● 05.20.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 20/05/2023: IPFire 2.27 – Core Update 175

Posted in News Roundup at 11:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

• Jeremy Garcia, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which there is unsceptical intensity, we are all eaten by a T-1000, and we have collected a list of concerns about Large Language Model-based AI, which we’re going to dive into!

• Alex tempts Chris with his Obsidian ways, our thoughts on Drobo going bankrupt, and Photoprism adding paid tiers. Plus, the slick suite of tools you’ll want to run on your LAN.

Instructionals/Technical

• Logwatch is an open-source log analyzer that scans through system logs and sends out a summary report of important system activity via email or other channels. This makes it easy to monitor and manage system logs, and quickly identify potential security threats or other issues.

• You can launch terminal by pressing CTRL + ALT + T, or by using the GUI and the search box on the dashboard menu.

• While accessing a remote machine, if you’re getting “remote display server is not supported”, then you need to enable X11 and disable Wayland to resolve the issue.

• Not only show you how to open pdf programmatically but also show you how to fix android.os.FileUriExposedException: exposed beyond app through Intent.getData() error.

• Tixati is a lightweight and feature-rich BitTorrent client that enables fast and efficient downloading of files on Linux systems. If you are using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and prefer installing software using Debian packages (deb), this article will guide you through the installation process of Tixati.

• Last week I had the opportunity to present at Open Source Summit North America (2023) in the Open Source On-Ramp track. I promised to upload my slides by Monday of this week (oops) but didn’t factor in getting COVID. Apologies to anybody who came looking for the slides previously, I was pretty much under the weather all week.

• Spigot is a popular and customizable server platform for Minecraft. If you’re running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and want to set up a Spigot server to host your own Minecraft world, this article will guide you through the installation process.

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to show the public IP, location and the timezone of your server/computer in a bash script, and then save the output into a text file.

• There are a lot of sites where you can just visit them and they will show your

• Spack is a powerful package manager designed to simplify the installation and management of software packages in scientific computing and high-performance computing environments. In this article, we will walk you through the process of installing Spack on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, enabling you to leverage its capabilities for managing your software dependencies efficiently.

• OrientDB is a NoSQL, multi-model database management system that combines the flexibility of documents with the power of graph databases. In this article, we will walk you through the process of installing OrientDB on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, enabling you to leverage its capabilities for building robust and scalable applications.

• Basemap is a Python library for developers who want to create maps and perform various geographical plotting tasks.

• Element is an open-source, privacy-focused, and highly customizable messaging platform that puts the user in control. As a project from the prolific team at Element.io, it provides a secure alternative to mainstream messaging apps by enabling users to host their own servers while retaining a high degree of usability and feature richness.

• Delving into the vast, exciting realm of Linux can be both thrilling and somewhat daunting. However, software utilities like Neofetch can make the journey much more enjoyable and insightful. Neofetch is a remarkable command-line system information tool designed for Linux systems.

• Ubuntu Linux, a robust, user-friendly, and popular Linux distribution, has long embraced the potential of Snapcraft, a universal packaging system developed by Canonical, the very creators of Ubuntu itself.

• As an open-source operating system, Linux provides an array of tools to manage, compress, and decompress files. Compressed files, used to reduce storage space and maximize data transfer, are commonplace in the Linux world.

• Let’s learn how to fix the “docker unable to prepare context: unable to evaluate symlinks in Dockerfile path errors” on your Windows or Linux machine. Are you trying to use the Docker file to automate the configuration on docker-compose? If so, you might be plagued by this issue, which you can fix in no time.

• In the realm of Linux, “crontab” is a term you may come across fairly often. This utility, available on Unix-like operating systems, is used to schedule tasks that are automatically executed at predefined times and intervals. This is highly beneficial for administrators and power users, allowing them to automate various system tasks.

• A simple guide to fix the “invalid or corrupted package” error in Arch Linux. I have a few Arch Linux systems in both physical and VM setup, which I access when needed. After almost two months, when I tried to upgrade the Arch Linux in one of them using sudo pacman -Syu,

• As we navigate through the world of Unix-like operating systems, we come across different shell environments, each with its unique features and capabilities. Two commonly used shell environments are Bash (Bourne Again Shell) and Zsh (Z Shell).

• Simplify the deployment of your WordPress website with our easy-to-follow guide. Use Docker Compose, Nginx, Apache, and SSL for a seamless installation process.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Composer on Fedora 38. Composer is a powerful dependency management tool for PHP that simplifies the process of including external libraries and packages in your PHP projects.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from May 12 to May 19.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Linux is the ideal choice for developers and programmers looking for a more practical operating system.

New Releases

• The forthcoming update, IPFire 2.27 – Core Update 175, is available for testing! Most noteworthy, it updates OpenSSL to the 3.1.0 branch, features a kernel update as well as other package updates and a variety of bug fixes are also included in this update.

• IPFire makes heavy use of this cryptography library, which is why keeping it up to date (without causing any interference to existing installations) is an important task for the development team. Core Update 175 updates OpenSSL to version 3.1.0, for which some work under the hood was necessary, such as ensuring all dependent packages were ready for using OpenSSL’s API, which has changed from the 1.1.x series.

