PRISONER IN A TROLL FARM
UN warns that hundreds of thousands in Southeast Asia have been roped into online scams



GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office says criminal gangs have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia into participating in unlawful online scam operations, including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a new report, cites “credible sources” that at least 120,000 people in strife-torn Myanmar and roughly 100,000 in Cambodia “may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams.”

The report sheds new light on cybercrime scams that have become a major issue in Asia, with many of the workers trapped in virtual slavery and forced to participate in scams targeting people over the internet.

Laos, the Philippines and Thailand were also cited among the main countries of destination or transit for tens of thousands of people. Criminal gangs have increasingly targeted migrants, and lure some victims by false recruitment — suggesting they are destined for real jobs.

The rights office, citing the “enormity” of the scam operations, said the exact impact in terms of people and revenues generated is hard to estimate because of their secrecy and gaps in governmental response, but it's believed to be in the billions of U.S. dollars every year.

Some victims have been subjected to torture, cruel punishments, sexual violence and arbitrary detention, among other crimes, it said.

Related video: Thailand threatens Facebook with legal action over alleged scams (WION)
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Pia Oberoi, a senior advisor on migration and human rights for the Asia-Pacific region at the U.N. human rights office, described “two sets" of victims: people who get fleeced of large sums of money — sometimes their life savings — and people trafficked into working for the scammers, who themselves may lose money or face “stigma and shame” for the work they do.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva by video from Bangkok, Oberoi said many scams have their origins during the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns shut down casinos that were a key part of the economy along border zones and in Cambodia.

“What you saw really was criminal actors that were looking essentially to diversify their operations because their primary source of income had been reduced by these COVID lockdowns,” she said. It also meant economic distress, which left "middle class, educated, technologically competent young people” out of work, so many got lured on false premises into working for the schemes.

The scams involve billions of dollars worth of revenues, the rights office said.

Oberoi also described the “so-called pig butchering scheme," often involving many people operating in a compound who target people who are led to believe “that they are speaking to somebody who is interested to be romantically involved with them.”

“It’s often men that are doing the scamming, pretending to be women," Oberoi said. If a target asks to see the woman, she said, "one of the few women in the compound is brought in to act as the model.”

In June, Philippine police backed by commandos led a raid to rescue more than 2,700 workers from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and more than a dozen other countries who were allegedly swindled into working for fraudulent online gaming sites and other cybercrime groups.

In May, leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed in a summit in Indonesia to tighten border controls and law enforcement and broaden public education to fight criminal syndicates that traffic workers to other nations, where they are made to participate in online fraud.

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press

$5.6 million bid for one offshore tract marks modest start for Gulf of Mexico wind energy


In a first-of-its kind auction for the Gulf of Mexico, a company bid $5.6 million Tuesday to lease federal waters off the Louisiana coast for wind energy generation.

It was a modest start for wind energy in the Gulf, which lags the Northeast in offshore wind power development. Only one of three available tracts received bids. And only two companies bid. The winning bidder was RWE Offshore US.

The Biden administration said the tract covers more than 102,000 acres (41,200 hectares) with the potential for generation of 1.24 gigawatts, enough wind power to supply 435,000 homes.

Analysts cited a variety of factors behind the current, relatively low interest in the lease sale, including inflation and challenges specific to the area such as lower wind speeds and the need for designs that consider hurricane threats.

Washington-based research group Clearview Energy Partners said in a Tuesday analysis that Gulf states' governments lack the needed offshore wind targets or mandates for renewable energy that could encourage more wind development.

Clearview's report also said wind energy is likely to play a key role in development of clean hydrogen production. The Biden administration has yet to implement a planned tax credit for hydrogen — another possible drag on immediate interest in Gulf wind leases, the report said.

“Offshore wind developers have to pick and choose where to deploy their resources and time and energy. It is not surprising that they are more interested in locations like the Northeast where power prices are higher and offshore wind is better positioned to compete,” Becky Diffen, a partner specializing in renewable energy financing at the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm in Houston.

Other factors bode well for eventual wind development in the Gulf. “While RWE may be the only company to have won a bid for federal waters in the Gulf, there are a few companies interested in pursuing offshore wind in Louisiana state waters,” Clearview said. “We note Louisiana lawmakers enacted a law last year that expanded the size of allowable offshore wind leases in state water.”

In a region where offshore oil and gas production remain a major economic driver, industries are embracing wind energy as well. For instance, Louisiana shipbuilding giant Edison Chouest Offshore is assembling a 260-foot-long (80-meter) vessel to serve as floating quarters for offshore wind technicians and their tools to be used to run wind farms in the Northeast.

“Today’s auction results show the important role state public policy plays in offshore wind market development,” Luke Jeanfreau of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, an organization formed to aid the development of offshore wind. “Gulf expertise in offshore construction is unparalleled, and their innovative solutions will continue to drive the U.S. and global offshore wind industry forward.”

Kevin Mcgill, The Associated Press

US military plans to unleash thousands of autonomous war robots over next two years

GOING WHERE? DOING WHAT?!!

Story by By REUTERS •

A TALON tracked military robot picks up a downed unmanned aerial system at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, May 19, 2020. 

(U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard)© (photo credit: PICRYL)

The United States military plans to start using thousands of autonomous weapons systems in the next two years in a bid to counter China’s growing power, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced in a speech on Monday.

The so-called Replicator initiative aims to work with defense and other tech companies to produce high volumes of affordable systems for all branches of the military.

