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👋 Hi friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
Image of the week, above: “Theatre d’Opera Spatial," by Jason Allen, via Discord. (See item eight below.)
My WSJ latest:
💻 My latest story, out Thursday: Global VPN Providers Pull India Servers Over New Cybersecurity Rules.
It begins:
Major global providers of virtual private networks, which let internet users shield their identities online, are shutting down their servers in India to protest new government rules they say threaten their customers’ privacy.
The Indian agency overseeing computer security will soon require VPN operators in India to collect information such as customer’s names, email addresses and the IP addresses they use to connect to the internet. Providers must maintain the data for at least five years and furnish the information to authorities when asked.
Among those shutting down their India servers: NordVPN, Private Internet Access, IPVanish, TunnelBear, ExpressVPN and Surfshark.
It’s the latest example of New Delhi getting tough with foreign tech firms.
Here are 10 items worth your time this week:
1) 🇷🇺 Mikhail Gorbachev, who brought about “perestroika” and “glasnost” as the final leader of the Soviet Union, died at age 91. (Here’s the back story on his much-shared 1997 Pizza Hut commercial.)
2) 🐦 Twitter is testing a feature that would let paying users edit tweets up to thirty minutes after they’re published.
3) 🇨🇳 My colleagues Josh Chin and Liza Lin have a WSJ essay out that’s adapted from their new book, “Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control.”
4) 🇭🇰 More than two years into the pandemic, Hong Kong is still requiring people arriving in the city to quarantine in hotels. But that mandate may be lifted in November, Bloomberg reports.
5) ✍️ Politico has a profile of Jelani Cobb, the new dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
6) 🌏 RandomStreetView.com: click a button to be transported to a new part of the world.
7) 📱 Where do memes come from? More and more, from TikTok.
8) 🤖 A man won first place in a digital art competition for a work he made using an AI generator, sparking controversy online.
9) 🍝 Pasta-sauce related mishap of the week: “Memphis, TN police say a tractor-trailer spilled Alfredo sauce all over I–55.”
10) 🦦 This week’s moment of zen: petting an otter’s hands.
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🦴 Dog-related video of the week:
“Found my dog crying at the back door.”
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💡 Quote of the week:
“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” – Ansel Adams
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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,