• To avoid breaking any custom software IPFire users may run on their installations, OpenSSL 1.1.1′s files remain untouched on existing installations until the release of Core Update 176. However, please note that OpenSSL 1.1.1 is scheduled for end of life on September 11, 2023, and ensure any custom changes are made compatible to OpenSSL 3.1.0 as soon as possible.

Fedora Family / IBM

• This is a weekly report from the CPE (Community Platform Engineering) Team. If you have any questions or feedback, please respond to this report or contact us on #redhat-cpe channel on libera.chat.

• We provide you both infographics and text versions of the weekly report. If you just want to quickly look at what we did, just look at the infographic. If you are interested in more in depth details look below the infographic.

• Build your own experience at the premier open source technology event, which features an accessible and inclusive format geared to IT leaders and professionals. With new sessions and tracks covering a variety of topics such as automation, hybrid cloud, and edge, this year’s event is designed to give you the tools you need to help define the future of open technology—as well as the flexibility needed to choose the topics most relevant to your business challenges.

• Luxoft, a DXC Technology Company (NYSE: DXC), has announced a collaboration with Red Hat to accelerate the transformation of software-defined vehicles (SDVs) with open source technologies.

• According to IDC, IT staff trained on Red Hat technology get up to speed faster on projects and can more easily apply their knowledge. The end results are higher performance and cost-saving efficiencies. Assessing your own skill set and identifying areas for growth is essential to stay ahead in the fast-paced technology industry. With numerous courses available, determining the most suitable one for you or your team can be challenging – this is where Red Hat’s Skills Assessment tool comes in.

Debian Family

• There is a European standard for reading utility meters like water, gas, electricity or heat distribution meters. The Meter-Bus standard (EN 13757-2, EN 13757-3 and EN 13757–4) provide a cross vendor way to talk to and collect meter data. I ran into this standard when I wanted to monitor some heat distribution meters, and managed to find free software that could do the job. The meters in question broadcast encrypted messages with meter information via radio, and the hardest part was to track down the encryption keys from the vendor. With this in place I could set up a MQTT gateway to submit the meter data for graphing.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Programming/Development

• I feel like mocking CSS and Agile today…

• A fresh portion of stability improvements and bugfixes for Godot 4.0 projects, 4.0.3 covers almost every area of the engine. It also comes with a massive bump in documentation coverage thanks to the newly updated rendering docs!

• Introduction When it comes to working with files in R, having a powerful tool at your disposal can make a world of difference.

Rust

• Welcome back! This is the second post of a series which turned out to be more occasional than I thought it would be. You might remember that I originally called it December of Rust 2021. Look how that worked out! Not only is it not December 2021 anymore, but also it is not December 2022 anymore.

Leftovers

• There’s a Shona proverb that roughly translates to ‘Things should be tested, an old lady from Chivi cooked rocks and drank soup.’ In challenging times, we all try to cook rocks at some point. Just a shot in the dark, a prayer into the ether, hoping against hope that we will catch a lucky break.

Science

• NASA chose a team led by Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin to build a vehicle that will safely transport astronauts to the surface of the Moon and back again.

• After losing out to SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ rocket company will get a chance to carry astronauts to the moon’s surface on a mission scheduled for 2029.

• “There has never been a field study of evolution of this scale.”

• This has never been done before.

Education

• As a teacher of more than 20 years, and now as the president of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), one of the largest educator unions in the country, I know full well that school districts tend to undervalue the safety and health of staff and students. How many stories of educators juggling multiple jobs merely to survive, or students experiencing homelessness, need to be told to elicit the support we are asking our employers to provide?

• Thousands of students, teachers, and supporters demonstrated in Hungary’s capital on May 19 for improved pay and working conditions for educators, the latest expression of frustration with the right-wing government’s education policy by a growing student movement.

Hardware

• When it comes to the issue of climate change, naysayers often contend that we have an incomplete understanding of the Earth’s systems. While humanity is yet to uncover all the secrets of the world, that doesn’t mean we can’t act on what we know. In many cases, as climate scientists delve deeper, they find yet more supporting evidence of the potential turmoil to come.

• Here at Hackaday, we love following along with projects as they progress. That’s especially true when a project makes a considerable leap in terms of functionality from one version to another, or when the original design gets more elegant. And when you get both improved function and decreased complexity at the same time? That’s the good stuff.

• FX Technology has created a 7-inch replacement screen for the Valve Steam Deck with 1920 x 1200 resolution, 400 nits peak brightness and better colors.

• Elliot and Dan teamed up for the podcast this week, bringing you the week’s sweetest hacks. And news too, as the ESA performed a little percussive maintenance on a Jupiter-bound space probe, and we learned about how to get an Orwellian free TV that exacts quite a price. We talked about Bitcoin mining two ways, including a way to put all that waste heat to good use — just don’t expect it to make good financial sense. Why would you stuff zip ties into a hot glue gun? It might just help with plastic repair. Lugging a tube transmitter up a mountain doesn’t sound like a good idea, but with the right design, it’s a lot of fun — and maybe you’ll be better able to tap into Schumann resonances while you’re up there.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• The National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition announced on January 31 2022 that it is filing charges for scaremongering in connection with several newspaper articles questioning the efficacy of favipiravir against Covid-19. According to the NIPN, these articles can undermine the fight against the pandemic by eroding trust in medicines. The move has provoked a backlash, as it is unprecedented for a public body to respond to statements by respected scientists with criminal charges.

