SpaceX to Launch Secret X-37B Space Plane Thursday
SpaceX to Launch Secret X-37B Space Plane Thursday
The hunt will be on shortly, to once again recover a clandestine mission in low Earth orbit. SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon-9 rocket from launch pad LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday night August 21st, with the classified USSF-36 mission.Universe Today
Raoul Duke likes this.
Quasarr Hostnames
So I'm trying to setup Quasarr (direct downloader for sonarr+radarr) but I'm not sure what hostnames to use.
I added some from the suggested pastebin but most of them serve German content and I haven't heard of any of these websites (new to DDL)
Can anyone help me setup some good English sources? Or at least tell me what the rest of the abbreviations mean?
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How Tea’s Founder Convinced Millions of Women to Spill Their Secrets, Then Exposed Them to the World [404 Media]
How Tea’s Founder Convinced Millions of Women to Spill Their Secrets, Then Exposed Them to the World
On March 16, 2023, Paola Sanchez, the founder and administrator of Are We Dating the Same Guy?, a collection of Facebook groups where women share “red flags” about men, received a message from Christianne Burns, then fiancée of Tea CEO and founder Sean Cook.“We have an app ready to go called ‘Tea - Women’s Dating Community’, that could be a perfect transition for the ‘Are we dating the same guy’ facebook groups since it sounds like those are on their way under… Tea has all the safety measures that Facebook lacked and more to ensure that only women are in the group,” Burns said. “We are looking for a face and founder of the app and because of your experience, we think YOU will be the perfect person! This can be your thing and we are happy to take a step back and let you lead all operations of the product.”
The Tea app, much like the Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook groups, invites women to join and share red flags about men to help other women avoid them. In order to verify that every person who joined the Tea app was a woman, Tea asked users to upload a picture of their ID or their face. Tea was founded in 2022 but largely flew under the radar until July this year, when it reached the top of the Apple App Store chart, earned glowing coverage in the media, and claimed it had more than 1.6 million users.
Burns’ offer to make Sanchez the “face” of Tea wasn't the first time she had reached out to her, but Sanchez never replied to Burns, despite multiple attempts to recruit her. As it turned out, Tea did not have all the “safety measures” it needed to keep women safe. As 404 Media first reported, Tea users’ images, identifying information, and more than a million private conversations, including some about cheating partners and abortions, were compromised in two separate security breaches in late July. The first of these breaches was immediately abused by a community of misogynists on 4chan to humiliate women whose information was compromised.
A 404 Media investigation now reveals that after Tea failed to recruit Sanchez as the face of the app and adopt the Are We Dating the Same Guy community, Tea shifted tactics to raid those Facebook groups for users. Tea paid influencers to undermine Are We Dating the Same Guy and created competing Facebook groups with nearly identical names. 404 Media also identified a number of seemingly hijacked Facebook accounts that spammed the real Are We Dating The Same Guy groups with links to Tea app.
404 Media’s investigation also discovered a third security breach which exposed the personal data of women who were paid to promote the app.
“Since first creating these [Are We Dating The Same Guy] groups, I have avoided speaking to the media as much as possible because these groups require discretion and privacy in order to operate safely and best protect our members,” Sanchez told 404 Media. “However, recent events have led me to decide to share some concerning practices I’ve witnessed, including messages I received in the past that appear to contradict some of the information currently being presented as fact.”
Burns is no longer with Cook or involved with Tea, and she did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But messages from Burns to Sanchez show that Cook changed his story about why he created Tea after they broke up. 404 Media also talked to a former Tea employee who said she only knew Burns as “Tara,” a persona that also exists in the Tea app and on Facebook as an official representative of the Tea app. This employee said that when Burns left the company, Cook took over the persona and communicated with other Tea users as if he was Tara.
Overall, our reporting shows that while Cook said he built Tea to “protect women,” he repeatedly put them at risk and tried to replace a grassroots movement started by a woman who declined to help him. As one woman who worked for him at Tea told us: “his [Cook’s] motive is money, not actually to protect people.”
Tea did not directly answer a list of specific questions regarding 404 Media’s findings and the facts presented in this article. Instead, it sent us the following statement:
“Building and scaling an app to meet the demand we’ve seen is a complex process. Along the way, we’ve collaborated with many, learned a great deal and continue to improve Tea,” a Tea spokesperson said. “What we know, based on the fact that over 7 million women now use Tea, with over 100,000 new sign ups per day, is that a platform to help women navigate the challenges of online dating has been needed for far too long. As one of the top apps in the U.S. App Store, we are proud of what we’ve built, and know that our mission is more urgent than ever. We remain committed to evolving Tea to meet the needs of our growing community every day.”
How Tea Tried to Recruit a Female “Face” for the App
Sanchez started the first Are We Dating The Same Guy Facebook group in 2022 after her terrible experiences dating. The basic premise—a space for women to share information about men with other women—has existed in various forms before, but Are We Dating The Same Guy quickly became an online phenomenon. Today, Are We Dating The Same Guy is comprised of more than 200 different Facebook groups dedicated to different cities across the U.S. and Canada and has more than 7 million members. The groups have many volunteer moderators, but Sanchez is still the administrator for most of them.Women in the groups, who can also post anonymously, share a wide range of experiences, from relatively benign complaints about men they didn’t like, to serious accusations of infidelity and physical assault.
The popularity of Are We Dating The Same Guy groups is evidence that its members find them useful, but that popularity has come with a cost. Sanchez has become increasingly cautious after several attempts at retaliation from disgruntled men who are organizing on Telegram to dox women in the group and at least one lawsuit. In that case, a man accused Are We Dating The Same Guy of libel after a user in the Chicago group called him “clingy” and a “psycho.” Sanchez also said she had a rock thrown through the window of her family’s home by a man who wanted to stop Are We Dating The Same Guy, that she pays for a service to wipe her personal information from the internet, and that she generally keeps a low profile. This is the first time she has talked to the press.
By the time she was first approached by Burns in October, 2022, Sanchez was suspicious of Tea’s interest in Are We Dating The Same Guy because of some of the negative attention the groups already got.
“I’m a huge fan of all the work you're doing and I think it will have an ENORMOUS and important benefit on the lives of women,” Burns said in a Facebook message to Sanchez on October 25, 2022. At the time, Burns’ Facebook profile picture was a photo of her and Cook smiling. “My fiance and I have been working on a similar project due to my own dating woes and thought you’d be the perfect person to collaborate with on it.”
This is an entirely different origin story than the one Cook tells about Tea today. On Linkedin, Tea’s site, and interviews, Cook says that he “launched Tea after witnessing his mother’s terrifying experience with online dating—not only being catfished but unknowingly engaging with men who had criminal records.”
Before starting Tea, Cook worked at a couple of tech companies in San Francisco, including Salesforce, where he held a “director” title and rapped and made songs about Salesforce products during presentations he shared on Linkedin.
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1×A video Sean Cook uploaded to Linkedin
There is no mention of Burns on the Tea site, but in 2022 she persistently asked Sanchez to join Tea.
In addition to messaging her on Patreon and Facebook, on December 2, Burns sent Sanchez $25 on Venmo along with a message thanking Sanchez for her work. “Sent you a PM on Facebook re: Business collab when you get a chance! 😊” On December 7, 2022 Burns sent Sanchez $15 on buymeacoffee.com along with a message about a “business opportunity,” and “an app with a similar concept to the facebook groups you manage that I would love to collaborate with you on!”
