● 04.12.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 12/04/2023: Nginx 1.2 and Kubernetes 1.27

Posted in News Roundup at 1:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

• We have given the voice Controller a nice Overhaul, some great new features… Enjoy the teaser.

Applications

• The GStreamer team is pleased to announce the second bug fix release in the stable 1.22 release series of your favourite cross-platform multimedia framework!

• nginx-1.24.0 stable version has been released, incorporating new features and bug fixes from the 1.23.x mainline branch — including improved handling of multiple header lines with identical names, memory usage optimization in configurations with SSL proxying, better sanity checking of the listen directive protocol parameters, TLSv1.3 protocol enabled by default, automatic rotation of TLS session tickets encryption keys when using shared memory in the ssl_session_cache directive, and more.

• Authors: Kubernetes v1.27 Release Team

• Announcing the release of Kubernetes v1.27, the first release of 2023!

• This release consist of 60 enhancements. 18 of those enhancements are entering Alpha, 29 are graduating to Beta, and 13 are graduating to Stable.

• We are proud to announce the first alpha release of PowerDNS Recursor 4.9.0. Compared to the previous major (4.8) release of PowerDNS Recursor, this release contains the following major changes: The performance impact of metrics collection has been reduced by using lock-free non-atomic thread-local counters. The packet cache is sharded and shared by all threads.

• In this article, we will introduce you to the top productivity apps specifically tailored for Pop!_OS users. These tools will help you stay organized, focused, and efficient in your work, ensuring that you get the most out of your Pop!_OS experience. Let’s dive into these must-have apps and transform your productivity game!

• If you’re looking for an open-source kanban board solution, use our guide to compare the features of the best options.

Instructionals/Technical

• The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is announcing the availability of FreeBSD version 13.2-RELEASE on 11/April/2023. It is the third release of the stable/13 branches. I updated my FreeBSD version 13.1 to 13.2 using the CLI over an ssh-based session. Here are my quick notes.

• If you’re coming from macOS to Ubuntu, you might be familiar with the Vim text editor. Ubuntu 20.04 doesn’t come with Vim installed out of the box.

• UVDesk is an open-source helpdesk system written in PHP and uses a MySQL database.

• What is YARN? YARN stands for Yet Another Resource Negotiator. It was designed to manage dependencies, like npm in node.js.

• Yarn is a JavaScript package manager. It is a popular tool used by web developers to manage the dependencies of their projects. Package managers are used to manage the dependencies of a project.

• XWiki is a wiki software that enables anyone to create, organize and share information from any device with internet access using their web browser, desktop, or mobile phone.

• Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install KernelCare on Debian 11. In addition, we will tell you more about this security utility.

• Hello, friends. In this post, you’ll learn how to install Apache Maven on Rocky Linux 9 / Alma Linux 9 Apache Maven is a project management software, and we can say that it is also a Java dependency manager.

• OpenSearch is a community-driven project by Amazon and a fork of Elasticsearch and Kibana. This article shows you how to install OpenSearch – an open-source search, analytics, and visualization suite – on the Rocky Linux 9 server.

• Docker is one of the most popular and widely used containerization platforms for building, sharing, and running applications. This tutorial will show you how to check Docker container CPU and RAM usage.

• OpenLiteSpeed is a lightweight and open-source version of the LiteSpeed Server developed by LiteSpeed Technologies. It supports Apache Rewrite rules, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3, TLS v1.3, and QUIC protocol.

• Learn how to automate tasks in Pop!_OS using cron jobs and custom scripts, saving time and streamlining your workflow. Dive into this comprehensive guide to unlock the true potential of your Linux setup!

• Jack Wallen shows you what to do if you run into a situation where you’ve installed Docker on Linux but it fails to connect to the Docker Engine.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Pinta on Rocky Linux 9. Are you looking for a simple yet powerful image editing software that runs on Linux? Look no further than Pinta!

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MySQL Workbench on Fedora 37. For those of you who didn’t know, MySQL Workbench is a powerful tool for managing and administering MySQL databases.

• Are you an avid photographer looking for a powerful image editor for your Debian 11 system?

• Linux users can now write ChromeOS Flex to a USB device using the command line.