Military systems capable of various degrees of independent operation have become increasingly common over the past decade or so. But the scale and scope of the US announcement make clear the future of conflict has changed: the age of warfighting robots is upon us.

Over the past decade, there has been considerable development of advanced robotic systems for military purposes. Many of these have been based on modifying commercial technology, which itself has become more capable, cheaper, and more widely available.

More recently, the focus has shifted to experimenting with how to best use these in combat. Russia’s war in Ukraine has demonstrated that the technology is ready for real-world deployment.

Loitering munitions, a form of robot air vehicle, have been widely used to find and attack armored vehicles and artillery. Ukrainian naval attack drones have paralyzed Russia’s Black Sea fleet, forcing their crewed warships to stay in port.

Military robots are an idea whose time has come.

In her speech, Hicks talked of a perceived urgent need to change how wars are fought. She declared, in somewhat impenetrable Pentagon-speak, that the new Replicator program would field attritable autonomous systems at a scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains, within the next 18 to 24 months.


A TALON tracked military robot picks up a downed unmanned aerial system at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, May 19, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard) (credit: PICRYL)© Provided by The Jerusalem PostA TALON tracked military robot picks up a downed unmanned aerial system at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, May 19, 2020.

 (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard) (credit: PICRYL)

Decoding this, “autonomous” means a robot that can carry out complex military missions without human intervention.

“Attritable” means the robot is cheap enough that it can be placed at risk and lost if the mission is of high priority. Such a robot is not quite designed to be disposable, but it would be reasonably affordable so many can be bought and combat losses replaced.

Finally, “multiple domains” means robots on land, at sea, in the air, and in space. In short, robots are everywhere for all kinds of tasks.

Many countries want autonomous weapons systems

For the US military, Russia is an “acute threat” but China is the “pacing challenge” against which to benchmark its military capabilities.

China’s People’s Liberation Army is seen as having a significant advantage in terms of “mass”: it has more people, more tanks, more ships, more missiles, and so on. The US may have better-quality equipment, but China wins on quantity.

By quickly building thousands of “attritable autonomous systems”, the Replicator program will now give the US the numbers considered necessary to win future major wars.

The imagined future war of most concern is a hypothetical battle for Taiwan, which some postulate could soon begin. Recent tabletop wargames have suggested large swarms of robots could be the decisive element for the US in defeating any major Chinese invasion.

However, Replicator is also looking further ahead and aims to institutionalize the mass production of robots for the long term. Hicks argues:

We must ensure [China’s] leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression, and concludes, “today is not the day” — and not just today, but every day, between now and 2027, now and 2035, now and 2049, and beyond.

One great concern about autonomous systems is whether their use can conform to the laws of armed conflict.

Optimists argue robots can be carefully programmed to follow rules, and in the heat and confusion of combat, they may even obey better than humans.

Pessimists counter by noting not all situations can be foreseen, and robots may well misunderstand and attack when they should not. They have a point.

Among earlier autonomous military systems, the Phalanx close-in point defense gun and the Patriot surface-to-air missile have both misperformed.

Used only once in combat, during the first Gulf War in 1991, the Phalanx fired at a chaff decoy cloud rather than countering the attacking anti-ship missile. The more modern Patriot has proven effective in shooting down attacking ballistic missiles, but also twice shot down friendly aircraft during the second Gulf War in 2003, killing their human crews.

Clever design may overcome such problems in future autonomous systems. However, Hicks promised a “responsible and ethical approach to AI and autonomous systems” in her speech – which suggests any system able to kill targets will still need formal authorization from a human to do so.

The US may be the first nation to field large numbers of autonomous systems, but other countries will be close behind. China is an obvious candidate, with great strength in both artificial intelligence and combat drone production.

However, because much of the technology behind autonomous military drones has been developed for civilian purposes, it is widely available and relatively cheap. Autonomous military systems are not just for the great powers, but could also soon be fielded by many middle and smaller powers.

Libya and Israel, among others, have reportedly deployed autonomous weapons, and Turkish-made drones have proved important in the Ukraine war.

Australia is another country keenly interested in the possibilities of autonomous weapons. The Australian Defence Force is today building the MQ-28 Ghostbat autonomous fast jet air vehicle, robot mechanized armored vehicles, robot logistic trucks, and robot submarines and is already using the Bluebottle robot sailboat for maritime border surveillance in the Timor Sea.

And in a move that foreshadowed the Replicator initiative, the Australian government last month called for local companies to suggest how they might build very large numbers of military aerial drones in-country in the next few years.

At least one Australian company, SYPAQ, is already on the move, sending a number of its cheap, cardboard-bodied drones to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.

Leaked Microsoft memo tells managers not to use budget cuts as an explainer for lack of pay rises: ‘Reinforce that every year offers unique opportunity for impact’

Story by Orianna Rosa Royle •14h

As the tech company cuts the budget for bonuses and freezes salaries, managers are being asked to skim over that fact during lackluster performance reviews.

© Loren Elliott—Getty Images

Microsoft employees were already expecting lackluster pay rises. In a company-wide email sent earlier this year, the tech company’s CEO Satya Nadella warned staff of salary freezes and cuts to the bonus budget.

But despite previous transparency around the cost-cutting measures, employees enquiring about how the budget cuts have impacted their performance review will now be fobbed off.

According to leaked guidance viewed by Insider, managers are being ordered to dodge such questions in the name of company culture.

