’s because the work — one of several fan recreations replacing the 1665 original while it’s on loan for a huge Vermeer show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum — was made using artificial intelligence (AI).

• Its presence has sparked a fierce debate, with questions over whether it belongs in the hallowed halls of the Mauritshuis — and whether it should be classed as art at all.

• Keep only their version canonical

• Do not rename the package paths and jump through serious hoops in order to compile your local version from the source tree.

• My experience with the current generation (ChatGPT), for programming specifically, is that:

• it suggests impossible things that can not ever be made to work even with tweaks

• sends you down a rabbit hole of wrongness when what you would’ve needed instead was a blank slate and a clear perspective

• it lies and says that it has tested things (even giving the specific version of the compiler it’s supposed to “work” on) without having done so

Python

• Files and directories are essential components of any computing system, and Python provides an easy way to interact with them. The built-in functions and modules allow for creating, reading, writing, and deleting files and directories. This article aims to provide an in-depth guide to working with files and directories in Python.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

• This trick is possibly the oldest security bug that still exists today, it’s been traced as far back as 1985.

• It’s been discovered and rediscovered and re-rediscovered by sysadmins, developpers and pentesters every few years for close to 4 decades now. It’s been subject to multiple developper battles, countless posts, but still remains largely forgotten.

• This is just another attempt at shedding light on it, for both attackers and defenders.

• most people in tech are familiar with shell scripts. but shell is a language!

Leftovers

Science

• A wiring map diagrams more than half a million neuronal connections in the first complete connectome of Drosophila and holds clues about which brain architectures best support learning.

• Representatives of all three Baltic States met in Tallinn this week, to discuss Baltic space cooperation.

• All three countries are in full cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) and contribute to its programs, but say that in a rapidly developing field, joint projects in space tech and business would benefit all players.

Education

• At New York University (NYU), half of full-time faculty are known as “contract faculty” — they are hired on contracts lasting for between one and eight years and are not eligible for tenure. Unlike adjunct faculty — who are hired on a per-course and per-semester basis — contract faculty at NYU are not yet unionized. They’re trying to change that: on February 22, contract faculty organizing under the banner of Contract Faculty United–UAW delivered a petition to NYU president Andrew Hamilton demanding that the university agree to a “fair and expeditious” process for recognizing the union. Jacobin’s Sara Wexler spoke to Contract Faculty United–UAW organizer Jacob Remes about the unionization effort.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• COVID-19 immunity and vaccines could be key to fighting breast cancer, a researcher says. Clare Slaney is focused on improving CAR T-cell therapy – a type of immunotherapy whereby doctors collect a small portion of a patient’s T-cells, which are an important part of the immune system.

• Bangkok and northern towns have been enveloped in a toxic haze for weeks.

• This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. I’ve spent the last few days thinking about how, when, and if we should use gene-editing tools to change the human genome.

• This derailment came only hours before Norfolk Southern CEO testified before U.S. lawmakers over a series of incidents involving the corporation.

• A graphic published by the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper last week claimed that Sweden had the lowest excess mortality of all EU and Nordic counties between the start of 2020 and the end of 2022. We looked into whether this extraordinary claim is true.

• It is not just in Middlesbrough where life expectancy has flatlined. The latest official data end in 2020, when covid-19 was still claiming large numbers of lives. To provide a post-pandemic health assessment of Britain, The Economist has used provisional figures for the last two years. The result is disturbing. We calculate that life expectancy in Britain in 2022 was 81 years for boys and girls combined, just eight weeks longer than a decade ago.

Proprietary

• Last year, 4,518 data breaches were reported globally with threat actors exposing or stealing 22.62 billion credentials and personal records, ranging from account and financial information to emails and Social Security numbers, a new security report has revealed.

• Current and former Indigo workers learned this week that their medical and immigration data were part of the breach, which the Toronto-based retailer previously said also included their names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, home addresses, social insurance numbers and direct deposit information such as bank account numbers.