• OpenVMS on x86 is now available for hobbyists! Almost a year after [the official release](/s/blog/OpenVMS_9.2_for_x86_will_be_released_tomorrow.html). This is a part 1 of my getting started guide, showing you how to install OpenVMS on VirtualBox on Windows 10/11. More parts will follow, documenting license installation, network setup, ssh, application installation etc.

• snapshots are stored inside the qcow2 harddisk file of the vm, which is good in terms of “simple”, just one file, where in virtualbox there is the disk.vdi and snapshots are stored in a separate folder as separate files.

• Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. As Kubernetes continues to evolve, one of the concepts that has gained significant traction is the Kubernetes Operator. Operators extend the functionality of Kubernetes and provide a way to automate complex tasks, allowing users to manage applications and resources more efficiently. In this article, we will delve into the world of Kubernetes Operators, explore how they can be created, and examine their benefits and use cases.

• Linux is a powerful and versatile operating system that is widely used by developers, system administrators, and tech enthusiasts. Unzipping directories is one of the many tasks you may find yourself performing in Linux.

• Personal Package Archives (PPA) are essential to the Ubuntu ecosystem. They allow users to access and install the latest software that may not be available in the official repositories. However, there are times when you may want to remove a PPA from your system.

• NPM, or Node Package Manager, is essential for any developer working with Node.js applications. It simplifies managing, sharing, and reusing packages (or modules) to build complex applications quickly and efficiently. This introduction will provide an overview of NPM on Fedora Linux, highlighting its main features and capabilities.

• PHP, or Hypertext Preprocessor, is a widely-used, versatile, and powerful server-side scripting language designed for web development. It enables developers to create dynamic web pages by embedding PHP code within HTML documents.

• The KDE Desktop Environment, also known as KDE Plasma, is a highly customizable, feature-rich, and visually appealing desktop environment for Linux distributions. It is known for its modern design, seamless integration of applications, and a wide range of features that cater to both new and experienced Linux users.

WINE or Emulation

• HeR Interactive’s The Vampire Diaries and Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill are now ready for testing in ScummVM!

• The Vampire Diaries follows Elena Gilbert, a high school student who discovers vampires are living in her hometown after one of them attacks her younger sister. The game is loosely based on the book series of the same name by author L. J. Smith, which later got adapted into a hit TV series.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Solus is a fully-fledged, independent rolling release Linux distribution targeted at desktop users. The project was created by Ikey Doherty, with the initial Solus 1.0 release in 2015, giving users a modern, easy-to-use Linux distribution suitable for beginners and experienced users alike.

• He left the project in 2018, having spent the last year focusing on a new one, Serpent OS, which has yet to see a stable release. The next big blow for the project came in early 2022, when Joshua Strobl, lead for the Solus, officially quit.

• As we previously informed you, the project’s website, Dev Tracker, and Forum disappeared from the Internet in the middle of January this year. It was unavailable for more than a month. This was owing to technical issues, which a single person supposedly handled – Beatrice Meyers, Technical Lead for the project.

Fedora Family / IBM

• io_uring is an async interface to the Linux kernel that can potentially benefit networking. It has been a big win for file I/O (input/output), but might offer only modest gains for network I/O, which already has non-blocking APIs.

• React is an open-source JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It allows developers to create reusable UI components and efficiently update the view in response to changes in data. Red Hat OpenShift enables developers to build, deploy, run, and manage a wide variety of applications, including frontend and the ones made with React. React applications use the Node.js runtime to run the application.

• The word “resilience” is used often these days–it’s applicable to physical and mental health, financial performance, security, and much more. The capacity to withstand and recover from difficulties and disruption, for both individuals and organizations, has never been more important or more top of mind.

• We are in the early days of generative AI, and there’s a gold rush to gain position and prominence in the sector as it takes off. But with this rush to implementation across a bewildering range of use cases come associated risks. Get artificial intelligence (AI) right, and it can be an incredibly creative, labor-saving, and efficiency-improving solution. Employ it badly, and you risk social, financial, and even legal consequences.

Open Hardware/Modding

• When it comes to DIY IoT projects, the Raspberry Pi is just so special. With it, you can build a motion detector, DC motor fan, or even a hacking station with Kali Linux! But before you go around messing with its GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) pins, you might want to try some Raspberry Pi emulators first — just to be sure! What Is a Raspberry Pi Emulator? A Raspberry Pi emulator replicates the Raspberry Pi and its GPIO pins — but mostly the pins! You can use it across a wide range of operating systems.

• Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp. said today it’s expanding its relationship with Raspberry Pi Ltd., creator of the pocket-sized computing platform of the same name, as part of an initiative that aims to provide developers with greater access to edge-hosted artificial intelligence tools.

• SB Components’ ESPi is a WiFi-enabled Ethernet board with a 1.14-inch information color display either coming with an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth module or designed as a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Pico W board.

• The latest crowdfunder from SB Components sees the Raspberry Pi Pico W as the star of the show. Picoder is a kit to enable anyone to code and includes a series of live training sessions.

• Who said robots had to be all work and no play? For many years, people have been designing and building robots not just to help with chores, but to help us win games. Possibly the most famous examples of this are the robots that play chess.

• While robots can get around on two legs (or even none), it is difficult to get a smooth and efficient gait. Moving up to four legs improves the situation a bit, but each of those legs will still need multiple joints and careful balance for the robot to move in a stable manner.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• My original Mastodon account was on mastodon.social. I chose it because it’s the largest instance, it’s operated by the developers of the service, and it runs the reference implementation of the software.

Programming/Development

• Quite some time ago I started with a git clone of the Emacs sources and compiled that.

• From that time on, on a regular basis I do a git pull and recompile Emacs.

• Like all self compiled software, I manage the installation with GNU Stow.

• Being Emacs, there is probably more than one way to compile it, and I don’t know if the way I compile Emacs is the best way, but it works and has never failed.

• Before you start, make sure you have the right dependencies installed. The (not very big) list of packages to install is, of course, for every operating system different.

• Today I created a small template for org capture, to create weeknotes.

• This is the template:

• This will create a note starting with the header

• for week 15 in the year 2023.

Python

• The len() method can be used to find the length of a Python Dictionary. This len() method works for nested Dictionaries as well.

• To remove an element(s) from a set in Python, use the remove() method, the discard() method, the difference() method, or the subtraction operator.

• To instantiate a class in Python, simply create a variable and set it equal to a call to the class name with parenthesis, similar to calling a function.

• To remove all None values, use the remove() with __contains__(), list comprehension with if condition, or the filter() method with Lambda statement.

• To convert Python Objects into Python string, the user can make use of the str() constructor method and the repr() method.

Leftovers

• There is some significant work to get software from “it works for me” to “it actually works”.

Education

• After the Civil War, efforts to educate the formerly enslaved were wide ranging. Remnants of that move toward equality are still evident today.

Hardware

• Arm SoCs’s PC market share increased to 12.7% last year, set to grow further.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• “Remember your name,” writes Mira Ravi on how she learned to stay strong in the face of mental illness.

• Excess mortality has been off the charts since last summer. The media chooses to not talk about this (or barely even mention that). A lot more publicly-funded research is needed here, with no (corporate) strings attached.

• tl;dr 8467 deaths in 2022Q3, compared to 8165 in 2021Q3

• Three former Outcome Health executives have been found guilty of running a billion-dollar scam.

• Woman, 56, from Guangdong province is first known human fatality from the avian influenza strain.

• A nationwide ban on mifepristone would further erode doctors’ ability to provide—or learn how to provide—lifesaving care.

• The study found Chinese people were two percent happier on average living near high-speed rail, but I’d be one million percent happier if we just had one in the United States.

• “Qualified medics earn just US$17 an hour, and the U.K. minimum wage is just over US$12 an hour,” the British Medical Association trade union explained.

• Junior doctors at the UK’s troubled National Health Service (NHS) started a 96-hour strike today (April 11), which the UK government says could be the “most disruptive” healthcare strike yet.

Proprietary

• Microsoft is shifting Print Screen to the new Snipping Tool.

Security

• NTP security, transition mechanisms, TCP delayed ACKs, alternate name systems, and more from IETF 116.

• Adobe documents 56 security defects in multiple products, some serious enough to expose Windows and macOS users to code execution attacks.

• TL;DR Google dorks found me an exploited DigitalOcean subdomain takeover on London Councils’ .gov.uk domain It used a meta refresh to redirect to a site hosting unprovenanced PDFs…

• Microsoft issued a patch for a zero-day that researchers at Kaspersky said was used to deliver Nokoyawa ransomware.