• Hawaii Gov. Josh Green was one of the people who stopped to help when his security detail spotted a vehicle upside down in a lava field

• Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, even when humans hoping to cross Hong Kong’s border with mainland China were subject to at least 21 days of quarantine, one group was able to travel into and out of the city with relative ease: racehorses.

• The Covid situation is, however, relatively calm compared to last year, according to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

• On May 13, the Indian navy, along with the Narcotics Control Bureau, seized roughly 2,500 kg of contraband crystal meth from a ship sailing in Indian waters near the southern city of Kochi. A Pakistani national was arrested during the haul, worth $1.8 billion. The case recalled another large recent drug bust.

• One billion people in 43 countries are at risk of cholera — a “pandemic killing the poor” — despite prevention and treatment being relatively straightforward, the United Nations warned on Friday.

Proprietary

• I did a quick experiment having #GPT chat with itself as Alice and Bob… At each step, agent Alice answers agent Bob (and vice versa) along with the reinjection of recent context.

Security

• For a brief window of time in the mid-2010s, a fairly common joke was to send voice commands to Alexa or other assistant devices over video. Late-night hosts and others would purposefully attempt to activate voice assistants like these en masse and get them to do ridiculous things. This isn’t quite as common of a gag anymore and was relatively harmless unless the voice assistant was set up to do something like automatically place Amazon orders, but now that much more powerful AI tools are coming online we’re seeing that joke taken to its logical conclusion: prompt-injection attacks.

• Apple has patched 3 zero-days, two of which are the vulnerabilities patched with the tech giant’s first Rapid Security Response updates.

• Hyundai Motor America and Kia America will resolve class-action lawsuit prompted by a surge in vehicle thefts with a settlement agreement that could be valued at $200 million

• Kia and Hyundai have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the automakers of failing to install basic anti-theft measures.

• In the US, voting is seen as a civic duty. It’s voluntary, but it’s an act of patriotism and a democratic responsibility. But there are many barriers to voting—one might have to take off from work, find childcare, or travel long distances to cast a ballot.

• Wisconsin teen Joseph Garrison is charged with launching a credential stuffing attack that affected roughly 60,000 user accounts.

• Security researchers are warning that newly patched vulnerabilities in the Pimcore platform bring code execution risks.

• Asus’ routers mysteriously went offline earlier this week, and Asus initially went radio-silent.

• Security researchers have identified the second developer of Golden Chickens, a malware suite used by financially-motivated hacking groups Cobalt Group and FIN6.

• >

• Toyota has found improper crash tests for a model and suspended shipments, in the latest in a series of embarrassing woes plaguing Japan’s top automaker. The latest problem, affects 56,111 Toyota Raize hybrid vehicles, produced by Daihatsu, a manufacturer specializing in small models, wholly owned by Toyota. It also affects 22,329 vehicles sold as the Daihatsu Rocky. The vehicles were all sold in Japan. Just a week ago, Toyota acknowledged there had been data breach at its online Connected service, spanning a decade, putting information on more than 2 million vehicles at risk for leaks. No breaches were reported.

• Toyota has found improper crash tests for a model and suspended shipments, in the latest in a series of embarrassing woes plaguing Japan’s top automaker

• Researchers are worried about Google’s .zip and .mov domains, because they are confusing. Mistaking a URL for a filename could be a security vulnerability.

• TL;DR Building Management Systems (BMS) bring new risks to businesses that haven’t had previous experience of  securing Operational Technology (OT) While there might not be direct financial gain from hacking [...]

Privacy/Surveillance

• Groups like EFF had been fighting since long before 2013 to reveal and stop the dangerous mass surveillance conducted within the heart of the secretive national security apparatus. But after that summer, Snowden’s revelations acted like a flood light, allowing everyone to better see and understand what happens inside the black box of government surveillance of millions of innocent people in the US. and around the world.  The tremendous amount of evidence slowed, if not stopped, the disingenuous denials that the government had made both publicly and privately in response to our allegations. The actual documentary evidence also helped us to better pinpoint our demands, our questions, and our legal tools.

• There’s still much work to be done to rein in our overzealous national security state, break political gridlock, and end the extreme secrecy that insulates some of the government’s most invasive tactics.

• Now, ten years after those pivotal revelations, what has changed? Some things are undoubtedly better–under the intense scrutiny of public attention, some of the National Security Agency’s most egregiously illegal programs and authorities have shuttered or been forced to end. The Intelligence Community has started affirmatively releasing at least some important information, although EFF and others have still had to fight some long Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) battles. Outside of government, companies and organizations have worked to close many of the security holes that the NSA abused, most prominently by encrypting the web.

• This is definitely more “for the children” thinking. That is, the kind of thinking that figures anything is ok, so long as it can be portrayed as making children safer. This bill making its way through the New York state legislature probably won’t make many (or any!) kids safer, but it’s already gathered the sort of attention politicians truly crave: the endorsement of a celebrity.

