This week, Jonathan Bennett talks Session and cryptocurrency skepticism with Kee Jeffries! Why fork Signal? How does Session manage to decentralize? And why the cryptocurrency angle? Listen to find out!

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Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show right on our YouTube Channel? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us! Take a look at the schedule here.

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If you’d rather read along, here’s the transcript for this week’s episode.

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Theme music: “Newer Wave” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

hackaday.com/2025/02/05/floss-…

Esperti di intelligenza artificiale e testi antichi hanno unito le forze per decifrare i rotoli carbonizzati dall’eruzione del Vesuvio del 79 d.C. Questi reperti unici furono rinvenuti nel 1750 tra le rovine di una lussuosa villa a Ercolano, un’antica città romana distrutta insieme a Pompei.

I rotoli della cosiddetta Villa dei Papiri potrebbero offrire all’umanità nuove conoscenze sulle opere filosofiche e letterarie del mondo antico. Tuttavia, la loro conservazione si rivelò al tempo stesso una benedizione e una maledizione: ricoperti di cenere vulcanica e carbonizzati dalle alte temperature, sopravvissero ma divennero fragili e quasi illeggibili. Ogni tentativo di dispiegarli manualmente si traduceva in distruzione.

Per oltre 250 anni, gli studiosi hanno cercato di trovare il modo di leggere questi testi. Nel 2023, diverse aziende tecnologiche hanno lanciato un concorso Sfida del Vesuvio, offrendo ricompense in denaro per i tentativi riusciti di decifrare i rotoli utilizzando tecnologie di apprendimento automatico, visione artificiale e ricostruzione 3D.

Questa settimana gli organizzatori hanno annunciato una svolta: i ricercatori sono riusciti a ottenere le prime immagini dell’interno di uno dei tre rotoli conservati nella Biblioteca Bodleiana dell’Università di Oxford. Secondo Brent Seals, uno dei fondatori del concorso, l’immagine contiene più testo recuperabile di quanto sia mai stato ottenuto tramite la scansione dei rotoli di Ercolano.

Per la scansione è stata utilizzata una potente sorgente di raggi X. Sorgente luminosa a diamante, con sede presso l’acceleratore di particelle di Harwell (vicino a Oxford). Poi l’intelligenza artificiale ha aiutato i ricercatori a rilevare i segni di inchiostro, a migliorarne la visibilità e a srotolare virtualmente il rotolo utilizzando la tecnologia di segmentazione.

Tuttavia, l’intelligenza artificiale è ancora lontana dall’essere ideale: è riuscita solo a distinguere singole parole dal testo. Una delle prime parole ad essere riconosciuta fu quella dell’antica parola greca che significa “disgusto“. I partecipanti al progetto sono fiduciosi che un ulteriore miglioramento dei metodi consentirà di decifrare un numero maggiore di frammenti.

Gli scienziati chiedono ai ricercatori di testi antichi di unirsi al lavoro per accelerare il processo di interpretazione del testo. Peter Toth, curatore della collezione greca della Bodleian Library, ha affermato che la ricerca è appena agli inizi. “Abbiamo bisogno di immagini migliori, ma il team è fiducioso che potremo migliorare ulteriormente la chiarezza e la leggibilità del testo“.

Uno degli obiettivi del progetto è quello di rendere la tecnologia disponibile ad altri istituti, in modo che i due rotoli rimanenti non debbano essere trasportati al centro di ricerca. Inoltre, la Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli conserva circa un migliaio di altri rotoli simili, che potrebbero contenere anche opere sconosciute del mondo antico.

L'articolo L’IA decifra un rotolo carbonizzato dal Vesuvio: la storia riemerge dopo 2000 anni! proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

What has puzzled researchers and philosophers for many centuries is the ‘why’ of sleep, along with the ‘how’. We human animals know from experience that we need to sleep, and that the longer we go without it, the worse we feel. Chronic sleep-deprivation is known to be even fatal. Yet exactly why do we need sleep? To rest our bodies, and our brains? To sort through a day’s worth of memories? To cleanse our brain of waste products that collect as neurons and supporting cells busily do their thing?

Within the kingdom of Animalia one constant is that its brain-enabled species need to give these brains a regular break and have a good sleep. Although what ‘sleep’ entails here can differ significantly between species, generally it means a period of physical inactivity where the animal’s brain patterns change significantly with slower brainwaves. The occurrence of so-called rapid eye movement (REM) phases is also common, with dreaming quite possibly also being a feature among many animals, though obviously hard to ascertain.

Most recently strong evidence has arisen for sleep being essential to remove waste products, in the form of so-called glymphatic clearance. This is akin to lymphatic waste removal in other tissues, while our brains curiously enough lack a lymphatic system. So is sleeping just to a way to scrub our brains clean of waste?

Defining Sleep

Drosophila melanogaster.
For us mammals, sleep is literally something that we grow up with, with newborn mammals spending most of their time sleeping. Yet sleep is a universal phenomenon, not just among animals, but also among unicellular organisms who display pronounced circadian rhythms. This suggests that there is a definite physical cause for these regular periods of rest, further supported by the fact that in animals which posses a brain there is not a single species which does not require sleep.

This is a pattern which can be seen by small animals like insects, with Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) requiring about 2.5 hours of sleep each day, according to a number of studies. These studies also showed that D. melanogaster will suffer the effects of sleep deprivation if forced to stay awake. Afterwards they will sleep for significantly longer, and if kept from sleeping for extended periods of time, these little flies will die from lack of sleep. All of which is very similar to us big-brained humans, albeit that we require more like 7-9 hours of sleep each circadian cycle.

With sleep clearly being an essential part of survival, animals have developed a wide range of ways to be able to do so safely. From everyone’s favorite avian theropod dinosaurs grasping firmly onto a tree branch or similar while asleep, to wasps using their mandibles to do much the same and various animals opting to only sleep one half of their brains at a time with unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, something observed with avian, aquatic and terrestrial species.

Waking Up From Mysticism

Throughout history, sleep was most commonly seen as something mystical, related to dreams and visions, with purportedly gods and other mystical sources sending dreams as auguries. Equally it was regarded as something very similar to death, with poets like John Keats postulating the question “Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream”. This is a cultural phenomenon which is still easy to recognize in today’s plentiful dream interpretation books, along with euphemistic phrases for death that make it seem akin to a very long sleep.

Since we began to be able to examine the sleeping brain in more detail, it’s become much easier to regard the brain as an organic computer with the observable activity from ‘brain waves’ providing a clear indication of what it is currently doing. This is also where we discovered the importance of slow-wave sleep (SWS), characterized by relatively slow delta waves. It’s the third stage in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, characterized by the least amount of activity in the brain. It is also associated with healing and restoration of the brain’s tissues and energy supplies.