• CISA Director Jen Easterly said the agency plans to release the principles this week to encourage more safe coding practices.

• Narang said while this was the only flaw exploited in the wild, Microsoft has rated nearly 90% of the vulnerabilities as Exploitation Less Likely, while just 9.3% of flaws were rated as Exploitation More Likely.

• For the second month in a row, Microsoft patches an already-exploited vulnerability in its flagship Windows operating system.

• This month we got patches for 114 vulnerabilities. Of these, 7 are critical, and 1 is already being exploited, according to Microsoft.

• Microsoft Azure shared key authorization can be exploited to access business data and achieve remote code execution.

• Siemens and Schneider Electric’s Patch Tuesday advisories for April 2023 address a total of 38 vulnerabilities found in their products.

• At least five civil society victims of QuaDream’s spyware and exploits were identified in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Victims include journalists, political opposition figures, and an NGO worker. Traces of a suspected iOS 14 zero-click exploit used to deploy QuaDream’s spyware.

• Our expert helps a reader whose bank details were compromised

• Look out for a scam email that claims the phone number on your account has been changed

• Follow these tips to spot and avoid phishing calls and messages

• Car thieves are injecting malicious software into a car’s network through wires in the headlights (or taillights) that fool the car into believing that the electronic key is nearby.

• News articles.

• KFC and Taco Bell parent company Yum Brands says personal information was compromised in a January 2023 ransomware attack.

• Three days after announcing patches for new zero-days affecting iOS and macOS, Apple released fixes for devices running older operating system versions.

Privacy/Surveillance

• Briefing for MPs on Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill. Published by Open Rights, a non-profit company limited by Guarantee, registered in Englandand Wales no. 05581537. The Society of Authors, 24 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4EH. (CC BY-SA 3.0).

• We wrote to the Ministry of Civil Aviation urging them to immediately cease the DigiYatra Scheme and to ensure that passengers are not inconvenienced due to exclusion cause by the Scheme.

Defence/Aggression

• A successful NATO summit in July requires significant progress on a host of NATO’s political and military priorities, especially those enumerated at Madrid.

• The strategic landscape of the Middle East is changing rapidly, but not in favour of the United States as the traditional powerful actor in the region.

• Critical minerals are the bedrock of the global economy, and they are crucial to the advanced capabilities relied on by the world’s top militaries.

• Chinese warships and aircraft were still operating around Taiwan on Tuesday, the island’s defence ministry said, a day after Beijing declared an end to its massive war games. China launched three days of military exercises around self-ruled Taiwan on Saturday that saw it simulate targeted strikes and practise a blockade of the island.

• The patch shows a Formosan black bear, which is native to Taiwan, holding Taiwan’s flag while punching Winnie the Pooh, which Chinese dissidents have increasingly used to mock Xi due to his supposed resemblance to the fictional teddy bear.

• The baffling leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents on social media is swiftly unfurling into a debacle for the Biden administration, which is struggling to provide answers to Congress, the public and U.S. allies.

• Why it matters: As President Biden kicks off his latest overseas trip — this time in Ireland, his ancestral homeland — the leak is threatening to undermine two defining planks of his foreign policy: strengthening U.S. alliances and supporting Ukraine.

• The Biden administration tried to reassure Israeli officials in recent days that Washington is committed to its security relationship with Israel after details contained in a trove of purported secret Pentagon documents leaked on social media appeared to suggest that the U.S. had spied on some of its closest allies, including Israel, two Israeli officials said.

• After losing tens of thousands of its mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, the Wagner Group has begun to scale back its operations there so it can expand its footprint in Africa, according to Bloomberg. The shift is happening as Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said Russia is limiting Wagner by failing to supply ammunition…

• In March, a steady stream of beleaguered Boko Haram fighters and their family members surrendered to Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) troops in Niger and Nigerian Army troops serving in Operation Hadin Kai in northern Nigeria. A total of 443 Boko Haram members and affiliated people surrendered over a four-day stretch.

• Most terrorist campaigns – where a group targets civilians to achieve political objectives – are short-lived. But some aren’t. In some cases, terror campaigns (low-intensity violence) turn into civil wars (high-intensity violence) where militants fight the government for control of the state.

