● 07.14.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 14/07/2023: Gentoo Rewrites, NATO Updates

Posted in News Roundup at 8:46 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

• Star Labs Byte Mk II is another Intel Alder Lake-N mini PC with an Intel Processor N200 CPU whose main differentiating factor is to ship with Linux pre-installed from a choice between Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Zorin OS, and many others.

• The hardware features are quite standard with up to 16GB RAM, an NVMe SSD with up to 2TB capacity, HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, an audio jack two Gigabit Ethernet ports, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1, and a few USB ports.

Graphics Stack

• I recently came across tinygrad as a small powerful nn framework that had an OpenCL backend target and could run LLaMA model.

• I’ve been looking out for rusticl workloads, and this seemed like a good one, and I could jump on the AI train, and run an LLM in my house!

• I started it going on my Radeon 6700XT with the latest rusticl using radeonsi with the LLVM backend, and I could slowly interrogate a model with a question, and it would respond. I’ve no idea how performant it is vs ROCm yet which seems to be where tinygrad is more directed, but I may get to that next week.

Instructionals/Technical

• I am a developer new to containers, Kubernetes, or CI/CD. Where should I start?

• This article provides five pathways including resources to succeed on your container journey.

• Highlighted material: [...]

• Linux, being a multi-user operating system, allows multiple users to access and use the system simultaneously. While this feature brings flexibility, it also calls for effective user activity monitoring for various reasons, including security, system auditing, and troubleshooting. One way to monitor user activity is by checking the user login history. This can provide useful information about who logged into the system and when.

• Linux, with its command-line interface, offers an array of robust tools for file and directory management. One of the most fundamental operations that every Linux user should master is copying files and directories. Whether you’re backing up data, duplicating files for modifications, or transferring content between directories, knowing how to efficiently copy files and directories in Linux is a skill that will undoubtedly come in handy.

• Vi and its enhanced version Vim (Vi Improved) are two ubiquitous text editors in the Unix and Linux worlds. These editors are well-regarded for their efficiency, especially when it comes to editing large files or working over slow network connections. While using Vi/Vim can be a bit challenging for beginners due to its mode-based operation, mastering these tools can significantly boost productivity. One common task while editing text files is deleting lines. In this guide, we will show you how to delete lines in Vi and Vim.

• The command-line environment in Linux and Unix-like operating systems provides a plethora of tools for text processing. One such tool is sed, short for Stream EDitor. sed is an efficient and versatile tool that can parse and transform text. It’s frequently used for a wide variety of text manipulation tasks in shell scripts. One common use case for sed is to delete lines in a text file.

• Logging users out of your system is easy, all you need to have is the username that you want logged out, and you can log them out using the methods we explained below.

• My workstation was initially installed with Debian 8 back in the day, so I might have carried a lot of configuration cruft. Indeed. I followed the recommended upgrades documentation (apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs followed by apt full-upgrade).

• Sometimes we must kill a process or user account by tty name in Linux. It would be best if you used w command or who command to print users accessing tty and then run the pkill command against processes whose controlling terminal is listed by the -t option.

• The Linux operating system is known for its configurability and the power it gives to users to manage their systems. An integral part of this control comes from the ability to manipulate system files that govern how the operating system functions. One such critical file is the /etc/hosts file. This file is used by the operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses, acting as the first step in networking operations. Its understanding and management can play a crucial role in network troubleshooting and customization.

• Here’s everything you need to know about setting file permissions in Linux. This guide covers both the GUI and command line approaches.

• PHP, a widely used server-side scripting language, offers many web development features, including file handling. One of the most common tasks in web development is downloading files. In this guide, we delve into the process of downloading files in PHP, covering various methods, error handling, and testing the download functionality.

• In the vast ecosystem of Linux, the kernel is the core of the operating system, acting as the bridge between software applications and the hardware of a computer.

• In the world of Linux, the kernel is the heart of the operating system. It’s the bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. But did you know there are different types of kernels you can use? One of these is the XanMod Kernel.

• The Raspberry Pi is one amazing little machine with a bit of a caveat: the RAM and SD card storage. And it’s not like you can do anything with that since everything is soldered directly on the board. That’s why upgrading both RAM and storage is impossible – unless you make a Raspberry Pi virtual machine.

• And the good news is that it’s so easy to make one. Here we show you how to make a Raspberry Pi virtual machine.

• In today’s digital era, the significance of a fast, efficient internet connection cannot be overstated. As part of our endeavor to help you optimize your online experience, we introduce you to innovative technology from Google: the Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time (BBR).