Interestingly, although we have evidence of NREM being an essential part of the brain’s functioning, in particular memory consolidation, its role in memory retention has been put into question. It was originally thought that REM sleep was essential for consolidating memories into long-term storage, but studies have shown this assumption to be incorrect. More interestingly, staying awake while not sleep-deprived does not appear to negatively impact this learning process, with e.g. a 2004 review article in Cell by Robert P. Vertes suggesting that sleep may not be important at all for memory consolidation.

Theoretically this should mean that we animals would have no reason to carve out hours each Sun cycle for a long nap each day, barring the physical needs of the brain tissues that so gently slosh about in our craniums.

Mind’s Gutter

While our body’s cells are busy doing their thing, their metabolic wastes keep piling up and have to be removed. In vertebrates, this is handled by the lymphatic system. This is an extensive network of branching vessels, lymph nodes, lymphatic tissues, etc. which in many respects mirrors the body’s circulatory system and is in fact an extension of it. Through the lymphatic system a significant part of blood plasma is returned to circulation after it and its nutrients have reached tissues via capillary action, allowing for efficient drainage of metabolic wastes at the same time.
Norepinephrine-mediated metabolic waste clearance in the brain. (Credit: Natalie L. Hauglund et al., Cell, 2025)
Although the brain does not possess a lymphatic system of its own, in 2012 a ‘glymphatic system’ was proposed for the brain, recognizing the importance of the glial cells to achieve a similar function as the lymphatic system. This system would enhance the function of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that envelops the central nervous system (CNS), as simple diffusion won’t suffice. Subsequent studies have revealed more details of how this system works, with a very recent January 2025 study in Cell by Natalie L. Hauglund et al. uncovering the role of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) release during NREM sleep.

Released by the locus coeruleus in the brainstem, noradrenaline causes arteries to contract, which is a process that tends to fluctuate fairly randomly throughout the day as the animal is active. During NREM sleep, however, the release of noradrenaline in the mice-under-test was seen to oscillate in a very deterministic manner. This results predictably in the countless arteries that in the brain alternatingly contracting and relaxing, creating a pulsing motion that serves to pump CSF. Along with this motion metabolic waste products and anything else that’s not supposed to be there is effectively flushed from the brain into the surrounding CSF from where the waste products can be filtered out.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating findings here are the effects of sleeping aids, like the tested zolpidem. Crucial in this study was that the mice were allowed to fall asleep naturally rather than being put under artificially. This allowed for a direct comparison between natural and zolpidem-induced sleep. Somewhat disturbingly, the zolpidem mice showed half the level of noradrenaline waves and more than a 30% reduction in fluid transport. This strongly suggests that the use of such sleeping aids may hamper the brain’s glymphatic system, with potentially harmful consequences over time.

Other implications here are the potential effects of glymphatic system disorders, whether aging-related or not. As already suggested in the earlier referenced 2012 study by Jeffrey J Iliff et al., conditions such as Alzheimer’s and similar may be induced or worsened by a failing glymphatic system, as evidenced by the collecting of protein plaques amidst dying neurons.

Although this most recent study involved mice and not humans, there are very good reasons to assume that the same principle of noradrenaline-induced pulsations is something that persists within the brains of many if not most animals. Even a tiny fruit fly may have to take a break for this exact reason, sleeping for a few hours. Possibly dreaming fruitfully as its brain readies itself for another busy day.

Featured image: “Sleeping arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus)” by Rama

hackaday.com/2025/02/05/invest…

Nel cuore di Milano, La Dogana del Buongusto è un ristorante e vineria che celebra la cucina meneghina con un perfetto equilibrio tra tradizione e innovazione.

Un’esperienza gastronomica che conquista con piatti iconici come l’ossobuco con risotto alla milanese e la cotoletta tradizionale, accompagnati da una selezione di oltre 400 etichette di vino.

Scopri l’atmosfera intima di questa storica carbonera e lasciati guidare in un viaggio tra sapori autentici e vini d’eccellenza.

appuntidizelda.it/la-dogana-de…

In the process of making everything ‘smart’, it would seem that rings have become the next target, and they keep getting new features. The ring that [Aaron Christophel] got his mittens on is the SR08, which appears to have been cloned by many manufacturers at this point. It’s got an OLED display, 1 MB Flash and a Renesas DA14585 powering it from a positively adorable 16 mAh LiPo battery.

The small scale makes it an absolute chore to reverse-engineer and develop with, which is why [Aaron] got the €35 DA14585 development kit from Renesas. Since this dev kit only comes with a 256 kB SPI Flash chip, he had to replace it with a 1 MB one. The reference PDFs, pinouts and custom demo firmware are provided on his GitHub account, all of which is also explained in the video.

Rather than hack the ring and destroy it like his first attempts, [Aaron] switched to using the Renesas Software Update OTA app to flash custom firmware instead. A CRC error is shown, but this can be safely ignored. The ring uses about 18 µA idle and 3 mA while driving the display, which is covered in the provided custom firmware for anyone who wants to try doing something interesting with these rings.

youtube.com/embed/xOw-6uMfOjc?…

hackaday.com/2025/02/05/hackin…

There are no two ways about it—space will kill you if you give it half a chance. More than land, sea, or air, the space environment is entirely hostile to human existence. Precision-engineered craft are the bare minimum just to ensure human survival. Even still, between the vacuum, radiation, micrometeorites, and equipment failures, there are plenty of ways for things to go catastrophically wrong beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

Despite the hazards, most spacefaring humans have completed their missions without injury. However, as we look to return to the Moon, tread on Mars, and beyond, it’s increasingly likely that future astronauts could pass away during longer missions. When that inevitably happens, the question is simple—how do you deal with death in space?

Unlikely, But Possible

For the Apollo 11 mission, there was no hope of rescue in the event something went wrong. A speech was prepared for President Nixon to cover off this dreaded eventuality. Credit: National Archives
Death almost never occurs during space missions. That’s a testament to the hard work and engineering prowess of space agencies around the world. As of early 2024, 644 people have reached space by the FAI definition—crossing the Kármán line at 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

Of all of those people, just 18 have died during a mission. In each case, the mission ended with the deaths of the entire crew, and usually the destruction of the spacecraft itself. Notably, only once incident occurred above the Kármán line—during the Soyuz 11 mission, when the crew capsule underwent decompression in space.