• Senior US officials have reaffirmed their support for Ukraine as they seek to reassure jittery allies after a leaked trove of highly sensitive documents appeared online. In Moscow, Russian officials said they conducted a successful test launch of an “advanced” intercontinental ballistic missile, weeks after the country suspended its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.

• It’s been less than a week since news of highly classified military documents on the Ukraine war surfaced, sending the Pentagon into full-speed damage control to assure allies and assess the scope of the leak.

• Leaked documents indicate close U.S.-Ukrainian coordination in the war with Russia, but there are limits. Experts point to Ukraine’s innate distrust of even friendly powers. The leaks won’t help.

• Some of the leaked documents include highly sensitive information about Ukraine military capacities. Dozens of copies of the documents were spread on websites such as Twitter, Telegram, and Discord.

• French President Emmanuel Macron has been in China meeting with Xi Jinping and “kissing his ass,” Donald Trump said Tuesday.

• Mr Macron had cautioned against being drawn into a crisis driven by ‘American rhythm and Chinese overreaction’.

• State news outlets and social media users are lauding Mr Macron’s independence.

• The loaned shells would be used primarily by the US to fill its stockpile.

• The leaked documents suggested that a top Kremlin general would sabotage the war while Putin is distracted with cancer treatments.

• Classified U.S. documents on the war in Ukraine have been leaked online, posing significant risks to national security. Government officials say they still don’t know who or what is behind the leak.

• The Proud Boys and their close associates have an establishes history of using intimidation to avoid legal consequences. That makes the concerns about being followed of jurors in the Proud Boy trial particularly troubling.

• The ICBM-class launchers paraded on Feb 8 were ‘most likely carrying non-operational systems’, according to the documents.

• Allies discuss delivery of radars, drones, military transport aircraft and coastal and air defence systems.

• The 18-day yearly exercise dubbed Balikatan involves 5,400 Philippine and 12,200 U.S. troops, making it the largest iteration of the Philippines-U.S. joint drills conducted in decades.

• The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it has confirmed the deaths of almost 8,500 civilians since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, and believes the toll could be thousands higher.

• The Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, has approved in its final reading a bill on electronic military enlistment aimed at making it more difficult for potential draftees to evade duty.

• Romania aims to buy the latest generation U.S. F-35 fighter planes to boost its air defenses, the country’s supreme defense council said on April 11.

• Whole Foods has temporarily shut down one of its biggest locations in downtown San Francisco yesterday. The 65,000-square-foot high-end grocery store opened in March 2022.

• Another mass shooting, this time in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 10, marked the year’s 146th such event in the US. On average, mass shootings were higher in the past three years than during the past decade. They have doubled annually since 2014, when there were 272.

Environment

• Water protectors and scientists are campaigning to stop Canada’s plan to release treated tar sands tailings waste into the Athabasca River

Energy/Transportation

• The Biden administration is proposing rules to ensure that two-thirds of new cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the U.S. by 2032 are all-electric.

• Ukraine resumed energy exports to Europe in early April. The move confirmed the failure of Russia’s six-month energy infrastructure bombing campaign and underlined Ukraine’s remarkable wartime resilience, writes Aura Sabadus.

• Vladimir Putin’s winter bombing campaign targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure failed to achieve its goal of breaking Ukrainian resistance and freezing the country into submission, writes Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti.

• The Federal Railroad Administration has “significant safety concerns” related to the stuff everyone is talking about.

Wildlife/Nature

• What do you see when you look up at the night sky on a clear and cloudless night? Whether you are accustomed to seeing the luminous edges of the Milky Way or can just barely…

• America’s beekeepers have faced challenges during the unusually cold and wet winter in California’s farm country, and bees have been slow to emerge from their hives. But signs of ample wildflowers could mean a good year for honey.

• Or not so innocent.

Overpopulation

• U.S. officials released a set of proposals Tuesday for distributing cuts from the Colorado River — including one that would break from precedent by evenly assigning reductions among lower basin states, forcing users in California to shoulder more of the load.

• Driving the news: The proposals would amend 2007 guidelines that govern cuts in the event of a shortage as climate change and other factors threaten the river that provides drinking water to 40 million people in seven states and 30 tribal nations.

• As we transition to spring skiing conditions in Colorado, the crowds thin out and the skiing experience improves despite the stickier snow.

