News gathered 2024-09-13
(date: 2024-09-13 07:46:32)
MongoDB CEO says if AI hype were the dotcom boom it is 1996
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
NoSQL database slinger attempts to reassure investors, kinda
Analysis It is 1996 in terms of the business adoption of AI if it were put on the dotcom era timeline, according to MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/mongodb_ceo_says_if_ai/
Scenic California mountain town walloped by blizzard is now threatened by wildfire
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
RUNNING SPRINGS, California — In the Southern California mountain town of Running Springs, residents live between two scenic lake resorts — a seemingly serene spot but one also caught between the swings of devastating winter snowstorms and menacing summer wildfires.
Niko Rynard is currently evacuated from his home due to the Line Fire, which has charred 58 square miles (150 square km) since the weekend.
About a year and a half ago, the director of the Running Springs Area Chamber of Commerce raced down the mountains during a break in the relentless snowfall his neighbors came to call “Snowmageddon.” Roads were blocked for days.
The 29-year-old, who moved to the area nine years ago from the East Coast, is now staying with friends nearby but said others are shelling out hundreds of dollars to cram into hotel rooms until it’s safe to return.
The blaze is one of three major wildfires that have ravaged the mountains east of Los Angeles, destroying dozens of homes and forcing the evacuations of thousands of people. While California is only now confronting the height of wildfire season, the state already has seen nearly three times as much acreage burn than during all of 2023.
Much of this, Rynard said, “comes with the territory” and is part of living in a beautiful area. He said long-time residents have told him the massive wildfires are cyclical, much like the snow.
To add to people’s rattled nerves, Southern California was rocked by a 4.7-magnitude earthquake Thursday morning.
Running Springs is dubbed the “gateway to the San Bernardino Mountains” and perched more than a mile high. The town was among the communities snowed in when a blizzard walloped the area in 2023. Now, the community has been doused with bright fire-red retardant to protect it.
“It can be tough to live in these environments,” said Dawn Rowe, a San Bernardino County supervisor whose district covers mountain communities. “It’s beautiful — a lot of people come to visit and they find they might want to relocate for one reason or another. I would encourage everybody to spend an amount of time doing their due diligence.”
The Line Fire is burning through dense vegetation that grew after two back-to-back wet winters that included snowstorms that caused tree branches to break, leaving behind a lot of “dead and down fuel,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jed Gaines. Another wildfire threatened the mountain community of Wrightwood about a 50-mile (80-kilometer) drive to the west.
The fires have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures across Southern California since they escalated during a triple-digit heat wave over the weekend. Cooler weather was helping firefighters slowly gain the upper hand in battling the blazes. No deaths have been reported, but at least a dozen people, mainly firefighters, have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related, authorities said.
In one daring rescue caught on video, Cal Fire Riverside County Battalion Chief Mike Martinez saved a lone woman walking within feet of the Airport Fire in Orange County, driving his SUV up to the edge of the blistering flames so she could enter the vehicle.
“This is one of those moments … you hope you never come across,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years. We’re used to extreme fire behavior but to see a civilian walking down the middle of the street was surreal.”
Jason Anderson, district attorney for San Bernardino County, said Thursday that nine arson-related charges have been filed against a suspect accused of starting the Line Fire.
“This is particularly galling in a community that unfortunately over the last couple of years has dealt with the scourge of wildfires,” he told reporters, adding that the suspect’s vehicle has been linked to three areas where fires were started.
The suspect is due to be arraigned in court on Friday.
The full extent of the damage caused by the wildfires remains unclear. The three blazes are:
— The Airport Fire in Orange County, which has burned more than 36 square miles (93 square kilometers). The fire was 5% contained Thursday morning and was reportedly sparked by workers using heavy equipment in the area. Ten firefighters and two residents were injured in the blaze, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. The fire has been difficult to tame because of the steep terrain and dry conditions — and because some areas hadn’t burned in decades.
— The Line Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, which was 18% contained Thursday and has threatened more than 65,000 homes. The blaze has injured three firefighters.
— The Bridge Fire east of Los Angeles, which grew tenfold in a day and has burned 80 square miles (207 square km), torched at least 33 homes and six cabins, and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. The cause of the fire is not yet known. It remained zero percent contained Thursday.
In northern Nevada, the worst danger appears to have passed near Reno where a wildfire on the Sierra’s eastern front forced 20,000 evacuations over the weekend. The blaze closed all schools for four days and threatened to burn over the top of the mountains into the Lake Tahoe basin.
Part of the state highway from Reno to Tahoe remained closed Thursday. Authorities further relaxed evacuation orders after 600 firefighters held fire lines despite winds gusting up to 70 mph (112 kph) the day before and bolstered containment of the 9-square-mile (23-square-kilometer) Davis Fire, now estimated at 37%. Most of the 8,000 residents that began the day under evacuation orders were downgraded to evacuation warnings, allowing them to begin to return to their homes.
“All containment lines … are holding at this time,” Jason Clawson, an operations section chief for the federal firefighting team said at a briefing in Reno late Thursday. “Absolutely no concerns. We have crews, equipment, engines all spread out around the entire fire.”
China ups its retirement age
date: 2024-09-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
China’s top legislature has approved a plan to raise the retirement age as the country faces an aging workforce. It’s the first adjustment in decades, one that many economists say is long overdue — but it’s not universally popular. Plus, the current economic snapshot as the Fed prepares for a crucial interest rate decision. And later, is canned spaghetti carbonara a delicious innovation from Heinz or, as some critics call it, an abomination?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/china-ups-its-retirement-age
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Show notes for a short podcast I recorded on this day in 2004, a response to Adam's podcast which I had just listened to. These were the good days, a new medium in its early stages of booting up, after years of trying to get it to go.
https://shownotes.scripting.com/podcast0/2024/09/13/shortPodcastInResponseToAdamCurrysPodcast.html
Microsoft is updating Windows to avoid repeat of CrowdStrike catastrophe
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Existing low-level kernel access for security solutions will undergo a rework
Microsoft says it’s working on Windows to allow endpoint security solutions to operate outside of the operating system’s kernel, all with a view to preventing any future CrowdStrike-esque mega-outages.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/microsoft_is_updating_windows_to/
Smithsonian honors long-running US TV show
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” has just been renewed for its 25th season. It is the longest-running prime-time drama on U.S. television. The show’s lead character, Captain Olivia Benson, played by Mariska Hargitay, has become such a fixture in American life she was recently honored by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. VOA’s Maxim Adams reports. Videographer: Aleksandr Bergan
https://www.voanews.com/a/smithsonian-honors-long-running-us-tv-show/7782955.html
Good forms
date: 2024-09-13, from: Dave Rupert blog
Brian LeRoux posted a few thoughts about forms and the idea of a “good form” resonated with me so I dogpiled some of my own thoughts and experiences on it. Here’s a compilation of those ideas. I’m sure this is incomplete and would love to see your list.
- Good forms work without client JavaScript (Brian LeRoux)
- Good forms always submit (Brian LeRoux)
- Good forms remember values and display problems inline (Brian LeRoux)
- Good login forms work with password managers (Mingo Hogan)
-
Good forms use a
<form>tag - Good forms use appropriate input types
- Good forms have clear labelled inputs and buttons
- Good forms have focus states
- Good forms have logical tab order
- Good forms allow paste
-
Good form elements leverage the
inputmodeattribute -
Good form elements leverage the
autocompleteattribute -
Good search forms wrap the
<form>tag in a<search>element -
Good forms can be reset with a
<button type=reset> -
Good forms participate in
formData - Good forms don’t use placeholder as a label
- Good forms work on phones
- Good forms don’t popup and ask for personal information
- Good forms only ask for what is necessary and aren’t too long
- Good forms use HTTPS
- Good forms use the proper HTTP verbs
- Good forms validate on the client AND on the server
- Good forms have been driven with a screen reader before going to production
- Good forms clearly denote required attributes
- Good forms warn about costly or destructive actions
- Good forms make the baby Jesus smile
- Good authenticated forms should have a server-generated nonce value
-
Good forms should do a pre-flight check for
navigator.onLinebefore attempting a submit -
Good forms start with
accent-colorfor styling and only get more complex if necessary - Good forms see custom controls as a radioactive asset that must be removed at the earliest opportunity
Anyways. People should talk about forms more. Here’s some more resources on good form design.
- Form Design Patterns by Adam Silver
- Web Form Design by Luke Wroblewski
- Form Design Mastery by Adam Silver
- Better Onboarding by Krystal Higgins
https://daverupert.com/2024/09/good-forms/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Cable TV In Free Fall As Industry Loses Another 1.62 Million Viewers.
The asymmetric nature of Chinese and American student exchanges
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
With the start of the new school year, some students are choosing to study abroad to experience a new culture. Some American students are studying in China, but that number is far fewer than that of Chinese students attending American universities. Katherine Michaelson looks at why this imbalance could be problematic. Camera: : Elizabeth Lee
Analysts say Vietnam officials US trip could set path to C-130 deal
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
HO CHI MINH CITY — Analysts say this week’s visit to Washington by Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang shows advances in cooperation between the two countries, despite rising Vietnamese nationalism that may indicate rising anti-American sentiment in Vietnam.
A U.S.-based analyst told VOA on September 12 that Giang’s trip set the groundwork for Hanoi to potentially purchase military cargo planes from the United States this year.
Giang met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Monday. [September 9] Both leaders “reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Vietnam partnership,” the Defense Department said in a statement, and noted the one-year anniversary of the elevation of the countries’ ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the highest tier in Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy.
The leaders also underscored the importance of working together to address the lasting impacts of the U.S.-Vietnam War. Austin announced that the U.S. would budget $65 million over the next five years to complete the decontamination of Bien Hoa airbase of dioxin, bringing the total from department to $215 million. The airbase was the primary storage site for the toxic chemical Agent Orange during the U.S.-Vietnam War and remains an environmental and public health hazard for those nearby.
Andrew Wells-Dang, who leads the Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative at the United States Institute of Peace, told VOA by phone on September 5 that diplomatic visits are key to advancing war-remediation efforts, including finding and identifying the remains of missing soldiers. He said that along with the U.S. visit of Deputy Defense Minister Vo Minh Luong in July, visits from authorities provide “opportunity for them to have high level support.”
Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington and an expert on Southeast Asia, said joint war-reconciliation efforts also set the groundwork for defense cooperation more broadly.
“The United States is very pleased with the growth in bilateral defense relations, and it started from very low levels and was built on humanitarian missions,” Abuza said during the August 29 call.
“We’ve just continued to build on that,” he added.
Cargo planes
Reuters reported in July that Hanoi was considering purchasing Lockheed Martin C-130 cargo planes from the U.S., according to unnamed sources.
The U.S.-based analyst, who asked that his name to be withheld because he has not been cleared to discuss the topic, said the C-130 deal was discussed but not finalized during Giang’s visit. The analyst said the deal was held back by the “massive [U.S.] bureaucracy” and because solidifying the purchase during the Washington visit would be “too inflammatory for the Chinese.”
Ian Storey, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, noted Vietnam’s delicate diplomatic balancing act, illustrated by Giang’s travel itinerary before the Washington trip.
“Vietnam aims to keep its relations with the major powers in balance,” he wrote in an email on August 30. “As such, Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang visited Russia and China in August.”
Storey added that the purchase of C-130 planes would not pose a threat to China in its maritime territorial disputes with Vietnam.
“C-130 aircraft would enable the Vietnamese to transport troops and supplies to its occupied atolls in the South China Sea, but these assets are non-strategic and won’t shift the dynamics in the South China Sea,” he wrote.
Nguyen The Phuong, a maritime security expert at the University of New South Wales Canberra, said the C-130 purchase would be a “symbolic move.”
“Vietnam will try to explore more areas of security and defense cooperation between Vietnam and the United States to upgrade to a higher, more meaningful level,” he told VOA on August 30. “The C-130 would be the symbol of that kind of evolving relationship,” he said.
Phuong said a C-130 is a likely entry point as there is still mistrust between the former foes regarding lethal weapons, and the deal would not rankle China too much.
“It could be quite advantageous for Vietnam,” he said of a potential C-130 purchase. “Vietnam can improve its relationship with the United States, and at the same time, we could not anger China because Vietnam would just buy non-lethal weapons.”
Rising nationalism
Although there are positive signs to improving Hanoi-Washington relations, there have also been recent instances of anti-Western sentiment that could be an impediment to the countries relations, Phuong said.
Fulbright University Vietnam, which has significant backing from the United States, is facing accusations of fomenting a “color revolution,” similar to the popular uprisings in former Soviet republics.
On August 21, Vietnam National Defense TV aired a critique of Fulbright for allegedly not displaying the Vietnamese flag at a graduation ceremony and facilitating a color revolution.
The report has since been taken down, but Phuong said the Fulbright issue and other recent incidents show tension between Vietnam’s conservative and liberal factions.
“It’s a presentation of a continuous struggle between different factions, one conservative and one liberal,” Phuong said.
Abuza said that Vietnamese authorities may be attempting to tighten control ahead of the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
“Next April is the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon,” he said. “The Vietnamese want to control that narrative 100%. There are a lot of sensitivities.”
Along with the Fulbright incident, Phuong pointed to recent uproar around Vietnamese celebrities who were pictured with the South Vietnam flag while traveling to the United States. In addition, a Vietnamese high school student faced cyber bullying and was summoned by police after posting in September that he wanted to leave the country and would “probably never see the [Communist] Party positively again.”
“There’s extreme nationalism in Vietnam at the moment,” Phuong said. “It’s against Western values.”
They’re Not Even Local
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/09/13/theyre-not-even-local/
Microsoft vaguely gestures in the general direction of giving security vendors more userspace tools
date: 2024-09-13, from: OS News
The consequences of the massive CrowdStrike failure for Windows are slowly coming into focus. Microsoft recently held a security summit with some of the large security software vendors, and the company is making several rather vague promises about what it’s going to do to make sure an incident like CrowdStrike never happens again. A key part of these promises is the realisation that security software really shouldn’t be running in the kernel, and to make that possible, MIcrosoft will need to add several security features in userspace. Both our customers and ecosystem partners have called on Microsoft to provide additional security capabilities outside of kernel mode which, along with SDP, can be used to create highly available security solutions. At the summit, Microsoft and partners discussed the requirements and key challenges in creating a new platform which can meet the needs of security vendors. ↫ David Weston at the Windows Blogs This is easier said than done, as moving things from kernel to userspace tends to incur a performance penalty, as well as making it harder to detect software with bad intentions early enough. Microsoft is going to have do some serious reworking of both the kernel and userspace when it comes to security before it’ll be able to completely close up the kernel and make it impossible for security software to mess around in kernelspace. Microsoft doesn’t offer any concrete steps or measures quite yet, so we’ll have to wait and see just how far they’re willing to go. There’s really not much else to say at this point – empty platitudes, vague promises, and tons of marketing speak don’t secure an operating system, after all.
How Climate Change Triggered a Mega-Tsunami
date: 2024-09-13, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Extreme rainfall in the Czech Republic could trigger some of the worst flooding in decades • South America has recorded more than 346,000 fire hotspots this year • A 4.7 magnitude earthquake rattled Los Angeles yesterday, followed by several aftershocks.
THE TOP FIVE
- Global warming triggered a mega-tsunami that made the Earth vibrate
for days
Back in September of last year, seismic sensors all over the world began detecting strange signals, the source of which researchers couldn’t identify. For nine days, the whole Earth appeared to vibrate at regular 90-second intervals. Now, scientists say they’ve figured out what happened: A massive landslide in Greenland, caused by a melting glacier, sent huge volumes of debris plummeting into a fjord and triggered a mega-tsunami. The energy from the wave remained trapped in the fjord for nine days, the water sloshing back and forth and sending vibrations rippling out across the entire globe. Here you can see before and after pictures of the glacier and the mountain:
Science
/ Danish army
In a study published yesterday in the journal Science, the researchers explicitly link the event to climate change. Warming global temperatures caused the glacier to become too thin to support the mountain, so it collapsed. And they say there will be more events like these. “As we continue to alter our planet’s climate, we must be prepared for unexpected phenomena that challenge our current understanding and demand new ways of thinking,” the researchers wrote. “The ground beneath us is shaking, both literally and figuratively. While the scientific community must adapt and pave the way for informed decisions, it’s up to decision-makers to act.”
- White House to host first Extreme Heat Summit today
The White House today will host its first-ever Extreme Heat Summit, where President Biden’s National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi will issue an “Extreme Heat Call to Action,” urging leaders to step up their efforts to protect communities from the dangers of rising temperatures brought on by climate change. The summit comes on the heels of the hottest summer ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, and as the West Coast reels from wildfires made worse by drought and a record-breaking heat wave.
The summit will gather a variety of stakeholders – including emergency responders and health-care workers – to share takeaways and lessons from 2024’s extreme heat season, discuss how the government is helping and could help more, and identify gaps and opportunities for building extreme heat resilience ahead of next year. The White House will also announce a new “Community Heat Action Checklist” to serve as a roadmap to help leaders develop extreme heat plans.