In a total mission loss, where a vehicle has crashed or life support has failed, it has been left up to support crews to recover the remains of those involved. They are then handled with the usual deference and respect as per the cultures of those involved. The procedure is ultimately no different from any other sort of traumatic emergency event involving loss of life.

Often, practical rescue or recovery has been impossible for the most ambitious space missions, making it a moot point. Failure was often total. President Nixon famously had a speech on hand if the Apollo 11 mission didn’t go to plan and the astronauts got stuck on the Moon. Sombre words were all that was on offer; there was no more that could be done in the event of calamity.

Practical Realities

Longer missions increase the chance that an astronaut could die, even of natural causes, at some point along the way.
Future space missions, however, could see more difficult situations arise. When a whole crew or entire spacecraft is lost, it’s a tragedy, and there is little to do but pick up the pieces and mourn those lost. The problem becomes multifaceted when there is only a partial loss, such as one member of a larger crew—and their body or remains must be dealt with.

Imagine a mission to Mars. With our primitive technology, it would involve months of travel there, and many months back—not counting any time spent on the surface. Outside of accidents or equipment failure, the sheer length of the mission provides plenty of time for old-fashioned human fallibility to claim the lives of one or more crew members. A heart attack, a burst appendix, or even just choking on food could see an astronaut die, while the rest of the crew are left to deal with the loss of their fellow crew member.

On Earth, these problems are easily dealt with. If you die on land, you’re sent to a mortuary, and later interred, cremated, or dealt with in whatever way your next of kin or culture sees fit. If you pass on a plane, there are simple routines for dealing with your body until it can be delivered to the relevant authorities. On a ship, it’s much the same, and there’s also the tradition of burial at sea which is both well-established and particularly expeditious.

The logistics of space travel don’t present such convenient options. The body of a dead crew member presents multiple issues. Beyond the problem of decomposition and biohazard, there’s also the psychological ramifications for the other astronauts having to share a cramped craft with their deceased colleague. Simple solutions are out, too. UN regulations effectively forbid simply releasing bodies into space, particularly in orbits around Earth; even just the space junk problems make that a non-starter. Even if we were to make it to the Moon, or Mars, it’s not as simple as burying a body, either. At our early stage of exploration, it would be considered incredibly poor form to contaminate another planet or moon in this way. It could destroy a great deal of scientific value, and flies in the face of proper quarantine rules.
A body bag (referred to as the Body Back) was NASA and Promessa’s proposed solution to dealing with bodies during space flight. Credit: Promessa
NASA did develop one solution, at least to the back-of-the-envelope level. It worked with a green burial company called Promessa on a tidy and compact solution for dealing with astronaut deaths in space itself. The concept involved placing the deceased inside a GoreTex bodybag, and then placing the bag outside the craft, using the cold vacuum of space to freeze the body to incredibly low temperatures. The body would then be vibrated to the point it shattered and decomposed into something approximating a powder. Imagine smashing a flower frozen with liquid nitrogen, and you’re getting the right idea.

From there, the remains would be dehydrated until the bag contained just 25 kilograms or so of non-descript human remains. This solution was lightweight, which is critical for spaceflight, and solved the problem of decomposition and biohazard. It also saved space on the craft and avoided astronauts needing to bunk next to a decaying corpse of a fellow crew member. Beyond the study, NASA never developed this to a working viable capability.
The cold of space would freeze the body, which could then be vibrated into dust with a robot arm and then dehydrated for easy storage. Credit: Promessa
Realistically, deaths in space will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. In more recent years, NASA has spent some time refining its position on the topic, and astronaut Chris Hadfield noted that practice exercises referred to as ‘death sims’ are carried out, so crews don’t go in entirely unprepared. But ultimately, the specifics of any given situation will guide the response. An astronaut that dies during an extravehicular activity might be left in their spacesuit, as the airtight garment might ease conditions during their transport back to Earth, for example. Forensic examinations may take place, too, and basic funeral rites or similar may be undertaken. In extreme cases on longer missions, burial on planetary surface or airlock jettison may be considered to maintain viable conditions for the rest of the crew, even if regulations officially don’t allow it.
In extreme conditions, crews may have no option for bringing a deceased crewmember back to Earth. Credit: NASA
Death is never easy to deal with. Space travel just adds a whole lot of complications that make it a practical and logistical headache, beyond the usual grief and psychological trauma. It’s unlikely to get any easier, and space agencies will be hoping their prepared procedures will remain untested as long as possible as we continue to reach for the stars.

hackaday.com/2025/02/05/what-h…

I software NDR sono strumenti avanzati di cybersecurity che monitorano il traffico di rete, rilevano attività sospette e rispondono in tempo reale alle minacce. Offrono visibilità completa sulla rete, integrazione con altri strumenti di sicurezza e risposte automatizzate per ridurre il tempo di reazione agli incidenti.

L'articolo Software NDR: le soluzioni Network Detection and Response da considerare proviene da Cyber Security 360.

Update: The USPS has now resumed acceptance of inbound packages from China. According to the updated Service Alert, they are currently working with Customs and Border Protection to “implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs.’

Some troubling news hit overnight as the United States Post Office announced via a terse “Service Alert” that they would suspend acceptance of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts, effective immediately.

The Alert calls it a temporary suspension, but gives no timeline on when service will be restored. While details are still coming together, it seems likely that this suspension is part of the Trump administration’s Chinese tariff package, which went into effect at midnight.

Specifically, the administration looks to close the “de minimis” exemption — a loophole which allowed packages valued under $800 USD to pass through customs without having to pay any duties or fees. Those packages will now not only be subject to the overall 10% tax imposed by the new tariff package, but will now have to be formally processed through customs, potentially tacking on even more taxes and fees.

The end result is that not only will your next order of parts from AliExpress be more expensive, but it’s likely to take even longer to arrive at your door. Of course, this should come as no surprise. At the end of the day, this is precisely what the administration aims to accomplish with the new tariffs — if purchasing goods from overseas is suddenly a less attractive option than it was previously, it will be a boon to domestic suppliers. That said, some components will be imported from China regardless of who you order them from, so those prices are still going to increase.

Other carriers such as FedEx and UPS will also have to follow these new rules, but at the time of this writing, neither service had released a statement about how they intend to comply.

hackaday.com/2025/02/05/breaki…

L'intelligenza artificiale sta trasformando la cybersecurity, rendendo più efficiente il rilevamento e la risposta alle minacce informatiche. Grazie all'analisi predittiva e al machine learning, l'AI consente di individuare anomalie, automatizzare processi di sicurezza e migliorare la threat intelligence.