In April2023, after Sanchez didn’t respond to Tea’s requests, Are We Dating The Same Guy group admins started banning a set of Facebook accounts posting links to the Tea app over and over again. For example, Are We Dating The Same Guy moderators banned one Facebook user named Crystal Lee from 25 groups across the country after the account repeatedly encouraged members to use Tea and suggested that information about the men they’re asking about was available there. Lee’s account was clearly hijacked from a woman with a different name sometime around 2016. While the account name is Crystal Lee, the name in the URL for her page is Kimberly Ritchart. I found Richart’s new Facebook account, where her first post in 2016 says she lost access to her original account. 404 Media couldn’t confirm who was in control of the account, and saw no evidence that Tea was behind it, but activity from similarly hijacked accounts indicate that there was an organized effort to stealthily promote the Tea app in the Are We Dating The Same Guy groups.
Two other Facebook accounts, Norma Warner and Morgan Ward, were banned from 23 groups and five groups respectively for spamming Tea app promotions. Warner and Ward also shared identical replies two weeks apart. “If I remember correctly, I think he’s been posted to Tea. I maybe [sic] mistaking him for someone else but looks pretty familiar,” both replies said in response to different posts in different groups.
Veronica Marz told me she was hired in April 2024 to be Tea’s partnerships manager. Her job was to manage the affiliate program that would pay people $1 per user who signed up to Tea via their unique affiliate link. She also moderated a number of groups named “Are We Dating the Same Guy | Tea App” for different cities, which were started by and owned by the Tea app and could obviously confuse Facebook users. Marz also reached out to admins of the real Are We Dating The Same Guy groups to ask if they’d be willing to join the affiliate program.While reporting this story, 404 Media discovered that Tea’s data about the affiliate program, including who signed up for it, their real name, how much they have been paid, their emails, phone numbers, Venmo accounts, and charities they wanted to donate to if they didn’t want the money, were left exposed online. All a hacker or other third party had to do to view all of this data was add “/admin” to the public Tea affiliate site’s URL. Tea turned off this site and the affiliate program entirely after 404 Media reached out for comment for this article on August 13.
On December 1, 2024, Marz noticed an account named Nicole Li who was spamming Tea app promotions in one of the Facebook groups she managed for Tea as part of her job. Li was not part of the affiliate program that Marz managed, and unbeknownst to Marz, moderators of the original Are We Dating The Same Guy groups would eventually ban the Li account later. At that point, Marz was reporting directly to Cook, and she flagged the account to him because it was suspicious and spamming several groups at the same time.
“Sean uses that account to communicate directly with users on the app, but people think they are speaking to someone actually named Tara."
“Just wanted to check and see if this person was working with the Tea app?,” Marz said in a text to Cook along with a screenshot of the account seen by 404 Media. “I’ve noticed that they’ve joined all the groups regardless of location and they’ve been promoting the app, but they aren’t a part of the affiliate program that I saw.”Cook replied: “Not sure what’s going on there but as long as they’re not bothering anyone, I guess let’s just let them do their thing!”
All of the Facebook accounts that spammed Tea promotions were either deactivated or did not respond to our request for comment. None of the accounts were officially part of Tea’s affiliate program, according to the exposed data.
404 Media has seen several messages from Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook group members and moderators confused about whether the Tea app was the official Are We Dating The Same Guy app, and whether Sanchez was affiliated with it. Several people also wondered if the Tara persona, which reached out to them on Facebook, was associated with Tea or if Sanchez was behind it. One review of the Tea app on the Google Play Store from January, 2024 also seemed confused and disappointed by the app.
“A girl in a FB group referred me (I think she was actually advertising 🤷),” the review said. “She called it a free app. It’s not free [...] The fb groups should have raised MORE THAN ENOUGH to cover app costs that are referred to in other reviews [...] I find this gross. Maybe I’ll come around or be back, but for now I’ll stick with fb.”
Marz also told me that several users in the Tea-owned Facebook groups were confused, and thought that they were in the original Are We Dating The Same Guy groups owned by Sanchez.“Maybe five to seven people in different groups asked me about Paola Sanchez, and I had to explain to them, like, ‘Hey, this is not Paola’s group. This group is owned by the Tea app,’” she told me. “I had to explain to them the difference between the two.”
Tea’s promotion strategy clearly managed to poach and confuse some members of the Are We Dating The Same Guy community and get them to join the app. Later, its strategy was to undermine Are We Dating The Same Guy directly.
Today, Tea’s website credits an influencer named Daniella Szetela as helping to widely promote Tea: “One day while scrolling, Sean discovered a viral creator, Daniella, whose content resonated with millions of women—and saw an opportunity to bring that same energy to Tea. What began as a simple idea quickly turned into a social media movement.” The site says Cook was so impressed with her voice and following, he made her “Head of Socials.” A March, 2025 archive of the same page on Tea’s site tells the same story, but at the time Szetela’s title was “Chief Female Officer.”
“Together, Sean and Daniella have transformed Tea into more than an app—it’s a movement,” Tea’s site says.
In September 2024 Tea started posting videos to its official TikTok and Instagram accounts named @TheTeaPartyGirls. Some of the videos are of Szetela showing the app and talking about how great it is. Other videos are made to look like they’re coming from other Tea users, but in reality are produced by a company called SG Social Branding, which describes itself as a “Gen Z Creator Powerhouse Delivering Short Form Videos to be used for YOUR Brand’s Paid Social Ads.” According to its site, SG Social Branding has a team of “over 35 gen Z creators” who create videos for clients. These videos are made in the the style of common social media posts, like an influencer talking directly to the camera, doing man on the street interviews, or videos that look like they are clips from podcasts, but are from podcasts that don’t actually exist.
On a “case studies” page for Tea on the SG Social Branding website, the company says that Tea’s “ask” was to “Develop the narrative that Tea is the go to for Women who like to stay safe while dating.”
“We deployed creators for street interviews in locations such as NYC during daytime and the Nightlife scene on college campuses. Additionally, we made entertaining podcast clips of girl talk that is truly un-scrollable,” the case studies page says. Under “results” it says “The TEA app went #1 in the app store on July 23rd, 2025 and is now viral! Videos deployed from SGSB creators crossed over 3.4 million views with over 74k shares and rising.”
In these videos, the influencers don’t only promote Tea and talk about it as if they actually found information on it about men they know, they also repeatedly disparage Are We Dating The Same Guy Facebook groups.
“Instead of using that Facebook group Are We Dating the Same Guy, what girls are doing now because it’s so much easier is they’re downloading Tea,” a woman holding a microphone says as if she’s talking to someone off-camera. The text overlaid on the video says “Tea Party Pod.” The woman, Savannah Isabella, is an influencer who works for SG Social Branding. She goes on to talk about how one of her friends found a guy she was seeing there and all the red flags other women have posted about him. “Miss me with that. Boy bye. And it’s so much easier and faster than that Facebook group.”
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A post shared by Tea - Dating Safety App for Women (@theteapartygirls)
In another video, Isabella is at a bar, demoing the Tea app. “Girls, forget about Are We Dating The Same Guy,” she says.Isabella and SG Social Branding did not respond to a request for comment.