• Linux Kernel 6.4 is the latest and most robust update in open-source operating systems. This new version, now part of the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel repository, is a culmination of meticulous development, embodying numerous enhancements, new features, and broader hardware compatibility.

• Linux belongs on your home network, and setting up an on-premises cloud is simpler than you’d think.

• Need to access Grub while using Linux in a VM? Here’s how to do that.

• Learn how to reset your forgotten Ubuntu password by using the passwd command with the username or by starting Bash with root privileges.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• Still looking for an alternative screen recording application for GNOME Desktop? Try this one! GNOME, the default desktop environment of Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation, lacks good screen recorder after switching to Wayland. Kooha is a good choice that support recording voice and multiple monitors, which works in both Xorg and Wayland.

Distributions and Operating Systems

BSD

• Hi folks! Many folks don’t know I write the “We Get Letters” column for the FreeBSD Journal. You can download the PDFs free from their web site. Why do I write a column for free? Because it gives me an opportunity to vent the spleen that’s too toxic for my books.

Gentoo Family

• I’m writing this report on 13th July, almost two week late. See week 6 report for that, I had fallen a bit sick.

• Hello all, this is my week 5’s report for my project “Porting Gentoo’s packages to Modern C”.

• First things first, we now have MATE desktop and related packages ported. Not only just in Modern C, but it’s now compatible with gettext-0.22, too [1]. So if you are using llvm-musl or the llvm profile you can use MATE desktop.

• Hello all,

• This week I couldn’t do much as I caught a bit of cold and fell ill. But I’m doing much better now and will begin working again starting this week. I plan on making up for last weeks work in the coming week and in case there is still remaining work, I will make it up in the

Fedora Family / IBM

• The Fedora Council wants to hear what you have to say! Take the anonymous survey now.

• As before we are interested in the usage of tools and communication channels, your roles, your favorite apps and programming languages. This year we also specifically ask about the development mailing list.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

• We are happy to announce that Ubuntu Pro is now available on Arm series Virtual Machines on Google Cloud. You can now launch or upgrade Ubuntu Arm instances to Ubuntu Pro on Google Compute Engine.

• Renowned for their exceptional performance per watt efficiency, Arm-based chips have become ubiquitous in mobile devices and have demonstrated their capabilities for supercomputing workloads. Google Cloud introduces the Tau T2A machine series as the inaugural Arm-based series available on Compute Engine. With Ampere Altra’s single-threaded CPU, it serves as an outstanding platform for general-purpose compute workloads. When you find yourself in the following scenarios, consider utilizing the Tau T2A general-purpose Arm VMs…

• Linux Mint 21.2 is now ready to download from official mirrors. An official announcement hasn’t been made in the blog yet but the What’s New page and download links are already live.

Devices/Embedded

• CZUR ET24 Pro is a professional book scanner with 320DPI optional resolution (delivering up to 24MP images) that works with Windows, macOS, and Linux via a USB port, or even in standalone mode through an HDMI port that could be used for business presentations. When CZUR contacted me about reviewing a scanner, I was not sure it would be interesting, but then I was intrigued because it looks like a bedside light and I had never used this type of scanner.  So I decided to give a go, and here I am with a review sample. It looks like it should be especially useful for people scanning a lot of documents or books as it’s designed for speed and should significantly improve productivity over a traditional scanner with a cover, while hopefully keeping the quality. But we’ll check that in the full review.

• From June 28 to June 30, Bootlin participated to the Embedded Linux Conference Europe, which was organized as part of the new and larger Embedded Open Source Summit.

• The RISC-V ISA specification contains the recipe for everything from the humblest of microcontrollers to the most accomplished of high-end application processors, but it’s fair to say that at our end of the market it’s mostly been something for the lower end. There are plenty of inexpensive small RISC-V microcontrollers, but so far not much powerful enough for example to run a Linux-based operating system.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• The European Union’s proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) aims to bolster cybersecurity across the continent. However, it has sparked significant concern within the open source software community. Critics argue that the CRA could impose increased legal and financial responsibilities on open source contributors, potentially stifling innovation and damaging the open source ecosystem. Furthermore, the legislation’s vulnerability disclosure requirements could inadvertently expose software vulnerabilities to a larger audience, increasing the risk of malicious exploitation. This article delves into the potential implications of the CRA for open source software and the broader digital landscape in Europe.

• The European “Cyber Resilience Act” (CRA) was introduced by the European Commission in September 2022. It aims to impose cybersecurity obligations for digital products and services within the European Union.

FSF

• The 2023 Spring “Free Software Foundation Bulletin” is here! Read about the right to repair movement, web browser privacy, a volunteer rescue response to an earthquake, and much more.

Programming/Development

• After almost a year and a half of work it’s finally here. Business Class goes 1.0.

