● 05.18.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 18/05/2023: Weston 12.0.0 and IRPF-Livre 2023

Posted in News Roundup at 7:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

• There are more options than ever for Linux laptops, from the System76 Gazelle to the Kubuntu Focus XE. Kubuntu Focus has now added another option to the list: a mobile workstation with NVIDIA’s latest hardware.

• The Kubuntu Focus team has announced the 5th-generation M2 laptop (not to be confused with Apple’s M2 laptops), and it’s probably one of the most powerful Linux laptops your money can buy. Its specs are right there with what you’re able to find on a powerful gaming Windows laptop.

• Need a high-powered laptop and love KDE Plasma? Well the team at Kubuntu Focus just announced the fifth-generation M2 Laptop. Buying from Kubuntu Focus also helps to support KDE development, as Kubuntu Focus became a KDE Patron as of April 2023.

• Starting at $1,895 it comes power-packed for that with an Intel i9-13900HX (24 cores), 16GB 4800MHz RAM, NVIDIA RTX 4060, 500GB NVMe and a 15.6″ 2560×1440 240 Hz IPS display. Overall, that certainly sounds good and it ships with KDE Plasma 5.24 LTS on Kubuntu 22.04 LTS.

• Rhino Linux is a distribution that, despite not yet having a stable version, is capturing the attention of Linux users by taking an exciting approach – namely, a distribution based on Ubuntu but relying on the rolling release model.

• On top of that, the in-house developed rhino-pkg tool allows you to search, install, remove, and update packages from multiple sources, such as native DEB repos, Pacstall, Flathub, and Snap Store, with simple terminal outputs to enhance and ease your user experience.

• Yesterday, the devs released the fifth beta of the upcoming Rhino’s first stable version, with one key new feature presented for the first time to the broader public, the Unicorn desktop.

• The refreshed Lemur Pro Linux laptop is packed with powerful 13th-Gen Intel “Raptor Lake” processors, namely the Intel Core i5-1335U and Intel Core i7-1355U featuring 10 cores, 12 threads, 12MB cache, and Intel Iris Xe Graphics, up to 40 GB DDR5 4800 MHz memory, as well as a 73Wh Li-Ion battery that promises up to 14 hours battery life.

• Being an ultraportable laptop, the Lemur Pro features a 14.1-inch Full HD (1920×1080) display with a matte finish and 180 degrees hinge, a multitouch clickpad, a backlit US QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi 6E wireless, Bluetooth 5.3, Thunderbolt 4, up to 8TB PCIe 4.0 storage, and a 1080p Full HD webcam, which makes it perfect for people who are always on the go.

Audiocasts/Shows

• Author Michael W. Lucas joins us in this interview to talk about his latest book projects. Find out what he’s up to regarding mail servers, conferences, his views on ChatGPT, and more.

• Interview – Michael W. Lucas – mwl@mwl.io (mailto:mwl@mwl.io)

• The folks at Tuxedo Computers have published a video of short interviews with some of the participants of the Plasma sprint from earlier this month, so you can see that we were actually there.

Graphics Stack

Applications

• We are back with the first release since that crazy March day when we did two releases on the same day. First 8.0.0 shipped that bumped the major version for the first time in decades. Then curl 8.0.1 followed just hours after, due to a serious mess-up in the factory lines.

Instructionals/Technical

• Until a few months ago, the only option to start containers from Systemd was to create a Systemd unit which called podman (or docker) with the run sub-command. Podman was also providing podman generate systemd to easily create such Systemd file.

• This has now changed. From version 4.4 of Podman, in addition to the mentioned method, it is possible to use Quadlet to simplify the execution of containers from Systemd.

• I just noticed that some of my libvirt VMs had on_crash set to destroy instead of restart. It looks like there is an easy fix:

• for vm in $( virsh list --name ) ; do virt-xml "$vm" --edit --events on_crash=restart ; done

• I don’t know if something changed in virt-manager/virt-install over the years, or if I ran into this a long time ago and forgot about it.

• Now I just need to remember to add that --events option to virt-install in the future…

• This seems too crazy to work, but it does:

• $ nbdkit memory 1G$ nbdfuse mem nbd://localhost &[1] 1053075$ ll mem-rw-rw-rw-. 1 rjones rjones 1073741824 May 17 18:31 mem

• Now boot qemu with that memory as the backing RAM:

• $ qemu-system-x86_64 -m 1024 \-object memory-backend-file,id=pc.ram,size=1024M,mem-path=/var/tmp/mem,share=on \-machine memory-backend=pc.ram \-drive file=fedora-36.img,if=virtio,format=raw

• /blockquote>

• Bash, the Bourne Again SHell, is an incredibly powerful tool for managing and manipulating data. It offers a rich array of features, one of which is the ‘Here String’ (

• The virthost running the koji database has stopped responding. We are working on restoring service to koji.

