📺 "Empire" The Empire Unpossess’d | FOX

Watched "Empire" The Empire Unpossess'd from FOX
Directed by Craig Brewer. With Terrence Howard, Bryshere Y. Gray, Jussie Smollett, Trai Byers. As the Empire ownership bid presentation nears, Lucious must make a difficult decision to save the future of the company.
Still never quite sure why I’m still watching this show. It’s not as solid as it was the first season and has become a bit too soap-opera-y and painfully unrealistic.

👓 Hiding Information in Plain Text | Spectrum IEEE

Read Hiding Information in Plain Text (IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News)
Subtle changes to letter shapes can embed messages
An interesting piece to be sure, but I’ve thought of doing this sort of steganography in the past. In particular, I recall having conversations with Sol Golomb about similar techniques in the past. I’m sure there’s got to be prior art for similar things as well.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Rod Rosenstein’s Impossible Choice | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Rod Rosenstein’s Impossible Choice by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

President Trump has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether the F.B.I. infiltrated his campaign in 2016 for political purposes. In response, the department granted the president’s team access to highly classified information from the special counsel’s Russia investigation. What’s behind this decision?

On today’s episode:

• Julie Hirschfeld Davis, who covers the White House for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• In a series of tweets on Sunday, President Trump demanded an investigation into whether an F.B.I. informant “infiltrated or surveilled” his campaign. The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to accommodate the president’s wishes by expanding an existing inquiry.

• The president’s tweets referred to a Times report about Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, examining whether countries other than Russia, including Saudi Arabia, had offered assistance to the Trump campaign.

• After a White House meeting on Monday, intelligence and law enforcement officials agreed to disclose some sensitive documents from the Russia investigation to Republican congressional leaders.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: North Korea’s Fear? Becoming Libya | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: North Korea’s Fear? Becoming Libya by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

John R. Bolton, President Trump’s new national security adviser, has said that negotiations with North Korea should follow “the Libya model.” Now, North Korea is threatening to call off the planned summit meeting with Mr. Trump. What risks does the Libya model hold for Kim Jong-un?

On today’s episode:

• Mark Landler, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• In a statement released on Wednesday, North Korea’s vice foreign minister threatened to cancel scheduled talks with President Trump if the United States continues to insist on complete nuclear abandonment.

• The statement repeatedly cites the example of Libya, whose former leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, agreed in 2003 to forfeit the country’s nuclear capability in the hope of economic integration with the West. Colonel Qaddafi was captured and killed by rebel forces after the United States and its allies launched airstrikes in Libya in 2011.

• According to administration and foreign officials, President Trump has been seeking advice from his aides and allies, including from President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, about whether he should proceed with the talks with Kim Jong-un at the risk of political embarrassment.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Does Mueller Have a Plan for Trump? | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Does Mueller Have a Plan for Trump? by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

White House lawyers have claimed that Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, will not indict the president, regardless of his findings. If that’s true, then what is the purpose of his inquiry?

On today’s episode:

• Michael S. Schmidt, a Washington correspondent who covers national security and federal investigations for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• According to President Trump’s lawyers, Mr. Mueller’s investigators said that they would abide by the Justice Department’s legal and historical precedent to refrain from prosecuting sitting presidents.

• Any discovery of wrongdoing by the president might instead be referred to Congress for a decision, as was done when Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton were under investigation.

• It has been one year since Mr. Mueller was appointed special counsel to look into a dizzying array of events that span years and continents. Here's a guide to what has happened.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: A Child of Gaza Becomes a Political Symbol | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: A Child of Gaza Becomes a Political Symbol by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

The death of a Palestinian baby during the protests in Gaza became a rallying cry for critics of Israel. Within hours, the family’s story was being questioned.

On today’s episode:

• Declan Walsh, the Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times, who has been reporting from Gaza.

Background reading:

• Layla Ghandour, an 8-month-old Palestinian girl, inhaled tear gas during the protests at the Gaza border on Monday and died hours later. The tragedy became a focal point of outrage for critics of Israel’s use of force, while the Israeli military and its supporters questioned the narrative around her death as a political ploy by Hamas.

