News gathered 2024-09-14
(date: 2024-09-14 10:45:08)
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
2024 Emmy Nominations: Full List of Nominees.
https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/2024-emmy-nominations-full-list-of-nominees/
Ballerina DePrince, whose career inspired many after she was born into war, dies at 29
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the United States from an orphanage in war-ravaged Sierra Leone and performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, has died, her family said in a statement. She was 29.
“Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours. She was an unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted Friday on DePrince’s social media accounts. “From her early life in war-torn Africa, to stages and screens across the world, she achieved her dreams and so much more.”
A cause of death was not provided.
DePrince was adopted by an American couple and by age 17 she had been featured in a documentary film and had performed on the TV show “Dancing with the Stars.”
After graduating from high school and the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, she became a principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She then went to the Netherlands, where she danced with the Dutch National Ballet. She later returned to the U.S. and joined the Boston Ballet in 2021.
“We’re sending our love and support to the family of Michaela Mabinty DePrince at this time of loss,” the Boston Ballet said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday. “We were so fortunate to know her; she was a beautiful person, a wonderful dancer, and she will be greatly missed by us all.”
In her memoir, Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina, she shared her journey from the orphanage to the stage. She also wrote a children’s book, Ballerina Dreams.
DePrince suffered from a skin pigmentation disorder that had her labeled “the devil’s child” at the orphanage.
“I lost both my parents, so I was there [the orphanage] for about a year, and I wasn’t treated very well because I had vitiligo,” DePrince told the AP in a 2012 interview. “We were ranked as numbers, and number 27 was the least favorite and that was my number, so I got the least amount of food, the least amount of clothes and whatnot.”
She added that she remembered seeing a photo of an American ballet dancer on a magazine page that had blown against the gate of the orphanage during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
“All I remember is she looked really, really happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she wished “to become this exact person.”
She said she saw hope in that photo, “and I ripped the page out and I stuck it in my underwear because I didn’t have any place to put it,” she said.
Her passion helped inspire young Black dancers to pursue their dreams, her family said.
“We will miss her and her gorgeous smile forever and we know you will, too,” their statement said.
Her sister, Mia Mabinty DePrince, recalled in the statement that they slept on a shared mat in the orphanage and used to make up their own musical theater plays and ballets.
“When we got adopted, our parents quickly poured into our dreams and arose the beautiful, gracefully strong ballerina that so many of you knew her as today. She was an inspiration,” Mia DePrince wrote. “Whether she was leaping across the stage or getting on a plane and flying to third-world countries to provide orphans and children with dance classes, she was determined to conquer all her dreams in the arts and dance.”
Iran says it is open to talks but rejects pressure from US, EU
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
DUBAI — Iran’s foreign minister said that Tehran was open to diplomacy to solve disputes but not “threats and pressure,” state media reported on Saturday, after the U.S. and three European powers imposed sanctions against the country’s aviation sector.
Abbas Araqchi’s comments come a day after the European Union’s chief diplomat said the bloc is considering new sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, in reaction to reports Tehran supplied Russia with ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine.
“Iran continues on its own path with strength, although we have always been open to talks to resolve disputes … but dialogue should be based on mutual respect, not on threats and pressure,” Araqchi said, according to the official news agency IRNA.
Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran had not delivered any ballistic missiles to Russia and that sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and three European powers would not solve any problems between them.
The United States, Germany, Britain and France on Tuesday imposed new sanctions on Iran, including measures against its national airline, Iran Air.
https://www.voanews.com/a/iran-says-it-is-open-to-talks-but-rejects-pressure-from-us-eu/7784405.html
🧟 #217 - We’re not using the “Z” word.
date: 2024-09-14, from: Interesting, a blog on writing
Do we know what kind of story we’re in, and will it matter?
https://inneresting.substack.com/p/217-were-not-using-the-z-word
Immigration takes center stage in debate, but no major proposals from candidates
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced each other on the debate stage less than two months before Election Day, the two candidates were at odds on issues ranging from the economy to tariffs and Ukraine. But on immigration, their positions were especially different. VOA immigration reporter Aline Barros brings us the story.
Prince Harry turns 40 as the royal scamp moves to middle age
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
LONDON — Prince Harry was always something different.
From the moment he first appeared in public, snuggled in Princess Diana’s arms outside the London hospital where he was born in 1984, Harry was the ginger-haired scamp who stuck his tongue out at photographers. He grew to be a boisterous adolescent who was roundly criticized for wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party, and then a young man who gave up the trappings of royal life and moved to Southern California with his American wife.
Through it all, there was a sense that Harry was rebelling against an accident of birth that made him, in the harsh calculus of the House of Windsor, just “the spare.” As the second son of the man who is now King Charles III, he was raised as a prince but wouldn’t inherit the throne unless brother William came to harm.
Now the angry young man is turning 40, the halfway point in many lives, providing a chance to either dwell on the past or look forward to what might still be achieved.
For the past four years, Harry has focused mainly on the past, making millions of dollars by airing his grievances in a wildly successful memoir and a Netflix docu-series. But he faces the likelihood that the royal aura so critical to his image may be fading, said Sally Bedell Smith, author of “Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life.”
“He is at a sort of crossroads,’’ Smith told The Associated Press. “And he appears to be struggling with how he wants to proceed.’’
How did we get here?
It wasn’t always this way.
Six years ago, Harry and his wife were among the most popular royals, a glamorous young couple who reflected the multicultural face of modern Britain and were expected to help revitalize the monarchy.
Their wedding on May 19, 2018, united a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II with the former Meghan Markle, a biracial American actress who had starred for seven years in the U.S. television drama “Suits.” George Clooney, Serena Williams and Elton John attended their wedding at Windsor Castle, after which the couple were formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
But the optimism quickly faded amid allegations that Britain’s tabloid media and even members of the royal household treated Meghan unfairly because of racism.
By January 2020, the pressures of life in the gilded cage had become too much, and the couple announced they were giving up royal duties and moving to America, where they hoped to become “financially independent.” They signed lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify as they settled into the wealthy enclave of Montecito, near Santa Barbara, California.
Since then, Harry has missed few opportunities to bare his soul, most famously in his memoir, aptly titled “Spare.”
In the ghostwritten book, Harry recounted his grief at the death of Princess Diana, a fight with Prince William and his unease with life in the royal shadow of his elder brother. From accounts of cocaine use and losing his virginity to raw family rifts, the book was rife with damning allegations about the royal family.
Among the most toxic was Harry’s description of how some family members leaked unflattering information about other royals in exchange for positive coverage of themselves. The prince singled out his father’s second wife, Queen Camilla, accusing her of feeding private conversations to the media as she sought to rehabilitate an image tarnished by her role in the breakup of Charles’ marriage to Diana.
The allegations were so venomous that there is little chance of a return to public duty, Smith said.
“He criticized the royal family in such a powerful and damaging way. You can’t un-say those things,” she said. “And you can’t unsee things like Meghan in that Netflix series doing a mock curtsey. It’s such a demeaning gesture to the queen.’’
Harry, who agreed not to use the honorific HRH, or “his royal highness,” after he stepped away from front-line royal duties, is now fifth in line to the British throne, behind his brother and William’s three children.
While he grew up in a palace and is said to be in line to inherit millions of dollars on his 40th birthday from a trust set up by his great-grandmother, applied developmental psychologist Deborah Heiser thinks that, in many ways, Harry is just like the rest of us.
Like anyone turning 40, he is likely to have learned a few lessons and has a good idea of who his real friends are, and that will help him chart the next phase of his life, said Heiser, who writes a blog called “The Right Side of 40” for Psychology Today.
“He has had a very public display of what a lot of people have gone through,” Heiser said. “I mean, most people are not princes, but … they have all kinds of issues within their families. He’s not alone. That’s why he’s so relatable.’’
Harry’s next chapter
Of course, Harry’s story isn’t just about the drama within the House of Windsor.
If he wants to write a new chapter, Harry can build on his 10 years of service in the British Army. Before retiring as a captain in 2015, the prince earned his wings as a helicopter pilot, served two tours in Afghanistan and shed the hard-partying reputation of his youth.
Harry also won accolades for establishing the Invictus Games in 2014, a Paralympic-style competition to inspire and aid in the rehabilitation of sick and wounded servicemembers and veterans.
Harry and Meghan made headlines this year with their two international trips to promote mental health and internet safety. While some in British media criticized them for accepting royal treatment in Nigeria and Colombia, the couple said they visited at the invitation of local officials.
Will Charles see the grandkids?
The prospects of reconciliation are unclear, although Harry did race home to see his father after Charles’ cancer diagnosis. And in what may be seen as a tentative olive branch, the paperback edition of “Spare” slated for October has no additions — so nothing new to stir the pot.
But plainly at this point, Harry is thinking about his family in California. He told the BBC about the importance of his two young children, Archie and Lilibet.
“Being a dad is one of life’s greatest joys and has only made me more driven and more committed to making this world a better place,” the prince said in a statement released by his spokesperson.
https://www.voanews.com/a/prince-harry-turns-40-as-the-royal-scamp-moves-to-middle-age/7784290.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Could we agree that ChatGPT can ingest everything that's in Wikipedia? I particularly want the images. I'd like to ask for a picture of Chuck Berry, and be able to put him in a scene with the Wordle Kitty. That seems pretty harmless. The news industry could hardly object.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Berry
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-14, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Since Apple won’t include stickers anymore with their iPhones, old stickers are like bitcoin, a finite resource that we can use as a store of value and currency.
Someone set up a proper trading market place for StickerCoin.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113136217205821141
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
These two friends built a simple tool to transfer playlists between Apple Music and Spotify, and it works great.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
How to avoid sanewashing Trump.
https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2024/sanewashing-meaning-donald-trump-journalists/
YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Mother Earth Shares Her Power
date: 2024-09-14, from: The Lever News
Plus, mental health comes for the people, more states fight the big tax scam, and busting union busters makes workers feel good.
https://www.levernews.com/you-love-to-see-it-mother-earth-shares-her-power/
Neanderthals Would Rather Die than Talk to You
date: 2024-09-14, from: 404 Media Group
Welcome to The Abstract, a new weekly column from 404 Media about new, mind blowing scientific studies.
https://www.404media.co/neanderthals-would-rather-die-than-talk-to-you-3/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
They should create their own AI systems the same way they should’ve made their own twitters. They keep letting tech own their distribution, and then appeal to government to save them. They could instead make the products people want.
https://www.status.news/p/news-executives-ai-capitol-hill
Project 2025 targets California’s abortion data privacy protections
date: 2024-09-14, from: The Markup blog
A Republican presidency could require California to monitor abortions and send sensitive data to the CDC
Homing pigeon missiles, dead trout swimming, butt breathing honored with Ig Nobel Prize
date: 2024-09-14, updated: 2024-09-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Mad science award ceremony returns to MIT after four years online
With less than a month to go before the Nobel Prizes are handed out for the most worthy scientific discoveries of the preceding year, it would be remiss of The Register not to observe the honors conferred by the gong’s bratty little brother, the Ig Nobel Prize.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/14/ig_nobel_prize_2024/
Begun, the open source AI wars have
date: 2024-09-14, updated: 2024-09-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
This is going to be ugly. Really ugly
Opinion The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and its allies are getting closer to a definition of open source AI. If all goes well, Stefano Maffulli, the OSI’s executive director, expects to announce the OSI open source AI definition at All Things Open in late October. But some open source leaders already want nothing to do with it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/14/opinion_column_osi/
Meta back at it, harvesting Britons’ public Facebook, Insta feeds for AI training
date: 2024-09-14, updated: 2024-09-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
I wanna know 🎵 What you’re feeling 🎵 Tell me what’s on your mind
Meta is going to resume scraping the personal public feeds of British Facebook and Instagram users for training AI after reaching an agreement with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/14/uk_meta_ai_facebook/
New York City lawmakers approve bill to study slavery and reparations
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — New York City lawmakers approved legislation Thursday to study the city’s significant role in slavery and consider reparations to descendants of enslaved people.
If signed into law, the package of bills passed by the City Council would follow in the footsteps of several other municipalities across the U.S. that have sought ways to address the country’s dark history, as well as a separate New York state commission that began working this year.
