What Happened with Proton Mail and Journalist Accounts
What Happened with Proton Mail and Journalist Accounts
Episode 241: ProtonMail allegedly banned journalist accounts, Plex had a data breach, leadership changes at the EFF, and more. Welcome to the Surveillance Report - featuring Techlore & The New ...PeerTube.wtf
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New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
A new study from Yale University shows that AI hasn't had much of an impact on jobs as many have predicted or feared.Sharon Adarlo (Futurism)
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New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
A new study from Yale University shows that AI hasn't had much of an impact on jobs as many have predicted or feared.Sharon Adarlo (Futurism)
Feddit Un'istanza italiana Lemmy reshared this.
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
A new study from Yale University shows that AI hasn't had much of an impact on jobs as many have predicted or feared.Sharon Adarlo (Futurism)
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New study sheds light on what kinds of workers are losing jobs to AI
AI Kills Jobs, Stanford Study Finds, Especially For Young People
digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/wp…
(update: same list with better specs)
New study sheds light on what kinds of workers are losing jobs to AI
Stanford University research offers insights for students and young workers as artificial intelligence begins to reshape the labor market.Megan Cerullo (CBS News)
What explains the depressing job market — most starkly illustrated in a viral chart on X, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing the number of position openings cratering since ChatGPT was released? And what about early career jobs, which seem scarce these days, to the chagrin of recent graduates?Some think that the softening in the job market should instead be attributed to the US Federal Reserve putting a kibosh to the era of zero interest-rate policy in 2022. Before it ended, companies borrowed massive amounts of capital at cheap rates and plowed them into high-risk startups — thereby inflating assets, making lots of millionaires, and fueling a gold rush of well-paying tech positions. (Squint at that chart in the previous paragraph and it does seem to support this thesis, with the decline in openings coinciding more cleanly with the interest rate hike than the release of ChatGPT.)
As for early career positions decreasing, some experts think the phenomenon predates ChatGPT and could be a sign that there are simply more college graduates than there are early career jobs where a higher degree is a must, along with other structural changes.
And there are the headlines, which are littered with stories of people getting laid off due to AI — but maybe that’s a function of some CEOs jumping the gun and buying into the hype even though AI still leaves much to be desired in practice. That’s reflected in the uneven adoption of AI across industrial sectors.
While generative AI looks likely to join the ranks of transformative, general purpose technologies,” the Yale study reads, “It is too soon to tell how disruptive the technology will be to jobs.
anyone with 1/4 of a brain knows this.
but the vast majority of the population, including our leadership, are mostly brainless hype drunk monkeys.
AI really isn't that useful.
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
A new study from Yale University shows that AI hasn't had much of an impact on jobs as many have predicted or feared.Sharon Adarlo (Futurism)
Feddit Un'istanza italiana Lemmy reshared this.
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
A new study from Yale University shows that AI hasn't had much of an impact on jobs as many have predicted or feared.Sharon Adarlo (Futurism)
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Surprisingly, they found that the rate of change in the labor market’s makeup in the wake of AI closely matches the pace when computers and the internet were first taking off. In other words, AI doesn’t appear to be more disruptive than those two technologies
Possibly two of the most disruptive technologies in the last 100 years. Who writes this shit?
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
New Yale Study Finds AI Has Had Essentially Zero Impact on Jobs
A new study from Yale University shows that AI hasn't had much of an impact on jobs as many have predicted or feared.Sharon Adarlo (Futurism)
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Signal isn’t part of the fediverse.
Element X (Matrix) is.
It’s my understanding that something is only part of the Fediverse if it can communicate with the ActivityPub protocol. Something that the Matrix protocol cannot.
Matrix is federated though, but with another protocol. Element X uses Matrix.
Hacker group Black Mirror releases first batch of Rostec files detailing Russia’s international military deals and sanctions evasion schemes
The hacker collective Black Mirror has released the first portion of an archive of documents from the Russian state defense corporation Rostec. The tranche contains more than 300 items. The materials detail Russia’s military and technical cooperation with foreign clients, pricing for military items, and logistics schemes aimed at evading sanctions. The published documents also include internal correspondence, presentations on overseas helicopter service centers, and agreements with international partners.
