You might remember my earlier post about the first version of sshPilot.

Well, the app has come a long way since then. It’s now a full-featured, stable SSH connection manager with a built-in terminal, so I thought I’d show you where it’s at now.

You might ask, “Why would I need this if I’m already comfortable with the command line?”

Fair question. sshPilot isn’t here to replace your terminal, it’s here to make it better. In fact it's a terminal itself, with a sidebat you can easily toggle on and off. It keeps your connections organized, makes it easy to change your port forwarding rules, stores your keys and passwords securely, and lets you jump between multiple sessions without losing focus.

sshPilot is designed to be simple, intuitive, and keyboard-friendly. You can switch between servers and terminal tabs effortlessly using keyboard shortcuts. Fire up the app and just press enter to connect to the first host. Use Control+L to quickly switch between servers.

Here’s what it offers:

• Import and save standard ~/.ssh/config entries
• Full support for local, remote, and dynamic port forwarding
• Securely stores passwords and private key passphrases (nothing is saved as explain text)
• Manage files on your remote machines via SFTP
• SSH key generation and transfer
• SCP support
• Option to open connections in your default terminal instead of the built-in one
• Native GNOME look and feel with light and dark themes
• Toggleable sidebar
• Run local or remote commands with ease

You can grab the DEB or RPM packages from the project page on GitHub.

The feedback I got here on the first release was incredibly helpful, so I’m looking forward to hearing from you again. Your ideas and suggestions are always welcome.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has revealed the company has nearly halved its customer support workforce, replacing thousands of jobs with AI agents.

In a podcast interview with Logan Bartlett on YouTube, Benioff brutally stated: “I need less heads,” noting how instead of using human power, Salesforce is now using AI to process around 10,000 leads weekly.

Yet in the same interview, Benioff noted a lack of human resources had caused the company to accrue a backlog of 100 million uncalled leads over 26 years.

Salesforce CEO says it cut 4,000 support jobs - and replaced them with AI

Salesforce has cut 45% of its customer support workers

^{Craig Hale (TechRadar)}

The Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook will sue the Trump administration over its bid to fire her over unconfirmed allegations of mortgage fraud, her attorney has said.

Donald Trump announced he was firing Cook on Monday night, in an extraordinary move that marks the latest escalation in the US president’s attack on the central bank’s independence.

But Trump has “no authority” to remove her from the Fed’s board of governors, Abbe Lowell, Cook’s attorney, argued in a statement to reporters, saying: “His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.”

Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to sue Trump administration over its attempt to fire her

Cook’s attorney said the president has ‘no authority’ and ‘lacks any factual or legal basis’ to fire the Fed governor

^{Callum Jones (The Guardian)}

The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has quit its investments in U.S. machinery manufacturer Caterpillar and five Israeli banks following a review of the companies’ ties to conflict in the West Bank.

The executive board of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund on behalf of the Norwegian population and is valued at around $2 trillion, said Monday there was an “unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict.” The decision was based on recommendations from its ethics council, it said.

NBIM said that bulldozers manufactured by New York-listed Caterpillar were “being used by Israeli authorities in the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property.” NBIM had a $2.4 billion stake in the company at the end of 2024, representing around 1.2% ownership. CNBC has contacted Caterpillar for comment.

World's largest sovereign wealth fund exits Caterpillar and five banks on Israel concerns

Norges Bank said it was divesting from U.S. manufacturer Caterpillar over the use of its products in the destruction of Palestinian property.

^{Jenni Reid (CNBC)}

Norway’s $2-trillion wealth fund, the largest in the world, has divested from US construction equipment giant Caterpillar over the firm’s purported involvement in rights violations perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The Norwegian central bank said on Monday that it had decided to exclude Caterpillar from the fund, which it manages, “due to an unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict”. The fund also announced that it had divested from five Israeli banks, based on the recommendation of its council on ethics.