New York fully abolished slavery in 1827. But businesses, including the predecessors of some modern banks, continued to benefit financially from the slave trade — likely up until 1866. The lawmakers behind the proposals noted that the harms caused by the institution are still felt by Black Americans today.
“The reparations movement is often misunderstood as merely a call for compensation,” Council Member Farah Louis, a Democrat who sponsored one of the bills, told the City Council on Thursday. She explained that systemic forms of oppression are still impacting people through redlining, environmental racism and services in predominantly Black neighborhoods that are underfunded.
The bills still need to be signed by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams. City Hall signaled his support in a statement calling the legislation “another crucial step towards addressing systemic inequities, fostering reconciliation, and creating a more just and equitable future for all New Yorkers.”
The bills would direct the city’s Commission on Racial Equity to suggest remedies to the legacy of slavery, including reparations. It would also create a truth and reconciliation process to establish historical facts about slavery in the state.
One of the proposals would also require that the city install an informational sign on Wall Street in Manhattan to mark the site of New York’s first slave market, which operated between 1711 and 1762. A sign was placed nearby in 2015, but Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said its location is inaccurate.
The commission would work with the existing state commission, which is also considering the possibility of reparations. A report from the state panel, which held its first public meeting in late July, is expected in early 2025. The city effort wouldn’t need to produce recommendations until 2027.
The city’s commission was created out of a 2021 racial justice initiative during then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, which also recommended the city track data on the cost of living and add a commitment to remedy “past and continuing harms” to the city charter’s preamble.
“Your call and your ancestors’ call for reparations had not gone unheard,” Linda Tigani, executive director of the racial equity commission, said at a news conference ahead of the council vote.
A financial impact analysis of the bills estimated that the studies would cost $2.5 million.
New York is the latest city to study reparations. Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a notorious massacre of Black residents took place in 1921, announced a similar commission last month.
Evanston, Illinois, became the first city to offer reparations to Black residents and their descendants in 2021, including distributing some payments of $25,000 in 2023, according to PBS. The eligibility was based on harm suffered as a result of the city’s discriminatory housing policies or practices.
San Francisco approved reparations in February, but the mayor later cut the funds, saying that reparations should instead be carried out by the federal government. California budgeted $12 million for a reparations program that included helping Black residents research their ancestry, but it was defeated in the state’s Legislature this month.
Limited role for US Navy SEAL team in defense of Taiwan
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The United States Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six would likely have a limited role in defending Taiwan should China invade the self-governing and democratic island, say analysts responding to a Financial Times report that the unit has been training for it for more than one year.
Lyle J. Morris, senior fellow for foreign policy and national security at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, tells VOA’s Mandarin Service that if the unit is indeed preparing for an attack by Beijing, it may indicate that the U.S. is more deeply involved in defending Taiwan than previously thought.
However, he stressed that the secret and precise combat characteristics of SEAL Team Six mean its role in resisting China’s invasion of Taiwan would be very limited and the focus would be on carrying out special tasks.
“As far as their sheer capability to repel an invasion. I think that’s more limited,” he says. “I think it’s in a very discreet, narrow way of coming in for a specific task that Taiwan might need, whether it’s helping to protect, let’s say, an airfield in Taiwan or protect a communication asset in Taiwan, in Taipei, they could come in and out very discreetly and very lethally to protect that asset.”
SEAL Team Six specializes in performing sensitive, highly difficult missions. In 2009, the unit rescued Richard Phillips, captain of the MV Maersk Alabama, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates.
The elite unit gained an international reputation after the successful raid on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan in 2011.
It is one of the most highly regarded U.S. military units, along with the United States Army’s Delta Force, the 75th Ranger Regiment’s Regimental Reconnaissance Company, the Intelligence Support Activity, and the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and part of the Joint Special Operations Command.
“Navy SEALs usually deployed from submarines or, most likely, small ships and are useful for targeting vulnerabilities in enemies’ presentation,” Richard D. Fisher Jr., senior fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, tells VOA.
Analysts say the U.S. military likely revealed the SEAL Team Six training program to the Financial Times to send a warning to Beijing amid China’s increasingly assertive moves in the region.
“This is one way the U.S. is bolstering deterrence towards China, towards preventing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan,” says Morris. “So, I think this is just an added factor getting China to second guess or to reconsider what it will face if it were to invade Taiwan.”
Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University and a former Central Intelligence Agency military analyst, posted on social media platform X, “It is sure to get under Beijing’s skin.”
In a written response to VOA’s Mandarin Service, Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said, “The Taiwan question is the very core of China’s core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in the China-U.S. relationship.”
He urged “the U.S. to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, stop enhancing military contact with the Taiwan region or arming it by any means or under whatever pretext, stop creating factors that could heighten tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and stop conniving at and supporting the separatists’ attempt to seek ‘Taiwan independence’ by force.”
Taiwan split from China during the civil war that saw the Communist Party seize power in Beijing in 1949 and the Nationalist Party flee to the island, which developed into a flourishing democracy. But China’s one-party, authoritarian state never gave up its claim to Taiwan and considers it a renegade province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Admiral Philips Davidson, former commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, warned in 2021 that China could attack Taiwan within six years. President Joe Biden has repeatedly stressed that if China invades Taiwan, the U.S. will intervene militarily to defend it.
The U.S. Department of Defense declined to confirm or deny the Financial Times report. Pentagon spokesperson John Supple said in an email to VOA, “The DoD and our service members prepare and train for a wide range of contingencies. We will not comment on specifics, but will restate that we are committed to our longstanding one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. As we have said before, conflict is neither imminent nor inevitable.”
America’s one-China policy is a strategically ambiguous agreement it made in 1972 to establish relations with China that recognizes Beijing as the only government of China and acknowledges, but does not endorse, Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is part of China.
Washington has unofficial relations with Taiwan defined through the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques with Beijing, and the Six Assurances with Taipei, which underscore U.S. opposition to attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo and determination to help Taiwan defend itself through weapons sales.
There has been previous U.S. military training for Taiwan’s defense, both on the island and in the United States. Reuters reported last year the U.S. was set to expand the number of troops helping train Taiwanese forces on the island, and Taiwanese officials confirmed more of their troops would be training in the U.S.
https://www.voanews.com/a/limited-role-for-us-navy-seal-team-in-defense-of-taiwan/7784108.html
On the streets of a Colorado city, pregnant migrants struggle to survive
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
AURORA, Colorado — She was eight months pregnant when she was forced to leave her Denver homeless shelter. It was November.
Ivanni Herrera took her 4-year-old son, Dylan, by the hand and led him into the chilly night, dragging a suitcase containing donated clothes and blankets away from the Microtel Inn & Suites. It was one of 10 hotels where Denver has housed more than 30,000 migrants, many of them Venezuelan, over the last two years.
First, they walked to Walmart. There, with money she and her husband earned begging on the street, they bought a tent.
They chose for their new home a grassy median along a busy thoroughfare in Aurora, the next town over, a suburb known for its immigrant population.
“We wanted to go somewhere where there were people,” Herrera, 28, said in Spanish. “It feels safer.”
That night, temperatures dipped to 32 degrees. And as she wrapped her body around her son’s, Ivanni Herrera cried.
Over the past two years, a record number of Venezuelans have come to the United States seeking a better life. Instead, they’ve found themselves in communities roiling over how much to help the newcomers — or whether to help at all.
Unable to legally work without filing expensive and complicated paperwork, some have found themselves sleeping on the streets — even those who are pregnant.
Herrera had found inspiration for her journey to the U.S. on social media. On Facebook and TikTok, young, smiling Venezuelan migrants in nice clothes stood in front of new cars. Some 320,000 Venezuelans have tried to cross the U.S. border since October 2022, according to U.S. Border Patrol reports — more than in the previous nine years combined.
Just weeks after arriving in Denver, Herrera began to wonder if the success she had seen was real.
She was seeing doctors and social workers at a Denver hospital where she planned to give birth because they served everyone, even those without insurance. They were alarmed their pregnant patient was now sleeping outside in the cold.
In Colorado’s third-largest city, Aurora, officials have turned down requests to help migrants. In February, the City Council passed a resolution telling other cities and nonprofits not to bring migrants into the community because it “does not currently have the financial capacity to fund new services.” Yet still they come, because of its lower cost of living and Spanish-speaking community.
Former President Donald Trump last week called attention to the city, suggesting a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex. Authorities say that hasn’t happened.
The doctors urged Herrera to sleep at the hospital. It wouldn’t cost anything, they assured her, just as her birth would be covered by emergency Medicaid.
Herrera refused.
“How,” she asked, “could I sleep in a warm place when my son is cold on the street?”
Denver struggled to keep up with the rush of migrants, many arriving on buses chartered by Texas to draw attention to the impact of immigration. All told, Denver officials say they have helped some 42,700 migrants since last year, either by giving them shelter or a bus fare to another city.
Initially, the city offered migrants with families six weeks in a hotel. But any migrants arriving since May have received only three days in a hotel. After that, some have found transportation to other cities, scrounged for a place to sleep or wandered into nearby towns like Aurora.
Today, fewer migrants are coming to the Denver area. But Candice Marley, founder of a nonprofit called All Souls, still receives dozens of outreaches per week from social service agencies looking to help homeless migrants. All Souls had run encampments for migrants, but Denver shut them down because they lacked a permit.
“It’s so frustrating that we can’t help them,” Marley said. “That leaves families camping on their own, unsupported, living in their cars. Kids can’t get into school. There’s no stability.”
When Herrera started feeling labor pains in early December, she waited until she couldn’t bear the pain anymore and could feel the baby getting close. She called an ambulance.
The paramedics didn’t speak Spanish but called an interpreter. They told Herrera they had to take her to the closest hospital, instead of the one in Denver, since her contractions were so close together.
Her son was born healthy at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. She took him to the tent the next day. A few days later the whole family, including the baby, had contracted chicken pox. “The baby was in a bad state,” said Emily Rodriguez, a close friend living with her family in a tent next to Herrera’s.
Herrera took him to the hospital, then returned to the tent before being offered a way out. An Aurora woman originally from Mexico invited the family to live with her — at first, for free. After a couple weeks, the family moved to a small room in the garage for $800 a month.
To earn rent and pay expenses, Herrera and Rodriguez have cleaned homes, painted houses and shoveled snow while their children waited in a car by themselves. Finding regular work and actually getting paid for it has been difficult. While their husbands can get semi-regular work in construction, the women’s most consistent income comes from standing outside with their children and begging. On a good day, each earns about $50.
Herrera and her husband recently became eligible to apply for work permits and legal residency for Venezuelans who arrived in the United States last year. But it will cost $800 each for a lawyer to file the paperwork, along with hundreds of dollars in government fees. They don’t have the money.
What’s worse, they’re deeply in debt. Despite what the hospital had said when she was pregnant, Herrera was never signed up for emergency Medicaid. She says she owes $18,000 for the ambulance ride and delivery of her baby. Now, she avoids going to the doctor or taking her children because she’s afraid her large debt will jeopardize her chances of staying in the U.S. “I’m afraid they’re going to deport me,” she says.
Herrera and Rodriguez now hold cardboard signs along a busy street in Denver and then knock on the doors of private homes, never returning to the same address. They type up their request for clothes, food or money on their phones and translate it to English using Google. They hand their phones to whoever answers the door.
Herrera recently sent $500 to her sister to make the monthslong trip from Venezuela to Aurora with Herrera’s 8-year-old daughter. “I’ll have my family back together,” she says. And she believes her sister will be able to watch her kids so Herrera can look for work.
The problem is, Herrera hasn’t told her family back in Venezuela how she spends her time. “They think I’m fixing up homes and selling chocolate and flowers,” she says. “I’m living a lie.”
Finally, her sister and daughter are waiting across the border in Mexico. When we come to America, her sister asks, could we fly to Denver? The tickets are $600.
Herrera has to come clean. Life is far more difficult than she has let on.
She texts back:
No.
Ohio city reshaped by Haitian immigrants lands in unwelcome spotlight
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Many cities have been reshaped by immigrants in the last few years without attracting much notice. Not Springfield, Ohio.
Its story of economic renewal and related growing pains has been thrust into the national conversation in a presidential election year — and maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets. Donald Trump amplified those lies during Tuesday’s nationally televised debate, exacerbating some residents’ fears about growing divisiveness in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000.
