Russia seized billionaire regional lawmaker Konstantin Strukov’s stake in Yuzhuralzoloto Group of Companies and affiliated firms last July on allegations that he had illegally taken control of the company by using his position in government.
Exploit attempts are already hammering a newly disclosed NGINX bug dubbed "NGINX Rift," proving once again that attackers read patch notes faster than most admins. Researchers at VulnCheck said they are seeing active exploitation tied to CVE-2026-42945, a heap buffer overflow flaw affecting both NGINX Open Source and NGINX Plus that was disclosed last week after apparently sitting unnoticed for 18 years. VulnCheck's Patrick Garrity said the company observed exploitation activity on its canary systems "just days after the CVE was published." "An unauthenticated attacker can crash the NGINX worker process by sending crafted HTTP requests," he said. "On servers with ASLR disabled – which, of course, is extremely unlikely – code execution is possible." Researchers at Depthfirst disclosed the bug last week, saying the flaw had been sitting in NGINX's rewrite module since 2008. The vulnerability, nicknamed "NGINX Rift," was assigned a CVSS score of 9.2. According to F5, which acquired NGINX in 2019, the flaw can be triggered by specially crafted HTTP requests under certain server configurations. In most cases, the result is a crashed worker process and a forced restart, though systems running without standard Linux memory protections could potentially face code execution. A public proof-of-concept exploit appeared the same day patches dropped, which helps explain why researchers started seeing exploitation attempts almost immediately. In practice, turning this into reliable remote code execution takes a pretty specific setup. The target server must be running a specific rewrite configuration, attackers need enough knowledge of that setup to exploit it correctly, and ASLR must also be disabled on the host system. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont noted that while the bug is real, modern Linux defaults significantly reduce the likelihood of successful real-world RCE. "Regarding CVE-2026-42945 in nginx – no modern (or even old) Linux distribution runs nginx without ASLR," Beaumont said. "So, cool, sweet technical vuln – it's valid – but the RCE apocalypse ain't coming." Even so, VulnCheck said Censys scans surfaced roughly 5.7 million internet-exposed NGINX servers running potentially vulnerable versions, which means patching teams everywhere just inherited another very long week. ®
Mordecai Kurz argues tech oligarchs erode democracy through monopolies – and predicts how the trend may end
The billionaires of today are unusually aggressive in their hoarding of cultural and technological influence, according to Mordecai Kurz, a Stanford economist whose research connects monopoly power with political and economic inequality. In his new book, Private Power and Democracy’s Decline, publishing 19 May, he argues the US is living through an extreme version of a pattern that has repeated itself since industrialization: technological power concentrating in the hands of a few, which is eroding democracy.
According to Kurz, technological moguls have long seen themselves as superior beings whose natural role is to shape society – so they have no problem disrupting the institution of democracy. During the first Gilded Age, in the late 19th century, as the US was enjoying its first ascent as an industrial powerhouse, wealthy industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller “invented all kinds of theories about human evolution”, twisting the logic of social Darwinism to convince themselves that their success was a sign they had been selected by nature to influence society, Kurz explained. Now, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has suggested his technology has a mystical potential to become a transcendent good. He’s also openly acknowledged it could lead to mass unemployment.
Continue reading...A run of immaculate albums ended in 2018 with an identity crisis and the producer becoming a kindergarten chef. Now he’s back with a blissed-out new record
When Axel Willner went to Stockholm’s Funky Chicken food truck last February, he only expected to leave with a burger. While waiting, Willner – AKA the Field, artisan of looping minimal techno masterpieces – noticed another Axel standing two places behind him. This was unlikely enough given the unpopularity of the grandpa-ish name amid 40-something Swedish men. “I was like, oh, how will they call our burgers now?” says Willner.
Unlikelier still, not least given how out of the way the spot is, the Axel was fellow Scandi club music pioneer Axel Boman, co-founder of the joyous dance label Studio Barnhus. They got chatting during the long wait. “He asked if I had any music, what am I doing, because I had been silent for a very long time,” says Willner. He left with an invitation to send Boman some tracks, which eventually resulted in a new label deal and his first record since 2018, Now You Exist.
Continue reading...GOP to target seat held by Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat among the state’s seven representatives in the House
It’s election day in Kentucky’s fourth congressional district tomorrow and the race for the Republican representative is between the incumbent Thomas Massie – a consistent thorn in Trump’s side – and Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein.
Massie is hosting a pulled pork and chicken dinner for his supporters at Veteran’s Memorial Park tonight to talk about what he hopes to achieve in congress, while defense secretary Pete Hegseth is expected on the ground in Kentucky at 1pm to support Gallrein. Hegseth and Gallrein will appear together at an event organized by America First Works, a conservative grassroots advocacy organization.