The files show that Russian companies have faced difficulties receiving payments for contracts with Algeria, Egypt, China, and India. Russian banks have been unable to issue guarantees or conduct transactions through the SWIFT system, forcing them to search for alternative settlement schemes in yuan, rubles, and euros.
The archive also contains information about an international network of service centers for Russian helicopter equipment. The documents describe existing and planned maintenance facilities in the UAE, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and other countries. Particular attention is paid to the creation of an international regional logistics hub in Dubai, near Al Maktoum Airport, designed as a central node for supplying spare parts and components.
Among the materials is a letter from the Rostec holding company Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (CRET) on pricing for military products in export contracts. The document proposes a simplified formula for setting wholesale prices, profit margins, transport expenses, and currency risks. It also discusses possible legal changes to allow more flexible use of revenues from military-technical cooperation.
The hackers said this is only the first portion of the Rostec archive, which they are releasing in what they called “fuck off exposure” mode. Black Mirror claims the documents include a list of “reliable trading partners” in several countries.
[...]
[Edit to insert a link without amp.]
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Spanish prosecutor closes investigation into major manufacturer Maxam, whose Russian plants continue producing explosives despite EU ban
cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/43400129
ArchivedSpain’s public prosecutor has closed a pretrial investigation into MaxamCorp International S.L. that was opened after a report by The Insider exposed the company’s Russian factories, which continue to produce explosives despite Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian antiwar activists living in Spain filed a complaint that prompted the probe in June. Three months later, the prosecutor at Spain’s National Court dropped the investigation, despite the factories not halting their operations.
[...]
In the decision declining to press charges [...] the prosecutor, without citing specific sources, said Maxam did not export explosive substances to Russia in 2024-2025 and that in 2024 the company lost control of its Russian subsidiaries.
The Insider asked an independent sanctions-compliance lawyer to comment on the prosecutor’s ruling.
Alex Prezanti, [an independent sanctions-compliance lawyer and] co-executive director of the nonprofit State Capture Accountability Project (SCAP), said the prosecutor examined the evidence selectively:
“In his decision to close the investigation against Maxam International, the Spanish prosecutor appears to have only examined events in 2024-2025 — once Maxam had lost control of its Russian subsidiaries. However, the complaint and the Insider's reporting also allege that Maxam International provided its Russian subsidiaries with materials and intellectual property for the production of explosives between 2022 and 2023.The reporting also alleges that in 2023, Maxam appears to have accepted dividends on profits accrued by its subsidiaries in Russia from a direct supplier to the Russian military industrial complex. It is therefore unfortunate, in my opinion, that the Spanish prosecutor omitted the events of 2022-2023 from his examination. Whilst I have not seen enough evidence to conclude whether there was criminal conduct, on the face of it these allegations would justify a full investigation to determine whether Maxam International broke the law during the first two years of Russia's full scale invasion.”
[...]
Maxam has operated in Russia since 1999 through four subsidiaries: the management company Maxam Rusia LLC ((ООО «Максам Русия»), along with three explosives plants — “High-Tech Initiation Systems” JSC (AO “VSI”) in the Samara Region, “Eastern Mining Services” LLC (ООО «ИМС») in the northern Murmansk Region, and YUII-Sibir LLC (ООО «ЮИИ-Сибирь») in Krasnoyarsk Krai in central Siberia. The ultimate owner of those firms was Spain’s MaxamCorp International S.L.
All three production sites continued operating after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
[...]
Spanish prosecutor closes investigation into major manufacturer Maxam, whose Russian plants continue produc...