“Climate-fueled extreme heat waves are showing up like wrecking balls in our communities, silently wreaking havoc on lives and livelihoods,” Zaidi said in a statement. “We recognize that this is climate change in action, and in response are taking a comprehensive approach to protecting both our people and infrastructure.” Investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for helping states adapt to the effects of climate change, including extreme heat, total more than $50 billion.
- Oxy gets $500 million from DOE for DAC hub
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations has committed up to $500 million to help Occidental Petroleum’s carbon capture and sequestration unit 1PointFive develop its South Texas DAC Hub, Reuters reported. The hub will host Oxy’s first large-scale removal facility, which will aim to remove 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year to start, ramping up to more than 1 million metric tons annually. “Occidental’s first large-scale DAC facility represents a pivotal economic trial for a technology that the International Energy Agency says will play a key role for global industrial decarbonization, despite its high costs in initial tests,” Reuters added.
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
- California leads in electric school bus deployments
A new report takes stock of state efforts to ditch diesel-powered school buses for electric fleets. Both federal and state funding is available to help with this transition. The report, from the Environment America Research and Policy Center and U.S. PIRG Education Fund, finds that California has the most “committed” electric school buses – that is, buses that have been awarded, ordered, delivered, or are already operational. The state has 1,777 e-buses up and running or ready to deploy, and is still waiting on nearly 2,000 more. These buses will serve more than 63,000 students. Also in the top five are New York, Illinois, Florida, and Pennsylvania, but they each trail California by quite a lot. Wyoming and Idaho are the only states with zero electric school buses. The report has lots of recommendations and tools to help school districts upgrade their fleets. It also urges students to pressure school boards to commit to making the switch.
- Pharma companies are trialing new asthma inhalers that don’t warm
the planet
Pharmaceutical companies are racing to get harmful pollutants out of their asthma inhalers, according to the Financial Times. Typical inhalers rely on propellants made from hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, to deliver life-saving drugs to users. But HFCs are potent greenhouse gases that are more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Pharma giant GSK estimates its Ventolin inhaler accounted for nearly half of the company’s global carbon footprint in 2022, releasing the equivalent of 4.6 million metric tons of CO2. It’s developing a new inhaler that could have a 90% lower carbon footprint. Similarly, AstraZeneca has a new inhaler in the works that could cut 1.3 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually. Both companies are trying to file for regulatory approval either by the end of 2024, or early next year.
THE KICKER
“Climate change is not a scientific or technical problem – it’s a political problem. And political problems can be solved by voting.” –Andrew Dressler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M, writing at The Climate Brink.
https://heatmap.news/climate/earth-vibrate-greenland-glacier-tsunami
Boeing union workers in US reject contract: 96% vote to strike
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Doubtful processes, risky spacecraft, what else could possibly go wrong? Oh…30,000 staff off work
Industrial difficulties can be added to the list of woes at aerospace giant Boeing after members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 voted in favor of strike action.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/boeing_hit_by_strike_action/
How to use the Raspberry Pi Touch Display
date: 2024-09-13, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
The Raspberry Pi Touch Display is an LCD display that connects to the Raspberry Pi using the DSI connector.
The post How to use the Raspberry Pi Touch Display appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/how-to-use-the-raspberry-pi-touch-display/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Finally, the moment I have been waiting for all my life:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113130198736703017
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Committing to reply-guy “skills issue” to anyone that says “safari is the new internet explorer”
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113130029296327603
As Hurricane Francine brings floodwaters, are homeowners in its path covered?
date: 2024-09-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Some 14 million people in the South have been under flood watches from Francine, which made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday. The slow-moving storm is dumping huge amounts of rain, posing major flooding risks. Yet only 6% of homeowners nationwide have flood insurance. Plus, more than 30,000 Boeing workers have walked off the job, and roughly 43 million Americans lived in poverty last year.
As Oracle’s AWS deal completes Big 3 triumvirate, questions remain over licensing
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Some users will see the appeal of Big Red stacking its hardware in Amazon’s datacenters
Analysis At Big Red’s recent CloudWorld shindig in Las Vegas, Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, looked comfortable and relaxed being hosted by arch rival Oracle.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/oracle_embraces_aws_huddle/
White House takes aim at Chinese fast fashion
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The White House said on Thursday it is acting on Democratic lawmakers’ demands to close what they see as a legal loophole that allows manufacturers — most from China — to dodge tariffs on low-priced goods and flood the U.S. with illegal and unsafe products.
The Biden administration is targeting the “de minimis” exemption, which allows parcels valued at less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty free. More than 1 billion such parcels entered the U.S. in fiscal 2023, U.S Customs and Border Protection said.
White House officials attribute the more than fivefold increase from several years ago to the growth of Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Shein and Temu, and administration officials name-checked both of those popular fast-fashion retailers in a briefing with journalists on Thursday.
Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said these moves to close the loophole would have a big effect on Chinese apparel, and “will drastically reduce the number of shipments entering through the de minimis exemption.”
This would likely hamper Americans’ ability to score items like an $8 T-shirt – available in a range of colors – that features a gunslinging, pants-wearing cartoon cowboy duck who proclaims, “you just yee’d your last haw.” Or a $6 crop top that reads, in English, LIVE LAUGH LOBOTOMY. Or an $8 bra made of two fuzzy, dead-eyed cat faces shorn of their noses, mouths, whiskers and facial expressions, strung together and tied halter-style around the neck. Or an $8 item that can only be described as a business-formal bra, as it is made entirely of ties. It is available in a patchwork of leopard-, zebra- and tiger-print ties, presumably for a formal office that is animal themed.
Singh added that the administration also seeks to tighten information collection requirements and consumer safety standards – and block products that don’t make the cut. And further, he said, the White House is calling on Congress to pass a law this year to “comprehensively reform the de minimis exemption.”
In a Wednesday letter, 126 House Democrats urged the president to use his executive authority, saying they could not act “amid interminable stagnation in Congress that has precluded legislation from passing.”
“While lawmakers would rather see the de minimis issue dealt with legislatively, the Democrats on the call said their patience was wearing thin,” the letter read. “Despite the fact that the concept of de minimis reform has engendered broad bipartisan support, politicking has precluded a concrete resolution.”
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, one of the initiative’s leaders, expressed concerns over fast fashion’s documented use of forced labor to make their cut-rate clothing. Rights group Amnesty International has reported that Shein, in particular, upholds “questionable labor and human rights standards.”
Shein’s model, the group says, leans on subcontracting the making of garments, which leaves no room for transparency or accountability for worker conditions, and gives workers no right to unionize or assemble.
Navtej Dhillon, deputy director of the National Economic Council, also said the moves address concerns over fentanyl shipments and for declining U.S. industry.
“Some foreign companies are attempting to use this pathway to ship illegal and dangerous products for our health, avoid our health and safety and consumer protection laws, and evade tariffs to undermine American manufacturers,” he said. “Textile and apparel manufacturing supports tens of thousands of jobs in key states like Georgia and North Carolina. These American workers and manufacturers deserve to compete on a level playing field.”
The congressional group pushing the administration cited approval from law enforcement and industry groups.
“The de minimis loophole is severely exacerbating our nation’s opioid crisis,” said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations. “Closing it would help staunch the flow of fentanyl and other narcotics coming across our borders and help safeguard the lives of our children, families, and friends.”
And Kim Glas, president and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations, said the industry group “strongly supports closing the de minimis loophole,” noting the closure of 18 textile plants in the U.S. in the past year.
“De minimis is a free trade agreement for the world at the expense of U.S. manufacturers, retailers, and consumers,” she said in a statement. “Shockingly, it has now become a black market for dangerous products facilitating fentanyl, precursors and pill presses. De minimis is destruction.”
Shein said last year that they support “responsible reform” of the policy but did not give precise recommendations.
“The de minimis exemption needs a complete makeover to create a level playing field for all retailers,” SHEIN Executive Vice Chairman Donald Tang said in a statement. “At the same time, American consumers deserve to know that the products they purchase are authentic and ethically produced. We believe de minimis reform can and should achieve both.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/white-house-takes-aim-at-chinese-fast-fashion-/7782826.html
Boeing workers vote to strike
date: 2024-09-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Boeing factory workers have voted to go on strike, a move which may threaten the delivery of some aircrafts and delay the production of some planes for the aerospace company. Then, the United Kingdom government is moving to ban junk food ads on television before 9 p.m. Also in the U.K.: Heinz launches spaghetti carbonara in a can, much to the horror of many Italians.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/boeing-workers-vote-to-strike
Plans to Modernize Notre-Dame’s Stained-Glass Windows Move Ahead Despite Heritage Experts’ Rejection
date: 2024-09-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The French Ministry of Culture has selected eight finalists to design replacement windows for the celebrated cathedral—and not everyone is happy
Hubble Examines a Spiral Star Factory
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo named NGC 5668. It is relatively near to us at 90 million light-years from Earth and quite accessible for astronomers to study with both space- and ground-based telescopes. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a remarkable galaxy. It is around […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-examines-a-spiral-star-factory/
US and British leaders meet as Ukraine pushes to ease weapons restrictions
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
Washington — United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are meeting Friday amid an intensified push by Ukraine to loosen restrictions on using weapons provided by the U.S. and Britain to strike Russia.
The talks come amid signs that the White House could be moving toward a shift in its policy, and as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin warned that Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons would put NATO at war with Moscow.
Ukrainian officials renewed their pleas to use Western-provided long-range missiles against targets deeper inside Russia during this week’s visit to Kyiv by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Blinken said he had “no doubt” that Biden and Starmer would discuss the matter during their visit, noting the U.S. has adapted and “will adjust as necessary” as Russia’s battlefield strategy has changed.
The language is similar to what Blinken said in May, shortly before the U.S. allowed Ukraine to use American-provided weapons just inside Russian territory. The distance has been largely limited to cross-border targets deemed a direct threat out of concerns about further escalating the conflict.
While the issue is expected to be at the top of the leaders’ agenda, it appeared unlikely that Biden and Starmer would announce any policy changes during this week’s visit, according to two U.S. officials familiar with planning for the leaders’ talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the private deliberations.
In addition to Blinken, Biden also has hinted a change could be afoot. In an exchange with reporters earlier this week about whether he was ready to ease weapons restrictions on Ukraine, he responded, “We’re working that out now.”
Putin warned Thursday that allowing long-range strikes “would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are at war with Russia. … If this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us.”
His remarks were in line with the narrative the Kremlin has actively promoted since early in the Ukraine war, accusing NATO countries of de-facto participation in the conflict and threatening a response.
Earlier in the year, Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory, saying it “would mark their direct involvement in the war against the Russian Federation, and we reserve the right to act the same way.”
Starmer, in response to the Russian leader’s Thursday comments, said on his way to the U.S. that Britain does not seek any conflict with Russia.
“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia could end this conflict straight away,” Starmer told reporters. “Ukraine has the right to self-defense and we’ve obviously been absolutely fully supportive of Ukraine’s right to self-defense — we’re providing training capability, as you know.”
“But we don’t seek any conflict with Russia — that’s not our intention in the slightest,” Starmer said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed U.S. and allied military leaders to go much further. He argues that the U.S. must allow Ukraine to target Russian air bases and launch sites far from the border as Russia has stepped up assaults on Ukraine’s electricity grid and utilities ahead of the coming winter.
Zelenskyy also wants more long-range weaponry from the United States, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, for strikes in Russia.
ATACMS wouldn’t be the answer to the main threat Ukraine faces from long-range Russian glide bombs, which are being fired from more than 300 kilometers (185 miles) away, beyond the ATACMS’ reach, said Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz, Pentagon spokesperson.
American officials also don’t believe they have enough of the weapon systems available to provide Ukraine with the number to make a substantive difference to conditions on the ground, one of the U.S. officials said.
During a meeting of allied defense ministers last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe providing Ukraine with long-range weapon systems would be a game-changer in the grueling war. He noted that Ukraine has already been able to strike inside Russia with its own internally produced systems, including drones.
“I don’t believe one capability is going to be decisive, and I stand by that comment,” Austin said.
“As of right now, the policy has not changed,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday.
Starmer said he was visiting Washington for “strategic meetings to discuss Ukraine and to discuss the Middle East.” It’s the prime minister’s second meeting with Biden since his center-left government was elected in July.
It comes after Britain last week diverged from the U.S. by suspending some arms exports to Israel because of the risk they could be used to break international law. Both countries have downplayed their differences over the issue.
Biden and Starmer’s meeting also comes ahead of this month’s annual meeting of global leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. The Oval Office meeting was scheduled in part to help the two leaders compare notes on the war in Ukraine, languishing efforts to get a cease-fire deal in Gaza and other issues ahead of the U.N. meeting.
The White House also has sought in recent days to put a greater emphasis on the nexus between the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East sparked after Iranian-backed Hamas militants in Gaza launched attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
The Biden administration said this week that Iran recently delivered short-range ballistic weapons to Russia to use against Ukraine, a transfer that White House officials worry will allow Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets far beyond the Ukrainian front line while employing Iranian warheads for closer-range targets.
In turn, the U.S. administration says Russia has been tightening its relationship with Iran, including by providing it with nuclear and space technology.
“This is obviously deeply concerning,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said of the missile transfer. “And it certainly speaks to the manner in which this partnership threatens European security and how it illustrates Iran’s destabilizing influence now reaches well beyond the Middle East.”
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Bold proposal:
https://safecpp.org/draft.html
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113129856129777210
UK watchdog fears Voda-Three merger would bump phone bills for customers
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Analysts claim it would be better for competition though
Britain’s competition watchdog is worried the proposed merger between Vodafone and Three UK could lead to bigger bills for customers, a view rejected by the companies who see it as a chance to transform the local mobile market with fresh investment.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/uk_cma_fears_vodathree_merger/
Will The Real Kamala Harris Please Stand Up? (Part 2)
date: 2024-09-13, from: The Lever News
Kamala Harris portrays herself as a progressive champion of working-class causes, but her career shows her remarkable ease with bucking those values for political gain.
https://www.levernews.com/will-the-real-kamala-harris-please-stand-up-part-2/
‘Hyperscale customer’ to take massive datacenter site near London
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Commercially sensitive’ incognito buyer has a lot more support than last group that tried to build a bit barn near M25
Exclusive One of Europe’s largest datacenter campuses is scheduled to be built in the UK close to the M25 motorway in Hertfordshire, permission pending, with a yet to be identified hyperscale customer set to take ownership.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/hyperscale_customer_to_take_massive/
Boeing factory workers go on strike after rejecting contract offer
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
SEATTLE — Aircraft assembly workers walked off the job early Friday at Boeing factories near Seattle after union members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike and reject a tentative contract that would have increased wages by 25% over four years.
The strike started at 12:01 a.m. PDT, less than three hours after the local branch of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced 94.6% of voting workers rejected the proposed contract and 96% approved the work stoppage, easily surpassing a two-thirds requirement.
The labor action involves 33,000 Boeing machinists, most of them in Washington state, and is expected to shut down production of the company’s best-selling airline planes. The strike will not affect commercial flights but represents another setback for the aerospace giant, whose reputation and finances have been battered by manufacturing problems and multiple federal investigations this year.
The striking machinists assemble the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling airliner, along with the 777, or “triple-seven” jet, and the 767 cargo plane at factories in Renton and Everett, Washington. The walkout likely will not stop production of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.
The machinists make $75,608 per year on average, not counting overtime, and that would rise to $106,350 at the end of the four-year contract, according to Boeing.
However, the deal fell short of the union’s initial demand for pay raises of 40% over three years. The union also wanted to restore traditional pensions that were axed a decade ago but settled for an increase in Boeing contributions to employee’s 401(k) retirement accounts.
Outside the Renton factory, people stood with signs reading, “Historic contract my ass” and “Have you seen the damn housing prices?” Car horns honked and a boom box played songs such as Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It and Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do.
Boeing responded to the strike announcement by saying it was “ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.”
“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to the members. We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union,” the company said in a statement.
Very little has gone right for Boeing this year, from a panel blowing out and leaving a gaping hole in one of its passenger jets in January to NASA leaving two astronauts in space rather sending them home on a problem-plagued Boeing spacecraft.
As long as the strike lasts, it will deprive the company of much-needed cash it gets from delivering new planes to airlines. That will be another challenge for new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who six weeks ago was given the job of turning around a company that has lost more than $25 billion in the last six years and fallen behind European rival Airbus.
Ortberg made a last-ditch effort to salvage a deal that had unanimous backing from the union’s negotiators. He told machinists Wednesday that “no one wins” in a walkout and a strike would put Boeing’s recovery in jeopardy and raise more doubt about the company in the eyes of its airline customers.
“For Boeing, it is no secret that our business is in a difficult period, in part due to our own mistakes in the past,” he said. “Working together, I know that we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together.”