• The koji database is back up and working

Games

• Recently, I was looking for some new hybrid / crossover music, and someone recommended me to check out Hidden Orchestra. Listening to their album, “Creaks” was an instant love.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• If you’re an avid user of the lightweight Xfce desktop environment and you’ve been waiting for its default screenshot utility to let you save screenshots in the AV1 Image Format (AVIF) or JPEG XL, the wait is over as these image formats are now supported as of version 1.10.4.

• Until now, Xfce’s screenshot tool only allowed you to save screenshots in PNG, JPG, BMP, and WebP image formats. Starting with version 1.10.4, which is already available in the stable software repositories of various GNU/Linux distributions, you’ll now get AVIF and JXL options.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• Haruna version 0.11.0 is out. You can get it now on flathub:

• Availability of other package formats dependes on your distro and the people who package Haruna.

• 💰 If you use the app and want it to improve make a donation: GitHub Sponsors | Liberapay | PayPal

• Issues should be reported on bugs.kde.org, but make sure to fill in the template and provide as much info as possible.

• [...]

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• Is GNOME customizable? Out of the box, not really. But like a web browser, you can change substantial parts of the interface through the use of extensions. With these add-ons, you can make GNOME work for you. And in the process, GNOME can help you get more work done, faster than you did before.

• You can find extensions over at extensions.gnome.org. There you can browse the full selection, and if you have the requisite Mozilla Firefox extension, you can install GNOME extensions directly from the site.

• But this isn’t actually the best way to go about doing things. Instead, make sure to check out the third-party Extension Manager tool. This handy app lets you browse, install, manage, and remove GNOME extensions all in one place.

• Now, with that out of the way, here are the best GNOME extensions that can help you be more productive.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Devices/Embedded

• AAEON MAX-Q670A is an industrial micro-ATX motherboard that accepts socketed 13th Gen Intel Core Raptor Lake processors, supports up to 128GB DDR5, offers eight SATA ports with RAID 0/1/5/10, up to four Ethernet ports (GbE and 2.5GbE), and two 16-lane PCIe Gen 5 slots. Other features include five display interfaces with HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, LVDS, and eDP, four bootable USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, an RS232/RS422/RS485 COM port, and plenty of internals headers for more serial and USB ports, as well as M.2 expansion sockets and a digital I/O port AAEON MAX-Q670A…

Open Hardware/Modding

• “Don’t expect something perfect,” Pebble founder tells potential buyers.

• While it is easier now than ever before, getting into robotics is still daunting. In the past, aspiring roboticists were limited by budget and inaccessible technology. But today the challenge is an overwhelming abundance of different options.

• One of the most popular machines in any arcade is the Cyclone game, where a ring of LEDs illuminates in sequence and the player must push a button at the exact moment that a specific LED lights up.

• The Beepberry is a portable e-Ink handheld featuring an onboard RP2040 that works with a Raspberry Pi Zero.

• Donkey Car is an open source Python library for self-driving cars that works with the Raspberry Pi and other SBCs.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Introducing FOSSverse, concluding Rust Basics series and looking at the upcoming KDE Plasma 6 features.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Mozilla

• The declarativeNetRequest (DNR) extension API is now available to all extensions starting from Firefox 113, released last week. Extensions with functionality that can be expressed in terms of declarative rules are highly encouraged to transition to the DNR API. Documentation is available at declarativeNetRequest (MDN).

• DNR allows extensions to declare rules that describe how the browser should handle network requests. These rules enable Firefox to process network requests without involving the extension further. In comparison with the blocking webRequest API, this offers the following benefits: [...]

GNU Projects

• Governments come and go, but the oppression of imposed taxing software for taxation remains.

• For a lot of people, using software they cannot control is like water for a fish: a part of the environment they’re in. When the water is low on oxygen, they may even feel the discomfort, but they seldom trace it back to the root cause.

• For us who love, live and breathe software freedom, any program that takes it away, that attempts to control our computing and ultimately ourselves, is painful like a sore toe in a tight shoe.

• Uncomfortable and painful as the oxygen-deprived water and the tight shoe might be, being forced to breathe or wear them, prevented from seeking better waters or from taking the shoes out, is unbearable.

• We struggle to correct an analogous injustice. We had a chance to relieve one case of imposed taxing software for taxation, so we took it, and held on to it: [...]

Programming/Development

• We laugh at Google’s scramble, check in on the Twitter collapse, and how one developer’s little mistake screwed millions.

• We are happy to announce the release of Qt Design Studio 4.

Rust

• Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust!Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software. This is a weekly summary of its progress and community. Want something mentioned? Tag us at @ThisWeekInRust on Twitter or @ThisWeekinRust on mastodon.social, or send us a pull request.

Leftovers

• The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis is revisiting the 1986 film classic, in a world premiere from Tony-winning playwright Itamar Moses.

• A Chinese fishing vessel has capsized in the central Indian Ocean, with its crew of 17 Chinese, 17 Indonesian and five Filipino sailors missing, state media reported Wednesday.

