● 07.02.23

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● Leftover Links 02/07/2023: Security and Politics

Posted in News Roundup at 4:49 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Leftovers

• The Apollo project was a camping trip compared to what Australia and NASA have planned for a return to the Moon.

• “We use the term living off the land,” Gerald Sanders, from NASA Johnson Space Centre, tells AAP.

• An outdated way of thinking about peak performance is: “maximum effort = maximum results.” But research shows that it doesn’t actually work that way in reality.

Science

• Europe’s Euclid space telescope blasted off Saturday, kicking off a first-ever mission to shed light on two of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter.

Hardware

• The global supply chain is a masterpiece of containerized logistics that allows a container to leave a factory in China and arrive on a British forecourt after only a few weeks, but along with the efficiency it brings a traceability and monitoring problem. If you are shipping perishable items such as medicines or foodstuffs, how can you be sure that they’ve remained refrigerated the whole journey through?

• As boring as propeller designs may seem to the average person, occasionally there’s a bit of a dust-up in the media about a ‘new’ design that promises at least a few percent improvement in performance, decreased noise profile, or any combination of such claims. Naturally, if you’re [Daniel Riley] of RCTestFlight, then you have to 3D print a few of them, and make a video covering a handful. Most famous of these is probably the toroidal propeller that made waves a while ago, mostly in the field of flying drones, but commercial toroidal boat props exist too.

• When the subject of CVTs or continuously variable transmissions comes up, the chances are that most readers will think of the various motor vehicles they’ve appeared in. Whether it’s a DAF, a Ford, a FIAT, or a Chevrolet, most major manufacturers have tried one at some point or another with greater or lesser success. The automotive ones inevitably use a variation on a V-belt or metal band between variable separation conical pulleys, but this is by no means the only CVT configuration. Serial tinkerer [Robert Murray-Smith] takes an in-depth look at the subject as part of his ongoing fascination with wind turbines.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• Crystal meth is a highly addictive substance that’s considered one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. Sometimes referred to as the “poor man’s cocaine”, it’s made from ingredients that are easy to purchase. Consumption of crystal meth is on the rise in Europe, with large quantities being produced illegally in the Netherlands. The drug is wreaking havoc in Germany in particular, where more and more people are taking this stimulant. FRANCE 24′s Alix Le Bourdon, Anne Mailliet, Fernande van Tets and Nick Spicer report.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Security

• Cait Conley will coordinate with federal, state and local officials responsible for ensuring elections are secure ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

• Several security issues were found in the Linux kernel, including an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the Flower classifier implementation in the kernel (CVE-2023-35788). It was also discovered that for some Intel processors the INVLPG instruction implementation did not properly flush global TLB entries when PCIDs are enabled. With a low attack complexity and a high confidentiality, integrity and availability impact, these flaws have received a National Vulnerability Database severity rating of 7.8 out of 10 (”High” severity).

• Censys identified hundreds of devices within US federal agencies’ networks that expose their management interface to the internet.

• Google says it handed out $35,000 in bug bounty rewards for three high-severity vulnerabilities in Chrome 114.

• Some services at Petro-Canada gas stations have been disrupted following a cyberattack on parent company Suncor, one of North America’s largest energy companies.

Privacy/Surveillance

• Investigations triggered by the cracking of encrypted phones three years ago have led to more than 6,500 arrests worldwide and the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs.

Defence/Aggression

• While we may never know the full truth, we owe it to those harmed and killed to illuminate their stories.

• The federal government gives private prison companies millions to torture immigrants and snuff out the abolitionist movement

• The sign for PMC Wagner Center W, a Wagner Group recruitment center in St. Petersburg, has been removed from the facade of the business center that housed it, reports local publication Fontanka.

• Israel carried out air strikes in Syria near the government-held city of Homs, Syrian state media reported on Sunday, and the Israeli army later said it had responded to rocket fire.

• The UN General Assembly formally instituted on Thursday an autonomous body tasked with conducting investigations into cases of missing persons within the territory of Syria.

• The UN General Assembly on Thursday created an independent body to “clarify” the fate of thousands of people who remain missing in Syria since war broke out in 2011, over objections from Damascus.

• Amid Syria’s ongoing conflict, child recruitment by various armed factions has risen drastically, according to a United Nations report. Syrian activists claim children are forced into service or join due to either tribal ties or familial financial needs.

• The Arab world came to realize that the Western-led strategy means no cure to the Syrian war.

• Former defence minister David Johnston attended the funerals of 26 of the 41 Australians killed on operations in Afghanistan, and he saw at close hand their families’ grief.

• The UN released two reports Tuesday, citing increases in deaths by improvised explosive devices (IED) and rising rates of drug trafficking in Afghanistan. The first report, released by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), shows a steep increase in deaths by IEDs in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in 2021.