"It's natural for employees to ask questions about budget given the decisions shared in Satya's email," the guidance reportedly states. "However, it's most important to focus discussions with direct reports on their impact for the past fiscal year and directly tie it to their rewards."

Managers should not use the budget cuts as an "explanation" for compensation decisions for individual employees and instead should emphasize that the employee's own "impact" determines "rewards."

"Using budgets or factors besides the employee's impact as an explanation for an employee's rewards will erode trust and confidence within your team," the guide cautions. "Reinforce that every year offers unique opportunity for impact, and we increase our high expectations, regardless of our budget."

Microsoft didn’t respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

A transparency U-turn

The latest guidance to Microsoft managers comes in spite of the fact that this year’s subpar pay review is intrinsically linked to the business's budget cuts.

In May—just after the company's annual review cycle began with performance reviews in April—Nadella told staff that due to the current economic conditions, full-time employees won’t see an increase in their wages this year.

Typically, Microsoft employees are told how their performance affects their compensation in August with their payout taking effect from September, but this year, not only will most workers see their salary stagnate, but their bonuses are also likely to be significantly smaller.

Nadella’s email cautioned that the company will not "overfund" bonuses and stock awards like it did last year, meaning the bonus and stock award budget has been reduced.

“As a senior leadership team, we don't take this decision lightly having considered it over several months, and believe it is necessary to prepare the company for long-term success,” Nadella wrote.

In a separate leaked email back in May, Microsoft’s chief people officer Kathleen Hogan told managers to allocate less than usual “exceptional rewards”.

"Fewer employees will be able to receive exceptional rewards, and more will need to be at the middle of the range," she reportedly wrote in the memo.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Christopher Capossela told employees angry about the lack of salary raises that their best way to increase their pay is to make the stock go higher—after cashing out $4.4 million worth of stock.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Bavarian governor orders his deputy to fully explain himself to clear allegations of antisemitism



BERLIN (AP) — The governor of the German state of Bavaria said Tuesday that his deputy had not done enough to prove he wasn't responsible for an antisemitic flyer as a high school student and ordered him to answer a detailed questionnaire to clear himself of any possible involvement in the scandal that caused an uproar in Germany.

Daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Friday that when Deputy Governor Hubert Aiwanger was 17, he was suspected of writing a printed flyer calling for entries to a competition titled “Who is the biggest traitor to the fatherland?”

It listed, among other things, a “1st prize: a free flight through the chimney at Auschwitz.”

Aiwanger has denied that he wrote the flyer. His older brother later came forward to claim that he had written it.

In a statement on Saturday, Aiwanger also said that one or more copies of the flyer were found in his school bag and he was summoned to see the principal. He said he was threatened with police involvement if he didn’t clear up the facts and had agreed under pressure to make a presentation.

Aiwanger did not specify what the presentation entailed. But that, he said, had been the end of the matter. He also said he distanced himself “completely” from the leaflet 35 years later.

Among other things, Aiwanger did not yet explain publicly why he was carrying the flyers in his school bag.

Governor Markus Soeder on Tuesday called the flyer “disgusting” and said it was written “in the worst Nazi jargon.”

“This is not just a stupid boy’s prank or a mere youthful sin,” Soeder told reporters in Munich, adding that even the suspicion that Aiwanger was somehow linked to the flyer damages the reputation of Bavaria and the deputy governor's personal credibility.

He said a meeting earlier on Tuesday with Aiwanger, who is also Bavaria's economy minister, did not fully clear up what exactly happened.

“We listened to Hubert Aiwanger today. We questioned him. But today’s statements are definitely not enough for a final assessment and clarification," Soeder said. "Many questions remained and remain open.”

Therefore, Soeder announced, Aiwanger would be asked to answer 25 detailed questions in writing.

Germany's leading Jewish group, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, also sharply condemned the text of the flyer.

"It denigrates the millions of victims of the Shoah in a despicable manner,” the council's president, Josef Schuster, said, using the Hebrew name for the Holocaust.

In the Holocaust, the Germans and their henchmen murdered 6 million European Jews.

Aiwanger, now 52, leads the Free Voters, a party that is a conservative force in Bavaria but has no seats in Germany’s national parliament. He has served as the state’s deputy governor and economy minister since 2018, when his party became the junior partner in a regional government under Bavaria’s long-dominant center-right Christian Social Union, or CSU.

The scandal comes at an especially inconvenient time for Soeder, who is also the CSU leader. Bavaria has a state election scheduled for Oct. 8., and Soeder is hoping to continue leading Germany's southernmost state in coalition with Aiwanger and his Free Voters.

One of the two leaders of the Social Democrats, the party of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, criticized Soeder's efforts to shed light on the incident as “not enough.”

“For five days, there have been serious accusations against parts of his government. His deputy governor is said to have spread antisemitic ideas and is losing himself in justifications and evasions,” Lars Klingbeil told daily Rheinische Post. “Instead of clearing up these accusations, Soeder is now asking a few questions. That’s time-wasting, that’s not enough.”

Kirsten Grieshaber, The Associated Press

Canadian anti-crime researcher sentenced to two years in prison in Algeria

Story by The Canadian Press •6h


MONTREAL — A Canadian researcher detained in Algeria since February was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison, according to his lawyer.

Kouceila Zerguine said Raouf Farrah has also been fined 200,000 Algerian dinars, around C$2,000.

"An appeal has been filed against this decision," Zerguine wrote in a text message Tuesday.