At the city’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center on Wednesday, Rose-Thamar Joseph said many of the roughly 15,000 immigrants who arrived in the past few years were drawn by good jobs and the city’s relative affordability. But a rising sense of unease has crept in as longtime residents increasingly bristle at newcomers taking jobs at factories, driving up housing costs, worsening traffic and straining city services.
“Some of them are talking about living in fear. Some of them are scared for their life,” Joseph said.
A “Welcome To Our City” sign hangs from a parking garage downtown, where a coffee shop, bakery and boutique line Springfield’s main drag, North Fountain Street. A flag advertising “CultureFest,” the city’s annual celebration of unity through diversity, waves from a pole nearby.
Melanie Flax Wilt, a Republican commissioner in the county where Springfield is located, said she has been pushing for community and political leaders to “stop feeding the fear.”
“After the election and everybody’s done using Springfield, Ohio, as a talking point for immigration reform, we are going to be the ones here still living through the challenges and coming up with the solutions,” she said.
Ariel Dominique, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation for Democracy, said she laughed at first at the absurdity of the false claims. But seeing the comments repeated on national television by the former president was painful.
“It is so unfair and unjust and completely contrary to what we have contributed to the world, what we have contributed to this nation for so long,” Dominique said.
The falsehoods about Springfield’s Haitian immigrants were spread online by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, on the eve of Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s part of a timeworn American political tradition of casting immigrants as outsiders.
“This is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said at the debate after repeating the falsehoods. When challenged by ABC News moderator David Muir over the false claims, Trump held firm, saying “people on television” said their dogs were eaten, but he offered no evidence.
Officials in Springfield have tried to tamp down the misinformation by saying there have been no credible or detailed reports of any pets being abducted or eaten. State leaders are trying to help address some of the real challenges facing the city.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday he would add more law enforcement and health care resources to an aid package the state has already provided to Springfield.
Many Haitians have come to the U.S. to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, the latest data available.
The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians in the U.S. could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to spare people from being deported to countries in turmoil.
Springfield, about 72 kilometers from the state capital of Columbus, suffered a steep decline in its manufacturing sector toward the end of the last century, and its population shrank as a result. But its downtown has been revitalized in recent years as more Haitians arrived and helped meet the rising demand for labor as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Officials say Haitians now account for about 15% of the population.
The city was shaken last year when a minivan slammed into a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was a Haitian man who recently settled in the area and was driving without a valid license. During a city commission meeting on Tuesday, the boy’s parents condemned politicians’ use of their son’s death to stoke hatred.
Last week, a post on the social media platform X shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The post claimed without evidence that the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” saw a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, outside a house where it claimed Haitians lived. It was accompanied by a photo of a Black man carrying what appeared to be a goose by its feet.
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.” The next day, he posted again, saying his office had received inquiries from Springfield residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”
Longtime Springfield resident Chris Hazel, who knows the park and neighborhood where the pet and goose abductions were purported to have happened, called the claims “preposterous.”
“It reminds me of when people used to accuse others and outsiders as cannibals. It’s dehumanizing a community,” he said of the accusations against the city’s Haitian residents.
Sophia Pierrilus, the daughter of a former Haitian diplomat who moved to the Ohio capital of Columbus 15 years ago and is now an immigrant advocate, agreed, calling it all political.
“My view is that’s their way to use Haitians as a scapegoat to bring some kind of chaos in America,” she said.
With its rising population of immigrants, Springfield is hardly an outlier. So far this decade, immigration has accounted for almost three-quarters of U.S. population growth, with 2.5 million immigrants arriving in the United States between 2020 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Population growth is an important driver of economic growth.
“The Haitian immigrants who started moving to Springfield the last few years are the reason why the economy and the labor force has been revitalized there,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which provides legal and social services to immigrants across the U.S.
Now, she said, Haitians in Springfield have told her that, out of fear, they are considering leaving the city.
Voting by noncitizens in US is rare. Republicans aim to keep it that way
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
Share of foreign-born people in US is at highest rate in over a century, survey says
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
miami — The percentage of U.S. residents who were foreign-born last year grew to its highest level in more than a century, according to figures released Thursday from the most comprehensive survey of American life.
The share of people born outside the United States increased in 2023 to 14.3% from 13.9% in 2022, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, which tracks commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service and employment, among other topics.
International migrants have become a primary driver of population growth this decade, increasing their share of the overall population as fewer children are being born in the U.S. compared with numbers from years past. The rate of the foreign-born population in the United States hasn’t been this high since 1910, when it was 14.7%, driven by waves of people emigrating in search of a better life.
“We knew that here you can have savings, live well. Here you can have normal services such as water and electricity,” said Luciana Bracho, who moved legally to Miami from Venezuela as part of a humanitarian parole program with her boyfriend, parents and brother in April 2023. “I like Miami and the opportunities that I have had.”
In 2023, international migrants accounted for more than two-thirds of the population growth in the United States, and so far this decade they have made up almost three-quarters of U.S. growth.
The growth appears to have been driven by people coming from Latin America, whose share of the foreign-born population increased year-over-year to 51.2% from 50.3%, according to the estimates. Latin America was the only world region of origin to experience an increase among those U.S. residents born in another country, as the share of foreign-born residents from Europe and Asia dropped slightly.
Nicole Díaz, a Venezuelan opposition activist, left after receiving threats to her life and lived in Peru and Ecuador before moving to the Miami area legally in February 2023 with her husband and 9-year-old daughter. Díaz described herself as “100% happy” living in South Florida, where they pay $2,300 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
“After being in different countries, working here is relaxed, despite the language,” Díaz said. “But housing is very expensive, and we have been evaluating moving to another state because here all the salary goes for the rent.”
Among the states with the largest year-over-year bumps in the foreign-born population was Delaware, going to 11.2% from 9.9%; Georgia, to 11.6% from 10.7%; and New Mexico, to 10.2% from 9.3% The share of the foreign-born population dropped slightly in Washington, D.C., Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Oregon.
The Census Bureau figures don’t distinguish whether people are in the United States legally or illegally. Illegal immigration has become a top issue in the 2024 presidential race, even as illegal border crossings from Mexico plunged this summer after reaching a record last December.
The share of U.S. residents who identify as Hispanic, no matter what race, rose last year to 19.4% from 19.1% in the previous year, according to the survey. At the same time, those who identify as non-Hispanic white alone dropped from 57.7% to 57.1%. The share of U.S. residents who identify as Black alone dropped slightly, from 12.2% to 12.1%, and it increased slightly for those who identify as Asian alone from 5.9% to 6%.
Residents in the United States continued to get older, with the median age increasing from 39 in 2022 to 39.2 in 2023. The nation’s aging is taking place as a majority of baby boomers have become senior citizens and millennials are entering middle age. While the share of children under age 18 remained steady at 21.7% year-over-year, the share of senior citizens age 65 and over increased to 17.7% from 17.3%.
Meanwhile, a post-pandemic bump in working from home continued its slide back to pre-COVID-19 times, as the share of employees working from home dropped last year to 13.8% from 15.2% in the previous year.
In 2021, the first full year after the pandemic’s start, almost 18% of employees were working from home, up from 5.7% in 2019. But return-to-office mandates in the past two years have reversed that trend and caused commute times to bump up slightly last year, growing on average to 26.8 minutes from 26.4 minutes.
The survey also showed that the median cost of renting, plus utilities and related expenses, grew faster than median home values in 2023 for the first time in a decade. The 3.8% jump in rental costs was the largest annual increase since at least 2011. Despite the spike in rental costs, the share of renter income spent on rent and utilities remained unchanged at 31% in 2023, suggesting that incomes kept pace with rent hikes, the Census Bureau said.
US-Russia battle for influence in Africa plays out in Central African Republic
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
BANGUI, Central African Republic — Hours after Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin rebelled against his country’s top military leaders, his private army’s biggest client in Africa panicked, turning for help to his foe in the West.
Officials from Central African Republic, where some 1,500 of Prigozhin’s Wagner Group mercenaries were stationed, wrote a letter that day, requesting to “rapidly” arrange a meeting with a private U.S. security firm to discuss collaboration.
Dated June 23, 2023, the day Prigozhin launched the armed rebellion, the letter sparked a series of meetings, culminating in a deal with the central African nation and Bancroft Global Development. That sparked backlash from Russian mercenaries, according to a dozen diplomats, locals, and analysts.
The tensions in Central African Republic are a window into a larger battle playing out across the continent as Moscow and Washington vie for influence.
The Russian mercenaries — using success in staving off rebels in this impoverished nation as a model for expansion — have long been accused by locals and rights groups of stripping natural resources such as minerals and timber and are linked to the torture and death of civilians. In the wake of Prigozhin’s rebellion and suspicious death in a plane crash, the Russians are recalibrating their Africa operations. The United States, which has been largely disengaged from the region for years, is attempting to maintain a presence and stymie Russian gains as it pushes African countries to distance themselves from the mercenaries.
U.S. officials blame Russia for anti-American sentiment in the region and say they’re trying to shift the narrative.
“If the U.S. can’t regain a foothold, it could give Russia greater economic and political leverage,” said Samuel Ramani of the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank. “If Russia loses Central African Republic, its flagship model on the continent, there could be a domino effect in other countries.”
Russia’s influence
In recent years, Russia has emerged as the security partner of choice for a growing number of governments in the region, displacing traditional allies such as France and the U.S.
Moscow expanded its military cooperation by using mercenaries like Wagner, which since around 2017 has operated in at least half a dozen countries by protecting African leaders and in some cases helping fight rebels and extremists.
They’re also plagued by their human rights record. Two years ago in Mali, Wagner and the army were accused of executing about 300 men — some suspected of being Islamist extremists, but most civilians — in what Human Rights Watch called the worst single atrocity reported in the country’s decade-long armed conflict. And in Central African Republic, mercenaries train the army on torture tactics, including how to tburn people alive, according to watchdog The Sentry.
Central African Republic
Central African Republic was one of the first places the mercenaries entered. The country has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced the president from office. Six of the 14 armed groups that signed a 2019 peace deal later left the agreement. Locals and the government credited Wagner with fighting back rebels who tried to overtake Bangui, the capital, in 2021. The Russians soon expanded to Burkina Faso and Niger, and have ambitions for further growth.
Russia is refurbishing a military base some 80 kilometers from Bangui. Alexander Bikantov, Russia’s ambassador to Central African Republic, said the base will improve the country’s security.
Fidele Gouandjika, adviser to President Faustin-Archange Touadera, said the base aims to have 10,000 fighters by 2030 to engage with more African nations.
Touadera’s office didn’t reply to written requests for comment for this story. His adviser to the country’s spy agency declined to be interviewed.
Pressure from United States
The U.S. had been pushing Central African Republic to find an alternative to Wagner for years. A more assertive U.S. approach came as it faced new setbacks and tried to rework agreements in the region. Its troops left Chad and Niger, where they were no longer welcome.
Still, the State Department said in a statement this year that it wasn’t involved in the decision to establish Bancroft Global Development’s presence in Central African Republic.
But Washington could deny such contracts if it wanted, said Sean McFate, a former contractor in Africa and author of “The New Rules of War.”
The U.S. has used private military companies to reduce American “boots on the ground” in Africa, McFate said, and companies like Bancroft have to play by Washington’s rules if they want future government work.
In response to AP questions, the U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it uses private contractors in Africa to help countries operate more effectively, with U.S. government oversight to ensure accountability. The official said the State Department has overseen Bancroft’s work in Somalia but not Central African Republic or elsewhere.
Bancroft’s background
Washington-based Bancroft is a nonprofit working in nine countries — five in Africa. Its involvement in Central African Republic has been shrouded in secrecy since signs emerged of its presence last fall.
During an AP visit months later, rumors swirled about Bancroft’s activities, fueling speculation the U.S was bringing its own Wagner to oust Russia.
But according to Bancroft founder Michael Stock, the group entered at Bangui’s behest.
Stock received the letter from the presidency within a day of Prigozhin’s mutiny, and the two signed a deal in September, he said.
Fewer than 30 Bancroft personnel work there, Stock said, helping Central African Republic with intelligence systems, interagency cooperation and law enforcement.
Bancroft has invested some $1.4 million there, Stock said.
Much of Bancroft’s funding has come from U.S. and United Nations grants. From 2018 to 2020, it received more than $43 million from the U.S., according to audits required as part of tax forms.