The head of the union local, IAM District 751 President Jon Holden, said Ortberg faced a difficult position because machinists were bitter about stagnant wages and concessions they have made since 2008 on pensions and health care to prevent the company from moving jobs elsewhere.
“This is about respect, this is about the past, and this is about fighting for our future,” Holden said in announcing the strike.
The vote also was a rebuke to Holden and union negotiators, who recommended workers approve the contract offer. Holden, who had predicted workers would vote to strike, said the union would survey members to decide which issues they want to stress when negotiations resume.
Muppet broke the datacenter every day, in its own weighty way
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Mr Snuffleupagus turned out to be all too real and bad at database resilience
On Call By Friday the weight of the world presses down upon even the most enthusiastic IT pro, which is why The Register uses the last day of the working week to lighten the load with a new instalment of On Call – the reader-contributed column in which we tell your tales of struggling out from under tech support burdens.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/on_call/
OpenAI’s latest o1 model family can emulate ‘reasoning’ – but might overthink things a bit
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Chain of thought’ techniques mean latest LLM is better at stepping through complex challenges
OpenAI on Thursday introduced o1, its latest large language model family, which it claims is capable of emulating complex reasoning.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/openai_rolls_out_reasoning_o1/
Japan to put a small red Swedish house on the Moon
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
No, you read that right
Tokyo-headquartered company ispace announced on Thursday it is sending a tiny toy red Swedish house to the Moon.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/japan_ispace_moonhouse/
Cambodian senator sanctioned by US over alleged forced labor cyber-scam camps
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Do not go on holiday to the O Smach Resort
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued sanctions on Thursday against Cambodian entrepreneur and senator Ly Yong Phat, for his “role in serious human rights abuse related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labor in online scam centers.”…
Australia’s government spent the week boxing Big Tech
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
With social media age limits, anti-scam laws, privacy tweaks, and misinformation rules Elon Musk labelled ‘fascist’
Australia’s government has spent the week reining in Big Tech.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/australia_vs_big_tech/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Scripting News: Dropbox almost reinvented the web.
http://scripting.com/2024/09/12/213354.html
Feds pull plug on domains linked to import of Chinese gun conversion devices
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Illegal goods allegedly shipped to the US labeled as toys or jewels
The US Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts has seized more than 350 internet domains allegedly used by Chinese outfits to sell US residents kits that convert semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic guns – and silence them as they fire.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/gun_switch_domains_seized/
Fortinet admits miscreant got hold of customer data in the cloud
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
That would explain this 440GB leak, then
Fortinet has admitted that bad actors accessed cloud-hosted data about its customers, but insisted it was a “limited number” of files. The question is: how limited is “limited”?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/fortinet_data_loss/
‘Hadooken’ Linux malware targets Oracle WebLogic servers
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nastyware seeks creds, mines crypto, and plants ransomware that isnt deployed - for now?
An unknown attacker is exploiting weak passwords to break into Oracle WebLogic servers and deploy an emerging Linux malware called Hadooken, according to researchers from cloud security outfit Aqua.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/hadooken_attacks_oracle_weblogic/
US, China talk more as tensions simmer in Indo-Pacific region
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
American and Chinese diplomats and military officials are talking ahead of the U.S. presidential elections as tensions simmer in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching reports. Contributor: Jeff Seldin. Narrator: Elizabeth Cherneff.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-china-talk-more-as-tensions-simmer-in-indo-pacific-region/7782584.html
North Dakota judge overturns state’s abortion ban
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/north-dakota-judge-overturns-state-s-abortion-ban-/7782209.html
J.D. Vance’s Master Plan For Citizens United 2.0
date: 2024-09-12, from: The Lever News
The vice presidential candidate is helping spearhead a lawsuit designed to prompt the Supreme Court’s destruction of some of the country’s last remaining campaign finance laws.
https://www.levernews.com/j-d-vances-master-plan-for-citizens-united-2-0/
Nine charged in police breakup of pro-Palestinian camp at US university
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
ann arbor, michigan — Authorities have filed charges against nine people who are accused of trespassing or resisting police during the May breakup of a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Michigan.
“The First Amendment does not provide a cover for illegal activity,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday, a day after charges were filed in Washtenaw County.
The camp on the Diag, known for decades as a site for campus protests, was cleared by police on May 21 after a month. Video posted online showed police using what appeared to be an irritant to spray people, who were forced to retreat.
The university said the camp had become a threat to safety, with overloaded power sources and open flames.
Nessel said two people were charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor, and seven more people were charged with trespassing as well as resisting police, a felony.
Protesters have demanded that the school’s endowment stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. But the university insists it has no direct investments and less than $15 million placed with funds that might include companies in Israel. That’s less than 0.1% of the total endowment.
U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat who supports the protesters, said the charges were “frivolous” and a “shameful attack” on the rights of students.
Separately, Nessel said state prosecutors charged two people for alleged acts during a counterdemonstration on April 25, a few days after the camp was created.
Nessel said authorities still were investigating spring protests at the homes of elected members of the university’s governing board.
FCC boss starts bringing up Musk’s Starlink dominance, antitrust concerns
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
SpaceX broadband network now accounts for nearly two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit
When Elon Musk’s Starlink hit its 7,000th broadband satellite milestone, it’s unlikely he expected the FCC chair to suggest his space dominance might be stifling competition—but here we are.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/starlink_satellite_dominance_fcc/
Gary Marcus vs Sam Altman on GPT-o1 aka Strawberry
date: 2024-09-12, from: Gary Marcus blog
You might be surprised
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/gary-marcus-vs-sam-altman-on-gpt
Unity scraps hated runtime fees, hits devs with subscription hikes instead
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Insert coin to continue
Unity has decided to scrap its hated runtime fees and return to the old ways of billing, along with making some considerable price hikes.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/unity_cancel_runtime_fees/
Ancient DNA Reveals Neanderthal Group Was Isolated for 50,000 Years
date: 2024-09-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A new study, based on the remains of a Neanderthal nicknamed Thorin, is shaking up what archaeologists long thought about these early humans in Europe
VOA interview: House committee chairman speaks on Afghan withdrawal report
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Michael McCaul’s office recently released detailed findings of an investigation into the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has been criticized for poor planning.
Speaking with Saba Shah Khan of VOA’s Urdu Service, McCaul, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, denied that the latest probe was a “political exercise” that coincides with a tight presidential race. He said its purpose was to ensure that “an evacuation will never happen like this again.”
On Tuesday, the committee’s ranking Democrat, Representative Gregory Meeks from New York, issued a statement criticizing the report as a collection of “cherry-picked witness testimony” that excludes “anything unhelpful to a predetermined, partisan narrative about the Afghanistan withdrawal.”
“The Majority did not involve the Minority in this report, nor have they even provided a draft copy to us,” he wrote.
In the following interview, McCaul accuses White House officials of “stonewalling” the investigation and mentions his September 3 decision to subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken for testimony even though findings of the full report were released Monday.
“We’re still not finished with the investigation,” McCaul told VOA on Tuesday.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller last week issued a statement to The Hill stating that Blinken was unable to testify on the dates requested and offered “reasonable alternatives” to comply with McCaul’s request.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
VOA: Why is the Foreign Affairs Committee report on U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan being released now? With less than two months left to Election Day, some would say the report is politically driven.
U.S. Representative Michael McCaul: It’s been three years since the … chaotic evacuation. The first year, the majority — at that time, the Democrats — did nothing to investigate. So, I’ve had two years to put this very comprehensive, complete, historic account of what happened together. In the meantime, we served many subpoenas. We’ve had to threaten contempt proceedings. And I would have liked to have had this done a year ago. The administration has been, you know, stonewalling us and slowing down the delivery of the report. In fact, we’re still not finished with the investigation.
VOA: In light of the report, what do you think the Biden administration could have done differently to avoid the chaos and mayhem that unfolded during the withdrawal?
McCaul: That’s one of the key takeaways here. The military is on the ground doing their job. That’s to pull out by July [as dictated by a predetermined date of withdrawal negotiated by the prior administration]. The intelligence community sees what’s happening. They report this information. It gets a little bit manipulated when it gets to the higher level. And then it is amplified that everything’s fine in Afghanistan, when, in fact, on the ground, the conditions are getting very bad.
The State Department is required by law to come out with an evacuation plan called the NEO [Noncombatant Evacuation Operations]. They kept resisting this because they thought evacuation means failure. So, they wait until the very day that the Taliban is overrunning Kabul before they finally initiate an evacuation plan. That is why it was so chaotic. That is why the 13 servicemen and women were left behind — with Taliban, by the way — to work with them to help Afghans get out.
VOA: The report says that [President Joe] Biden kept Zalmay Khalilzad on as special representative [for Afghanistan reconciliation from September 2018 to October 2021], making it clear Biden embraced the [February 2020] Doha Accord. Sir, was that a good decision?
McCaul: The complaint I had — and Zal and I, you know, I’ve known him for a long time, and I have respect for him — but he did not include the Afghan government in the Doha talks. So, it was just between Zal Khalilzad and the Taliban. That sent a terrible message to the Afghan government. They felt like they were sidelined. … The Doha Agreement had conditions. Most important is the Taliban cannot hit U.S. forces. They were continuing to do that. But according to President Biden’s press guy [former State Department spokesperson Ned Price], Doha was “immaterial” as to the evacuation. He was going to go to zero — that means zero troops, zero contractors, zero air power — one way or the other. That was going to happen. He made that decision on day one.
VOA: The [Doha] negotiations and the decision to leave Afghanistan was made during the Trump administration. Chairman, do you think….
McCaul: … that isn’t accurate, because the Taliban were in violation of the Doha conditions. Twenty-five hundred troops were left on the ground — General [Kenneth] McKenzie and [Mark] Milly said that was sufficient to stabilize, along with 6,500 NATO and air power and contractors. That they could stabilize both Bagram and HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport] when it went to zero. That’s when it changed.
VOA: The date of withdrawal was decided by the Trump administration…
McCaul: … if conditions were met, which they weren’t …
VOA: … do you think that it is fair to hold the Biden administration solely responsible for the failure?
McCaul: And we don’t. We actually fault Zal Khalilzad. We list a lot of top D.O.D. [Department of Defense] and State Department officials that Congress, in a resolution, will condemn for their actions. Zal Khalilzad, he’s a dear friend, but by not letting the Afghan government participate — to me, that was a major error. And a lot of this, by not executing a plan of action to get out and evacuate, according to the top generals and the intelligence community, was the fatal flaw, leaving behind Americans, Afghan allies, and most importantly, the women.
VOA: The report also says that the U.S. did not keep track of whether the Taliban were following the Doha Agreement. In your opinion, how could the U.S. have made Taliban comply?
McCaul: In my opinion, they were in violation at the time the president made the decision to go to zero. But according to his press spokesperson, that was immaterial to the withdrawal. It was going to happen one way or the other. What people don’t understand is it’s not just the military being pulled out, it’s the air cover, it’s the contractors. When everything is pulled out, the Afghan army was virtually defenseless.
VOA: It is also said in the report that Afghanistan is a hotbed of terrorist activities. Can U.S. leave Taliban to their doings? And what is the way forward?
McCaul: It’s very, very dangerous. I was the chairman of Homeland Security Committee. What we’re seeing now, and we saw it before, is the Haqqani [network and] Taliban protecting Zawahiri, [the] number two Al-Qaeda [figure], who was taken by drone strike not too long after the evacuation. We know that they were collaborating — ISIS-K and Taliban — because United States is a common enemy.
Most disturbingly is Bagram, the prisons in Bagram. They [the Taliban] released thousands of ISIS prisoners that have now gone to the Khorasan region — that’s Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan — [for] external operations. Just recently, the FBI indicated to us that eight of them have been detained in the United States coming across the southwest border. … So, when Americans think Afghanistan is some faraway, distant land, it is all interconnected and it does threaten the homeland.
VOA: What is the way forward? What do you think the U.S. strategy should be to handle this?
McCaul: Number one, we don’t want to see this happen again. This was not a political exercise for me. As a [former] federal prosecutor, I just wanted to get to the facts and the evidence, wherever that took me. I didn’t have conclusions in advance. … So, to answer your question, we want to propose a new way to do this legislatively, through Congress, so that an evacuation will never happen like this again. Saigon was bad. This is worse.
VOA: The report quotes a study that 118 girls were sold as child brides in Afghanistan, in a village. And, in the same village, 116 parents are waiting for a buyer. So, my question to you is that it seems like there is no hope for women and girls in Afghanistan. What is your suggestion? And what can the U.S do?
McCaul: I mean, can you imagine being 25 years old as a woman and never lived under Sharia law, and now you have to go backwards to the stone age? And that’s essentially what has happened there. I got four busloads of the American School of Music girls out through Abbey Gate, because I knew the Taliban — the way they feel about women and music — their days would be numbered. Now, it’s very difficult. Do you normalize the Taliban? Do you treat them as a foreign terrorist organization?
I think any aid or assistance we give to Afghanistan has to be conditioned on treatment of women and children. And they should be allowed to go to school, they should be allowed to go outside their homes, they should not be beaten. Just fundamental rights.
This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service.
I stole 20 GB of data from Capgemini – and now I’m leaking it, says cybercrook
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Allegedly pilfered database has source code, private keys, staff info, T-Mobile VM logs, more
A miscreant claims to have broken into Capgemini and leaked a large amount of sensitive data stolen from the technology services giant – including source code, credentials, and T-Mobile’s virtual machine logs.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/capgemini_breach_data_dump/
BONUS: Tonight’s Master Plan Live Event
date: 2024-09-12, from: The Lever News
Have questions about Master Plan? Now’s your chance to ask the team behind the hit podcast series.
https://www.levernews.com/bonus-tonights-master-plan-live-event/
Micro Journal Rev.2.ReVamp is a compact word processor with a mechanical keyboard and a clamshell design
date: 2024-09-12, from: Liliputing
The developer behind the Micro Journal Rev.6 distraction-free writing device Lee wrote about earlier this summer is back with a new design featuring a larger display, a clamshell case that folds up when not in use, and a few other significant improvements. Un Kyu Lee’s new Micro Journal Rev.2.ReVamp is basically a mini-laptop that’s purpose-built for use […]
The post Micro Journal Rev.2.ReVamp is a compact word processor with a mechanical keyboard and a clamshell design appeared first on Liliputing.
Google sued for using trademarked Gemini name for AI service
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Even the chatbot allegedly admits to infringement claim
Gemini Data, which offers an enterprise AI platform, has sued Google for calling its own AI service by the same name.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/google_gemini_ai_lawsuit/
Google is bringing Desktop windowing to Android tablet
date: 2024-09-12, from: Liliputing
Soon you may be able to use Google’s Android operating system more like a desktop operating system… at least on tablets or other devices with large screens. Google has released a developer preview of a new “desktop windowing” feature that lets users view multiple apps at once by running each app in a window that […]
The post Google is bringing Desktop windowing to Android tablet appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/google-is-bringing-desktop-windowing-to-android-tablet/
Astronauts Achieve First-Ever Private Spacewalk on Polaris Dawn Mission
date: 2024-09-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
This morning, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman opened the hatch on a SpaceX Dragon capsule in Earth orbit, as cheering erupted on a livestream
Can Weird Creatures Survive?
date: 2024-09-12, from: Tedium site
Unfortunately for all of us, the internet doesn’t reward noble ideas just because they’re noble. Hence, what happened to cohost.
https://feed.tedium.co/link/15204/16807255/cohost-social-networking-postmortem
Exclusive interview: US boosts diplomacy, security support in Somalia
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA/WASHINGTON — In an exclusive interview, U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Richard Riley shed light on the ongoing diplomatic efforts and security challenges facing the East African nation, including U.S. efforts to find a peaceful diplomatic solution to the ongoing dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia.
Somalia and Ethiopia have been in a dispute that was ignited at the beginning of this year when Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, with the breakaway region of Somaliland — a deal Somalia sees as an infringement on its sovereignty.
The agreement gives Ethiopia leasing rights to a large portion of the Red Sea coastline in Somaliland.
During the interview conducted at the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu, Riley, who was sworn in to his post in May, shared with VOA his insights on the U.S. commitment to finding peaceful resolutions and supporting the Somali government in combating terrorism.
Diplomatic resolution
“We are very much aware and working collaboratively to make sure there is a diplomatic resolution of this current situation,” he said. “It is an unfortunate situation, very disruptive, and started … with this MoU between Somaliland and Ethiopia. Of course, we do not recognize it, and we are trying to solve it through diplomatic channels.”
Turkey, a key Somali partner, has been trying to mediate the dispute between the neighboring countries, holding two rounds of talks in Ankara that ended without an agreement.
The Ethiopian and Somali foreign ministers who represented their countries at the meeting did not hold direct talks. Turkey’s foreign minister shuttled between them.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described the talks at the time as “candid, cordial and forward-looking.”