Zerguine said Farrah's father, Sebti Farrah, a Montreal-area resident, was given a one-year suspended sentence by the same court in the eastern Algerian city of Constantine.

Farrah, who studies migration and criminal economies for an international anti-crime non-governmental organization, had been charged with publishing secret information and being paid to commit offences against public order.

Farrah's employer, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, condemned the sentence, saying the charges were proven to be without merit during a one-day trial earlier this month.

"Although we were being realistic about the potential trial outcomes, today’s result is particularly difficult to accept, given that the prosecution failed to present any legal case against Raouf and Sebti," Mark Shaw, the organization's director, said in a news release.

"Any free and fair trial would have found Raouf and Sebti, as well as the other co-defendants, innocent. Instead, we are facing a scenario where Raouf faces more jail time on top of the almost six months in custody that he has already unjustly served, while his 67-year-old father, a respectable law-abiding citizen, now has a criminal record.”

Eric Goldstein, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, said the fundamental problem with the charges faced by the Farrahs and Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama, who was tried and sentenced alongside them, is the nature of the charges themselves.

"You can tell by looking at the nature of the charges that these are manifestly political charges that can be used to fit any occasion when the government wants to punish anyone," Goldstein said in an interview. "We are looking at a researcher for an internationally-known NGO and a journalist, both of whom are now facing two years in prison for doing their jobs."

Goldstein said the court found that Bendjama had received money from foreign institutions with the intent of committing acts that can disturb public order, because he was paid to do research for Farrah, adding that Algerian authorities can arbitrarily declare information to be classified.

"With charges that are so vague, it's really hard to talk about trials that are fair, or a justice system that is fair, because anything you do can be turned against you," he said.

Bendjama testified that during his interrogation, authorities used a screwdriver to pry his fingers open and place one on his phone's fingerprint scanner to open it, Goldstein said, adding that police subjected him to all-night interrogations and threats of violence.

Farrah's conviction comes amid a larger crackdown against Algeria's pro-democracy movement and follows the flight of a prominent pro-democracy activist, Amira Bouraoui, from the country, Goldstein said.

Both Farrah and Bendjama have denied helping Bouraoui, who was banned from leaving Algeria, to flee.

Born in Algeria, Farrah moved to Canada when he was 18. He lived in Montreal, where he studied at the Université de Montréal, before getting a master's degree at the University of Ottawa.

The Algerian Embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

Oklahoma bank and the Justice Department propose settlement of redlining allegations around Tulsa


The U.S. Department of Justice and a northeastern Oklahoma bank have announced a proposed agreement to settle claims that the bank discriminated in lending to Blacks and Hispanics in the Tulsa area.

Collinsville-based American Bank of Oklahoma used the illegal practice known as redlining in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Tulsa area, including the area of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, according to the Justice Department.

Redlining is an illegal practice in which lenders avoid providing credit to people because of their race, color or national origin.

The practice was used by the bank from 2017 through at least 2021, the Justice Department alleged.

The proposed consent agreement filed in federal court in Tulsa on Monday is pending court approval and calls for ABOK to provide $1.15 million in credit opportunities in neighborhoods of color in the Tulsa area.

“This agreement will help expand investment in Black communities and communities of color in Tulsa and increase opportunities for homeownership and financial stability," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

“Remedial provisions in the agreement will open up opportunities for building generational wealth while focusing on neighborhoods that bear the scars of the Tulsa Race Massacre,” Clarke said.

Lawsuit Filed Over "Improve Our Tulsa"

ABOK denied the allegations but said in a statement that it agreed to the proposal to avoid the cost and distraction of lengthy litigation.

Bank chief executive Joe Landon said in a statement that ABOK, with branches in Collinsville, Ramona, Muskogee, Disney and Skiatook, is a small community bank with $383 million in assets and lamented that the Justice Department referenced the 1921 Race Massacre.

“As Oklahomans, we carry a profound sense of sorrow for the tragic events of the Tulsa Race Massacre over a century ago,” Landon said.

The 1921 massacre left hundreds of Black residents dead when an angry white mob descended on a 35-block area known as Greenwood, looting, killing and burning it to the ground. Beyond those killed, thousands more were left homeless and living in a hastily constructed internment camp.

The three known living survivors of the massacre are appealing a ruling that dismissed their lawsuit seeking reparations from the city and other defendants for the destruction of the once-thriving Black district.

Landon said the bank will expand its deposit and lending products and add mortgage and refinancing options in Tulsa and open a new loan production office in a historically Black area of the city.

The Justice Department said the bank will also provide at least two mortgage loan officers for majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and host at least six consumer financial education seminars annually with translation and interpretation services in Spanish.

ABOK is also to hire a full-time director of community lending to oversee lending in neighborhoods of color in the Tulsa area.

Ken Miller, The Associated Press

FBI and European partners seize major malware network in blow to global cybercrime



LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. officials said Tuesday that the FBI and its European partners infiltrated and seized control of a major global malware network used for more than 15 years to commit a gamut of online crimes including crippling ransomware attacks.

They then remotely removed the malicious software agent — known as Qakbot — from thousands of infected computers.

Cybersecurity experts said they were impressed by the deft dismantling of the network but cautioned that any setback to cybercrime would likely be temporary.

“Nearly ever sector of the economy has been victimized by Qakbot,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said Tuesday in announcing the takedown. He said the criminal network had facilitated about 40 ransomware attacks alone over 18 months that investigators said netted Qakbot administrators about $58 million.