Amal Ali, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, is among critics who say that despite its yearslong presence in Somalia, Bancroft hasn’t contributed to any eradication of terrorism.
Stock dismissed such comments as uninformed and said the Somali and U.S. governments “agree Bancroft has done a great deal to damaging illegal armed groups and developing the capacity of the government to perform its national defense functions professionally.”
Backlash on the ground
Rights groups say a lack of transparency about Bancroft’s operations has fostered an atmosphere of distrust in a country already rampant with armed actors. Wagner, a U.N. peacekeeping mission and Rwandan troops are all on the ground to try to quell violence.
“Operating in a vague and nontransparent way in the Central African Republic only leads to suspicion,” said Lewis Mudge, of Human Rights Watch.
Stock defended Bancroft’s work and policies. “It is perfectly normal for a government not to publicize how it is defending the people and the state,” he told AP.
Unclear future
As the U.S. and Russia jockey for power, African governments say they want to make their own choices.
Central African Republic officials approached Bancroft, which shows that these governments haven’t become Russian puppets, said Jack Margolin, an expert on private military companies.
But, he added, Russia’s reaction to Bancroft could hurt Moscow’s standing with other nations.
After Prigozhin’s death, Russia moved quickly to take control of Wagner’s assets, and the defense ministry told countries where Wagner operated that it would take over. The country and its military intelligence arm have taken a more direct role in Africa operations, deploying more official detachments from its army.
In Central African Republic, it’s unclear how much sway the Russian state has with the mercenaries, who are beloved by many. For most people here, there’s little interest in squabbles among foreign nations.
“There are problems between the Americans and Russians, but that doesn’t matter to us,” said Jean Louis Yet, who works at Bangui’s market. “We are here working, trying our best to make a living. All we want is security.”
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-14, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Ceasefire is October language.
We had time to digest, and the language is now right of return, reparations, one state, one person one vote, dismantling of apartheid regime, prison time for war criminals.
With sanctions, boycotts and divestment as a stepping stone.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113133513581493805
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-14, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Matt Nelson set himself on fire yesterday in front of the Israeli consulate in Boston protesting the genocide in Gaza.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113133472950469996
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
We didn’t need to ask Redmond or Cupertino for permission to exist. No one was forcing any of us to use their server, their client, or their operating system.
https://cdibona.substack.com/p/my-eulogy-for-the-open-web-and-old
Mounting North Korean threats await next US president
date: 2024-09-14, from: VOA News USA
washington — Recent moves by Pyongyang have focused attention on what will be one of the first major foreign policy challenges facing the next U.S. president: how to deal with North Korea’s rapidly developing nuclear threat.
In a set of rapid-fire developments on Friday:
— North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an “exponential increase” in the size of his nation’s nuclear arsenal, according to the state-run news agency KCNA. He made the same call in speeches on Tuesday and on the last day of 2022.
— State media released photos for the first time of the Nuclear Weapons Institute where North Korea processes uranium for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The photos, which showed a sophisticated array of centrifuges, were made public as Kim toured the facility.
— North Korea announced that it had tested a new type of 600 mm multiple rocket launcher the previous day. South Korea said on Thursday that North Korea test-fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the waters off the eastern coast.
The developments came in the context of enhanced military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which is believed to be helping Pyongyang to develop its weapons capabilities in exchange for munitions used in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The threat from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs has been growing steadily and virtually unchecked over the course of several U.S. administrations,” said Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea.
“Whoever the next U.S. president is, she or he will face a more sophisticated and dangerous North Korean threat.”
Revere said in an interview that the winner of the U.S. election would have to find ways to weaken the link between Moscow and Pyongyang “and demonstrate to Beijing that its ‘partnership without limits’ with Russia is a dangerous and ill-advised path that will yield no benefits” for China.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in May a “new era” in opposition to the U.S. and reaffirmed the “no limits” partnership that was first announced just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
While China has held back on providing Russia with arms for its war effort, the United States has accused it of delivering electronic components and other dual-use items that are keeping Moscow’s arms industry afloat.
Pyongyang, for its part, denies participating in any arms transfers to Russia, an act that would violate United Nations sanctions.
But a report this week by Conflict Armament Research, a U.K.-based group that tracks weapons in armed conflicts, said parts from four North Korean missiles have been found in Ukraine.
The missiles, examined by Kyiv, are either KN-23 or KN-24, known as Hwasong-11 short-range missile series, and thought to have been used in attacks in July and August, the report said.
Pyongyang-Moscow military ties have also been expanded to include tourism, trade, and economic and technical cooperation.
This makes the use of sanctions less effective as a policy tool to counter North Korea’s nuclear buildup, according to Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration.
“That’s not as much leverage now as it was before because of the Russian-North Korean relationship,” said Samore. “The U.S. doesn’t have very strong economic leverage that it can use with North Korea.”
With few obvious policy options available, the two presidential candidates – former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris – have largely confined themselves to criticizing each other’s approach without laying out any specific plans to roll back the North Korean threat.
At Tuesday night’s televised debate, Harris criticized Trump for exchanging “love letters with Kim Jong Un” during his presidency while Trump disapproved of the current administration’s handling of the issue, saying, “Look at what’s going on in North Korea.”
During his presidency, Trump held three summits with Kim but the diplomatic effort ultimately failed when Trump refused Kim’s demand for sanctions relief in exchange for a partial rollback of his nuclear program.
There have been no formal talks between the two countries since, although the Biden administration insists it is open to negotiations without preconditions, a policy that Harris could be expected to continue if elected.
The Biden administration also maintains that its goal remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, even as many experts suggest it is time to acknowledge that Pyongyang will not give up its weapons and say the international community should focus on containment.
Samore predicted that a Harris administration would continue to say that “as an ultimate objective … the U.S. seeks denuclearization in the long term.”
A second Trump administration, he theorized, may say “denuclearization is no longer possible” and “accept North Korea as a nuclear power.”
Robert Rapson, who served as charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said much would depend on how the winner of the election decides to work with regional allies South Korea and Japan.
“In the likely absence of any grand outreach towards Pyongyang, Harris will have to carefully manage the relationship with ally Seoul, with a focus for the foreseeable future on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula,” he said.
He added that it was “uncertain at this moment” whether Trump would feel compelled to reach out to Kim and whether he would diminish the value of the alliances with South Korea and Japan.
Eunjung Cho contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/mounting-north-korean-threats-await-next-us-president-/7784050.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Laura Loomer.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Loomer
Apple AirPods Pro 2 can be sold as hearing aids, says FDA
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
You gotta admit, that speaks volumes for Cupertino
America’s drug watchdog this week gave Apple permission to market its AirPods Pro 2 as over-the-counter hearing aids, disrupting an industry where traditional devices have often cost thousands of dollars.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/fda_airpod_hearing_aid/
All Aboard: Port of Hueneme’s Security Training ‘Sets Sail’ for Safety
date: 2024-09-13, from: Port Hueneme
The Port of Hueneme operations team hosts a training exercise with 37 attendees from multiple agencies as part of an effort to enhance Port security operations Download Press Release…
The post All Aboard: Port of Hueneme’s Security Training ‘Sets Sail’ for Safety appeared first on The Port of Hueneme.
Friday Links: September 13, 2024
date: 2024-09-13, from: California Native Plants Society
Stories about how we care for endangered species and precious resources, the always cute banana slug, and the soothing tale of an ancient coast live oak.
The post Friday Links: September 13, 2024 appeared first on California Native Plant Society.
https://www.cnps.org/friday-links/friday-links-september-13-2024-40282
US slams RT as ‘de facto’ arm of Russian intelligence
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
washington — The United States and some of its allies have launched a global campaign to undercut efforts by RT and other Russian state-backed media outlets, accusing them of operating on behalf of the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies.
The State Department on Friday announced sanctions against two people and three entities, including RT’s Moscow-based parent company, saying new intelligence leaves no doubt that they are no longer engaged in providing anything that resembles news and information.
RT’s parent company and its subsidiaries “are no longer merely fire hoses of Russian government propaganda and disinformation,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at the State Department.
“They are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracy, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus,” he said, adding the Russian operations also seek to “meddle in the sovereign affairs of countries around the world.”
Blinken and other U.S. officials declined to share details about the new intelligence, saying only that some of it comes from RT employees, and that it shows how the Russian-controlled television network is playing a key role in running cyber operations and even acquiring lethal weapons for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
RT quickly ridiculed the U.S. accusations both on social media and in a response to VOA.
“RT: Lives rent free in the State Department head,” the outlet posted on X. “We’re running out of popcorn, but we’ll be here live, laughing hard…”
In response to a query from VOA, RT pointed to comments by editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan on her Telegram channel.
“American intelligence services have uncovered that we are helping the front lines,” Simonyan wrote, according to a translation from Russian. “We’ve been doing this openly, you idiots. Should I send you a list of what we’ve bought and sent? We regularly publish this, just so you know.”
The Russian Embassy in Washington has not yet responded to a request from VOA for comment.
U.S. officials, though, said comments like the ones from RT’s Simonyan only give more weight to the allegations.
“They’ve admitted it,” said James Rubin, the special envoy for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center. “They have said they’re operating under direct instruction of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. That’s what they say they’re doing.”
And the U.S. says the intelligence shows those Kremlin-assigned responsibilities go far beyond what could be considered normal broadcast operations, including oversight of a crowdsourcing campaign to provide Russian troops in Ukraine with sniper rifles, body armor, drones, night vision equipment and other weaponry.
“That’s not what a TV station normally does. That’s what … that’s what a military entity does,” Rubin said. RT is “a fully fledged member of the intelligence apparatus and operation of the Russian government on the war in Ukraine.”
The U.S. intelligence also points to Kremlin-directed RT operations in Argentina, Germany and the South Caucasus – some linked to a Russian military intelligence cyber team that has been embedded within the company.
U.S. officials also said evidence shows RT is “almost certainly” coordinating with traditional Russian intelligence services to meddle in next month’s presidential elections in Moldova.
“RT is going to be used to try to manipulate an election and, if they don’t win the election, manipulate a crowd to try to generate violence for the possibility of overthrowing [the government],” Rubin said.
U.S. officials also called out RT for covert influence operations in Latin America and Africa that have had serious consequences.
“One of the reasons why so much of the world has not been as fully supportive of Ukraine as you would think they would be — given that Russia has invaded Ukraine and violated rule number one of the international system — is because of the broad scope and reach of RT,” Rubin said.
The State Department said Friday that it had instructed its diplomats to share evidence about RT’s efforts with countries around the world.
“We urge every ally, every partner, to start by treating RT’s activities as they do other intelligence activities by Russia within their borders,” Blinken said.
Friday’s sanctions came a little more than a week after the U.S. acted against what it described as two Russian plots, one of them involving RT, aimed at undermining the U.S. presidential elections in November.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the takedown of 32 fake websites designed by Russia to mimic legitimate news sites, to bombard U.S. voters with propaganda aimed at building support for Russia in its war against Ukraine and bolstering support for Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump.
The U.S. also unsealed indictments against two RT employees, accusing them of funneling nearly $10 million to a U.S. company in Tennessee to promote and distribute English-language material favorable to the Russian government.
What impact all these actions will have on Russia and RT, however, remains to be seen.
“I don’t think there’s any evidence that deterrence is working in this space,” said Margaret Talev, who directs the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship in Washington.
“These efforts are getting much more sophisticated,” she told VOA, adding that Russian influence operations have become adept at seeding the social media environment and letting audiences do the work.
“One of the biggest drivers of the spread of misinformation and disinformation is sharing by people who aren’t trying to do anything wrong,” Talev said. “They’re either amused by something or horrified by something that comes into their feed, and they hit ‘share.’ And now someone spread it to you, and you’re spreading it to someone else.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-slams-rt-as-de-facto-arm-of-russian-intelligence-/7783709.html
Sols 4304-4006: 12 Years, 42 Drill Holes, and Now… 1 Million ChemCam Shots!