• The first responsibility of any government is to uphold the law. With Australian generals one step closer to criminal prosecution in The Hague, the Albanese administration is failing that test when it comes to alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, writes Stuart McCarthy.

• As all eyes focused on the Justice Besanko’s long-awaited ruling in the Ben Roberts-Smith (BRS) vs Fairfax defamation saga several weeks ago, military lawyer Dr Glenn Kolomeitz and colleagues were finalising an International Criminal Court Rome Statute ‘Article 15’ referral, triggering a process which could eventually land Australian generals in The Hague answering criminal charges for command responsibility.

• After the Arab League reinstated Syria, some Syrian refugees had dared hope for measures to enable their return home. But in interviews and polls, most say they’ve seen nothing that convinces them that now is the time.

• “The historical backgrounds of the two parks will forever be different,” said one survivor and peace activist.

• The Conversation reached out to three legal scholars to explain what the decision means for students, colleges and universities, and ultimately the nation’s future.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Haiti on Saturday for a lightning visit, saying “this is not the time to forget” the Caribbean nation mired in overlapping security, political and economic woes.

• Hong Kong saw a series of arrests and detentions in June, the month marking the third anniversary of the national security law, including the detention of 23 people in or around Victoria Park on June 4 – the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

• The UN Security Council withdrew the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Friday, handing security over to Mali’s transitional government. According to the passed resolution, MINUSMA will begin removing its personnel from Mali on July 1 and finish by January 1 of 2024.

• Richard N. Haass says the most serious threat to global security is the United States.

• Hushed and visibly anguished, hundreds of mourners from France’s Islamic community formed a solemn procession from a mosque to a hillside cemetery on Saturday. They were burying a 17-year-old whose killing by police has shaken the nation and triggered days of rioting and looting. Underscoring the gravity of the crisis, President Emmanuel Macron scrapped an official trip to Germany after nights of unrest across France. The government deployed 45,000 police to city streets across the nation to head off a fifth night of violence. Overnight, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that the night had been calmer than previous ones, thanks to “the resolute action of security forces.”

• The US pointman on Iran has been placed on leave, the State Department said Thursday, as reports said that his handling of sensitive material was under review.

• A revised law dramatically expanding China’s definition of espionage came into force on Saturday, giving Beijing more power than ever to punish what it deems threats to national security.

• Hungary’s parliament will not ratify Sweden’s NATO membership before the summer recess as it has not included the vote in the agenda of next week’s session, Hungarian online media reported on June 28.

War in Ukraine

• The Russian ‘revolt’ that wasn’t strengthens Putin’s hand.

• At a press conference in Kyiv with Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would be ready to negotiate with Russia after the Armed Forces of Ukraine reach the 1991 borders.

• CIA Director William Burns said that Prigozhin’s armed rebellion revealed “the corrosive effect of Putin’s war on his own society and his own regime,” reports Reuters.

• Ukrainian officials have reported three people killed and 17 others wounded from Russian shelling in the country’s east and south. A visit by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez began in Kyiv on Saturday as a show of continuing support from Madrid and the European Union for Ukraine’s fight to dislodge invading Russian forces from its territory. Sánchez told Ukraine’s parliament that “we’ll be with you as long as it takes.” Sanchez also promised further deliveries of heavy weaponry, including Leopard tanks. At a news conference with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sanchez announced Spain would deliver more heavy weaponry to Ukraine including four Leopard tanks and armored personnel carriers, as well as a portable field hospital.

• Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv after a 12-day break, a Ukrainian military official said on Sunday, with air defence systems destroying all targets on their approach.

• Russia overnight launched its first drone attack in the area around Ukraine’s capital in nearly two weeks, officials said on July 2, one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russia could be preparing an explosion at the massive Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

• U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said on July 1 that the armed mutiny by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had shown the corrosive effect on Russia of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s president has put sanctions into effect on 190 new individuals and 290 legal entities as part of its ongoing effort to punish Russia and its perceived enablers in the current war.

• Afghanistan’s Taliban government has seized on an off-the-cuff remark by U.S. President Joe Biden to underscore its claim that there was no Al-Qaeda threat in the country.

• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his July 1 visit to Kyiv demonstrates the European Union’s “clear and unequivocal political commitment” to Ukraine’s efforts to join the 27-member bloc, even as it battles against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

• Russian and Ukrainian forces were battling throughout eastern and southern Ukraine as Kyiv asserted a possible shift in the strategic balance, while a U.S. report hinted at Ukrainian hopes for a possible endgame that could lead to peace talks in the 15-month-old full-scale Russian invasion.

• >

• U.S. President Joe Biden’s repeated verbal missteps and blunders have drawn scrutiny, prompting questions about his fitness to lead the world’s most heavily armed nation.