Qakbot's ransomware victims included an Illinois-based engineering firm, financial services organizations in Alabama and Kansas, along with a Maryland defense manufacturer and a Southern California food distribution company, Estrada said.

Officials said $8.6 million in cybercurrency was seized or frozen but no arrests were announced.

Estrada said the investigation is ongoing. He would not say where administrators of the malware, which marshaled infected machines into a botnet of zombie computers, were located. Cybersecurity researchers say they are believed to be in Russia and/or other former Soviet states.

Officials estimated the so-called malware loader, a digital Swiss knife for cybercrooks also known as Pinkslipbot and Qbot, was leveraged to cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage since first appearing in 2008 as an information-stealing bank trojan. They said millions of people in nearly every country in the world have been affected.

Typically delivered via phishing email infections, Qakbot gave criminal hackers initial access to violated computers. They could then deploy additional payloads including ransomware, steal sensitive information or gather intelligence on victims to facilitate financial fraud and crimes such as tech support and romance scams.

The Qakbot network was “literally feeding the global cybercrime supply chain,” said Donald Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, calling it “one of the most devastating cybercriminal tools in history.” The most commonly detected malware in the first half of 2023, Qakbot impacted one in 10 corporate networks and accounted for about 30% of attacks globally, a pair of cybersecurity firms found. Such “initial access” tools allow extortionist ransomware gangs to skip the initial step of penetrating computer networks, making them major facilitators for the far-flung, mostly Russian-speaking criminals who have wreaked havoc by stealing data and disrupting schools, hospitals, local governments and businesses worldwide.

Beginning Friday in an operation officials dubbed “Duck Hunt,” the FBI along with Europol and law enforcement and justice partners in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Latvia seized more than 50 Qakbot servers and identified more than 700,000 infected computers, more than 200,000 of them in the U.S. — effectively cutting off criminals from their quarry.

The FBI then used the seized Qakbot infrastructure to remotely dispatch updates that deleted the malware from thousands of infected computers. A senior FBI official, briefing reporters on condition he not be further identified, called that number “fluid” and cautioned that other malware may have remained on machines liberated from Qakbot.

It was the FBI's biggest success against cybercrooks since it “hacked the hackers” with the January takedown of the prolific Hive ransomware gang.

“It is an impressive takedown. Qakbot was the largest botnet" in number of victims, said Alex Holden, founder of Milwaukee-based Hold Security. But he said it may have been a casualty of its own success in its staggering growth over the past few years. “Large botnets today tend to implode as too many threat actors are mining this data for various types of abuse.”

Cybersecurity expert Chester Wisniewski at Sophos agreed that while there could be a temporary drop in ransomware attacks, the criminals can be expected to either revive infrastructure elsewhere or move to other botnets.

“This will cause a lot of disruption to some gangs in the short term, but it will do nothing from it being rebooted," he said. "Albeit it takes a long time to recruit 700,000 PCs.”

___

Bajak reported from Boston.

Frank Bajak And Stefanie Dazio, The Associated Press

VOCAL MINORITY?: 

Brandon school trustee wants committee to screen books

Story by The Canadian Press •8h

Children and teachers will return to Manitoba classrooms next week, and as a new school year is set to begin, an ongoing controversy over banning books at schools continues to cause turmoil in some Manitoba school divisions.

Just days before the new school year begins, Brandon School Division (BSD) trustees held their first board of trustees meeting for the 2023-24 school year on Monday evening, and once again the issue of monitoring and banning books was on the agenda.

BSD Trustee Breanna Sieklicki spoke at Monday’s meeting, and claimed that she believes that BSD has now “lost trust” among some parents and guardians because she said there are books in school libraries with content she claimed contain “sexually explicit acts, vulgar language, and harmful behaviours.”

“The precedent that we should be making is that we hear the concerns of parents and grandparents and we take your concerns seriously,” Sieklicki said. “We cannot dismiss these concerns, because some believe they are only the thoughts of a vocal minority.”

Sieklicki put forward two motions at the meeting, with one requesting that a committee be formed to review books and materials in school libraries and classrooms, and remove books that contain “adult content.”

A similar motion to form a book committee was rejected by BSD back in May, and on Monday no trustees seconded Sieklicki’s motion.

Sieklicki’s second motion on Monday asked that parents now be informed about all activities involving their kids, and about what kids are learning, seeing, and hearing at school.

“We must create a transparent parent policy within our division that will allow parents and guardians to be informed of all activities involving their children,” Sieklicki said.

“This will include classroom curriculum, third-party presentations, and personal student information. This will allow parents to have an option to opt-out if they deem something as inappropriate for their child.”

That motion also received zero support from fellow BSD trustees, and will also not move forward.

Controversy over what books are available in BSD schools and libraries has been brewing for months, after Brandon resident Lorraine Hackenschmidt proposed the idea to BSD trustees of a book committee during a May 8 trustee meeting, a proposal that was later rejected by BSD trustees.

Hackenschmidt also said during the Aug. 8 meeting that she was concerned about the “LGBTQ ideology,” being taught in schools, while claiming some books on shelves in the division’s schools could lead to “sexual grooming and pedophilia.”

After Sieklicki’s motions received zero support on Monday, BSD chairperson Linda Ross said there are no plans to revisit the issue, because she said it has been decided.

“These matters have been dealt with by the board,” Ross said. “And unless I see some interest in the board on revisiting these matters, than we have made that decision clearly I believe.”