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 13, 2024 Today, I need to talk about ChemCam, our laser and imaging instrument on the top of Curiosity’s mast. It one of the instruments in the “head” that gives Curiosity that cute look as if it were looking around tilting its head down to the rocks at the rover’s […]
The Climate Tech Startup Betting Against Greenwashing
date: 2024-09-13, from: Heatmap News
Regulations are probably coming for the scandal-plagued voluntary carbon market. After years of mounting skepticism and reports of greenwashing, governments are now attempting to rein in the historically unchecked web of platforms, registries, protocols, and verification bodies offering ways to offset a company’s emissions that vary tremendously in price and quality. Europe has developed its own rules, the Carbon Removal Certification Framework, while the Biden administration earlier this year announced a less comprehensive set of general principles. Plus, there are already mandatory carbon credit schemes around the world, such as California’s cap-and-trade program and the E.U. Emissions Trading System.
“The idea that a voluntary credit should be a different thing than a compliance credit, obviously doesn’t make sense, right?” Ryan Orbuch, Lowercarbon Capital’s carbon removal lead, told me. “You want it to be as likely as possible that the thing you’re buying today is going to count in a compliance regime.”
That’s where the carbon credit certification platform Isometric comes into play. Founded in 2022, the startup raised $25 million in its seed round last year, co-led by Lowercarbon and Plural, a European venture capital firm. It has created a rigorous, scientifically-driven standard for carbon removal credits, with the intention of becoming the benchmark that buyers, sellers, and other stakeholders can coalesce around. So whenever federal standards or compliance regimes do kick in, there will be no doubt whether Isometric-verified credits are up to snuff.
“Isometric was basically founded to say, look, the long-term solution here is obviously government and regulation, but in the meantime, this is too important to let the market just keep doing it like this,” Lukas May, chief commercial officer at Isometric, told me. He believes that the government’s role in the carbon market should mirror the financial sector, but instead of preventing insider trading or predatory lending, federal regulators would make high-level determinations on things like what types of credits count and how long carbon must be locked away to count as “permanent removal.” Platforms like Isometric (often referred to as registries) could then focus on setting more granular, scientifically specific requirements for particular methods of carbon removal.
The startup aims to separate itself from existing registries, which include Puro.earth, Verra, and the Gold Standard, in two big ways.
First is just a focus on science. May said that 15 of Isometric’s first 25 hires were scientists. Today, the company’s chief scientist is Jennifer Wilcox, who recently left her position on the leadership team at the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, housed within the U.S. Department of Energy. Other registries, he told me, are “filled with NGO types” and “policy people” who lack the technical background to, say, evaluate what types rock formations are best for the geological sequestration of bio-oil or how CO2 fluxes in the soil impact enhanced rock weathering. These types of in-the-weeds analyses are integral to establishing stringent protocols to validate the amount of carbon that’s actually been removed.
Additionally, May, Orbuch, and Khaled Helioui, a partner at Plural who led the firm’s investment in Isometric, all said the company fixes a key flaw in the voluntary carbon market —- alignment of financial incentives. Traditionally, carbon removal suppliers pay registries to certify their credits, which creates an incentive for registries to overlook lax standards. But Isometric is instead paid a flat fee by the buyers for performing verification work on a per-ton basis.
This year, Isometric verified its first credits ever, from the carbon removal companies Vaulted Deep, which collects sludgy, organic waste and deposits it underground, and Charm Industrial, which injects processed biomass into abandoned oil and gas wells. Credits from these two suppliers were sold to Frontier, the carbon-removal initiative led by the payments firm Stripe. Just last week, Frontier identified Isometric as its first and only leading credit issuer.
“What makes Isometric stand out is they’re explicitly focused on durable CDR [carbon dioxide removal],” Joanna Klitzke, Frontier’s procurement and ecosystem strategy lead, told me. “Durable” refers to the fact that Isometric’s projects must sequester CO2 for 1,000 years or more. “They’re building tech products that make data and reporting particularly easy for suppliers and for credit management,” she added.
Everyone is essentially trying to avoid another scandal like the one that engulfed rainforest carbon offsets, which were found to be largely worthless. The industry has thus been shifting away from more nebulous carbon offsets, which seek to avoid future emissions by preventing deforestation or funding renewables development, and towards more concrete, but often more expensive, forms of carbon removal — think direct air capture, enhanced rock weathering, or biomass carbon removal and storage, all of which have seen a boom in investment.
“As carbon removal was emerging as a new and potentially very exciting way to do this stuff, potentially more measurable and more rigorous, we couldn’t just sit and watch the same registries do the same thing,” May told me, saying doing so would “destroy trust in the carbon removal industry before it’s even off the ground.”
In a past life, Isometric’s founder and CEO, Eamon Jubbaway, founded a digital identity verification company for the financial services industry. This gave investors confidence that he could bring his expertise in trust-building and verification services to the carbon removal space.
“It’s not a like for like, but there’s a lot of overlap in terms of actually introducing efficiency, effectiveness, and having technology really open a market,” Plural’s Helioui told me. “This is not an endeavor or an opportunity where I would have been necessarily that keen to back a first-time founder, just because of the complexity of what you need to manage,” he said. “We’re really talking about market creation.”
But May doesn’t expect Isometric to totally dominate other registries. Just like there are many private banks, May envisions an “ecosystem of high quality registries,” eventually unified around a set of federal guardrails. Until then, he believes Isometric’s role is to “set a bar that is so high that the expectation and norm in the market shifts,” thus avoiding a race to the bottom where companies are able to greenwash their image with cheap, low-quality credits.
Now, not every company can afford the highest quality credits. And because of Isometric’s 1,000-year storage requirement, many cheaper, nature-based projects, such as reforestation, are excluded from its registry, even though there’s still demand for them. Orbuch told me that Isometric will continue adding guidelines for different carbon removal pathways, as it recently did for biochar, a charcoal-like brick that locks up carbon contained within biomass.
It’s still early days, and there’s plenty of room for Isometric to grow alongside the market. After all, it’s only issued 5,350 carbon removal credits to date, while nearly two billion credits have been issued in the voluntary carbon market overall.
“The whole industry needs to be scaling up,” May told me. “So we need to, in 10 years time, be, you know, issuing and verifying hundreds of millions, if not billions, of credits annually.”
https://heatmap.news/economy/isometric-carbon-credits
How to See a Stunning Supermoon and Partial Lunar Eclipse on Tuesday
date: 2024-09-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
September’s full moon delivers a rare trifecta for lunar enthusiasts: a supermoon, a partial eclipse and a harvest moon
This Forgotten Copy of the Constitution Discovered in a Filing Cabinet Could Sell for Millions
date: 2024-09-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The historic text, which bears the signature of Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson, was one of 100 copies ordered on September 28, 1787
UnifyDrive UT2 is a pocket-sized NAS with 2 NVMe slots, WiFi 6, and 2.5 GbE LAN (crowdfunding)
date: 2024-09-13, from: Liliputing
The UnifyDrive UT2 is a pocket-sized storage device that looks like a portable drive that you can plug into a computer with a USB cable. And it can be used that way. But it’s also a full-fledged network attached storage device designed for use at home or on the go. Basically, the UT2 is a compact […]
The post UnifyDrive UT2 is a pocket-sized NAS with 2 NVMe slots, WiFi 6, and 2.5 GbE LAN (crowdfunding) appeared first on Liliputing.
NASA Ames Selects Aeronautics and Exploration Support Contractor
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
NASA has awarded the NASA Academic Mission Services 2 (NAMS-2) contract to Crown Consulting Inc., of Arlington, Virginia, to provide the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, aeronautics and exploration technology research and development support. NAMS-2 is a single award hybrid cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum potential value of $121 million. […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-ames-selects-aeronautics-and-exploration-support-contractor/
Haiku R1/beta5 released
date: 2024-09-13, from: OS News
It’s always a lovely day when it’s a Haiku release day – and sadly, those don’t come very often. Of course, Haiku’s nightlies tend to be rather solid so an official release isn’t really a must if you want to use Haiku, but if you were holding out for something more stable: Haiku has just released its fifth beta, Haiku R1/beta5. We’ve covered most of the new features and changes as they were developed, but since it’s been so long since the previous beta, we should cover some of the highlights. One of the collection of improvements that’s impossible to put in a screenshot is the performance improvements the successor to BeOS has received since the release of R1/beta4, and there are many. There’s a ton of general performance improvements, of course, covering everything from the kernel to applications, including much better throughput in TCP, the network stack, which should lift Haiku’s network performance much closer to that of other, more mature operating systems. There’s also an overhaul of the user_mutex system, and much more. A great many performance optimizations were done to the kernel and drivers, including batching many more I/O operations, avoiding unnecessary locks on application startup, improved pre-mapping of memory mapped files, reduced lock contention in page mapping, batched modification of the global memory areas table (and a different implementation of its underlying data structure), changes to keep page lists in-order to ease allocations, temporary buffer allocation performance improvements in hot I/O paths, support for DT_GNU_HASH in the ELF loader, and more. ↫ Haiku R1/beta5 release notes Looking at the end user side of things, the Appearance dialog has been simplified without removing any features or capabilities, and Haiku now also comes with a dark mode. The little power/battery widget in Deskbar has also been overhauled to provide more accurate battery information, and it’ll load automatically if a battery is detected in the system. Tracker (the file manager) and Icon-O-Matic have seen improvements, there’s a rewritten FAT driver, a brand new UFS2 driver, and much more. There’s also a ton of new application ports from the Qt and GTK world, especially if the last time you’ve tried Haiku was one of the previous betas. Thanks to all of these ports, it’s much more realistic now to use Haiku as a daily driver. Haiku now also offers experimental support for .NET and FLTK, which provides further avenues for ports. This is just a small selection, as there is so much more contained in this new beta release. If you’ve been running the nightlies this new beta won’t mean much to you, but if you’ve been out of the running for a while, Haiku R1/beta5 is a great place to start to see what the platform has to offer.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140746/haiku-r1-beta5-released/
EU OKs $1.9B aid for Intel Polish plant, assuming x86 giant doesn’t end up cutting it
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
That’s zloty money but is it too little, too late?
Intel is scrambling to stanch the bleeding of its floundering foundry business, but in Poland at least the chipmaker’s luck is looking up.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/intel_foundry_poland/
Alternative Distribution for iPad Apps in EU
date: 2024-09-13, from: Michael Tsai
Apple (MacRumors): Starting September 16: Users in the EU can download iPadOS apps on the App Store and through alternative distribution. As mentioned in May, if you have entered into the Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU, iPadOS first annual installs will begin to accrue and the lower App Store commission rate will apply. Alternative browser […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/13/alternative-distribution-for-ipad-apps-in-eu/
Inferring Typing From Sounds and Eyes
date: 2024-09-13, from: Michael Tsai
Mark Stockley: The technique, developed at Durham University, the University of Surrey, and Royal Holloway University of London, builds on previous work to produce a more accurate way to guess your password by listening to the sound of you typing it on your keyboard. The slight differences in the sounds each key makes is an […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/13/inferring-typing-from-sounds-and-eyes/
Canceling the Unity Runtime Fee
date: 2024-09-13, from: Michael Tsai
Matt Bromberg (via Tim Sweeney, Hacker News): We want to deliver value at a fair price in the right way so that you will continue to feel comfortable building your business over the long term with Unity as your partner. And we’re confident that if we’re good partners and deliver great software and services, we’ve […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/13/canceling-the-unity-runtime-fee/
StopTheMadness Pro 9
date: 2024-09-13, from: Michael Tsai
Jeff Johnson: This new feature allows you to run your own custom scripts at any time on any web page. Your scripts can be triggered from the StopTheMadness Pro extension popup window, from a keyboard shortcut, and in macOS Safari from the contextual menu. JavaScript snippets are intended as an alternative to bookmarklets, which have […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/13/stopthemadness-pro-9/
See 11 Winning Images From the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest That Showcase the Wonder of Space
date: 2024-09-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
From a solar eclipse to a dolphin-like nebula, these otherworldly sights are captured in sharp detail by astrophotographers from around the world
Basquiat and Banksy Take Center Stage at the Hirshhorn
date: 2024-09-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
At an upcoming exhibition, the Smithsonian museum will display works by the two boundary-breaking artists for the first time
China, US step up top-level military exchanges amid ongoing tension
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
Taipei, Taiwan — An expected visit to Hawaii by the head of China’s Southern Theater Command next week will come just days after a high-ranking Pentagon official attended a defense conference in Beijing.
The visits, analysts said, are part of an effort to expand high-level exchanges between the U.S. and China and boost top-level military-to-military communication. It is unclear, though, how much the exchanges will do to help avoid miscommunication and keep tensions in the Indo-Pacific under control, they added.
