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Ghost-Tapping: il nuovo volto della frode contactless che arriva dalla Cina


@Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)
Nei sotterranei digitali delle piattaforme di messaggistica, tra canali Telegram che funzionano come veri e propri bazar paralleli, sta prendendo forma un fenomeno criminale che mescola alta tecnologia, truffe di strada e una logistica da multinazionale. Si chiama



The Terminal Demise of Consumer Electronics Through Subscription Services


Open any consumer electronics catalog from around the 1980s to the early 2000s and you are overwhelmed by a smörgåsbord of devices, covering any audio-visual and similar entertainment and hobby needs one might have. Depending on the era you can find the camcorders, point-and-shoot film and digital cameras right next to portable music players, cellphones, HiFi sets and tower components, televisions and devices like DVD players and VCRs, all of them in a dizzying amount of brands, shapes and colors that are sure to fit anyone’s needs, desires and budget.

When by the late 2000s cellphones began to absorb more and more of the features of these devices alongside much improved cellular Internet access, these newly minted ‘smartphones’ were hailed as a technological revolution that combined so many consumer electronics into a single device. Unlike the relatively niche feature phones, smartphones absolutely took off.

Fast-forward more than a decade and the same catalogs now feature black rectangles identified respectively as smart phones, smart TVs and tablets, alongside evenly colored geometric shapes that identify as smart speakers and other devices. While previously the onus for this change was laid by this author primarily on the death of industrial design, the elephant in the room would seem to be that consumer electronics are suffering from a terminal disease: subscription services.

Ownership And Timeshare

Family watching television in their home, c. 1958 (Credit: Evert F. Baumgardner)Family watching television in their home, c. 1958 (Credit: Evert F. Baumgardner)
In the burgeoning consumer electronics world of the 1950s, everyone was into streaming audio-visual content. This being the once popular phenomena that historians refer to as ‘radio’ and ‘television’, involving the purchase of a compatible device to receive said content on, which was being broadcast via the airwaves. Naturally, this was before the era of on-demand streaming, so you also had to subscribe to a service that would provide you with the time tables for when said content would be streamed.

Although you could buy vinyl records back then, these were relatively expensive even if you already had a record player. Fortunately, by the 1960s affordable cassette tapes for purchase of prerecorded content – as well as home recording – began to appear with Philips’ compact cassette as clear frontrunner.

By the 1970s home video recorders became affordable and surged in popularity by the 1980s and 1990s, with JVC’s VHS format enabling a massive market of both prerecorded content and of blank tapes to record any content from television broadcasts on for later perusal. At this point linear television and radio broadcasts had been largely superseded by people building up their personal audio-visual libraries in addition to borrowing tapes and later DVDs from video rental stores and public libraries.
The popular DEC VT100 terminal. (Credit: Jason Scott)The popular DEC VT100 terminal. (Credit: Jason Scott)
Until the 1970s digital computers were primarily a government and university thing, with businesses anxiously trying to get into the game as well to ease everything from payroll processing to inventory management and engineering. Due to the high cost – and large size – of digital computers at the time, it was more economical to use time-sharing. This changed over time from batch processing in the form of university students lugging stacks of punch cards around, to them setting themselves down in front of a terminal like the DEC VT100.

Although these computer terminals looked like computers to the lay person, they are little more than a screen and keyboard tied into I/O buffers that communicate with a remote central computer. With these terminals students could all log into their own student account on the university’s mainframe and thus stop pestering the sysadmins with their stacks of punch cards for an overdue assignment.

For government purposes the same terminal-based approach offered a good balance, while for businesses the target mainframe over at the time-sharing business was more easily accessed by something like dial-up due to the distances involved, with the mainframe’s owner charging for the used resources. This spread the expenses of owning and maintaining these early computers over as many users as possible while keeping costs low for businesses making use of these time-share services.
Casual home entertainment of the early 2000s with money being no objection. (Source: Wikimedia)Casual home entertainment of the early 2000s with money being no objection. (Source: Wikimedia)
This lasted until the era of mass-produced home computers arrived by the late 1970s with microcomputers such as the Commodore PET, before culminating with the 1981 release of IBM’s 5150 Personal Computer (PC), which was decidedly the point when time-sharing of mainframes and the use of terminals had begun to rapidly fade. Within years every student, corporate worker and government employee could economically be given access to a fully capable computer system, whether in the form of a PC, Macintosh, MSX or something else, along with dedicated server systems tucked away in the business’ server room or under a desk somewhere.

Even children could now be given dedicated computers to play video games on, which would have seemed a frivolous waste of computing resources in the 1960s to anyone except university students.

Thus, as the 1980s rolled over into the 1990s it seemed like the future of technology had truly arrived, with every home potentially a true Mecca of computing power and audio-visual entertainment.

Terminal Decline

A contemporary living room. (Source: Wikimedia)A contemporary living room. (Source: Wikimedia)
After most of the world celebrated the arrival of the new millennium in 2000, followed by the arrival of the 21st millennium a year later, the remaining euphoria of having made it to the future would quickly run into the quicksand pit of reality. After having had a quarter of the 21st century to sober up, it seems like this is the time to take a look back and question how in blazes’ name we got where we are today.

Over the past years, the living room has metamorphized from something that looks lived in, into the modern-day living room that can alternatively be described as ‘clean’ or ‘sterile’. The theme here is ‘surfaces’, which preferentially are white, black, grey or some other inoffensive color.

As you enter such a living room to be audio-visually entertained, you will pick up the smart remote that turns on the smart TV. Except the TV is always on, as it is smart and probably is always listening and running firmware updates in the background anyway. Ignoring that, your choices of entertainment are:

  • A game console that is logged into your Nintendo, Sony or XBox account with likely paid-for digital games and services
  • A video streaming service or two, or four, the overwhelming majority of which are subscription-only and/or force you to watch ads like in the good ol’ days of cable TV. Only the ads are much, much worse
  • Content streamed off your local NAS, if you’re a total nerd
  • A Blu-ray or DVD player if you’re old-fashioned and refuse to join the Digital-Only Content Age

For the overwhelming majority of smart TV users, they are a recurring revenue source for streaming services, with the TV being the device purchased by the viewer in order to access said services. Much the same is true with modern game consoles, where you effectively must be logged into your online account to do much of anything with the console and an increasing amount of games, if only to obtain the latest updates to fix bugs. This triply so if you are one of those people who are into cloud gaming.

As you ignore that your smart TV is basically a cross between a very advanced VT100 terminal and a Telescreen, you glance at the glass-and-plastic slab in your hand as one of your friends just messaged you on a messaging app – which annoyingly again advertises a premium subscription account – about this rad new music album on this one streaming audio service. Fortunately you are already a member, so you add the album for later listening.

That your smart TV, game console, and smart phone are all just terminals for some remote server begins to sink in once your internet access has been cut off. You cannot stream any audio-visual content, and many of your video games outright refuse to run because of a lack of internet connectivity. Ditto for your smart speakers, which have begun to stubbornly ignore your calls for attention.

When you sigh and flip open your laptop to maybe do some work, you find that your software products refuse to even launch, as they absolutely needed to refresh their license key verification this instant. Feeling mildly upset by their accusations of you having pirated their over-priced software after forking over so much cash each month, you slam the laptop shut again. This is when you realize that your project files are stored safely on the now unreachable cloud storage account anyway.

Ultimately you find yourself just staring at the black rectangles and inoffensive geometric shapes that once entertained you or made you more productive, but which now have left you terrifyingly alone with your own thoughts. Maybe you will have to do something drastic soon, like try reading a book, drag out that old CD player, play chess against yourself, or do some sketching on paper. With a real pencil.

Shareholder Value


The move from a boxed copy of stand-alone software and physical products to something with a recurring monthly or annual cost has been a gradual one. Much of it can already be traced back to the overly optimistic days leading up to the dot-com bubble, when the internet was going to make everyone rich and the selling of online goods the new normal.

Although the resulting fallout from this bubble popping was rather extensive, it left the investors who escaped the catastrophe wiser and still positively slavering at the thought of using the Internet for unimaginable levels of that sweetest reward of all: recurring revenue, with people giving you their money every month just to keep what they mistakenly thought that they had purchased.

The challenge is of course that people in general like to own things, and are rather hesitant to buy into anything that makes them have fewer things. How do you make people voluntarily buy into owning less and less, with what they do own having fewer features? The answer would seem to lie in blinding them with shiny new features, while insisting that they really don’t need the features that you are about to remove or nerf.

For example, initially people loved the idea of a smartphone because it meant that they could carry around in their pocket a cellphone, a camcorder, photo camera, portable internet-capable computer, an FM radio, a music player and more, all in a single device. Unfortunately all of these functions have been nerfed in some way or form.

FM Radio


Although regular analog radio on the FM and AM bands has lost a lot of importance these days, having FM radio available can be incredibly useful. Consider being out somewhere with poor cell coverage, not wanting to use up your data allowance for the month, or when everything has gone sideways in the form of a hurricane and the local grid, internet and cell network have collapsed. Especially in the latter case it would be convenient if you could just open the FM radio app on your smartphone to tune into emergency broadcasts.

Unfortunately this feature has been purposefully disabled or left out by device manufacturers, with Apple having opted to not even add an FM radio to its custom SoCs. A quick look at a couple of major smartphone manufacturers over at GSM Arena for smartphones released in 2024 or 2025 featuring an FM radio only shows two, both budget Samsung models.

Typically only budget-level smartphones have an FM radio feature enabled, as one aspect of the FM radio feature is that it requires its own antenna, which generally is a set of headphones plugged into the 3.5 mm audio jack. This logically means that the survival chances of budget smartphone buyers is significantly higher during a natural disaster than for people buying iPhones or higher-end Samsung and Xiaomi phones.