• Indigo blamed the attack on a ransomware software known as LockBit and warned current and past workers that their information may end up on the dark web, an underground portion of the internet used for illicit activity. It said it had not uncovered any evidence of customer information being breached.

• I mean, if a chatbot is coming to steal my name, I wouldn’t be the first. I’m sure the legendary triathlete Siri Lindley cursed a little the day she found out that there was going to be a chat assistant on everyone’s phone named Siri.

• I’m sure everyone named Alexa must hate that when someone calls their name at home, a bot is competing for the actual person’s attention. And I bet you if Sydney Pollack was still alive, he would be pissed that Microsoft decided to give its search engine’s chat engine the nickname Sydney.

• I mean, even I’m a little guilty of this. In 2009, when I started ShortFormBlog, I decided it would be a clever idea to create a mascot for this site, which I named Julius after my middle name, which I’ve never been a fan of, as a way to take ownership of this thing I never really liked. But I never thought about how other Juliuses would feel about it. Maybe I should have called up Julius Erving for his thoughts.

• After 4chan published LLaMa online, others have taken the language model and created a functioning chat bot in Discord, which claimed that the n-word can refer to people who don’t have good intentions.

• Now, in fairness, this bug was quickly fixed in the desktop client and the browser plugins. But, sadly, even the latest version of the Android app is still broken.

Security

• This week on Cyber we look at the insecure hiking app tracking a former Biden official across D.C., LastPass’s latest breach, Twitter ditching Tor, and ‘Escape from Tarkov’s wiggle problem.

• CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.

• ortinet has released its March 2023 Vulnerability Advisories to address vulnerabilities affecting multiple products. An attacker could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

• CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Fortinet March 2023 Vulnerability Advisories page for more information and apply the necessary updates.

• CISA released five Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on March 9, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

• Cisco has released a security advisory for a vulnerability affecting IOS XR Software for ASR 9000 Series Routers. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial-of-service condition.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

• A ransomware variant commonly known to target Windows PCs has recently been found infecting Linux computers as well. The variant does this by exploiting a flaw in IBM’s Aspera Faspex software.

• IceFire spotted targeting Linux devices as researchers warn of a growing trend.

Privacy/Surveillance

• Data exfiltration is rapidly becoming more prevalent. In 2022, incidents at Nvidia, Microsoft, and several other companies highlighted how big of a problem it has become – and how, for some organizations, it may be a threat that’s even bigger than ransomware.

Defence/Aggression

• The European Commission is preparing to lift sanctions on Belarusian fertiliser producers, Igor Udovickij, the majority shareholder of Birių Kroviniu Terminalas (Bulk Cargo Terminal), a stevedoring company in Klaipėda Port that used to handle Belaruskali cargo, said this week.

• An Estonian volunteer was killed in Donbas on Tuesday, according to the Postimees news website. This marks the first time a Baltic citizen has been publicly announced as killed in battle after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

• David Panuelo alleges Beijing has bribed many of the Pacific nation’s politicians.

• Moscow launched a barrage of missiles at Ukraine on Thursday, which included some of its advanced hypersonic missiles.

• North Korea introduces mandatory military service for women and extends all soldiers’ service time by three years.

• Canada on March 10 banned the import of all Russian aluminum and steel products in a move that Ottawa said was aimed at denying Moscow the ability to fund its war against Ukraine.

• The United States on March 10 accused Russia of trying to destabilize the ex-Soviet republic of Moldova, including through the use of street protests, with the goal of eventually bringing in a pro-Moscow government.

• Belgian lawmakers have recognized Holodomor — the 1932-33 famine caused by the policies of the Soviet government in Ukraine — as a genocide.

• Russia said on March 10 that it was still in contact with the United States over their last remaining nuclear arms treaty despite suspending it last month, but held out little prospect of returning to it.