• In “Trust,” Hernan Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, fiction and finance are bedfellows, constantly toying with a reader’s investment.

Science

• The message is clear.

• Their existence is fleeting.

• There’s no signs of council approval, though.

• One stands out to watch.

• A new genetic analysis of 290 people suggests that humans emerged at various times and places in Africa.

• What’s lurking within?

• Why haven’t we seen this before?

• Archaeologists discovered engraved depictions of massive animal traps that date back 9,000 years.

Education

• The COVID-19 pandemic upended learning across the United States

• \Hong Kong primary students have ranked second among 43 countries and regions in a global reading literacy study, though parents in the city were found to have the lowest interest in reading in the world.

• The Latvian Education and Science Workers’ Trade Union (LIZDA) is still not satisfied with the calculations of the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) in relation to the fulfillment of the requirements of the teachers’ strike, Latvian Television reported on May 18.

• The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) examines the reading comprehension of fourth grade students around the world every 5 years.

Hardware

• At the moment, the most powerful Arm processor on the planet is the 48-core A64FX processor from Fujitsu, which was created as the heavily vectored compute engine for the “Fugaku” supercomputer at RIKEN Lab in Japan.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• This weekend PANDA in association with the Portuguese Society of Integrative Medicine, are sponsoring a conference on Propaganda and mental health, with a focus on the recent Covid19 psy-op. Speakers will include regular OffG contributor Dr Piers Robinson, Mark Crispin Miller, Mattias Desmet and many more.

• Since the dairy crisis in winter, the industry has been uncertain about the future. Part of the industry representatives believes that only the biggest players should remain in the market. In the meantime, the Ministry of Agriculture is continuing to develop legislation, Zemgale Television reported on May 16.

• Months before an election, New Zealand’s government is offering some modest financial relief to many people by making most prescription medicines free and increasing subsidies for childcare and public transportation

• The US is in a drug shortage emergency.

• ‘Sometimes’ foods have a cost.

• A federal appellate court on Wednesday seemed skeptical of nearly every argument from the Biden administration as it defended the Food and Drug Administration’s power to approve a widely used abortion pill.

• The approval brings both chambers of the legislature closer to agreement on a ban after months of debate.

• The Theranos scam co-conspirators have to foot a huge bill for their crimes.

• The unbranded and dangerous ‘SS-168′ alarm was found for sale at eBay,

• AliExpress and Wish despite having repeatedly failed our tests

• The refugees fleeing fighting in Sudan, seeking food and shelter, constitute a new hunger crisis. More hungry people in more countries need food aid.

• Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes must begin serving her prison sentence by May 30 while she appeals her conviction on charges of defrauding investors in her failed blood-testing startup, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

• “The Black Sea Grain Initiative has been extended for two more months.”

• “Import duty on the 14 basic commodities will remain suspended for six months in order to ensure their availability at competitive prices”

Proprietary

Windows TCO

• The US is offering a $10 million reward for information on a Russian man accused of launching ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure.

• It looks like complaining can work, as it appears that Microsoft has pulled a U-turn when it comes to cramming one of Windows 11’s most popular apps with ads.

• This isn’t a new attack vector, but I’ve found many malicious RAR SFX files in the wild for a few weeks. An SFX file is a self-extracting archive that contains compressed files and is wrapped up with some executable code to decompress them on the fly. The final user receives an executable file (PE file) that can be launched with the need to install a specific tool to decompress the content.

Security

• Ubuntu now provides expanded security maintenance (esm) updates for the packages in main/universe repositories through “Ubuntu Pro” service. With it, you can get 5 years more (total of 10 years) security updates support for Ubuntu LTS.

Privacy/Surveillance

• Microsoft, which owns the internet communication service, says it is working to resolve the issue.

• Pressured by the Chinese government to comply with censorship guidelines, Zoom drafted guidelines to suppress content critical of Beijing.

• Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using a tool called Babel X that can link a person’s Social Security number to their social media posts and location data, according to an internal CBP document obtained by Motherboard.

• Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard has sent an open letter calling on the Rapporteurs and members of leading committees on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) to prohibit the use of certain artificial intelligence (AI) systems which are incompatible with human rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the AI Act.

• The government accused the 4 ex-officials of fraud and embezzlement in relation to the purchase of Pegasus spyware and its use from 2012-18.

Defence/Aggression

• For the seventh year in Latvia, the Ukrainian community will mark Vyshyvanka Day on May 18, Latvian Radio reported.

• History may one day show that two important events did not receive the attention they deserved. One may have led to the horrible way the war in Ukraine started; one may lead to the horrible way it ends.

• The following is the text of a full-page ad by the Eisenhower Media Network in the New York Times on May 16, 2023. The Russia-Ukraine War has been an unmitigated disaster. Hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded. Millions have been displaced.

• Japan, Ukraine, Ireland and Iceland have joined the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE).