Spain’s public prosecutor has closed a pretrial investigation into MaxamCorp International S.L. that was opened after a report by The Insider exposed the company’s Russian factories, which continue to produce explosives despite Russia’s full-scale in…The Insider
Ukraine criticises proposed law banning promotion of Ukrainian nationalist ideology in Poland
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/50147549
The episode marks the latest flashpoint in long-standing tensions between Poland and Ukraine – two otherwise close allies – over wartime history, and in particular the massacre of around 100,000 ethnic Poles by Ukrainian nationalists.In Poland, those events, known as the Volhynia massacres, have been officially recognised as an act of genocide. However, Ukraine rejects the use of that term. It also still venerates many UPA and OUN figures as national heroes, prompting criticism from Poland and Israel.
How Gen Z is taking the fight for their rights from TikTok to the streets
How Gen Z is taking the fight for their rights from TikTok to the streets
After sweeping away the Nepalese government in early September and shaking up the Philippines, a wave of protests initiated by Generation Z has now spread to Madagascar and Morocco.RFI
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Most Germans favour Israel's inclusion in Eurovision Song Contest | dpa international
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/50147109
Some 65% of respondents said Israeli artists and athletes should not be penalized for the actions of the Israeli government, German public broadcaster ARD's poll found.
German poll finds same support for far-right party as conservatives | dpa international
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/50147047
That is the best result for the far-right party so far in these surveys, held regularly among eligible voters, Infratest dimap said of the Deutschlandtrend poll.
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Delusions of a Protocol
So, if you're online poisoned like me, you may have noticed that Bluesky CEO Jay Graber has been having sort of a slow motion, low-key public meltdown for the past several weeks. Most recently, in this interaction with a user.
[…]
Even with practical technical decentralization, the vast majority of Bluesky users are on, well, Bluesky. Bluesky was never really packaged as something that was relatively easy for someone to spin up on their own servers; the network has been historically extremely centralized, and only small minorities of users have broken off.AT Proto decentralization doesn't exist as a practical reality, and if it ever does it won't be for years. Most of the work driving effective decentralization is being done by third parties, who have limited guarantees about future compatibility with possible breaking changes on Bluesky's end.
Bluesky inc isn't really making 'a protocol', they're making Bluesky, the monolithic (to within a rounding error) social network that they operate.
I do genuinely believe that the Bluesky team set off from the start to create a decentralized protocol, but unfortunately for them they ended up running a social network. And at this point, AT Proto has become essentially a sort of ideological vaporware; a way for Jay Graber et al to run a social media platform while claiming they don't run a social media platform.
This is, of course, just another iteration of the Silicon Valley monoproduct: power without accountability. The tech industry elite are very much like Gilded Age railroad barons – buying up whole towns, breaking up strikes, imposing top-down economic policy on whole sectors – except all the while they claim that they are just technology enthusiasts playing with their little trains.
This does raise a question relevant to the Fediverse. Some Bluesky users are lobbying to have Jesse Singal banned, whoever that is. Of course, a hallmark of a decentralized network is that there is no central authority that could actually do that. Implicitly, this demand is a rejection of the very concept of decentralization.
Once people find out what decentralization means, are they even willing to tolerate it?
Bluesky is a platform for scammers and morons.
If you're not the one scamming, that only leaves one other option.
China Is Back on the Radar of European Pension Funds, Endowments
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/50141482
archive.is/X6Whi
European pension funds, endowments and other large pools of long-term money are once again exploring private equity investments in ChinaNow, Chinese markets are booming on increased optimism over technology breakthroughs and the economy, as well as a shift out of the US.
In the race to attract the world’s smartest minds, China is gaining on the US | CNN
A Princeton nuclear physicist. A mechanical engineer who helped NASA explore manufacturing in space. A US National Institutes of Health neurobiologist. Celebrated mathematicians. And over half a dozen AI experts. The list of research talent leaving the US to work in China is glittering – and growing.
