Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/36523523
Sept. 22, 2025Israel kills 29 Palestinians since dawn, as it continues to demolish Gaza City. Civilians make up 94 percent of those killed in Gaza since March, according to independent data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Portugal, Canada, Australia, and the UK all announce their recognition of Palestinian statehood, as France and Saudi Arabia plan to announce recognition at a world summit on Monday. Israeli leaders threaten the countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, while declaring recent advances in Syria as part of creating “Greater Israel.” Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills five, including a father and his three children. Egyptian-British political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah receives presidential pardon in Cairo. President Donald Trump announces a sweeping reform of the H1B visa system, which includes a stipulation that re-entry into the United States could come with a $100,000 fee. Afghanistan’s leadership indicates its hard opposition to the U.S. re-capture of Bagram that Trump hinted at last week. Venezuela’s Maduro calls for “frank” negotiations in the wake of escalation in the Caribbean from the American military. The Trump administration stokes civil unrest by placing the murder of Charlie Kirk at the feet of the “organized left.”
Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
Sept. 22, 2025Israel kills 29 Palestinians since dawn, as it continues to demolish Gaza City. Civilians make up 94 percent of those killed in Gaza since March, according to independent data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Portugal, Canada, Australia, and the UK all announce their recognition of Palestinian statehood, as France and Saudi Arabia plan to announce recognition at a world summit on Monday. Israeli leaders threaten the countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, while declaring recent advances in Syria as part of creating “Greater Israel.” Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills five, including a father and his three children. Egyptian-British political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah receives presidential pardon in Cairo. President Donald Trump announces a sweeping reform of the H1B visa system, which includes a stipulation that re-entry into the United States could come with a $100,000 fee. Afghanistan’s leadership indicates its hard opposition to the U.S. re-capture of Bagram that Trump hinted at last week. Venezuela’s Maduro calls for “frank” negotiations in the wake of escalation in the Caribbean from the American military. The Trump administration stokes civil unrest by placing the murder of Charlie Kirk at the feet of the “organized left.”
Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
Drop Site Daily: September 21, 2025Drop Site News
Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/36523523
Sept. 22, 2025Israel kills 29 Palestinians since dawn, as it continues to demolish Gaza City. Civilians make up 94 percent of those killed in Gaza since March, according to independent data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Portugal, Canada, Australia, and the UK all announce their recognition of Palestinian statehood, as France and Saudi Arabia plan to announce recognition at a world summit on Monday. Israeli leaders threaten the countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, while declaring recent advances in Syria as part of creating “Greater Israel.” Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills five, including a father and his three children. Egyptian-British political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah receives presidential pardon in Cairo. President Donald Trump announces a sweeping reform of the H1B visa system, which includes a stipulation that re-entry into the United States could come with a $100,000 fee. Afghanistan’s leadership indicates its hard opposition to the U.S. re-capture of Bagram that Trump hinted at last week. Venezuela’s Maduro calls for “frank” negotiations in the wake of escalation in the Caribbean from the American military. The Trump administration stokes civil unrest by placing the murder of Charlie Kirk at the feet of the “organized left.”
Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
Sept. 22, 2025Israel kills 29 Palestinians since dawn, as it continues to demolish Gaza City. Civilians make up 94 percent of those killed in Gaza since March, according to independent data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Portugal, Canada, Australia, and the UK all announce their recognition of Palestinian statehood, as France and Saudi Arabia plan to announce recognition at a world summit on Monday. Israeli leaders threaten the countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, while declaring recent advances in Syria as part of creating “Greater Israel.” Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills five, including a father and his three children. Egyptian-British political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah receives presidential pardon in Cairo. President Donald Trump announces a sweeping reform of the H1B visa system, which includes a stipulation that re-entry into the United States could come with a $100,000 fee. Afghanistan’s leadership indicates its hard opposition to the U.S. re-capture of Bagram that Trump hinted at last week. Venezuela’s Maduro calls for “frank” negotiations in the wake of escalation in the Caribbean from the American military. The Trump administration stokes civil unrest by placing the murder of Charlie Kirk at the feet of the “organized left.”
Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
Drop Site Daily: September 21, 2025Drop Site News
Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
Sept. 22, 2025
Israel kills 29 Palestinians since dawn, as it continues to demolish Gaza City. Civilians make up 94 percent of those killed in Gaza since March, according to independent data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Portugal, Canada, Australia, and the UK all announce their recognition of Palestinian statehood, as France and Saudi Arabia plan to announce recognition at a world summit on Monday. Israeli leaders threaten the countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, while declaring recent advances in Syria as part of creating “Greater Israel.” Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills five, including a father and his three children. Egyptian-British political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah receives presidential pardon in Cairo. President Donald Trump announces a sweeping reform of the H1B visa system, which includes a stipulation that re-entry into the United States could come with a $100,000 fee. Afghanistan’s leadership indicates its hard opposition to the U.S. re-capture of Bagram that Trump hinted at last week. Venezuela’s Maduro calls for “frank” negotiations in the wake of escalation in the Caribbean from the American military. The Trump administration stokes civil unrest by placing the murder of Charlie Kirk at the feet of the “organized left.”
Two Gaza City hospitals shut down, Israeli airstrike kills five in Lebanon, Trump targets "organized left"
Drop Site Daily: September 21, 2025Drop Site News
why would my privacy settings mess with this?
::: spoiler Transcript
Screenshot of a pop-up. It reads:
Color Inaccuracies Detected.
We have detected that your browser may have issues with color accuracy.
You may notice subtle visual noise and incorrect colors appear in your skins.
This issue is usually caused by anti-fingerprinting privacy settings in your browser.
Learn how to fix [with a hyperlink to a help page]
:::
this screenshot was taken on Miners Need Cooler Shoes
does anyone know what would cause this precisely? why would anti-fingerprinting mess with the colors i use to edit an image in the browser?
i'd be tempted to brush this off as the website being malicious and lying to get me to deactivate fingerprinting protection, but the website is fully open-source and what they describe happened to me on Piskel (a pixel art editor, which would constantly mess up my colors in subtle but annoying ways)
Piskel - Free online sprite editor
Piskel, free online sprite editor. A simple web-based tool for Spriting and Pixel art. Create pixel art, game sprites and animated GIFs. Free and open-source.www.piskelapp.com
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The US government is taking a second stab at breaking up Google
Starting Monday, the US government will get another crack at convincing a federal judge to break up Google, after a different judge decided to keep it intact despite finding it to be a monopolist.
Lawyers for Google and the Justice Department will return to a federal courthouse in Alexandria, VA for a roughly two-week trial about how to restore competition to the advertising technology markets that Google illegally monopolized. It comes just weeks after DC District Court Judge Amit Mehta — who issued a historic ruling deeming Google a monopoly in online search — delivered his prescription for restoring competition to the online search market. Mehta’s ruling stopped far short of the government’s major asks to remedy Google’s harm, including denying a requested sale of Google’s Chrome browser, and letting the company keep paying for prime distribution on spots on browsers and phones.
The US government is taking a second stab at breaking up Google
The Justice Department will argue in a Virginia courthouse that Google’s ad tech monopoly should be broken up.Lauren Feiner (The Verge)
Europe’s cookie law messed up the internet. Brussels wants to fix it.
The European Commission aims to reform the EU's cookie consent rules that have cluttered websites with intrusive banners asking for permission to track user data1. The initiative seeks to streamline data protection while maintaining privacy safeguards through centralized consent mechanisms1.
Cookie consent banners emerged from the ePrivacy Directive (Cookie Law) and GDPR requirements, which mandate websites obtain explicit user permission before collecting non-essential data through cookies2. Current rules have led to widespread implementation of pop-up notices that interrupt user experience and often employ confusing interfaces.
The proposed changes reflect growing recognition that the existing approach has "messed up the internet" while failing to provide meaningful privacy protection1. Rather than requiring individual consent on every website, the Commission is exploring solutions like centralized consent management to reduce banner fatigue while preserving user privacy rights.
- Ground News - Europe's cookie law messed up the internet. Brussels wants to fix it. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
- Transcend - Cookie Consent Banner Best Practices: Optimizing Your Consent Management Experience ↩︎
Cookie Consent Banner Best Practices: Optimizing Your Consent Management Experience
Requirements and best practices for effective, user-friendly cookie consent banners and popups.Morgan Sullivan (Transcend)
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don't like this
I can hear the lobbyists (both civil society and big tech, mainly the big tech ones) marching towards Brussels right now. This will be as heated as the Digital Markets Act.