L'articolo Come l’AI sta migliorando la cybersecurity per le aziende e quali soluzioni la utilizzano proviene da Cyber Security 360.

Le policy di sicurezza sempre più restrittive e i controlli implementati da Google e Apple sui loro store ufficiali non bastano più. Come mitigare il rischio di app infette che, attraverso tecniche sempre più sofisticate come l'uso di payload malevoli e Optical character recognition (OCR), permettono ai cyber criminali di eludere i sistemi di verifica

L'articolo App infette negli store Apple e Google: come eludono i sistemi di sicurezza e come proteggersi proviene da Cyber Security 360.

Le piattaforme XDR offrono una protezione avanzata contro le minacce informatiche, integrando dati da endpoint, reti e cloud per un rilevamento e una risposta più efficaci. La scelta della piattaforma XDR più adatta dipende da fattori come integrazione con i sistemi esistenti, automazione e capacità di analisi avanzata.

L'articolo Piattaforme XDR: le soluzioni da considerare per una sicurezza più solida proviene da Cyber Security 360.

La sicurezza SaaS è essenziale per proteggere dati e applicazioni aziendali da minacce informatiche. Oltre alle misure di sicurezza integrate dai provider, è fondamentale adottare soluzioni avanzate come firewall di nuova generazione, controllo degli accessi basato su Zero Trust e strumenti di gestione della postura di sicurezza.

L'articolo Software per sicurezza SaaS: le soluzioni da considerare proviene da Cyber Security 360.

Gli specialisti di Positive Technologies hanno scoperto una campagna dannosa su PyPI che sfrutta la popolarità di DeepSeek. L’attacco aveva come target sviluppatori, specialisti di ML e utenti abituali che desideravano integrare DeepSeek nei loro sistemi.

Secondo i ricercatori, l’aggressore, che ha creato l’account bvk nel giugno 2023 e che non era mai stato attivo prima, ha registrato i pacchetti dannosi deepseeek e deepseekai il 29 gennaio 2025.

I pacchetti si spacciavano per client Python per DeepSeek AI, ma in realtà erano infostealer. Il loro compito principale era raccogliere dati sull’utente, sul suo computer e rubare variabili ambientali. Gli esperti sottolineano che le variabili ambientali contengono spesso dati sensibili necessari al funzionamento delle applicazioni, come le chiavi API per l’archiviazione S3, le credenziali del database e l’accesso ad altre risorse infrastrutturali.

L’attività dannosa dei pacchetti si manifestava quando venivano chiamati i comandi console deepseeek o deepseekai, a seconda del pacchetto installato. Gli operatori dei due pacchetti dannosi hanno utilizzato il servizio Pipedream, una piattaforma di integrazione per sviluppatori, come server di comando e controllo su cui sono stati caricati i dati rubati (eoyyiyqubj7mquj.m.pipedream[.]net).

Si noti che il codice è stato creato utilizzando un assistente AI, come indicato dai commenti caratteristici che spiegano le righe di codice. Gli esperti hanno informato gli amministratori di PyPI della minaccia e i pacchetti dannosi sono stati rimossi. Tuttavia, sono stati scaricati 36 volte utilizzando il gestore di pacchetti pip e lo strumento di mirroring bandersnatch e altre 186 volte utilizzando un browser, la libreria requests e altri strumenti.

“I criminali seguono le tendenze moderne e spesso le usano per i propri scopi. L’aumento di popolarità di DeepSeek non ha fatto eccezione: gli utenti interessati alle reti neurali si sono ritrovati nel mirino. È anche degno di nota il fatto che il codice dell’attaccante sia stato creato utilizzando un assistente AI, come indicato dai commenti caratteristici che spiegano le righe di codice. I pacchetti dannosi sono stati caricati su un repository molto diffuso la sera del 29 gennaio e nel giro di pochi minuti sono stati rilevati dal servizio PT PyAnalysis per l’identificazione di pacchetti sospetti e dannosi. Abbiamo prontamente informato gli amministratori di PyPI: i pacchetti sono già stati rimossi. Sono riusciti a essere scaricati più di 200 volte”, commenta Stanislav Rakovsky, responsabile del gruppo Supply Chain Security del dipartimento Threat Intelligence di PT ESC.

L'articolo DeepSeek AI nel mirino degli hacker: pacchetti Python infetti rubano dati sensibili! proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

per chi cerca la #ricerca, ecco:
diricerca.wordpress.com/
& slowforward.net/2012/09/24/net…

#link #scritturadiricerca #scritturediricerca #prosainprosa #scritturecomplesse #scritturesperimentali #scritturasperimentale #scritturacomplessa #diricerca #slowforward

“Nigerian” spam is a collective term for messages designed to entice victims with alluring offers and draw them into an email exchange with scammers, who will try to defraud them of their money. The original “Nigerian” spam emails were sent in the name of influential and wealthy individuals from Nigeria, hence the name of the scam.

The themes of these phishing emails evolved over time, with cybercriminals leveraging contemporary events and popular trends to pique the interest of their targets. However, the distinctive characteristics of the messages that placed them in the “Nigerian” scam category remained unchanged:

• The user is encouraged to reply to an email. It is usually enough for the attackers to receive a reply in any format, but sometimes they ask the victim to provide additional information, such as contact details or an address.
• Typically, scammers mention a large amount of money that they claim the recipient is entitled to, either due to sheer luck or because of their special status. However, some emails use other types of bait: investment opportunities, generous gifts, invitations to an exclusive community, and so on.
• The body of most “Nigerian” scam emails includes the email address – often registered with a free email service – of the alleged benefactor or an agent, which may be different from the sender’s address. Sometimes the return address is given in the Reply-To field rather than the message itself, and the address also differs from the one in the From field. Alternatively, the message body might contain a phone number in place of an email address.
• The messages are often poorly written, with a large number of mistakes and typos. The text may well be the product of low-quality machine translation or generated by a large language model poorly trained on that language.