Audio Jack

Generic USB-C to audio jack and USB-C charging adapter.Generic USB-C to audio jack and USB-C charging adapter.
The analog audio from a 3.5 mm audio jack is a low-latency, high-fidelity way to experience audio, only limited by the used audio DAC and the headphones or in-ears plugged into the jack. This makes it rather baffling that it’s also among the most vilified features. The reason here isn’t that it compromises waterproofing, or impedes thinness or adds cost, but rather it gets dropped on higher-end smartphones because Apple dropped it to promote their Bluetooth headphones and others followed.

Unfortunately, Bluetooth audio is neither low-latency nor high-fidelity, with newer codecs like LDAC, AptX, and AAC slightly improving the audio quality over the default SBC codec, but keeping all the other compromises. Meanwhile a fraction of the USB-C connectors on phones support the alternative analog audio mode, returning an audio jack to the device with a dongle, yet not re-enabling the use of headphones as an FM antenna and also making it impossible to use the USB-C port for any data transfers, while making the entire setup significantly more clunky, just to get a previously eliminated port back on the device instead of just putting it on there in the first place.

SD Cards


An important feature of a digital camera and camcorder is being able to quickly get the data off it and onto a computer for processing and viewing. Unfortunately in so far as smartphones supported SD card expansion, this at the very least required taking off the plastic back to swap cards. These days the SD card either shares space with the SIM card(s), or is eliminated altogether.

The idea here is of course to increase recurring revenue: the easiest way to get data onto a smartphone or off it is via the device manufacturer’s cloud storage solutions, with a minor fee to bump it up to a usable amount of storage. You’re also not supposed to load your own audio files onto the internal storage either, but use the paid-or-ad-supported streaming solution. Why would you want to be un-cool and not listen to losslessly streamed audio files mangled by some Bluetooth codec through the second pair of wireless in-ears of this month as the previous ones fell out somewhere?

Fortunately, the marketing is very convincing, as you can now listen to or watch anything that you want – as long as it’s available on the streaming service – and you can even use your voice to tell any of your smart devices to play a song or open a movie, because this is what the future looks like. Never mind that you do not technically own much any more, but at least you are happy.

Terminal Life


Probably the biggest question here is whether or not this terminalification is harmful. Sure, this change has meant that industrial design got effectively shivved in the proverbial dark alley – since the user interface of devices now lives on the device manufacturer’s servers – but you now have all these cool features. Things like a smart home full of Internet of Things devices, each of which are first and foremost terminals for the manufacturer’s services, with local control an afterthought, if a thought at all.

Even governments and businesses haven’t managed to escape these changes with their own vortex back to the 1960s. Rather than using a dial-up modem to connect to a time-share mainframe, they now use a broadband Internet connection to connect to a time-share mainframe, except we now call it a ‘cloud’.

It’s often been said that the centralization and decentralization of computer technology in particular is cyclical, with the 1980s and 1990s forming the pinnacle of decentralization. If we are currently in a trough of terminal terminalification, then logically decentralization and determinalification should follow next. One could make the point here that the Right to Repair movement is part of this change, as it wrests control away from manufacturers.

Even so, we still have a long way to go if this is the next stop, with our current physical media revival kerfuffle being just one of the many things that we have to come to terms with. Between the glossy marketing and the often conflicting desires and needs of the average consumer, it’s probably anyone’s guess what the second quarter of the 21st century will look like for consumer electronics and beyond.


hackaday.com/2025/08/18/the-te…



A critical piece of tech infrastructure that lets people talk to the government has been disabled.#News


The Government Just Made it Harder for The Public to Comment on Regulations


It became harder to tell the government how you feel about pending rules and regulations starting on Friday, thanks to a backend change to the website where people submit public comments. Regulations.gov removed the POST function from its API, a critical piece of tech that allowed third party organizations to bypass the website’s terrible user interface.

The General Services Administration (GSA), which runs regulations.gov, notified API key holders in an email last Monday morning that they’d soon lose the ability to POST directly to the site’s API. POST is a common function that allows users to send data to an application. POST allowed third party organizations like Fight for the Future (FFTF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Public Citizen gather comments from their supporters using their own forms and submit them to the government later.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
Regulations.gov has been instrumental as a method for people to speak up against terrible government regulations. During the fight over Net Neutrality in 2017, FFTF gathered more than 1.6 million comments about the pending rule and submitted them all to the FCC in one day by POSTing to the API.

Organizations who wanted to acquire an API key had to sign up and agree to the GSA’s terms and conditions. In the Monday email from the GSA, organizations that had previously used POST were told they’d lost access to the function at the end of the week.

“As of Friday, the POST method will no longer be allowed for all users with the exception of approved use cases by federal agencies. Any attempted submissions will result in a 403 error response,” a copy of the email reviewed by 404 Media said. “We apologize for not being able to provide advanced notice. I wanted to reach out to the impacted API key holders as early as possible. We are in the process of updating the references to our POST API on Regulations.gov and .”

The email noted that groups and constituencies can still submit comments through the website, but the site’s user interface sucks. Users have to track down the pending regulation they want to comment on by name or docket number, click the “comment” button and then fill out a form, attach a file, provide an email address, provide some personal details, and fight a CAPTCHA.

“The experience on our campaign sites right now is like, we make our impassioned case for why you should care about this and then give you one box to type something and click a button. But the experience going forward is going to be like: ‘Alright now here’s a link and some instructions on how to fill out your taxes,’” Ken Mickles, FFTF’s chief technology officer said.

404 Media confirmed that multiple agencies received the email and were cut off from using POST on the regulations.gov API. “The tool offered an easier means for the public to provide input by allowing organizations to collect and submit comments on their behalf. Now, those interested in submitting comments will be forced to navigate the arduous and complicated system on regulations.gov,” Katie Tracy, senior regulatory policy advocate at Public Citizen, told 404 Media. “This will result in fewer members of the public leaving comments and result in agencies not having critical input on how their work affects people’s lives and businesses.”

The GSA’s email did not explain why this sudden change occurred and the GSA did not return 404 Media’s request for comment. But the organizations we spoke with had their own theories. “Disabling this useful tool appears to be yet another attempt by the Trump administration to silence members of the public who are speaking out about dangerous regulatory rollbacks. We hope the GSA will reverse course immediately,” Tracy said.

A pair of Trump Executive Orders lay out the framework for this GSA action. Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative direct the government to “commence the deconstruction of the overbearing and burdensome administrative state.” And Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations tells agencies they can dispense with the comment process entirely when they can.

“I think it follows the trend of just shutting out public access or voices that the administration doesn’t want,” Matt Lane, senior policy counsel at FFTF told 404 Media. “It really does seem targeted exclusively at reducing the amount of public engagement that they get on these dockets through these tools that we and other folks provide.”


#News


ALTERNATIVE #04: TASTIERA ANDROID* (GBOARD)


DISCLAIMER: questa non è una pubblicità per la FUTO, ho pensato di fare questa guida per le ragioni che spiego e perché mi sto trovando benissimo!

Molti pensano che la tastiera virtuale del telefono faccia parte delle componenti base e che non possa essere cambiata, invece è una semplice app.
Un'app che ha accesso direttamente a tutto quello che scriviamo, prima che venga crittografato dalle varie app di chat (anche le più sicure)...
Perciò, se la tastiera si connette a internet, può inviare ai server tutto quello che digitiamo.

Per questo, se teniamo alla nostra sovranità digitale, la tastiera è la prima app da sostituire.

Ho ottime ragioni per fidarmi di quella installata di default nel mio telefono degooglizzato, ma per chi usa un regolare sistema Android la tastiera di default è quella di Google, Gboard, che è nota per inviare ai server pacchetti dal contenuto per lo meno sospetto.

1) FUTO Keyboard
Poco tempo fa ho scoperto questo bel progetto della FUTO per rimpiazzare tutte le funzioni (anche le più avanzate) di Gboard, escludendo però ogni collegamento a internet durante l'utilizzo e utilizzando basi di dati più trasparenti (il training per il modello di digitazione a scorrimento, per esempio, viene fatto su base volontaria tra utenti che scelgono di contribuire).

Detto ciò, parliamo di una tastiera open source (più propriamente, source available) che ha integrati:
- dettatura vocale multilingue (voice input)
- immissione a scorrimento (swipe)
- dizionari per la lingua e per la ricerca delle emoji
- pannello di selezione delle emoji di sistema
- funzioni per spostarsi facilmente nel testo
- funzioni di copia e incolla avanzate, tra cui la cronologia degli appunti

È ancora in uno stadio iniziale di sviluppo, perciò ci alcune cose sono ancora in corso di implementazione e, per esempio, i dizionari e i modelli vanno installati a mano, e i menu di impostazione sono solo in inglese per il momento.
Ma ciononostante è sicuramente la più completa e promettente!

Seguite i passaggi nelle immagini per installarla e configurare le risorse italiane.
(Qui le istruzioni in un'immagine unica ad alta risoluzione)

Link PlayStore (o app alternativa)

Sito (futo.org)

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In alternativa, è possibile installare separatamente un'app di dettatura vocale e provare una delle seguenti tastiere open source.
Per la dettatura vocale c'è l'app specifica di FUTO oppure Whisper:
- FUTO Voice Input
- Whisper per Android
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2) AnySoftKeyboard
Il progetto open source più completo ed evoluto.
I pacchetti delle lingue e di alcuni layout aggiuntivi si installano come app separate, perciò in modo molto semplice.
Si appoggia all'app di dettatura vocale esistente. Il supporto allo swipe e le tantissime feature la rendono la migliore alternativa con licenza libera (apache).