Fighting is expected to flare up again next year, when the Commission wants to present an advertising-focused piece of legislation called the Digital Fairness Act. The executive has stated that the rulebook will help protect consumers online, including from manipulative design or unfair personalization.
Democrats silent as Republicans seem galvanised after Charlie Kirk memorial
The christofascists, like the GOP before them, have really honed in on "When did you stop beating your wife?" setups to silence discussion. Add in projection and a Democratic party that stands for nothing of use to voters, and it's an impossible position, especially given what media ownership looks like now and shit-stirrers champing at the bit to attack anyone who speaks ill of a bigot.
Both parties are dead. The GOP went Nazi cult of personality that allows no diversity of ideas, and the Dems rushed to fill the conservative void. Biden had some amazing successes with the BIL and IRA (both of which benefited rural areas more than cities), but he's remembered for a single awful debate performance.
We need something -- anything -- to the left of Thatcher, and the moneyed class simply won't let that happen. So long as the Nazis can play the "moral high ground" card effectively to enough people by completely perverting the teaching of Jesus as "Christian," I don't know what can be done.
"Hate thy neighbour" is now Gospel, straight from Trump's mouth. And they've brainwashed people into thinking the main point of the New Testament is retribution. If we get out of this hole by some miracle, it's going to take a couple of generations to get back to reasonable discourse with the backdrop of a world increasingly becoming unlivable.
Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Democrats maintained a wary silence on Monday as Donald Trump’s Republican party appeared galvanised by a memorial service for the late rightwing activist Charlie Kirk that was part religious revival, part political rally.Nearly 100,000 people filled an American football stadium and overflow arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday to pay tribute to Kirk, according to his his organisation Turning Point USA. The 31-year-old staunch Trump ally was shot dead on 10 September.
The service was a show of force that blended politics with relihad gion, putting Christian nationalism at the heart of Trump’s “Make America great again” (Maga) movement. It also cast Kirk as a martyr who could be a rallying point in future elections. “Today is the day democrats lost 2028,” posted Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Republican senator John McCain.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, earned widespread praise for a tearful address in which she said she forgives the man charged with her husband’s killing. She told the crowd: “My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life. I forgive him.”
Providing just enough veneer from a single speaker to pretend this event had anything approaching conservative values.
Democrats silent as Republicans seem galvanised after Charlie Kirk memorial
Democrats trod carefully in responding to event attended by nearly 100,000 that blended politics with religionDavid Smith (The Guardian)
DeCSS Gallery - a collection of DVD DRM algorithm (non-)implementations
Found this while surfing the webz, thought you might it as interesting and amusing as I did. Hopefully it's not too OT.
It's a mix of piracy history, code golfing, free speech activism, art, digital community, and general ingenuity that ends up being a critique of digital copyright under the DMCA. Also found the quote at the end of the table to be sadly still very relevant.
As long as I am mayor of this city [Jersey City, New Jersey] the great industries are secure. We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear these words I say to myself, That man is a Red, that man is a Communist. You never hear a real American talk like that.
-- Frank "I am the law" Hague (1896-1956)
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Acosta stands by Epstein’s ‘sweetheart deal’ during congressional hearing
They said the former FIU law professor said Epstein’s victims weren’t credible — and that he didn’t believe that their stories of sexual assault would lead to a successful federal prosecution.
Acosta “essentially said he didn’t have faith in the victims, their stories and their ability to tell their own story and their own testimony, which is deeply disturbing to all of us sitting in there,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost during the break.
They said they also found it disturbing that, even in hindsight, Acosta would not admit that mistakes were made and was not apologetic about how his actions led to other victims being abused by Epstein.
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Democrats silent as Republicans seem galvanised after Charlie Kirk memorial
Democrats silent as Republicans seem galvanised after Charlie Kirk memorial
Democrats trod carefully in responding to event attended by nearly 100,000 that blended politics with religionDavid Smith (The Guardian)
Is Signal messaging really private?
As Signal get your phone number. Can we considerate this application as private ?
What's your thoughts about it ?
I'm also using SimpleX, ElementX, Threema, but not much people using it...
Cheers
It's always sad to see promising FOSS projects taint their image with deplorable political views or behaviour (Hyprland, GNU, GrapheneOS, probably some others). Although I believe in freedom of opinion, I draw the line on inciting violence and hatred against minorities.