• A recent example took place on June 28, 2023. In a statement made before departing the White House for a trip to Chicago, Biden claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “losing the war in Iraq,” when he meant to refer to Ukraine.

• Some 40 Russian diplomats, technical staff, and their family members on July 1 left Bucharest on a special flight arranged by the Kremlin following the June 8 order by Romania’s Foreign Ministry to reduce Moscow’s diplomatic presence in the country.

• Russia’s Justice Ministry has declared veteran rock musician Boris Grebenshchikov, who currently resides outside of Russia, a “foreign agent.”

Environment

• We need to talk about this.

• Southerners are used to heat. We’re not used to this.

• ExxonMobil’s massive new oil project in Guyana, which is thousands of miles away, projected to be the corporation’s largest oil production in the world, coming despite desperate climate warnings against new fossil fuel development, Guyana currently a carbon sink? So, you say it’s at risk of turning into a carbon bomb.

• Planet A Nearly 40 heads of state and government along with ministers and high-level representatives gathered in Paris last week to discuss climate finance reform.

• The twin threats have sickened people across the continent with little relief in sight.

• Climate change is widely blamed for causing heat waves to be more intense, longer-lasting and more frequent.

• A highly anticipated court ruling is expected soon in Montana, where a groundbreaking, youth-led climate trial just ended after five days of dramatic testimony on who can be held responsible for the climate crisis. The landmark case was led by 16 children and young adults, ranging in age from 5 to 22, who accuse the state of Montana of violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels, devastated the environment and severely impacted their health. The case is the first of its kind to go to trial in the United States, and a federal judge in Oregon just cleared the way for another children’s climate case against the U.S. government. For more, we are joined by Grace Gibson-Snyder, a 19-year-old plaintiff in the Montana case, and by Nate Bellinger, lead attorney in the trial.

• We speak with author Genevieve Guenther about “climate silence” and how the corporate media routinely fails in reporting on worsening extreme weather events. “You need to connect the dots from what you’re reporting to the climate crisis, and then through the climate crisis to the use of fossil fuels that is heating up our planet,” says Guenther, whose forthcoming book is titled The Language of Climate Politics.

• As wildfire smoke fills the skies and record heat waves cook much of North America, Canadian climate activist Tzeporah Berman says governments need to be pushed to phase out fossil fuels more rapidly. “We need people to stand up to this industry. We need activism to protest in the streets, to demand our governments stand up to this industry. And we also need international cooperation,” says Berman. She also discusses Canada’s investment in the Trans Mountain Pipeline and how governments around the world are propping up the fossil fuel industry rather than embracing a transition to clean energy. Her recent article for The Guardian is headlined “Canada is on fire, and big oil is the arsonist.”

• Rishi Sunak has confirmed that a fossil fuel-funded think tank helped to draft his government’s laws targeting climate protests.

• Speaking at Policy Exchange’s summer party on Wednesday (28 June), the prime minister boasted that the think tank’s work “helped us draft” the government’s crackdown on protests, according to Politico.

• A business lobby group that regularly meets with top elected officials and policymakers in British Columbia is now being led by someone who once argued that human-caused climate change is an “untested proposition.”

• The Business Council of British Columbia, whose more than 250 members include ConocoPhillips, Shell and the pipeline builder Enbridge, last month appointed Laura Jones as its president and CEO, calling her “a nationally recognized leader in public policy.”

• Experts believe that the bushfire risk is mounting after three years of high rainfall.

• Some 300 firefighters, with air support, continue their efforts against the flames.

Energy/Transportation

• The nation is on track to be the world’s top importer of liquefied natural gas in 2023.

Wildlife/Nature

• Small, low-cost sensors — about the size of a lunchbox and hung on light poles and elsewhere — are being tested in wildfire-prone communities as a potential new early warning tool.

Finance

• Mortgage holders will be feeling uneasy ahead of another close interest rate call that could see their monthly repayments blow out even further.

• The Reserve Bank has been battling high inflation with higher interest rates since May last year and has so far handed out 400 basis points of increases.

• Niantic CEO John Hanke announced the job cuts in an email sent to employees last Thursday. The company is letting go of 230 employees as part of its reorganization. The company is also closing down its studio in Los Angeles in a bid to lower overhead.

• The Pokémon Go developer is also shutting down support for NBA All-World just four months after the game was released. The studio is also discontinuing development for the upcoming Marvel: World of Heroes game.

• “I have made the decision to narrow our focus for mobile game investments, concentrating on first-party games that most strongly embody our core values of location and local social communities,” Hanke wrote. “The mobile gaming market is very mature and only the best and most differentiated titles have a chance to succeed. We also want to increase our focus on building for the emerging class of MR devices and future AR glasses.”

• Finland’s Immigration Service updated its website with language that echoed the government programme — but officials say that’s a coincidence.