• Business Class is a brand new template focused on Rails defaults, the Paddle payment processor, and developer experience. I wanted something that follows Rails closely, something that helps me with the international sales tax, and something that’s delightful to build upon. If you are interested a bit more in the motivation behind starting a new SaaS template I described it a in more detail in a previous post.

Python

• To find the length of a string in Python, use len() function. We can also use For loop to iterate through each element and find the length of the string.

• The “isascii()” method in Python is a pre-built string method that checks whether all the characters in a string are ASCII characters or not.

• The size of a NumPy array can be obtained using the size attribute for one-dimensional arrays and the shape attribute for multi-dimensional arrays.

• Practical guide on how to manage the Python Packages with PIP by upgrading the existing packages, installing specific versions of Python packages, and so on.

Leftovers

• Not Just Bikes: Why we won’t raise our kids in suburbia

• One thing you notice when you go to The Netherlands: there are a lot of children around … the Dutch are famous for having the happiest kids in the world … the big factor is [their] level of independence

• I had a similar experience growing up in Singapore, though that was more for the ubiquitous, affordable, reliable, easy to understand, and safe public transport. I was allowed outside by myself when I was 9, and that was considered late by my friends.

• When we moved to Kuala Lumpur years later, or back to Australia before I settled in a mixed-use neighbourhood, I had less independence. Go figure.

• I’ve talked to some parents from suburban Canada about why they don’t let their children out on their own, and they usually say it’s because it’s “too dangerous” … That’s insane, because Canada is one of the safest countries in the world … so why do people think this?

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• From economic challenges to lack of access to services and discrimination, a new report highlights the problems faced by the Roma community in Turkey in the wake of the pandemic.

• The pandemic destabilized us—and exposed the fractures in our country’s approach to mental health.

• One of Hong Kong’s purpose-built Covid-19 isolation centres will be converted to a training centre for uniformed youth groups while another will become a venue to train construction industry workers, the government has announced.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating OpenAI to determine whether the ChatGPT creator has engaged in unfair data security practices or unfair practices that harm the reputation of consumers.

• The agency sent OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, a letter this week over consumer harms and the company’s security practices.

• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into ChatGPT creator OpenAI and whether the artificial intelligence company violated consumer protection laws by scraping public data and publishing false information through its chatbot, according to reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times. The agency sent OpenAI a 20-page letter requesting detailed information on its AI technology, products, customers, privacy safeguards and data security arrangements, according to the reports. An FTC spokesman had no comment.

• QuickBlox SDK and API vulnerabilities impact chat and video applications used by industries including telemedicine, smart IoT, and finance.

• The planned Oort purchase is Cisco’s fourth acquisition of a cybersecurity company in the first half of 2023.

• Reddit users can no longer access their chat archives after a recent “upgrade” to the platform’s systems.

Pseudo-Open Source

Openwashing

• I’ve started a new video series about software, copyright, and other tech subject I’m thinking about. If you enjoy them, please subscribe.

• The Open Source Initiative kicked off a multi-stakeholder process to define machine learning systems that can be characterized as “Open Source.” This is the recap of the first meeting.

• Open Policy Alliance was created to amplify underrepresented voices in public policy development, focused on informing US policy discussions and global collaboration.

Linux Foundation

• The IBM TechXchange Conference offers technical breakout sessions, hands-on experiences, product demonstrations, instructor-led labs, and certifications tailored to your interests and learning style. Open Mainframe Summit will be featured as part of the Community Day on September 11 at the MGM Grand Hotel. Community Day unites diverse IBM user groups and technical communities to foster collaboration, networking and learning.

• The open source paradigm is undeniably shaping the future of technology worldwide. India, in particular, is a cradle for open source innovation, forging ahead with groundbreaking advancements in fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), digital wallets, and blockchain.

Security

• Blockchain Engineering Director Holistic security reviews should reveal far more than simple bugs. Often, these bugs indicate deeper issues that can be challenging to understand and address.

• Chinese hackers have breached the email systems of officials from more than 20 different agencies around the world, including in the US, gaining access to dozens of confidential emails hosted by Microsoft, according to the software company and the White House.

• The source code for the BlackLotus UEFI bootkit has been leaked on GitHub and an expert has issued a warning over the risks.

• Two decades ago, my life changed forever: hearing Bruce Schneier explain that “security” doesn’t exist in the abstract. You can only be secure from some threat. A fire alarm won’t protect you from burglaries. A condom won’t protect you from mass shootings.

• Two Rockwell Automation product vulnerabilities have been used for a new exploit by an APT group that could use it to target critical infrastructure.