App principale: Play Store / FDroid
Pacchetto italiano: Play Store / FDroid

Sito del progetto

3) Heliboard
Heliboard è un progetto open source già molto ricco di feature e con la possibilità di essere completato da una libreria opzionale per l'immissione a scorrimento (che però è quella proprietaria di Google, estratta da Gboard).

Purtroppo Heliboard non è presente nel Play Store, perciò dovrete installarla tramite F-Droid

4) Altre tastiere open source sono anche Florisboard e Fossify Keyboard.
Le funzionalità sono simili a quelle di Heliboard, eccetto che non supportano lo swipe.
Nessuna delle due supporta la dettatura vocale.
Per chi cerca il massimo della trasparenza, però, sono le più raccomandate (insieme a Heliboard).

Fossify Keyboard è reperibile sul Play Store o su FDroid.
Florisboard si può trovare su F-Droid

5) La tastiera minimalista: Simple Keyboard
Se tutto quello che vi serve è una tastiera, non sopportate l'autocorrettore e i suggerimenti e non vi interessa inserire le emoji, allora questa è la vostra tastiera ideale. Potrebbe rendere anche più veloce un vecchio telefono perché occupa pochissima memoria e non ha bisogno di processori moderni.

Link PlayStore (o app alternativa)

*) Purtroppo, ad oggi non sono a conoscenza di progetti simili per gli utenti Apple iOS...

#Google #degoogle #gboard #keyboard #virtualkeyboard #futokeyboard #FUTO #FUTO Tech #heliboard #florisbaord #fossify #fossifykeyboard #openboard

reshared this

in reply to Tiziano :friendica:

grazie della condivisione! Alla fine ho trovato un altro progetto molto valido che si chiama traditional t9 e mi sto trovando molto bene!

Tiziano :friendica: reshared this.

in reply to simo

@simo Grazie a te per avermelo fatto scoprire! Ha 0 tracker e 10/10 di privacy 👍
Un giorno farò un post anche su questi tipi di tastiere "non convenzionali"...
@simo


Tutti i subbugli in Microsoft su Israele e Gaza

L'articolo proviene da #StartMag e viene ricondiviso sulla comunità Lemmy @Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)
Per la sezione Stjv di Arkane Studios, software house francese nota per i videogame Dishonored, Prey, Deathoop e RedFall, la propria controllante, Microsoft, deve smettere di supportare Israele nella guerra di Gaza che avrebbe ormai

Nicola Pizzamiglio reshared this.



ALTERNATIVE #03: POCKETS


Proseguo con la ripubblicazione dei miei post "Alternative", postati inizialmente su Facebook per raggiungere anche chi non ha mai sentito parlare di possibilità alternative...

Quello su Pockets è stato un post scritto in fretta in concomitanza con la chiusura del servizio da parte di Mozilla. Ne ho approfittato per parlare di mastodon.uno e della sua offerta riservata agli utenti. Mi pare corretto riportare comunque il post originale.

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Approfitto della notizia a proposito di Mozilla che chiuderà domani il servizio "Pockets" di Firefox (utile per salvare articoli e pagine web per leggerle con calma) per segnalare che il gruppo Devol, che gestisce le istanze italiane Mastodon.uno, Pixelfed.uno, Peertube.uno e tanti altri servizi, ha messo a disposizione degli utenti del Fediverso italiano le app libere #wallabag e #readeck, che sono degli ottimi sostituti e in più sono libere e ospitate su server in Europa alimentati con energie rinnovabili (come tutti i servizi Devol)!
Per poterne usufruire, dovrete essere utenti attivi di una delle piattaforme gestite dal gruppo, perciò... quale miglior occasione di affacciarsi al Fediverso?
Date un'occhiata su www.mastodon.uno e entrate a far parte della più grande community italiana dell'universo social libero e federato, la rete sociale in cui ciascuno è realmente padrone di quello che vede (nel feed) e di quello che condivide.
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The never-ending battle between safety and privacy


The never-ending battle between safety and privacy
IT'S MONDAY AND THIS IS DIGITAL POLITICS. I'm Mark Scott, and in the doldrums of (a very hot!) August, I'm already planning for September. I'll be in Brussels the week of Sept. 8. If you're around for coffee, reach out here.

— Efforts to unpick encryption in the name of child protection are gaining ground again. The proposals are based on the fallacy that they won't undermine universal privacy rights.

— The Trump-Putin summit fall-out: A view from the Russian propaganda machine.

— Everything you need to know about the cottage industry of copyright lawsuits taking on AI companies.

Let's get started:


WHEN IS IT OK TO BREAK END-TO-END ENCRYPTION?


THERE ARE A FEW CONSTANTS IN LIFE. Death. Taxes. And — at least for digital policymakers — the never-ending battle between those seeking to weaken encryption technology in the name of public safety and those fearful that such attempts will undermine people's fundamental privacy rights.

Over the years (more from me in 2019 and again in 2023), this fight has led to strange bedfellows. Law enforcement types have partnered with child safety advocates to demand the likes of Meta and Apple open up their encrypted services to greater oversight — all in the name of protecting against terrorist threats and child sexual abuse material. In the other camp, Silicon Valley and privacy groups (not the easiest of allies) raise legitimate concerns that you can't just weaken such encryption technologies for the "good guys." Inevitably, the "bad guys," too, will gain access.

American officials have often wavered between both camps. Officials are torn between the political realities of online child safety and the economic realities of protecting American tech giants from non-US tech regulation.

But in Europe, the drumbeat for encryption-busting policies has gone from a soft hum to a loud bang.

The smaller scuffle is in the United Kingdom where the government told Apple earlier this year to grant its security services access to its encrypted systems under the country's Investigatory Powers Act. Those rules had long been on the books. But the powers to compel companies to open up had never been used via so-called "technical capability notices." Still, London is now backing off amid complaints from the White House — and wider efforts by the UK to strike digital-focused trade agreements with the United States.

There's still outstanding concerns that the UK's Online Safety Act, which also includes powers to force such encryption breaking in the name of public safety, may lead to a similar transatlantic stand-off. Ofcom, the British regulator in charge of that legislation, however, has always made clear it will only pursue such demands if/when a technology is developed that both allows for outside access while preserving the underlying encryption. In short, that's a technical impossibility, allowing the UK regulator to punt any politically-sensitive issues into the long grass.

Thanks for reading Digital Politics. If you've been forwarded this newsletter (and like what you've read), please sign up here. For those already subscribed, reach out on digitalpolitics@protonmail.com

And that takes us to the European Union.

Long-time Brussels watchers will know the bloc's attempt to thwart child sexual abuse material — often accessed via online platforms — remains the unwanted love-child (no pun intended) of European digital regulation. Those proposals were first put forward in 2022. Yet since then, the ever-present tussle between safety and privacy (see above) has seen the legislation ping-pong between consecutive rotating presidencies of the European Council, or grouping of EU member states that nominally runs the bloc's policy agenda.

In July, Denmark (in charge until the end of the year) restarted this encryption spat after proposing changes (HT: Euractiv) to the child sexual abuse material legislation. The major overhaul compared to the Polish EU Council presidency (which ran for the first half of 2025) was to include demands that companies with encrypted technology comply with so-called mandatory detection orders, or legal requirements to check people's (encrypted) messages for possible illegal content.

What's more, the draft text — to be voted on by EU member states in mid October — included potential requirements to carry out these checks on individuals' devices, and not when they were shared over the cloud. That led to hackles from both tech executives and privacy campaigners. For more on what that looks like, check out this post from Meta's one-time top Brussels lobbyist (and now a Finnish member of the European Parliament) Aura Salla.

For the Danes, this is all about kids' safety. Speaking in Denmark in late July, the country's justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said his aim was to protect the privacy of those affected by these heinous images. "We need to ask ourselves, at the end of the day, whose privacy is it that we're mostly concerned with?" he told reporters. "We need to compromise on these differing views" (between child safety and privacy campaigners.)

The Danish EU presidency's half-year priorities also make its objectives explicit. "The Presidency will focus on strengthening the abilities to make use of the digital development for law enforcement when fighting serious crime," the document reads. "The Presidency will work to ensure the protection of fundamental rights as well as cooperation and protection in the area of civil matters."

A lot can happen between now and the proposed vote in October. For one thing, not all EU member states agree with the Dane's proposals. Without unanimity, the current draft proposals — like so many before them via the Hungarian and Polish EU Presidencies — may never get passed. That's especially true if US politicians realize what is going on in Brussels and cause a stink.

The thing is, none of this politicking finds a solution for what are two clear realities.

On the one side, it is a fact that encrypted messaging services are used for illegality, including the spread of child sexual abuse material. If you don't believe me, read this report from Australia's eSafety Commissioner. On the other, governments can't break encryption technology without compromising people's privacy rights. There are technical solutions like "hashing" and "matching" that can stop the spread of known illegal content. But including backdoors in end-to-end encrypted services will only lead to greater harm.

What we are lacking is a clear conversation about what are uncomfortable trade-offs.

It's impossible to balance the needs of protecting children from online predatory behavior (more on that here) and wider society's expectations of a base level of privacy. To suggest that some sort of yet-created technology will thread the needle between those fundamental rights is farcical. Policymakers should acknowledge that, and have an honest conversation with citizens about what is the least-worst option.

My personal view is that the breaking of encryption — and therefore the weakening of wider privacy rights — is not the right way to go (at least not yet) to protect children online. There are less invasive policy choices like baking in "privacy by design" principles into online platforms that can mitigate some, but not all, of the potential harm. Should children be able to receive DMs from strangers? No. Should they be able to access services before they reach the minimum age? Also no.