Types of “Nigerian” email messages

Email from wealthy benefactors

A fairly common tactic that has superseded the original “Nigerian” scam involves messages purportedly from wealthy individuals suffering from a terminal illness and facing imminent death. They claim to have no heirs, and therefore wish to bequeath their vast fortune to the recipient, whom they deem worthy.
Subject: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
From: "Judith Peters"<<>>
Reply-To: <attorneycchplain@...>
Dearest One
I'm Mrs Judith Peters a Successful business Woman dealing with Exportation, I got your mail contact through search
in order to let you know my Ugly Situation.
Am a dying Woman here in Los Angeles California Hospital Bed in (USA),I Lost my Husband and my only Daughter
for Covid-19 in March 2020 I'm dying with a cancer disease at the moment.
My Doctor open-up to me that he is Afraid to tell me my Condition and inside me, I already know that I'm not going to
survive and I can't live alone without my Family on Earth.
I have a project that I am about to hand over to you. and I already instructed the Heritage Bank to transfer my fund
sum of $50,000.000.00usd to you, so as to enable you to give 50% to Charitable Home and take 50% for yourself.
Don't think otherwise and why would anybody send someone you barely know to help you deliver a message, help me
do this for the happiness of my soul.
Please, do as I said there was someone from your State that I deeply love so very very much and I miss her so badly I
have no means to reach any Charitable Home there,that is why I go for a personal search of the Country and State and
I got your mail contact through search to let you know my Bitterness and the situation that i am passing through.
Please help me accomplish my goal,ask my Attorney to help me keep you notice failure for me to reach you in person.
The Doctor said I have a few days to live, please contact my attorney with the following email address and phone
number as soon as possible, I am finding it difficult to breathe now and I am not sure if I can stay up to two week.
Name Attorney Chaplain Upright
Email:attorneycchplain@...
Please hurry up to contact my attorney so that he can direct you on how you will hand over 50% of the $50,000,000.00
to Charity, i really want to achieve that goal by helping the Charity organization before I die.
My Regards.
Mrs Judith Peters
The narrative may change slightly from one email to the next. For example, a “wealthy benefactor” might ask the recipient to act as a go-between for a monetary transfer to a third party in exchange for a reward, as described in the email above, or simply offer a valuable gift. The message can claim to be written by either a dying millionaire or, as in the example below, a legal representative of the deceased.

Alternatively, the “millionaires” may be in good health and supposedly donating their money purely out of the goodness of their hearts. To enhance credibility, attackers can embed links to publicly available data about the individual they’re posing as.
Subject: DONATION
From: Maria Elizabeth Schaeffler <harshvardhan.lakhara@...>
Dear [Recipient Name],
My name is Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler. I am a German business magnate, investor and philanthropist. I am the owner
of the Schaeffler Group at Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG at Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG. I spend
25% of my wealth for charitable causes. Also, I have pledged to give away the remaining 25% this year to private
individuals. I have decided to donate €4,500,000 to you. If you are interested in accepting this donation, please contact
me for details.
Send an email to: ...@gmail.com
You can learn more about me by visiting the link below
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria-El…
Greetings,
Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler, Managing Director, Wipro Limited ...@gmail.com

Compensation scams

Beyond the “millionaire giveaway” scam, fraudsters frequently use the lure of compensations from governments, banks and other trusted entities. By doing so, they exploit the victim’s vulnerability rather than their greed. Scammers sometimes take their victims on an emotional rollercoaster ride. They start by frightening people with bad news, then calm them down by saying the problem has been fixed, and finally surprise them with a generous offer of compensation.

For example, in the email screenshot below, the attackers, posing as high-ranking officials at a major bank, claim that “corrupt employees” were attempting to steal the recipient’s money. The bank claims to have taken action and is offering an exorbitant amount as damage compensation. To get it, the recipient is urged to contact a correspondent bank as soon as possible at an email address, which is, unsurprisingly, registered with a free email service.

Scammers have another trick up their sleeve when it comes to compensations: they pretend to be from the police or some international organization and promise to give victims of “Nigerian” scams or other rip-offs their money back. In the example below, scammers, posing as the Financial Stability Council and the United Bank for Africa (UBA), promise the victim a payout from a so-called “fraud victims compensation fund”.
Subject: Fund Ref: 110/XX/236/OB/2024
From: "Dr.John Schindler (Secretary General)" <tguil@….com>

Attention My Dear,
After the Global Financial Pact Summit, Monday, November 11, 2024 in Paris we have come to the conclusion to pay
Scammed victim compensation fund. You are in the badge B category that are going to benefit from the world's largest
humanitarian aid budgets. With due regards to the instruction from the Financial Stability Board (FSB). We want to
inform you that (The Financial Stability Board (FSB)) have arranged with UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA to
immediately effect your payment through the online transfer of your $1.750.000.00usd via UBA BANK online
transfers. The transfer of your fund will be processed and completed within 3 working days, within which the fund
will safely reflect into any designated bank account of your choice.
To this effect, you're required to contact
Sir.Joseph Warfel Mandy
Online Banking Services, UBA BANK
Email : ...@gmail.com
Deposit And Fund Details
Fund Ref: 110/XX/236/OB/2024
Fund Value .. $1.750.000.00
Fund Origin ..Financial Stability Board (FSB)
Paying Formula.. UBA BANK Online Transfer!
Contact Sir.Joseph Warfel Mandy with your
Full names
Direct telephone number
Your identification Number
Current Address
He will furnish you with all necessary online information to carry out the online transfer of your fund by yourself.
Please note that F.S.B mobilization and efficiency sum of $125 is the only payable/required sum to effectively
complete your online transfer without any delay.
Thanks and best regards
Dr.John Schindler (Secretary General)
Copyright @The Financial Stability Board (FSB)
Sometimes scammers pretend to be “victims of fraud” themselves. The screenshot below shows a common example: scammers masquerade as victims of cryptocurrency fraud, offering help from “noble hackers” who they claim helped them recover their losses.

Lottery scams

Lottery win notification scams share many similarities with “Nigerian” scams. Fraudsters promise recipients large sums of money and provide their contact details for further communication. It’s likely that the victim has never heard of the lottery they’ve supposedly won.

In some cases, scammers employ unusual tactics. For example, in a message claiming to be from a European lottery director, the email body is all but empty. All the “win” details and next steps are in a PDF attachment. The file includes a free email address, which is typical of “Nigerian” scams, and asks you to send fairly detailed personal information, such as your full name, address, and both your mobile and landline phone numbers. They even ask for your job position.

In other similar emails, we noticed image attachments that included all the details about the supposed “win” and contact information.

Another lottery scam tactic combines two types of bait: a lottery win (fraudsters pretend to be someone else who has won and is now offering you money) and offering a donation from a wealthy elderly person.
Subject: Spende von €1,500,000.00
From: Theodorus Struyck <dina@...>
Reply-To: Theodorus Struyck <...@gmail.com>
Wir freuen uns, Ihnen mitteilen zu können, dass Ihnen und Ihrer Familie eine Spende von €1,500,000..00 von
Theodorus Struyck, 65, geschenkt wurde und der Gewinner des zweitgrößten Jackpot-Preises der kalifornischen
Lotterie Powerball im Wert von 1,765 Mrd. 11, 2023 , ein Teil dieser Spende ist für Sie und Ihre Familie. und diese
Spende wird auch zur Armutsbekämpfung beitragen, für arme und ältere Menschen in Ihrer Gemeinde, indem sie der
Menschheit helfen. Bitte kontaktieren Sie uns für weitere Informationen, um das Geld per E-Mail zu erhalten:
...@gmail.com, ...@outlook.com
In some cases, to make their scams more convincing, scammers attach photos of documents to their emails that supposedly confirm the sender’s identity or their winnings.