Abdi Aynte, a former Somali minister of planning and international cooperation who was involved in the negotiations, said the only thing the two sides agreed upon was to reconvene on September 17.
“The core issue remains Ethiopia’s refusal to annul the MoU with Somaliland, which is Somalia’s position, and if Ethiopia continues to insist on its position of not withdrawing from the MoU, I think there is nothing to expect from any talks between the two countries,” Aynte said.
Another analyst who spoke with VOA earlier this year, Cameron Hudson, who is a researcher at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, questioned the United States’ commitment and ability to quell tensions in the volatile region.
Riley said he is hopeful, though, that a solution may come from the third round of talks in Turkey.
“There are negotiations ongoing,” he said.
Concerns about potential conflict
Fears have been growing in Somalia that the boiling tensions could turn into an armed conflict between Ethiopian soldiers currently stationed in Somalia and Somalis.
Riley said such confrontation is “unacceptable.”
“No one can accept there would be any kind of conflict, much less war,” he said. “That is why everybody in the international community is working nonstop. We certainly are, from the United States and from Washington, to find the proper resolution of this conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia. This is absolutely needed. It is needed soon very quickly, and you have the full power and support, Somalia does, to make sure there is a proper diplomatic solution.”
Ethiopian troops became part of the African Union mission, known as ATMIS, in Somalia in January 2012. Under the mission, at least 3,000 Ethiopian soldiers officially operate as part of an AU peacekeeping mission fighting al-Shabab. An additional 5,000 to 7,000 Ethiopian soldiers are stationed in several regions under a bilateral agreement.
Last month, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2748, which allows ATMIS troops to stay in Somalia through December 2024.
Somalia says all Ethiopian troops should be out of the country by the end of 2024, especially after the expiration of ATMIS. Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said last month that Ethiopian forces would not be part of the upcoming African Union Support Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM, unless Ethiopia withdraws from the controversial memorandum of understanding.
Commitment to Somalia’s security
Riley said the U.S. is Somalia’s largest donor and security partner, providing tens of billions of dollars over the years in personnel, equipment and funding. “The United States, for example, just forgave over $1 million of Somali sovereign debt,” he said.
He added that the U.S. will extend full support to any mission whose objective is to make Somalia a peaceful place.
“We absolutely have always strongly supported the current ATMIS force here. We are very grateful to the troop-contributing countries, who have provided very brave personnel for many years to assist the federal government to bring stability and security here,” Riley said. “We are looking forward to this transition so that it is a proper one, it is well organized, and it is efficient, and it does the job. That is the main issue to make sure that the mandate of the follow-on force under AUSSOM will be suited to the need.”
Two urgent issues
He said there are imperative challenges in Somalia that the U.S. wants to help the country handle.
“There are two immediate urgencies: to ensure that the Somali National Army and armed forces, including the police, receive all the resources they need to fight against horrific terrorist groups like al-Shabab and ISIS,” he said. “The other challenge is to ensure that the economy of Somalia continues to grow, with more investment and connectivity to international markets. Somalia needs both physical and economic security.”
This story originated in VOA’s Somali Service in collaboration with VOA’s Horn of Africa Service. Reporters Abdulkadir Abdulle and Abdulkadir Zubeyr contributed to the report from Mogadishu.
Mastercard splurges $2.65B on another big cyber purchase – Recorded Future
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Oh, turns out there are some things money can buy
Mastercard has added another security asset to its growing portfolio, laying down $2.65 billion for threat intelligence giant Recorded Future.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/mastercard_recorded_future/
The Economy, Jobs, and Inflation: What Americans Need to Know
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: RAND blog
From the grocery store to the job market, Americans are feeling the pulse of a changing economy. Particularly after the upheaval of the pandemic, some might be questioning long-held assumptions about prosperity, work, and the future. We asked two RAND experts to size up the economic landscape in this election year.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/09/the-economy-jobs-and-inflation-what-americans-need.html
Testing Europa Clipper’s Solar Arrays
date: 2024-09-12, from: NASA breaking news
On Aug. 21, 2024, engineers and technicians deployed and tested NASA’s Europa Clipper giant solar arrays. Each array measures about 46.5 feet (14.2 meters) long and about 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) high. Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch Oct. 10, 2024, on the first mission to conduct a detailed science investigation of Jupiter’s moon Europa. […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/testing-europa-clippers-solar-arrays/
See 15 Stunning Images From the Ocean Photographer of the Year Awards
date: 2024-09-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The winning and highly commended underwater photography spotlights breathtaking animal behavior, conservation needs and the otherworldly environment of Earth’s oceans
Xcode 16
date: 2024-09-12, from: Michael Tsai
Apple: Xcode 16 RC includes SDKs for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, tvOS 18, watchOS 11, macOS Sequoia 15, and visionOS 2. The Xcode 16 RC release supports on-device debugging in iOS 12 and later, tvOS 12 and later, watchOS 4 and later, and visionOS. Xcode 16 RC requires a Mac running macOS Sonoma 14.5 or […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/12/xcode-16/
Age Verification and the App Store
date: 2024-09-12, from: Michael Tsai
Jeff Horwitz and Aaron Tilley: Driven by the alleged risks of social media to teen mental health—as well as examples of social-media apps being used to sell drugs to minors and recruit child sex-abuse victims—a wave of states have proposed or passed legislation to regulate platforms. The proposals restrict their ability to collect data on […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/12/age-verification-and-the-app-store/
CodeEdit 0.3.1
date: 2024-09-12, from: Michael Tsai
Rui Carmo: CodeEdit is a fully native macOS editor heavily inspired by Xcode UX conventions that is very interesting to me as an alternative to Visual Studio Code on the Mac. Austin Condiff: It might sound crazy, but we are determined to build an editor native to macOS written in Swift, by the community, for […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/12/codeedit-0-3-1/
Swift Build Times and Module Verification
date: 2024-09-12, from: Michael Tsai
Paulo Andrade: Secrets’ build time must have gotten slower and slower without me really noticing it… until Xcode’s 16 betas, where I felt I really needed to understand what was going on. […] The compiler is clearly spending most of the 3.5 minutes it took to build Secrets on verifying modules[…] This all sounds good […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/12/swift-build-times-and-module-verification/
Adobe fixed Acrobat bug, neglected to mention whole zero-day exploit thing
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
SaaS seller sets severity to ‘critical’
Adobe’s patch for a remote code execution (RCE) bug in Acrobat this week doesn’t mention that the vulnerability is considered a zero-day nor that a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit exists, a researcher warns.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/adobe_acrobat_0day/
Report: Iran boosts ties with criminal networks to attack critics in US, Europe
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
Daily Deals (9-12-2024)
date: 2024-09-12, from: Liliputing
Valve is running a sale on the Steam Deck LCD, bringing the price for an entry-level model with 64GB of eMMC storage down to $297 and the price for a 512GB SSD model to $337. That makes a brand new 512GB model cheaper than a refurbished version, which currently sells for $359. While the Steam […]
The post Daily Deals (9-12-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-9-12-2024/
Something New: On OpenAI’s “Strawberry” and Reasoning
date: 2024-09-12, from: One Useful Thing
Solving hard problems in new ways
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/something-new-on-openais-strawberry
US attorney general says he won’t let Justice Department be used as political weapon
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday he will not allow the Justice Department “to be used as a political weapon,” as he denounced “conspiracy theories” and “dangerous falsehoods” targeting federal law enforcement.
Speaking to U.S. attorneys gathered in Washington and other Justice Department members, Garland forcefully defended the department’s integrity and impartiality against claims of politicization by Republicans. Garland said norms protecting the department from political interference matter “now more than ever.”
“Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon. And our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics,” Garland said to applause in the Great Hall at Justice Department headquarters.
Garland’s comments come amid an onslaught of attacks from Republicans, who claim the Justice Department has been politically weaponized to go after former President Donald Trump. Trump was indicted in two separate criminal cases by special counsel Jack Smith, who Garland brought in from outside the department to run the investigations.
Trump has vowed if returned to the White House in November to “completely overhaul” what he has described as the “corrupt Department of Injustice.” He has also threatened to jail those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, writing in a recent post on X that they will face “long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”
Garland did not mention Trump or Republicans in his speech. But he condemned what he described as “outrageous” attacks he says put law enforcement in harm’s way.
“These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence,” Garland said. “Through your continued work, you have made clear that the Justice Department will not be intimidated by these attacks.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has repeatedly used social media to go after Smith and other prosecutors as well as the judges handling his cases. Republicans have also falsely claimed that the New York criminal case, in which Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May, was orchestrated by Democratic President Joe Biden and the Justice Department.
Garland came into office pledging to restore the department’s reputation for political independence after four tumultuous years under Trump. But he has faced an onslaught of criticism over his department’s handling of politically sensitive cases, including the prosecution of Biden’s son Hunter, who pleaded guilty last week to federal tax charges in a case brought by a different special counsel.
Garland said that department employees have made clear through their work that they “do not bend to politics” and that they “will not break under pressure.”
“We must treat like cases alike,” Garland said, adding. “There is not one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, one rule for the rich and another for the poor, one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, or different rules depending on one’s race or ethnicity.
“To the contrary, we have only one rule: we follow the facts and apply the law in a way that respects the Constitution and protects civil liberties.”
US imposes sanctions on Cambodian tycoon over scam centers
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
washington — The United States announced sanctions on Thursday on Cambodian businessman and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat as well as several entities over alleged abuses related to workers who were trafficked and forced to work in online scam centers.
The move comes at a delicate phase in relations between the United States and Cambodia, which has moved ever closer to Washington’s strategic rival China despite U.S. efforts to woo its new leader Hun Manet, son of longtime strongman Hun Sen.
Ly Yong Phat was appointed Hun Sen’s personal adviser in 2022.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the sanctions targeted Ly’s L.Y.P. Group Co. conglomerate and O-Smach Resort.
It said it was also sanctioning Cambodia-based Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort, and Phnom Penh Hotel for being owned or controlled by Ly.
Bradley Smith, the Treasury’s acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the move was made to “hold accountable those involved in human trafficking and other abuses, while also disrupting their ability to operate investment fraud schemes that target countless unsuspecting individuals, including Americans.”
Cambodia and other countries in Southeast Asia have emerged in recent years as the epicenter of a multibillion-dollar criminal industry targeting victims across the world with fraudulent crypto and other schemes, often operating from fortified compounds run by Chinese syndicates and staffed by trafficked workers.
The Treasury statement said scammers leverage fictitious identities and elaborate narratives to develop trusted relationships and deceive victims.
In many cases, this involves convincing victims to invest in virtual currency, or in some cases, over-the-counter foreign exchange schemes, it said.
The statement said traffickers force victims to work up to 15 hours a day and, in some cases, “resell” victims to other scam operations or subject them to sex trafficking.
It noted that the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report this year highlighted abuses in O’Smach and Koh Kong and that official complicity in trafficking crimes remained widespread, resulting in selective and often politically motivated enforcement of laws.
Americans have been targeted by many of the scams. In 2022, in the U.S alone, victims reported losses of $2.6 billion from pig butchering – a type of long-term scam – and other crypto fraud, more than double the previous year, according to the FBI.
The Treasury reportsaid that for more than two years the O-Smach Resort has been investigated by police and publicly reported on “for extensive and systemic serious human rights abuse.”
It said victims reported being lured there with false employment opportunities, having phones and passports confiscated upon arrival and being forced to work scam operations.
“People who called for help reported being beaten, abused with electric shocks, made to pay a hefty ransom, or threatened with being sold to other online scam gangs,” it said, adding that there had been two reports of victims jumping to their death from buildings within the resort.
The report said local authorities had conducted repeated rescue missions, including in October 2022 and March 2024, freeing victims of various nationalities, including Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai and Vietnamese.
The U.S state department said in June that Cambodian government officials were complicit in trafficking and that some officials owned facilities used by scam operators.
Spokespeople for Cambodia’s government and foreign ministry did not answer phone calls or respond to messages seeking comment when asked about the sanctions.
The U.S. and other governments have repeatedly engaged with Cambodia to put an end to the scam centers.
Washington had considered sanctions for months, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters. They said the decision was initially expected earlier this year but had been delayed.
A change of leadership to West Point-educated Hun Manet last year was seen by U.S. officials as an opportunity to mend ties with Cambodia, but despite U.S. efforts, its ties with China have steadily grown. Beijing sent warships to Cambodia this year and is backing the expansion of a key naval base.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-imposes-sanctions-on-cambodian-tycoon-over-scam-centers/7781840.html
Nuclear Testing: A Second Coming?
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: RAND blog
Vladimir Putin’s Russia is again rattling its nuclear saber. Putin has hinted that Russia might, as one option, resume nuclear testing. The United States and NATO must carefully consider their nuclear responses.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/09/nuclear-testing-a-second-coming.html
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 to Conduct Space Station Research
date: 2024-09-12, from: NASA breaking news
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are headed to the International Space Station for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission in September. Once on station, these crew members will support scientific investigations that include studies of blood clotting, effects of moisture on plants grown in space, and vision changes in astronauts. Here are […]
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/nasas-spacex-crew-9-to-conduct-space-station-research/
Biden to host Quad summit in Delaware
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
White House — President Joe Biden will host his second and final Quad leaders’ summit in his home state of Delaware on September 21, the White House announced Thursday.
Biden is planning to host the three other leaders of the group, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan. The summit will be held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, happening concurrently in New York.
The leaders are expected to enhance cooperation including the existing Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, a key initiative aimed at countering China’s aggression in the South China Sea.
“The Quad Leaders Summit will focus on bolstering the strategic convergence among our countries, advancing our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and delivering concrete benefits for partners in the Indo-Pacific in key areas,” said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement Thursday.
Biden hosted the first Quad leaders’ summit at the White House in 2021. The group has since met twice more in person in Japan. In a reflection of the importance of the group, Biden has hosted all the leaders for subsequent state visits at the White House.
India was scheduled to host this year, but the four leaders agreed that New Delhi will instead do so in 2025.
“President Biden’s visit to India in September 2023 for the G20 summit meant that it was difficult for him to return to India in January 2024, on the sidelines of India’s Republic Day in January 2024, as per India’s original planning,” said Aparna Pande, director of the Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia.
Both India and the U.S. then became caught up in their own electoral cycles, making travel and summit-hosting respectively challenging, Pande told VOA.
With Biden and Kishida set to leave office, the Wilmington summit will be the last gathering of the current leaders. Whoever wins the U.S. November election, whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, will be invited to the Delhi summit next year.
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-to-host-quad-summit-in-delaware/7781833.html
This Ancient Celtic Helmet Is the Oldest Ever Found in Poland
date: 2024-09-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Unearthed at the Łysa Góra archaeological site, the artifact, some 2,300 years old, is a prime example of Celtic metalworking
What California Is Telling Us About the EV Market
date: 2024-09-12, from: Heatmap News
As California goes, so goes the American car scene. This sentiment has long been true, given that the Golden State is the country’s biggest automotive market and its emissions rules have helped to drag the car industry toward more efficient vehicles.
It is doubly true in the EV era, since California is where electric vehicles first went big and where electric adoption far outpaces the rest of the nation. A look at the car sales data from the first half of 2024 shows us a few things about what the electric car market is and where it’s headed.
The EV Sales Pause Is Here. For the Moment.
Electric cars went mainstream in a hurry here, growing from 5.8% of California car sales in 2020 to 21.5% in 2023. Then the graph flattens out: For the first half of this year, EVs made up 21.4% of new registrations. That would seem to support the gloomy narrative of a supposed EV sales slump. The truth, as it tends to be, is more complicated.
Look at the numbers broken down by quarters, rather than years, and the chart looks a little different. EV sales reached a peak in the third quarter of 2023, dipped a bit, and then jumped back up in April to June 2024 to the second-best quarter ever. That’s a blip, not a crisis, as EVs appear poised for slow growth but growth nonetheless.
Consider the context for a moment: California reached a place where 1 in 5 new cars sold are electric even with the EV affordability problem. That trend wasn’t going to continue unabated up to 30, 40, or 50% of auto sales without the industry putting out vehicles that can compete on cost with a $25,000 Honda Civic or a $30,000 Toyota RAV4. In its summary of the numbers, the California New Car Dealers Association blames inflation and rising monthly car payments for suppressing all vehicle sales at the moment, EVs included. Money matters will decide where things go from here.
Yup, Hybrids Are Up.
The flipside of this year’s EV doomerism is the notion that drivers are turning to hybrids instead. The numbers bear out that sentiment for the moment in California. Traditional hybrid vehicles (excluding plug-in hybrids) more than doubled their market share from 6.1% in 2020 to 13.2% in the first half of 2024. Not too surprising, considering their wide availability and how appealing they are for California drivers who buy some of the nation’s most expensive gasoline.
Plug-in hybrids accounted for 3.4% of sales in the first half of this year, not far from the number they posted back in 2021. That might sound odd, given automakers’ rumblings about turning to these vehicles instead of true EVs, but a new wave of PHEVs is still in development. For now, the difficult calculus remains: Plug-in hybrids are a great choice for a lot of drivers, but they are significantly more expensive than combustion cars for not much electric range, and PHEVs can be hard to come by.