• According to officials and experts at a recent Atlantic Council event, Russia will remain at the top of NATO’s Vilnius agenda—but that doesn’t mean the Alliance shouldn’t have its eye on challenges posed by China and emerging technologies.

• The Russian Embassy in South Africa has said the United States totally fabricated allegations that South Africa loaded weaponry aboard the Russian vessel Lady R in December last year.

• With NATO’s mid-July summit in Vilnius fast approaching, the question on everyone’s minds is how to avoid another debacle concerning Ukraine’s prospective membership in the alliance.

• On 11 May 2023 the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, claimed that South Africa had secretly exported arms to Russia in December 2022. The announcement rapidly fed into a popular narrative that South Africa was increasingly siding with Russia in relation to Moscow’s aggressive war in Ukraine.

• Ukraine said “unprecedented” air attacks had rocked the capital and other cities early on Thursday while a missile strike killed at least one person in Odesa. Read our live blog for the latest developments.

• Ukraine’s foreign minister told a top Chinese envoy at talks in Kyiv on Wednesday that Kyiv would not accept any proposals to end the war with Russia that involved it losing territory or freezing the conflict, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

• Equipment for Russian warships may have been transported through Lithuania during Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the Siena investigative journalism centre.

• Children from the Ukrainian town of Bucha near Kyiv will come to spend some of the summer in Palanga, a coastal town in Lithuania, according to Mayor Šarūnas Vaitkus.

• Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, who is taking part in the Council of Europe’s summit in Reykjavik, has called for addressing the issue of Ukraine’s reconstruction and for creating a legal framework to punish Russia for war crimes.

• China’s special envoy noted there was no panacea to the war in Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv, but urged all parties to create conditions for peace talks, China’s Foreign Ministry said on May 18.

• An independent monitoring group urges Finland to exercise caution in regard to Nato nuclear weapons exercises, reports the Finnish news agency (STT).

• Russia carried out a fresh attack on Kyiv overnight using drones and missiles, but all incoming projectiles were shot down, Ukrainian officials said May 18.

• Bomb threats were received by 78 Serbian elementary schools and 37 high schools on May 17.

• The Russian mercenary force Wagner Group has propped up autocrats from Mali to Syria in recent years. In Bakhmut, however, it now finds itself in the bloody spotlight of the war in Ukraine. Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has long enjoyed Putin’s support – but for how much longer?

• A Moscow court has sentenced a Colombian citizen to five years and two months in prison on charge of distributing “fake” news about Russia’s armed forces.

• A court in Moscow has sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of justifying terrorism and inciting hatred.

• Home to almost two billion people, some of the world’s most dynamic economies, and important shipping routes, South Asia is a crucial geopolitical arena and the site of increasing rivalry between two of Asia’s biggest powers…

• The show must go on

• A court in Bishkek on May 16 sentenced a Kyrgyz citizen to 10 years in prison for joining Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern region of Luhansk.

• The Czech government on May 17 canceled Soviet-era decrees that granted the Russian Embassy free use of land in Prague and other cities, a further step in a more than two-year diplomatic spat with Moscow worsened by the war in Ukraine.

• Officials say Russia launched cruise missiles at Ukraine’s capital and the Odesa region early Thursday, and most were shot down

• The United States is resisting a European push for the powerful fighters. But will it relent, as it did before with tanks, rocket launchers and air defense missiles?

• The advances have been small, and Russians still hold most of the city, but Ukrainians say they see a meaningful shift in momentum.

• Russia last year blocked exports of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, a vital part of the global food supply, but they resumed last summer under a fragile pact.

• The development is a dramatic turnabout after the reservoir had reached a historic low. The dam, which lies along the front line, has been a point of tension throughout the war.

• The ambassadors of Poland, Germany, and Britain and the former foreign ministers of Spain and Georgia on May 17 said that reconstruction efforts in Ukraine are already under way, even with the war far from over and with formal plans for reconstruction still in the formative stage.

• Fighting for the control of the eastern city of Bakhmut has continued unabated, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on May 18.

• More than 40 nations have agreed to set up a system to tally the damage Russia has inflicted on Ukraine in the hope of getting reparations, adding to the international legal challenges the Kremlin is facing.

• China will for the first time host an in-person summit of Central Asian leaders this week, seeking to cement ties in a region seen as Russia’s backyard as its relations with the West sour.

• Chinese state media highlighted the importance of the region as a gateway for China’s BRI.

• Finland’s foreign affairs ministry characterised the situation as serious and says it is looking into the matter.

• “…a substantial commitment to improving the economic cooperation between the two countries…”

• The bilateral business forum is attended by fifty Russian companies and more than 100 Cuban ones.

• “Washington and Brussels, obsessed with the idea of building a unipolar world and expanding NATO to the east, have destroyed the global security system,” the Duma chairman said.

• The White House wants to make a diplomatic push for a Saudi-Israeli peace deal in the next six to seven months before the presidential election campaign consumes President Biden’s agenda, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the issue told Axios.