Concerns about books available to children have also been causing controversy and turmoil in Winnipeg recently, as the Winnipeg-based Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) recently sent letters to 35 people who they say caused a “disturbance” at a June 20 LRSD meeting where book banning was discussed, informing them that they are now permanently banned from all LRSD property, including all division schools and administrative buildings.

“The division has a responsibility to protect students, staff and families from the aggressive and threatening remarks and behaviours that the community experienced at the meeting.” states the letter, which was shared publicly online by Winkler resident Karl Krebs, who is now banned from all LRSD property.

“As a consequence you are no longer permitted at any of the division’s properties and/or premises.”

Talk of banning books has also been a growing issue in the city of Winkler recently, as during a council meeting on March 14, a delegation asked Winkler city council to stop funding the South Central Regional Library until certain books that touch on issues of sexuality and LGBTQ issues are removed from any areas of the library where they can be viewed or borrowed by children.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun

Meta’s ban on Canadian news reportedly not phasing users

Story by MobileSyrup •


Meta’s ban on Canadian news reportedly not phasing users© Provided by MobileSyrup

Meta’s decision to ban Canadian news links on its Facebook platform appears to have had little-to-no effect on overall usage in the country, according to a new report by Reuters.

Various analytics firms have synthesized data and come to the conclusion that user engagement among Canadians has remained largely unchanged since implementing the policy on August 1st.

The Facebook and Instagram parent company made the decision to ban Canadian news links in response to the controversial ‘Online News Act’ that was passed back in June.

Otherwise known as Bill C-18, the legislation seeks to require major internet companies to pay publishers for the news articles being distributed on their platforms.

In a blog post dating back to June, Meta informed users of the change in news availability on its platform.

The federal government, for its part, has been vocal in its dissatisfaction with the big tech giant’s response to the bill.

Meta is not the only big tech player finding itself at odds with the Canadian federal government — Google also recently made the decision to remove news links from its search engine in response to the legislation being enacted.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Reuters

Pollution Poses a Higher Threat to Humans' Lives Than Alcohol, Tobacco: Report

Story by David Wetzel •

The negative health effects of alcohol and tobacco have been well-documented over the years.

However, a bigger threat to human life is lurking, according to the latest annual Air Quality Life Index report that was released Tuesday.

Knewz.com analyzed the report, which found that air pollution is responsible for reducing the life span globally by 2.3 years, making it the "greatest external threat to human expectancy."


Twenty of the 30 most polluted cities in the U.S. are in California. By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)

The report, produced by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, noted that inhaling unclear air was comparable to smoking but five times more damaging than alcohol abuse, having unsafe water and car crash injuries.

According to the New York Post, 20 of the most polluted United States cities were located in California. It's likely that the state's vulnerability to wildfires is a main cause, putting residents at risk of breathing unsafe air.


A new report found that pollution is a bigger risk to humans' health than alcohol. By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)

In California, people are often exposed to high levels of particulate matter, which measure at or under 2.5 microns, causing damage to humans' brains and lungs.

In 2021, no countries across the globe met the World Health Organization's air quality standard of 5 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter of air. If those standards were met, 3.2 million years of life could be saved, according to the Energy Policy Institute.

Most of the life lost via pollution comes from Africa and Asia, however. Those countries contribute more than 92 percent of the global life expectancy loss.



Wildfires play a major role in California's pollution problems. By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)

A main reason for the loss of life in those countries is that they don't have the appropriate infrastructure to address air quality.

“Three-quarters of air pollution’s impact on global life expectancy occurs in just six countries, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Nigeria and Indonesia, where people lose one to more than six years off their lives because of the air they breathe,” Michael Greenstone, Air Quality Life Index creator and Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, said in a statement according to the New York Post.

Bangladesh, which has the most air pollution loses 6.8 years of life, compared to 3.6 months among Americans.


A new report states that air pollution is a bigger threat to human lives than tobacco use. By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)

Researchers believe more funding is needed to “collaboratively build the infrastructure that is missing today,” Christa Hasenkopf, director of the Energy Policy Institute air quality programs and AQLI, told the outlet.

“Timely, reliable, open-air quality data, in particular, can be the backbone of civil society and government clean air efforts — providing the information that people and governments lack and that allows for more informed policy decisions,” Hasenkopf said in a statement.

However, attempting to fix the air quality problem is a large task to tackle. In its "war against pollution," China has significantly reduced the problem, cutting pollution by 42 percent and gaining an average of 2.2 years in their people's lives.



The World Health Organization reports that 99 percent of people on earth are subject to unclear air. By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)

According to the WHO, 99 percent of the world is being subject to potentially toxic air.

“After surviving a pandemic, it is unacceptable to still have 7 million preventable deaths and countless preventable lost years of good health due to air pollution,” Dr. María Neira, the director of the WHO’s Department of Public Health and Environment, previously said, according to the New York Post.

“Yet too many investments are still being sunk into a polluted environment rather than in clean, healthy air.”

OUR DEBT KEEPS CAPITALI$M GOING

Canadians turn to credit cards as many face payment shock: TransUnion report

Story by The Canadian Press •13h


Canadians turn to credit cards as many face payment shock: TransUnion report© Provided by The Canadian Press

TORONTO — A new TransUnion report shows a consistent rise in borrowing among Canadians in the second quarter as they contend with the higher cost of living.

While the number of consumers adding to their credit balances rose across the board, the report says the riskiest segment, or subprime borrowers, saw their balances rise by the most at 8.9 per cent year-over-year.