Finance

Axios ☛ First look: Yellen’s cautious optimism on the economyTreasury Secretary Janet Yellen is convinced the global economy is in better shape than some economists suggest, and is confident the world’s finance ministers have the tools to fend off a steep slowdown.That’s the case she plans to make Tuesday at a news conference kicking off the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, Axios has learned.

• The signing into law of draft pension regulations for military veterans in December – with the first payment yet to be made – drew criticism for not including former SA Defence Force (SADF) conscripts and volunteers, in particular those who stood up and were counted for the military skills development (MSD) programme.

• The British company behind Tidal’s Hi-Fi format has entered receivership—the U.S. equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Here’s what we know. MQA Ltd. is facing significant financial challenges, which has prompted its principal investor to exit.

• Four in five workers are not saving enough into their defined contribution

• pension

• Many of the economic developments that shaped global policymakers’ discussions when they last gathered in the U.S. capitol have started to fade, though they have not disappeared entirely.

• Zoom out: Supply chain disruptions have further eased, and commodity prices that surged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have since fallen back.

• Although inflation could remain at 7.0 percent globally through 2023, it is unlikely that price control targets can be achieved before 2025 in most national cases.

• Porsche SE board member Siegfried Wolf wants to rebuild war-sanctioned Russia’s automobile sector using German know-how from companies including Volkswagen. He even pitched his plan in a letter directly to Putin – and asked for an 800-million-euro credit line.

• March U.S. inflation data out Wednesday may help answer a key question: Did the strong disinflation forces seen late last year reemerge in a notable way last month?

• Why it matters: The answer may lie in the extent to which moderating prices reflected in private sector data start to appear in the government’s figures.

• Office space available for lease in the U.S. is at a record high, according to data from CoStar.

• Why it matters: Remote work is already crushing the office market, and the data is a sign that the distress is going to get worse — vacancies, already at historic highs, will likely go higher.

• Modernizing financial institutions like the World Bank starts with setting individual dignity and shared prosperity above national interests.

*

• Foreign Minister Penny Wong said diversifying the country’s export markets is an important part of its national resilience.

• After Lithuania banned the use of Chinese technology in public infrastructure, the country’s second city Kaunas is asking for an exemption. The municipality has just installed CCTV cameras worth nearly a million euros and assures they are completely safe.

• Which? calls on the government and supermarkets to promote the scheme more widely

• Members of the Veritas Tenant Association say their landlord is ignoring a landmark San Francisco law requiring it to bargain with them in good faith.

• Wage growth for US leisure and hospitality workers is slowing. In March, average hourly pay for those in production and nonsupervisory roles grew 5.1% year-over-year, well below a record high of 17% in December 2022, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Press Gazette’s monthly ranking of the top 50 news websites in the world, using Similarweb data.

• Vice-President expected to be named DPP’s candidate in next year’s presidential election.

• He pledged to continue incumbent Tsai Ing-wen’s foreign policy, calling it the way for Taiwan’s future; the election will take place in January 2024.

• Ms Tsai said her overseas trip showed the world Taiwan’s determination to defend freedom and democracy.

• Nonresident Senior Fellow Ilva Tare speaks with Dimitar Bechev, Lecturer at Oxford School of Global and Area Studies on implications of another caretaker government for Bulgaria’s economic and European outlooks.

• Twitter “no longer exists” and has merged with the newly created shell firm X Corp, according to an April 4 legal document filed by Twitter in a California court. CEO Elon Musk apparently confirmed the news by tweeting an X.

• “I am out, but officially I am in jail. I want to be able to cast a vote in these elections where even one vote is seen as so important. Do I have to go to jail in order to be able to vote?”

• Why does the highest court in the United States have the lowest ethical standards? The latest scandal, involving Justice Clarence Thomas, is threatening to erode Americans’ trust even further.

• Substack Inc. today launched Notes, a platform where Substack creators can interact with subscribers and where the entire experience looks very much like Twitter. The differences are only in the language. Users don’t post tweets; they post notes. There’s no such thing as a retweet, but there is a restack.

• Elon Musk’s latest internet flame war is with Substack. The newsletter company has announced a new feature for its website and app that Musk felt was too similar to Twitter for his liking.

• Musk, in an interview with BBC broadcast live on Twitter Spaces, said Twitter has about 1,500 employees now, a sharp decline from “just under 8,000 staff members” it had before he took it over in October.