• SonicWall patches four critical-severity vulnerabilities in its Global Management System (GMS) and Analytics products.

• A Chinese hacking campaign and a court ruling pausing minimum security standards for the water sector illustrate challenges in improving cybersecurity.

• The plan is a roadmap for the U.S. government to accomplish the goals outlined in the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

• Apple has re-released its Rapid Security Response updates for iOS and macOS after fixing a website access issue caused by the original patches.

• Juniper Networks has patched multiple high-severity vulnerabilities in Junos OS, Junos OS Evolved, and Junos Space.

• Cybersecurity company Armis has identified several vulnerabilities in Honeywell ICS products that could expose industrial organizations to attacks.

• A group of congressional Democrats reported that three large tax preparation firms sent “extraordinarily sensitive” information on tens of millions of taxpayers to Facebook parent company Meta over the course of at least two years.

Privacy/Surveillance

• TikTok owner ByteDance is allowing some US-based employees to cash out shares before an IPO. The report from Reuters says the move is “aimed at appeasing restless employees who have been waiting for an IPO to profit from the shares they have been awarded as part of their compensation.” >

• Ever since the fall of 2018, the DHS has been threatening the American public with increased surveillance on top of the insults and intrusions TSA officers physically perform at security checkpoints.

• Pretty much everyone who isn’t a UK legislator backing the Online Safety Bill has come out against it. The proposal would give the UK government much more direct control of internet communications. Supposedly aimed at limiting the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the proposal would do the opposite of its moniker by making everyone less safe when interacting with others via internet services.

Defence/Aggression

• Lawyers’ groups have filed criminal complaints against the soldiers responsible for the violence on varios charges including “torture” and “deprivation of liberty.”

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be guest of honour for France’s Bastille Day celebrations on Friday, which are set to take place under tight security two weeks after the country was swept by riots.

• Australia’s foreign minister has challenged China’s top diplomat over Hong Kong’s latest national security crackdown, saying Friday it was crucial to speak frankly “in defence of human rights”.

• Planet A The European Commission has adopted a joint communication setting out a framework to address ‘the growing impact of climate change and environmental degradation in the fields of peace, security, and defence’.

• According to some Human Rights activists and representatives, the Burkinabe are being identified as economic immigrants, and therefore treated as a threat to the internal security of the country.

• The Intelligence and Security Committee of the UK Parliament released a long-awaited report on China on Thursday, referring to China as a “security threat.” The wide-reaching report details what the Committee, chaired by Conservative Party MP  Sir Julian Murray Lewis, regards as China’s extensive interference with UK academia, politics, technology and industry.

• Foreign Minister Penny Wong has placed Asian nations at the forefront of security in the Indo-Pacific, as NATO considers expanding its presence in the region.

• The military alliance proposed opening a liaison office in Japan’s capital Tokyo, in a bid to deepen cooperation with partners in the region.

• The Security Council called on the parties in Cyprus to return to formal negotiations and reiterated its proposal for a solution as “a comprehensive and just settlement based on a bicommunal, bizonal federation.”

War in Ukraine

• Another 11 vehicles seized from drunk drivers will be donated to Ukraine, the government decided on Thursday, July 13. Of every 100 vehicles seized, approximately 70 are given to Ukraine, Ināra Solosteja, representative of the State Revenue Service (VID) told Latvian Radio.

• The Ministry of Defense (AM) will have the right to enter into agreements with capital companies registered in Latvia, thereby facilitating the procurement procedure and strengthening the State defense industry, according to the Law on Defense Industry adopted by the government and referred to the Saeima on Thursday, July 13.

• Latvia will provide €7 million co-financing into the European Investment Bank (EIB) Trust Fund “European Union for Ukraine” or “EU4U”, which aims to support Ukraine in restoring its critical infrastructure, the government decided on Thursday, July 13.

• During the year, there has been no significant change in the attitudes toward Russia’s war in Ukraine, while families speaking both Latvian and Russian have significantly reduced their support for Ukraine, according to an SKDS study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Latvia, the magazine “Ir” reports on Thursday.

• Experts are warning that rice production across South and Southeast Asia is likely to suffer with the world heading into an El Nino. Climate change is causing stronger El Ninos, which alter global weather patterns and heat up an already warming planet. Thirsty crops like rice are particularly vulnerable, especially when they are rainfed and not irrigated. Experts say this will worsen food insecurity at a time when supplies of grain and fertilizer are recovering from disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. Global demand is soaring, while yields globally have been stagnating for decades because of climate change and limits to productivity gains.

• The NATO summit in Vilnius could have outlined clearer conditions for Ukraine’s path to membership in the alliance, but it showed that the member states are prepared to support Ukraine in practice, the President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs told LETA July 13.