Take all these electrified powertrains together, however, and the picture is clear. Compared to 2018, when gas- and diesel-burners made up 88.4% of auto sales, that number is down to 62% for the first half of this year. Combustion-only is sinking fast, a trend that will spread from the West Coast to the rest of the nation.
Rivian Is Ascendant. Tesla, Not So Much.
My eyes don’t deceive me. Since the start of 2024, it has felt like Rivian’s trucks and especially SUVs are all over Los Angeles, driven by the kind of people who used to own Range Rovers. It turns out RJ Scaringe’s company is the fastest-growing car brand of any kind in California, with sales up nearly 77% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
Now, that number is deceiving. It’s easy to grow by big percentages at the beginning, and Rivian’s sales numbers are relatively small: It moved just shy of 7,000 vehicles through June, which pales in comparison to the 100,000 Teslas and 150,000 Toyotas registered in California during the same period. But Rivian’s early success in California suggests the brand is finding traction and that it might pick off plenty of drivers from Tesla’s bread-winning Model Y once the more reasonably priced R2 and R3 arrive.
After all, the story of the supposed EV slump is actually the story of Tesla squandering its huge halftime lead. Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, Rivian, BMW, and Hyundai/Kia EV sales are up this year, but Tesla’s slump wipes out much of their gains.
The Model Y and Model 3 remain California’s best-selling EVs by far, with the second-place Model 3 selling three times the volume of the third-place finisher, Hyundai’s Ioniq 5. Yet Tesla sales in California are down 17% from the first half of 2023, and its market share dropped from 64.6% to 53.4%. Its only new model, the Cybertruck, sold 3,048 in the first half of this year. Californians bought nearly a thousand more Chevy Bolts — and GM isn’t even building that car right now.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/california-electric-car
Printed Engines Propel the Next Industrial Revolution
date: 2024-09-12, from: NASA breaking news
Efforts to 3D print engines produce significant savings in rocketry and beyond
Boeing to launch quantum comms satellite testbed in 2026
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
After Starliner stumbles, the aerospace giant eyes a new frontier - entanglement swapping in space
Undeterred by the problems of its Starliner crewed space capsule, Boeing has a plan to do a bit of uncrewed science – launching a satellite upon which it will run a demo of quantum entanglement swapping that could help enable secure comms.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/boeing_quantum_satellite/
New York City police commissioner to resign after his phone was seized in federal investigation
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
new york — New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban said he would resign Thursday, one week after it emerged that his phone was seized as part of a federal investigation that touched several members of Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle.
Caban said he made the decision to resign after the “news around recent developments” had “created a distraction for our department,” according to an email to the police department obtained by The Associated Press.
“I am unwilling to let my attention be on anything other than our important work, or the safety of the men and women of the NYPD,” he added.
It was not immediately clear who will replace Caban as police commissioner. Inquiries to the police department were not returned.
Caban was one of several high-ranking city officials whose electronic devices were seized last week by federal investigators, according to people familiar with the matter. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
The subject of the investigation, which is being led by U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, remains unclear. It was not immediately clear whether federal authorities were seeking information linked to one investigation or several.
Federal authorities are also investigating Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, who runs a nightclub security business, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Edward Caban, 57, had been in charge of the nation’s largest police department for about 15 months. Of Puerto Rican heritage, he was the first Latino to lead the 179-year-old NYPD.
Other officials whose devices were recently seized include First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety; his brother David Banks, the city’s schools chancellor; and Timothy Pearson, a mayoral adviser and former high-ranking NYPD official.
The searches added to a flurry of investigative activity around Adams’ administration and his campaign. Adams, a first-term Democrat, was subpoenaed in July, eight months after federal agents seized his cell phones and an iPad while he was leaving an event in Manhattan. Federal authorities haven’t publicly accused him or any officials of any crimes, and Adams has denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation that led to Caban’s devices being seized is not believed to be tied to a probe that led federal investigators to seize Adams’ devices last November, according to two people familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
On Tuesday, Adams acknowledged that the sudden increase in federal scrutiny had “raised a lot of questions and a lot of concerns.”
Caban joined the department as a patrol officer in 1991 in the Bronx, where he grew up. His father, retired Detective Juan Caban, had served with Adams, a former police captain, when they were both on the city’s transit police force. Three of Caban’s brothers were also police officers.
Caban worked in precincts across the city, rising to sergeant, lieutenant, captain, executive officer, commanding officer, deputy inspector and inspector. He was the department’s first deputy commissioner, second-in-command, before being named commissioner last year.
Caban replaced Keechant Sewell, the first woman to lead the force. She resigned 18 months into a tenure clouded by speculation that she was not truly in control of the department after Adams appointed ex-NYPD chief Philip Banks as his deputy mayor of public safety. She is now the senior vice president of security and guest experience for the New York Mets.
From January 1 to September 1, the department tallied 243 murders, compared with 279 in the same period last year. Burglary, grand larceny and auto thefts were also down. At the same time, there was a 17.8% spike in reported hate crimes, 11.1% jump in rapes and smaller increases in some other categories.
Caban was also criticized for his handling of officer discipline.
In April, he declined to take any internal department disciplinary action against two involved in the fatal 2019 shooting of a Black man, Kawaski Trawick, inside his Bronx apartment. Caban said the officers “acted within the law” and that the city’s police watchdog agency waited too long to bring administrative charges.
In August, Caban upheld a department administrative trial judge’s recommendation to drop a disciplinary case against Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, who was accused of ordering officers to void the November 2021 arrest of a retired officer who previously worked for him. The trial judge, Rosemarie Maldonado, said the watchdog agency didn’t have jurisdiction to investigate the case.
US reconsidering Ukraine missile restrictions on firing into Russia
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
California Poverty Has Nearly Doubled Since 2021
date: 2024-09-12, from: Capital and Main
Researchers say new data shows need to pull back tax breaks for the wealthy to spend on aid.
The post California Poverty Has Nearly Doubled Since 2021 appeared first on .
https://capitalandmain.com/california-poverty-has-nearly-doubled-since-2021
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-12, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Visualizing the effect of shooting yourself in the foot to enter the profitable business of selling toes:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113125683877097095
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-12, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Boycotts
work
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@aras/113125611990233973
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113125619562947867
Google Chrome gets a mind of its own for some security fixes
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Browser becomes more proactive about trimming unneeded permissions and deceptive notifications
Google has enhanced Chrome’s Safety Check so that it can make some security decisions on the user’s behalf.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/google_chrome_safety_check/
Six months on, key measures languish in Pacific Islands pact with US
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — More than six months after a crucial security deal between Washington and some Pacific Island nations was signed into law, key features of the Compacts of Free Association have not been implemented, raising questions in the region about U.S. commitment to its Pacific partners in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.
In March, the passage of the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA, extended $7 billion in economic aid over 20 years to three Pacific Island nations: Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands. Additionally, COFA says Washington provides for their defense and can deny China access to their territorial waters, a maritime area larger than the continental United States.
Since then, however, some parts of the deal have yet to be implemented, including services and health benefits for veterans who live on the islands. Currently, veterans must travel to nearby islands such as Guam or as far away as Hawaii to get the help they need.
“The Biden-Harris administration has failed” to deliver veterans services to these Pacific Island nations, said Arkansas Republican Bruce Westerman, who is chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, during an oversight hearing on COFA this week.
The U.S. State Department also has yet to establish a mandatory new office dedicated to diplomacy with the three islands.
In addition, Washington’s federal programs and services agreement with Palau has not been renewed, and the current agreement expires on September 30. Federal services in limbo range from welfare benefits and food stamp programs to the U.S. Postal Service and veterans’ health benefits.
“Many of our veterans living in Palau are suffering,” Hersey Kyota, Palau’s ambassador to the U.S., told the Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee in the oversight hearing, Tuesday. Palau is home to around 20,000 people; with that small population, it has the highest per capita rate of U.S. military volunteers.
Kyota said at least three Palauan veterans have died by suicide since January. “They need medication; they need to travel to Guam or Hawaii, but most of them do not have enough resources to pay for their own ticket,” he said.
Andrew Harding of the Heritage Foundation said the delays play to Beijing’s advantage.
“The implementation process is failing,” Harding told VOA. “If we really want to prove that we are the preferred partner in the Pacific, especially to our COFA partners, we can’t have these types of questions be raised.”
Greg Brown, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said, “This doesn’t look good. Now, it’s hurry up and wait, and who are we waiting for? We’re waiting for ourselves. We’re waiting for the Americans.”
At the hearing on Tuesday, Anka Lee, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, acknowledged the critical need for U.S. engagement with Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
“We know that the PRC is aggressive. They are pushing very hard, and we have to compete with them toe to toe,” he said to lawmakers, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
During the oversight hearing, Taylor Ruggles, the senior COFA adviser at the U.S. State Department, blamed some of the delay on communication issues between the White House and Congress and a focus on rolling out additional embassies in other Pacific Island nations such as Vanuatu. He said there’s an interagency meeting this week to get all the federal agencies together to move the process forward. That meeting, the second this year, is scheduled for Thursday. The first was held in April.
Dr. Miguel H. Lopez, assistant undersecretary for health at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said this week the department would “provide a comprehensive model of care” to Pacific veterans that is equal to treatment veterans receive in the continental United States.
Ambassadors to Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands told lawmakers at the hearing that they received letters from the Veterans Administration Monday night, just hours before the oversight hearing.
“The [veterans] agreement calls for a one-year duration. We’re within six to seven months now, and we have not heard anything,” said Jack Soram, the Federated State of Micronesia ambassador to the United States.
“We don’t have that much time. Veterans need this help,” said Representative Ed Case, a Democrat from Hawaii.
A Secure Foundry for Government Mobile Computing Needs
date: 2024-09-12, from: Purism News and Events
Purism offers a comprehensive solution for those seeking to protect their digital lives. As threats to digital security continue to evolve, Purism’s dedication to privacy and security positions it as a leader in the field, providing a solid foundation for secure mobile computing.
The post A Secure Foundry for Government Mobile Computing Needs appeared first on Purism.
https://puri.sm/posts/a-secure-foundry-for-government-mobile-computing-needs/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Hmm as I recall four years ago Trump stayed in his PJs all day at the White House watching Fox News except maybe playing golf some days.
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/12/trump-debate-harris-bait
Unionized Boeing workers could strike tonight
date: 2024-09-12, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Boeing and the union representing 33,000 of its workers reached a tentative labor deal over the weekend. Now, the rank and file appear ready to reject that deal, with a vote today. Many workers have been expressing frustration this week over the contract’s terms and could vote to go on strike at midnight. Also on the program: A look at women’s long-fought battle to carve out a seat for themselves on Wall Street.
Kansas prison where ‘In Cold Blood’ killers were executed will soon open for tours
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
LANSING, Kansas — The shuttered Kansas prison where the killers chronicled in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood were executed is now a tourist attraction.
Starting Friday, former wardens and corrections officers will lead two-hour tours of the stone-walled building in Lansing that first began housing inmates in the 1860s, The Kansas City Star reported.
The building, originally called the Kansas State Penitentiary, was without purpose after the Kansas Department of Corrections opened the newly constructed Lansing Correctional Facility in 2020. But instead of demolishing it, the Department of Corrections transferred control of the building to the Lansing Historical Society and Museum.
Upcoming events include a car show inside the prison walls later this month.
“We’re expecting the prison to open up to large crowds who want to know what went on inside those walls,” Debra Bates-Lamborn, president of the society, said after state prison officials handed over the keys this week.
For years, the prison carried out executions by hanging at the gallows — a site that visitors will not be able to access during tours. Since removed from prison grounds, the wooden gallows are now disassembled and under the state’s custody.
Among the notable inmates executed at the prison were Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith, who were convicted of murdering four members of the Clutter family on Nov. 15, 1959, in the family’s home near Holcomb, Kansas.
Capote, along with his close friend and fellow writer Harper Lee, visited the prison while doing research for the book about the killings. Hickock and Smith were executed in April 1965, among the last inmates to be hanged in the state.
One spot on the tour is the Chow Hall, where the late country music legend Johnny Cash performed for inmates in 1970.
“Johnny Cash has always said that audiences in prisons are the most enthusiastic audience he’s ever played to,” Bates-Lamborn said.
The prison tour is modeled off of a similar tour in Missouri. About a year ago, a state lawmaker approached the Lansing Historical Society and Museum with the idea of preserving the prison by converting it into a tourist attraction.
Bates-Lamborn said she and another board member made the trip to Jefferson City to tour the Missouri State Penitentiary, which has been open for tours since 2009.
“Afterwards, I thought ours is a shoo-in and we’re so much better,” she said.
Tours of the facility will be held on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and are scheduled to run until October 26. Since the facility has no heat or electricity, the tours stop over the winter and will return in the spring.
Reasons I still love the fish shell
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: Julia Evans
https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/09/12/reasons-i--still--love-fish/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump’s Slow-Burn Authoritarianism.
https://newrepublic.com/article/185487/trump-maga-legal-war-slow-burn-authoritarianism
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
A thread on Mastodon where I explain to Miguel de Icaza, a longtime developer friend, how Dropbox had the vision to turn the web into a fantastic file system for work and publishing. I made a product for it called Fargo.
https://mastodon.social/@davew/113125134990424609
Transport for London confirms 5,000 users’ bank data exposed, pulls large chunks of IT infra offline
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
NCA confirms arrest of 17-year-old ‘on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences’ – now bailed
Transport for London’s ongoing cyber incident has taken a dark turn as the organization confirmed that some data, including bank details, might have been accessed, and 30,000 employees’ passwords will need to be reset via in-person appointments.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/transport_for_londons_cyber_attack/
NASA Moon to Mars Architecture Art Challenge
date: 2024-09-12, from: NASA breaking news
NASA wants you to visualize the future of space exploration! This art challenge is looking for creative, artistic images to represent NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture, the agency’s roadmap for crewed exploration of deep space. With NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives in hand, the agency is developing an architecture for crewed exploration of the Moon, Mars, and […]
NASA to Develop Lunar Time Standard for Exploration Initiatives
date: 2024-09-12, from: NASA breaking news
NASA will coordinate with U.S. government stakeholders, partners, and international standards organizations to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) following a policy directive from the White House in April. The agency’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program is leading efforts on creating a coordinated time, which will enable a future lunar ecosystem that could be […]
PureOS Crimson Development Report: August 2024
date: 2024-09-12, from: Purism News and Events
Make new friends, and keep the old I’m very pleased to announce that we continue to see new PureOS subscriptions coming in. Thank you very much to our subscribers, new and old! Your support enables us to continue advancing PureOS, and we are pleased that it remains freely available to all. Archive maintenance As we […]
The post PureOS Crimson Development Report: August 2024 appeared first on Purism.
https://puri.sm/posts/pureos-crimson-development-report-august-2024/
AMD sharpens silicon swords to take on chip and AI rivals
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CEO Lisa Su sets sights on being best in GPUs, CPUs, FPGAs, everything… as Intel struggles
Comment Once the relative minnow of the chip industry, AMD senses blood in the water following a series of missteps by arch-rival Intel, and head honcho Lisa Su is wasting no time in talking up its game plan to investors.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/amd_conference_comments/
Finding questions and answers about why I like books
date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Rupert blog
I saw a tweet awhile back that sent my brain to a far off galaxy…
Most people are proud of their reading habit.
— Alex Hormozi (@AlexHormozi) July 2, 2022
But for many, it’s just an act of productive procrastination.
I’m looking at you “I read a book a week” club
Here’s how you know:
Are you reading to find answers to questions?…or are you reading to find questions to answer?
Of all the injustices happening in the world… you know who needs to be taken down a peg? The Book-a-Week People. Fuck those guys. With their books in their Zoom backgrounds. That bothers me. Fuck them.
I know the original post is part of some weird hustle culture subgenre, but it’s probably no surprise to folks who reading that I like books and fit this targeted demographic. After pondering whether I’m “finding answers to questions or questions to answer” my answer is a resounding, “…I guess?”
A lot of why I read is about juxtaposition. I read business books to juxtapose my experience against the Platonic ideal of “good business”. I read about social justice to juxtapose my lived experience against others lived experience. I read science fiction to juxtapose the present against futures I haven’t imagined. I read non-fiction airport books because I like facts and social science garbage. I read books on topics I’m already an expert in to see if there’s information that further informs my perspective. I read to teleport to different places, minds, times, and rooms where it happened.
I read to escape. I read to find myself. I read because I like facts. I read because I like fiction. I read for entertainment. I read to fall asleep. I listen to books to help me finish mundane tasks like doing the dishes every night. And I listen to books because there’s a slight communistic thrill of getting them from the library.