• The U.S. research group Foundation for Defense of Democracies said in a report last December that CICL is a Latin American branch of Iran’s al-Mustafa International University, which the report describes as Tehran’s principal institution for recruiting, indoctrinating and training foreign converts to Shi’ite Islam.

• According to the intelligence source, “President Putin, who made a special trip to Iran to pursue weapons deals between the two countries, agreed to approve the request, apparently due to his interest in compensating the Iranians for their assistance,” the report said.

• Various sources have confirmed that the Islamic organization led by AIUDF and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) plan to set up numerous training and career education institutions for Muslim students that would produce large numbers of Muslim officers in the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), the India Police Services (IPS), and allied services in state cadres. These organizations would also support the education and training of engineers, doctors, advocates, and business entrepreneurs from their community that would help establish an Islamic regime in India in an institutionalized way.

• Ali noted that marking Eid on school calendars and closing schools in observance sparks conversations among students, parents, educators and staff.

• He continues to have interim name suppression.

Environment

Energy/Transportation

• Last week’s blaze joined the more than 200 fires in New York City last year caused by batteries from e-bikes, electric scooters and similar devices. Lithium-ion battery explosions are now the third leading cause of fires in the city, the fire department says.

Wildlife/Nature

• Latvian authorities have asked people to not harass seal pups this season, the country’s public broadcaster LSM reports.

• An elephant uses its right-of-way privileges to stop sugar-cane trucks and grab food.

• Sædís kept the calf close by while the other two killer whales were feeding. There were no other pilot whales in sight, and Sædís had the infant in echelon position, tucked beneath the orca’s mid-lateral flank, which is indicative of nurturing behavior. Baby dolphins can’t swim as fast as their mothers, so in this position, they are given “hydrodynamic benefits,” which allows them to keep up with the pod.

• “The observation of the echelon formation between the adult female killer whale SN0540 and the pilot whale calf should be given special consideration, even though the pilot whale calf was not observed nursing,” the authors wrote. “The echelon position allows a calf to make fewer tail fluke movements than when swimming on its own and overcome physical limitations during high-speed travel, as it is closely ‘drafting’ alongside an individual, carried by the pressure wave created by the adult’s larger body.”

Finance

• The European Court of Human Rights Thursday ruled that Hungary’s practice of publishing information about people who owe tax payments is a violation of their fundamental rights.

• Law students and young lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the Taliban takeover. Here, a Staff Correspondent for JURIST in Kabul reports on the implementation and consequences of the Taliban’s policy banning women from work. For privacy and security reasons, we are withholding our Correspondent’s name.

• The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has seized the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, marking the largest bank failure in the country since Washington Mutual during the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

• The bank’s deposits are currently locked up and under receivership.

• We asked Denmark’s largest banks about their policies towards customers who don’t speak Danish. Here’s what they told us.

• Over 77,000 people were on Friday morning waiting online to access their Danish tax returns – and find out whether they will receive a rebate from the tax agency.

• Inflation took another step backwards in February, according to new figures from Statistics Denmark. But how long will it be before the financial burden on consumers lightens?

• On Wednesday, Silicon Valley Bank lost about $1.8 billion in trading, sending its shares on Wall Street plunging 60 percent.

• “None of our workers escaped the budget cuts. That is why we sound the alarm bell: every country should have a strong public sector,” the Belge Public Services Union stated.

• Two days after a surreal bank run amplified by social media began, founders’ favorite bank has been shut down by the FDIC.

• From free meals for over-60s and children, to Healthy Start vouchers and targeted discounts

• An investigation has revealed that pre-packed meat and deli products from Southern America and Europe have been labelled as British

• Founders Fund withdrew millions from SVB, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. It joined other venture funds that took dramatic steps to limit exposure to the now-failed financial institution. Founders Fund also advised its portfolio companies that there was no downside to moving their money away from SVB, even if the risk was low.

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has said that depositors will be able to access up to $250,000 of their funds by Monday morning. Any amount above that will result in a “receivership certificate.”