Neither of those policy choices has been effectively implemented yet. To jump directly to the "let's read everyone's messages!" stage makes good politics. But it does not represent a grown-up approach to what are impossible trade-offs.

At some point, encryption may have to be broken. But before we get there, all other policy options should be exhausted. That includes forcing platforms to embed privacy-by-design principles into their services and finding privacy-conscious "age assurance" techniques to safeguard children from areas of the internet that should remain off-limits.

Until that happens, the rush to break encryption should be viewed for what it is: a politically-expedient sledgehammer to crack a nut.


Chart of the Week


THE LATEST AI SYSTEMS ARE ONLY AS GOOD as the data upon which they are trained. For many companies, that means scraping reams of copyrighted material from around the world.

Publishers claim this is a slam dunk case of copyright infringement. AI giants like Google, OpenAI and Microsoft argue their tactics fit within the "fair use" principle.

Soon, we'll know who's right.

There are currently 45 copyright lawsuits in the US between publishers and AI companies related to how such data is used to train large language models. For links to all the cases below, check out the "source" section in the chart.
The never-ending battle between safety and privacySource: ChatGPT is Eating the World


THE TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT PROPAGANDA AFTERMATH


FOR ALMOST EVERYONE (outside of Donald Trump's administration), the Aug. 15 Russo-American summit was a major political victory for Vladimir Putin. The US president rejected those claims. Yet ahead another round of meetings, this time in the White House on Aug. 18 with Western leaders and the Ukrainian president, Russia's state-backed media was again reframing quotes from leading US officials to meet Mocow's own political needs.

This has become a major trend in how the likes of Sputnik and RT speak to their international audiences.

Gone are the attacks on American imperialism, although those narratives still show up in Kremlin-backed media whose audiences span Latin America and French-speaking Africa. Instead, Moscow has been eager to frame the Aug. 15 summit as a win for both the US and Russia, while claiming it is now down to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, to find a solution to the bloody conflict in Eastern Europe.

That builds on public statements from Trump who claimed, in a social media post on Aug. 17, that Zelenskyy "can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight." RT Mundo quickly jumped on that statement.

On RT, the English-language outlet, comments from Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, were picked up to suggest the war was "going to get worse" if Ukraine did not agree to a peace deal with Russia. In the outlet's German-language website, the Ukrainian president was also attacked over alleged corruption abuses — only weeks after Zelenskyy backtracked on new laws that would have undermined two national anti-corruption agencies.

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For Russia's state media, the Aug. 15 summit between Trump and Putin was shaped as a meeting of like-minded leaders, both of whom secured something out of the half-day event. "Trump can now indefinitely postpone a disastrous trade war with India and China, which secondary sanctions on Russia would have triggered," read an opinion article on RT that subsequently called on Zelenskyy to reach a peace deal with the Russian president. "Putin, meanwhile, drove home the point that a temporary ceasefire is insufficient – that the time has come to talk about a full peace treaty."

Ahead of the planned Aug. 18 meetings in Washington, during which several European leaders are expected to travel alongside Zelenskyy to put pressure on Trump over any potential long-term peace deal, Russian state media highlighted Europe's alleged weaknesses." That included jumping on comments from Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, about the bloc's role in any potential negotiations, as well as a social media post from Guiseppe Conte, a former Italian prime minister, that framed Europe as a mere "supporting actor."

Ever since Trump returned to the White House, the Kremlin's state-backed media has balanced its eagerness to demonstrate renewed kinship between Russia and the US and its wariness that, eventually, relations will break down (again) between the long-time adversaries.

That message came through in an opinion articlewritten in RT en Français that both praised last week's summit, but reminded Russia it would need to promote its interests by strength if it wanted to secure its objectives in Ukraine. "It is now up to Russia, the last bulwark against total global dictatorship, to continue to defend its national interests," read the article. "It is simply important to understand that the meeting between the two presidents did not, in itself, magically resolve the conflict between these two worlds.

"In the end, there can only be one."


What I'm reading


— A group of independent research organizations published an in-depth analysis into the potential role of foreign manipulation in the recent Polish presidential election. More here.

— Casey Fiesler put together a series of social media-friendly tutorials on AI ethics. More here and why she did it here.

— Alexios Matnzarlis at the Indicator discovered dozens of TikTok accounts using AI avatars of real journalists to spread false information. More here.

— Anna Lenhart and Katie Shilton asked TikTok users about their awareness and potential concerns about researchers reviewing their social media posts. More here.

— Wikimedia lost a legal challenge against its attempt to be excluded from provisions within the UK's Online Safety Act. More here.



digitalpolitics.co/newsletter0…



Sniffing 5G with Software-Defined Radio


The fifth generation mobile communications protocol (5G) is perhaps the most complicated wireless protocol ever made. Featuring wildly fast download speeds, beam forming base stations, and of course non-standard additions, it’s rather daunting prospect to analyze for the home hacker and researcher alike. But this didn’t stop the ASSET Research Group from developing a 5G sniffer and downlink injector.

The crux of the project is focused around real-time sniffing using one of two Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) software-defined radios (SDRs), and a substantial quantity of compute power. This sniffed data can even be piped into Wireshark for filtering. The frequency is hard-coded into the sniffer for improved performance with the n78 and n41 bands having been tested as of writing. While we expect most of you don’t have the supported USRP hardware, they provided a sample capture file for anyone to analyze.

The other main feature of the project is an exploitation framework with numerous attack vectors developed by ASSET and others. By turning an SDR into a malicious 5G base station, numerous vulnerabilities and “features” can be exploited to with results ranging from downgrading the connection to 4G, fingerprinting and much more. It even includes an attack method we preciously covered called 5Ghull which can cause device failure requiring removal of the SIM Card. These vulnerabilities offer a unique look inside the inner workings of 5G.

If you too are interested in 5G sniffing but don’t have access to the hardware needed, check out this hack turning a Qualcomm phone into a 5G sniffer!


hackaday.com/2025/08/18/sniffi…



Ecco come ChatGPT di OpenAI sbaraglia la concorrenza

L'articolo proviene da #StartMag e viene ricondiviso sulla comunità Lemmy @Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)
Con 2 miliardi di dollari generati dal lancio e 690 milioni di download globali, l’app mobile di ChatGPT supera di 30 volte i ricavi complessivi di rivali come Claude, Copilot e Grok. Solo nel 2025 ha incassato 1,35 miliardi di



Nigeria, Amnesty denuncia un decennio di impunità: oltre 1.800 morti nel Sud-est


@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Il rapporto accusa autorità e milizie armate di torture, sparizioni e attacchi che hanno trasformato intere comunità in zone senza legge
L'articolo Nigeria, Amnesty denuncia un decennio di impunità: oltre 1.800 morti nel Sud-est proviene da Pagine



CYBERSECURITY… IN ITALIA?

@Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)

Cosa buona e giusta avere statistiche ufficiali e corposi periodici rapporti che analizzano e valutano il funzionamento di agenzie e sistemi...
L'articolo CYBERSECURITY… IN ITALIA? proviene da GIANO NEWS.
#TECNOLOGIA

Unknown parent




Evolution of the PipeMagic backdoor: from the RansomExx incident to CVE-2025-29824


In April 2025, Microsoft patched 121 vulnerabilities in its products. According to the company, only one of them was being used in real-world attacks at the time the patch was released: CVE-2025-29824. The exploit for this vulnerability was executed by the PipeMagic malware, which we first discovered in December 2022 in a RansomExx ransomware campaign. In September 2024, we encountered it again in attacks on organizations in Saudi Arabia. Notably, it was the same version of PipeMagic as in 2022. We continue to track the malware’s activity. Most recently, in 2025 our solutions prevented PipeMagic infections at organizations in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

This report is the result of a joint investigation with the head of vulnerability research group at BI.ZONE, in which we traced the evolution of PipeMagic – from its first detection in 2022 to new incidents in 2025 – and identified key changes in its operators’ tactics. Our colleagues at BI.ZONE, in turn, conducted a technical analysis of the CVE-2025-29824 vulnerability itself.

Background


PipeMagic is a backdoor we first detected in December 2022 while investigating a malicious campaign involving RansomExx. The victims were industrial companies in Southeast Asia. To penetrate the infrastructure, the attackers exploited the CVE-2017-0144 vulnerability. The backdoor’s loader was a trojanized version of Rufus, a utility for formatting USB drives. PipeMagic supported two modes of operation – as a full-fledged backdoor providing remote access, and as a network gateway – and enabled the execution of a wide range of commands.

In October 2024, organizations in Saudi Arabia were hit by a new wave of PipeMagic attacks. This time, rather than exploiting vulnerabilities for the initial penetration, the attackers used a fake ChatGPT client application as bait. The fake app was written in Rust, using two frameworks: Tauri for rendering graphical applications and Tokio for asynchronous task execution. However, it had no user functionality – when launched, it simply displayed a blank screen.

MD560988c99fb58d346c9a6492b9f3a67f7
File namechatgpt.exe

Blank screen of the fake application
Blank screen of the fake application

At the same time, the application extracted a 105,615-byte AES-encrypted array from its code, decrypted it, and executed it. The result was a shellcode loading an executable file. To hinder analysis, the attackers hashed API functions using the FNV-1a algorithm, with the shellcode dynamically resolving their addresses via GetProcAddress. Next, memory was allocated, necessary offsets in the import table were relocated, and finally, the backdoor’s entry point was called.