• China expert Dr. Joseph Gregory Mahoney joins Lee Camp to discuss the rise of China on the world stage on the heels of the US empire’s decline.

• First, journalists lapped up Russian culpability. Then, interest wilted. Now they peddle a preposterous James Bond-style story. Anything to ignore the US’s role.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• Odd videos began circulating on social media in Burkina Faso in January, showing a diverse group of people urging Burkinabe to support the military junta. “Hello to the African people and particularly to the Burkinabe people. My name is Alisha and I’m a Pan-Africanist,” a female figure said in the video.

• Vietnam is considering a complete ban on the TikTok app for violating local laws. “Vietnamese law has enough provisions to ensure cyber security, and is not limited to banning or removing violating apps,” says Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Thanh Lam.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Visual artist Berkay Kahvecioğlu faces a prison sentence for creating a painting of Erdoğan accompanied by the caption “slut”. The artwork referenced the president’s derogatory comments against the Gezi Park protesters.

• A federal judge ruled against a book ban in Llano, TX. Now, local officials are discussing shutting down the public library system entirely.

• Police in the town of Korolyov near Moscow detained journalist Roman Ivanov of the RusNews Telegram channel on April 11 after searching his apartment.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• They stressed that the extradition request against the WikiLeaks founder sets a dangerous precedent for journalists.

• Independent Serbian journalists have marked the 24th anniversary of the killing of a prominent editor and newspaper publisher who was fiercely critical of the government in Belgrade.

Civil Rights/Policing

• One of the most sweeping surveillance statutes ever enacted by Congress is set to expire at the end of this year — creating an important opportunity to rein in America’s sprawling surveillance state.

• Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permits the U.S. government to engage in mass, warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international communications, including phone calls, texts, emails, social media messages, and web browsing. The government claims to be pursuing vaguely defined foreign intelligence “targets,” but its targets need not be spies, terrorists, or criminals. They can be virtually any foreigner abroad: journalists, academic researchers, scientists, or businesspeople. And in the course of this surveillance, the government casts a wide net that ensnares the communications of ordinary Americans on a massive scale — in violation of our constitutional rights.

• “Collective bargaining doesn’t disrupt advising relationships between graduate students and faculty,” writes anthropology professor Barbara L. Voss. “Instead, it enhances our academic community by ensuring that graduate workers have the dignity of union representation when they negotiate with the University.”

• The Graduate Student Council (GSC) debated the Committee of 12’s (C12) Honor Code proposals, including the restructuring of the judicial process, and offered support for expanding transportation options for campus workers.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• APNIC conducted training and presented on IPv6 and the historical resources transition at NZNOG 2023, held in Rotorua, New Zealand from 20 to 24 March 2023.

Monopolies

Patents

• Mexico’s government has announced plans to investigate the impact of genetically modified (GM) corn imports on tortillas, an essential ingredient in many of the country’s staple dishes.

• On April 10, 2023, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Office’s final decision, in a summary Rule 36 affirmance, confirmeding that the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,260,846, owned by Longhorn HD LLC, was unpatentable.

Trademarks

• “This case is a cat fight. In one corner is Puma SE, which claims that it ‘has been a cat since birth’ … and which owns Registration No. 4220096 for the stylized mark shown below. *** In the other corner is Caterpillar, Inc., which calls the CAT mark the ‘cornerstone of the company’s brand portfolio.’ *** The parties have swatted at one another for about five years, but neither has been able to land a knockout blow, and their bout has gone the distance.” The involved products are identical: footwear. How do you think this came out? Caterpillar Inc. v. Puma SE, Cancellation No. 92067079 (April 6, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Christopher Larkin).

Copyrights

• A photo of me during while signing at Trolls & Legendes 2023 Festival, in Mons Belgium – Photo CC-By 4.0 Steph Vesch.

• I’m back after a weekend of signing sessions at the “Trolls et Légendes” Festival in Belgium. I drew on more than 50 books, met amazing people, and it gave me a lot of energy, motivation, and joy! Thank you for this unforgettable moment.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

• Here we are again, writing from the bus. I’m slowly tapping away as I take the 20 minute journey into Reykjavik to meet a friend for coffee. I’ve not spent time with her in months, so we have much to catch up on.

• 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

----------

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.