Activist groups are calling on governments to step in to regulate the sale of spyware after data was leaked to major news outlets showing hundreds of journalists, activists, dissidents and lawyers around the world likely had their phones targeted by invasive surveillance software was leaked to major news outlets. “The industry has shown that it is incapable of policing itself, while governments—including democratic states—are hiding behind national security to whitewash these surveillance abuses,” said the digital rights group Access Now in a statement. “We need regulation, transparency, and accountability now.”
This issue is both public and personal for the six openly gay Olympians who will be competing at Sochi. They'll join 6,000 athletes from 85 countries. Gay rights have taken center stage at Sochi, thanks to Russia's own targeting of the LGBT community. In June 2013, the Russian government banned dissemination of pro-gay "propaganda" that could be accessible to children. The law's vagueness, activists note, could prohibit almost any pro-gay expression, such as public statements, rallies, rainbow flags, rainbow nesting dolls, or same-sex hand-holding. Violators can be fined or jailed up to 14 days. Foreigners can be expelled.
As the Television Academy announced the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards nominations on Tuesday morning, the combo of HBO and HBO Max proclaimed victory with a total of 130 nominations, followed closely by Netflix with 129. But the real story may have been who was next behind: The relative newcomer streamer Disney Plus, with a whopping 71 nods (thanks to “WandaVision” and “The Mandalorian”). Meanwhile, Netflix’s “The Crown” and Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian” tied for the top spot for program nominations with 24 each, followed by Disney Plus’ “WandaVision” (23), Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” (21), NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” (21), Apple TV Plus’ “Ted Lasso” (20), HBO’s “Lovecraft Country” (18), Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” (18), and HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” (16). The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, will take place Sept. 19 on CBS and Paramount Plus at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
Volunteers are helping forgotten Dutch diarists of WWII to speak at last. Their voices, filled with anxiety, isolation and uncertainty, resonate powerfully today. Anne Frank listened in an Amsterdam attic on March 28, 1944, as the voice of the Dutch minister of education came crackling over the radio from London. “Preserve your diaries and letters,” he said. Frank was not the only one listening. Thousands of Dutch people had been recording their experiences under German occupation since the Nazi invasion four years earlier. So the words of the minister, part of a government trying to operate from exile in England, resonated.