Marz told me that she was hired to Tea by a woman named Tara and that initially she only communicated with Tara. Marz did a Zoom interview with Tara before she started to work for Tea and the woman identified herself as Tara over text and email. In November 2024, Marz said that Tara left the company, at which point she started reporting directly to Cook. When I showed Marz a photograph of Christianne Burns, Cook’s then fiancée, she said that was who she knew as Tara, who first interviewed her over Zoom.
After "Tara" left, Marz said Sean took over the “Tara Tea” account which was used to communicate with Tea users in the app and on Facebook.
“Sean uses that account to communicate directly with users on the app, but people think they are speaking to someone actually named Tara,” she told me. Essentially, a man is posing as a woman to an audience of women who are trying to protect themselves from, at best, deceptive men.
How Tea Deleted Posts About Men
Tori Benitez has a private consulting business for victims of domestic violence who are in Family Court for high conflict divorces or custody battles. She told me she joined the Tea app because it promoted digital safety, talking about abusers, and protecting people by letting them share information anonymously.“I'm in the dating scene and on dating apps, and have had my own experience, so I first joined as a user, and then I saw them post that they needed help with escalation claims,” she told me. The escalation claims were complaints both from men about what women were posting about them in the app as well as complaints from other users. She thought her experience as a paralegal would be useful, and she could use more remote work, so she sent Tea her information.
“I had a Zoom call with Sean, and he wanted to know not only a little bit about my business and how I help people, but I had to tell my own personal story.” Benitez said. “I had an ex who literally threatened to kill me and told me how he was going to kill me, even after a restraining order. My story is deep and scary, and he kind of interrupted me and started crying. And I was like, ‘Oh, are you okay?’ Looking back, shouldn't I have been the one crying? It's kind of weird.”
Benitez said she took the job because she wanted to help women. During the interview and at several points while working for Tea, Benitez said that Cook wanted to make her consulting business part of Tea. Benitez said Cook floated having a tab in the Tea app that would send women to her consulting business if they needed help, or having her run workshops for users.
“I feel like his [Cook’s] motive is money, not actually to protect people, and I think that his story about his mom is a crock of shit.”
Benitez started working in April of this year but said the job wasn’t what she expected because it made no use of her experience as a paralegal. She said the work was more like customer support, and mainly had her filtering through complaints, responding to them according to a strict script she was given, and keeping a record of the responses.If a complaint contained words like “defamation” or seemed legally threatening, she would find the post in question and the user who posted it. At times she would contact the user and ask them if the post was true and if they had any evidence to prove it. Sometimes users would respond and say the accusations were true, and the post would remain. Sometimes the users also provided supporting evidence, like court documents. Sometimes the users would delete the posts themselves, or Tea would delete the posts if the users didn’t respond to Benitez’s questions after a certain amount of time.
“That's when things would get deleted and literally no longer exist on there,” she said. “Nobody could find them. They did not go into an archive. They are just poof gone.”
She would record all the complaints and responses in a spreadsheet for Tea’s internal records, but said it didn’t always make sense when Tea decided to delete a public post on the Tea app vs when it decided to leave one up. In one interview in May, 2025, Cook said the Tea app receives “three legal threats a day from men,” and that Tea has a full legal team that helps it manage those situations.
Benitez said that in one case, Cook told her he would handle a complaint from a man regarding what was said about him on the app himself because Cook knew the man personally.
“He [Cook] seemed to side with or randomly choose to delete things that just didn't make sense and felt really concerning to me,” she said. “But I felt I had no room to complain, because every time I brought up a concern his response was either ‘ignore it,’ or ‘I will handle it,’ and there's no HR, so it's not like I can go anywhere to say all this stuff's happening. I didn't have any other point of contact other than him.”
Benitez also said she raised concerns about users’ behavior on the app. She said that at some point earlier this year Tea went viral in one town in Louisiana, where Tea users started going after each other and the number of complaints exploded.
“There was a lot of fighting in the comments between users. There were a lot of threats between users. It just turned into a chat room,” she said. “They would be fighting each other. Like, ‘Where are you at? I’ll pull up on you.’ I was like, ‘holy shit.’ There would be racist posts. It just started getting bad, and I mentioned that to him [Cook] as well, and I basically got the answer of let them say whatever they want. And like this whole like, you know, ‘It's free speech.’ I thought this was about protecting people,” Benitez recalled.
In May, Benitez said Cook was late to pay her. When she asked about it, Cook said he didn’t have the money, and asked her to keep working until he did, or work for less pay. At that point, Benitez said she wouldn’t work until she got paid for the work she already did. Eventually Cook sent her the money for the hours she already worked, but Benitez never came back.
There are currently two class action lawsuits in motion against Tea accusing the company of failing to properly secure users’ private information. After these complaints were filed Tea updated its terms of service, which now require users to waive their right to participate in class actions against the company, and agree to attempt an “informal dispute resolution” before suing the company.
“I feel like his [Cook’s] motive is money, not actually to protect people,” Benitez said, “and I think that his story about his mom is a crock of shit.”
Tea’s Security Breaches Put Users at Risk
On July 25, 404 Media broke the news that Tea made an error that completely exposed a database containing at least 72,000 thousand images from its users, and that a misogynistic 4chan community downloaded them and shared them online in various forms in order to harass and humiliate women. On July 28, 404 Media revealed an even worse security breach to Tea, which exposed more than a million private messages between Tea users that included identifying information and intimate conversations about cheating partners and abortions.After the first hack, someone created a website modeled after “Facemash,” the site that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg infamously created while he was a student at Harvard to rank the attractiveness of female students at the university. This new site, based on Tea data, took the selfies women uploaded to Tea in order to verify they are women, presented them to visitors in pairs, and allowed them to choose which they believed was more attractive. The site used the votes to create a ranking and also highlighted the list of the 50 most and least attractive women according to votes.
The second breach was far more dangerous not only because the direct messages between Tea users that were exposed included conversations they thought were private about sensitive subjects that could become dangerous in the wrong hands, but also because those conversations included details that could be used to deanonymize users. Direct messages between users often included their real phone numbers, names, and social media handles.
“I posted on the app about a man who groomed and abused me as a minor,” one Tea user whose direct messages were exposed in the second security breach told 404 Media. The user asked to be anonymous because she’s heard about “incel dudes” doxing Tea users. “I joined Tea because I appreciated the premise of a ‘whisper network’ for community safety—because a huge amount of men are, in fact, unsafe individuals, and most of the time those impacted don't find out until it's too late.”
This user added that they felt safe enough to share intimate details on Tea because it was advertised as a “safe space” for women with a strong emphasis on anonymity.
“My reaction to the breach is anger, just anger, and some disgust,” the user said.
Kasra Rahjerdi, the researcher who flagged the second security breach to 404 Media, said there were signs he wasn’t the only person who may have accessed more than a million of private Tea messages. Every Tea user is assigned a unique API key which allows them to interface with the app in order to log in, read public posts, share posts, or do other actions in the app. Rahjerdi discovered that any Tea user was also able to use their own API key to access sensitive parts of the Tea app’s backend, including a database of private messages and the ability to send all Tea users a push notification.