There’s a widely accepted idea out there that “the best way to become a better writer is to become a better reader.” I think Stephen King said it, but I can’t find the quote. Either way, I want to become a better writer. Whether fact or fiction, I want the ability to not struggle when putting thoughts on the page. Oh to partake in this magical osmosis! The transitive impartation of skills! Let me flex the language encoding and decoding synapses in my 40-watt brain.
And sometimes reading is out of due diligence. Like… if you’re going to start a job as a manager… read a book on management? Or ten? You’re dealing with people’s lives and careers, seems like the least you could do. If you’re going to talk or blog on a topic and there’s a relevant book… read that before showing your ass? A thought backed by some literature seems better than regurgitating TikToks.
Books are strange objects. Chapters and chapters of coherent research and lived experiences assembled by people who wanted to put it all down in one place. Edited by actual editors who like editing. Designed— down to the weight of the paper, the typography, and the illustration on the cover— to make the experience of reading it enjoyable. Books are uncanny and impractical objects. A terribly inefficient way to encode information from one brain to another, but an excellent way to tell a story.
You can also just like books for no reason.
Anyways, books. Check ’em out.
https://daverupert.com/2024/09/fuck-the-book-a-week-club/
Major ISP bungles settings, causing Microsoft 365, Azure outage
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
AT&T confirms ‘brief disruption,’ no indication of foul play
updated If you’re having issues logging into Azure this morning, no - it’s not just you: Microsoft has confirmed an issue. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/att_microsoft_365_outage/
Land seizures and land sales
date: 2024-09-12, from: Marketplace Morning Report
According to settlement tracking group Peace Now, the Israeli government has seized more Palestinian land for settlements in the West Bank this year than at any time in the last three decades. Now, some synagogues in the U.S. and Canada are being criticized — and picketed — for hosting real-estate fairs that pitch property for sale in Israel and the Occupied Territories to North American Jews. We’ll learn more. But first, we’ll look at why the gender pay gap is widening.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/land-seizures-and-land-sales
Trump Criticizes Affordable Care Act as New Census Data Shows Record Low Number of People Without Health Insurance
date: 2024-09-12, from: Capital and Main
The unraveling of pandemic-era protections threatens coverage gains and raises stakes for millions in the November election.
The post Trump Criticizes Affordable Care Act as New Census Data Shows Record Low Number of People Without Health Insurance appeared first on .
NASA’s Webb Peers into the Extreme Outer Galaxy
date: 2024-09-12, from: NASA breaking news
Astronomers have directed NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists call this region the Extreme Outer Galaxy due to its location more than 58,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center. (For comparison, Earth is approximately 26,000 light-years from the center.) A team of scientists used Webb’s NIRCam […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-peers-into-the-extreme-outer-galaxy/
GEEKOM GT1 Mega is a Meteor Lake mini PC with 2.5 GbE LAN, WiFi 7, and USB4
date: 2024-09-12, from: Liliputing
The GEEKOM GT1 Mega is a mini PC computer that measures 135 x 132 x 47mm (5.3″ x 5.2″ x 1.9″) and features support for up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H Meteor lake processor, up to 64GB of RAM, and two M.2 slots for storage. Basically it’s a computer that takes the guts of […]
The post GEEKOM GT1 Mega is a Meteor Lake mini PC with 2.5 GbE LAN, WiFi 7, and USB4 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/geekom-gt1-mega-is-a-meteor-lake-mini-pc-with-2-5-gbe-lan-wifi-7-and-usb4/
SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission completes first commercial spacewalk
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
More cautious than 1960s efforts, EVA goes off without a hitch
SpaceX’s inaugural commercial spacewalk – and the first extravehicular activity (EVA) using its spacesuits – has taken place, almost eclipsing yesterday’s altitude record.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/polaris_dawn_eva/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-12, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Euro friends, time to
organize:
https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/113124641147021319
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113124810932066983
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-12, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Public service
announcement
https://www.threads.net/@macrumors/post/C_0YL1Qowno
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113124806297622463
Earth’s Life-Support Systems Are Breaking
date: 2024-09-12, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: More than 300,000 people in Louisiana are without power after Hurricane Francine • Hungarian lawmakers met in a dried riverbed yesterday to draw attention to the country’s extreme drought • An Arctic blast could bring snow to parts of the U.K.
THE TOP FIVE
- Study says human activity threatens Earth’s planetary support
systems
More than 60 scientists have co-authored a new study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, warning that human activity is damaging the natural systems that support life on Earth. Almost all of these support systems – including the climate, soil nutrient cycles, and freshwater – have been pushed into danger zones as humans strive for ever more economic growth. Thus, the researchers say, the health of the planet and its people are at risk, and the poor are the most vulnerable. The study concludes “fundamental system-wide transformations are needed” to address overconsumption, overhaul economic systems, improve technologies, and transform governance.
The
Lancet
- Stellantis ramps up investment in U.S. EV production
Carmaker Stellantis announced yesterday it is pouring more than $400 million into three facilities in Michigan to ramp up electric vehicle production and boost the company’s “multi-energy strategy.” The Sterling Heights Assembly Plant will be Stellantis’ first U.S. facility to build a fully electric vehicle, the Ram 1500 REV. The Warren Truck Assembly Plant will be “retooled” to produce the upcoming electric Jeep Wagoneer. And the Dundee Engine Plant will be upgraded for parts production for the company’s STLA Frame architecture. As The Associated Press explained, Stellantis “is taking a step toward meeting some commitments that it agreed to in a new contract ratified last fall by the United Auto Workers union after a bitter six-week strike.” The company is aiming for 50% of its passenger car and light-duty truck sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.
- Police arrest man suspected of starting California’s Line fire
Police arrested a 34-year-old man suspected of starting a wildfire in California that has now burned more than 36,000 acres and is less than 20% contained. The Line fire is one of several large blazes burning in the state and threatening thousands of structures. Last month another man was charged with arson on suspicion of igniting the Park fire, which consumed 430,000 acres in Northern California. As Heatmap’s Jeva Lange reported, arson officially accounts for only about 10% of fires handled by Cal Fire. But when there are thousands of fires across the state during a given season, that’s not an inconsequential number. And a warmer world has made extreme fire conditions more common, as have decades of misbegotten fire suppression policies in the Western United States. As a result, arson fires in rural areas are more likely to burn out of control than they would have been half a century ago, Lange wrote. Experts warn that California’s fire season, fueled by “weather whiplash,” is only just ramping up and is likely to intensify with the arrival of the Santa Ana winds.
- Brazil’s Lula promises to finish paving road through Amazon
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to finish the paving of a controversial road through the Amazon rainforest. The BR-319 highway would connect some major cities and improve cargo movement, which has been disrupted by record-low water levels in the Amazon River due to drought. But its construction could also hasten deforestation, including in old growth forests. “Without the forest, there is no water, it’s interconnected,” said Suely Araújo, a public policy coordinator. “The paving of the middle section of BR-319, without ensuring environmental governance and the presence of the government in the region, will lead to historic deforestation, as pointed out by many specialists and by Brazil’s federal environmental agency in the licensing process.” Lula made the pledge during a visit to assess the damage from massive fires in the rainforest, which his Environment Minister Marina Silva blamed on extreme drought caused by climate change.
- Survey sheds light on EV drivers’ charging preferences
A new survey of more than 1,000 EV owners in California has some interesting insights into what these drivers want from a charging station. It found they were 37% more likely to choose a charger with additional amenities like restrooms and convenience stores. “This symbiotic relationship between businesses and EV chargers may benefit both EV chargers and local businesses,” said Alan Jenn, assistant professor at the Electric Vehicle group of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis.
Next
10
Also, California’s EV drivers really don’t want to wait to charge up, and are willing to pay almost a dollar more per 100 miles of charge if there’s no wait time at the charger. With every minute of extra wait time, a driver’s willingness to use a charger falls by 6%. The survey was conducted by the non-profit Next 10 and the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis.
THE KICKER
“If Harris is now bragging about her administration’s support for fossil fuels, if she is casting the Inflation Reduction Act as a law that helped fracking, that means climate activists have much more work to do to persuade the public on what they believe. The Democratic Party’s candidate will not do that persuasion for them.” –Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer on Kamala Harris’ energy playbook.
https://heatmap.news/earths-life-support-systems-are-breaking
Earth’s Life-Support Systems Are Breaking
date: 2024-09-12, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: More than 300,000 people in Louisiana are without power after Hurricane Francine • Hungarian lawmakers met in a dried riverbed yesterday to draw attention to the country’s extreme drought • An Arctic blast could bring snow to parts of the U.K.
THE TOP FIVE
- Study says human activity threatens Earth’s planetary support
systems
More than 60 scientists have co-authored a new study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, warning that human activity is damaging the natural systems that support life on Earth. Almost all of these support systems – including the climate, soil nutrient cycles, and freshwater – have been pushed into danger zones as humans strive for ever more economic growth. Thus, the researchers say, the health of the planet and its people are at risk, and the poor are the most vulnerable. The study concludes “fundamental system-wide transformations are needed” to address overconsumption, overhaul economic systems, improve technologies, and transform governance.
The
Lancet
- Stellantis ramps up investment in U.S. EV production
Carmaker Stellantis announced yesterday it is pouring more than $400 million into three facilities in Michigan to ramp up electric vehicle production and boost the company’s “multi-energy strategy.” The Sterling Heights Assembly Plant will be Stellantis’ first U.S. facility to build a fully electric vehicle, the Ram 1500 REV. The Warren Truck Assembly Plant will be “retooled” to produce the upcoming electric Jeep Wagoneer. And the Dundee Engine Plant will be upgraded for parts production for the company’s STLA Frame architecture. As The Associated Press explained, Stellantis “is taking a step toward meeting some commitments that it agreed to in a new contract ratified last fall by the United Auto Workers union after a bitter six-week strike.” The company is aiming for 50% of its passenger car and light-duty truck sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.
- Police arrest man suspected of starting California’s Line fire
Police arrested a 34-year-old man suspected of starting a wildfire in California that has now burned more than 36,000 acres and is less than 20% contained. The Line fire is one of several large blazes burning in the state and threatening thousands of structures. Last month another man was charged with arson on suspicion of igniting the Park fire, which consumed 430,000 acres in Northern California. As Heatmap’s Jeva Lange reported, arson officially accounts for only about 10% of fires handled by Cal Fire. But when there are thousands of fires across the state during a given season, that’s not an inconsequential number. And a warmer world has made extreme fire conditions more common, as have decades of misbegotten fire suppression policies in the Western United States. As a result, arson fires in rural areas are more likely to burn out of control than they would have been half a century ago, Lange wrote. Experts warn that California’s fire season, fueled by “weather whiplash,” is only just ramping up and is likely to intensify with the arrival of the Santa Ana winds.
- Brazil’s Lula promises to finish paving road through Amazon
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to finish the paving of a controversial road through the Amazon rainforest. The BR-319 highway would connect some major cities and improve cargo movement, which has been disrupted by record-low water levels in the Amazon River due to drought. But its construction could also hasten deforestation, including in old growth forests. “Without the forest, there is no water, it’s interconnected,” said Suely Araújo, a public policy coordinator. “The paving of the middle section of BR-319, without ensuring environmental governance and the presence of the government in the region, will lead to historic deforestation, as pointed out by many specialists and by Brazil’s federal environmental agency in the licensing process.” Lula made the pledge during a visit to assess the damage from massive fires in the rainforest, which his Environment Minister Marina Silva blamed on extreme drought caused by climate change.
- Survey sheds light on EV drivers’ charging preferences
A new survey of more than 1,000 EV owners in California has some interesting insights into what these drivers want from a charging station. It found they were 37% more likely to choose a charger with additional amenities like restrooms and convenience stores. “This symbiotic relationship between businesses and EV chargers may benefit both EV chargers and local businesses,” said Alan Jenn, assistant professor at the Electric Vehicle group of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis.
Next
10
Also, California’s EV drivers really don’t want to wait to charge up, and are willing to pay almost a dollar more per 100 miles of charge if there’s no wait time at the charger. With every minute of extra wait time, a driver’s willingness to use a charger falls by 6%. The survey was conducted by the non-profit Next 10 and the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis.
THE KICKER
“If Harris is now bragging about her administration’s support for fossil fuels, if she is casting the Inflation Reduction Act as a law that helped fracking, that means climate activists have much more work to do to persuade the public on what they believe. The Democratic Party’s candidate will not do that persuasion for them.” –Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer on Kamala Harris’ energy playbook.
https://heatmap.news/climate/earth-planetary-support-study
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-12, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
One thing that fascinates me about this private computing is that every big cloud vendor has similar sounding efforts but they never quite come together into a useful package - like baking cookies without the flour.
Lots of hopes and dream, but lacking guidance and a concrete go-to-market roll out plan.
To this day, most advanced secure computing hardware sits unused because we don’t surface the primitives in any actionable form. https://infosec.exchange/@mattburgess/113124728485246481
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113124779570709141
Redis justifies open source shift with fresh hardware, LLM cost-saving features
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CEO argues more restrictive licensing was key to DB refresh, and says team ‘expected’ the fork
Interview Redis is the most popular database on AWS, which is, of course, the most popular cloud. The fact the relatively little known database, which launched in 2009, punches above its weight against well-established rivals might owe a lot to its reputation as a handy off-the-shelf cache developers know and love. Yet for the last couple of years, it has been champing at the bit to be much more.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/redis_justifies_open_source_shift/
trurl 0.15.1
date: 2024-09-12, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
trurl is slowing growing up and maturing. This is a minor patch release following up the previous one done just a few weeks ago, fixing a few annoying bugs only. Download it from curl.se/trurl Fixes in 0.15.1 Future I have this feeling that we still have use cases and combinations that we don’t have tested … Continue reading trurl 0.15.1
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/09/12/trurl-0-15-1/
Firefighters hope cooler weather will aid battle against 3 major Southern California fires
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
Wrightwood, California — Firefighters battling three major wildfires in the mountains east of Los Angeles took advantage of cooler weather Wednesday as they slowly gained the upper hand, but not before dozens of homes were destroyed and thousands of people were forced to evacuate.
California is only now heading into the teeth of the wildfire season but already has seen nearly three times as much acreage burn than during all of 2023. The wildfires have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures across Southern California since they accelerated during a triple-digit heat wave over the weekend.
No deaths have been reported, but at least a dozen people, mainly firefighters, have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related, authorities said.
In the small community of Wrightwood, about 90 minutes outside Los Angeles, authorities implored residents to flee the exploding Bridge Fire, which has burned more than a dozen homes in the area.
Resident Erin Arias said she was racing up the mountain when she got the order to leave and did, grabbing her passport and dog. On Wednesday, she and her husband doused water on the roof of their still-standing home. Their cat was missing, she said.
“It’s absolutely scary,” Arias said, looking at the burned embers of her neighbor’s home. “We’re really lucky.”
UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said the fire moved extraordinarily fast across complex terrain, likely giving residents less time to evacuate than usual and surprising even seasoned fire officials.
The Bridge Fire “had to go up mountain sides, burn down slope, jump across valleys, burn across new ridges, and then make it down slope again at least two other times in effectively one burning period,” he said.
The full extent of the damage caused by the fires remained unclear. The three blazes are:
— The Airport Fire in Orange County, which has burned more than 91 square kilometers. The fire was 5% contained Wednesday night and was reportedly sparked by heavy equipment operating in the area. Orange County Fire Capt. Steve Concialdi said eight firefighters have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related. One resident suffered smoke inhalation and another burns, he said. Several homes burned in El Cariso Village.
— The Line Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, which was 18% contained Wednesday and had charred 148 square kilometers. The blaze has injured three firefighters. Authorities said it was caused by arson in Highland. A suspect was arrested Tuesday.
— The Bridge Fire east of Los Angeles, which grew tenfold in a day and has burned 202 square kilometers, torched at least 33 homes and six cabins and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. The cause of the fire is not yet known. It remained zero percent contained Wednesday night.
Gov. Gavin Newsom sent National Guard troops in to help with evacuations, and the White House said President Joe Biden was monitoring the situation.
In El Cariso Village, a community of 250 people along Highway 74 in Riverside County, an Associated Press photographer saw at least 10 homes and several cars engulfed in flames.
Orange County Fire Authority Incident Commander Kevin Fetterman said the blaze has been difficult to tame because of the terrain and dry conditions and because some areas hadn’t burned in decades.
More than 5,500 homes in Riverside County were under evacuation orders, affecting more than 19,000 residents. Several recreational cabins and structures in the Cleveland National Forest have been damaged.
In San Bernardino County, some 65,600 homes and buildings were under threat by the Line Fire, and residents along the southern edge of Big Bear Lake were told to leave Tuesday.
The Line Fire blanketed the area with a thick cloud of dark smoke, which provided shade for firefighters trying to get ahead of winds expected later Wednesday, said Fabian Herrera, a spokesperson for those battling the Line Fire.
A man from the town of Norco suspected of starting the Line Fire on Sept. 5 was arrested and charged with arson, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. Officials did not specify what was used to start the fire.
