A Russian magazine editor claims his publisher demanded he censor a book that mentions homosexuality in animals because it violates the country’s “LGBT propaganda” law.

Viktor Kovylin, editor of the scientific journal Batrachospermum, wrote on Telegram that his publisher told him the descriptions of same-sex behavior in a book on animal sexual behavior were against the law because they did not express “disgust or criticism” for the acts.

“Apparently, neutral scientific descriptions of homosexual behavior, without disgust or criticism, now fall under the category of propaganda for non-traditional relationships!” Kovylin wrote on Telegram, according to a translation.

Archived

Here is the entire report: Tightening the net: China's infrastructure of oppression in Iran (pdf)

The Iranian regime has been accused of deploying Russian and Chinese technology to aid its brutal crackdown on recent protests, and proliferate a near total internet shutdown, including disrupting satellite internet. This networked authoritarianism has equipped Iran with the technical capacity and political will to impose unprecedented infrastructure control to suppress the flow of information, as the regime massacred thousands of protesters and arrested many more.

[...]

The report outlines how China, Iran’s largest trading partner, has been providing material and technical support to Iran since at least 2010, supercharging its surveillance and censorship capabilities. Despite international sanctions, Chinese companies including ZTE, Huawei, Tiandy and Hikvision continue operations in Iran, often through front companies, providing surveillance and monitoring technologies that directly contribute to the regime’s ability to perpetuate gross human rights violations.

The research also charts the way in which China’s ‘cyber sovereignty’ doctrine appears to influence Iran’s approach to internet governance – best exemplified in the country’s efforts to replicate the Great Firewall of China through Iran’s National Information Network. Both systems intend to block free access to the global internet, centralising censorship and embedding surveillance deep into their infrastructure. Iranian officials have publicly praised China’s normative and technical capacity, and supported China’s global push for separation from ‘foreign’ internet regulation in international fora, including the United Nations.

[...]

Iran's suppression was combined with door-to-door seizure of satellite dishes, aided by arial drones, and criminal penalties of up to 10 years' imprisonment under a 2025 law in Iran criminalising the possession of hardware like Starlink terminals. Such multifaceted methods significantly complicate countermeasures to protect freedom of expression and information.

[...]

Despite international sanctions and legal penalties, Chinese firms have sought means of continuing operations in Iran, often through front companies, complicating accountability. The involvement of Chinese vendors in supplying censorship and surveillance technologies to Iran has contributed to the government's ability to perpetrate human rights abuses, often disproportionately against ethnic and religious minorities and women.

[...]

An internet safety campaign backed by US tech companies has been accused of censoring two teenagers they invited to speak out about the biggest issues facing children online.

Childnet, a UK charity part-funded by companies including Snap, Roblox and Meta, edited out warnings from Lewis Swire and Saamya Ghai that social media addiction was an “imminent threat to our future” and obsessive scrolling was making people “sick”, according to a record of edits seen by the Guardian.

Swire, then 17, from Edinburgh, and Ghai, then 14, from Buckinghamshire, had been asked to speak at an event to mark Safer Internet Day in 2024 in London in front of representatives from government, charities and tech companies.

The tech-backed charity also edited out references to children feeling unable to stop using TikTok and Snap, social media exacerbating a “devastating epidemic” of isolation, and a passage questioning why people would want to spend years of their lives “scrolling TikTok and binge-watching Netflix”, the edits show.

Childnet denied making edits to keep tech funders happy and insisted it would not stop young people making their points. Aspects of the approved speech did acknowledge that excessive screen time had led to depression and anxiety, and that social media companies should reduce the use of devices such as notifications, autoplay and streaks to prolong user engagement.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/58750124

The Stellantis-backed Automotive Cells Company (ACC) told unions it had dropped plans to build gigafactories in both Italy and Germany, the Italian metalworkers' union UILM said in a statement on Saturday.

Bad Bunny's halftime show at the Superbowl ended with him listing all the nations of America (South to North order).

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42890299

Havana. — The energy crisis in Cuba has reached a critical level that is now directly affecting civil aviation. An official aeronautical notice (NOTAM) from José Martí International Airport in Havana confirms that the terminal is out of Jet A-1 fuel, which is standardly used by commercial aircraft.

The NOTAM, identified as A0356/26 and classified as international, explicitly states: “JET A-1 FUEL NOT AVBL” (no Jet A-1 fuel available). The notice has been active since February 10, 2026, at 05:00 UTC and will remain in effect at least until March 11, 2026, at 05:00 UTC, representing a full month without guaranteed supply at the country's main airport.

These types of official notices are issued to alert pilots, airlines, and air operators about critical operational conditions. In this case, the lack of fuel means that airplanes cannot refuel in Havana, an extremely serious situation for an international airport that handles the majority of Cuba's air traffic.

Veteran center-left politician Antonio Jose Seguro has won 66% of the vote, seeing off a challenge from the far-right.

The media tycoon, who was first arrested in 2020, could face life in prison in blow for press freedom following conviction in December

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy figure, is set to be sentenced on Monday in the financial hub’s most high-profile national security case, amid growing calls to free the longstanding critic of the Chinese Communist party whose health is frail.