Online dating scams

Some “Nigerian” scams are so sophisticated that they can be hard to spot right away. These include offers of friendship that often develop into romantic conversations, which can be almost indistinguishable from real-life interactions. We’ve seen examples of really long email exchanges where a whole drama played out. A man and a woman met online and hit it off, chatting for hours about everything under the sun. Now, one of them is finally ready to meet the other in person. However, they can’t afford the ticket or visa, and they’re pleading with their partner for financial help so they can meet.

In a different scenario, the scammer pretends to send an expensive gift to their partner. Eventually, they claim they can’t afford the postage and ask the victim to cover the costs. If the victim agrees, they’ll be hit with a series of additional fees, and the package will never materialize.

“Nigerian” spam for businesses

While “Nigerian” scams are often targeted at individual users, similar spam can also be found in the B2B sector. Cybercriminals claim to be seeking businesses to invest in, and the recipient’s company may be their target. To arrange a “partnership”, they ask the recipient to reply to the email.
Subject: Potential Investment Opportunities in Russia
From: Grigorii Iuvchenko <grigorii.iuvchenko@...>
Dear [Recipient's Name],
I hope this email catches you off guard. I am a business development professional at Sovereign Wealth Portfolio
Limited. We operate on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Fund. As you may be aware, Saudi
Arabia is in the process of applying for membership in the BRICS economic bloc, which includes Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa. As part of this process, Saudi Arabia is required to invest a certain amount in each of
these member countries.
I have been tasked with identifying potential investment opportunities in Russia, and I believe that you or your
organization could be a suitable candidate. Whether it is a new venture, a project, or an existing business, I would be
interested to hear your thoughts on possible partnership opportunities.
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Alexander Maksakov
Business Development Director
Sovereign Wealth Portfolio Limited

Current “Nigerian” spam themes

Some of the spam samples above reference recent or current real-world events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or Saudi Arabia’s possible BRICS membership. This is typical of “Nigerian” scams. There are countless ways scammers exploit various global or local, significant or ordinary, positive or negative events, news, incidents, and activities to pursue their selfish goals.

The most talked-about event of 2024, the US presidential election, significantly influenced the types of scams we saw. Emails that took advantage of this topic were sent to users around the globe. For instance, in the following message, the scammers claimed that the recipient, who uses a German email address, was lucky enough to win millions of dollars from the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
Subject: DONALD TRUMP FOUNDATION
From: MR Donald trump <katsuhito_ogura@...>
Reply-To: ...@gmail.com
Hello., this email is from Donald J. Trump Foundation, American
politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th
president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. , The Trump Foundation
is a charitable organization formed in 1988.
As we happily celebrate Mr Donald J. Trump as 47th President of the
United States.
It gives me great joy to announce to you that after the winning of
election, Donald J. Trump has called for the reopening of the Trump
foundation which was closed years ago.
The Trump foundation is giving out $15,000,000.00 each to 50 lucky
people around the world to unknown randomly selected individual
Emails online,the foundation simply attempt to be fearful when others
are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful Price is what
you pay, Value is what you get, Someone's sitting in the shade today
because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
You have been selected to receive this $15,000,000.00, as a lucky one
confirm back to me that this selected unknown email is valid,Visit
the web page to know more about the Donald J. Trump Foundation,
https://...
Contact. This email below (...@gmail.com)
Best Regards
Donald J. Trump Foundation

Creativity unbound

While most spam fits into well-known categories, scammers can come up with some very surprising offers. We’ve seen quite a few messages from people claiming they’re giving away a piano because they’re moving or because the previous owner has passed away, as is often the case.

Sometimes you find some really unusual specimens. For example, in the screenshot below, there’s an email allegedly sent from a secret society of Illuminati who claim to be ready to share their wealth and power, as well as make the lucky recipient famous if they agree to become part of their grand brotherhood.

Conclusion

“Nigerian” spam has existed for a long time and is characterized by its diversity. Fraudsters can pose as both real and fictitious individuals: bank employees, lawyers, businesspeople, magnates, bankers, ambassadors, company executives, law enforcement officers, presidents or even members of secret societies. They use a variety of stories to hook the user: compensations and reimbursements, donations and charity, winnings, inheritances, investments, and much more. Messages can be anything from short and captivating to long and persuasive, filled with numerous convincing claims designed to lull the victim into a false sense of security. The main danger of such emails lies in the fact that at first glance, there is nothing harmful in them: no links to phishing sites and no suspicious attachments. Scammers exclusively rely on social engineering and are willing to correspond with the victim for an extended period, increasing the credibility of their fabricated story.

To avoid falling victim to such scams, it’s important to understand the dangers of tempting offers and to be critical of emails allegedly sent from influential individuals. If possible, it’s best to avoid responding to messages from unverified senders altogether. If for some reason you can’t avoid corresponding with a stranger, before responding to even an innocent message about finding a new owner for a piano, it’s worth double-checking the information in it, paying attention to inconsistencies, grammatical errors, etc. If the reply-to address is different from the sender’s address, or if you see a different address in the email body, this may be a sign of fraud.

securelist.com/nigerian-scams-…

BONJOUR, MES AMIS! I'm Mark Scott, and will be heading to Paris on Feb 10-11 for the upcoming AI Action Summit (more on that below.) If you're also going and want to grab a coffee (or croissant?), reach out here.

Also, for people in Washington, I'm teaming up with Katie Harbath (and her excellent Anchor Change newsletter) for a tech policy event in Washington the week of March 10. If you're interested, let me know here.

— The French pow-wow on artificial intelligence should be seen for what it is: an effort by the country to position itself a global AI leader.

— Here's a new concept you're going to hear a lot about in the years ahead: "Euro stack." Let's unpack what that actually means.

— Just under 20 percent of teenagers are now addicted to YouTube and TikTok. Don't believe me? Check out the chart below.