This access also allowed users to create new databases, and Rahjerdi told 404 Media he saw someone else doing just that while he was looking at Tea’s backend. Most of these databases were empty, but one contained a link to a Discord server with a handful of users which shut down shortly after 404 Media tried to join it on July 26. This activity indicates that someone else found the same security breach as Rahjerdi and could have accessed more than a million private messages of Tea users as well.
In a podcast interview in April, 2025, Cook said he doesn’t know how to code, and that the Tea app was built by two developers in Brazil. According to Tea’s Linkedin page, both developers are contractors who are available to hire via Toptal, a platform where software developers offer their labor as remote freelancers. Those two developers did not respond to our request for comment.
Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told 404 Media that the private Tea messages could be especially dangerous to Tea users who talked about abortions or specific men.
“I would be particularly concerned about posts about abortions in say Texas, where SB 8 grants a private right of action to sue anyone who performs or facilitates an abortion that violates the law,” Galperin said. SB 8, also known as the “Texas Heartbeat Act,” bans abortion after the detection of a “fetal heartbeat,” which is usually six weeks into pregnancy. The law also allows anyone to sue anyone else who performs abortions or “aids and abets” performing or inducing an abortion in violation of the law. “I’d also be concerned about DMs containing information of sexual orientation or immigration status, or details about sexual assault that the survivor was sharing in private.”
Galperin said she would be “extremely concerned” if the messages got out, not just because of the men who are named in the messages, but because “There are people who think that anyone who has an account on this platform is fair game for harassment,” referring to some of the harassment we’ve already seen from 4chan.
Despite the risks the Tea app has already put users in, Tea has downplayed the impact of the security breaches, and has continued to grow in popularity. On July 28, Tea said in a post to Instagram that “some” direct messages were accessed as part of the initial incident, and that it had temporarily disabled the ability for users to send direct messages. The statement does not acknowledge that more than a million messages were exposed, and also misleads users that those messages were leaked as part of the initial breach. The messages were exposed in an entirely separate breach around different security issues. On July 26, after 404 Media reported about both Tea breaches, Tea said on Instagram that it received over 2.5 million requests to join the app. The replies from users on Instagram are filled with people who are on the Tea app waiting list to be approved. Again, even after it said it has hired a cybersecurity firm to address the two previously reported breaches, 404 Media found a third security issue that exposed users’ private information that Tea wasn’t aware of until we reached out for comment.
Today, Tea’s site boasts that more than 6.2 million women use the app.
Joseph Cox contributed reporting.
A Second Tea Breach Reveals Users’ DMs About Abortions and Cheating
The more than one million messages obtained by 404 Media are as recent as last week, discuss incredibly sensitive topics, and make it trivial to unmask some anonymous Tea users.Emanuel Maiberg (404 Media)
adhocfungus likes this.
"Best practices" (?) with laptop battery driving me crazy
Ok, well, to start with, my Lenovo X1 Carbon 10th is known for not having the greatest battery life.
Despite this, to preserve battery health, I have notifications set to warn me when a charge goes under 20% or over 90%, so that I either plug in or unplug when I get them, which TTBOMK constitutes "best practices." Very possibly I'm just getting old and getting lost too deeply in whatever I'm doing, but I feel like I'm constantly getting these notifications, and they're really starting to get on my nerves!
I've tried tlp and auto-cpufreq without any noticeable difference in performance, and usually I'm on "Power Saver" in Mint.
Mrs. Erinaceus has a gaming laptop and just keeps it plugged in all the time, battery health be damned. Is that what I should do? Maybe time to get a new battery? Or is there just some way to tell it to stop charging and leave it plugged in?
Palestine was the problem with TikTok - Congress seemed to think a scrolling video platform was a national security threat. What changed?
Palestine was the problem with TikTok
After pro-Palestine content flooded the app, Congress treated TikTok as a national security threat. What changed?Sarah Jeong (The Verge)
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They appointed an exIDF instructor to determine what's hate speech...
Suddenly it wasn't a problem anymore
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Wyoming launches first state-backed stablecoin on seven blockchains
After years of research, the Wyoming Stable Token Commission has unveiled the mainnet launch of its first official state-backed stablecoin. The so-called Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), marking the first time a U.S. state has issued a blockchain-based, fiat-pegged token meant to be used by retail and enterprises alike, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
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Just great.
Obviously the customers don't need to know that their audit logs not only could have been turned off for conversations without any extra authentication, but also are so easy to turn off that it happens by accident without any extra intervention.
Also their entire Vulnerability disclosing guideline is security/compliance/image theater.
AI has passed the aesthetic Turing Test − and it’s changing our relationship with art
AI has passed the aesthetic Turing Test − and it’s changing our relationship with art
If a machine creates a video or a song that brings a person to tears, does it matter that the machine felt nothing?The Conversation
KPMG wrote 100-page prompt to build agentic TaxBot: Produces advice in a single day instead of two weeks – without job losses
- Hackernews.
:::
KPMG wrote 100-page prompt to build agentic TaxBot
: Produces advice in a single day instead of two weeks – without job lossesSimon Sharwood (The Register)
AI Website Builder Lovable Abused for Phishing and Malware Scams
- Threat actors are increasingly using an AI website generation platform to create fraudulent websites for credential phishing and malware delivery.
- Threat actors created or cloned websites that impersonated prominent brands, used CAPTCHA for filtering, and posted credentials to Telegram.
- The barrier to entry for cybercriminals has never been lower.
Cybercriminals Abuse AI Website Creation App For Phishing | Proofpoint US
Key findings Threat actors are increasingly using an AI website generation platform to create fraudulent websites for credential phishing and malware delivery. Threat actorsProofpoint
[Meta] Can you allow the English language posts?
Russian Government Cyber Actors Targeting Networking Devices, Critical Infrastructure
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36017215
Research with details.
- Static Tundra is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group linked to the FSB's Center 16 unit that has been operating for over a decade, specializing in compromising network devices for long-term intelligence gathering operations.
- The group actively exploits a seven-year-old vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171), which was patched at the time of the vulnerability publications, in Cisco IOS software's Smart Install feature, targeting unpatched and end-of-life network devices to steal configuration data and establish persistent access.
- Primary targets include organizations in telecommunications, higher education and manufacturing sectors across North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, with victims selected based on their strategic interest to the Russian government.
- Static Tundra employs sophisticated persistence techniques including the historic SYNful Knock firmware implant (first reported in 2015) and bespoke SNMP tooling to maintain undetected access for multiple years.
- The threat extends beyond Russia's operations — other state-sponsored actors are likely conducting similar network device compromise campaigns, making comprehensive patching and security hardening critical for all organizations.
- Threat actors will continue to abuse devices which remain unpatched and have Smart Install enabled.
Russian Government Cyber Actors Targeting Networking Devices, Critical Infrastructure
- Static Tundra is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group linked to the FSB's Center 16 unit that has been operating for over a decade, specializing in compromising network devices for long-term intelligence gathering operations.
- The group actively exploits a seven-year-old vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171), which was patched at the time of the vulnerability publications, in Cisco IOS software's Smart Install feature, targeting unpatched and end-of-life network devices to steal configuration data and establish persistent access.
- Primary targets include organizations in telecommunications, higher education and manufacturing sectors across North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, with victims selected based on their strategic interest to the Russian government.
- Static Tundra employs sophisticated persistence techniques including the historic SYNful Knock firmware implant (first reported in 2015) and bespoke SNMP tooling to maintain undetected access for multiple years.