Defence/Aggression

• We hear from civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit this year on behalf of the family of Malcolm X against the FBI, the CIA, New York City and state, the NYPD and the District Attorney’s Office for concealing evidence of their involvement in Malcolm X’s 1965 assassination.

• Malcolm X was born 98 years ago today, on May 19, 1925, and assassinated at age 39 on February 21, 1965, as he spoke before a packed audience in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. We end today’s show remembering his life and legacy with an excerpt of a speech Malcolm X gave at the Audubon Ballroom about half a year earlier called “By Any Means Necessary.”

• The PLA says it will ‘firmly crush Taiwan independence attempts and external interference’

• Russia’s Interior Ministry has placed the British jurist Karim Ahmad Khan, who serves as a prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on the federal Wanted list.

• The monitoring group Belaruski Gayun has discovered defensive structures being constructed in the Gomel region of Belarus. Construction equipment was visible near the exit from the village of Kalinino. Next to the equipment, a line of “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank barriers had already been installed. The fortifications are located approximately 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

• I don’t often highlight the things that cops do right. That’s for several reasons. First, I don’t think it’s worth applauding officers for managing to do their jobs without violating anyone’s rights. Second, I don’t think it’s cute when cops pull over people to give them Thanksgiving turkeys or aid and abet marriage proposals. That’s just hideous. And third, cops generally don’t go above and beyond too often, so there’s a limited amount of content to work with.

• “The war comes home” is a misleading phrase that we should probably abandon. America’s endless foreign wars usually reflect violent economic, social, and political currents already within our borders and that stretch as far back as settler colonialism, chattel slavery, and the birth of racial capitalism.

• Iranian authorities on Friday executed three men convicted of violence against the Islamic republic’s security forces during protests triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody last year, the judiciary said.

• At least 20 people were killed in a series of raids on villages in Burkina Faso’s troubled north, security sources and local residents told AFP Friday.

• Protesters rallied around the summit venue, chanting slogans such as “U.S. Imperialists, Number One Terrorist!” and “Stop NATO Alliance!”

• Metropolitan Police Service Chief Sir Mark Rowley on Thursday accused the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of failing victims by ‘cherry-picking easy cases’ to fast-track through courts. The CPS reacted by saying the comments “risk damaging public confidence.”

• Junta says 100 Rohingya died from Cyclone Mocha, but others have counted more than 400.

• The rotation will bring in new commanders showing even less restraint in targeting civilians to please the junta.

• Guards killed 1, while 9 fled into the jungle.

• Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, on May 19 to join the third opposition-led protest against the government’s response to two mass shootings earlier in the month

• After two mass shootings in Serbia this month, tens of thousands gathered in Belgrade to demand gun control. Within days, Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, announced a “general disarmament” of the country, with high penalties for anyone who possesses a gun without a permit.

• The Mideast-based commanders of the U.S., British, and French navies transited the Strait of Hormuz on May 19 aboard an American warship, a sign of their unified approach to keep the crucial waterway open after Iran seized two oil tankers.

• Ethnic Serb leaders in Kosovo have protested the swearing-in of a mayor from the ruling party of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, calling it the beginning of an “invasion of the north.”

• Iranian protesters have gathered to show their anger at the government as they commemorate the anniversary of the death of Jamshid Mokhtari, one of the protesters killed in unrest last spring sparked by deteriorating living standards and rising food prices.

• “Fourteen bodies were exhumed and one was found in the forest.”

• Following the 2021 coup against Prime Minister Abdala Hamdok, Al Burhan and Hemedti established a military government whose highest body is the Sovereign Council.

• On Friday, May 18, an immigrant group succeeded in illegally crossing the Latvian border, as reported to LRT+ by an eyewitness who wanted to remain anonymous.

• European Commission Statement Japan, 19 May 2023 Quotes from President von der Leyen at the second session of the G7 Summit,on Ukraine.

• The Rīga-based NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence (STRATCOMCOE) is back with another podcast.

• Latvian Radio’s investigative strand ‘Open Files’ on May 18 included a report on a company registered in Latvia, asking if it had been directly or indirectly involved in providing support to the Russian military.

• Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies warned China and North Korea against building up their nuclear arsenals, pivoting to major northeast Asian crises ahead of the arrival later Saturday of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The focus on Asia at the Group of Seven summit comes as leaders tighten sanctions meant to punish Moscow and change the course of its invasion of Ukraine. Japan said Zelenskyy’s decision to attend the G7 in person stemmed from his “strong wish” to participate in talks that will influence his nation’s defense against Russia. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden and Zelenskyy would have direct engagement at the summit, a day after Biden announced his support for training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.

• The donating activity of Latvian residents to Ukraine and refugee support has not decreased over the last year, according to data published on May 19 from the survey conducted by the market and public opinion study center SKDS and newswire LETA.