• It’s infuriates me that this war has passed this milestone, but it’s also a testament to the Ukranian spirit and will under unrelenting aggression. Once again, I remind war hawks that this would be over today if Russian troops withdrew.

• I bring this up not just to mark this sombre occasion, but to remind journalists and commentators that this didn’t start 500 days ago. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and has been waging war in the Donbas region ever since.

• With dozens of senior Russian officers reportedly detained following the Wagner revolt and a senior commander dismissed this week for criticizing the conduct of the Ukraine invasion, could Putin face a mutiny within the Russian army?

• Their discussions are expected to focus on forging closer cooperation on security, environmental and technology issues.

• The 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius failed to produce a breakthrough toward Ukrainian membership but did underline international support for Ukraine in the fight against Russia’s invasion, writes Peter Dickinson.

• French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that SCALP missiles, capable of striking the Russian army at long range, would be delivered to Ukraine. Western countries had previously been hesitant to fulfil Ukraine’s long-standing request for these weapons for fear of escalating the conflict.

• US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “already lost” the war in Ukraine as he visited NATO’s newest member country. Biden’s comments came as spokespeople for both the Ukrainian military and the Pentagon confirmed that cluster munitions had been delivered to Ukraine.

• France’s parliament on Thursday approved a multi-billion-euro boost to military spending through the rest of this decade, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine and fast-growing global threats.

• Lithuania and 15 other EU member states have agreed on a special European Investment Bank fund for Ukraine to support the country’s near-term reconstruction, and pledged to allocate more than 400 million euros.

• Ukraine has many more guarantees from the international community now than it had before this week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, says President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief adviser.

• NATO leaders meeting in Vilnius on Tuesday endorsed a communiqué promising Ukraine membership of the alliance. But does it show a breakthrough or merely a repeat of the fateful Bucharest declaration almost two decades ago?

• CCTV and other Chinese media outlets twisted Colin Kahl’s remarks on Ukraine and spread misinformation.

• Several Ukrainian regions declared an air-raid alert early on July 14 as Russia unleashed a fresh round of Iranian-made drones, causing damage and injuries, regional officials said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as he invited South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to join what he called a humanitarian initiative to export Ukrainian grain.

• Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says he hopes progress will be made on a peace treaty when he meets with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels on July 15, with the president of the Council of the European Union, Charles Michel, in attendance.

• Serbian opposition politicians and anti-war activists have called on Serbian authorities to allow Russian lawyer Peter Nikitin, a critic of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, entry to the Balkan nation after holding him at an airport in Belgrade despite the fact he has legal residency in the country.

• U.S. President Joe Biden said he and other NATO leaders showed the world at their summit this week that the military alliance is “more united than ever” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• A top Russian field commander says he was dismissed after disagreements with superior officers over the situation on the front lines, an unusual public display of dissent from within the Russian ranks after just over 500 days of war in Ukraine.

• “In achieving the security of one country, one should not create threats to another country,” Vladimir Putin said.

• The members of the U.S.-led military alliance have been divided on how to bring Ukraine closer to their bloc.

• Making strategy by dubious analogy is a bad idea.

• The competing interests at this week’s NATO summit in Lithuania seemed to play out without diplomatic cover or subtlety. The biggest challenge is simply framed: How could the West support Ukraine without overcommitting?

• But that oversimplifies a complex global situation, others say, with a weakened Russia and with China facing serious problems of its own.

• The Wagner group mutiny three weeks ago has exposed dissension and fueled a shake-up in the Russian military, as it tries to fend off a Ukrainian advance.

• A must-pass bill setting military spending levels and policy faces a newly uncertain path after the House voted Thursday to add controversial language on abortion while preserving aid to Ukraine.

• Russia’s State Duma adopted in the second reading a bill on July 13 that bans surgical operations “aimed at changing the sex of a person” and the changing of the gender marker in documents.

• After the closing of a major NATO summit in Lithuania, President Biden vowed to support Ukraine and warned the war may continue for a long time, before flying to Finland, the newest member of NATO, which shares an 830-mile border with Russia. The goal of this summit may have been to make Ukraine seem more aligned with NATO, but “they actually revealed that the alliance was split” when they did not offer a timeline for Ukraine’s membership, says Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Wertheim says the real result of this summit was Ukraine moving to an “armed neutrality” or “Israel model,” where international allies supply long-term economic and security assistance to the country. The NATO summit also resulted in a communiqué criticizing China’s growing military power, saying Beijing’s actions are threatening the security of NATO nations.