Investigators collected evidence from the man’s vehicle and home that suggests he could have been involved in starting other fires, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said Wednesday.
On the Nevada border with California near Reno, the Davis Fire forced thousands of people to evacuate over the weekend, destroyed one home and a dozen structures and charred nearly 23 square kilometers of timber and brush along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern front.
Rich Meyr and Evelyn Kelley were the first arrivals at an evacuation center set up Wednesday at a recreation center in south Reno. Both said they refused to evacuate previous fires but decided to play it safe this time.
“My son’s wedding is Saturday. I threw all the flowers and gowns in the RV and we left. It looks like a garden shop inside that RV,” Kelley said. “But who wants to burn alive?”
More than 600 firefighters kept the blaze from growing Wednesday despite high winds that grounded all aircraft that had dropped retardant on the flames over the past two days. The fire was about 30% contained Wednesday night.
EU kicks off an inquiry into Google’s AI model
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Privacy regulator taking a closer look at data privacy and PaLM 2
The European Union’s key regulator for data privacy, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), has launched a cross-border inquiry into Google’s AI model to ascertain if it complies with the bloc’s rules.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/google_ai_model_inquiry_eu/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Google Trends for "sanewashing."
<https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today 3-m&geo=US&q=sanewashing&hl=en>
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Google Trends for "sanewashing."
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&geo=US&q=sanewashing&hl=en
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Paul Krugman: "Trump didn’t have a bad night. This is just who he is, and has been all along, visible to anyone who looked past the sanewashing."
https://www.threads.net/@paulkrugman7/post/C_xwp2wJ2uo
This Map Lets You See When Magnificent Fall Foliage Will Peak in Your Area
date: 2024-09-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Use the interactive tool’s week-by-week, county-by-county predictions to start planning your leaf-peeping trips across the United States
About that Windows Installer ‘make me admin’ security hole. Here’s how it’s exploited
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
What kind of OS can be hijacked by clicking a link at just the right time? Microsoft’s
In this week’s Patch Tuesday Microsoft alerted users to, among other vulnerabilities, a flaw in Windows Installer that can be exploited by malware or a rogue user to gain SYSTEM-level privileges to hijack a PC.…
Francine weakens moving inland from Gulf Coast after hurricane winds cause power outages
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
MORGAN CITY, La. — Francine weakened Thursday after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, sent storm surge rushing into coastal communities and raised flood fears in New Orleans and beyond as drenching rains spread over the northern Gulf Coast.
The tropical storm was forecast to be downgraded to a tropical depression as it churned northward over Mississippi, the National Hurricane Center said. Some 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) of rain were possible in parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, with up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) possible in some spots in parts of Alabama and Florida, forecasters said, warning of the potential threat of scattered flash flooding as farflung as Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta.
Francine slammed the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening with 100 mph (155 kph) winds in coastal Terrebonne Parish, battering a fragile coastal region that hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. It then moved at a fast clip toward New Orleans, pounding the city with torrential rains.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. TV news broadcasts from coastal communities showed waves from nearby lakes, rivers and Gulf waters thrashing sea walls. Water poured into city streets amid blinding downpours. Oak and cypress trees leaned in the high winds, and some utility poles swayed back and forth.
“It’s a little bit worse than what I expected to be honest with you,” said Alvin Cockerham, fire chief of Morgan City about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from where the storm’s center made landfall. “I pulled all my trucks back to the station. It’s too dangerous to be out there in this.”
Power outages in Louisiana topped 390,000 early Thursday in Louisiana, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us, with an additional 46,000 outages reported in Mississippi.
Sheltering at her mother’s home just outside Morgan City, Laura Leftwich said blasts of wind had swept away two large birdhouses outside. She had a generator powering an internet connection so she could video chat with friends, holding her computer to a window to show them water overflowing in the street.
If the storm had been any more intense, “I wouldn’t have the guts to look outside,” said Leftwich, 40. “It’s a little scary.”
The sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, strengthening to a Category 2 storm before landfall. It weakened late Wednesday to a tropical storm.
In addition to torrential rains, there was a lingering threat of spin-off tornadoes from the storm Thursday in Florida and Alabama.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the National Guard would fan out to parishes impacted by Francine. They have food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including for possible search-and-rescue operations.
Since the mid-19th century, some 57 hurricanes have tracked over or made landfall in Louisiana, according to The Weather Channel. Among them are some of the strongest, costliest and deadliest storms in U.S. history.
Morgan City, home to around 11,500 people, sits on the banks of the Atchafalaya River in south Louisiana and is surrounded by lakes and marsh. It’s described on the city’s website as “gateway to the Gulf of Mexico for the shrimping and oilfield industries.”
President Joe Biden granted an emergency declaration to help Louisiana secure expedited federal money and assistance. Landry and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also declared states of emergency.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said it distributed more than 100,000 sandbags to the southern part of the state and the Department of Education reported a number of school district closures for Wednesday and Thursday.
Do video games mislead players when it comes to in-game spending?
date: 2024-09-12, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: A European consumer rights group has lodged a formal complaint accusing game developers behind popular titles like Fortnite and Minecraft of tricking players into spending more cash than they might realize. Then, we travel to Italy, where the shipyards of Monfalcone have attracted workers from Bangladesh. But there are tensions with locals. Earlier this year, the town’s mayor even banned cricket, an extremely popular sport popular in Bangladesh.
The Tyranny of the Penny
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/09/12/the-tyranny-of-the-penny/
The Records Act
date: 2024-09-12, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
September 17 is Constitution Day. Visit the National Archives website for more information on how to commemorate the day. Today’s post looks at the records act Congress passed under the new constitution. Charles Thomson served as the Secretary to Congress throughout the Revolutionary War and during the entire period of the government under the Articles of Confederation. … Continue reading The Records Act
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/09/12/the-first-records-act/
UK elevates datacenters to critical national infrastructure status
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Dedicated support to be assembled to prevent cyberattacks, IT outages, and bad weather from affecting availability
From today, the UK is designating datacenters as critical national infrastructure (CNI). As a result, the sector is expected to get special government support designed to prevent negative economic impacts of IT outages like CrowdStrike’s, cyberattacks, and extreme weather events.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/uk_datacenters_cni/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The California Google deal could leave out news startups and the smallest publishers.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Harris was prepared.
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/the-debate
NASA engineers play space surgeon in bid to unclog Voyager 1’s arteries
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Brilliant’ team performs electrical balancing act to keep probe pointed at Earth
The tenuous power situation onboard the veteran Voyager 1 spacecraft has required engineers to perform a delicate balancing act while switching between thrusters as fuel lines gradually become clogged.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/voyager_power_issues/
Mind your header! There’s nothing refreshing about phishers’ latest tactic
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It could lead to a costly BEC situation
Palo Alto’s Unit 42 threat intel team wants to draw the security industry’s attention to an increasingly common tactic used by phishers to harvest victims’ credentials.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/http_headers/
America Needs an Energy Policy for AI
date: 2024-09-12, from: Heatmap News
The rapid increase in demand for artificial intelligence is creating a seemingly vexing national dilemma: How can we meet the vast energy demands of a breakthrough industry without compromising our energy goals?
If that challenge sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The U.S. has a long history of rising to the electricity demands of innovative new industries. Our energy needs grew far more quickly in the four decades following World War II than what we are facing today. More recently, we have squared off against the energy requirements of new clean technologies that require significant energy to produce — most notably hydrogen.
Electricity Demand Since the 1950s
Courtesy
of Rhodium Group
The lesson we have learned time and again is that it is possible to scale technological innovation in a way that also scales energy innovation. Rather than accepting a zero-sum trade-off between innovation and our clean energy goals, we should focus on policies that leverage the growth of AI to scale the growth of clean energy.
At the core of this approach is the concept of additionality: Companies operating massive data centers — often referred to as “hyperscalers” — as well as utilities should have incentives to bring online new, additional clean energy to power new computing needs. That way, we leverage demand in one sector to scale up another. We drive innovation in key sectors that are critical to our nation’s competitiveness, we reward market leaders who are already moving in this direction with a stable, long-term regulatory framework for growth, and we stay on track to meet our nation’s climate commitments.
All of this is possible, but only if we take bold action now.
AI technologies have the potential to significantly boost America’s economic productivity and enhance our national security. AI also has the potential to accelerate the energy transition itself, from optimizing the electricity grid, to improving weather forecasting, to accelerating the discovery of chemicals and material breakthroughs that reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Powering AI, however, is itself incredibly energy intensive. Projections suggest that data centers could consume 9% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030, up from 4% today. Without a national policy response, this surge in energy demand risks increasing our long-term reliance on fossil fuels. By some estimates, around 20 gigawatts of additional natural gas generating capacity will come online by 2030, and coal plant retirements are already being delayed.
Avoiding this outcome will require creative focus on additionality. Hydrogen represents a particularly relevant case study here. It, too, is energy-intensive to produce — a single kilogram of hydrogen requires double the average household’s electricity consumption. And while hydrogen holds great promise to decarbonize parts of our economy, hydrogen is not per se good for our clean energy goals. Indeed, today’s fossil fuel-driven methods of hydrogen production generate more emissions than the entire aviation sector. While we can make zero-emissions hydrogen by using clean electricity to split hydrogen from water, the source of that electricity matters a lot. Similar to data centers, if the power for hydrogen production comes from the existing electricity grid, then ramping up electrolytic production of hydrogen could significantly increase emissions by growing overall energy demand without cleaning the energy mix.
This challenge led to the development of an “additionality” framework for hydrogen. The Inflation Reduction Act offers generous subsidies to hydrogen producers, but to qualify, they must match their electricity consumption with additional (read: newly built) clean energy generation close enough to them that they can actually use it.
This approach, which is being refined in proposed guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department, is designed to make sure that hydrogen’s energy demand becomes a catalyst for investment in new clean electricity generation and decarbonization technologies. Industry leaders are already responding, stating their readiness to build over 50 gigawatts of clean electrolyzer projects because of the long term certainty this framework provides.
While the scale and technology requirements are different, meeting AI’s energy needs presents a similar challenge. Powering data centers from the existing electricity grid mix means that more demand will create more emissions; even when data centers are drawing on clean electricity, if that energy is being diverted from existing sources rather than coming from new, additional clean electricity supply, the result is the same. Amazon’s recent $650 million investment in a data center campus next to an existing nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania illustrates the challenge: While diverting those clean electrons from Pennsylvania homes and businesses to the data center reduces Amazon’s reported emissions, by increasing demand on the grid without building additional clean capacity, it creates a need for new capacity in the region that will likely be met by fossil fuels (while also shifting up to $140 million of additional costs per year onto local customers).
Neither hyperscalers nor utilities should be expected to resolve this complex tension on their own. As with hydrogen, it is in our national interest to find a path forward.
What we need, then, is a national solution to make sure that as we expand our AI capabilities, we bring online new clean energy, as well, strengthening our competitive position in both industries and forestalling the economic and ecological consequences of higher electricity prices and higher carbon emissions.
In short, we should adopt a National AI Additionality Framework.
Under this framework, for any significant data center project, companies would need to show how they are securing new, additional clean power from a zero-emissions generation source. They could do this either by building new “behind-the-meter” clean energy to power their operations directly, or by partnering with a utility to pay a specified rate to secure new grid-connected clean energy coming online.
If companies are unwilling or unable to secure dedicated additional clean energy capacity, they would pay a fee into a clean deployment fund at the Department of Energy that would go toward high-value investments to expand clean electricity capacity. These could range from research and deployment incentives for so-called “clean firm” electricity generation technologies like nuclear and geothermal, to investments in transmission capacity in highly congested areas, to expanding manufacturing capacity for supply-constrained electrical grid equipment like transformers, to cleaning up rural electric cooperatives that serve areas attractive to data centers. Given the variance in grid and transmission issues, the fund would explicitly approach its investment with a regional lens.
Several states operate similar systems: Under Massachusetts’ Renewable Portfolio Standard, utilities are required to provide a certain percentage of electricity they serve from clean energy facilities or pay an “alternative compliance payment” for every megawatt-hour they are short of their obligation. Dollars collected from these payments go toward the development and expansion of clean energy projects and infrastructure in the state. Facing increasing capacity constraints on the PJM grid, Pennsylvania legislators are now exploring a state Baseload Energy Development Fund to provide low-interest grants and loans for new electricity generation facilities.
A national additionality framework should not only challenge the industry to scale innovation in a way that scales clean technology, it must also clear pathways to build clean energy at scale. We should establish a dedicated fast-track approval process to move these clean energy projects through federal, state, and local permitting and siting on an accelerated basis. This will help companies already investing in additional clean energy to move faster and more effectively – and make it more difficult for anyone to hide behind the excuse that building new clean energy capacity is too hard or too slow. Likewise, under this framework, utilities that stand in the way of progress should be held accountable and incentivized to adopt innovative new technologies and business models that enable them to move at historic speed.
For hyperscalers committed to net-zero goals, this national approach provides both an opportunity and a level playing field — an opportunity to deliver on those commitments in a genuine way, and a reliable long-term framework that will reward their investments to make that happen. This approach would also build public trust in corporate climate accountability and diminish the risk that those building data centers in the U.S. stand accused of greenwashing or shifting the cost of development onto ratepayers and communities. The policy clarity of an additionality requirement can also encourage cutting edge artificial intelligence technology to be built here in the United States. Moreover, it is a model that can be extended to address other sectors facing growing energy demand.
The good news is that many industry players are already moving in this direction. A new agreement between Google and a Nevada utility, for example, would allow Google to pay a higher rate for 24/7 clean electricity from a new geothermal project. In the Carolinas, Duke Energy announced its intent to explore a new clean tariff to support carbon-free energy generation for large customers like Google and Microsoft.
A national framework that builds on this progress is critical, though it will not be easy; it will require quick Congressional action, executive leadership, and new models of state and local partnership. But we have a unique opportunity to build a strange bedfellow coalition to get it done – across big tech, climate tech, environmentalists, permitting reform advocates, and those invested in America’s national security and technology leadership. Together, this framework can turn a vexing trade-off into an opportunity. We can ensure that the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in building an industry of the future actually accelerates the energy transition, all while strengthening the U.S.’s position in innovating cutting- edge AI and clean energy technology.
https://heatmap.news/technology/ai-additionality-framework
Pop!_OS 24.04 and new COSMIC desktop reach alpha
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It’s quite a long way from ready – but it’s clearly visible in the distance
The latest version of System76’s Ubuntu remix is available, but it’s not finished by any means. The new Rust-based desktop is somewhat usable, though.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/pop_os_2404_cosmic_desktop/
Monopoly League Baseball
date: 2024-09-12, from: The Lever News
Why is a private equity firm reaping the benefits of hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies while taking over Minor League Baseball?
https://www.levernews.com/monopoly-league-baseball/
If HDMI screen rips aren’t good enough for you pirates, DeCENC is another way to beat web video DRM
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Academically interesting technique for poking holes in paywalled tech specs
An anti-piracy system to protect online video streams from unauthorized copying is flawed – and can be broken to allow streamed media from Amazon, Netflix, and others to be saved, replayed, and spread at will, we’re told.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/cenc_encryption_stream_attack/
Botswana, US firm partner to conduct border pathogen monitoring
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana and an American biotech firm, Ginkgo Bioworks, have partnered to conduct pathogen surveillance at the country’s entry points. Health officials say the proactive move is meant to safeguard public health as the world faces emerging disease threats.
Botswana introduced mpox screening last month for travelers at its entry points.
In a statement Wednesday, Ministry of Health spokesperson Christopher Nyanga said a pathogen-monitoring program is critical to detecting similar emerging health threats.
Dr. Mbatshi Mazwiduma, a public health expert, said the pathogen-surveillance program will complement existing strategies to prevent disease threats.
“The initiative by the Ministry of Health is a very welcome development in the sense that it is at least demonstrating that they are both embracing traditional methods of surveillance and disease detection plus at the same time, they are looking at other innovative ways of disease detection,” he said.
Through the collaboration, Boston-based Gingko Bioworks will work with the Ministry of Health to collect and monitor travelers’ samples. Nasal swabs will be used to collect the samples.
Nyanga said testing will be done on a voluntary, anonymous basis.
“Although participation in this initiative is entirely voluntary, travelers are encouraged to participate because this early detection of pathogens is meant to safeguard the health of all citizens, visitors and residents of this country,” he said. “The samples collected will be kept anonymous. The data collected from the samples will be vital in strengthening the country’s robust health system and response to public health threats and emergencies.”
But Mazwiduma said voluntary participation in the pathogen-monitoring program could hinder effective disease detection.
“Perhaps if non-invasive, non-intrusive, the technique should be compulsory because it ensures that the number of people who comply to sample acquisition is increased and, therefore, you can actually rapidly achieve suitable sample sizes for you to be able to ensure that you do not miss any patients, but also more importantly that it allows you to improve your validation of these particular technologies,” Mazwiduma said.