The report says higher average credit balances among consumers could be attributed to higher spending habits and elevated interest rates on variable-rate loans that are eating into household budgets.

Demand for new credit grew 17 per cent compared with last year, TransUnion said.

The combined pressure of inflation and higher interest rates has created a payment shock, according to Matthew Fabian, director of financial services research and consulting at TransUnion.

The report says total Canadian household debt reached $2.3 trillion in the second quarter, up 4.2 per cent compared with last year, largely driven by mortgage debt.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

The Canadian Press

3 activists are acquitted of defaming a Thai poultry company accused of violating labor laws




BANGKOK (AP) — Three human rights activists were acquitted Tuesday of criminally defaming a Thai poultry company with social media posts that supported other activists who had accused it of abusive labor practices, according to the defendants and their lawyer.

They were charged under a law that could have led to a 42-year prison sentence if convicted.

The company, Thammakaset, said the defendants’ social media comments linked indirectly to what it called a defamatory video produced by a human rights group, Fortify Rights, containing an interview with a worker who claimed abusive working conditions. In total, the case involved 30 counts of criminal defamation.

The company's representative, Chanchai Pheamphon, did not answer telephone calls seeking comment and did not reply to text messages.

Several Asian countries have criminal defamation laws. Critics say such defamation cases are often used by companies and politicians to silence and intimidate critics.

Since 2016, Thammakaset has initiated at least 37 lawsuits against 22 individuals, including migrant workers, human rights activists and journalists, with the majority being women, according to Fortify Rights. Nearly all were rejected by Thai courts.

Workers at Thammakaset had filed a complaint with Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission in 2016. The workers said they worked up to 20 hours a day for over 40 days without a day off, they lacked overtime compensation and their identity documents were confiscated

In August 2016, Thailand’s Department of Labor Protection and Welfare ordered Thammakaset to pay the workers a total of 1.7 million baht ($56,000) in compensation and damages, though the money wasn’t handed over until 2019.

The court did not immediately release its ruling Tuesday. The judge found the defendants were not guilty of defamation because readers of their social media posts would have had to click on several links to reach the Fortify Rights video, the lawyer for the defendants said.

“Facing a charge of criminal defamation is really traumatizing,” said one of those acquitted, Angkhana Neelapaijit, a member of a U.N. working group on disappearances and a recipient of the Philippines’ Ramon Magsaysay Award for human rights work. “For example, you have to earn money to pay for the lawyer. You have to sacrifice your time to attend the court. You have to listen to the company attacking you when you never did anything wrong.”

“To be honest, I don’t feel happy or relieved because we endured almost four years of court proceedings only to have the cases dismissed," said Thanaporn Saleephol, a former Fortify Rights worker. "This is actually the purpose (of abuse of the defamation law) because it aims to get the human rights defenders to waste time and energy.”

Puttanee Kangkun, the director of The Fort, which hosts activist groups in Bangkok, said she was happy about her acquittal but questioned why it took so long — 15 hearings over four years.

“There should be some mechanism to stop this intention from the company to try to stop the freedom of opinions and criticism for public benefit,” she said.

The lawyer for the three defendants, Tittasat Soodsan, said the criminal defamation law is easily used by companies to silence critics.

“Once the company initiates the prosecution, the police carry out the investigation. Essentially, the plaintiff doesn’t need to do much but shift more responsibilities onto the authorities," Tittasat said.

___

Find more of AP's Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

Yucheng Tang, The Associated Press

Elon Musk's X is hit with 2,200 arbitration claims from former Twitter employees

Story by gkay@insider.com (Grace Kay) •12h


X is facing more than 2,200 arbitration cases involving ex-employees, a new court filing said.
Since Elon Musk's Twitter takeover, the company also has been hit with lawsuits from former staff.
X could be on the hook for at least $3.5 million in fees for the arbitration cases, CNBC reported.

Elon Musk's social media company formerly known as Twitter has been hit with more than 2,200 arbitration cases from former employees, according to a recent court filing.

The company had faced 200 arbitration cases in January — and now 2,000 additional cases have piled up, according to a court filing from a lawsuit involving a former Twitter employee. CNBC earlier reported on the legal filing.

Arbitration is an option for two parties having a dispute to bring in an independent mediator to help find a solution. It's handled privately and outside of court. It's not clear what all the arbitration claims against X are about, but if they follow the pattern of actual lawsuits that have been filed against the company, the claims are likely related to severance pay.

X, formerly known as Twitter, was hit with lawsuits from former employees after Musk cut the company's workforce in half. The billionaire began terminating Twitter employees within hours of taking over the social media company in October.

Since then, some employees have filed lawsuits, arguing that Twitter failed to pay out promised severance packages. In June, Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney involved in a proposed class-action lawsuit against the company, alleged that it had failed to pay out "tens of millions of dollars" worth of bonuses.

A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Meanwhile, the thousands of arbitrations cases could cost X at least $3.5 million in filing fees alone through a third-party arbitration service, CNBC estimated. And that's not including additional legal fees Musk's company could accrue, as well as the cost for any lawyers involved with the cases — and any potential financial penalties the company could face as a result of a private arbitrator's conclusion on a case.

Lawyers for X have said that the company didn't require workers to settle the issues through arbitration, so it shouldn't have to face the "larger portion of the filing fees," CNBC reported.

The number of arbitration cases against X was revealed in a motion to compel arbitration that was filed in the US District Court in Delaware on behalf of ex-Twitter employee Chris Woodfield.