- The threat extends beyond Russia's operations — other state-sponsored actors are likely conducting similar network device compromise campaigns, making comprehensive patching and security hardening critical for all organizations.
- Threat actors will continue to abuse devices which remain unpatched and have Smart Install enabled.
Russian state-sponsored espionage group Static Tundra compromises unpatched end-of-life network devices
A Russian state-sponsored group, Static Tundra, is exploiting an old Cisco IOS vulnerability to compromise unpatched network devices worldwide, targeting key sectors for intelligence gathering.Sara McBroom (Cisco Talos Blog)
Russian Government Cyber Actors Targeting Networking Devices, Critical Infrastructure
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36017215
Research with details.
- Static Tundra is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group linked to the FSB's Center 16 unit that has been operating for over a decade, specializing in compromising network devices for long-term intelligence gathering operations.
- The group actively exploits a seven-year-old vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171), which was patched at the time of the vulnerability publications, in Cisco IOS software's Smart Install feature, targeting unpatched and end-of-life network devices to steal configuration data and establish persistent access.
- Primary targets include organizations in telecommunications, higher education and manufacturing sectors across North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, with victims selected based on their strategic interest to the Russian government.
- Static Tundra employs sophisticated persistence techniques including the historic SYNful Knock firmware implant (first reported in 2015) and bespoke SNMP tooling to maintain undetected access for multiple years.
- The threat extends beyond Russia's operations — other state-sponsored actors are likely conducting similar network device compromise campaigns, making comprehensive patching and security hardening critical for all organizations.
- Threat actors will continue to abuse devices which remain unpatched and have Smart Install enabled.
Russian Government Cyber Actors Targeting Networking Devices, Critical Infrastructure
- Static Tundra is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group linked to the FSB's Center 16 unit that has been operating for over a decade, specializing in compromising network devices for long-term intelligence gathering operations.
- The group actively exploits a seven-year-old vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171), which was patched at the time of the vulnerability publications, in Cisco IOS software's Smart Install feature, targeting unpatched and end-of-life network devices to steal configuration data and establish persistent access.
- Primary targets include organizations in telecommunications, higher education and manufacturing sectors across North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, with victims selected based on their strategic interest to the Russian government.
- Static Tundra employs sophisticated persistence techniques including the historic SYNful Knock firmware implant (first reported in 2015) and bespoke SNMP tooling to maintain undetected access for multiple years.
- The threat extends beyond Russia's operations — other state-sponsored actors are likely conducting similar network device compromise campaigns, making comprehensive patching and security hardening critical for all organizations.
- Threat actors will continue to abuse devices which remain unpatched and have Smart Install enabled.
Russian state-sponsored espionage group Static Tundra compromises unpatched end-of-life network devices
A Russian state-sponsored group, Static Tundra, is exploiting an old Cisco IOS vulnerability to compromise unpatched network devices worldwide, targeting key sectors for intelligence gathering.Sara McBroom (Cisco Talos Blog)
Cheap SBC x86-64 ?
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36014616
Hi,is it exist cheap ~$60 SBC in X86-64 ??
::: spoiler No thank you for Rapsberry PI
\
I used Raspberry PI SBC for a while now.But it's really hard to found a Linux distribution that support
- RPI (arm64)
- sysVinit 💖
- And that I likePlease don't bring systemD in this discussion thanks.
:::[^1]:
quick summary
Monolithic design: Systemd is a large, complex piece of software that combines many system management functions, rather than having separate, specialized tools as in the traditional Unix philosophy.rentry.co
BrikoX likes this.
<60 range:
- hackerboards.com/board/digital…
- hackerboards.com/board/radxa-r…
There are some other options in >=100 range.
See hackerboards.com/?cpu_architec…
Digital Loggers Atomic PI
Technical specifications for Digital Loggers Atomic PI on Board-DB: Intel Atom x5-Z8350 (4x x86 @1.92Ghz) 2.0 GiB RAMhackerboards.com
Weapons of Mass Delusion Are Helping Kids Opt Out of Reality
Last week’s bombshell revelation of Meta’s internal chatbot guidelines has led to a surge of attention on chatbots and kids. The guidelines demonstrate what so many experts have been saying for not just years, but decades: these products are optimized for engagement over all else. Meta is not alone. The entire industry is building technologies that are designed not to connect us to reality, but to help us avoid it by living our lives on and through its products.While there are well-documented upsides to social media, especially among marginalized youth, much of the conversation about the harms inevitably centers on contacts and content: who are young people interacting with and what are they consuming. This grounds the discussion and action in acute and tangible harms: inappropriate content, online predators, excessive screen time, etc.
But alongside both real and perceived visible threats is a more subtle and perhaps more nefarious phenomenon: a distortion of how children view themselves, and how they experience and understand human connection of all kinds. Across platforms there are literal and figurative filters that warp our faces, relationships, friendships, and intimacy into fantasies — a perversion of some of the most basic human experiences. Social media, augmented reality, and the rapidly growing world of AI chatbots are enabling avoidance at a massive scale. It’s time we start thinking about it that way.
Now surging onto the scene, we have AI companion chatbots that create (as Yuval Harari calls them) “counterfeit humans” that purport to be the perfect friend, or partner, tailored to each person's needs, desires, and opinions. They essentially allow people to craft a fantasy person that pushes them further and further into a safe and cozy echo-chamber that is completely disconnected from reality. This is not an imaginary doomer future, it’s already here. Products that we are already using are not only allowing, but actively enabling young children to trade real relationships for an illusion — or perhaps more aptly, for a delusion.
So what are the delusions? I see two main categories: (1) the delusion of physical perfection, and (2) the delusion of connection. Let’s start with what we can see: appearance filters and the delusion of physical perfection.
Russian Government Cyber Actors Targeting Networking Devices, Critical Infrastructure
- Static Tundra is a Russian state-sponsored cyber espionage group linked to the FSB's Center 16 unit that has been operating for over a decade, specializing in compromising network devices for long-term intelligence gathering operations.
- The group actively exploits a seven-year-old vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171), which was patched at the time of the vulnerability publications, in Cisco IOS software's Smart Install feature, targeting unpatched and end-of-life network devices to steal configuration data and establish persistent access.
- Primary targets include organizations in telecommunications, higher education and manufacturing sectors across North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, with victims selected based on their strategic interest to the Russian government.
- Static Tundra employs sophisticated persistence techniques including the historic SYNful Knock firmware implant (first reported in 2015) and bespoke SNMP tooling to maintain undetected access for multiple years.
- The threat extends beyond Russia's operations — other state-sponsored actors are likely conducting similar network device compromise campaigns, making comprehensive patching and security hardening critical for all organizations.
- Threat actors will continue to abuse devices which remain unpatched and have Smart Install enabled.
Russian state-sponsored espionage group Static Tundra compromises unpatched end-of-life network devices
A Russian state-sponsored group, Static Tundra, is exploiting an old Cisco IOS vulnerability to compromise unpatched network devices worldwide, targeting key sectors for intelligence gathering.Sara McBroom (Cisco Talos Blog)
Microsoft Still Can't Say How Much the ROG Xbox Ally X Will Cost Due to "Macro-Economic" Conditions, Despite Announcing Release Date and Availability Details(Leaked prices $549.99/$899 for Ally/Ally )
Microsoft Still Can't Say How Much the ROG Xbox Ally X Will Cost Due to "Macro-Economic" Conditions, Despite Announcing Release Date and Availability Details - IGN
Microsoft has confirmed release date and availability details for the ROG Xbox Ally X, its upcoming gaming handheld made by Asus, but notably held off on confirming how much the device will cost.Tom Phillips (IGN)
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Technology reshared this.