Let's get started:

We're good at AI too, say the French

ON FEB 10-11, EMMANUEL MACRON, the embattled French president, will host heads-of-state, policymakers, tech executives and civil society groups (and me) at the AI Action Summit in Paris. It's the third iteration of this now-regular summit that the United Kingdom kicked off, in late 2023, and then the South Koreans continued last year. Expect a Global Majority country (my bet is on India, a co-host for next week's conference in France) to host the subsequent event, most likely in early 2026.

First, the basics. On day one, there will be a series of official events (full agenda here) on everything from international AI governance to the emerging technology's impact on the workforce to its environment footprint. Expect a lot of talk about "inclusivity," "innovation," and "trustworthy AI." "We must enable artificial intelligence to fulfil its initial promise of progress and empowerment in a context of shared trust that contains the risks inherent to technological development, while seizing every opportunity," according to the French government. Cue: AI policy buzzword bingo.

Day two is just for governments. The rest of us will scatter across Paris for side events on topics like AI's impact on the information environment, trust and geopolitical relations. Countries will then publish a summit communiqué — akin to previous summits (here and here.) I wouldn't expect much. Based on the French government's public statements — officials have been traveling the world ahead of the February event — I would expect a reaffirmation of embedding human rights and openness into AI's development; the need to promote innovation without allowing a few (American) firms to dominate; and tackling the environmental and social impact of a technology that has caught the public's imagination.

As the upcoming event will be held in Europe, I would also put good money on at least a name-check to greater AI governance and regulation. "The Summit will therefore reflect a balanced European approach to artificial intelligence that combines support for innovation, adequate regulation and respect for rights," based on France's stated objectives. That's somewhat ironic after Macron tried to water down the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act, at the last minute, over fears it would hobble the country's nascent AI industry. Those comprehensive rules won't come into full force until late 2026. So, for now, Paris is willing to at least publicly support legislation that, privately, it remains skeptical about.

Thanks for reading the free version of Digital Politics. Paid subscribers receive at least one newsletter a week. If that sounds like your jam, please sign up here.

Here's what I wrote about in January:
— The lessons platforms learned about Jan 6 riots was to pull back on content moderation; 2025 will see a stalling of AI governance. More here.
— The proposed TikTok ban isn't about free speech or national security. It's about the geopolitical clash between Washington and China. More here.
— How Brussels will respond on digital regulation to the Trump 2.0 administration; Community Notes aren't good at fact-checking. More here.
— A Who's Who guide to tech policy officials in Washington; Why national security doesn't make for good digital policymaking. More here.
— The United Kingdom does not have a clear strategy when it comes to digital. More here.
— In the global AI fight, bigger (infrastructure) doesn't always mean better results; Why transatlantic data flows are again in jeopardy. More here.

What won't be a priority for France is AI safety. That was the sole focus when the UK started this summit-a-palooza 18 months ago. During that event just outside of London, the then-British prime minister Rishi Sunak went hard on the existential risk of the technology, including the creation of the country's AI Safety Institute. In Seoul last year, the South Koreans (with the somewhat strong-willed support of the Brits) shifted to include "inclusivity" and "innovation." On Feb 10-11, the French will go hard on that last concept, relegating AI safety to an also-ran concept lumped into wider discussions around governance.

It's not that Macron & Co aren't concerned about AI's downsides. But they haven't fallen completely — as the former UK government did — for the belief that the existential threat of the emerging technology is the main long-term risk. For Paris, the consolidation of power, including within the underlying infrastructure required to build next-generation AI systems, is a more paramount threat. That's why you'll hear a lot next week about so-called "public interest AI," or a more inclusive, decentralized version of how AI can developed. One that is based on open source technologies, a community-led approach to solving societal problems and a counterweight to the Silicon Valley tech bro brigade.

What's not to like, right? Well maybe. The Feb 10-11 summit also provides France, Inc with an opportunity to flog its wares to a global audience descending on Paris to talk AI. And there's a lot to flog. The French AI tech darling Mistral will get more shout-outs than people saying "autre vin rouge, s'il vous plaît."(That's my last French stereotype, promise.) But the country has world-leading research hubs in places like Lyon and Toulouse. Both Alphabet and Meta have separate AI research teams in Paris. In an event — entitled "Business Day" — on Feb 11 at Station F, a sprawling startup center in the French capital, local techies will vie for attention as part of the country's wider efforts to pitch itself as the center of Europe's AI industry.

Again, there's nothing wrong with some American-style bravado to celebrate France's local AI champions. But it's not exactly what these summits were supposed to be. The UK may have gone too hard with its AI safety focus in 2023. But it was at least an effort to bring countries, including China, into a room to talk through how to collectively combat the doomsday scenarios. Fast forward 18 months, and the AI Action Summit is now more a roadshow for Macron to drum up foreign direct investment. Concepts like governance, inequalities and sustainability — ideas that are, in principle, still part of the event — have been quickly overshadowed by the unending need to boost France's domestic economy.

Before I get angry emails from French officials, the Summit's communiqué, based on public statements from the country's officials in the build-up to the event, will likely still highlight the wider societal goals of AI governance. I would be particularly focused on what may come from any efforts to promote public interest AI as a counterweight to the growing concentration of economic power among a few Silicon Valley giants (and China's Deepseek, if you believe the recent hysteria.)

In 2025, my bet is that further government oversight of the emerging technology will be put on the back burner in the name of global competitiveness. That will even happen in places like the EU and South Korea where lawmakers have passed comprehensive AI rules.

In that context, a voluntary statement from countries, in the form of an AI Action Summit communiqué, won't be worth much.

A more positive view of next week's summit is that France is actually building AI products, based on governance principles, instead of just talking about the need for oversight. A more negative perspective is that the Feb 10-11 conference is an effort by Macron — suffering from shifting political winds at home — to regain the advantage by demonstrating his role as a global leader on AI.

Chart of the week

POLICYMAKERS WORLDWIDE NOW OPENLY fret about how addicted children have become to digital services. Some, like those in Australia, have gone so far as to ban access to social media platforms for minors.

To be clear, there is no empirical evidenceto connect growing levels of mental health illnesses, among kids, to access to digital services. That doesn't mean children should be let loose on the likes of YouTube and TikTok.

And yet, roughly 15 percent of American teenagers are now almost constantly glued to those services — with addiction to Instagram and Snapchat (but not Facebook) not far behind.
Source: Pew Research Center

Make Europe Great Again!

THERE'S NO DENYING GEOPOLITICS has taken over technology. The United States now vies openly with China on everything from high-end semiconductors to critical raw materials. In that bipolar world, Europe — and its focus on principles-based digital regulation that promotes fundamental rights — may represent a third way, according to Anu Bradford, who coined the "Brussels Effect" concept.