One unique feature of PipeMagic is that it generates a random 16-byte array used to create a named pipe formatted as: \\.\pipe\1.<hex string>. After that, a thread is launched that continuously creates this pipe, attempts to read data from it, and then destroys it. This communication method is necessary for the backdoor to transmit encrypted payloads and notifications. Meanwhile, the standard network interface with the IP address 127.0.0.1:8082 is used to interact with the named pipe.

To download modules (PipeMagic typically uses several plugins downloaded from the C2 server), attackers used a domain hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud provider, with the following name: hxxp://aaaaabbbbbbb.eastus.cloudapp.azure[.]com.

PipeMagic in 2025


In January 2025, we detected new infections in Saudi Arabia and Brazil. Further investigation revealed connections to the domain hxxp://aaaaabbbbbbb.eastus.cloudapp.azure[.]com, which suggested a link between this attack and PipeMagic. Later, we also found the backdoor itself.

Initial loader
MD55df8ee118c7253c3e27b1e427b56212c
File namemetafile.mshi

In this attack, the loader was a Microsoft Help Index File. Usually, such files contain code that reads data from .mshc container files, which include Microsoft help materials. Upon initial inspection, the loader contains obfuscated C# code and a very long hexadecimal string. An example of executing this payload:
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe "/k c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe c:\windows\help\metafile.mshi"
Contents of metafile.mshi
Contents of metafile.mshi

The C# code serves two purposes – decrypting and executing the shellcode, which is encrypted with the RC4 stream cipher using the key 4829468622e6b82ff056e3c945dd99c94a1f0264d980774828aadda326b775e5 (hex string). After decryption, the resulting shellcode is executed via the WinAPI function EnumDeviceMonitor. The first two parameters are zeros, and the third is a pointer to a function where the pointer to the decrypted shellcode is inserted.

The injected shellcode is executable code for 32-bit Windows systems. It loads an unencrypted executable embedded inside the shellcode itself. For dynamically obtaining system API addresses, as in the 2024 version, export table parsing and FNV-1a hashing are used.

Loader (ChatGPT)
MD57e6bf818519be0a20dbc9bcb9e5728c6
File namechatgpt.exe

In 2025, we also found PipeMagic loader samples mimicking a ChatGPT client. This application resembles one used in campaigns against organizations in Saudi Arabia in 2024. It also uses the Tokio and Tauri frameworks, and judging by copyright strings and PE header metadata, the executable was built in 2024, though it was first discovered in the 2025 campaign. Additionally, this sample uses the same version of the libaes library as the previous year’s attacks. Behaviorally and structurally, the sample is also similar to the application seen in October 2024.

Decrypting the payload using AES
Decrypting the payload using AES

Loader using DLL hijacking
MD5e3c8480749404a45a61c39d9c3152251
File namegoogleupdate.dll

In addition to the initial execution method using a .mshi file launched through msbuild, the attackers also used a more popular method involving decrypting the payload and injecting it with the help of an executable file that does not require additional utilities to run. The executable file itself was legitimate (in this campaign we saw a variant using the Google Chrome update file), and the malicious logic was implemented through a library that it loads, using the DLL hijacking method. For this, a malicious DLL was placed on the disk alongside the legitimate application, containing a function that the application exports.

It is worth noting that in this particular library sample, the exported functions were not malicious – the malicious code was contained in the initialization function (DllMain), which is always called when the DLL is loaded because it initializes internal structures, file descriptors, and so on.

First, the loader reads data from an encrypted file – the attackers pass its path via command-line arguments.

Reading the payload file
Reading the payload file

Next, the file contents are decrypted using the symmetric AES cipher in CBC mode, with the key 9C3BA5 B2 D3222FE5863C14D51340D7 F9, and the initialization vector (IV)221BA50915042098AF5F8EE40E5559C8.

The library deploys the decrypted code into memory and transfers control to it, and the original file is subsequently deleted. In the variants found during analysis, the payload was a shellcode similar to that discovered in the 2024 attacks involving a ChatGPT client.

Deployed PE

MD51a119c23e8a71bf70c1e8edf948d5181
File name

In all the loading methods described above, the payload was an executable file for 32-bit Windows systems. Interestingly, in all cases, this file supported graphical mode, although it did not have a graphical user interface. This executable file is the PipeMagic backdoor.

At the start of its execution, the sample generates 16 random bytes to create the name of the pipe it will use. This name is generated using the same method as in the original PipeMagic samples observed in 2022 and 2024.

Creating a pipe with a pre-generated name
Creating a pipe with a pre-generated name

The sample itself doesn’t differ from those we saw previously, although it now includes a string with a predefined pipe path: \.\pipe\magic3301. However, the backdoor itself doesn’t explicitly use this name (that is, it doesn’t interact with a pipe by that name).

Additionally, similar to samples found in 2022 and 2024, this version creates a communication pipe at the address 127.0.0.1:8082.

Discovered modules


During our investigation of the 2025 attacks, we discovered additional plugins used in this malicious campaign. In total, we obtained three modules, each implementing different functionality not present in the main backdoor. All the modules are executable files for 32-bit Windows systems.

Asynchronous communication module


This module implements an asynchronous I/O model. For this, it uses an I/O queue mechanism and I/O completion ports.

Processing core commands
Processing core commands

Immediately upon entering the plugin, command processing takes place. At this stage, five commands are supported:

Command IDDescription
0x1Initialize and create a thread that continuously receives changes from the I/O queue
0x2Terminate the plugin
0x3Process file I/O
0x4Terminate a file operation by the file identifier
0x5Terminate all file operations

Although I/O changes via completion ports are processed in a separate thread, the main thread waits for current file operation to complete – so this model is not truly asynchronous.

Getting the I/O queue status
Getting the I/O queue status

If the command with ID 0x3 (file I/O processing) is selected, control is transferred to an internal handler. This command has a set of subcommands described below. Together with the subcommand, this command has a length of at least 4 bytes.

Command IDDescription
0x1Open a file in a specified mode (read, write, append, etc.)
0x3Write to a file
0x4, 0x6Read from a file
0x5Change the flag status
0x7Write data received from another plugin to a file
0x9Close a file
0xBDump all open files

The command with ID 0x5 is presumably implemented to set a read error flag. If this flag is set, reading operations become impossible. At the same time, the module does not support commands to clear the flag, so effectively this command just blocks reading from the file.

Setting the read error flag
Setting the read error flag

To manage open files, the file descriptors used are stored in a doubly linked list in global memory.

Loader


This module, found in one of the infections, is responsible for injecting additional payloads into memory and executing them.

At startup, it first creates a pipe named \\.\pipe\test_pipe20.%d, where the format string includes a unique identifier of the process into which the code is injected. Then data from this pipe is read and sent to the command handler in an infinite loop.

The unique command ID is contained in the first four bytes of the data and can have the following possible values:

Command IDDescription
0x1Read data from the pipe or send data to the pipe
0x4Initiate the payload

The payload is an executable file for 64-bit Windows systems. The command handler parses this file and extracts another executable file from its resource section. This extracted file then undergoes all loading procedures – obtaining the addresses of imported functions, relocation, and so on. In this case, to obtain the system method addresses, simple name comparison is used instead of hashing.

The executable is required to export a function called DllRegisterService. After loading, its entry point is called (to initialize internal structures), followed by this function. It provides an interface with the following possible commands:

Command IDDescription
0x1Initialize
0x2Receive data from the module
0x3Callback to get data from the payload
Injector


This module is also an executable file for 32-bit Windows systems. It is responsible for launching the payload – an executable originally written in C# (.NET).

First, it creates a pipe named \\.\pipe\0104201.%d, where the format string includes a unique identifier of the process in which the module runs.

The sample reads data from the pipe, searching for a .NET application inside it. Interestingly, unlike other modules, reading here occurs once rather than in a separate thread.

Before loading the received application, the module performs another important step. To prevent the payload from being detected by the AMSI interface, the attackers first load a local copy of the amsi library. Then they enable writing into memory region containing the functions AmsiScanString and AmsiScanBuffer and patch them. For example, instead of the original code of the AmsiScanString function, a stub function is placed in memory that always returns 0 (thus marking the file as safe).

After this, the sample loads the mscoree.dll library. Since the attackers do not know the target version of this library, during execution they check the version of the .NET runtime installed on the victim’s machine. The plugin supports versions 4.0.30319 and 2.0.50727. If one of these versions is installed on the device, the payload is launched via the _Assembly interface implemented in mscoree.dll.

Post-exploitation


Once a target machine is compromised, the attackers gain a wide range of opportunities for lateral movement and obtaining account credentials. For example, we found in the telemetry a command executed during one of the infections:
dllhost.exe $system32\dllhost.exe -accepteula -r -ma lsass.exe $appdata\FoMJoEqdWg
The executable dllhost.exe is a part of Windows and does not support command-line flags. Although telemetry data does not allow us to determine exactly how the substitution was carried out, in this case the set of flags is characteristic of the procdump.exe file (ProcDump utility, part of the Sysinternals suite). The attackers use this utility to dump the LSASS process memory into the file specified as the last argument (in this case, $appdata\FoMJoEqdWg).

Later, having the LSASS process memory dump, attackers can extract credentials from the compromised device and, consequently, attempt various lateral movement vectors within the network.

It is worth noting that a Microsoft article about attacks using CVE-2025-29824 mentions exactly the same method of obtaining LSASS memory using the procdump.exe file.

Takeaways


The repeated detection of PipeMagic in attacks on organizations in Saudi Arabia and its appearance in Brazil indicate that the malware remains active and that the attackers continue to develop its functionality. The versions detected in 2025 show improvements over the 2024 version, aimed at persisting in victim systems and moving laterally within internal networks.