CLEAR Launches Biometric eGates At Airports, In Partnership With TSA
CLEAR is rolling out eGates at TSA checkpoints for members, which will simplify the security process. Here's what to expect.
US Court Sides With Zunum (Again), Reinstating $81M Verdict Against Boeing
A long legal battle intensifies as the aerospace giant faces a blow in court.
Volaris Deploys Another Airbus A320 After Passenger Reportedly Opens Door During Pushback In Phoenix
Volaris was forced to ferry a new jet to Phoenix after the incident.
Two Alleged Pirate IPTV Operators Sent to Prison For Contempt of Court
Two men said to be the operators of SmoothStreams, a pirate IPTV service shut down by entertainment companies over three years ago, have been imprisoned in Canada. Marshall Macciacchera and his father Antonio were both found guilty of contempt and sentenced to an initial term of six months. Marshall's sentence will continue until he complies with a court order to hand over financial information and a laptop password, among other things.
Two Alleged Pirate IPTV Operators Sent to Prison For Contempt of Court * TorrentFreak
The alleged operators of SmoothStreams, a pirate IPTV service shut down over three years ago, have been imprisoned in Canada for contempt.Andy Maxwell (TF Publishing)
White House confirms talks to acquire 10% stake in Intel — 'We should get an equity stake for our money'
"We’ll get equity in return for it; get a good return for the American taxpayer, instead of just giving grants away"
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Hackers access data of 850,000 Orange Belgium customers
An IT system containing data such as surname, first name, telephone number, SIM card number, PUK code, tariff plan was accessed, the company said
https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/hackers-access-data-of-850000-orange-belgium-customers/
Canada | Unpaid work for flight attendants could be on the way out as union declares win
Unpaid ground time for flight attendants could be on the way out as Air Canada looks to be joining a growing number of airlines that have agreed to move away from the widespread practice.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian basketball star in Gaza aid centre shooting
Local media report Mohammed Shaalan was killed while attempting to secure food and medicine for his family
Archived version: archive.is/newest/middleeastey…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian basketball star in Gaza aid centre shooting
Israeli forces killed former Palestinian national basketball player Mohammed Shaalan on Tuesday. Shaalan, 40, was killed at an aid distribution site near Khan Younis while attempting to secure food and medicine for his sick daughter, Maryam, and the…Mera Aladam (Middle East Eye)
FreeVPN.One Chrome extension spies on you, delete it immediately
A troubling exposé has shined a light on a very popular VPN extension in Chrome that is taking screenshots of everything its users do.
https://www.neowin.net/news/this-popular-chrome-extension-spies-on-you-delete-it-immediately/
Raoul Duke likes this.
11 Years Later, Elon Musk Is Floating the Flying Car Scam Again
Would you take a ride in a flying Cybertruck?
Pete Hegseth is requiring so much security it’s taking officers off of criminal investigations
Members of U.S. Army’s law enforcement arm complain they are being taken out of the field to watch defense secretary’s family and homes
New Syrian government moves to dismantle Assad’s $5bn narco-state
Syria’s new leadership under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has launched an aggressive campaign to dismantle the vast captagon drug empire left behind by ousted dictator Bashar Al-Assad, whose regime transformed the country into one of the world’s largest narco-states. The drug trade, valued at over $5 billion annually, became a lifeline for Assad during the civil war, as sanctions and conflict crippled the economy.
Archived version: archive.is/newest/middleeastmo…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Turkey is still ready to deploy peace force in Ukraine
While Ankara may commit itself to sending troops as part of security guarantees, Russia's approval is more important than European plans
Archived version: archive.is/newest/middleeastey…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Turkey is still ready to deploy peace force in Ukraine
Turkey remains open to providing security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a comprehensive peace agreement with Russia, including the deployment of a peacekeeping force, sources familiar with Ankara’s position told Middle East Eye.Ragip Soylu (Middle East Eye)
Microsoft’s Security Plan to Protect U.S. Government Data from Hacking Omits China Operations
The tech giant is required to regularly provide U.S. officials with its plan for keeping government data safe from hacking. Yet a copy of Microsoft’s security plan obtained by ProPublica makes no reference to the company’s China-based operations.
VPN Logging Policies in 2025: Which 'No-Logs' Providers Pass the Test?
From the article:
| VPN | HQ & Eyes Alliance | Latest Independent Audit | Real-World Test | Retention Verdict* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExpressVPN | British Virgin Islands (no data-retention laws) | KPMG ISAE 3000 Type I, Feb 2025 (ExpressVPN) | Split-tunnelling DNS leak disclosed Feb 2024 (patched) | Gold-standard. RAM-only fleet, annual audits, BVI jurisdiction. |
| NordVPN | Panama | Deloitte 5th audit, Dec 2024 (NordVPN) | 2018 server breach – no logs leaked | Regular audits and positive breach outcome. |
| Surfshark | Netherlands (9-Eyes) | Deloitte, Jan 2023 (Surfshark) | TunnelCrack Wi-Fi leak (Aug 2023) → patched in <7 days. | Strong audit hygiene but concerning jurisdiction. |
| Proton VPN | Switzerland | Securitum, Apr 2024 (securitum.com) | N/A | Open-source clients + Swiss privacy laws. |
| Mullvad | Sweden (14-Eyes) | Assured AB config audit 2023 | Swedish police raid Apr 18 2023 left empty-handed (Mullvad VPN) | Minimal-data design proven in the wild. |
| Private Internet Access | USA (5-Eyes) | Deloitte, Apr 2024 (Private Internet Access) | Multiple US subpoenas produced no logs | Paper-trail-verified despite US HQ. |
| CyberGhost | Romania (EU, outside Eyes) | Deloitte, May 2024 (CyberGhost VPN) | N/A | Second audit boosts trust. |
| TunnelBear | Canada (5-Eyes) | Cure53 7th audit, Dec 2023 (TunnelBear: Secure VPN Service) | N/A | Longest unbroken audit streak. |
| Windscribe | Canada (5-Eyes) | Cure53 server image audit 2022 | 2025 Greek/Canadian court case upheld no-logs stance (Tom’s Guide) | Policy tested – passed. |
| Hotspot Shield | USA (5-Eyes) | Performance/security review by AV-Test only; no dedicated no-logs audit (vpnMentor) | AV-TEST performance audit only; no no-logs audit to date. (CVE Details) | Speed king, privacy laggard. |
Archived links:
AV-Test VPN Report – Summary of Findings
In June 2018 the independent security institute, AV-Test, released an evaluation of twelve VPNs. The following VPNs were studied: Hotspot Shield Elite, Avast SecureLine, AviraSara Levavi-Eilat (vpnMentor)
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Pirating newsletters
Paywalls have become part and parcel of the modern Web it seems. And despite helpful extensions like BPC, there are always many sites where one is constrained to compromise. Many sites also keep stuff like newsletters for subscribers only.