Yet there is now a rival theory about how the EU can compete globally that's gaining traction in European policymaking circles. And that involves building a so-called "Euro Stack" of digital infrastructure, tooling and services that is both made within, and run solely from, the 27-country bloc.

For those who attended the inaugural "Marked As Urgent" tech policy event on Jan 30, thank you. You can see photos from the meet-up in London here. We'll have another event for you on March 27. Sign up here for details.

If you're interested in sponsoring or partnering with Digital Politics as I develop the newsletter and future events in 2025, please reach out at digitalpolitics@protonmail.com

Leading that charge is an Italian economist called Cristina Caffarra. She earned her spurs in the cut-and-thrust world of digital competition, advising companies like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, as well as a series of European and US antitrust officials. Caffarra and others want an industrial policy to meet the new geopolitics where competitiveness and economic growth — as outlined in Mario Draghi's report for the European Commission last year — is the new name of the game. Donald Trump's return to the White House, from this worldview, has made the Euro stack more important than ever.

"It's a massive disgrace that when I have a video conference with the Commission, I use (Microsoft) Teams," Caffarra told an audience in Brussels on Jan 31. "Buy European. Europe First." That last comment received a massive applause from the European crowd. "The reality today is that we are a colony," the Italian economist continued. "The energy was focused on digital regulation as the only thing we had, it was a massive mistake." To make that point even clearer, the Italian also held her own conference — dubbed "The Perfect Storm: A Time of Truth for Europe?" — in Brussels on Jan 30.

There's a lot to unpack here. For those promoting the Euro stack concept, they worry about the dominance of American tech giants in key digital infrastructure areas like cloud and quantum computing. Without homegrown alternatives, the theory goes, Europe (and other parts of the world, too) will always be beholden to the US' commercial and/or political whims. To fix that, the EU must build its own rival infrastructure — preferably based on open source principles to avoid future industrial capture — to meet European needs. For what that could look like, see here and here.

I have some sympathy for that argument. But only to a point. Yes, there needs to be greater offerings from diverse actors when it comes to building the underlying infrastructure for the global digital economy. A reliance on a small number of companies — be they American or not — is not sustainable.

But where I disagree with the Euro stack pitch is its jingoistic approach that tries to Make Europe Great Again. We've already seen the bloc try to create its own version of Google. That failed miserably. Euro stack supporters would say this is about creating homegrown infrastructure, and not just replicating what already exists. Sure, I get that. But when I hear the likes of Caffarra speak, it sounds a lot like people complaining that Europe didn't get the economic bump from existing digital services. If Meta was, for instance, based in Paris and not Menlo Park, would they have a similar critique of the dominance of the online world by a small number of — in this alternate reality — European champions? I doubt it.

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There's also a misreading of the Euro stack crowd of what India achieved with its own version of this concept. For more on the so-called "India Stack," read this and this. But, in essence, New Delhi created a series of easily-accessible public data access points on which private companies and the government could then provide new services. That has led to problems, most notably around people's privacy. But — and I'm not an expert in this policy area — India's approach to create homegrown alternatives was more about opening up existing data, which had been siloed, for new commercial and social opportunities. It was not, as envisioned in Europe, as a like-for-like retrofit of existing (mostly American) infrastructure for domestic alternatives.

I have more questions. If the Euro stack is about investing billions, if not trillions, of dollars in European-owned infrastructure, who is going to pay for it? And if such alternatives can be funded — most likely via public resources, given that buckets of private capital have already had years to invest in this opportunity, but didn't — are we OK that citizens will likely pay more compared to what they already have access to via existing infrastructure? Even in the current more transactional geopolitical environment, is Europe willing to put up the borders to outsiders — even if they can offer European citizens (cheaper) services that meet their needs?

My largest criticism of the Euro stack movement is not their frustration with the status-quo. I get it. American tech companies now dominate much of the digital world (outside of China.) To boost Europe's long-term economic and societal interests, reducing that dependence makes good politics.

But in their breathless attempt to frame the existing situation as a mere failure of digital regulation and an unwillingness of EU officials to get tough against the US, the likes of Caffarra are missing how you "win" (note: I wouldn't view this as a zero-sum game) in the global fight over digital.

If their underlying criticism is of an industrial model that has reinforced power around a small group of Silicon Valley giants, you don't overcome that by replicating such structures — but just with French, German or Swedish firms. You do it by taking what non-Europeans (including non-US countries like Japan and South Korea) do best, and overlaying that with local solutions created, and championed, by local citizens.

What I'm reading

— Chinese covert influence operations impersonated human rights organizations critical of Beijing to discredit these groups' activities, according to a report from Graphika.

— The law firm Arnold & Partner analyzed what Trump's new executive orders on AI mean for developers of this emerging technology. More here.

— The European Commission announced a series of measures, called the Competitiveness Compass, to boost the bloc's growth. More here.

— Elon Musk remains immensely unpopular in both Germany and the UK despite his efforts to wade into those countries' domestic politics, according to a YouGov poll.

— The Chinese large language model DeepSeek performed well when a research asked it to respond to X posts as if it was a propagandist for the Russian government. More here.

digitalpolitics.co/newsletter0…

Some troubling news hit overnight as the United States Post Office announced via a terse “Service Alert” that they would suspend acceptance of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts, effective immediately.

The Alert calls it a temporary suspension, but gives no timeline on when service will be restored. While details are still coming together, it seems likely that this suspension is part of the Trump administration’s Chinese tariff package, which went into effect at midnight.

Specifically, the administration looks to close the “de minimis” exemption — a loophole which allowed packages valued under $800 USD to pass through customs without having to pay any duties or fees. Retailers like Temu, Shein, and of course AliExpress have used this to their advantage, resulting in literally millions of such packages hitting US shores each day. Those packages will now not only be subject to the overall 10% tax imposed by the new tariff package, but will now have to be formally processed through customs, potentially tacking on even more taxes and fees.

The end result is that not only will your next order of parts from AliExpress be more expensive, but it’s likely to take even longer to arrive at your door. Of course, this should come as no surprise. At the end of the day, this is precisely what the administration aims to accomplish with the new tariffs — if purchasing goods from overseas is suddenly a less attractive option than it was previously, it will be a boon to domestic suppliers. We imagine there are a lot of smiles over at DigiKey and Mouser this morning. That said, some components will be imported from China regardless of who you order them from, so those prices are still going to increase.

Other carriers such as FedEx and UPS will also have to follow these new rules, but at the time of this writing, neither service had released a statement about how they intend to comply.

hackaday.com/2025/02/05/breaki…