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This is relevant for immigrants who are trying to escape poverty, almost with no future in their own countries either for their personal or professional aspirations. I am not a China fan, but when you look at countries around the world, many of which are very poor and underdeveloped but with lots of brilliant, hard-working people with dreams and potential, they would rather go to a place where they have at least some stability, predicted living and working conditions, and a future, rather than to a place where one doesn't know whether the potential future mayor of New York City, born and brought up in the USA and hence of course a citizen who happens to be the son of a world-famous filmmaker and a well-known academic, will actually be deported or not. I mean that's a real possibility at this point - let that sink in. (I am not even going for more extreme examples)
I wish things were better, and I wish we didn't live in a world where China, yes, China – of all the countries, might become a viable alternative for people from the developing or underdeveloped world compared to the USA.
The number of times I have used TikTok in my life is the integer just below 1.
(And now I am getting a sense of what that "other kind" of echo chamber these platforms are becoming as opposed to that kind of echo chamber Twitter etc are)
I mean the damn thing is banned here.
There are always isolated exceptions, but the idea to move from the US to China because the US is becoming more and more autocratic is baseless. China has been a dictatorship for decades, and it doesn't get better because the US getting worse.
The list of researchers and others professionals leaving the US for Canada, Australia, Europe, and other democratic states is much longer. This article doesn't make sense.
As an addition, a report citing a Chinese state-controlled media:
Chinese professionals eye Europe as US visa uncertainty grows
According to the South China Morning Post, recent uncertainty over the U.S. H-1B visa program has led many Chinese professionals to consider leaving the United States for Europe. Confusion followed a U.S. government proposal to introduce a US$100,000 application fee for H-1B visas. Although later clarified to apply only to new visas, the announcement triggered panic among skilled workers and their families.
Chinese professionals eye Europe as US visa uncertainty grows - Scandasia
According to the South China Morning Post, recent uncertainty over the U.S. H-1B visa program has led many Chinese professionals to consider leaving the United States for Europe. Confusion followed …Alexander Vittrup (Scandasia)
Munich drone sightings force airport to cancel flights in latest Europe disruption
Drone sightings over Munich airport on Thursday evening forced air traffic control to suspend operations, leading to the cancellation of 17 flights and disrupting travel for nearly 3,000 passengers in the German city.Another 15 arriving flights were diverted to Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Vienna and Frankfurt, the airport said in a statement, marking the latest drone disruption to European aviation after sightings temporarily shut airports in Denmark and Norway last week.
Munich airport reopens after halting flights because of drone sightings
Travel disrupted for thousands on eve of national holiday in latest drone incident to hit European aviationDeborah Cole (The Guardian)
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Germany updates: AfD tops poll with highest support ever
Germany updates: AfD tops poll with highest support ever
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has topped a nationwide opinion poll. Meanwhile, Kenyan athletes won both the men's and women's races at the Berlin Marathon. DW has the latest from Germany.John Silk (Deutsche Welle)
You realize you literally just linked a page that verifies everything I said wrong with the Danish system, right? And I didn't call Danish left wing parties far right, I called the immigration policy far-right.
Take your sealioning elsewhere.
There's only 1 party in the United States that has political power and it's the party of the ruling class.
Democrat vs. republican only exists to give us the illusion of choice, and it works every time.
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Wesley Bell Used $35,000 in Campaign Cash to Buy His Friend’s Dodge Durango
Last week, Cori Bush announced she would be challenging Bell in a rematch. The election will be held Tuesday, August 4, 2026. During the last race, AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – funneled more than $3 million directly to Bell’s campaign, and spent nearly $9 million on a super PAC supporting him. Bell unseated Bush by around 7,000 votes.
Bell previously ran into political problems over a taxpayer-funded 2016 Chevy Tahoe he drove as St. Louis County prosecutor, racking up enough unpaid parking tickets that it made the local news in 2019. In October 2022, Farmer put a personal 2020 Durango up for sale on Facebook.
In September 2022, Bell used public money to order two new vehicles for himself and for Farmer. For himself, he bought a Ford Expedition Limited for $69,964 and for Farmer an Expedition XLT – unlike Bell’s, no leather seats – for $60,494, according to news reports at the time.