• And when the FDIC sells the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, those with certificates will receive payments — but how long that will take, and what amount of money will be paid back, remains unclear.

• Some estimates suggest that as little as about 3% of the bank’s deposits are below $250,000, meaning the vast bulk of depositors have money that exceeds standard federal insurance.

• When I was just starting out with affiliate marketing I joined a ton of different ones. Once I made at least $1 from affiliate marketing, I knew I could narrow what programs I joined. If you haven’t made any money then don’t leave any, as you don’t know what your audience is going to click.

• The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday set off panic across the technology industry. But [cryptocurrency] executives and investors — who have endured a year of near-constant upheaval — seized on the moment to preach and scold.

• Centralized banking was to blame, the [cryptocurrency] advocates said. Their vision of an alternate financial system, unmoored from big banks and other gatekeepers, was better. They argued that the government regulators that recently cracked down on [cryptocurrency] firms had sown the seeds of the bank’s implosion.

• In February, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule that would limit most credit card late fees to $8. The rule is being fought by a group of House Republicans who took more than $600,000 from credit card companies in the last election cycle.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Microsoft has conducted a third round of job cuts that impacted employees in roles related to supply chain, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).

• According to CRN, the third wave of layoffs are part of the 10,000 job cuts announced by Microsoft earlier this year.

• Of course, some pollsters were more accurate than others. And today, we’ve updated the FiveThirtyEight pollster ratings to account for each pollster’s performance in the 2022 cycle. Our ratings are letter grades that we assign to each pollster based on historical accuracy and transparency. (You can read exactly how we calculate pollster ratings here.) They’re one of many tools you should use when deciding how much stock to place in a poll.

• Canada’s news media industry has asked the government for more regulation of tech companies to allow the industry to recoup financial losses it has suffered in the years as tech giants like Google and Meta steadily gain greater market share of advertising.

• Talks in China between Iran and Saudi Arabia Friday concluded with the two countries agreeing to re-establish diplomatic relations. In a statement, the two nations expressed their desire to “resolve the disagreements between them through dialogue and diplomacy.” The main goal in the re-opening of relations is to “enhanc[e]regional and international peace and security.

• Saudi Arabia and Iran have reached an agreement that includes the resumption of diplomatic relations and the reopening of embassies and missions within two months.

• The US Department of the Treasury Thursday sanctioned 39 entities connected with providing financial services to sanctioned Iranian firms, such as Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co. (PGPICC) and Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (Triliance).

• Unelected delegates vote unanimously, paving the way for Xi’s indefinite rule over party, state and army.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• Circulation and demographic breakdown showing who reads the Daily Mail.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok Kwan and Tsui Hon Kwong, leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were found guilty March 4.

• Before the sentences were announced, Chow said, “We will continue doing what we have always done, that is to fight falsehood with truth, indignity with dignity, secrecy with openness, madness with reason, division with solidarity. We will fight these injustices wherever we must, be it on the streets, in the courtroom, or from a prison cell.”

• Three former members of the defunct organiser of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils have been sentenced to four-and-a-half months in jail after they were convicted of not complying with a national security police data request. Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan, and Tsui Hon-kwong appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts…

• The Trump-aligned congressman made the comments after a hearing into the so-called Twitter Files.

• Students post musings from economics lecturer Chen Saibin on food security, women’s safety and US gun ownership.

• Russia on March 10 added the World Wildlife Fund to its register of “foreign agents,” along with a prominent Kremlin critic, a renowned economist, and a few others.

• A blogger in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia has been arrested for publishing content on his Instagram account about a wave of suspected poisonings across the country that has hospitalized scores of students, mainly schoolgirls.

• A former lecturer at the Department of Italian Language at the Minsk State Linguistic University, Natallya Dulina, has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for giving an interview to a media outlet labeled by authorities as “extremist.”