Representatives Lauren Boebart and Warren Davidson stood by Massie during a campaign event Sunday, as Trump continued to lambast him on Truth Social.
“Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, a Weak and Pathetic RINO from the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky,” said Trump. “Must be thrown out of office, ASAP!”
The chances appear higher for Trump and Gallrein. On Saturday, Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator from Louisiana who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment over the January insurrection, was voted out of his primary election.
Taiwan would “welcome” an opportunity for its leader to speak to US president Donald Trump after he raised the possibility, a senior Taiwanese diplomat said on Monday.
Continue reading...BRUSSEL (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - De Europese Unie kijkt of nieuwe maatregelen nodig zijn om de economie te beschermen tegen Chinese producten. Dat meldt persbureau Bloomberg op basis van ingewijden. Brussel is in toenemende mate bezorgd over het groeiende handelstekort met China en de gevolgen daarvan voor Europese bedrijven.
Brussel wil vaststellen welke maatregelen lidstaten bereid zijn te nemen tegen de overcapaciteit aan Chinese goederen die op de Europese markt komen. De Europese Commissie voert eind mei een debat over het onderwerp en in juni komen EU-leiders bijeen in Brussel, melden bronnen aan Bloomberg. Daar wordt besproken of er een gezamenlijke aanpak moet komen tegen het handelen van China. Ook zal er gesproken worden over de inzet van het antidwanginstrument, de zogeheten handelsbazooka waar de EU eerder in de richting van de VS mee dreigde.
Chinese functionarissen lieten zich eerder negatief uit over initiatieven van Brussel om Europese producenten voorrang te geven bij overheidsopdrachten.
In de onderhandelingen over de toekomst van Groenland sorteren de Verenigde Staten voor op een grotere rol dan slechts militair. Dat schrijft The New York Times, dat zich baseert op vele gesprekken met Amerikaanse, Deense en Groenlandse bronnen.
Zo zou onder meer worden gesproken over vetorecht voor de VS in het geval Russische of Chinese partijen willen investeren op Groenland, en over grondstoffen die Groenland herbergt. Ook willen de VS na een mogelijke verzelfstandiging van het semiautonome Deense eiland militair aanwezig kunnen blijven, iets waar Groenland volgens de krant geen heil in ziet. Het Pentagon zou haast maken met plannen voor militaire uitbreiding.
De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump heeft herhaaldelijk de wens uitgesproken Groenland te willen inlijven, en zette die ambitie begin dit jaar kracht bij door te zeggen desnoods geweld niet te schuwen. Dat leidde onder meer tot spanningen binnen de NAVO; zowel de VS als Denemarken maken daar deel van uit.
ISLAMABAD (ANP/RTR) - Pakistan heeft als onderdeel van een defensiepact met Saudi-Arabië 8000 militairen, zo'n zestien gevechtsvliegtuigen en een luchtafweersysteem naar het land gestuurd, meldt persbureau Reuters op basis van bronnen. Dat moet bescherming bieden als Saudi-Arabië wordt aangevallen, wat herhaaldelijk gebeurde als onderdeel van de oorlog tussen Iran, Israël en de Verenigde Staten. Tegelijkertijd treedt Pakistan op als bemiddelaar in dat conflict.
Het materieel zou bediend worden door Pakistaanse troepen en betaald worden door Saudi-Arabië. Als onderdeel van eerdere deals zijn al duizenden Pakistaanse militairen in Saudi-Arabië gestationeerd, zeggen de bronnen. Door de nieuwe deal zouden dit er maximaal 80.000 kunnen worden.
De deal werd vorig jaar getekend door de twee landen, maar het is nog altijd niet duidelijk wat er precies in staat. Eerder impliceerde defensieminister Khawaja Asif dat Saudi-Arabië ook hulp zou kunnen krijgen van Pakistan op het gebied van kernwapens.
Een nieuw Luchthavenverkeerbesluit, waarover de Tweede Kamer dinsdag debatteert, verlost Schiphol van netelige juridische kwesties en biedt omwonenden meer bescherming, zegt het kabinet. Omwonenden spreken dit laatste fel tegen. Maar wat zeggen de feiten?
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De asielinstroom van week 20, bestaande uit eerste asielaanvragen, herhaalde asielaanvragen, hervestiging, herplaatsing en nareizigers, bedroeg ongeveer 1.000.
“In 2014, the Dutch scholar Hans Corneel de Roos first noticed that the Icelandic version of Dracula was in fact not a translation, but was rather a very different novel from Stoker’s version.” The “translation” was published in 1901.