Also, I can't fathom why he would still use Xitter, when so many better alternatives exist?
California bans most law enforcement including ICE from wearing masks
California’s governor has signed a bill to ban local and federal law enforcement officers, including with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), from wearing face masks while on duty.
The ban, which comes into effect on 1 January 2026, is part of a series of bills that aims to protect residents from what Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has called “secret police” roaming the streets.
US Attorney Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee, said California “has no jurisdiction over the federal government”, adding the law has “no effect on our operations” and agents “will continue to protect their identities”.
The ban is in response to federal agents wearing masks during Los Angeles immigration raids.
The law makes exceptions for undercover agents, masks used to protect against disease or wildfires, and tactical gear.
California bans most law enforcement including ICE from wearing masks
Law enforcement officials will also be required to identify themselves while conducting duties by both name and badge number.Emma Rossiter (BBC News)
Sciopero generale per la Palestina, manifestazioni in 76 città italiane il 22 settembre
Il 22 settembre 2025 l’Italia si è fermata per lo sciopero generale nazionale indetto in solidarietà con Gaza e la popolazione palestinese. In 76 città si sono svolte manifestazioni, cortei e blocchi che hanno coinvolto decine di migliaia di persone, chiedendo il cessate il fuoco immediato a Gaza e lo stop alle forniture di armi a Israele.
LEGGI TUTTO: Sciopero generale per la Palestina, manifestazioni in 76 città italiane il 22 settembre
Sciopero per la Palestina: manifestazioni in 76 città italiane
Il 22 settembre 2025 oltre 76 città italiane hanno ospitato manifestazioni per la Palestina: da Roma a Napoli, migliaia in sciopero per Gaza.Redazione (Atom Heart Magazine)
Bonkers CDC vaccine meeting ends with vote to keep COVID shot access
A two-day federal vaccine advisory meeting crammed with chaos, confusion, inept debate, bizarre comments, and a hot mic catching someone saying "you're an idiot," ended with an unexpected twist: The advisors unanimously voted—possibly unintentionally—to maintain broad access to COVID-19 vaccines.
In the 12–0 vote, the committee of advisors selected by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. adopted a recommendation for adults 65 and older and people aged 6 months to 64 years to get a COVID-19 vaccine based on shared clinical decision-making. After this story was published, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted the recommendation, which will broadly maintain requirements that federal and private health insurance plans cover COVID-19 vaccines at no cost. While the shared clinical decision-making is a new requirement, the CDC noted in adopting the recommendation that such decision making can be done in consultation with providers, "including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists". Most people receive COVID-19 vaccines from their local pharmacists.
Bonkers CDC vaccine meeting ends with vote to keep COVID shot access
A push to require prescriptions for every COVID shot failed in a split vote.Beth Mole (Ars Technica)
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Colin Kaepernick pays for autopsy of Black student found hanging from tree
Immediately after reports of Reed’s death circulated, civil rights activists pushed for a thorough investigation, citing Mississippi’s long and bloody history of lynchings, including the brutal death of Emmett Till in 1955.
On Wednesday, the Mississippi state examiner conducted an autopsy that ruled out foul play in Reed’s death. The Cleveland City Police Department has reportedly handed their findings over the FBI, which said they’re willing to investigate further if evidence “if, during the course of the local investigation, information comes to light of a potential federal violation.”
On Friday, Crump announced that Kaepernick, a vocal advocate against police brutality and racial injustice, will be paying for an independent autopsy on Reed’s body as soon as it’s released from the state medical examiner. The money will be coming from Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp’s Autopsy Initiative, which provides free, second autopsies for those whose loved ones have died in police custody or under other suspicious circumstances.
Colin Kaepernick pays for autopsy of Black student found hanging from tree
Demartravion "Trey" Reed, 21, was a student at Delta State University.Mother Jones
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While praising Charlie Kirk’s commitment to free speech, Texas leaders move to punish students celebrating his death
In 2017, after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned violent, a Texas man put out a press release: “TODAY CHARLOTTESVILLE TOMORROW TEXAS A&M.” Alt-right speaker Richard Spencer signed on to speak at the rally in College Station, before the university cancelled it, citing safety concerns.