In the 2025 attacks, the attackers used the ProcDump tool renamed to dllhost.exe to extract memory from the LSASS process – similar to the method described by Microsoft in the context of exploiting vulnerability CVE-2025-29824. The specifics of this vulnerability were analyzed in detail by BI.ZONE in the second part of our joint research (in Russian).

IoCs


Domains
aaaaabbbbbbb.eastus.cloudapp.azure[.]com

Hashes
5df8ee118c7253c3e27b1e427b56212c metafile.mshi
60988c99fb58d346c9a6492b9f3a67f7 chatgpt.exe
7e6bf818519be0a20dbc9bcb9e5728c6 chatgpt.exe
e3c8480749404a45a61c39d9c3152251 googleupdate.dll
1a119c23e8a71bf70c1e8edf948d5181
bddaf7fae2a7dac37f5120257c7c11ba

Pipe names
\.\pipe\0104201.%d
\\.\pipe\1.<16-byte hexadecimal string>


securelist.com/pipemagic/11727…



Pippo è il suo popolo


@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/pippo-e…
In queste ore il compianto Baudo sta facendo un ultimo enorme regalo ai ceti dirigenti italiani: dopo il vertice di Anchorage con annessi e connessi, in presenza del genocidio di Gaza e delle morti sul suolo ucraino, a fronte delle tantissime guerre in corso, la fenomenologia del grande catanese (di

Alfonso reshared this.



Pippo Baudo, la tv di tutti


@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/pippo-b…
Di Pippo Baudo è stato detto e scritto praticamente tutto. La sua storia va di pari passo a quella della televisione e del servizio pubblico, perché Baudo è stato sempre e appassionatamente uomo della Rai. La tradì per un breve periodo sentendosi offeso dalla definizione di presentatore

Alfonso reshared this.



Senza più diritto internazionale, quale sarà la prossima invasione?


@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/bue/
Trasformare una resa, in una pace. Questo è il massimo risultato che traspare dai colloqui avviati in Alaska, per fermare la guerra in Ucraina. La Russia ha conquistato con la forza un pezzo di territorio nemico e se lo vuole tenere, come si è sempre fatto nelle guerre. Il principio che le

Alfonso reshared this.



Il Gioco della storia, di Philip Kerr


@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/il-gioc…
Un thriller ricco di azione e di suspence, con un intreccio perfettamente ricostruito, nel rispetto della verità storica. Un romanzo finora inedito in Italia. E’ in libreria, dal 15 luglio scorso, il romanzo, inedito in Italia, del compianto Philip Kerr



Ad Anchorage il preludio di una nuova Jalta (senza l’Europa)


@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/ad-anch…
Attenzione a non sottovalutare ciò che è accaduto ad Anchorage, in Alaska, dove si sono incontrati Trump e Putin per discutere di questioni che vanno ben al di là della semplice guerra in Ucraina.



Billy Valentine and The Universal Truth
freezonemagazine.com/articoli/…
Recupero questo fantastico album che ha impiegato quasi un anno ad arrivarmi (misteri delle poste) e l’attesa per ascoltare il supporto fisico devo dire si è rivelata un benefico colpo di spugna sull’arrabbiatura per il disservizio. Il ritorno su disco di Billy Valentine, questo gigante della black music – si muove tra jazz, soul, blues […]
L'articolo Billy Valentine and The




Un altro che sta invecchiando male...

N.B.: l'articolo è leggibile solo pagando, (con soldi o in natura, con i dati personali) ma commenti e titoli non lasciano adito a dubbi.


passando pure per il campionario tipico della destra anti Salis. Da vomitargli addosso.

corriere.it/politica/24_settem…

@frandemartino


in reply to Max 🇪🇺🇮🇹

Ma molto molto male.


@ed Il suo profilo è un immondezzaio xcancel.com/rocco_tanica

Non è solo transfobico, ha proprio deciso di completare la bingo card del pezzo (o tanica) di merda




“Forse mi avete già sentito questa mattina, durante la messa. Ma ci tengo a dire due parole, qui, in un momento tanto significativo: quello dello spezzare il pane”.


“Spezziamo il pane, superiamo ogni barriera, creiamo fraternità, rendiamo presente il Regno di Dio”. Così mons. Vincenzo Viva ha salutato Papa Leone XIV al pranzo con i poveri, nel Borgo Laudato si’.


“Questo pranzo ci ricorda che l’amore per l’Eucaristia non resta mai chiuso in se stesso. Ci spinge sempre verso le periferie, là dove vivono povertà, solitudine e bisogno di dignità.


“Se siamo qui, è perché Gesù ha vinto la morte e continua a vincerla con noi”: si apre con un inno alla vita l’omelia di Papa Leone XIV, che questa mattina ha presieduto la Santa Messa presso il Santuario di Santa Maria della Rotonda, ad Albano, insi…



“Sono vicino alle popolazioni del Pakistan, dell’India e del Nepal colpite da violente alluvioni. Prego per le vittime e i loro familiari e per quanti soffrono a causa di questa calamità”.


Apice (BN), un paesino abbandonato dopo il terremoto dell'Irpinia (1980).

Apice (Benevento, IT), a small city abandoned after 1980 Irpinia earthquake.

#Fotografia #Photography



E niente, i rimbambiti Europei non ci arrivano, il cervello ormai è evaporato...
ec.europa.eu/commission/pressc…


ecco un esempio delle cose che non succedono nel mondo windows e che mi fanno stare lontana da windows...



diciamo che putin ha calato molto nelle richieste.
la questione chiese ortodosse, in un'ottica di "pace" e libertà di culto, tanto non sarebbero comunque perseguibili e quindi toccherebbe farlo comunque alla fine. da disciplinare opportunamente come "scoraggiato" ma non "illegale".
la questione del russo è già più spinosa. ma il russo può essere inserito come lingua ufficiale ma disciplinato in modo abbastanza soft. anche se diventa rischioso come grimaldello per future invasioni. putin si sta creando una scusa per future guerre?
i confini congelati attuali è più o momento quello che ci si aspettava, con una parziale concessione territoriale. a patto di una non pretesa neutralità dell'ucraina o preteso disarmo.

pare un po' un modo per prendere un po' di fiato e preparare nuova guerra ma comunque pure l'ucraina ha bisogno di riprendere fiato. è evidente che l'imperialismo russo non è finito.



Hanoch Milwidsky, un parlamentare del Likud, il partito di Netanyahu, ha definito i manifestanti (compresi i parenti degli ostaggi) dei «riottosi che sostengono Hamas»

Ah quindi non è solo qui che se dici "be" contro un genocidio sei un nemico del popolo...


Lo sciopero generale in Israele organizzato dalle famiglie degli ostaggi - Il Post
https://www.ilpost.it/2025/08/17/sciopero-israele-famiglie-ostaggi/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Pubblicato su News @news-ilPost




Mumble mumble


Ahimé rimugino molto, e quando arriva il caldo divento ancora peggio.

Poco fa riflettevo su quanto il movimento del free software si sia snaturato nel tempo. Oggi, purtroppo, l'ho visto diventare solo un modo come un altro per veicolare una visione estremista delle cose, che non giova a nessuno. Un esempio?

Qualche settimana fa un amico su Mastodon ha detto di trovarsi in difficoltà con il suo browser (non ricordo nemmeno per quale ragione, o quale fosse il browser), e che aveva provato Vivaldi ma non si era trovato bene perché mancava una certa opzione. Visto che uso Vivaldi gli ho fatto presente che esisteva quell'opzione, e l'amico in questione ha detto che lo avrebbe riprovato.

A questo punto della discussione sono entrati a gamba due utenti, mettendo in discussione le esigenze personali e le scelte. Per capirci, se dicevo che uso Vivaldi mi rispondevano che non andava bene perché non è open. Rispondevo che so benissimo che non è 100% open, ma lo preferivo a Firefox dopo che Mozilla è diventata quel che è. Non entrando minimamente nel merito di questa mia affermazione, hanno cominciato ad attaccarmi sul fatto che la sincronizzazione di segnalibri e password è un grave problema per la privacy, ecc.

Insomma, per come l'ho vissuta io, una trollata. Conversazione lasciata cadere, non valeva la pena.

Ma continuo a pensarci.

Mi chiedo perché come esseri umani dobbiamo sempre rompere gli zebedei e affrontare le cose in maniera così tranchante e pure un po' estremista. Voglio dire, ma se vedi un gruppo di persone che discute di Vivaldi, perché devi fare presente che "non è free", lasciando intendere 1) che non lo sappiano 2) che di conseguenza è il male è assoluto?

Il software libero NON era questo, e non è nato per questo. Il software libero era un movimento di persone che cercavano di migliorare le cose, non di cadere in estremismi vari, e oggi purtroppo vedo che accade più spesso la seconda cosa. Pur comprendendo l'importanza del free software, che continuo a promuovere, non credo che il modo migliore di farlo sia quello di fare i duri e puri.

Ma questo è solo un esempio, ci siamo capiti.

Dovremmo seriamente pensare come fare a rieducarci ad una visione del mondo più morbida, dove non esiste solo il bianco o il nero, perché la realtà è molto più complessa di una dicotomia sterile tra due soli punti di vista.

#discussioni #tolleranza #estremismi

reshared this

in reply to Oblomov

il mio suggerimento è di imparare la serenità di sfanculare allegramente gli integralisti.

… e non solo perché chi di Vivaldi come prima cosa critica il fatto che non è FLOSS piuttosto che il fatto di usare lo stesso Blink di Chrome come rendering engine chiaramente non ha capito dove sta il vero problema 😉

2/2

in reply to Oblomov

@Oblomov il bello di avere 50 anni è che capisci meglio a cosa dedicare le energie.