“There is no doubt that Caterpillar’s products are being used to commit extensive and systematic violations of international humanitarian law,” the council said. It added that Caterpillar had “not implemented any measures to prevent such use” by Israeli authorities.

Norway fund divests from US firm Caterpillar over Gaza, West Bank abuses

Fund says move against Caterpillar, five Israeli banks due to their contribution ‘to serious violations of rights’.

^{Al Jazeera}

The Arab affairs correspondent for i24 News was speaking during a broadcast on Monday, which was later shared by the channel on the social media platform X.

"These are Nukhba men in every way," Yehezkeli said, referring to the slain journalists as members of an elite Hamas military unit.

Yehezkeli, a settler living in the occupied West Bank, said that the journalists had helped to damage Israel's reputation by sharing images of starvation the state has imposed on Palestinians in the besieged territory.

Israeli correspondent Zvi Yehezkeli backs killing of Palestinian journalists

Israeli journalist Zvi Yehezkeli has praised Israel's killing of Palestinian journalists in a "double-tap" attack on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

^{Nadav Rapaport (Middle East Eye)}

Several women alleged that religious and community leaders had participated in the abuse. One woman named Yael Ariel testified that she had heard accounts from several women alleging that “doctors, educators, police officers, and both former and current Knesset members” took part.

“I was around 15, tied to a torture bed in basements in the Tel Aviv area,” said one women, recalling an incident in which her abusers — including family members — slaughtered a snake, mixed its blood with hers and drank it, while raping her and calling her a “holy vessel.”

“They tied me up in every possible way, using whips and electric shocks, raping me,” said another survivor, who testified that she was 5 years old when she began suffering “unbearable abuse,” including by religious leaders and educators who told her that she was “defective” and needed to be “fixed.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/horrifying-testimonies-seek-to-lift-shroud-of-silence-around-ritual-sex-abuse-claims

I only plan to use it for messaging in a couple of sports teams and event invitations.

I'm willing to take a lot of measures as long as they don't get the account blocked - no phone app, dedicated virtual machine+VPN to isolate from other internet activity, purchased fake phone number in signup, adding fake interests and life details. However, I won't provide any real ID/photos, are these needed for signup?

Update: registered with a well-known VPN and an online purchased fake number. Added a couple of friends and made a few junk posts. Asked to confirm with selfie after 4 days, didn't have any activity whatsoever during the last two days so it wasn't as if I did any action which immediately triggered the check.

A Russian state-backed messenger application called Max, a rival to WhatsApp that critics say could be used to track users, must be pre-installed on all mobile phones and tablets bought in the country starting next month, the Russian government said on Thursday.

The decision to promote Max comes as Moscow, locked in a standoff with the west over Ukraine, is seeking greater control over the internet. The Kremlin said in a statement that Max, which will be integrated with government services, would be on a list of mandatory pre-installed apps on all “gadgets”, including mobile phones and tablets, sold in Russia from 1 September.

Russia orders state-backed Max messenger app to be pre-installed on new phones

Critics say Max, a WhatsApp rival, could be used to track users, though state media says it is not a spying app

^{Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)}

Grok, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, has exposed hundreds of thousands of private user conversations through Google search indexing. When users click the "share" button to create a URL for sharing their chat, the conversation becomes publicly searchable - often without users realizing it¹².

Google has indexed over 370,000 Grok conversations, including sensitive content like medical questions, personal information, and at least one password². Unlike OpenAI's ChatGPT, which quickly removed a similar feature after backlash, Grok's share function does not include any warning that conversations will become public³.

According to Forbes, some marketers are already exploiting this feature by intentionally creating Grok conversations to manipulate search engine rankings for their businesses².

1. TechCrunch - Thousands of Grok chats are now searchable on Google ↩︎
2. Forbes - Elon Musk's xAI Published Hundreds Of Thousands Of Grok Chatbot Conversations ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
3. Fortune - Thousands of private user conversations with Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot have exposed on Google Search ↩︎