To find room in the budget, Bell had requested additional funds to hire new attorneys, and was given $700,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money for the purpose, local media reported. After hiring about half the attorneys he said he would, he shifted money from another fund for employees and used it to buy the vehicles.
Wesley Bell Used $35,000 in Campaign Cash to Buy His Friend’s Dodge Durango
The congressman from St. Louis put some of AIPAC's money to an unusual use. He now faces a rematch with Cori Bush.Ryan Grim (Drop Site News)
Wesley Bell Used $35,000 in Campaign Cash to Buy His Friend’s Dodge Durango
Last week, Cori Bush announced she would be challenging Bell in a rematch. The election will be held Tuesday, August 4, 2026. During the last race, AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – funneled more than $3 million directly to Bell’s campaign, and spent nearly $9 million on a super PAC supporting him. Bell unseated Bush by around 7,000 votes.
Bell previously ran into political problems over a taxpayer-funded 2016 Chevy Tahoe he drove as St. Louis County prosecutor, racking up enough unpaid parking tickets that it made the local news in 2019. In October 2022, Farmer put a personal 2020 Durango up for sale on Facebook.
In September 2022, Bell used public money to order two new vehicles for himself and for Farmer. For himself, he bought a Ford Expedition Limited for $69,964 and for Farmer an Expedition XLT – unlike Bell’s, no leather seats – for $60,494, according to news reports at the time.
To find room in the budget, Bell had requested additional funds to hire new attorneys, and was given $700,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money for the purpose, local media reported. After hiring about half the attorneys he said he would, he shifted money from another fund for employees and used it to buy the vehicles.
Wesley Bell Used $35,000 in Campaign Cash to Buy His Friend’s Dodge Durango
The congressman from St. Louis put some of AIPAC's money to an unusual use. He now faces a rematch with Cori Bush.Ryan Grim (Drop Site News)
At Saudi Comedy Fest, American Free Speech Becomes the Punchline
“Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get canceled,” the comedian Dave Chappelle quipped on Saturday at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, the first event of its kind in Saudi Arabia. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/world/middleeast/saudi-comedy-festival-riyadh-free-speech.html
What's the factor when you're planning to self-hosted a instance?
I am interested of self-hosting my own instance but one the issue I have is:
- Price for renting server and buying domain name. Mainly, I have low income.
- Unsure if it be single-user instance or if I want multiple people on my instance.
- If my instance is for multiple users, if I be the best fit for moderation as well, pitching it to non Fedizen (whatever you call people that use the Fediverse) as well as the theme of the instance as it would effect my Fedi software of choice (eg. Friendica, Mastodon/Glitch)
I just worried that I try just do it immediately without planning things out or have whatever things in mind which might otherwise help me know what's the best choice and not be upset that I wasted my time and money on something that didn't work out for me.
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I didn't give it nearly as much thought before I started.
In terms of price, you can set a very low price for a single-user instance. Hetzner and Netcup, for example, offer very affordable VPS (these are providers I know of, but there are certainly others).
I don't see open registration as a problem either. I've had it for years, and when I get waves of spam, which is very rare, I switch to moderated mode, otherwise it remains open.
I would host software according to your preferences. I should have kept Friendica running and turned off Mastodon, but that ship has sailed for me.
For a single-user instant, it might be interesting to connect to a relay; it is important that it is moderated. Fedimins offers such a service.
Russia is helping China to prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan, defense institute says
Russia is helping China to prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan, defense institute says
LONDON (AP) — Russia is selling military equipment and technology to China that could help Beijing prepare an airborne invasion of Taiwan, according to an analysis of leaked Russian documents by a U.K.-based defense and security forum.EMMA BURROWS, Associated Press (The Hill)
I honestly doubt that russia would be trusted to supply anything for the chinese military outside of raw materials.
Also, whats a high altitude parachute? is it just one that deploys higher up? Wouldint that make the troops and stuff easier to hit?
On top of that, if russia had all this...why couldnt they take Kyiv?