• Japan says that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Japan to join Group of Seven leaders in a session on Ukraine. Zelenskyy is expected to arrive in Hiroshima, the site of the world’s first atomic attack in western Japan, later Saturday. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement Zelenskyy will join leaders of the G7 wealthy nations at a session on Ukraine on Sunday. He was originally scheduled to join a session online on Friday, but that plan changed after Zelenskyy expressed a “strong wish” to participate in person.

• The Pentagon’s “accounting error” will allow President Joe Biden to send an extra $3 billion in military aid to Ukraine without congressional approval. Was this deliberate?

• In a major U-turn, President Joe Biden said on Friday the US will back giving Ukraine advanced fighter jets including F-16s – days after Britain and the Netherlands promised an “international coalition” to send Kyiv the US-made jets it has long demanded. But analysts warn this will be an immense logistical challenge – from ensuring Ukraine has weapons to carry on the planes to ensuring their delivery does not escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.

• Join MintCast hosts Mnar Adley and Alan MacLeod to discuss Washington’s permanent drive to war with author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges.

• Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs added International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan to their wanted list, according to a Friday report from Mediazona, an independent Russian news outlet. Khan’s addition to the wanted list follows Khan’s visit to Ukraine and the ICC’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

• Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expected to join the group in person on Sunday.

• US President Joe Biden told G7 leaders that Washington will support providing advanced warplanes including F-16s to Ukraine and will back efforts to train Kyiv’s pilots, senior White House officials said on Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is set to attend the G7 summit in Japan, hailed the move as a “historic decision”. Follow our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

• Poland called on China to exert pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine during a meeting between two top officials in Warsaw, the Polish Foreign Ministry said on May 19.

• In an interview, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calls on Germany to quickly increase its defense spending and says he expects there will be a debate soon on whether to supply Ukraine with fighter jets.

• UK on Friday announced new sanctions against Russia targeting 86 individuals and entities, including theft of Ukrainian grain, advanced military technology, and remaining revenue sources.

• “The UK has today (Friday 19 May) announced a new wave of sanctions against Russia, targeting businesses and individuals connected to Russia’s capacity to fund and wage the war,” read UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office press release.

• An anti-war activist from Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region has fled the country fearing for her safety.

• A court in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg has ordered the city’s former mayor and outspoken Kremlin critic, Yevgeny Roizman, to pay a fine of 260,000 rubles ($3,230) for “repetitively discrediting the armed forces” involved in the invasion of Ukraine.

• Russia has issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court prosecutor who prepared a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing the Kremlin leader of being responsible for the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine, which constitutes a war crime.

• The Russian Foreign Ministry has banned some 500 U.S. citizens from entering the country, including former President Barack Obama, in retaliation for the latest series of sanctions announced by the United States against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

• The U.S. administration added 71 companies to a trade blacklist for supporting Russia on May 19, as the Group of Seven wealthy nations announced new sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

*

• Summit host Japan seeks to wean global fence-sitters economically off Moscow.

• The Group of Seven advanced economies are expected to announce more sanctions against Russia to further hinder its war effort in Ukraine during their summit in Hiroshima, Japan

• Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit Beijing next week for talks, China’s Foreign Ministry said on May 19, marking the latest exchange in a relationship in which Russia is becoming increasingly reliant on China for economic and diplomatic support.

• Addressing an Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine urged Arab nations to stand with him against Russia and called out their reluctance to take sides in the war.

• The attacks come as a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive looms.

• President Biden on Friday told his fellow leaders at the G7 summit that the U.S. will support a joint plan to train Ukrainian pilots on advanced fighter jets, including U.S.-made F-16s, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Axios.

• Driving the news: After the training commences, the U.S. and its allies “will decide when to actually provide jets, how many we will provide, and who will provide them,” the U.S. official said.

• The Ukrainian president, heartened by a U.S. shift that creates a path to supplying Kyiv with the American-made warplanes, will be in Japan for the G7 meeting.

• The president told allied leaders that he would allow Ukrainian pilots to be trained on American-made F-16s, and is prepared to approve other countries’ transferring the jets to Ukraine.

• The U.S. and other Group of Seven nations are rolling out a new wave of global sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine

• The U.N. envoy charged with trying to protect children caught in conflicts is in Moscow, where she is reported to be meeting Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, who is charged with war crimes for deporting children from Ukraine

• European Commission Statement Hiroshima, 20 May 2023 Quotes by President von der Leyen on strengthening engagement with partners:

• The global pandemic and the knock-on effects of Russia’s war concerning energy…

• With the G7 Summit being held in Hiroshima, Japan, this weekend (May 19-21), H2 View has been diving deeper into the hydrogen-related activities of each country.

• Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies warned China and North Korea against building up their nuclear arsenals, pivoting to major northeast Asian crises ahead of the arrival later Saturday of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

• Catte Black For the first six years of our eight-year existence OffG was routinely described as “pro-Russian” by detractors and supporters alike. We were cited on RT and one editor was invited to work for them (they declined).

• The remains of a U.S. Marine veteran who was missing in Ukraine for more than a year have returned to the United States and are headed to his hometown in eastern North Carolina

• Zimbabwe’s government is taking delivery of dozens of new aircraft, including a new VIP jet and up to 50 Russian helicopters. Eighteen Ansat helicopters handed over at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on 18 May during a ceremony presided over by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, which was also attended by Rostec Director General Sergey Chemezov.