This decision came at a time when universities, in Texas and nationally, were facing significant blowback for restricting or cancelling appearances by conservative speakers, fueling a narrative that right-leaning voices were being unfairly silenced.
This outrage made its way to the Texas Legislature, which in 2019 passed a bill requiring that all outdoor spaces on university campuses be designated as open forums for public speech, and prohibiting universities from considering anticipated controversy when deciding whether to allow a speaker on campus.
...
When protests broke out on college campuses nationwide over the war in Gaza in 2024, the president of the University of Texas at Austin called in the state police to quell the largest protests, drawing praise from Republican state leaders.
In response, lawmakers rolled back some of the protections enshrined in 2019. A new law, approved by the Legislature and signed by Abbott in June, restricts who can protest on campus and when, barring the use of amplification devices during class hours or expressive activity at night or at the end of the semester.
FIRE sued over the new law earlier this month, saying it’s overly broad and would have unintended consequences. It could be used to punish students for doing things like playing music, worshipping, wearing a Make America Great Again Hat or writing an op-ed during the nighttime hours, FIRE said in statements.
“It's human nature to say, I don't like this speech, let's find a way to stop it,” Steinbaugh said. “That is why the First Amendment is such an important limitation on government power, because it recognizes … if each of us gets to say, ‘you don't get to speak,’ then pretty much no speech will be saved.”
Charlie Kirk killing leads to free speech campus crackdowns
Gov. Greg Abbott called for a student to be expelled for celebrating Kirk’s death. Legal experts say the student’s speech is likely constitutionally protected.Eleanor Klibanoff (The Texas Tribune)
Zohran Mamdani Boycotts ABC’s Town Hall Over Jimmy Kimmel Suspension
Zohran Mamdani Boycotts ABC's Town Hall Over Jimmy Kimmel Suspension
The New York mayoral candidate hit at Disney for "cowardice" in the face of the Trump administration's moves to pressure the company over the late-night host.Caitlin Huston (The Hollywood Reporter)
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West Point is violating the First Amendment with a crackdown on professors, lawsuit says
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday seeking class action status.
Tim Bakken filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and named the school and its leaders as defendants. He said he wants to protect free speech and the right to academic freedom at an institution where he has flourished despite his public criticisms of the academy and the U.S. military.
Bakken also noted in the lawsuit that he has a contract with a publisher for a book that is critical of some aspects of West Point and doesn’t want to seek approval from the school’s leadership prior to its publication because “it is very likely such approval will be withheld.”
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need a simple sketching software for linux desktop (with real world dimensions)
Is there any simple vector drawing application that can let me make rough sketches with arbitrary units?
For example, I want to be able to draw a rectangle that is exactly 2'6 x 12".
If I scale it by 50% it should be 15" x 6". I want to be able to measure distances. I don't want to keep track of a scale/conversion/ratio in my head, that's a perfect job for computer.
In the old Sketchup software (RIP) you could type the measurements in while drawing or manipulating objects. It was extremely fast and intuitive. I don't need 3d modelling; it was just a great UI.
All I can find is CAD and it is way overkill. Not gonna design a cotton gin or a circuit board. I just want to make a simple floor plan to see if the furniture would fit the way I want to arrange it. Or estimate material requirements for projects.
Desired features: Layers, customizable/smart keyboard shortcuts, colors, rectangle circle lines, transform/scale/skew/rotate, group/lock objects, rulers grids guide snapping.
anything?
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Take a look at Draw.io. It has an online mode, but also binary downloads for most operating systems (with everything saved locally).
I agree on your assessment of SketchUp - the old 2017 binary is still my go-to for woodworking design, even if it is a Windows install.
Can't think of any better designed and built software package I ever used than sketchup desktop. I wasted soooo much time making needlessly detailed 3d renderings of things around me. I sort of specifically dont want anything that good because it was way too engaging and a real time sink. So fun though. I miss it.
Its criminal to throw that much good code in the trash. If the companies don't want it it should revert to worker control or go to an archive/conservation organization. Another great product destroyed by capitalism.
I now need the try the various viable programs that have been recommended.
Injustice Under Trump
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Your Favorite Songs Are Wall Street’s Latest Investment
The growing popularity of the “Bowie” bond — a security backed by royalties — may sound strange, but it’s nothing new. In treating songs like annuities, capitalists prove once again that nothing is too sacred, or silly, to be commodified.