• In an interview with Pavel Zarubin, a correspondent at the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine has a right to ensure its security, as long as it doesn’t negatively impact Russia’s security, commenting on the NATO Summit in Vilnius.

• In off-the-cuff remarks on the sidelines of the NATO summit, the defense minister, Ben Wallace, derided Russia and suggested that Ukrainian officials tone down some of their demands for aid.

• A Russian court on July 13 ordered the extended detention of a suspect in the murder of a military recruitment official in the southwestern city of Krasnodar. Sergei Denysenko will be held in custody pending trial.

• The Wall Street Journal’s legal team on July 13 offered a look into the “frustrating” process of trying to free journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia since March 29 on allegations of espionage.

• Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea are countries in which Washington and NATO seek to deploy nuclear weapons, according to the Russian diplomat.

• Even with the war ongoing and the front line just 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the northern Crimean city of Armyansk, Russian tourists continue to travel to the occupied peninsula for recreation. Since the start of July, heavy traffic around the Kerch Bridge has been a regular occurrence. (Russia’s Federal Road Agency says the traffic is due to vehicle inspections, which have become more frequent since the travel season began.) The independent journalists’ cooperative Bereg asked Russians to explain why they’ve continued spending vacations in Crimea. With Bereg’s permission, Meduza is sharing excerpts from their interviews in English.

• For the third night in a row, Russia has launched drones at Kyiv. City authorities reported that they were able to down all of the drones on July 11-12 with no injuries.

• A Krasnodar court arrested Sergey Denisenko, who is accused of killing Stanislav Rzhitsky, the city’s deputy head for mobilization and a captain of the second rank, reports the Krasnodar Krai court. He will be reportedly be detained for a period of two months. Rzhitsky previously commanded the Alrosa and Krasnodar submarines.

• The Ukrainian leader secured new pledges of weapons and reaffirmed security commitments from Western allies, but it was not clear how significant a boost they could provide for his country’s counteroffensive.

• As the Russian military tries to find its bearings after a mutiny by the nation’s most prominent mercenary group amid Ukraine’s ongoing counterstrike, the Defense Ministry confronts a new controversy this week in Major General Ivan Popov (call sign “Spartak”), the now ex-commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, who says he was dismissed from his post after warning the military’s top brass about supply and logistical shortages hindering the Russian army.

• The destruction of the Kakhovka dam unleashed a humanitarian and environmental disaster in Ukraine’s south on June 6. A growing body of evidence suggests that Russian forces, who seized the local hydroelectric plant along with the town of Nova Kakhovka at the very start of the full-scale invasion, blew up the dam from the inside. The floodwaters from the reservoir engulfed dozens of settlements in the Kherson region, including Russian-occupied areas on the left bank of the Dnipro river, and spilled into the neighboring Mykolaiv region. In the city of Kherson, persistent Russian shelling made already difficult evacuation efforts deadly.  Journalist Igor Burdyga was on the ground in his hometown of Kherson when the waters began to rise. With permission from openDemocracy, Meduza shares his firsthand account of the ruined homes, waist-high floods, and food shortages in the city — and of how Kherson’s residents are still finding reasons to smile.

• Citing American politics, some NATO leaders expressed concern that Washington could waver in its support if there were a shift in power.

• The Russian leader said the U.N.-brokered deal that lets Ukraine export its grain across the Black Sea had been a “one-sided game” and that Moscow might suspend participation on July 17.

• The Russian military’s lackluster performance in the war in Ukraine has shown that Europe can, and should, defend itself.

• Every vice president in this century has been terrible on foreign policy. In the race to be the least terrible, Mike Pence did himself no favors the other day. Pence was bragging to Fox News about how tough he and Donald Trump were with regards to Russia.

• A Latvian citizen who has been found guilty of providing illegal intellectual and physical support to Russia has got a relatively mild sentence – a fine of EUR 15,500. President Edgars Rinkēvičs has requested the prosecutor an explanation of this, Latvian Television reported July 14.

• Russian offensives in Donetsk and Luhansk left several villages damaged from shelling while a Russian airstrike destroy an aid station in Zaporizhzhia.

• Washington’s acquiescence to Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh hurts US efforts to curb malign Russian influence.

• After the aborted Wagner rebellion, Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin held a meeting on June 29 after which the Wagner commanders said they would “continue to fight” for Russia. Against this backdrop, social media users shared a video which they claimed shows a convoy of mercenaries from the Wagner Group arriving in Belarus. In reality, it shows their short-lived armed rebellion in Russia on June 23 and 24, 2023.

• Lithuania’s Migration Department has revoked the residence permit issued to Russian citizen Vladimir Vodo after intelligence said he was posing a threat to national security.

• At least 13 senior Russian military officers were detained for questioning after Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing knowledgeable sources.