• A series of Russian missile strikes directed at Kyiv were largely intercepted while the UK promises hundreds of drones. In Poland, a missile “cover up” controversy.

• Britain has announced new sanctions against Russia aimed at advanced military technologies and imports of diamonds to cut Moscow’s “sources of income.”

• The Greenpeace environmental group said it is shutting down its Russia operation after the Kremlin declared it an “undesirable” organization amid the government’s ongoing crackdown on civil society and independent organizations.

• G7 leaders agreed to impose new sanctions on Russia Friday at their annual summit. G7 leaders stated that their countries are prepared to “starve Russia of G7 technology, industrial equipment and services that support its war machine” and will continue their sanctions on petroleum, metals, and diamonds, which Russia has exported to fund its war.

• Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit China from May 23 to 24, Beijing’s foreign ministry and the Kremlin said on Friday.

• The move comes as the U.S. separately agreed not to block the transfer of U.S. fighter jets from other countries into Ukraine.

• The U.S. has once again buckled under pressure from European allies and Ukraine’s leaders and agreed to provide more sophisticated weapons to the war effort

• Japan says that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Japan to join Group of Seven leaders in a session on Ukraine

• Deep misgivings and differences about the mandate and intentions of East Africa’s force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) lie behind the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) decision to deploy its troops into the turbulent region.

• In Japan, President Joe Biden is pursuing two pillars of his foreign policy: revitalizing U.S. alliances and demonstrating democracy’s virtues. Hanging over both is the debt ceiling crisis he left behind.

• As clashes between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continue to rock Sudan, Janjaweed fighters – affiliated with the RSF – have been spreading terror in West Darfur, particularly in the city of Geneina. Several waves of attacks have been reported, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties, especially among non-Arab tribes. In the absence of military protection, some of them have taken up arms to defend themselves.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• US government prosecutors argued in court filings Wednesday that Jack Teixeira, the US airman suspected of leaking classified US intelligence documents, should remain detained ahead of his criminal trial.

Environment

• The death toll from Cyclone Mocha has reached 145 in Myanmar, its junta said Friday, with most of the dead from the persecuted Rohingya minority.

• Mocha made landfall Sunday near Sittwe in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state with winds of up to 209 km/h.

• A tsunami warning in the Pacific has been lifted after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday, sending many islanders fleeing the coast.

• “…Tsunami waves ranging from 0.3 meter to 1 meter above the tide level are possible for some coasts of Vanuatu…”

• The toll from floods that have devastated the Emilia Romagna region in Italy rose to 14 Friday, amid calls for the government to revive an abandoned project to mitigate the impact of natural disasters.

• Brazil’s top environmental regulator rejected a planned offshore oil drilling project by the state-owned oil company Petrobras near the origin of the Amazon River in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday (May 18), showcasing the government’s commitment to environmental conservation.

Energy/Transportation

• This story is the start of The North Sea Investigations, a multi-year international reporting project on the battle for the future of the North Sea, led by Dutch investigative journalism platform Follow the Money in cooperation with Norwegian broadcaster NRK, Belgian newspaper De Tijd and DeSmog.

• Skimming across the waves in inflatable dinghies, activists closed in on their target: An abandoned steel hulk looming 40 storeys above the surface of the North Sea. Encircling the platform, tugboats fired plumes of seawater in a spectacular but futile attempt to stop the protesters scaling its sheer sides.

• KONGSTEIN has developed a compressed gaseous hydrogen carrier vessel for the direct transport of hydrogen from an offshore wind farm.

• The government will introduce an electricity subsidy totalling HK$1,000 for the coming year starting from June 1, following price hikes earlier this year, according to a Friday press release.

• With $10m of funding from the Uruguayan Government, Italian automotive firm and local Saceem will develop a green hydrogen production plant in the country.

Overpopulation

• Luanda Province has the highest population concentration in the country, with over 9 million people residing in an area of 18,826 square kilometers.

Finance

• A relentless downpour threw a wet blanket on the world’s premier film festival on Friday, but it did not stop Cannes’s “essential workers” from staging a protest outside the Riviera town’s most emblematic palace hotel – a prelude to a larger rally scheduled on Sunday.

• Debt limit talks between the White House and House Republicans stopped, started and stopped again Friday at the US Capitol, a dizzying series of events in high-stakes negotiations to avoid a potentially catastrophic federal default.

• White House and House Republican negotiators are at a stalemate over capping spending levels in the 2024 budget.

• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the country’s biggest bankers that a potential debt ceiling default will have repercussions beyond the financial system and insisted that the early June X-Date is real, Axios has learned.

• Last week, dozens of members of ADAPT, the disability-rights group, forced their way into Kevin McCarthy’s office to protest his proposed cuts to the social safety net.

• Republicans have paused crunch US debt talks less than two weeks before a possible catastrophic default, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Friday, citing lack of movement from Democrats.