The sentence comes after a legal saga spanning almost five years for the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper after he was convicted in December of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of publishing seditious materials. He was first arrested in 2020.

Sentencing guidelines under the national security law stipulate that Lai, who was deemed a “mastermind” of a conspiracy to engage with foreign activists, politicians and others to solicit foreign sanctions against Hong Kong and China, could come under the most severe penalty “band” of 10 years to life imprisonment for offences of a “grave nature”.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/60059065

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/24650125

Because nothing says "fun" quite like having to restore a RAID that just saw 140TB fail.

Western Digital this week outlined its near-term and mid-term plans to increase hard drive capacities to around 60TB and beyond with optimizations that significantly increase HDD performance for the AI and cloud era. In addition, the company outlined its longer-term vision for hard disk drives' evolution that includes a new laser technology for heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), new platters with higher areal density, and HDD assemblies with up to 14 platters. As a result, WD will be able to offer drives beyond 140 TB in the 2030s.

Western Digital plans to volume produce its inaugural commercial hard drives featuring HAMR technology next year, with capacities rising from 40TB (CMR) or 44TB (SMR) in late 2026, with production ramping in 2027. These drives will use the company's proven 11-platter platform with high-density media as well as HAMR heads with edge-emitting lasers that heat iron-platinum alloy (FePt) on top of platters to its Curie temperature — the point at which its magnetic properties change — and reducing its magnetic coercivity before writing data.

cross-posted from : https://anarchist.nexus/c/technology/p/436078/dutch-authorities-allegedly-seize-vpn-server-without-a-warrant-company-claims-that-la

The authorities apparently got tired of asking and just went in themselves.

Canada-based Windscribe, a VPN provider, just said that one of its European servers has been allegedly seized by Dutch authorities without a warrant. According to the company’s post on X, law enforcement said that they will return it to the service provider after they “fully analyze it.” It’s unclear why law enforcement impounded just a single rack from Windscribe’s cabinet, but the VPN provider said that it only uses RAM disk servers, meaning anyone who would look through the installed SSDs would only find a stock Ubuntu install on it, so the servers shouldn't hold any trackable data.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/54980020

THE ESCALATING COST of living keeps making headlines and inspiring furious Reddit threads. Food prices remain a flashpoint, especially when it comes to coffee. But behind every grocery store gripe lies a deeper unease about whether wages are keeping up and the tariffs that continue to dominate economic news.

But the fixation on tariffs and inflation obscures a different shift revolutionizing pricing: algorithms. The Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project warns automated tools are reshaping what Canadians are charged for essential goods and services, including groceries and fuel. Companies can now use software to tailor prices based on everything from our browsing patterns, location, loyalty history, device type, and operating system. The same item can appear at one amount for you and another for someone else, depending on who you are, when you see it online, and what the algorithm believes you are willing to pay.

Here’s how it works. Companies gather data from many routine digital touchpoints: web and app tracking (cookies, pixels, and device fingerprinting), geolocation from phones and browsers, and in-store sensors. Also involved are data brokers who sell detailed consumer profiles combining demographics, purchase histories, and online behaviour. After the initial lure with attractive benefits and promises of discounts, (“the hook”), you’re handed over to a surveillance infrastructure that mines data about your behaviour and willingness to pay (“the hack”) and then raises fees, cuts rewards, and traps you in the program by making cancellation difficult (“the hike”).

A federal statement announcing Jeffrey's Epstein's death in prison was dated the day before he was found dead hanging in his cell.

The document released by the US Department of Justice in the latest set of the Epstein Files describes Epstein being found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan, where he was declared dead.

However it is dated Friday, August 9, 2019, while prison records and official document show it was not until August 10, 2019, that a corrections officer delivering breakfast found Epstein unresponsive in his cell.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/57350918

A flood of "fake NZ news" pages are swamping social media with misleading slop, including using AI to animate still photos of a Mount Maunganui landslide victim.

Dodgy Facebook pages devoted to churning out AI-generated images and videos are almost unavoidable on the site now - and they're still fooling an awful lot of people.

In an investigation I conducted for the Australian Associated Press, a Facebook page calling itself "NZ News Hub" - which has no connection whatsoever to the now-defunct Newshub - has been pushing out dozens of posts a week that take the legitimate reporting by news organisations including RNZ, the New Zealand Herald, Stuff and others, and add sloppy AI-generated images or videos to them.

In one case, a video was posted that grotesquely animates a still photo of a 15-year-old Mount Maunganui landslide victim, making her appear to dance.

The page's bio proclaims "NZ News Hub brings you the latest New Zealand news, breaking stories, politics, business, sport, and community updates", but it does not appear to contain any original reporting.

For instance, on Waitangi Day, the page published a post that appeared to be a video of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at Waitangi, but was clearly generated by AI.

Nevertheless, the page, which has nearly 5000 followers, has dozens of people "liking" and commenting on its posts as if they were real. Many of their followers appear to be business pages and even include a few politicians.