• A Justice Department filing urging that Airman Jack Teixeira be held without bail said his superiors had admonished him for taking notes and conducting deep-dive searches last fall.

• Much attention has been paid to Airman Jack Teixeira’s motives in allegedly leaking classified information on the gaming site Discord. But are there solutions that might have blocked his actions in the first place?

• A filing in the detention dispute of accused leaker Jack Teixeira reveals he was responding to solicitors from people presenting as foreigners as early as November 2022.

• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will attend an Arab League summit Friday in Saudi Arabia, his top diplomat said, a first in more than a decade of war and regional isolation.

• President Bashar al-Assad is expected to participate in the meeting for the first time since brutally crushing his country’s Arab Spring uprising.

• Activist Areej Al-Sadhan filed a lawsuit against Twitter, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and several Saudi officials for racketeering on Tuesday. Al-Sadhan is suing on behalf of her brother Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan, who is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia and was allegedly tortured by Saudi authorities, and herself, claiming that she is a target of Saudi harassment.

• Last month was Mexico’s least violent April in terms of homicides in six years, but murders increased slightly in 2023′s first four months.

• Myanmar’s military has imported at least $1 billion in arms and other material since it staged a coup in February 2021, a UN expert said on Wednesday in a new report that calls out Russia and China for aiding the junta’s deadly campaign to crush its opposition.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• The National Archives has been called more than 80 times in the past decade-plus about classified materials found in the papers of former members of Congress and other U.S. officials. That tally cited in newly released congressional testimony underscores the weaknesses in how the government tracks and safeguards its most important secrets. Archives officials said most of the calls came from libraries where former members of Congress donated their papers for future research.

Environment

• At least nine people died in Italy’s northern Emilia Romagna region as heavy rains flooded rivers and submerged entire neighbourhoods and farmland Wednesday, prompting the cancellation of this weekend’s Imola Grand Prix.

• Torrential rains caused a creek to overflow, destroying all the tents on its banks.

• Consider this a warning.

• The World Meteorological Organization forecast “far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment.”

• Jakarta is sinking, and Indonesia’s president has chosen to move the capital. The Times accompanied him on a tour.

• Intense downpours caused rivers to overflow in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, swamping numerous cities in a catastrophe that experts described as “unprecedented.”

• It is near-certain that 2023-2027 will be the warmest five-year period ever recorded, the United Nations warned Wednesday as greenhouse gases and El Nino combine to send temperatures soaring.

• Heavy rainfall in recent days has battered parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, causing widespread flooding in residential and commercial areas and triggering landslides.

Energy/Transportation

• Fascinating what can be discovered online, when one persists with searching.

• I have posted about a solar-powered electric recumbent trike available for purchase:

• https://bkhome.org/news/202305/outback-adventure-solar-powered-recumbent-trike.html

• Interesting question. We see these slim athletic lycra-attired riders zipping along on their racing bikes.  Do recumbent trikes attract a different sort of person?

• I wanted to find out if there are any cycling groups in Australia specifically for recumbent riders, and discovered yes, in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

• Elon Musk has no plans of stepping down as Tesla CEO any time soon.

• Tesla has developed feelings for India yet again./p>

• “without incurring any financial interests and at a price that takes competitive international prices into account”

• Ads, they’re good now.

• Generate Capital is investing up to $250m in Ambient Fuel’s hydrogen project pipeline.

• The Hydrogen Technology Expo Europe has announced a new long-term partnership with Hamburg Messe und Congress (HMC), revealing the event will take place in Hamburg, Germany, from 2024.

• Scotland must overcome five key obstacles if it is to realise its hydrogen development potential, according to a new Addleshaw Goddard report.

• Electricity production must also be profitable for nuclear power plants, according to the facility’s operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO).

• the youtube live stream scammers are back. as the user might have noted, this scheme originated from TWITTER. it worked like that: a lot of (foreign sponsored) scammers have created fake-Elon-Musk accounts (that look realistic, have a lot of fake-followers)…

Wildlife/Nature

• Evolution isn’t straightforward.

• Tracing the path of our ancient history.

• The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued another air quality alert for parts of northern and central Minnesota beginning at 10 p.m. Wednesday and continuing through noon Thursday due to drifting smoke from Canadian wildfires. Much of the same area was under an alert Tuesday.

• The mother arrived from Germany about six months ago to boost the zoo’s musk ox population, but staff did not know she was already pregnant.

Overpopulation

• Join Reason on YouTube Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a discussion about the limits of population control with Elizabeth Nolan Brown and Scott Winship.

Finance

• Another troubling sign has emerged in China as the country seeks to regain its economic footing following three years of strict covid curbs.

• Day One: All chief executives have changed their e-mail auto-responses from “I am vacationing in Moldova and will be slow to respond” to “I am vacationing in Moldova and also I’m on strike.”

• When Vice Media filed for bankruptcy this week, it was one of seven large Chapter 11 bankruptcies in a two-day span that started on Sunday.