Botswana and Gingko Bioworks previously collaborated in a 2022 pathogen-monitoring program to detect new and emerging COVID-19 variants.
During the same year, Botswana was credited with the discovery of COVID-19 variant omicron.
Pokémon GO was an intelligence tool, claims Belarus military official
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Augmented reality meets warped reality
A defense ministry official from Belarus has claimed augmented reality game Pokémon GO was a tool of Western intelligence agencies.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/pokemon_go_spying_belarus_claims/
Could America’s divide on marijuana be coming to an end?
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/could-america-s-divide-on-marijuana-be-coming-to-an-end-/7781203.html
Domo arigato, Mr Roboto: Japan’s bullet trains to ditch drivers
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The Shinkansen have operated without fatalities for sixty years – how hard can it be?
One of Japan’s major passenger railway operators announced plans on Tuesday to bring fully automated bullet trains into service by the mid-2030s.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/japan_automated_bullet_train/
US supports two permanent UN Security Council seats for Africa
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
UNITED NATIONS — The United States supports creating two permanent United Nations Security Council seats for African states and one seat to be rotated among small island developing states, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield will announce on Thursday.
The move comes as the U.S. seeks to repair ties with Africa, where many are unhappy about Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, and deepen relations with Pacific Islands nations important to countering Chinese influence in the region.
Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters she hopes the announcement will “move this agenda forward in a way that we can achieve Security Council reform at some point in the future,” describing it as part of U.S. President Joe Biden’s legacy.
The push for two permanent African seats and a rotating seat for small island developing states is in addition to Washington’s long-held support for India, Japan and Germany to also get permanent seats on the council.
Developing nations have long demanded permanent seats on the Security Council, the most powerful body in the United Nations. But years of talks on reform have proved fruitless and it is unclear whether U.S. support could fuel action.
Ahead of making the announcement at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Thursday, Thomas-Greenfield clarified to Reuters that Washington does not support expanding veto power beyond the five countries that hold it.
The Security Council is charged with maintaining international peace and security and has the power to impose sanctions and arms embargos and authorize the use of force.
When the U.N. was founded in 1945, the Security Council had 11 members. This increased in 1965 to 15 members, made up of 10 elected states serving two-year terms and five permanent veto-wielding nations: Russia, China, France, the U.S. and Britain.
Legitimacy problem
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres backs Security Council reform.
“You have a Security Council that corresponds exactly to the situation after the Second World War … that has a problem of legitimacy, and that has a problem of effectiveness, and it needs to be reformed,” Guterres told Reuters on Wednesday.
Any change to the Security Council membership is done by amending the founding U.N. Charter. This needs the approval and ratification by two-thirds of the General Assembly, including the Security Council’s current five veto powers.
The 193-member U.N. General Assembly has annually discussed reform of the Security Council for more than a decade. But momentum has grown in recent years as geopolitical rivalries have deadlocked the council on several issues, particularly after permanent veto-wielding member Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Much of the conversation around Security Council reform has been just that: a conversation,” Thomas-Greenfield will say on Thursday, according to prepared remarks reviewed by Reuters of her announcement that Washington supports moving to negotiations on a draft text to amend the U.N. Charter to expand the council.
Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters she could not say how long it might take to get the General Assembly to vote on such a resolution.
Each year the General Assembly elects five new members from different geographical groups for two-year terms on the Security Council. Africa currently has three seats rotated among states.
“The problem is, these non-permanent seats don’t enable African countries to deliver the full benefit of their knowledge and voices to the work of the council … to consistently lead on the challenges that affect all of us - and disproportionately affect Africans,” Thomas-Greenfield will say.
She will also say that small island developing states deserve a rotating elected seat because they offer “critical insights on a range of international peace and security issues: including, notably, the impact of climate change.”
Samsung faces strikes in India, amid reports of global layoffs
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Union alleges work conditions are like solitary confinement and violence is common at Tamil Nadu plant
Workers at a Samsung Electronics plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been on strike since Monday, disrupting production as they fight for wage hikes, better hours, and an end to a no-union policy.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/samsung_india_strikes/
23 years after 9/11, terrorism still stalks US, globe
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
Vice President Kamala Harris joined President Joe Biden in commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the worst terror attack on American soil. Whoever takes the presidency in January, whether Harris or her rival, former President Donald Trump, also at the ceremonies, will continue to face a range of threats. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from ground zero in New York, from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and from the Pentagon.
https://www.voanews.com/a/years-after-9-11-terrorism-still-stalks-us-globe/7781162.html
Young voters could make difference in US presidential election, say analysts
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
This year, about 8 million young people will turn 18 and become eligible to vote. In all, an estimated 41 million members of Gen Z — people under age 27 — will be able to vote in the 2024 presidential election
Healthcare giant to pay $65M settlement after crooks stole and leaked nude patient pics
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Would paying a ransom – or better security – have been cheaper and safer?
A US healthcare giant will pay out $65 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by its own patients after ransomware crooks stole their data – including their nude photographs – and published at least some of them online.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/lvhn_lawsuit_ransom/
The West Just Burns Now
date: 2024-09-12, from: Chris Coyier blog
It really wasn’t that long ago when the Western U.S. wasn’t absolutely guaranteed to be on fire every summer and into the fall. Now, it’s just what happens. August and September? That’s “smoke season”. What should be absolutely beautiful months to enjoy the outdoors are now when it rains ash, the sky is a deep […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/09/11/the-west-just-burns-now/
US grants Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid, overriding rights conditions
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
washington — The Biden administration is overriding human rights conditions on military aid to Egypt, a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday, granting the U.S. ally its full allocation of $1.3 billion this year for the first time during this administration, despite ongoing concerns over human rights in the country.
The announcement comes as Washington has relied heavily on Cairo, a longstanding U.S. ally, to mediate so far unsuccessful talks between Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire deal to end the war in Gaza.
Of the $1.3 billion in U.S. foreign military financing allocated to Egypt, $320 million is subject to conditions that have meant at least some of that sum has been withheld in recent years.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress on Wednesday that he would waive a certification requirement on $225 million related to Egypt’s human rights record this year, citing “the U.S. national security interest,” the spokesperson said by email.
“This decision is important to advancing regional peace and Egypt’s specific and ongoing contributions to U.S. national security priorities, particularly to finalize a cease-fire agreement for Gaza, bring the hostages home, surge humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in need, and help bring an enduring end to the Israel-Hamas conflict,” the spokesperson said.
Democrat Chris Murphy, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, said Washington had previously withheld military aid from Egypt on human rights grounds while maintaining its strategic relationship with the country.
“It’s no secret that Egypt remains a deeply repressive autocratic state, and I see no good reason to ignore that fact by waiving these requirements,” Murphy said.
Cairo has remained a close regional ally of Washington despite accusations of widespread abuses under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government, including torture and enforced disappearances.
Sissi denies there are political prisoners in Egypt. He says stability and security are paramount and authorities are promoting rights by trying to provide basic needs such as jobs and housing.
The war in Gaza, sparked by the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants on southern Israel, has increased Washington’s reliance on Cairo for diplomatic efforts like the cease-fire talks. Much-needed humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza also enters from Egypt.
Blinken issued a similar waiver on the human rights conditions last year but withheld a portion of the military aid over Egypt’s failure to make “clear and consistent progress” on the release of political prisoners.
This year, he determined that Egypt had made sufficient efforts on political prisoners to release $95 million tied to progress on the issue, the spokesperson said.
They cited Egypt’s efforts to draft legislation to reform pretrial detention and the broader penal code, its release of some political prisoners and a move to end travel bans and asset freezes associated with foreign funding for nongovernmental organizations.
Seth Binder, director of advocacy for the Washington-based Middle East Democracy Center, said that while about 970 prisoners had been released since last September, at least 2,278 Egyptians were arbitrarily arrested over the same period, according to data collected by the center and Egyptian human rights groups.
The State Department spokesperson said Washington was continuing “a rigorous dialogue with the Egyptian government on the importance of concrete human rights improvements that are crucial to sustaining the strongest possible U.S.-Egypt partnership.”
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
What Harris appeared to understand, better than anyone else who has debated Trump, is that the key to defeating him is to trigger him psychologically.
US seizes hundreds of websites used in imported gun parts scheme
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
With father of suspect charged in Georgia shooting, will more parents be held responsible?
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
DACA case faces uncertainty again as US appellate court arguments loom
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
washington — The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains in limbo with another court hearing set for October 10.
Judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on the case, initiated in 2018 by Texas and other Republican-led states seeking to end DACA. The program offers temporary protection from deportation and work permits to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who are often referred to as “Dreamers.”
The case centers on whether DACA exceeds presidential authority, immigration advocates from the coalition “Home is Here” said during a recent conversation with reporters.
“Our response to that is that presidential authority in the area of immigration, and particularly the discretion exercised by the executive branch, is very broad and certainly encompasses the type of program that DACA is, which is now a regulation,” Nina Perales, vice president of litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said during the call.
A central issue in the case is whether Texas and other states have the standing to sue.
Texas and other Republican-led states have argued that DACA has harmed them financially because they are spending resources on education, health care and other services on undocumented immigrants who were allowed to remain in the country illegally.
But Perales, who will be one of the attorneys arguing the case in October, said that “Texas cannot show any injury as a result of DACA” because recipients contribute to their communities and states by paying taxes and more.
A final decision could take a while, said Perales, who noted the 5th Circuit could take “as long as 18 months” to rule.
And the case could end in several ways: The 5th Circuit might dismiss the case, send it back to the lower court or rule against DACA, which could then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“One possible scenario is that the 5th Circuit decides [U.S. District] Judge [Andrew] Hanen didn’t evaluate the evidence properly and sends the case back to [him],” she said.
If that happens, Perales said, DACA recipients might benefit from the current case’s legal state, which allows recipients to continue renewing their DACA benefits while awaiting the courts’ final resolution. The Biden administration continues to accept new applications but does not process them.
How we got here
Former President Barack Obama, frustrated with congressional inaction on the Dream Act, created DACA by executive order in 2012. Some DACA recipients arrived legally, but their families later overstayed their visas; others arrived by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization. They are now in their mid-20s to late 30s, and they come from around the world.
In 2018, Texas and other Republican-led states sued the federal government, arguing not only that they were being harmed financially but also that only Congress has the authority to grant immigration benefits.
In 2022, the Biden administration revised the program in hopes of satisfying one of the arguments made in federal courts by Republican-led states — that the program was not created properly. Biden officials issued the new version of DACA in late August. It went through a period of public comments as part of a formal rule-making process to increase its odds of surviving this legal battle.
In a February 2023 statement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, wrote in a statement on his website that “the Obama and Biden programs are practically indistinguishable in both the negative harms that they will have on this country and in the illegal means used to implement them. I am therefore calling for the new DACA rule to end in the same way that the Obama-era rule did: struck down as unlawful.”
But DACA has support. In October 2022, a coalition of dozens of influential corporations, including Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, sent a letter to Republicans and Democrats in Congress urging a bipartisan solution for the almost 600,000 immigrants who are enrolled in DACA.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, DACA has “improved recipients’ employment outcomes, increased the labor force participation rates of those who are eligible, decreased their unemployment rates, and boosted earnings for those with the lowest incomes.”
MPI’s analysis shows that DACA holders contribute “nearly $42 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product each year and add $3.4 billion to the federal balance sheet.”
Bruna Bouhid-Sollod, a former DACA recipient and current senior political director at United We Dream, highlighted the emotional impact of the uncertainty.
“The importance of making [the impact] really clear is really important. … DACA recipients and their families are dealing with an extreme amount of stress,” she said.
With renewal periods lasting just two years, many recipients are in constant limbo, unsure if their work permits and deportation protections will remain intact.
There is a lot at stake, according to immigration lawyers and advocates.
“Unless you’re living in it … you don’t think about the impact it has on the people that are waiting for their lives to be decided by this case,” Bouhid-Sollod said.
Trump falsely accuses immigrants in Ohio of abducting, eating pets
date: 2024-09-12, from: VOA News USA
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets, repeating during a televised debate the type of inflammatory and anti-immigrant rhetoric he has promoted throughout his campaigns.
There is no evidence that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio community are doing that, officials say. But during the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump specifically mentioned Springfield, Ohio, the town at the center of the claims, saying that immigrants were taking over the city.
“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.
Harris called Trump “extreme” and laughed after his comment. Debate moderators pointed out that city officials have said the claims are not true.
Trump’s comments echoed claims made by his campaign, including his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, and other Republicans. The claims attracted attention this week when Vance posted on social media that his office has “received many inquiries” about Haitian migrants abducting pets. Vance acknowledged Tuesday it was possible “all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
Officials have said there have been no credible or detailed reports about the claims, even as Trump and his allies use them to amplify racist stereotypes about Black and brown immigrants.
While president, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept people from “s—hole” countries such as Haiti and some in Africa. His 2024 campaign has focused heavily on illegal immigration, often referencing in his speeches crimes committed by migrants. He argues immigrants are responsible for driving up crime and drug abuse in the United States and taking resources from American citizens.
Here’s a closer look at how the false claims have spread.
How did this get started?
On September 6, a post surfaced on X that shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The retweeted post talked about the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house. The accompanying photo showed a Black man carrying what appeared to be a Canada goose by its feet. That post continued to be shared on social media.
On Monday, Vance posted on X: “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he said. The next day, Vance posted again on X about Springfield, saying his office had received inquiries from residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
Other Republicans shared similar posts. Among them was Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who posted a photo of kittens with a caption that said to vote for Trump “So Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
Hours before Trump’s debate with Harris, he posted two related photos on his social media site. One Truth Social post was a photo of Trump surrounded by cats and geese. Another featured armed cats wearing MAGA hats.
A billboard campaign launched by the Republican Party of Arizona at 12 sites in metropolitan Phoenix plays off the false rumors. The billboard image resembles a Chick-fil-A ad, portraying four kittens and urging people to “Vote Republican!” and “Eat Less Kittens.”
Chick-fil-A said the party didn’t reach out to the restaurant chain before running the ad, declining to comment further. In a statement, the state party said the ad humorously underscores the need for border security.
What do officials in Ohio say?
The office of the Springfield city manager, Bryan Heck, issued a statement knocking down the rumors.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Heck’s office said in an emailed statement.
Springfield police on Monday told the Springfield News-Sun that they had received no reports of stolen or eaten pets.
Governor Mike DeWine held a news conference Tuesday to address the influx of Haitian immigrants to Springfield. He said he will send state troopers to Springfield to help local law enforcement deal with traffic issues and is earmarking $2.5 million over two years to provide more primary health care to immigrant families.
DeWine declined to address the allegations, deferring comment to local officials. But he repeatedly spoke in support of the people of Haiti, where his family has long operated a charity.
What do we know about a separate case 281 km away?
An entirely unrelated incident that occurred last month in Canton, Ohio, quickly and erroneously conflated into the discussion.
On Aug. 26, Canton police charged a 27-year-old woman with animal cruelty and disorderly conduct after she “did torture, kill, and eat a cat in a residential area in front (of) multiple people,” according to a police report.
But Allexis Ferrell is not Haitian. She was born in Ohio and graduated from Canton’s McKinley High School in 2015, according to public records and newspaper reports. Court records show she has been in and out of trouble with the law since at least 2017. Messages seeking comment were not returned by several attorneys who have represented her.
She is being held in Stark County jail pending a competency hearing next month, according to the prosecutor’s office.
What do advocates for Haitian immigrants say?
The posts create a false narrative and could be dangerous for Haitians in the United States, according to Guerline Jozef, founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a group that supports and advocates for immigrants of African descent
“We are always at the receiving end of all kind of barbaric, inhumane narratives and treatments, specifically when it comes to immigration,” Jozef said in a phone interview.
Her comments echoed White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
“There will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is,” Kirby said. “And they might act on that kind of information, and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt. So it needs to stop.”
What is the broader context of Haitians in Ohio and the United States?
Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000, has seen its Haitian population grow in recent years. It’s impossible to give an exact number, according to the city, but it estimates Springfield’s entire county has an overall immigrant population of 15,000.
The city also says that the Haitian immigrants are in the country legally under a federal program that allows for them to remain in the country temporarily. Last month the Biden administration granted eligibility for temporary legal status to about 300,000 Haitians already in the United States because conditions in Haiti are considered unsafe for them to return. Haiti’s government has extended a state of emergency to the entire country due to endemic gang violence.
Nvidia CEO to nervous buyers and investors: Chill out, Blackwell production is heating up
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
AI ROI? Jensen Huang claims infra providers make $5 for every dollar spent on GPUs
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has attempted to quell concerns over the reported late arrival of the Blackwell GPU architecture, and the lack of ROI from AI investments.…
Building LLM-powered applications in Go
date: 2024-09-12, updated: 2024-09-12, from: Go language blog
LLM-powered applications in Go using Gemini, langchaingo and Genkit