Vent'anni fa avrei fatto durare quella discussione per 40.000 post. Oggi, semplicemente faccio ghosting: non ne vale la pena, il tempo che ho davanti è limitato e non voglio perderlo con chi si pone in modo da insegnarti cose, come se tu non avessi capito nulla.

Davvero, non ne vale la pena.



non che fossero dati così riservati, ma di certo denota una certa incompetenza e sciatteria. peccato solo che i russi non siano altrettanto sciatti.

in reply to The Pirate Post

Diese #C-Parteien sind die #Wegbereiter eines neuen #Deutschlands, welches von rechten #Faschisten, ganz legal, bei der nächsten #Wahl an die #Macht kommt.
Dann werden alle #Schweiger, alle Anders- und Nicht- #Denker #aufwachen und feststellen: "...dafür kann man das auch nutzen?"
Dann ist es zu spät und der #Schierlingsbecher wird umgehen.
#Willkommen in der #Realität!

Das #Wort zum #Sonntag, aus der #distopischen Ecke meines #Herzens




oggi su slowforward, all'indirizzo slowforward.net/2025/08/16/bit… pubblicato tre estratti da un numero di "bit" del 1967 che a mio giudizio - pur se riferiti alle arti visive - hanno molto a che fare anche con la scrittura di ricerca. possono tranquillamente cioè essere trasposti in (ripensati come) notille di poetica. soprattutto il brano (presentato nella rivista solo in inglese) di piero manzoni.

per l'ennesima volta si dimostra che quanto alcuni scrittori - dagli anni '90 in francia e 2000 in italia - hanno fatto in direzione di un'idea di postpoesia era perfettamente chiaro, immaginabile e immaginato, già venti-trent'anni prima. (d'altro canto potremmo ragionare anche di fluxus, delle istruzioni di allan kaprow, di giuseppe chiari, vincenzo agnetti e infiniti altri nomi e tracciati di sperimentazione).

che l'italia petrarcaica non se ne accorga nemmeno adesso, 2025, è motivo di ilarità e imbarazzo: quotidianamente.

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A 500-year-old human hair in a rare khipu challenges the long-held idea that only elite men created these knotted records in the Inka empire.#TheAbstract


A Strand of Hair Just Changed What We Know About the Inka Empire


Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies that stood out to me this week, covering everything from silver to scat.

First, a story about an ancient Andean tradition that will somehow end with a full-sized replica of a person posthumously made with his own hair. Enjoy the ride!

Then: the health risks of climate change for children; you’ll never guess what came out of this otter’s butthole; and wow, Vikings sure were good at raiding, huh.

The tangled origins of Inka khipus

Hyland, Sabine et al. “Stable isotope evidence for the participation of commoners in Inka khipu production.” Science Advances.

For thousands of years, Andean peoples have woven intricate patterns, known as khipus, that encode information into clusters of knots and multi-colored threads. Made from cotton, wool, and often human hair, khipus are an idiosyncratic form of writing used for a range of purposes like arithmetic, census-keeping, calendrical cycles, and more.

Spanish invaders, who overthrew the Inka empire in the 16th century, reported that only high-ranking bureaucratic men became khipu-makers (khipukamayuqs)—though this assertion has been challenged in the past by Indigenous sources.

Now, a strand of human hair woven into a 500-year-old khipu has resolved this centuries-old question. Scientists performed an isotopic analysis of the hair, revealing that the individual who wove it into the khipu was likely a low-status commoner with a simple plant-based diet. The discovery confirms that khipus were made by people from different classes and backgrounds, and that Inka women probably made them as well.

Khipukamayuqs “have been viewed primarily as imperial male elites who played key roles in running the empire,” said researchers led by Sabine Hyland of the University of St. Andrews. “However, the indigenous chronicler, Guaman Poma de Ayala”—who lived in the 16th century—”stated that women also made khipu records, explaining that females over fifty “[kept] track of everything on their [khipu],” the team added.

Hyland and her colleagues found a solution to the discordant accounts in a khipu called KH0631, which was made around the year 1498. Though the provenance of the khipu is not known, the primary cord was made of human hair, allowing them to unravel the diet of this ancient khipukamayuq from the elemental composition of their tresses.
The primary cord of KH0631. Image: Sabine Hyland
The sampled strand was more than three feet long, and would have taken about eight years to grow. Carbon and nitrogen analysis of the hair indicated that it belonged to an individual that “ate a plant-based diet consisting primarily of tubers and greens with little consumption of meat or high-status plants such as maize,” according to the study. Strontium analysis showed “little marine contribution to the diet, indicating that the individual likely lived in the highlands.” Overall “this diet is a characteristic of low-status commoners, unlike the diet of high-status elites who consumed considerably more meat and maize,” the researchers said.

The team speculated that this long-haired khipukamayuq could have just been a proto-vegan, but that wouldn’t explain why there was so little maize in their diet given elites were professional beer drinkers.

“Obligatory drinking of maize beer formed a central feature of Inka ceremonies of governance in which high-ranking khipukamayuqs participated,” the researchers said. “Given the symbolic importance of hair in the Andes, and the frequent use of hair on the primary cord to indicate the khipukamayuq, our results indicate that the creator of KH0631 was likely a non-elite commoner” suggesting that “khipu literacy in the Inka Empire may have been more inclusive and widespread than hitherto thought.”

IIn addition to broadening our understanding of khipukamayuq origins, the study is full of amazing insights about veneration of hair in Inka culture.

“Hair in the ancient Andes was a ritually powerful substance that represented the individual from whom it came,” the researchers said. “Historically, when human hair was incorporated into a khipu’s primary cord, it served as a ‘signature’ to indicate the person who created the khipu.”

“For important ceremonies, the Inka emperor sacrificed his own hair,” they added. “His hair clippings were saved during his lifetime; after death, they were fashioned into a life-size simulacrum revered as the emperor himself.”

I strongly suggest we revive this funerary practice, so start saving your hair clippings for your wake.

In other news…

The kids are not going to be alright

Reichelt, Paula et al. “Climate change and child health: The growing burden of climate-related adverse health outcomes.” Environmental Research.

The climate crisis is a tragedy for people of all ages, but kids are among the most exposed to harm. A new study provided an exhaustive review of climate-related threats to babies, children, and adolescents, which include: food insecurity, malnutrition, water scarcity, bad air quality, infectious diseases, exposure to extreme weather, displacement, trauma, and mental illness.

“Children are particularly affected by adverse environmental influences, as their immature organ systems are less able to cope with thermal stress and disease,” said researchers led by Paula Reichelt of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. “Moreover, their developmental stage makes them especially vulnerable to long-term consequences; early-life nutrient or health disruptions can lead to permanent impairments in growth and development.”
A visual summary of climate-related threats to children. Image: Reichelt, Paula et al.
“Due to the relatively modest global efforts by political decision-makers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, further global warming and the associated negative developments in child and adolescent health are likely,” the team concluded.

“Relatively modest” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. While I recognize the allure of doomerism or tuning out from these horrible realities, I recommend carrying around a manageable dose of incandescent rage at all times over the world we’re leaving behind to kids who had nothing to do with this mess.

Parasite lost (in otter poop)

Wise, Calli et al. “North American river otters consume diverse prey and parasites in a subestuary of the Chesapeake Bay.” Frontiers in Mammal Science.

You have to love a study that was inspired by an otter crapping out a weird red worm on a dock in the Chesapeake Bay. Curious about the poopy parasite, researchers sought out other otter “latrines” and discovered that these furry floaters eat a lot of parasites, probably because infected prey is often easier to catch. In this way, otters efficiently remove parasites from ecosystems; it may be a bummer for any infected prey on the otter menu, but is beneficial to the wider population.

“This study is the first to characterize river otter latrines and diet in a tidally influenced estuarine habitat within the Chesapeake Bay,” said researchers led by Calli Wise of Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

“Our results indicate that river otters consume a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic fauna, primarily consisting of finfish and crustaceans, but also including frogs and ducks,” the team said. “Multiple parasite species were identified, including parasites of river otters and those infecting prey, indicating that parasites likely play an important role in both prey availability and otter health.”

Tl;dr: Otters are parasite vacuums. Yet another reason to love these cuddly creatures and forgive their more unsavory attributes.

Some Viking booty, as a treat

Kershaw, Jane et al. “The Provenance of Silver in the Viking-Age Hoard From Bedale, North Yorkshire.” Archaeometry.

We’ll end, as all things ideally should, with treasure. A new study tracks down the likely origins of a hoard of gold and silver items—including a sword pommel, jewelry, and several ingots—that were stashed by Vikings in the English town of Bedale, North Yorkshire, more than 1,200 years ago.
The Bedale Hoard. Image: York Museums Trust
Vikings are well-known for their epic raids (source: Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla) and this particular hoard included far-flung loot sourced from across Europe and the Middle East.

“The results indicate a dominant contribution of western European silver, pointing to the fate of loot seized by the Vikings during their raids on the Continent in the ninth century,” said researchers led by Jane Kershaw of the University of Oxford. “Nonetheless, Islamic silver is also present in several large ingots: silver from the east—the product of long-distance trade networks connecting Scandinavia with the Islamic Caliphate—permeated Viking wealth sources even in the western part of the Viking overseas settlement and should be seen as a significant driver of the Viking phenomenon.”

“The Vikings were not only extracting wealth locally; they were also bringing it into England via long-distance trade networks,” the team concluded.

With that Viking spirit in mind—skål, and see you next week.