Earlier this week, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Sam Paparo, and the head of the PLA, or People’s Liberation Army, Southern Theater Command, General Wu Yanan, held a video call for the first time in years.
The Chinese defense ministry said the two commanders had an “in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern” while Paparo urged the Chinese military “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond.”
Wu is expected to attend a defense conference held by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii next week, U.S. defense officials have confirmed to VOA.
Meanwhile, Michael Chase, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, is holding defense policy coordination talks with Chinese defense officials while attending the annual Xiangshan Security Dialogue held in Beijing this week.
A meeting that took place on the sidelines of the Xiangshan forum was designed to “underscore the United States’ shared vision for the region,” according to a U.S. Department of Defense readout Thursday.
The Biden administration has been working to restore communication between Chinese and American militaries since the U.S. president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California last November.
Chase’s visit to Beijing this week and Wu’s expected reciprocal visit next week follow a first meeting between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, last month.
During that meeting, Zhang said maintaining military security is “in line with the common interests of both sides” and Sullivan highlighted the two nations’ shared responsibility to “prevent competition from veering into conflict or confrontation.”
Some analysts see a potential for further communication and engagement between the two militaries.
“I won’t rule out the possibilities that Beijing and Washington may look to establish a hotline between the two militaries, and whether that mechanism could be extended to the theater command level remains to be seen,” Lin Ying-Yu, a military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone.
While the resumption of top-level communication allows Beijing and Washington to avoid miscalculations, other experts say it is unclear whether China and the U.S. can establish a more sustainable mechanism to cope with potential crises.
“While having contact and knowing your interlocutors are positive things during non-crisis times, the real test is whether these contacts can hold back any unintended escalation when incidents happen,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
Chong said since theater commanders from the U.S. and China oversee implementing rather than formulating policies, it is unclear whether the latest development can become established protocols.
“If there’s a persistence of [maintaining military-to-military communication], then it would suggest that it has become a policy,” he told VOA by phone.
Tensions remain high over contentious issues
Tensions remain high between China and the U.S. over a range of issues, including the repeated collision between Chinese and Philippine vessels near disputed reefs in the South China Sea and Beijing’s increased maneuvers in waters and airspace near Taiwan and Japan.
During the Xiangshan forum, Lieutenant General He Lei, the former vice president of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, characterized the Philippines’ attempt to safeguard its territorial claims in the South China Sea as “a unilateral change of the status quo” while accusing the U.S. of undermining security across the Taiwan Strait by selling weapons to Taiwan.
“The Chinese people and the People’s Liberation Army will never allow any external forces to interfere in China’s internal affairs or invade China’s territory,” he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN in an interview.
Some analysts say there are limits to what military-to-military communications can do to ease tensions over what are essentially political disagreements.
“The military tension is only a manifestation of their political differences over Taiwan and the South China Sea, so if their disagreements are not resolved, the military tension is very unlikely to see a permanent resolution,” Yun Sun, China program director at the Stimson Center in Washington, told VOA by phone.
With less than two months until the U.S. presidential election, Chong in Singapore said Beijing and Washington’s recent efforts may be an attempt to lay the foundation for bilateral military-to-military communication to be continued after the November election.
“On the Democrat side, if some of the current team stays [after November], perhaps we would see this momentum continue,” he told VOA.
“On the Republican side, things are a bit messier, because you have those who prefer the isolationist approach, those who advocate a containment approach in Asia, and people who talk about competing against China to win,” Chong added.
Sun said if Donald Trump wins the election in November, Beijing will expect instability in bilateral relations and be prepared for the military relationship to be affected.
AI giants pinky swear (again) not to help make deepfake smut
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Oh look, another voluntary, non-binding agreement to do better
Some of the largest AI firms in America have given the White House a solemn pledge to prevent their AI products from being used to generate non-consensual deepfake pornography and child sexual abuse material.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/ai_deepfake_pledge/
Google finally unveils its take on freeform windowing on Android
date: 2024-09-13, from: OS News
To empower tablet users to get more done, we’re enhancing freeform windowing, allowing them to run multiple apps simultaneously and resize windows for optimal multitasking. Today, we’re excited to share that desktop windowing on Android tablets is available in developer preview. For app developers, the concept of Android apps running in freeform windows has already existed with solutions like Samsung DeX and ChromeOS. Updating your apps to support adaptive layouts, more robust multitasking, and adaptive inputs will ensure your apps work well on large screens across the Android ecosystem. ↫ Francesco Romano on the Android Developers Blog The long-running saga of Google trying to develop proper freeform windowing support for Android seems to finally be bearing fruit. Countless attempts came and went, usually in developer releases, hidden behind flags, rarely, if ever talked about, but now it’s finally not only part of an Android beta release anyone with a Pixel Tablet can install and try out, Google is also openly talking about and touting it as a feature, so we might actually perhaps maybe see this in a non-beta release at some point. The way it works is both surprising and rather unsurprising. Instead of the Apple approach, which seems to entail a deep disdain for traditional windowing, Google is pretty much embracing the things we expect a windowing system to have, from window titlebars with close and maximise widgets, to a traditional dock-like taskbar permanently available at the bottom of the screen. If you click or tap on a little downward arrow on the titlebar, you can choose options like displaying windows side-by-side, much like on Windows. A very welcome ‘feature’ is the ability to tear off Chrome tabs and turn them into their own windows, just like in a traditional desktop environment. Google also opted for an interesting approach that reminds me somewhat of the “desktop” mode on Windows RT. Since Windows RT was ARM-based and entirely locked-down, the only classic Win32 applications you could run were those bundled with Windows as well as Microsoft Office. To access these, Windows RT would launch a full-screen tablet application that contained the entire traditional Windows desktop, and you’d run your classic Win32 applications in there. Android’s new windowing system seems to be doing something similar: once you enter the freeform windowing mode, all future applications will also launch as windows. In the task switcher, however, they’re all contained within a single “desktop” entry that you can close if you want to. That desktop entry seems to take the shape of a live view of the “desktop”, including the various windows you have opened. This way, you can have a dedicated “desktop” with freeform windows alongside any fullscreen tablet applications you also happen to be running. It’s perhaps not the most integrated or elegant approach, but it’s dead-simple and easy to grasp. This new windowing environment also provides application developers with the option of allowing multiple instances of a single application to be launched, say launching two text editor windows side-by-side. This seems to be a specific property developers need to enable, though, and considering Android’s tablet adoption history, that’s anything but a given at this point. Of course, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that applications need to be able to resize gracefully, too. If you want to play with it, you’ll need a Pixel Tablet running Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2, or just use the simulator. I really hope this takes off and developers support the various APIs for optimal integration (I’m not getting my hopes up), since proper freeform windowing that doesn’t feel like an ugly, barely functional hack is something I’ve been wanting on Android for a long time.
Mexican cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ Zambada pleads not guilty to US charges
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
new york — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a powerful leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, pleaded not guilty Friday to U.S. narcotics trafficking charges in a case accusing him of engaging in murder plots, ordering torture and channeling tons of drugs into the United States.
Participating in a court hearing through a Spanish-language interpreter, Zambada gave yes-or-no answers to a magistrate’s standard questions about whether he understood various documents and procedures. Asked how he was feeling, he said, “Fine, fine.”
His lawyers entered the not guilty plea on his behalf.
Outside court, Zambada attorney Frank Perez said his client wasn’t contemplating making a deal with the government, and the attorney expects the case to go to trial.
“It’s a complex case,” he said.
Sought by American law enforcement for more than two decades, Zambada has been in U.S. custody since July 25, when he landed in a private plane at an airport outside El Paso, Texas, in the company of another fugitive cartel leader, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, according to federal authorities.
Zambada later said in a letter that he was kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the U.S. by Guzman Lopez, a son of imprisoned Sinaloa co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Zambada’s lawyer did not elaborate on those claims Friday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho ordered Zambada detained until trial. His lawyers did not ask for bail, and U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn asked the judge to detain him.
“He was one of the most, if not the most, powerful narcotics kingpins in the world,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro said. “He co-founded the Sinaloa cartel and sat atop the narcotics trafficking world for decades.”
Zambada sat quietly as he listened to the interpreter. Leaving court after the brief hearing, he appeared to accept some help getting out of a chair, then walked out slowly but unaided.
The 76-year-old had used a wheelchair at a court appearance in Texas last month. But Perez said after court Friday that Zambada was healthy and “in good spirits.”
Sketch artists were in the small courtroom, but other journalists could observe only through closed-circuit video because of a shortage of seats.
In court and in a letter earlier to the judge, prosecutors said Zambada presided over a vast and violent operation, with an arsenal of military-grade weapons, a private security force that was almost like an army, and a corps of “sicarios,” or hitmen, who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture.
His bloody tenure included ordering the murder, just months ago, of his own nephew, the prosecutors said.
“A United States jail cell is the only thing that will prevent the defendant from committing further crimes,” Navarro said.
Zambada also pleaded not guilty to the charges at an earlier court appearance in Texas. His next court appearance is scheduled for October 31.
According to authorities, Zambada and “El Chapo” Guzman built the Sinaloa cartel from a regional syndicate into a huge manufacturer and smuggler of cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs to the U.S. Zambada has been seen as the group’s strategist and dealmaker and a less flamboyant figure than Guzman.
Zambada had never been behind bars until his U.S. arrest in July.
His apprehension has touched off fighting in Mexico between rival factions in the Sinaloa cartel. Gunfights have killed several people.
Schools and businesses in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, have closed amid the fighting. The battles are believed to be between factions loyal to Zambada and those led by other sons of “El Chapo” Guzman, who was convicted of drug and conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019.
It remains unclear why Guzman Lopez surrendered to U.S. authorities and brought Zambada with him. Guzman Lopez is awaiting trial on a separate drug trafficking indictment in Chicago, where he has pleaded not guilty.
Waxing Gibbous Moon over Minnesota
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station snapped this picture of the Moon as the station orbited 265 miles above the U.S. state of Minnesota on Dec. 17, 2021. Astronauts aboard the orbital lab take images using handheld digital cameras, usually through windows in the station’s cupola, for Crew Earth Observations. Crew members have produced […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/waxing-gibbous-moon-over-minnesota/
CI Yacht Club Gala raises over $92K for Avalon
date: 2024-09-13, from: Catalina Islander
Yacht Club event held on 100th anniversary of club’s first dance For the Islander The Avalon Casino ballroom was transformed into a 1924 style dinner dance party in honor of the Catalina Island Yacht Club’s 100th anniversary. The Club’s original opening dinner dance was held on the fourth Saturday of August in1924 at the St. […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/ci-yacht-club-gala-raises-over-92k-for-avalon/
Feeld dating app’s security too open-minded as private data swings into public view
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
No love for months-long wait to fix this, either
Security researchers have revealed a litany of failures in the Feeld dating app that could be abused to access all manner of private user data, including the most sensitive images not intended to be kept or shared.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/feeld_dating_app_failures/
Local stories at Museum in September
date: 2024-09-13, from: Catalina Islander
During the month of September, the Catalina Island Museum for Art and History is bringing back some annual events, as well as some local history. The Summer Documentary Series returns with the film about local residents Jani Eisenhunt and Jay Guion. The film tells the story of them and their families, along with their rich […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/local-stories-at-museum-in-september/
Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion: Another Nail in the Coffin of Putin’s Regime?
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: RAND blog
Ukraine’s bold Kursk operation challenges Putin’s war narrative and exposes domestic vulnerabilities. While unlikely to collapse Putin’s regime, the symbolic impact of Ukrainian advances into Russian territory erodes its foundation and boosts Ukraine’s resolve.
Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder
date: 2024-09-13, from: Dave Karpf’s blog
“Founder Mode” is such garbage.
https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/paul-graham-and-the-cult-of-the-founder
A big catch on a Sea-Doo
date: 2024-09-13, from: Catalina Islander
Brett Esformes recently caught a 164-pound Marlin off the shore of Catalina, while fishing from a Sea-Doo personal watercraft. He took video of the event and has posted much of it on YouTube (Youtube@DiveBarMDR), documenting the challenge of hooking and hauling in the large fish (note: some adult language heard on the video). Not only […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/a-big-catch-on-a-sea-doo/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
I needed to put the scene switcher somewhere, and I am thinking to put it on this menu.