In this specific example, The Verge has launched two new variants and both are behind a paywall. Whilst the site itself works with BPC, is there a way to access the newsletters?
Of course, you might ask why I don't pay. It's because it's exceptionally hard. Ironically for a tech company, Verge took the nonsensical step of NOT having regional specific pricing. So, they are currently more expensive than YouTube, Play Pass and local newspaper subscription combined in my country.
China wakes to the importance of moving closer to Israel
cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/40765971
China’s growing involvement in the Middle East, intensified by the recent escalation of violence in Gaza, is prompting renewed scrutiny of Beijing’s regional strategy, The Jerusalem Post reports. Traditionally focused on securing access to energy resources, safeguarding trade corridors, and expanding infrastructure investments, particularly in the Gulf, China's approach has until recently been marked by strategic ambiguity and a reluctance to take clear sides in regional rivalries.[...]
Energy security remains central to China’s engagement in the region. As the world’s leading oil importer, China currently sources approximately 40% of its oil from the Middle East; a figure projected to double by 2035. This dependency leaves Beijing vulnerable to disruptions in maritime chokepoints such as the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, which are also vital routes for Chinese trade with Europe and Africa.
[...]
In Israel meanwhile, some have called for a reassessment of relations with China, despite limitations imposed by close ties to Washington. This reassessment could present Israel with an opportunity to strengthen its presence in Asian markets, diversify its regional relationships, while at the same time exploring deeper engagement with countries across the Global South; a region Iran struggles to relate to.
[...]
https://www.intellinews.com/china-wakes-to-the-importance-of-moving-closer-to-israel-395036
In 2024, China imported goods worth $2.8bn from Israel, while Hong Kong imported an additional $2bn, according to the UN Comtrade database. With the combined $4.8bn, China is worldwide the second-largest buyer of Israeli goods behind the US.
China was, however, the biggest exporter to Israel with $19bn, more than twice the volume of second US with $9.4bn, and Germany with $5.6bn.
That's more than 'ambiguous talk' but has rather long been materializing I would say.
Considering China's trade power, it's more fair to compare it to the EU bloc which is by far the number one trade partner. Total trade in goods between the EU and Israel in 2024 amounted to €42.6 billion. EU imports from Israel were worth €15.9 billion. The EU’s exports to Israel amounted to €26.7 billion.
And considering China's total exports in 2024 were valued at US$3.58 trillion, it's kind of insignificant in a sense that it signifies a shift in trade policy.
59% of US adults use smart assistants to check the weather, 51% for music, 47% to get answers on the web, and 40% for timers, mirroring usage in 2018
Americans use digital assistants mainly for weather, music, and timers
Most use digital assistants for basic tasks; users want smarter, faster, more capable help.business.yougov.com
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Belarus, Iran sign package of documents on advancing cooperation
Belarus, Iran sign package of documents on advancing cooperation
A joint statement of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian on more profound advancement of relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been signed.Belarusian Telegraph Agency
96,000 UK Police Bodycam Videos Lost After Data Transfer Mishap
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/35959876
At the end of each shift, officers’ BWV footage was uploaded and stored to a central hub which could be accessed and managed, along with all of SYP’s digital evidence, via a secure system.Following an upgrade in May 2023, the secure system began to struggle processing BWV data and a local drive workaround was put in place.
In August 2023 SYP identified that its BWV file storage was very low and further investigation found that 96,174 pieces of original footage had been deleted from its system.
The following month it was found the deletion had taken place on 26 July 2023 and included the loss of data relating to 126 criminal cases, only three of the cases were impacted by the loss. Of those three cases, SYP states one may have progressed to the first court hearing if BWV had been available. However, as there was no additional independent evidence to prove the offence, progression to prosecution stage was already uncertain.
Prior to the deletion, 95,033 pieces of BWV footage had been copied to a new system that SYP was implementing but, due to poor record keeping, SYP remain unable to confirm the exact number of files deleted without copies made.
96,000 UK Police Bodycam Videos Lost After Data Transfer Mishap
At the end of each shift, officers’ BWV footage was uploaded and stored to a central hub which could be accessed and managed, along with all of SYP’s digital evidence, via a secure system.Following an upgrade in May 2023, the secure system began to struggle processing BWV data and a local drive workaround was put in place.
In August 2023 SYP identified that its BWV file storage was very low and further investigation found that 96,174 pieces of original footage had been deleted from its system.
The following month it was found the deletion had taken place on 26 July 2023 and included the loss of data relating to 126 criminal cases, only three of the cases were impacted by the loss. Of those three cases, SYP states one may have progressed to the first court hearing if BWV had been available. However, as there was no additional independent evidence to prove the offence, progression to prosecution stage was already uncertain.
Prior to the deletion, 95,033 pieces of BWV footage had been copied to a new system that SYP was implementing but, due to poor record keeping, SYP remain unable to confirm the exact number of files deleted without copies made.
South Yorkshire Police reprimanded following deletion of body-worn video evidence
We have reprimanded South Yorkshire Police (SYP) after the force deleted over 96,000 pieces of body-worn video (BWV) evidence.ico.org.uk
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The Document Foundation is proud to release LibreOffice 25.8
The Document Foundation is proud to release LibreOffice 25.8.
LibreOffice is a powerful, free and open source office suite for Linux, MacOS and Microsoft Windows.
No advertising. No data tracking. No subscriptions.
LibreOffice is used by individuals, businesses, schools, hospitals and cities around the world.
blog.documentfoundation.org/bl…
New improvements
Highlights of LibreOffice 25.8 include:
- Up to 30% faster opening of files in Writer and Calc
- Support for exporting PDF 2.0
- Improved user interface: the Welcome/What’s New dialog now offers access to the user interface picker and appearance options
- Optimized memory management for smoother operation on virtual desktops
- Improved scrolling through large documents
- New viewer mode to open all files in read-only mode.
- Overhauled word hyphenation and spacing
- New financial functions in Calc
- Significantly better display of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean DOC/DOCX documents
- Spell check dictionaries updates for Danish, English, Hindi, Mongolian, Spanish, Thai, and Ukrainian.
The Document Foundation
The Document Foundation is a German non-profit organization.
We believe that Free Software can provide better privacy, quality, reliability, and greater flexibility than corporate alternatives.
Helping
LibreOffice is developed by hundreds of volunteers around the world.
Join us today and help us to make it even better ❤️
👉 libreoffice.org/community/get-…
Thank you to the developers, designers, translators, donors and supporters 🙏 🙏🙏.
LibreOffice 25.8: smarter, faster and more reliable - The Document Foundation Blog
The best open source office suite continues to evolve, while maintaining its focus on privacy and digital sovereignty Berlin, 20 August 2025 – The Document Foundation announces the release of LibreOffice 25.8.Italo Vignoli (The Document Foundation)
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Technology reshared this.
Maybe i got lucky, but i always had good experiences with the pdfs i had to tweak in draw
But most of my modofications are kind of form-filling, alignment font and format was never a reequirement
Lots of love for LibreOffice.
Its a great opensource project that just keeps chugging along being great.
My team and I use it exclusively in our consultancy. Complex documents and spreadsheets all day long. LO never gets tired.
Without LO id be beholden to Microsoft.
Apache should really release the rights to the name OpenOffice and let LO have it.
