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May 25 2023

Volt Typhoon. Preaching Smith. Launch failure.

May 25, 2023
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Canada
Canada, allies warn of China-sponsored cyber threat targeting critical infrastructure
Five Eyes cybersecurity agencies say the cyber actor, known as Volt Typhoon, has avoided detection by blending in with normal Windows operations. [Global]

Canada's push to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia follows a blow-up of relations in 2018. [Global]
Jagmeet Singh was in North Battleford, Sask., Wednesday, calling for more Indigenous collaboration and shared prosperity in the province and across the country. [Global]
From the provinces
Calgary pastor alleges UCP bribed him, Smith lied about call
Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski alleges he was bribed by the UCP and that Smith lied about a phone call she had with him in January. [CityNews]
Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP candidate Scott Cyr maintained that when it comes to other affiliations his volunteers and the constituency association’s board may have, they have to separate themselves from their other duties and commitments. [Lakeland Today]
The Banff-Kananaskis riding is critical to the UCP in the Alberta provincial election, but it is getting strong push from the NDP to flip. [Calgary Herald]
The investigation in 2006 found that two federalist organizations – which received millions of dollars in funding from Ottawa – failed to report spending of more than $500,000. [Global]
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Elsewhere
Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign launch melts down in Twitter glitches
The start of a much-anticipated Twitter event in which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis planned to announce his 2024 Republican presidential bid was repeatedly disrupted Wednesday when Twitter's servers apparently could not handle the surge in traffic. [NBC]
Advocates say there are risks of travelling to states like Florida and Tennessee amid the passage of bills that are 'hostile' to members of the LGBTQ2 community. [Global]

Former President Trump still has a bigger social media following. [Axios]
An Arkansas man who propped his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in a widely circulated photo from the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in prison. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said Richard “Bigo” Barnett became one of the faces of the Jan. 6 riot, and at times he seemed to enjoy the notoriety that came with the media attention and social media following he amassed. Barnett, a retired firefighter from Gravette, Arkansas, was convicted at trial on eight counts, including felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. [AP]
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Media

Scientists suffering insults and mass-spam are abandoning Twitter for alternative social networks as hostile climate-change denialism surges on the platform following Elon Musk's takeover.Glaciologist Ruth Mottram had more than 10,000 followers on Twitter but left in February and joined an alternative scientists' forum powered by Mastodon -– a crowdfunded, decentralised grouping of social networks founded in 2016. [AFP/Yahoo News]
Tech

New research from Stanford University has quantified exactly how well (or, actually, how poorly) these models align with opinions of U.S. demographic groups, showing that language models have a decided bias on hot-button topics that may be out of step with general popular sentiment. [Stanford University]

Nanoparticles manipulate light at specific wavelengths to create colors. [Ars Technica]

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