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• Coconuts is winding down its Hong Kong news site, citing commercial and journalistic challenges. The announcement came days after a new general manager took over the publishing group.

• A former editor of defunct Hong Kong independent news outlet Stand News on trial for sedition has been questioned over an op-ed that compared Hong Kong to the fictional totalitarian regime in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Meanwhile, the judge presiding over the trial asked whether Nineteen Eighty-Four was a book, and what it was about.

• I have known Julian Assange since I first interviewed him in London in 2010. I immediately liked his dry, dark sense of humour, often dispensed with an infectious giggle. He is a proud outsider: sharp and thoughtful.

• The Bingöl Penal Judgeship of Peace had issued a warrant against the journalist for “spreading false information” as allowed by the recently passed “disinformation law”.

• In response to news reports that a number of journalists were wounded in a bomb attack on a press award event in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement calling for a swift investigation:

• “Targeting journalists during an event to honor reporters is a despicable and cowardly act,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Brave Afghan journalists are already reporting in extremely challenging circumstances. The Taliban must investigate quickly, bring the perpetrators to justice, and end impunity for those who target journalists.”

Civil Rights/Policing

• Amnesty International Friday called for Tunisia to put an immediate end to racist and xenophobic attacks targeting Black African migrants. The violence began in early February and was exacerbated by a racially-charged speech by President Kais Saied at a National Security Council meeting on February 21.

• Sweden’s government is to submit a bill to end the long-ridiculed ban on spontaneous dancing to parliament next week, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer announced in a press release on Thursday.

• Women were forced to cover themselves, banned from public spaces, and forbidden to work for domestic and foreign NGOs, while traveling or working outside their home is largely restricted.

• The International Labor Organization said on March 7 that Afghan women’s employment had fallen by 25 percent since the Taliban’s return to power.

• Marwa was one of a small number of women who, under the previous US-backed government, were granted a legal separation in Afghanistan, where women have next to no rights and domestic abuse is endemic.

• When Taliban forces swept into power in 2021, her husband claimed he had been forced into the divorce and commanders ordered her back to his clutches.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• Last night (Thursday March 9) The Colorado Senate voted 4-3 to move Agricultural Right to Repair HB23-1011 ahead to the Senate Floor.  The House has already moved the bill by a vote of 44-17. Participants in Thursday’s hearing in the Colorado Senate AG and Natural Resources Committee heard a rare, lengthy (7 hours !! ) and wide ranging discussion about the merits and pitfalls of HB12-1011. It was by far the most diligent and useful of hearings in our 10 years of experience. The Senate Chair himself explained that he went back and forth at least ten times between Yea and Nea before deciding to cast the deciding Yea vote.

Monopolies

• Two former Amazon employees pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud against the company.

Patents

• The Judicial Court of Paris’ 3rd Chamber, which is responsible for IP, has issued its statistics for the past year. These show an increase of almost 3.5%, from the 174 new lawsuits filed by parties in 2021, to 180 new patent lawsuits filed by parties in 2022.

Trademarks

• After the Board sustained Nnenna Lovette Nkanginieme’s Section 2(d) opposition to registration of the mark LOVETTE for handbags, Applicant Lovette Appleton requested reconsideration, contending that the Board improperly found that, because opposer obtained a registration for her pleaded mark and entered same into the record, priority was not at issue. The Board denied the reconsideration request, pointing out that, absent a petition for cancellation of the “pleaded and proven registration,” priority is not an issue in a Section 2(d) dispute. Nnenna Lovette Nkanginieme v. Lovette Appleton, Opposition No. 91256464 (March 7, 2023) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Frances S. Wolfson).

Copyrights

• Reddit is probably the best discussion platform the internet has ever seen, but for those operating controversial subreddits, straying over the line a little too often can mean a permanent ban. With many piracy-focused communities already part of the big subreddit in the sky, others self-censor in a bid to stay alive. That can have devastating consequences.

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

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