After watching Is Russia Already at War With NATO?
I think it is more likely that trump is trying to goad NATO into responding more seriously to russia, and then once they do trump can condem the action and support russia against NATO.
Now russia can pull out of Ukraine without admitting defeat
Thank you for pointing-out that he could be doing that particular machiavellianism: I'd not thought of any such game.
I've been telling people for years that Trump's going to ditch NATO & back his original backer, Putin, against NATO.
lee.senate.gov/2025/6/lee-intr…
& "The Kremlin Papers" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlin_… show who's investment Trump is ( apparently The Guardian has now disappeared all such content? from DuckDuckGo, it has, anyways.. how spectacularly depressing to see propagandism go THAT deep, eradicating journalism even-more, since Guardian changed ownership ).
He's playing a negative-sum game, same as Putin, same as mass-shooters: the intent is that NOone matter, after he's gone: he gets to be "the last word", & gets to be the "king" which presides over the destruction of the world's potential.
Zero-sum games are competitive-narcissism, but negative-sum games are competitive-nihilism-and-narcissism.. different motivation entirely.
_ /\ _
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Israel set up GHF to ‘weaponize’ aid distribution in Gaza: Whistleblower
Israel set up GHF to ‘weaponize’ aid distribution in Gaza: Whistleblower
A US Army veteran and former contractor for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says Israel established the US-backed aid scheme to “weaponize” food distribution in the Gaza Strip amid a genocidal war.PressTV
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Starvation is a war crime. So why is it so rarely prosecuted?
Starvation is a war crime. So why is it so rarely prosecuted?
From Bengal to Gaza, hunger is often used as a weapon of war but almost never punished.Kalika Mehta (Al Jazeera)
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Iran must move its capital from Tehran, says president as water crisis worsens
Iran must move its capital from Tehran, says president as water crisis worsens
Masoud Pezeshkian says subsidence is also ‘a disaster’ in city of 10 million, which consumes quarter of Iran’s waterPatrick Wintour (The Guardian)
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Two arrested as 'African tribe' evicted after raid on group's camp in Scottish wood
Two arrested as 'African tribe' evicted after raid on group's camp in Scottish wood
Sky's Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies reported on claims that Kaura Taylor, 21, from Texas, was lured and coerced into moving to the forest, 4,000 miles away from home.Sky News
French court to try Chinese captain of suspected Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker
cross-posted from: lemmy.kde.social/post/4574561
A French court is to try the Chinese captain of a tanker from Russia's "shadow fleet" early next year after it was intercepted off France, prosecutors said Thursday, in a move seen as a message to Moscow over its efforts to skirt Western oil sanctions.The French navy on Saturday stopped the Boracay, a vessel claiming to be flagged in Benin and blacklisted by the European Union for being part of Russia's sanction-busting "shadow fleet" of ageing oil tankers, according to the public prosecutor's office in the northwestern city of Brest.
French court to try Chinese captain of suspected Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker
A French court will try the Chinese captain of a Russian-linked oil tanker early next year after the vessel, part of Moscow’s so-called “shadow fleet,” was intercepted off the French coast, prosecutors said Thursday.FRANCE 24
Note that they'll be tried only for refusing to comply with a police check whatever is the proper word for that. The kind of stuff you get a fine for.
Looks like more a pretext to bring that captain to France and have intelligence service talking with him than a serious crime.
Fediverse Report 136 - This week's fediverse news
- Newsmast takes a new direction with a white-label app for news organisations that also offers fediverse integration
- a paper by @inquiline on targeted harassment on Mastodon
- ActivityPub Fuzzer is a new tool that helps devs with interoperability
- WordPress blog posts now can be quote posted!
Fediverse Report – #136
White-label fediverse apps for news organisations with Newsmast, a paper exploring how harrassment on Mastodon works, and a new tool for easier fediverse interoperability.connectedplaces.online
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Michael Foster describes how news organisations do not gel well with the original approach of either Mastodon servers or the channel.org communities. The finding of Newsmast is that this is too confusing and tech-centric for news organisations to really grasp. Instead, Newsmast is now going in the direction of apps, as “independent news publishers and campaigning organisations love the idea of having an app.”