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Dua Lipa fires agent over his purported support for Israel’s war in Gaza
Dua Lipa fires agent over his purported support for Israel’s war in Gaza
According to The Mail on Sunday report, the British pop star fired her agent due to her own pro-Palestinian stance.Edna Mohamed (Al Jazeera)
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404 Media are suing ICE over $2 million spyware contract
404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.On Monday 404 Media filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demanding the agency publish its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware that can remotely break into mobile phones without the target even clicking a link. The sale of the spyware to ICE has activists and lawmakers deeply concerned about what the agency, which continues to push the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort, may use the technology for. The contract and related documents 404 Media is suing for may provide more information on what ICE intends to do with the spyware.
“404 Media has asked ICE to disclose agency records relating to its contract with a company known for its powerful spyware tool whose potential use in the agency’s ongoing mass-deportation campaign has prompted lawmakers, civil liberties organizations, and immigration groups to express deep concerns over potential civil rights abuses,” the lawsuit says.
404 Media first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with ICE for documents related to its Paragon purchase in September 2024. Under the law, agencies are required to provide a response within 20 days, or provide an explanation of why they need more time. ICE acknowledged receipt of the request in September 2024, but has not since replied to any follow up inquiries. 404 Media then filed the lawsuit.
We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract
On Monday 404 Media filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demanding the agency publish its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware that can remotely break into mobile phones without the target even clicking a link. The sale of the spyware to ICE has activists and lawmakers deeply concerned about what the agency, which continues to push the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort, may use the technology for. The contract and related documents 404 Media is suing for may provide more information on what ICE intends to do with the spyware.“404 Media has asked ICE to disclose agency records relating to its contract with a company known for its powerful spyware tool whose potential use in the agency’s ongoing mass-deportation campaign has prompted lawmakers, civil liberties organizations, and immigration groups to express deep concerns over potential civil rights abuses,” the lawsuit says.
404 Media first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with ICE for documents related to its Paragon purchase in September 2024. Under the law, agencies are required to provide a response within 20 days, or provide an explanation of why they need more time. ICE acknowledged receipt of the request in September 2024, but has not since replied to any follow up inquiries. 404 Media then filed the lawsuit.
ICE signed the contract with Paragon’s U.S. subsidiary in September 2024. Soon after, the then Biden White House put a freeze on the deal as it investigated whether it clashed with a Biden executive order restricting the government’s use of spyware, WIRED reported. At the end of August with Trump in power, ICE reactivated the contract, independent journalist Jack Poulson reported.
💡
Do you know anything else about Paragon, this contract, or any others? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.The contract itself is for “a fully configured proprietary solution including license, hardware, warranty, maintenance, and training,” according to a description included in a public U.S. procurement database. The funding office for the purchase is listed as a division of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). It is not clear if the ICE deal is for a custom-made tool or for some version of Paragon’s flagship “Graphite” software.
Graphite is capable of letting police remotely break into messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger, and Gmail according to a 2021 report from Forbes. While other government spyware tries to take over an entire device allowing all sorts of other capabilities, Paragon sets itself apart by promising to access just the messaging applications, according to Forbes.
Still, that is an exceptionally powerful capability which can skirt the protections offered by end-to-end encrypted apps, and one that is likely very attractive to law enforcement or some intelligence agencies. In March researchers from Citizen Lab, an academic group that investigates the government spyware industry, said they identified suspected Paragon deployments in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore. Separately the New York Times reported that the DEA has used Graphite.
Citizen Labs’ researchers said they shared their analysis with Meta, which in turn discovered an active Paragon zero-click exploit for WhatsApp. It involved the attacker adding a target to a WhatApp group and sending them a PDF which automatically infected the device. This meant Paragon’s software could hack into a target phone through its WhatsApp client without any target interaction. Later WhatsApp notified more than 90 people it believed had been targeted with Paragon’s exploit.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
Some of those targets were in Italy, including prominent Italian and other European journalists, and activists who rescue refugees at sea. Those revelations have since ballooned into a full-scale political crisis, with parliamentary inquiries and The Guardian reporting that Paragon cancelled its contract with Italy.Paragon has positioned itself as a more ethical player in the scandal and abuse-ridden government spyware industry. Tools from other vendors stretching back years, from Hacking Team, to FinFisher, to NSO Group, have all been used at some point to spy on journalists or activists. Like the notorious NSO Group, which also tried to enter the U.S. market, Paragon is based in Israel.