• Debt limit talks have stopped again at the Capitol after having suddenly resumed Friday night. Two top Republican negotiators to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy say talks are done for the night. Next steps are uncertain. The quick succession of events came after McCarthy earlier in the day had said it was time to “pause” negotiations. A White House official acknowledged there are “real differences.” Then talks started anew in the evening, only to quickly halt again. President Joe Biden is racing to strike a deal with Republicans as the nation careens toward a potentially catastrophic debt default if the nation fails to pay its bills. A top Biden adviser said the White House remains hopeful.

• While President Joe Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and other politicians in Washington strive to reach a deal to raise the US federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, the US Treasury’s cash balance fell to $87 billion on Monday (May 15), the lowest it’s been since April 12.

• Iran and Russia have recently expanded bilateral political and economic relations, particularly in the banking sector, to counter the U.S. arbitrary sanctions.

• Washington set over 300 sanctions against companies and individuals located in more than 20 countries or jurisdictions.

• Currently, only tourist charter flights are conducted between the two countries

• The Arab League is coming to terms with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad despite all the atrocities committed in his country’s civil war. In an interview, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, 61, discusses the delicate balancing act in an explosive region.

• Payroll tax discounts for regional businesses should be included in the upcoming South Australian budget, the state’s peak business group says. In a submission ahead of SA’s latest financial blueprint, the organisation said regional companies should get a 50 per cent discount to ease costs and help them compete.

• Finding staff hasn’t gotten any easier for small businesses despite signs of a slightly less competitive labour market.  Attracting and keeping workers remained a top concern across all sectors, said the chairman of the peak industry group for small businesses.

• Lao merchants hope for a stronger kip vs Thai baht and more tourism from across the border.

• This year, the US will launch its FedNow instant payment network. But even after FedNow launches, the US will still have a ways to go before consumers can access instantaneous digital payments.

• “We will be a huge beneficiary of AI,” BT Chief Executive Jansen said, adding that “AI is a huge leap forward.”

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• The German camera manufacturer Leica Camera AG announced its withdrawal from Russia shortly after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Afterwards, it turns out, Leica never made good on this commitment. The Insider, an independent Russian investigative project, has established that not only did Leica never leave the Russian market, but it also increased its range of imports to Russia. This was part of Leica’s apparent effort to capitalize on the potentially lucrative “dual-purpose goods” market for optical equipment suited for general consumers and the military alike. Leica now supplies Russia with binoculars equipped with laser rangefinders and with night-vision rifle scopes.

• Papua New Guinea police launched an investigation into the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Marape after an international investigation on Wednesday exposed his potential links to Don Matheson, an Australian Businessman being investigated for corruption.

• Moscow also eased visa requirements for Georgians. But its actions have stirred fears in Georgia, which was invaded by Russia in 2008.

• Dubai’s $5 billion real estate project plans to build a 900-foot replica of the moon to elevate the city’s grandeur even further. Fueled by pandemic refugees and Russians escaping conflict, Dubai’s hot real estate market supports ambitious architecture.

• By Nelson Acosta and Dave SherwoodHAVANA (Reuters) – Russian officials and business leaders have signed multiple deals with Cuban counterparts at a…

• (Reuters) – Armenia and Azerbaijan are close to agreeing an end to a blockade of transport links but more work is needed to seal a peace deal…

• European Commission Statement Brussels, 20 May 2023 Quotes by President von der Leyen on economic resilience and economic security…

• European Commission Statement Japan, 19 May 2023 Quotes by President von der Leyen on our policies towards China at Session III of the G7, Foreign and Security Policy…

• On May 19, a plane from Russia-based airline Azimuth departing from Moscow landed in Tbilisi, marking the first direct flight between the two countries in four years.

• Lame duck president and serial bad faith litigant Donald Trump has yet again been told his arguments are bad and he should feel bad. The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Suing sued multiple times over the publication of a book by his niece, Mary Trump, which detailed plenty of stuff the on-his-way-out-the-door president didn’t want published.

• With the release of special counsel John Durham’s report on the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, one of the strangest scandals in American history has ended not with a bang but with the most simpering possible whimper. Although Donald Trump and his supporters on the right claim that the report vindicates their long-held theories of a “deep state” conspiracy against the former president, on examination it offers little more than a rehashing of old arguments that were long ago made irrelevant by the passage of time.1

• A court in Minsk has started the trial of noted Belarusian educator Yauhen Livyant, along with members of his family and associates who are all accused of charges related to mass rallies over a disputed August 2020 presidential election that kept authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka in power.

• Prominent Kazakh opposition politician Zhasaral Quanyshalin has died of a heart attack at the age 74 in a hospital in Almaty, his colleagues said late on May 18.

• European Commission Press release Brussels, 19 May 2023 Today, Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovkis and Alikhan Smailov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, announced a set of concrete actions that will implement the Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Kazakhstan on a strategic partnership

• Hundreds gathered at the main airport in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 19 to protest the return of direct flights from Russia. A ban had been unilaterally imposed by Moscow in 2019 after a wave of anti-Kremlin protests in Georgia. It was lifted on May 10 by President Vladimir Putin, who also signed a decree allowing Georgian nationals to enter Russia without visas. Georgian opposition activists protested against any warming of relations with the Kremlin because of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the 2008 war against Georgia.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• We noted yesterday that Montana’s embarrassment of a governor, Greg Gianforte, was about to cost the state a ridiculous amount of taxpayer money having to defend his obviously unconstitutional ban on TikTok. What I hadn’t realized was that by the time I’d published that article, the first such lawsuit had already been filed.