Fuck, that is depressing. I mean, I really hope that this works for Newsmast but if people running a news organisation can't wrap their head around the fediverse, I'm not sure I'll trust them with news ... I don't know. I can't even understand what's supposed to be complicated.
Stephen Miller takes leading role in strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats
Exclusive: Miller’s homeland security council has played a key part in coordinating operations, sources say
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has played a leading role in directing US strikes against suspected Venezuelan drug boats, according to three people familiar with the situation. At times, his role has superseded that of Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser.
The strikes on the Venezuelan boats allegedly carrying narcotics, which the administration has claimed were necessary because interdiction did not work, have been orchestrated through the homeland security council (HSC), which Miller leads as the homeland security adviser.
Miller empowered the HSC earlier this year to become its own entity in Donald Trump’s second term, a notable departure from previous administrations where it was considered part of the national security council and ultimately reported to the national security adviser.
Man, he looks so much like a slim Mussolini.
Slim Mussolini is my DJ name.
Generation Z is stirring up rebellion across borders, from Morocco to Madagascar
Gen Z, the first generation to have grown up in the internet age, has been at the forefront of anti-government protests in several countries of the Global South. Madagascar and Morocco are the latest countries to be hit by these youth-led movements, which use digital tools to communicate anger at corruption and underfunded social services.
Generation Z is stirring up rebellion across borders, from Morocco to Madagascar
Gen Z, the first generation to have grown up in the internet age, has been at the forefront of anti-government protests in several countries of the Global South.Grégoire SAUVAGE (FRANCE 24)
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A Canadian politician is openly spreading Nazi propaganda
A Canadian politician is openly spreading Nazi propaganda
Do you ever see something that is absolutely horrifying, the implications of which are terrible, and no one else seems to really notice? These two tweets are one of those things for me: Anyone with a basic understanding of politics is aware that Naz…Abe Oudshoorn (Truths and Loves)
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PP so pathetic. Lost the election lost his riding lost his mind. And he’s a career politician. So none of this is excusable.
Pathetic.
No, his claims are not "simply" ignorant, as the article claims:
his claims are INTENTIONALLY ignorant, which is malevolent, is disinformation, & is gaslighting-of-fact.
The difference between the 2 states is signficant.
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Admins: Instnace randomly running extremely slowly? Check for this
During some work with Tess, I'd notice that my test instance was running horribly slow. The CPU was spiking, Postgres was not happy and using pretty much all the available compute.
Investigating, I found the culprit to be some crawler or possibly malicious actor sending a massive number of unscoped requests to /api/v3/comment/list. What I mean by "unscoped" is without limiting it to a post ID. I'm not sure if this is a bug in Lemmy or there's a legit use for just fetching only comments outside of a post, but I digress as that's another discussion.
After disallowing unscoped requests to the comment list endpoint (see mitigation further down), no more issue.
The kicker seemed to be that this bot / jackass was searching by "Old" and was requesting thousands of pages deep.
Requests looked like this: GET /api/v3/comment/list?limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413
Since I shutdown Dubvee officially, I'm not keeping logs as long as I used to, but I saw other page numbers in the access log, but they were all above 10,000. From the logs I have available, the requests seem to be coming from these 3 IP addresses, but I have insufficient data to confirm this is all of them (probably isn't).
- 134.19.178.167
- 213.152.162.5
- 134.19.179.211
Log Excerpt
Note that I log the query string as well as the URI. I've run a custom Nginx setup for so long, I actually don't recall if the query string is logged by default or not. If you're not logging the query string, you can still look for the 3 (known) IPs above making requests to /api/v3/comment/list and see if entries similar to these show up.