• In a newly-surfaced recording, Major General Ivan Popov, who led Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army, described a conflict he had with “senior officers.” Popov’s audio message, which was likely only intended for his fellow servicemen, was published on Telegram Wednesday by Russian State Duma deputy Andrey Gurulev, a previous commander of the same formation. Among other things, Popov says in the clip that a “difficult situation has arisen” with his senior officers that left him with a choice: “I could either remain silent, chicken out, and say what they wanted to hear, or I could call a spade a spade.” Popov said he decided to speak out.

• Russia’s Investigative Committee has asked a Moscow court to take Maksim Parshin, the country’s Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Communications, and Mass media, into custody. He is suspected of taking a large bribe, reports Russian outlet Kommersant.

Environment

• Climate activists were blocking flights at two German airports for several hours Thursday in protest against the most polluting form of transportation. They were also demanding tougher government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The group Last Generation said several of its members entered the grounds of Hamburg Airport around 6 a.m. and glued themselves to the runway on the first day of the school vacation. Germany’s dpa news agency reported that dozens of flights were canceled and 10 arrivals had to be diverted to other airports. Members of the group also cut through a security fence at Duesseldorf Airport in the west. They blocked an access route to the runway, disrupting several flights there before operations resumed.

• It is working with scientists to develop a metric to score banks in terms of their role in fighting climate change.

Finance

• It was a mixed bag for the cybersecurity industry today, as Ripple Labs Inc. bagged a win over claims that it was violating federal securities law, but was overshadowed by the founder of Celsius Network LLC being charged over a pump-and-dump scheme.

• Haleon, the company behind well-known brands like Sensodyne, Centrum, and Panadol, is planning significant job cuts globally.

• The move comes just a year after its spin-off from GSK, the second-largest drugmaker in the UK.

• With a workforce of 24,000 across 170 countries, Haleon plans to eliminate hundreds of positions in the UK and potentially thousands worldwide.

• After multiple rounds of mass layoffs in less than a year, Amazon is reportedly trimming its headcount once again.

• According to a report by Semafor, which was posted on Yahoo! News, the e-commerce giant cut approximately 80 jobs in its pharmacy division on July 13.

• People familiar with the matter claim that pharmacy technicians and team leads were affected by the reduction. It remains unclear if any Canadian employees were let go.

• “Although eliminating roles is always difficult, we are making these changes now to keep investing in improving the customer experience, which will strengthen our business for the long term,” Kelvin Downes, director of fulfillment at Amazon Pharmacy, wrote in a note to staff that was obtained by Semafor.

• A funding crunch has prompted cash-strapped tech start-ups to consider selling themselves to larger companies in order to survive. The recent series of takeovers of artificial intelligence (AI) companies by bigger players has revitalized Silicon Valley’s market. Databricks acquired MosaicML for $1.3 billion, Thomson Reuters purchased Casetext for $650 million, Robinhood bought X1 for $95 million, and Ramp acquired Cohere.io. These deals have provided a glimmer of hope for venture-backed companies that have faced challenges in a tech downturn, resulting in low valuations and layoffs.

• However, these acquisitions also highlight the growing trend of start-ups seeking to sell themselves to larger companies or being pressured by their investors to merge with competitors. Many start-ups are running out of cash as venture capitalists have scaled back their investments, and IPOs are not generating the desired returns. Ryan Nolan, global co-head of software investment banking at Goldman Sachs, noted that around 1,000 unicorns (tech start-ups valued at over $1 billion) are struggling to find a clear path to liquidity.

• Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has cut its workforce by more than 1,000 positions, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, making the crypto giant the latest major U.S. company to conduct layoffs this year as recession fears…

• In RoboDebt’s wake, our very system of government needs to be bulldozed and rebuilt. Rex Patrick argues it is time for a republican model, for separation of powers.

• Our system of Federal government has three arms; the legislature (the House and the Senate), the executive (the Prime Minister, ministers and their departments) and the judiciary (the High Court and lower courts). There is overlap between the legislature and the executive arms in that ministers must also be members of parliament.

• And mortgage squeeze likely, gloomy lenders tell Bank of England.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Numerous social media platforms are popping up, vying to replace Twitter as the preeminent text-based microblogging and social networking platform.

• We now have Bluesky, Mastodon, Spill and Spoutible, but the it thing at the moment is Meta Platforms Inc.’s Threads, which surpassed 100 million users in its first five days thanks to its Instagram ties. Many of us are either getting swept up in the excitement of whatever new app is launching or rolling our eyes after hearing about whatever new “Twitter killer” is on the block.