The initial lawsuit from the former staff engineer was filed in July and alleged that X had failed to pay severance, as well as the fees required for the case to go into private arbitration, a process where companies use an impartial third party to resolve disputes.

Private arbitration typically allows companies to resolve disputes with employees out of the public eye and it can help employees avoid hefty legal fees.

It is a manner by which another of Musk's companies, Tesla, has handled sexual harassment and racial discrimination claims against Tesla as the company requires its employees to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement.

Do you work at X or have insight to share? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com

VFX Workers at Disney File for Unionization Under IATSE

Story by Carolyn Giardina •1d


Visual effects workers at Walt Disney Pictures have filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board that could allow them to unionize with IATSE. The news comes as Disney-owned Marvel VFX workers are currently in the midst of their own union election and amid the writers and actors strikes.

Already, roughly 80 percent of the 18 in-house VFX workers at Walt Disney Pictures signed union authorization cards, which express their desire to unionize under the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union reports. In both the Disney and Marvel unionization efforts, this involves pros employed directly by the studio; it doesn’t include the thousands of artists who work on Marvel movies through third-party VFX studios.

After filing with the NLRB, an election could occur in two to three weeks for these Disney workers, according to IATSE. If a majority of workers vote to unionize, the studio would then be called upon to begin good-faith negotiations for a union contract.

The workers are calling for “fair compensation for all hours worked, adequate health care, retirement benefits, and more generally, the same rights and protections afforded to their unionized coworkers who are already represented by IATSE,” according to the union.

“Today, courageous Visual Effects workers at Walt Disney Pictures overcame the fear and silence that have kept our community from having a voice on the job for decades. With an overwhelming supermajority of these crews demanding an end to ‘the way VFX has always been,’ this is a clear sign that our campaign is not about one studio or corporation. It’s about VFX workers across the industry using the tools at our disposal to uplift ourselves and forge a better path forward,” said IATSE organizer Mark Patch.

Last week, Marvel’s in-house visual effects workers began to vote on whether they wish to unionize; workers will need to return their ballots by a Sept. 11 deadline. A supermajority of Marvel’s roughly 50-worker VFX crew had already signed authorization cards indicating they wished to be represented by the union, and so the union feels “confident it will prevail,” according to Patch.

Currently, VFX jobs are largely non-union and IATSE has recently been making a bigger push to bring those workers under their banner. Which local these workers would join is still unclear. Patch previously told THR that IATSE’s idea is to form a new national VFX local that would cover VFX workers, whether they are employed directly by the studios, the production, or third-party VFX companies. “The majority of VFX workers should be able to find their home in this new union,” he says.

Patch adds that the aim would be to have members of such a local work under the Basic Agreement contract already used by entertainment workers in 13 locals including the International Cinematographers Guild (Local 600) and Motion Picture Editors Guild (Local 700). The current Basic Agreement expires in 2024 and negotiations for a new contract are expected to begin next March.

‘The Creator’ Director Gareth Edwards On Film About War Between Humans & AI That Parallel WGA & SAG-AFTRA Strikes

Story by Armando Tinoco •1h

 Deadline

Gareth Edwards, the director, producer and co-writer of The Creator, is opening up about the timing of the release of his film that draws parallels to the fight between SAG-AFTRA and WGA members against the studios.

“I have a trick with A.I. is to get the timing as a sweet spot window where it’s before the apocalypse and not after, which I think it’s in November — maybe December — and so, I think we got really lucky,” Edwards joked during a Q&A at a sold out IMAX footage screening. “The joke would be that when you write a film, especially a science fiction film, I try to avoid putting a date … at some point, you have to so, I picked 2070.”

He continued, “Now I feel like an idiot because I should’ve gone for 2023 ’cause everything that’s been unfolding in the last few months is kind of scary and weird.”

Actors and writers have been on strike this summer seeking protection from AI.

Edwards went on to say that when he pitched the film, executives wanted to know the backstory as to why there was a war between humans and A.I. if artificial intelligence was a good idea. “The setup of that movie is pretty much the last few months,” he added.

The filmmaker said that his film was influenced by the works of Francis Ford Coppola and Ridley Scott and said he described The Creator as “Blade Runner meets Apocalypse Now.”

Edwards talked about what he would like audiences to take away from the film.

“I hope… empathy for others,” he said. “I think that’s a strong value that is very important.”

“A.I. was the fairy tale of this story. A.I. was like the other — the people that were different to us, that we kind of want to get rid of,” he explained. “But the second you make an A.I., all kinds of fascinating things start to happen.”

During the conversation with the filmmaker, Edwards also talked about casting Madeleine Yuna Voyles in the role of Alfie.

Picket Sign Roundup: “We Want A Fair Wage, They Want Us Homeless”

Story by Lynette Rice •4h



One picketer said it best: “The longer this strike goes, the more detailed these signs get.”

Judging by some of those Simpsons-themed placards, he’s not wrong. But there have also been lots of not-so-veiled references to some of the ongoing strike coverage. (Don’t recognize the reference to Carol Lombardini and The Cheesecake Factory? Read this story. Can’t remember the exact quote about putting people out of their homes? That notorious line originated here.)

Some of the signs also just show signs of fatigue. “I’m gonna be honest I’m running out of clever sign memes,” said one. “Cause, like, seriously?”

It’s now day 120 of the WGA strike and Day 47 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Here’s what some picketers have to say these days about walking the line.