• Why it matters: That’s a lot — and more are likely on the way. Vice’s bankruptcy documents tell the story in painstaking detail of what happens when the easy-money era comes to an end.

• The big picture: That era ended just over a year ago when the Federal Reserve embarked on one of the steepest and fastest rate-hiking campaigns in history — and it takes about that long for the consequences to really start trickling through the market.

• Members of the US Senate banking committee quizzed the bosses of the recently failed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank on May 16.

• A longtime Mississippi lawmaker faces up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to willfully making a false statement on a tax return Authorities say Democratic Rep. Earle Banks failed to report more than $500,000 of income from the 2018 sale of real estate

• Ralph White was given a daunting mission: To save scores of Vietnamese civilians during the war. He reflects on his trials and triumph in a new book, “Getting out of Saigon.”

• Japan has racked up a trade deficit in April, marking the 21st month in a row of deficits, although it declined dramatically compared to a year ago, as exports recovered

• A new policy now costs £545 on average

• Inflation and rising interest rates have impoverished Lithuania’s middle class, economists say, even though defining that group is less than straightforward. Amid the government’s tax reform plans, both proponents and opponents invoke the welfare of “the middle class” to argue their case.

• “…inflation disproportionately affects families with children, particularly single mothers…”

• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a meeting with computer chip makers has stressed that investment and international exchanges to strengthen the supply chain were welcome

• TOKYO (Reuters) – Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he welcomed and expected more investment from global chipmakers in Japan, which is striving to…

• Volatility has become the new norm in Washington as the president heads to Japan, where he will reassure world leaders that the debt ceiling showdown will not upend the global economy.

• Joe Biden and opposition Republican leaders on Tuesday offered hope of a deal that could avoid a catastrophic US debt default, although the president was forced to shorten an upcoming Asia tour for further crisis talks.

• Debt-limit talks progress as President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appoint negotiators to avoid a national default. The talks focus on potential agreements, such as reallocating funds and implementing work requirements.

• Today’s links The IRS will do your taxes for you (if that’s what you prefer): After years of expensively purchased delay, Turbotax and its fellow tax-profiteers are losing the fight to make you pay them to tell the government what it already knows.

• Contrary to the myth, Americans pay quite a lot of taxes.

• The company “Kuldīgas maizes ceptuve/Kuldīga bakery” has decided to close the production plant, with more than 60 people losing their jobs, reported Latvian Radio on May 18.

• Stellantis said post-Brexit export rules and the lack of a domestic battery manufacturer could force it to close its plants in Britain.

• A trade union for those with business degrees wants the next government to abolish the country’s ‘solidarity tax.’

• Some say feelings of shame around menstruation are preventing serious discussions around menstrual poverty.

• Working-age people are less likely to report a satisfactory quality of life than they were in 2018.

• Orders have reduced, says the company, meaning production will have to be cut back as well.

• THE FINNISH ECONOMY seems to have bounced back immediately from its recession, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

• Statistics Finland on Tuesday published a flash estimate indicating that the gross domestic product grew by 1.1 per cent from the previous quarter between January and March. The economy had slipped into a technical recession at the end of last year as the gross domestic product contracted for two consecutive quarters – by 0.1 per cent in July to September and 0.6 per cent in October to December.

• Nooa Savings Bank has conducted a recent study that sheds light on the financial difficulties faced by every other Finnish citizen. The research highlights the impact of rising prices, with 24% of respondents experiencing significant or moderate economic challenges. Particularly concerning is the worsening financial situation among women and young people compared to two years ago.

• Years later, Lee founded the crowdsourced layoffs database Layoffs.fyi, which began documenting tech layoffs during COVID-19. Since then, Lee has been entrenched in layoffs data and employee outlook data with his co-founded companies Comprehensive and Human Interest, which offer employee benefits.

• New data shows that 2023 is shaping up to be the biggest year for Chapter 11 filings in more than a decade.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) on Wednesday unveiled a bill that seeks to remove Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) from Congress over his claims of collusion between former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.

• The Department of Justice this week released a report by US Special Counsel John Durham asserting that the FBI’s 2016 investigation into former US President Donald Trump’s alleged Russia connections, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, was initiated improperly and on the basis of inadequate intelligence.

• The European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi on May 17 warned aspiring member Bosnia-Herzegovina that EU allies do not visit Russia, another show of disappointment in the country after Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik’s trip to Moscow last year.

• Defections in the once solidly Conservative southern “blue wall” drove large losses in recent municipal elections.

• A list of interviews cited in the John Durham report suggests he never really investigated the things he claimed to be investigating — like the problematic Carter Page FISA applications or the two false statements cases he did charge — because starting no later than February 2020, he was too busy pursuing a baseless attempt to claim Hillary tried to frame Donald Trump.

• Marin has served as Prime Minister in a caretaker capacity since elections in April, but will relinquish the post when a new government is formed.