• It’s been a rough couple of news cycles for righteous conservative enemies of the deep state. A key witness promoted as a conscience-ridden whistleblower in the IRS’s handling of Hunter Biden’s delinquent tax payments was charged with serving as an illicit foreign agent spying for China, and trafficking in arms. And just as the legislative MAGA-verse’s Inspector Javert set was poised to depict the IRS as the scheming Beltway left’s blunt instrument of choice, former Trump chief of staff John Kelly reported in sworn testimony that the former president himself was keen to “weaponize” the IRS—the preferred term of art among the Trumpian faithful—in order to harass and punish FBI agents and others investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential campaign.

• The Secret Service announced Thursday that it has concluded its investigation into the cocaine found at the White House due to a lack of evidence.

• Why it matters: The discovery of the illicit drug prompted larger concerns among Republican lawmakers about security at the White House.

Censorship/Free Speech

• A free speech group of professors at New York’s Columbia University has sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and others for the state’s TikTok ban on official devices, saying that the ban is unconstitutional under the First Amendment and impinges on academic freedom./blockquote>

• A lawsuit filed on Thursday says Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban is compromising research and teaching at public universities.

Civil Rights/Policing

• The Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the arrest of a resident of the Orel region on suspicion of treason — “an LGBTQ+ activist, who previously changed his gender identity from a woman to a man.”

• What Hongkongers wanted was to achieve the five demands popularised during the protests and unrest in 2019, not for lawmakers to veto the budget in the legislature, the ex-chief of a grassroots political party has. He was testifying during the landmark national security trial involving 47 pro-democracy figures.

• A former member of defunct Hong Kong pro-democracy party Demosisto, Derek Lam, has been questioned by national security police as officers searched his home in Sai Ying Pun, local media have reported.

• The Security Bureau has condemned Ming Pao for publishing a “misleading” opinion piece written by Lo Kin-hei, the chairperson of the Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy party, the Democratic Party. Lo has said he was just writing a “kind reminder” for the government.

• One of the 47 pro-democracy figures facing a charge under Hong Kong’s national security law has been sentenced to 37 months behind bars for rioting in 2019. Wong Ji-yuet had been in remand since March after pleading guilty to a rioting charge and applied for her bail to be revoked.

Monopolies

Patents

• On June 19, 2023, the Japanese Patent Office has revoked JP6768017 and JP6768110, owned by Xylene.

• If you break it down far enough, every invention is simply a combination of known materials or steps. In that frame, the obviousness inquiry fundamentally becomes a question of whether the combination of known elements was within the toolkit of an ordinary artisan. This is a flexible analysis (KSR) with the PTO and courts typically looking for a “motivation to combine” the prior art teachings that would have a “reasonable expectation of success.”

• The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Axonics, Inc. v. Medtronic, Inc., No. 2022-1451 (Fed. Cir. July 10, 2023) zeroes in on the motivation-to-combine analysis.

• New Networks aims to encourage an interest in STEM among younger generations

• epi joins European delegation in the industry representatives of the IP5 regions

Trademarks

• According to a press release by the Portuguese Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI), Portuguese native João Negrão is to become the new executive director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

Copyrights

• After comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta and OpenAI, a federal judge has ordered the Meta lawsuit into ‘alternative dispute resolution.’/blockquote>

• Jennifer Coates, a partner at Minneapolis-based international law firm Dorsey & Whitney, who represents high-profile and government entities in complex cases, told iTWire that the lawsuit was “trying to meld two separate concepts. One idea is that a corporation gathers an individual’s data to study that specific individual’s behaviour; The second idea is that Google is gathering data to educate its AI model about people, generally. It’s apples and oranges”.

• And she added: “Most importantly, assuming that Google’s privacy policy told users that it was collecting data and also asked users to accept that policy by using the site, then the users were warned about not only the use of their data, but also how it can be used.”

• Coates, who has previously served as an assistant attorney-general with the Office of the Minnesota Attorney-General, said the US would not prohibit an individual from going to a library and reading whatever they wanted to read. “The thoughts that the individual generates from that reading and learning are unique to that individual. The same could be argued about Bard or any other AI product,” she said.

• Video games are a form of art and a form of expression. While that used to be somewhat controversial to state decades ago, nobody of any value really argues that point any longer. And the moment you accept that simple fact, it throws into light how absolutely absurd it is that the preservation efforts of libraries and museums are so severely hampered for this one type of art compared with others, such as music and film. Industry lobbying groups have been able to successfully block getting these institutions exemptions from copyright law to better share this cultural history with the world by stating two rebuttals: such cultural sharing would hurt the industry’s sales, and it’s all unnecessary anyway because the industry is already preserving games and making them available to people.

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