Selling to ICE, an agency that has flaunted due process, accountability, and transparency, may complicate that stance for Paragon. ICE has arrested people who were following the steps necessary for legal immigration; waited outside courtrooms to immediately detain people after their immigration cases were dismissed to rush them out of the country; “de-documented” people who had valid work permits in order to deport them; and continues to pick up people around the country while masking their faces and declining to provide their names.
After ICE reactivated its Paragon contract, Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement to Bloomberg “ICE is already shredding due process and ruining lives in its rush to lock up kids, cooks and firefighters who pose no threat to anyone.”
“I’m extremely concerned about how ICE will use Paragon’s spyware to further trample on the rights of Americans and anyone who Donald Trump labels as an enemy,” he added.
The best way to support 404 Media and fund our ability to sue the Trump administration to release public records is to become a paying subscriber. If you'd like to make a larger, tax deductible donation, please contact us at donate@404media.co.
Membership
404 Media is a new independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox.Outpost Staff (404 Media)
State of Play, DOJ Edition
Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section has gone from 36 “experienced attorneys assigned full-time to investigate corrupt politicians and police officers” to two. That’s two as in double of one. The departures are a mix of firings, pressured or forced resignations, resignations on principle and reassignments.
State of Play, DOJ Edition
Over the weekend we had a confluence of three stories which together illustrate where the federal government is eight months into the second Trump…Josh Marshall (TPM - Talking Points Memo)
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China's Zhurong Rover Found Evidence of Ancient Oceans on Mars
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Canale 5 cambia il palinsesto: Buongiorno, Mamma! 3 passa al martedì, Io Canto Family al mercoledì
Dopo i debutti sottotono della nuova stagione televisiva, Mediaset corre subito ai ripari. Da questa settimana, il palinsesto di Canale 5 cambia: la fiction Buongiorno, Mamma! 3 con Raoul Bova anticipa al martedì, mentre lo show musicale Io Canto Family condotto da Michelle Hunziker slitta al mercoledì.
SCOPRI IL NUOVO PALINSESTO: Canale 5 cambia il palinsesto: Buongiorno, Mamma! 3 passa al martedì, Io Canto Family al mercoledì
Canale 5 cambia il palinsesto: Buongiorno Mamma al martedì, Io Canto Family al mercoledì
Mediaset cambia il palinsesto: Buongiorno, Mamma! 3 con Raoul Bova passa al martedì, Io Canto Family al mercoledì. Ecco le nuove date.Redazione (Atom Heart Magazine)
Germany’s “Bunker Boom”: Demand Surges After Russian Drones Breach NATO Airspace
Germany’s “Bunker Boom”: Demand Surges After Russian Drones Breach NATO Airspace
The rise in private bunker requests in Germany follows Russian drone activity, with shelters now being integrated into many new buildings for safety.Ivan Khomenko (UNITED24 Media)
Belas Manifestações, Pelegos Não Acreditam No Povo, Reforma Administrativa e Cadê a Turma Nova?
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Terence Tao on the cosmic distance ladder
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☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ doesn't like this.
South Korea's President Lee says U.S. investment demands would spark a financial crisis
South Korea's President Lee says U.S. investment demands would spark a financial crisis
South Korea's economy could fall into crises rivaling its 1997 meltdown if the government accepts current U.S. demands, President Lee Jae Myung told Reuters.Reuters (CNBC)
Don't worry, if you thought the Republic of Samsung might grow a spine, they won't:
This month Trump’s administration rocked South Korea with the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers at a Hyundai Motor battery plant in Georgia, with federal officials accusing them of immigration violations.Lee said South Koreans were naturally angered by the “harsh” treatment of the workers - the Trump administration published images of them in shackles - and has warned it could make companies wary of investing in the United States.
But he said the raid would not undermine the bilateral alliance, praising Trump for offering to let the workers stay. Lee said he did not believe it was directed by Trump but was the result of overzealous law enforcement.