• MFP leader’s path to premiership could still be blocked, despite his coalition commanding a Lower House majority.

• Pakistan’s former prime minister, Imran Khan, has secured an extension to his protective bail until May 31, his lawyer said on May 17, as an official announced people involved in violent protests over his arrest would be tried in military courts.

• Analyst says canceled visit is fruitful material for detractors of U.S. overtures to the Pacific.

• South Africa’s largest city is now on its sixth different mayor in 22 months. While politicians argue over power, residents struggle with dry taps, heaps of garbage and dilapidated buildings.

• The chief of Vektor, one of Russia’s leading virology centers, has been fired over “conflicts of interest” and “losing trust.”

• There’s stuff to promote now. The followers can come later.

• Governments have expressed concerns that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, may endanger sensitive user data.

• How Spanish social native startup Ac2ality became one of the most-followed news brands on Tiktok.

• Read through the most interesting developments at the intersection of human rights and technology from the Netherlands. This is the third update in this series.

• Montana has become the first US state to ban TikTok, forbidding the popular social media app from operating within the state’s borders.

• Montana on Wednesday became the first US state to ban TikTok, with the law set to take effect next year as debate escalates over the impact and security of the popular video app.

• TikTok has officially announced the ‘Artist Impact Program,’ effectively expanding the TikTok Commercial Music Library with more than a million songs and sounds from emerging and established artists.

• The legislation is the most extreme prohibition of the app in the nation and will almost certainly face legal challenges.

• Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte on Wednesday signed into law a first-of-its kind bill that makes it illegal for TikTok to operate in the state

• Inside a monthly New York City hangout, where fired university professors and controversial TikTokers get together to have discussions they feel they can’t have anywhere else.

• President Guillermo Lasso disbanded the National Assembly as the opposition-led body was trying to oust him on embezzlement charges.

• The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, dissolved the country’s National Assembly on Wednesday (May 17), after impeachment proceedings accused him of facilitating the embezzlement of state funds.

• President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador has used a rare constitutional mechanism to dissolve the National Assembly. Atlantic Council experts share their insights on what it means and what comes next.

• Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso, who is weathering impeachment proceedings in congress over alleged corruption, issued a decree Wednesday dissolving the legislature.

• President of Ecuador Guillermo Lasso dissolved Ecuador’s National Assembly and called for new elections Wednesday just one day after his impeachment trial began. Lasso will also rule by decree for economic matters, subject to oversight by the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court, until the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.

• European Commission Statement Brussels, 17 May 2023 The European Union, represented by European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina…

• European Commission Statement Brussels, 17 May 2023 Conversation by Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement with Ali Aslan, International TV Presenter, Moderator, Talk Show Host…

• On May 17 Latvia takes up a significant role at the Council of Europe, as previously reported by LSM. To mark the occasion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has produced a short video looking at the history of Latvia’s relationship with the organization, which can be watched above.

• Rachael S. Rollins, who plans to resign from her office in Boston, tried to aid a political ally, lied under oath and violated the Hatch Act, a pair of government watchdog reports found.

• Republicans have singled out low-income Americans, yet again, as a prime target in this year’s scheme over the debt limit.

• Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, said that he donated the money to his school as part of a $1 million gift he gave in 2016.

• A proposed court settlement closes another chapter in the German bank’s relationship with the disgraced financier, which began in 2013 and continued up until late 2018.

• Johnny G. Plate is the fifth minister in the Widodo administration to be charged with corruption.

Axios ☛ House votes down measure to expel George SantosThe House on Wednesday voted to refer a resolution to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress to the Ethics Committee, effectively killing the measure.Why it matters: It was a tough vote for vulnerable Republicans, many of whom have called for the politically toxic Long Islander to step down.One Republican Santos critic said he expects the committee to act in the next two months.The details: The bill passed 221-204 largely along party lines, with all Republicans voting for the GOP motion.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Maria Ponomarenko, who was sentenced to six years in prison in February on a charge of discrediting the Russian military, has been transferred to a prison in the city of Krasnoyarsk, 1,000 kilometers away from her native city of Barnaul, where her children are staying with their grandparents.

• ARTICLE 19 is an international ‘think-do’ organisation that propels the freedom of expression movement, locally and globally, so people everywhere can realise the power of their voices. It works for a world where everyone can freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear of discrimination.

• Twitter’s long history of fighting Turkish censorship has ended with Musk.

Civil Rights/Policing

• The convict, diagnosed with stomach cancer, was being held in the Bitlis Ahlat T Type Prison.

• As a G7 summit nears in Hiroshima, Japan is under pressure to show greater support for equality. A national Shinto group has spread a more hostile message.

• When it comes to their employees, employers are getting more for less these days. US wages have stagnated in recent years, and salary increases have not caught up with inflation. Meanwhile, US productivity grew 3.7 times as fast as pay—64.6% compared to 17.3%—between 1979 and 2021.