• In a diatribe against Finland on a Russian talk show, a guest referred to Estonia’s PM Kaja Kallas as Finland’s leader.

• Five TikTok users filed a lawsuit in a federal Montana court on Wednesday to stop the state’s newly enacted TikTok ban from going into effect.

• At least five TikTok users have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block Montana’s new ban on the Chinese-owned platform.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Thailand’s Central Juvenile and Family Court ordered Thursday the release of Thanalop “Yok” Phalanchai, a 15-year-old girl who was detained in the Ban Pranee Juvenile Vocational Training Centre for Girls.

• Iran executed three men accused of carrying out a terrorist attack during last year’s nationwide protests surrounding the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. According to Mizan, a state-run news agency for Iran’s judiciary, Iranian officials executed Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi and Saeed Yaghoubi based upon their conviction on charges of moharebeh, or enmity against god.

• British writer Salman Rushdie attended a New York gala on Thursday night in his first public appearance since a knife attack that nearly took his life last year.

• Plus: A new lawsuit in Montana over the state’s TikTok ban, the economic realities of online content creation, the rights of private companies, and more…

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• Steve Whittamore told the High Court journalists must have known his information was obtained illegally.

• Ali Latifi, an Afghan-American journalist, has been detained by the Taliban in Kabul for what a police spokesman said was “suspicious behavior.”

Civil Rights/Policing

• Ukraine’s neighbors push for Zelensky to pursue peace as millions of displaced people flow into Europe.

• In 1973, at one of the most turbulent moments in American history, veterans of the civil rights and anti-war movements were facing the reality that changing the status quo would not come as easily as they had hoped. Luckily, some of them had a great idea for how to keep fighting, and to start winning. They started the Midwest Academy.

• Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 19 refused police permission to search his Lahore home for suspects involved in this month’s attacks on state and army buildings and laid out his own terms for any such operation.

• Police have searched the homes of at least seven members of the Memorial human right group’s successor — the Center of Historic Memory — in the Russian city of Perm.

• “Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country,” Gorsuch wrote. That might be an exaggeration, but it isn’t far off.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• Both the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund and the National Telecommunications Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Equity Affordability and Deployment grant programs provide clear guidance to prioritize fiber-based infrastructure. Under the Treasury rules that govern rescue dollars, the “presumptively eligible projects” for broadband infrastructure must reliably deliver 100/100 mbps connectivity. While there is an exception for lower speeds, there is a general expectation that these projects can scale higher for future needs. Specifically, “recipients are encouraged to prioritize investments in fiber-optic infrastructure where feasible” to emphasize that projects should consider fiber first. The NTIA program also directs states to follow the statutory text of the IIJA. Under that law, projects must be scalable, able to facilitate 5G and beyond, able to evolve with community needs, and build fiber-based infrastructure with limited exceptions for “extremely high-cost areas.” Arguably, options such as fixed wireless and satellite broadband could be considered for extremely high-cost areas—which unfortunately are not future-proofed like fiber. But states relying on federal dollars alone will be forced to deliver less than states that are matching the federal investment with their own local dollars.

• MeitY responded to our 1st appeal on the RTI application pertaining to the functional and operational processes of the Grievance Appellate Committees (GAC). This post summarises the Ministry’s response (or the lack thereof) to our 1st appeal, and elaborates on our concerns denied information.

Monopolies

• A federal judge in Massachusetts struck down a partnership between JetBlue and American Airlines to coordinate routes and schedules in the Northeast US, which had effectively combined the Boston and New York operations of the two carriers.

Patents

• On May 19, 2023, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 7,317,927 owned by WirelessWerx IP LLC, an NPE and Dynamic IP Deals LLC entity.

Trademarks

• So far this year, the Board has affirmed a mere 83% of the Section 2(d) refusal it has reviewed – a drop from its 89% average over the past decade. Here’s the latest decision. The USPTO refused to register CLAIM WATCHER for “Health benefit plan services, namely, insurance administration services, namely, assisting others with adjusting insurance claims in the nature of repricing health insurance claims” (Class 36) and for “Legal services, namely, legal consulting and defense relating to health insurance claims” (Class 45) (CLAIM disclaimed), finding confusion likely with the registered mark shown below, for “Tracking and monitoring the status of insurance claims for business purposes.” How do you think this appeal came out? In re Homestead Strategic Holdings, Inc., Serial No. 90263580 (May 17, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Christopher Larkin).

Copyrights

• The Supreme Court decision over Andy Warhol’s use of Lynn Goldsmith’s Prince photograph was decided on the narrow grounds of a licensing issue. But it could still have a chilling effect.

• Aftonbladet’s deputy editor said the paper hoped to “provoke a debate” with the AI rap music.

• With AI tracks debuting in droves, performance rights organizations (PROs) ASCAP and BMI have established “a joint task force” designed “to address suspicious registrations associated with musical works across the collective management ecosystem.”

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