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Scam Warning: there's a false-flag crypto coin scam campain on GitHub right now
Git Coin Community SPAM · community · Discussion #174283
Discussion Type Product Feedback Discussion Content It seems that Github is now being used as a crypto spamming vehicle. Couldn't this be mitigated by throttling Issue creation?GitHub
The End of NASA Is Coming [video]
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New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA’s Webb Telescope
New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA’s Webb Telescope
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has identified a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus,NASA Webb Mission Team (NASA Science)
A Braided River
The Yarlung Zangbo River winds through Tibet as the world’s highest-altitude major river. Parts of it cut through a canyon deeper than 6,000 meters (three times the depth of the Grand Canyon). And other parts, like this section, are braided, with waterways that shift rapidly from season to season. The swift changes in a braided river’s sandbars come from large amounts of sediment eroded from steep mountains upstream. As that sediment sweeps downstream, some will deposit, which narrows channels and can increase their scouring. The river’s shape quickly becomes a complicated battle between sediment, flow speed, and slope. (Image credit: M. Garrison; animation credit: R. Walter; via NASA Earth Observatory)
#fluidDynamics #geophysics #physics #rivers #satelliteImage #science #sedimentTransport #sedimentation
Braided River in Tibet Redraws Its Channels
Images spanning nearly four decades reveal the shapeshifting nature of the Yarlung Zangbo River as it flows across the Tibetan Plateau.earthobservatory.nasa.gov
jatone
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •like this
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Chloé 🥕
in reply to jatone • • •jatone
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Chloé 🥕
in reply to jatone • • •jatone
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lorty
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •Am I Unique ?
amiunique.orgScratch
in reply to jatone • • •Ok, but how does changing the colour of pixels help identify me?
Is it for tracking the source of screenshots?
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themeatbridge
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∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name]
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •[instance domain]/post/Chloé 🥕
in reply to ∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name] • • •like this
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∞🏳️⚧️Edie [it/it/its/its/itself, she/her/her/hers/herself, fae/faer/faer/faers/faerself, love/love/loves/loves/loveself, des/pair, null/void, none/use name]
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •BananaTrifleViolin
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •This sent me down a rabbit hole; interesting stuff.
The way I'm understanding this: the way an image is rendered depends on lots of different factors like browser, OS, graphics card etc, plus other bits like fonts and anti-aliasing settings. Each persons set up is unique so an image rendering on that browser on that device will be unique. So to fingerprint and track someone, they get your browser to generate a reference image then extract the details of the created pixels from the memory and generate an MD5 hash which is then unique to your browser. That's your fingerprint and every time a site generates the reference image it produces the same MD5 hash. That is then used to track you.
So an anti-fingerprinting technique is to throw in a very subtle randomness to the colours generated in the image, which results in a unique MD5 each time the test is run making it useless for people tracking you (you are essentially a "new" browser every time a site tries to fingerprint you). So if you have #000000 for black, instead it may randomise to #000003 one time, and #002000 next. It's a very subtle variance on the colours so won't be readily perceptible but on images rendered and shown to you this would create very subtle noise. Hence the warning for a graphics tool; the makers are aware this effects how their tool works and are warning you incase you notice the results.
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Auster
in reply to BananaTrifleViolin • • •What would be a good extension for avoiding that fingerprinting? Using Gecko-based browsers like Waterfox and Fennec, if that's relevant.
Also poking @carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone since OP's browser appears to have one properly doing it too.
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jol
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Auster
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voodooattack
in reply to Auster • • •like this
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Dragonstaff
in reply to BananaTrifleViolin • • •That is incredibly interesting. Thanks for going down the rabbit hole.
It's truly shocking how much trouble companies go through to surreptitiously track us.
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AlpacaChariot
in reply to BananaTrifleViolin • • •like this
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Xylight
in reply to BananaTrifleViolin • • •::: spoiler Spoiler
!test@community.com
:::
Lyra_Lycan
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •like this
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ReversalHatchery
in reply to Lyra_Lycan • • •because a) your browser does not send anymore which color scheme you prefer and b) probably sets a single keymap or language setting that affect websites that try to grab your keys.
add the proxmox domain to the whitelist and it will be better. there's a pref for it that I can't recall now but mayne it can be configured in this menu too: support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/f…
let me know if it didn't fix it and I'll look up the pref
Firefox's protection against fingerprinting | Firefox Help
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bitjunkie
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •like this
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