• The child was one of more than 60 Gazans killed during this week’s demonstrations, which were held to draw attention to the 11-year Israeli blockade of the territory. The violence gave way to mourning on Tuesday, the 70th anniversary of what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands fled their homes upon the creation of the state of Israel.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: When Facebook Rumors Incite Real Violence | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: When Facebook Rumors Incite Real Violence by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

A series of damning posts on Facebook has stoked longstanding ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka, setting off a wave of violence largely directed at Muslims. How are false rumors on social media fueling real-world attacks?

On today’s episode:

• Max Fisher and Amanda Taub, who have reported on Sri Lanka for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Fraudulent claims of a Muslim plot to wipe out Sri Lanka’s Buddhist majority, widely circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp, have led to attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned homes and shops in the country.

• Facebook’s algorithm-driven news feed promotes whatever content draws the most engagement — which tend to be the posts that provoke negative, primal emotions like fear and anger. The platform has allowed misinformation to run rampant in countries with weak institutions and a history of deep social distrust.

📺 Git Tutorial 5: Branches (Create, Merge, Delete a branch) | YouTube

Watched Git Tutorial 5: Branches (Create, Merge, Delete a branch) by codebasics from YouTube
In this tutorial, I'll cover a very powerful feature of git called branch. I will show you how you can manage alternate versions of your code by creating separate branches, how to merge branches and delete them.

📺 Git Tutorial 4: Undoing/Reverting/Resetting code changes | YouTube

Watched Git Tutorial 4: Undoing/Reverting/Resetting code changes by codebasics from YouTube
In this tutorial, we will cover how to undo or revert a code change. Also I will show you how to reset your git branch to any previous commit id.

📺 Git Tutorial 3: Basic Commands: add, commit, push | YouTube

Watched Git Tutorial 3: Basic Commands: add, commit, push by codebasics from YouTube
In this git tutorial we will learn how to commit a code change locally using git commit and how to upload it to remote using git push.

📺 Github Tutorial For Beginners – Github Basics for Mac or Windows & Source Control Basics | YouTube

Watched Github Tutorial For Beginners - Github Basics for Mac or Windows & Source Control Basics by Learncode.academy from YouTube
If you've been wanting to learn Github, now's the perfect time! Github is seen as a big requirement by most employers these days and is very critical to business workflow. This Github tutorial will cover the basics of how to use Github and the command line.

👓 Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior, harassment | CNN

Read Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior, harassment (CNN)
Eight women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior. They say it happened on movie sets, at his company and in interviews.
I suspect this one is going to quickly have some sketch video to go along with it.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Two Views of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Two Views of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

Many Israelis see the relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv as a historic milestone for the Jewish state. But for Palestinians, who hope to see the eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, it’s a betrayal.

On today’s episode:

• David M. Halbfinger, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times.

• Declan Walsh, The Times’s Cairo bureau chief, who has been reporting from Gaza this week.

Background reading:

• At least 58 Palestinians were killed and 2,700 injured on Monday as demonstrators clashed with Israeli forces along the Gaza border fence.

• Meanwhile, an hour’s drive away, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel celebrated the new American embassy in Jerusalem at a ceremony attended by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

• Here are images of the two contrasting scenes, which illustrate the widening chasm between Israelis and Palestinians after 70 years of conflict.

While listening I forgot about the opener and thought the first half was too chipper and upbeat. I was ready to get upset at the break thinking that they were doing their usual commercial and closing. I had a sigh of relief that it continued. The second half made for a far more balanced picture.

🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Prospect of Peace With North Korea | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: The Prospect of Peace With North Korea by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

The time and place for a historic meeting between the president of the United States and the leader of North Korea have been set. Does President Trump deserve credit for the diplomatic breakthrough on the Korean Peninsula?

On today’s episode:

• Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist who writes about human rights and global affairs, and who has repeatedly traveled to North Korea for The Times.

Background reading:

• After the release of three American detainees in North Korea, President Trump confirmed on Thursday that he would meet with Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, on June 12 in Singapore.

• North Korea has invited journalists from the United States and other countries to witness the dismantling of its underground nuclear test site before the summit meeting.

• It may now be possible to envision an era of peace with North Korea, but the odds that the North will forfeit its nuclear arsenal entirely are uncertain at best, Nicholas Kristof writes.

Does Trump get credit? He still hasn’t actually carried anything out yet. It’s even more ironic to be listening to this on the same day that they’re walking away from the table less than 10 days later. Nick Kristof should have held to his guns of doom and gloom.