• The firm says its online grocery service in Finland will remain open until the remainder of its stock is sold.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Porter Davis customers who missed out on government support after the building company collapsed are now eligible for a one-off payment.

• The Victorian government on Sunday extended the support scheme to those who paid a three per cent pre-deposit for tender agreements but did not receive the mandatory building insurance.

• Many thousands have turned out at rallies nationwide to back the Indigenous voice to parliament, with organisers hoping momentum will build despite recent polls showing a decline in the yes vote.

• Welcome to Country and smoking ceremonies kicked off the day of action on Sunday with Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney addressing a crowd at the Brisbane Yes23 event.

• Twitter has applied temporary reading limits to address “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation, Elon Musk says in a post on the social media platform.

• Verified accounts are temporarily limited to reading 6000 posts a day, Musk said, adding that the unverified accounts and new unverified accounts are limited to reading 600 posts a day and 300 posts per day respectively.

• The opposition leader has lashed out at Australian mining giants and other big companies for donating to the ‘yes’ campaign in support of the Indigenous voice to parliament.

• Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said many big companies “lacked a significant backbone” when it came to the upcoming referendum.

• Every properly organised taxpayer funded rort has a spreadsheet. And this one does too. With new FOI documents to hand, Rex Patrick looks at how ‘Solar Rorts’ came about.

• Pork barrelling is political corruption. It involves the expenditure of public funds, typically through a grant, to build infrastructure in a way that favours the interests of a political party, rather than in the public interest.

• Opposition leader Peter Dutton says the federal government cannot “credibly take credit” for what could be the largest budget surplus ever delivered.

• The opposition leader says the Albanese government was on track to deliver a one-year surplus but then fall back into the red.

Censorship/Free Speech

• At issue was whether a Colorado web designer had a First Amendment right to reject making wedding websites for queer couples. The court ruled that she does.

• Three years after Beijing imposed a draconian national security law, many opposition voices have fled.

• When artists Lumli and Lumlong fled Hong Kong in 2021 they didn’t tell a soul for fear of being reported and arrested before they could leave.

• Swedish police have approved a permit for a controversial Quran burning protest outside the main mosque in central Stockholm, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. This provocative act could potentially fuel tensions between Sweden and Turkey and jeopardize the Nordic country’s efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

• This approval comes in the wake of several rejections, often citing security reasons.

• “This offensive and irresponsible act disregards the feelings of more than a billion Muslims,” Moroccan diplomats said.

• Sweden has been widely condemned for allowing the burning of the Muslim holy book outside a mosque on Wednesday during Eid al-Adha, a major Islamic holiday.

• Plus: Maine prostitution measure becomes law, “significant misconduct” in jail where Epstein hung himself, Mike Pence defends free markets, and more…

Civil Rights/Policing

• Akbar Tabari, a senior official in Iran’s judiciary, has been released from prison after serving less than three years of a 58-year sentence for serious financial fraud.

• Field Notes from the Frontlines of the Government’s War on the Left.

• Prosecutor of the Chuvash Republic Andrey Fomin died on July 1 at the age of 57, reports the Russian Prosecutor General’s press service.

• Dutch King Willem-Alexander apologized Saturday for his country’s role in slavery and asked for forgiveness in a historic speech greeted by cheers and whoops at an event to commemorate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery.

Monopolies

Patents

• As of the end of June 2023, 535,152 patents and applications have been opted-out of the jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court.

Trademarks

• The USPTO refused registration of the mark CARLOW for, inter alia, real estate and business center services, finding that the mark is primarily merely a surname under Section 2(e)(4). Have you ever heard of someone named Carlow? How do you think this appeal came out? In re SLC Hauppauge Development, LLC, Serial No. 90562295 (June 27, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Jonathan Hudis).

Copyrights

• The shutdown of major torrent site RARBG in May sent shockwaves through the entire pirate ecosystem. As part of an effort to preserve access to content, archivists began uploading RARBG magnet link databases to platforms including GitHub. One repo was forked 900 times but a single DMCA notice sent by a single rightsholder has wiped every last one from GitHub. Their identity is a secret.

• A few weeks ago, Canadian Gary Bowser was released from a U.S. prison, after serving a sentence for his role in infamous hacking group Team-Xecuter. How the 54-year-old computer geek ended up there is a remarkable story that began way back in the early ’80s. After telling his story, Gary hopes to find support for new and legal endeavors, ideally with a geek twist.

• Google LLC will remove links to Canadian news websites from several services, including its flagship search engine, in response to a recently passed law. The company announced the decision today. The law in question, Bill C-18, was officially approved last week.

• The Online News Act may be only days removed from having received royal assent, but the government’s plans to support the Canadian media sector have already backfired spectacularly.

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