2025-09-21T14:31:59-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"
2025-09-21T14:32:00-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"
2025-09-21T14:32:01-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"
2025-09-21T14:32:01-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"
2025-09-21T14:32:12-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"
2025-09-21T14:32:13-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"
2025-09-21T14:32:13-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"
2025-09-21T14:32:13-04:00 {LB_NAME}: dubvee.org, https, {LB_IP}, 134.19.179.211, - , NL, Amsterdam, North Holland, 52.37590, 4.89750, TLSv1.3, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, "GET", "/api/v3/comment/list", "limit=50&sort=Old&page=16413"Mitigation:
First, I blocked the IPs making these requests, but they would come back from a different one. Finally, I implemented a more robust solution.
My final mitigation was to simply reject requests to /api/v3/comment/list that did not have a post ID in the query parameters. I did this by creating a dedicated location block in Nginx that is an exact match for /api/v3/comment/list and doing the checks there.
I could probably add another check to see if the page number is beyond a reasonable number, but since I'm not sure what, if any, clients utilize this, I'm content just blocking unscoped comment list requests entirely. If you have more info / better suggestion, leave it in the comments.
# Basically an and/or for has post_id or has saved_only
map $has_post_id:$has_saved_only $comment_list_invalid{
"1:0" 1;
"0:1" 1;
"1:1" 1;
default 0;
}
server {
...
location = /api/v3/comment/list {
# You'll need the standard proxy_pass headers such as Host, etc. I load those from an include file.
include conf.d/includes/http/server/location/proxy.conf;
# Create a variable to hold a 0/1 state
set $has_post_id 0;
# If the URL query string contains 'post_id' set the variable to 1
if ($arg_post_id) {
set $has_post_id 1;
}
if ($arg_saved_only) {
set $has_saved_only 1;
}
# If the comment_list_invalid map resolves to 0, "send" a 444 resposne
# 444 is an Nginx-specific return code that immediately closes the connection
# and wastes no further resources on the request
if ($comment_list_invalid = 0) {
return 444;
}
# Otherwise, proxy pass to the API as normal
# (replace this with whatever your upstream name is for the Lemmy API
proxy_pass "http://lemmy-be/";
}
Canada Warns Travelers With X Marker on Passports They May Face Obstacles in US
cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/70458
The Canadian Department of Global Affairs has updated its travel advice for people planning to travel to the United States, specifically warning people who have the gender marker “X” on their passports that they may face obstacles or restrictions while traveling abroad. The X marker is specifically granted to transgender or nonbinary individuals who do not want to place a “male” or “female”…From Truthout via this RSS feed
Canada Warns Travelers With X Marker on Passports They May Face Obstacles in US
People with an X marker on their passports may “face entry restrictions” in the US, the Canadian government warned.Chris Walker (Truthout)
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States (a state is a government, a nation is a group of people) can do whatever they want with their passport. One of the perks of being sovereign. But there are groups of countries that have mutually agreed what should be on a passport and how/where.
The EU is a big example, but there is also a common passport for ECOWAS for several West African states and many others.
That said, I think they all list sex/gender, but I'm open to being corrected by someone who actually knows.
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It is obviously based on an outdated concept of gender, but it actually is pretty useful to help match people to passports. If someone identifies as male but is dressed like a woman, it raises red flags. The answer to that might be as simple as "This is a 90s sitcom and I lost a transphobic bet" but it is there. Same with hair color.
Which, funny enough, is an argument for people to actually write down the gender they identify as. But it is also a lot like hair color or facial hair in that it is just too cost and time prohibitive to update a passport every time someone tries a new look. Because... genderfluid people exist.
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Australian says he was improperly arrested in Thailand over his criticism of Malaysia
Australian says he was improperly arrested in Thailand over his criticism of Malaysia
An Australian man arrested in Thailand on a defamation charge he says originated with Malaysia's government claims he is a victim of transnational repression, in which Southeast Asia countries cooperate in seizing dissidents or critics who are not on…GRANT PECK Associated Press (ABC News)
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eldavi
in reply to Meldrik • • •