Monsieur Blake - Maggiordomo per amore


altrenotizie.org/spalla/10757-…


In queste poesie Montale scorse la presenza sotterranea di quel narratore che Bassani sarebbe poi diventato adrianomaini.altervista.org/in…



Tutti gli amoreggiamenti di Sanchez con Huawei in Spagna

L'articolo proviene da #StartMag e viene ricondiviso sulla comunità Lemmy @Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)
Huawei è stata inclusa nel Centro di Operazioni di Sicurezza 5G spagnolo. L'articolo di Cinco Días tratto dalla newsletter di startmag.it/innovazione/tutti-…





Il lungo post che segue, l'ho trovato su fb. I riferimenti delle dichiarazioni ci sono, ma vanno verificati tutti. Se qualcuno vuole darmi una mano, possiamo linkare la fonte di ogni affermazione nei commenti in basso, se la troviamo, oppure indicare che quella citazione non si trova e che potrebbe essere fake.

La popolo eletto di Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin e altri
Dissero:
👉 "La nostra razza è la Razza dei maestri. Siamo dei divini su questo pianeta. Noi siamo tanto diversi dagli esseri umani inferiori che restano degli insetti. Infatti, rispetto alla nostra razza, le altre razze sono bestie, animali, bovini al massimo. Le altre razze sono escrementi umani. Il nostro destino è quello di governare queste razze inferiori. Il nostro regno terreno sarà governato dal nostro leader con una verga di ferro. Le masse leccheranno i nostri piedi e ci serviranno come schiavi." (Menachem Begin, Premio Nobel per la Pace 1978)
👉 David Ben Gurion, durante la guerra: «Se io sapessi che è possibile salvare tutti i figli (ebrei) di Germania trasferendoli in Inghilterra, e solo metà di loro trasferendoli nella terra di Israele, sceglierei la seconda possibilità; perché di fronte a noi non abbiamo solo il numero di questi figli, ma il progetto storico del popolo di Israele» (Shabtai Teveth, «Ben Gurion», 1988,).
👉 «Dobbiamo usare il terrore, l’assassinio, l’intimidazione, la confisca dei terreni e il taglio di tutti i servizi sociali per liberare la Galilea dalla sua popolazione araba» (David Ben Gurion, maggio 1948, to the General Staff. Da «Ben-Gurion, A Biography», di y Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978).
👉 «Dobbiamo espellere gli arabi e prendere i loro posti» –(David Ben Gurion, 1937, «Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs» Shabtai Teveth, Oxford University Press, 1985).
👉 «Non esiste qualcosa come un popolo palestinese. Non è che siamo venuti, li abbiamo buttati fuori e abbiamo preso il loro paese. Essi non esistevano» (Golda Meir, dichiarazione al The Sunday Times, 15 giugno 1969).
👉 «Come possiamo restituire I territori occupati? Non c’è nessuno a cui restituirli» (Golda Meir, marzo, 1969).
👉 «…Uscimmo fuori, e Ben Gurion ci accompagnò sulla porta. Allon ripeté la sua domanda: cosa si deve fare con la popolazione palestinese? Ben Gurion scosse la mano con un gesto che diceva: cacciarli fuori». (Yitzhak Rabin, è un passo censurato delle memorie di Rabin, rivelato dal New York Times, 23 ottobrer 1979)
👉 «Saranno create, nel corso dei 10 o 20 anni prossimi, condizioni tali da attrarre la naturale e volontaria emigrazione dei rifugiati da Gaza e dalla Cisgiordania verso la Giordania. Per ottenere questo dobbiamo accordarci con re Hussein e non con Yasser Arafat». (Yitzhak Rabin, citato da David Shipler sul New York Times, 04/04/1983)
👉 «I palestinesi sono bestie con due zampe» (Menachem Begin, primo ministro di Israele 1977-83, davanti alla Knesset, citato da Amnon Kapeliouk, “Begin and the Beasts”, New Statesman, June 25, 1982.)
👉 «La partizione della Palestina è illegale. Non sarà mai riconosciuta… Gerusalemme fu e sarà per sempre la nostra capitale. Eretz Israel sarà restaurato per il popolo d’Israele; tutto e per sempre» (Menachem Begin, il giorno dopo il voto all’Onu per la partizione della Palestina).
👉 «I palestinesi saranno schiacciati come cavallette… le teste spaccate contro le rocce e i muri» (Yitzhak Shamir, primo ministro in carica, in un discorso ai «coloni» ebraici, New York Times 1 aprile, 1988).
👉 «Israele doveva sfruttare la repressione delle dimostrazioni in Cina (nei giorni di Tienanmen, ndr.) quando l’attenzione del mondo era concentrata su quel paese, per procedere alle espulsioni di massa degli arabi dei territori (occupati)» (Benyamin Netanyahu, all’epoca vice-ministro degli esteri, già primo ministro, davanti agli studenti della T Bar Ilan University; citazione tratta dal giornale isrealiano Hotam, 24 novembre 1989).
👉 «Se pensassimo che anziché 200 morti palestinesi, 2 mila morti ponessero fine alla guerriglia in un colpo solo, useremmo molto più forza…» (Ehud Barak, primo ministro, citato dalla Associated Press, 16 novembre 2000).
👉 «Mi sarei arruolato in una organizzazione terroristica»: (risposta di Ehud Barak a Gideon Levy, il noto giornalista di Ha’aretz che gli aveva domandato cosa avrebbe fatto se fosse nato palestinese)
👉 «Noi dichiariamo apertamente che gli arabi non hanno alcun diritto di abitare anche in un centimetro di Eretz Israel… Capiscono solo la forza. Noi useremo la forza senza limiti finché i palestinesi non vengano strisciando a noi» (Rafael Eitan, capo dello stato maggiore IDF, citato da Gad Becker in «Yedioth Ahronot», 13 aprile 1983).
👉 «E’ dovere dei leader israeliani spiegare all’opinione pubblica, con chiarezza e coraggio, alcuni fatti che col tempo sono stati dimenticati. Il primo è: non c’è sionismo, colonizzazione o stato ebraico senza l’espulsione degli arabi e la confisca delle loro terre» (Ariel Sharon, allora ministro degli esteri, a un discorso tenuto davanti ai militanti del partito di estrema destra Tsomet – Agence France Presse, 15 novembre 1998).
👉 «Tutti devono muoversi, correre e prendere quante più cime di colline (palestinesi) possibile in modo da allargare gli insediamenti (ebraici) perché tutto quello che prenderemo ora sarà nostro… Tutto quello che non prenderemo andrà a loro.» (Ariel Sharon, Ministro degli esteri d’Israele, aprendo un incontro del partito Tsomet, Agence France Presse, 15 novembre 1998)
👉 «Israele ha il diritto di processare altri, ma nessuno ha il diritto di mettere sotto processo il popolo ebraico e lo Stato di Israele» (Sharon, primo ministro, 25 marzo 2001, BBC Online).
👉 «Quando avremo colonizzato il paese, tutto quello che agli arabi resterà da fare è darsi alla fuga come scarafaggi drogati in una bottiglia» (Raphael Eitan, Capo di Stato Maggiore delle forze armate israeliane, “New York Times”, 14/4/1983).
👉 «Noi possediamo varie centinaia di testate atomiche e missili, e siamo in grado di lanciarli in ogni direzione, magari anche su Roma. La maggior parte delle capitali europee sono bersagli per la nostra forza aerea» (febbraio 2003, Martin Van Creveld, docente di storia militare all’Università Ebraica di Gerusalemme)
👉 «C’è bisogno di una reazione brutale. Se accusiamo una famiglia, dobbiamo straziarli senza pietà, donne e bambini inclusi. Durante l’operazione non c’è bisogno di distinguere fra colpevoli e innocenti». (Ben Gurion, il “padre” di Israele, 1967)
👉 «I villaggi ebraici sono stati costruiti al posto dei villaggi arabi. Voi non li conoscete neanche i nomi di questi villaggi arabi, e io non vi biasimo perché i libri di geografia non esistono più. Non soltanto non esistono i libri, ma neanche i villaggi arabi non ci sono più. Nahlal è sorto al posto di Mahlul, il kibbutz di Gvat al posto di Jibta; il kibbutz Sarid al posto di Huneifis; e Kefar Yehushua al posto di Tal al-Shuman. Non c’è un solo posto costruito in questo paese che non avesse prima una popolazione araba.» (David Ben Gurion, citato in The Jewish Paradox, di Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99)
👉 «Tra di noi non possiamo ignorare la verità … politicamente noi siamo gli aggressori e loro si difendono … Il paese è loro, perché essi lo abitavano, dato che noi siamo voluti venire e stabilirci qui, e dal loro punto di vista li vogliamo cacciare dal loro paese.» (David Ben Gurion, riportato a pp 91-2 di Fateful Triangle di Chomsky, che apparve in “Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 di Simha Flapan che citava un discorso del 1938)
👉 «Questo paese esiste come il compimento della promessa fatta da Dio stesso. Sarebbe ridicolo chiedere conto della sua legittimità.» (Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 ottobre 1971
👉 «Ogni volta che facciamo qualcosa tu mi dici che l’America farà questo o quello… devo dirti qualcosa molto chiaramente: Non preoccuparti della pressione americana su Israele. Noi, il popolo ebraico, controlliamo l’America, e gli americani lo sanno.» (Ariel Sharon, Primo Ministro d’Israele, 31 ottobre 2001, risposta a Shimon Peres, come riportato in un programma della radio Kol Yisrael.)
👉 «Un milione di Arabi non valgono nemmeno l’unghia di un ebreo.» (Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, NY Daily News, Feb. 28, 1994, p.6)