I pushed "Close Scene" into the Scene menu, which I am not sure is a good idea, but I wanted to keep the main menu short.
Maybe Open needs to go to the top?
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113131550298660251
NASA’s Lunar Challenge Participants to Showcase Innovations During Awards
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
Editor’s note: This media advisory was updated Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, with a correct phone number for the media contact at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. NASA‘s Watts on the Moon Challenge, designed to advance the nation’s lunar exploration goals under the Artemis campaign by challenging United States innovators to develop breakthrough power transmission and energy […]
Sheriff’s Log: Sept. 5 to Sept. 11, 2024
date: 2024-09-13, from: Catalina Islander
The following is the Avalon’s Sheriff’s Stations significant incidents report for the period of Sept. 5 to Sept. 11, 2024. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Many people who are arrested do not get prosecuted in the first place and many who are prosecuted do not get convicted. […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/sheriffs-log-sept-5-to-sept-11-2024/
Avalon discusses street vendors
date: 2024-09-13, from: Catalina Islander
By Charles M. Kelly The council spent about two hours discussing whether to change Avalon’s sidewalk vendor ordinance. The council took no action. The issue will come back at a future date for further discussion. First, the background, then the discussion. Background “In 2019, over a series of 7 regular meetings of the City Council, […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/avalon-discusses-street-vendors/
Sols 4302-4303: West Side of Upper Gediz Vallis, From Tungsten Hills to the Next Rocky Waypoint
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024 The rover is on its way from the Tungsten Hills site to the next priority site for Gediz Vallis channel exploration, in which we plan to get in close enough for arm science to one of the numerous large dark-toned “float” blocks in the channel and also to […]
What Might Harris Do on North Korea if Elected President?
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: RAND blog
Should Kamala Harris win the presidency, there is likely to be more continuity than there is change in U.S. policy toward North Korea. But if North Korea becomes a larger threat, particularly due to broader geopolitical events involving China and Russia, Harris may be motivated to make bolder changes to the U.S. approach.
Lenovo Tab Plus is now available for $320 (Android tablet with 8 speakers and an 11.5 inch, 90 Hz display)
date: 2024-09-13, from: Liliputing
The Lenovo Tab Plus is an Android tablet that puts media playback front and center. It has an 11.5 inch, 2000 x 1200 pixel display with a 90 Hz refresh rate, a built-in kickstand, and eight JBL speakers with support for Dolby Atmos sound. Lenovo says the tablet’s speaker system features four woofers, four tweeters, a […]
The post Lenovo Tab Plus is now available for $320 (Android tablet with 8 speakers and an 11.5 inch, 90 Hz display) appeared first on Liliputing.
Lawsuit against TikTok ban set to begin in Washington
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/lawsuit-against-tiktok-ban-set-to-begin-in-washington-/7782214.html
How propaganda outlets cover — or ignore — aspects of US election
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
Washington — When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump met in a presidential debate on Tuesday, they spoke about a range of foreign policy issues, including China and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But while the debate attracted large audiences and coverage in the United States and Europe, Beijing and Moscow’s state-run media were relatively quiet on the event.
The minimal coverage is a contrast to the presidential debate between Joe Biden and Trump in June.
Chinese media
After that debate, Beijing-run outlets — like media around the world — were flooded with coverage of Biden’s poor performance.
But Harris-Trump coverage was noticeably slimmer in state-run outlets such as Xinhua, the Global Times and the People’s Daily newspaper, China media analysts say.
The shift is a subtle but significant distinction, according to China media analysts, that reflects how the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, employs its propaganda apparatus.
The relative lack of coverage wasn’t all that surprising to Kenton Thibaut, a senior resident China fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab in Washington.
The Chinese government is probably still figuring out how to move forward following Biden’s abrupt withdrawal, said Thibaut. She believes that’s a primary reason for the reduced coverage of this week’s debate.
“This is really reflective of how China handles changes in foreign policy issues,” Thibaut said. “They just stick to very fact-based coverage, basically restating what the candidate said, until they — the propaganda department and such — can figure out basically how to cover it globally and domestically.”
Another reason for the reduced coverage may have to do with democracy itself, according to China experts.
“The presidential debate is important for U.S. democracy, and democracy is always a sensitive topic for the CCP,” Anne-Marie Brady, a professor and specialist in Chinese politics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, told VOA in an email.
Jonathan Hassid, an Iowa State University professor who specializes in Chinese media, agreed.
“Chinese media does not like covering democratic successes,” Hassid told VOA. “Democratic failures are highlighted, but the successes are not.”
That helps explain the difference between the coverage of the two debates. During the first debate, which by many accounts was a fiasco, Biden sounded hoarse and frail, and his repeated fumbles highlighted concerns over the 81-year-old’s capacity to serve another four-year term as president.
In coverage of that debate, Chinese state media relied on narratives about how democracy doesn’t work well, Hassid said.
For instance, Hu Xijin, a Chinese media commentator and former state media editor, wrote, “Objectively speaking, the low-quality performance of these two old men was a negative advertisement for Western democracy.”
By contrast, Hassid said, this week’s debate may have been perceived as a better display of democracy.
Still, China also didn’t even feature that largely in the latest debate.
While Harris didn’t go into much detail, she said that “a policy about China should be in making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century.” Trump, meanwhile, has previously proposed tariffs up to 100% on Chinese products.
When asked about Harris and Trump’s views about tariffs on imports from China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday said she had no comment.
“The presidential elections are the United States’ own affairs,” she said. “That said, we are opposed to making China an issue in U.S. elections.”
A spokesperson for China’s Washington embassy replied to VOA’s request for comment with a similar statement: “On the issue of the U.S. election, China’s position is consistent and clear. China has no intention and will not interfere in it. At the same time, we hope that the U.S. side will not make accusations against China in the election.”
Russian media
Russia — another propaganda powerhouse — also didn’t offer much coverage of the debate. “But that doesn’t mean that they don’t drop in plenty of spin,” according to Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub.
Based on his analysis of Russian state media coverage of the debate, Linvill said outlets such as RT and Sputnik were focused on downplaying Harris and playing up Trump.
There were some outliers, such as a Sputnik article in which a psychiatrist claimed Harris was trying to “hide her imposter syndrome” during the debate. But most of the coverage was subtler, Linvill said.
Articles tended to be anodyne and not necessarily critical of either side, Linvill said, but they still reveal Moscow’s well-documented preference for Trump.
U.S. officials are again warning about Russian efforts to influence this year’s election. Last week, the Justice Department accused two Russians who work at the Kremlin-backed RT of money laundering by funneling nearly $10 million to a conservative Tennessee-based media outlet that is a leading platform for pro-Trump voices.
While it’s important to monitor disinformation in the lead-up to and during an election, according to Thibaut, the period immediately after is perhaps even more important, especially if the election is close.
“This is a prime time for threat actors to take advantage of information, the polarizing narratives, the charged-up atmosphere to really sow social division,” Thibaut said.
“We have to really remain vigilant after the election as well.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/how-propaganda-outlets-cover-or-ignore-aspects-of-us-election/7783317.html
Frank Lloyd Wright Designed His First Prairie-Style House When He Was 26. Now, It’s for Sale
date: 2024-09-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The young architect created the Winslow house for a couple living in a suburb of Chicago in 1893. The project would help launch his independent career
NASA Airport Throughput Prediction Challenge
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
The Digital Information Platform (DIP) Sub-Project of Air Traffic Management – eXploration (ATM-X) is seeking to make available in the National Airspace System a variety of live data feeds and services built on that data. The goal is to allow external partners to build advanced, data-driven services using this data and to make these services […]
Competing with China Explained: What Americans Need to Know
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: RAND blog
The U.S.-China relationship presents a complex array of foreign policy challenges that will have to be addressed when a new administration takes charge in Washington next year. We asked three RAND experts to shed some light on the state of U.S.-China relations and competition as the American electorate heads to the polls.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/09/competing-with-china-explained-what-americans-need.html
GMK NucBox K8 Plus adds OcuLink and a second USB4 port to this Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC
date: 2024-09-13, from: Liliputing
The GMK NucBox K8 is a high-performance mini PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 88845HS processor with two 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports and a 40 Gbps USB4 port. When Ian Morrison reviewed the little computer earlier this year, he found that it offered strong performance and a functional design. Now GMK is preparing to launch a new […]
The post GMK NucBox K8 Plus adds OcuLink and a second USB4 port to this Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC appeared first on Liliputing.
US-China rivalry for military influence in Africa ramps up
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
Johannesburg — While the U.S. was forced to downsize and pull its troops out of Niger this year, China is increasing its military cooperation on the continent, recently announcing a plan to spend $140 million to train 6,000 military personnel — a move, a U.S. defense official said Friday, was for China’s “own economic growth and benefit.”
Among the many ways that the U.S. and China are competing for influence in Africa, analysts say military cooperation on the continent is one that is seeing rising rivalry between the two superpowers.
At a summit that focused on China-Africa cooperation last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the pledge to train the 6,000 military personnel. He also invited 500 African officers to visit China.
‘Most explicit’ pledge
China has been cooperating with Africa in several areas of security for years, including participating in U.N. peacekeeping missions, holding joint military drills, and providing training and education for officers. However, analysts said the latest announcement was particularly noteworthy.
“This year’s military pledge was by far the most explicit,” Lauren Johnston, associate professor of China studies at the University of Sydney, told VOA. “Never seen anything so measured and direct.”
Asked by VOA about whether Xi’s pledge means China is outperforming the U.S. when it comes to security cooperation on the continent, a spokesperson for U.S.-Africa Command, or AFRICOM, said: “We recognize that the PRC is adept at creating opportunities to expand influence on the continent.”
The PRC is the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
“Its long-term vision for Africa is tied to its own economic benefit and growth,” said the spokesperson, Kelly Cahalan. “The PRC is the second-largest arms supplier in Africa after Russia, with defense exports of small arms, missile systems, aerial munitions, naval vessels, combat aircraft, infantry vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.”
However, the AFRICOM spokesperson added that the U.S. “would welcome the PRC’s cooperation on issues such as climate change, global health security, arms control and non-proliferation.”
Niger exodus
In a blow to Washington earlier this year, the U.S. military was forced to pull troops out of Niger, after the junta there demanded the U.S. close its $100 million airbase combatting extremist groups in the Sahel region.
Since then, the U.S. has been in talks with other West African nations, including Ivory Coast, Ghana and Benin “as we start to reset and recalibrate some of our assets,” General Michael Langley commander of U.S.-Africa Command, or AFRICOM, told journalists in an online press briefing Thursday.
Langley was speaking from Kenya, after also visiting Somalia to speak with the government about counter-terrorism efforts against al-Shabab. He has spent a lot of time on the continent recently, having also visited a number of North African countries earlier this year.
Asked in the press briefing about China’s influence in Africa, General Langley said the choice lay with African governments.
“When we have engaged with our African partners, we don’t give them an ultimatum of who to choose for a security partner,” he said. “All our activities and our partnership-centric type approach should be African-led and U.S.-enabled.”
Darren Olivier, director of the conflict research consulting firm African Defense Review, said the U.S. is trying to shore up support after the blow it received in West Africa.
“The U.S. was clearly shaken by the junta takeovers in Sahelian countries like Burkina Faso & Niger and their subsequent ending of security cooperation and basing agreements,” he said in a written response to VOA, noting that the U.S. had been criticized for not being consultative enough with its African partners.
“General Langley’s tour therefore appears to be not just about shoring up support for new cooperation agreements and basing locations, but to reinforce the U.S.’s new message of listening first and advising second,” Olivier added.
Playing the long game
Efforts by the U.S. in Africa come as China is working to grow its ties as well.
Jana de Kluiver, an analyst with the Institute for Security Studies based in South Africa, said China was looking to foster long-term connections with the people who will go on to become Africa’s military top brass and political elite.
“The 6,000 military personnel trained by China will later on become higher ranking figures in their respective countries, enhancing Beijing’s soft power across the continent,” she told VOA.
In 2022, China launched what it called the Global Security Initiative, or GSI, as a counterpoint to the U.S.-led security order. One of the main tenets of the initiative is China’s principle of non-interference.
“As Chinese economic interests expand across the continent, the need for a stable security environment becomes critical. However, Beijing is careful to avoid appearing too assertive, as its broader narrative seeks to contrast with the perceived interventionism of the West,” said the Institute for Security Studies’ de Kluiver.