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
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The Kyiv Independent [unofficial]
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Russia’s war against Ukraine
Supporters of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign protest in Parliament Square on August 19, 2025 in London, England. President Zelensky has said today that he is willing to meet President Putin for peace talks to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. (Guy Smallman / Getty Images)
Zelensky, Putin may meet within 2 weeks, German chancellor says. “The American president spoke with the Russian president on the phone and agreed that there would be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president within the next two weeks,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.
US troops won’t be sent to Ukraine as part of security guarantees, Trump says. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Aug. 19 that U.S. soldiers will not be on the ground in Ukraine to ensure security guarantees are upheld, deflecting the responsibility to European allies.
NATO military leaders to meet on Aug. 20 to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine. NATO military leaders are scheduled to meet virtually on Aug. 20 to discuss the alliance’s support for Ukraine as European leaders continue negotiations with Kyiv and Washington on security agreements for the embattled country.
‘I want to try to get to heaven,’ Trump cites divine motivation for Ukraine peace. “If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s a pretty… I want to try to get to heaven if possible, I’m hearing that I’m not doing well,” Trump said on Aug. 19.
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Russia resumes stolen grain shipments from occupied Ukrainian territories to Syria. Russia has resumed grain shipments to Syria from within occupied Crimea, transporting stolen grain from Ukraine’s occupied territories, reported Kateryna Yaresko, a journalist with the Ukrainian SeaKrime project that tracks Russia’s illegal shipping activity.
Zelensky outlines $90 billion US arms deal as part of Ukraine’s security guarantees. By tying its defense needs to a major boost for U.S. industry, Ukraine hopes to turn its request into an investment opportunity that appeals directly to American interests. The proposal also includes a separate $50 billion agreement for producing drones with Ukrainian companies.
Ukrainian drones hit oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast, governor says.
The refinery is the second-largest owned by Lukoil and a key producer of petroleum products in Russia’s Southern Federal District.
Ukrainian drones destroy 2 Russian ammo depots in Luhansk Oblast, Security Service says. The strikes hit warehouses in the village of Bilokurakyne, located on a key railway line supplying Russian forces on the Pokrovsk front, where Moscow is focusing its primary offensive efforts.
Read our exclusives
Trump walks back from Ukraine ceasefire calls, aligning closer with Russia’s push for peace deal
U.S. President Donald Trump has walked away from his ceasefire demand, saying that he supports its “concept” but can push for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine without one.
Photo: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Learn more
Ukraine war latest: US troops won’t be sent to Ukraine as part of security guarantees, Trump says
Trump said on Aug. 19 that U.S. soldiers will not be on the ground in Ukraine to ensure security guarantees are upheld, deflecting the responsibility to European allies.
Photo: Bonnie Cash /UPI /Bloomberg via Getty Images
Learn more
Did Zelensky wear a suit? President’s outfit at White House meeting sparks fresh debate
All eyes were on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s outfit as he arrived at the White House to meet President Donald Trump, months after his previous Washington visit sparked controversy — in part over what he wore.
Photo: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
Learn more
Security guarantees for Ukraine explained: What’s on the table and what’s realistic?
As peace talks to end the war gather speed toward a potential trilateral meeting between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, the question of what kind of security guarantees Kyiv might receive continues to loom large.
Photo: Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images
From Crimea to Donbas, Russia’s “peace” has always meant more war. We’re here in Ukraine to give the world a reality check. Support independent journalism in this critical moment.
Human cost of Russia’s war
Russian strikes killed 21, injured 99 in Ukraine since Trump-Putin summit.
Five people were killed and 11 injured on Aug. 17, followed by eight killed and 35 injured on Aug. 18, and at least eight killed and 53 injured on Aug. 19.
Russia’s Aug. 17 strike on Kharkiv kills 7, injures 24, just hours before Zelensky met with Trump in Washington. Russia launched a wave of missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities late on Aug. 17, mere hours before President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to meet for peace talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
Ukraine repatriates 1,000 bodies of fallen soldiers from Russia. According to Russian authorities, the remains belong to Ukrainian servicemembers killed in action in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Kursk regions.
Trump-Zelensky summit was theater, not progress — Landsbergis
International response
Hungary emerges as potential venue for Zelensky-Putin meeting, Reuters reports. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has blocked or delayed military aid to Ukraine, maintained ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and echoed Kremlin narratives.
EU’s 19th sanctions package against Russia expected to be ready in September, Kallas says. The European Union’s 19th package of sanctions against Russia is expected to be ready in September, top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas announced on Aug. 19, as the EU ramps up its pressure on Moscow in hopes that it will push Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
Trump raises topic of Ukraine’s EU membership with Orban, Bloomberg reports. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, European leaders urged U.S. President Donald Trump to pressure Orban into dropping his opposition to Ukraine’s EU accession talks.
Switzerland ready to give Putin immunity for peace talks. Switzerland is prepared to grant Russian President Vladimir Putin immunity from arrest if he travels to Geneva for peace negotiations, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said in an interview on Aug. 19.
Around 10 European allies willing to send troops to Ukraine, talks accelerate on security guarantees, Bloomberg reports. Talks among European officials on Aug. 19 reportedly focused on proposals to send troops from the U.K. and France to Ukraine, along with contingents from roughly 10 other countries.
In other news
Border guards detain priest attempting to smuggle draft-age man across Ukrainian border. The priest had concealed the passenger under his robes on the back seat to bypass checkpoints. The passenger turned out to be a 41-year-old resident of Sumy Oblast.
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![[Illustrative photo] purposes. Ukrainian troops and their U.K. military instructors commemorate lives lost in the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a sunrise commemorative service, at Lydd army camp in Kent, 2023](https://poliverso.org/photo/preview/640/56594551 "[Illustrative photo] purposes. Ukrainian troops and their U.K. military instructors commemorate lives lost in the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a sunrise commemorative service, at Lydd army camp in Kent, 2023")
lol
in reply to obelous • • •like this
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stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to obelous • • •Just look and figure it out. It’s really straightforward name matching. You don’t need someone to spell everything out to you, if you make a mistake just try something different. You can do it!
OPs_cops_post.html ass post. “Please explicitly tell me what illegal websites these initials refer to!” Guaranteed you are British 100% because only British cops would be stupid enough to do this.
Ddl is gonna be mainly stuff for poor Europeans who are scared of getting caught sharing files and are relying on the “loophole” of “I never actually shared the file, the file was shared with me and that’s substantively different” (it’s not, they’re just using it as an excuse to haul you in for some other reason or frame you for something).
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rickrolled767
in reply to stupid_asshole69 [none/use name] • • •Well at least your username is fitting...
Im gonna be blunt, this dude wanted to learn how to use something that interests them. Getting slapped with 'just figure it out' and some unsavory comments about where you think they're from is a surefire way to kill someone's interest in ever interacting with a community.
Do better for fucks sake
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stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to rickrolled767 • • •My response: you can figure it out! Just try a little! Don’t ask such cop ass questions, also ddl is the realm of non-English stuff.
You: unsavory!
rickrolled767
in reply to obelous • • •Just looked into this a bit. While I don't know exactly what each one corresponds to, I did find that pastebin has some lists of urls you can use.
This one has English and German-> the comments should differentiate what's what. Hope this helps!
pastebin.com/smWJhNet
Quasarr Hostnames English German Latest - Pastebin.com
Pastebinlike this
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