• The publication of the first magazine dedicated to West Africa’s LGBT community, originally set to hit shelves on May 12, has been delayed due to difficulties finding gay-friendly printers in the Ivory Coast. “Meleagbo” would be French-speaking West Africa’s first LGBT publication. Launched by the NGO Gromo, which advocates LGBT rights in Abidjan, the magazine promotes gay icons and highlights the community’s culture, history and victories.

• The record number of African films at the 76th Cannes Film Festival has fuelled talk of a moviemaking revival on the continent, powered by a new generation of female directors. Fittingly, this year’s Carrosse d’Or award, part of the Directors Fortnight strand, went to Mali’s Souleymane Cissé, the veteran director credited with reinventing film as an African art form.

• The main opposition party says they found discrepancies in over 4,000 of 200,000 ballot boxes.

• Şeker, the lawyer of Dina’s family who said he would be quitting attorneyship in the case, informed that the Embassy of Gabon declined to pay the 6 thousand dollars requested for a second autopsy in the case of the suspicious death of the young university student from Gabon.

• Other Muslim countries make a theological pitch to the Taliban to lift harsh bans on education and work for females.

• The Ability Awareness Project anti-bullying program teaches schoolchildren that kindness starts with recognition of the humanity of each individual.

• Dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in Los Angeles have declared victory in a hard-fought battle to unionize– a landmark moment for the industry.

• In June 2023, the European Union (EU) will adopt its first report on the state of the ‘Digital Decade’ – a plan launched in 2022 with digitalisation targets for business, public services and people’s digital skills.

• Last week, European Parliament committees voted to protect people’s rights in the AI Act. In a landmark moment, Members of Parliament (MEPs) supported all key civil society demands. We’re still concerned about some gaps and loopholes but it’s a big win for our network and partners’ work!

• The PEGA committee also adopted its final report and recommendations. It included many valuable proposals but failed to go all the way in calling for an EU-wide ban on spyware.

• Donald Williams of Minneapolis filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court.

• U-M has petitioned the Michigan Employment Relations Commission to initiate the fact-finding process in an effort to resolve its ongoing contractual dispute with the Graduate Employees’ Organization.

• Forty-seven soldiers were shot dead and secretly buried shortly after D-Day, a veteran says. The story was hidden for decades.

• You can love your kids deeply and hate being a mom.

• California is nearing the conclusion of its first-in-the-nation Black reparations task force. Black state residents say they hope the effort results in meaningful actions.

• Descendants of enslaved people want land seized by the state returned and recognition of the gold rush’s rich, and largely ignored, Black history.

Internet/Tech

• After more than a decade of financial expenditures, over $100 billion in government investments, and three years after the COVID-19…

• One of the great things about the internet is how it gives ordinary, not-connected and not-rich individuals like us access to customers for our home businesses and side hustles. Now, many people in Zimbabwe use platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to push their products.

• Chinese video game and social media giant Tencent has long been thought to be developing a competitor to ChatGPT, the popular artificial-intelligence chatbot, for its WeChat app. While the company’s latest update to investors didn’t address these rumors directly, it’s clear more AI is in Tencent’s future.

• We have watched as Econet has gone from mostly reliable to what they are today. I think we can all agree that Econet’s service quality has been tanking for some years now.

• Econet is facing unprecedented challenges on its network, to say the least. They resolved the voice services issue but data connectivity issues persist as we discussed here: 8 days later, Econet data connectivity challenges persist – a timeline of their comms on the issue.

Monopolies

Patents

• The Unified Patent Court is supposed to harmonise the patent landscape.

Trademarks

• Taco Bell wants “Taco Tuesday” for everyone—especially for itself.

• In an exhaustive and exhausting 69-page decision, the Board sustained-in-part and dismissed-in-part Starbucks’ opposition to registration of the mark SIREN’S BREW (“BREW” disclaimed), finding confusion likely with the Starbucks design logo with regard to applicant’s “coffee beans,” but not as to applicant’s “shirts; sweat shirts.” Starbucks’ dilution claim failed because Starbucks did not prove its logo to be famous for dilution purposes. This blog post will attempt to hit the highlights. Starbucks Corporation v. Mountains and Mermaids, LLC, Oppositions Nos. 91250027 and 91250160 (May 8, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Cynthia C. Lynch).

Copyrights

• The House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet today held the first of several planned hearings about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on intellectual property, focusing in this initial hearing on copyright law. The witnesses included three artists, a professor, and an attorney with varying perspectives on the matter, although the artists all expressed similar concerns about the potentially dire effects of generative AI (GAI) applications on their respective industries and careers.

• Charles Perrault is celebrated as the collector of some of the world’s best-known fairy tales. But his brothers were just as remarkable: Claude, an architect of the Louvre, and Pierre, who discovered the hydrological cycle. As Hugh Aldersey-Williams explores, all three were able to use positions within the orbit of the Sun King to advance their modern ideas about the world.

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