African Defense Review’s Olivier said it will be interesting to see how African nations that are used to Western military support and training now juggle their options.
If they opt for Chinese training, they could then choose to “silo their armed forces into units trained by Western countries and units trained by China, which will have its own impacts from incompatible doctrines and standards,” he told VOA.
China always positions itself as a no-strings attached ally of Africa and Olivier said it would also depend where China placed any pre-conditions on military cooperation.
“Western countries are traditionally skittish about training units that might commit human rights violations,” he said. “This might provide the opportunity for some countries frustrated with those restrictions to turn to Beijing for training instead.”
Base concerns
Washington has also long been concerned about the possibility that China is looking to establish a second permanent base in Africa. Beijing already has one on the continent’s east coast, in Djibouti, and is said to be seeking a foothold in West Africa.
That would give Beijing a military presence across the Atlantic from America’s East Coast, a move that analysts say would be perceived by the U.S. as a threat to national security.
China was believed to be looking to Equatorial Guinea, but those talks have reportedly stalled.
Last week Bloomberg reported the U.S. is assembling a $5 million security package, including special forces training, for Gabon. The report quoted unnamed sources, but said the deal was aimed at preventing China from establishing a base in the country.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-china-rivalry-for-military-influence-in-africa-ramps-up/7783311.html
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Uses Iceland Terrain for Lunar Training
date: 2024-09-13, from: NASA breaking news
At first glance, it seems like a scene from an excursion on the Moon’s surface…except the people are in hiking gear, not spacesuits.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Why The Atlantic’s Critique of Sanewashing Doesn't Hold Up.
https://www.readtpa.com/p/why-the-atlantics-critique-of-sanewashing
The Europa Clipper stretches its wings as launch nears
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Solar arrays are massive… but it’s the transistors onlookers are really worried about
NASA’s Europa Clipper is now less than a month from its October 10 launch, and the US space agency has shown off the spacecraft’s giant solar arrays. However, concerns persist over how well the probe’s electronics will fare in the harsh Jovian environment.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/the_europa_clipper_stretches_its/
The Price of Putting Las Vegas in Inglewood
date: 2024-09-13, from: Capital and Main
Are the Intuit Dome and Inglewood’s sports and concert venues what the last significantly Black city in Los Angeles County needs?
The post The Price of Putting Las Vegas in Inglewood appeared first on .
https://capitalandmain.com/the-price-of-putting-las-vegas-in-inglewood
Behind the Blog: Risks, Attention, and Telegram
date: 2024-09-13, from: 404 Media Group
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss communicating risks, brain rot, and the arrest of Telegram’s CEO.
https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-risks-attention-and-telegram/
Apple faces challenges in Chinese market against Huawei’s tri-fold phone
date: 2024-09-13, from: VOA News USA
Taipei, Taiwan — The U.S.-China technology war is playing out in the smartphone market in China, where global rivals Apple and Huawei released new phones this week. Industry experts say Apple, which lacks home-field advantage, faces many challenges in defending its market share in the country.
The biggest highlight of the iPhone 16 is its artificial intelligence system, dubbed Apple Intelligence, while the Huawei Mate XT features innovative tri-fold screen technology. But at a starting price of RMB 19,999, about $2,810, the Mate XT will cost about three times as much as the iPhone 16.
According to data from VMall, Huawei’s official shopping site, nearly 5.74 million people in China preordered the Mate XT as of late Thursday, 5½ days after Huawei began accepting preorders.
But in a survey conducted on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo by Radio France International, half of the 9,200 respondents said they would not purchase a Mate XT because the price is prohibitive. An additional 3,500 said they are not in the market for a new phone now.
“I suggest that Huawei release some products that ordinary people can afford,” a Weibo user wrote under the name “Diamond Man Yang Dong Feng.”
The iPhone 16 is not available for preorder until Friday, but some e-commerce vendors in China have promised to deliver the new devices to consumers within half a day to two days of sale.
In the competition between Apple and Huawei, iPhone 16 has some inherent disadvantages, said Shih-Fang Chiu, a senior industry analyst at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
“Apple’s strength is information security and privacy, but this is difficult to achieve in the Chinese market, where the government can control the data in China’s market to a relatively high degree. In the era of AI mobile phones, this will bring challenges to Apple’s development in the Chinese market,” Chiu said.
Apple’s AI service on its iPhone 16 will roll out at a gradual pace in different languages, first in English and other languages later this year. The Chinese version will not be available until 2025.
There are other challenges Apple faces as well, Chiu added, such as regulatory controls, consumer sentiment favoring local brands and weakening spending power amid China’s economic slowdown.
According to Counterpoint Research’s statistics, Huawei held a market share of 15% in the second quarter of 2024, surpassing Apple’s 14% market share. That compares with Apple’s 17.3% share in 2023 as reported by the industry research firm International Data Corporation China, or IDC China.
Ryan Reith, the program vice president for IDC’s Mobile Device Tracker suite, said in a written response to VOA that the iPhone 16 has not made significant hardware upgrades and that AI applications alone are not attractive because consumers have GPT and other AI solutions.
AI applications are also another hurdle. Analyst Chih-Yen Tai said iPhone 16’s AI services involve personal data collection, information application and cloud computing, which will require collaboration with Chinese service providers.
That, along with the ban on Chinese civil servants and employees at state-owned enterprises from using their iPhone at work in recent years, will affect the sales of Apple products, said Tai, the deputy director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Evaluation at Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taipei.
“China’s patriotism has led to a strong number of preorders” for Huawei’s tri-fold phones, Tai said.
“The competitors in China will sell the idea [to consumers] that iPhones will soon be edged out of the premium smartphone market. So, in the next stage, the affordable iPhone versions will be the key to whether it [Apple] can return to China or its previous glorious sales era,” Tai said.
Tzu-Ang Chen, a senior consultant in the digital technology industry in Taipei, said use of Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system surpassed that of Apple’s iOS in China in the first quarter of this year, representing China’s determination to “go its own way” and create “one world, two systems.”
“The U.S.-China technology war has extended to smartphones,” Chen said. “IPhone sales in China will get worse and worse, obviously because Huawei is doing better, and coupled with patriotism, Apple’s position in the hearts of 1.4 billion people will never return.”
He said that as China seeks to develop pro-China markets among member countries of the Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, China-made mobile phones may become their first choice.
VOA’s Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
Win 11 refreshes delayed, say PC makers – and here’s why
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Oh and about those AI computers… analysts reckon there are still no killer apps or convincing use cases
Admins had better dust off their Windows migration skills if Dell and HP are right that a refresh wave of “aging” commercial PC estates is picking up pace – even though the process is slower to happen than either company seems to have expected.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/win_11_refreshes_delayed_pc_makers/
Birds Form Surprising Relationships With Other Avian Species During Migration, Study Suggests
date: 2024-09-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
New research indicates that birds are not alone while migrating—and sharing space with other species may even help them on the journey
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
The project I worked out at Microsoft, some technical details are starting to get published:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113130826084065768
America’s National Treasure Goes Electric
date: 2024-09-13, from: Heatmap News
When you think of a gas-guzzler, what comes to mind is probably a gigantic pickup like the Ram 1500 TRX, which gets a combined 12 miles per gallon, or a sports car like the Ferrari Daytona, which manages a less-than-impressive 13 mpg. But you may not think about a vehicle you’ve likely seen a thousand times: the small trucks driven by most local mail carriers, known as the Grumman Long Life Vehicle. They lived up to their name, since they’ve been in service since the mid-80s; the newest of them were built 30 years ago. But they get an abysmal 9 miles per gallon, burning fuel by the tankful and spewing emissions as they go about their appointed rounds.
So after a long and winding journey to a replacement for the LLV, the first of the Postal Service’s Next Generation Delivery Vehicles — most of which will be electric — just hit the road. And they are beautiful.
Oshkosh
Defense
This may not be a widely shared opinion. Indeed, some will find the NGDV downright ugly, and they won’t exactly be wrong. But the new postal truck’s weird appearance — many have remarked that it looks like a duck, or something from a Richard Scarry book — is what, I predict, will make it iconic. In addition to bringing a touch of whimsy to your neighborhood, the NGDV will advance the cause of vehicle electrification much more than you might expect.
Postal delivery vehicles were always a no-brainer for electrification: They do a lot of stopping and starting, they follow fixed routes so they can charge at a single location, and since the existing fleet uses so much gas, electrifying them will make a real dent in the nation’s emissions.
The old trucks didn’t just add to our nation’s carbon emissions, they got no love from the workers who drove them. If you’ve noticed your mail carrier sweating profusely as they bring letters to your door in the summer, it’s not just because they have to carry that heavy bag up and down the street. It’s also because their creaky, uncomfortable vehicles have no air conditioning. In 2024.
“It felt like heaven blowing in my face,” said one carrier after trying out the NGDV, which does indeed have air conditioning, along with many of the safety features, including backup cameras, antilock brakes, and airbags, that are common in modern cars but the LLVs lacked. The new truck also looks unusual because it solves many of the problems the old vehicles pose for letter carriers. The truck had to be tall enough to allow them to stand up in the back, so they won’t have to hunch over the way they do now. It had to be low to the ground so they can get in and out easily dozens of times in a shift. It had to have a big enough windshield for the shortest and tallest carriers to see out comfortably.
Oshkosh
Defense
All that meant that the NGDV wound up looking like no other vehicle. Once they are fully deployed — the current plan is to put 60,000 into service over the next few years — their unique profile will become familiar to everyone. And it’s important that this strange electric vehicle will be associated with the Postal Service. Because people love the Postal Service.
That might be a surprise given familiar complaints about lines at the post office. But it turns out that when surveys are taken, the Postal Service always ranks at or near the top of public approval among federal agencies. A recent Pew Research poll put the USPS’s approval at 72%, behind only the National Park Service. Gallup polls show them at the top. A 2020 survey by the department’s Inspector General found 91% of respondents saying they had a positive view of the USPS.
Perhaps people have a sense that what the Postal Service accomplishes is nothing short of miraculous. They move over 300 million pieces of mail every day, and deliver to 167 million addresses. They’ll pick up a letter at your door, take it anywhere in the country by land or air or water, and deliver it right to your Aunt Myrtle in the space of a few days — and not for $50 or $100, but for 73 cents. It costs the same whether that letter is going to Atlanta or Alakanuk. As U.S. law states, the purpose of the Postal Service is “to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people.” The USPS is nothing less than a national treasure.
Maybe people appreciate that, or maybe it’s just that most of us like getting mail, and our mail carriers are part of our communities (and usually friendly). In any case, the new electric vehicles will be associated with all the positive feelings people have about the USPS.
Which is why it’s fine — and maybe even better — that the NGDV is odd-looking, or even ugly (but in a charming way). One prevailing theory about EV adoption — advanced by Tesla’s Elon Musk and embodied in other vehicles like the Ford F-150 Lightning — is that the way to get people to buy EVs is to make EVs that are cool. It’s a valid perspective, but another way to think about the long-term goal of transportation electrification is that EVs ought to be in as many places and as many forms as possible. If you want to normalize them, what better way than to have a funky-looking EV rolling down your street every day, delivering mail to your door?
It may be a while before you spot an NGDV in your neighborhood; among other things, it will take time to install the charging infrastructure at all the postal facilities necessary to electrify the entire delivery fleet. After all, one of the things that makes the Postal Service such a vital part of our national life is that it touches Americans, and delivers to them, no matter how far-flung they are. At least at first, we may be more likely to see electric delivery vehicles in big cities than in remote rural areas.
But before long, the NGDV could become the most widely recognized EV in the country, and one that people associate with service, community, efficiency, and patriotism. And yes, they look weird. Which is part of what makes them great.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/usps-next-generation-delivery-vehicle
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Harris drops powerful new ad slamming Trump’s abortion extremism.
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 kilometers) 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 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 0% 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
Post-CrowdStrike catastrophe, Microsoft figures moving antivirus out of Windows kernel mode is a good idea
date: 2024-09-13, updated: 2024-09-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Existing low-level access for security solutions will undergo a rework
Microsoft says it’s working on Windows to allow endpoint security solutions to operate effectively 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 will balloon 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 tries to emulate ‘reasoning’ – tho 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 ‘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